Twin Cities: I am the man of many myths

Chapter 29: Zaun will not become independent in your hands, but will rise in my hands
In the room, Hilco said nothing, took his hand out from under the table and propped it on the table. He touched his thin chin with three fingers and looked at Li Ke without saying a word.

"Hilko, I mean, uncle, do you really think you can make Zaun independent and autonomous?"

Li Ke first asked Hilco a question.

Xierko was silent, and looked at Li Ke. Seeing Li Ke looking at him with a sincere expression, Xierko pinched his brows and said:
"To be honest with you, Li Ke, I don't know if I can make Zaun truly independent, but compared to letting Vandel take charge of Zaun, I think my chances of success are higher."

The gap between the upper and lower cities is now as huge as the sky, and there is no comparison at all.

Now, with the Hexgate connecting the whole world, Piltover has officially become the pearl of world trade, with ships constantly coming and going. In the past, Piltover would recruit a large number of workers from Zaun, but in recent times, many Zaun people have lost their jobs.

The wealthy factory owners used assembly lines to replace manual labor, and the taxes alone from merchants coming and going from all over exceeded the income of the entire city of Zaun.

The gap is getting bigger and bigger, and sometimes Hilco can't help but feel that the future is dark, but he is determined to move forward.

He has no way out. If he retreats now, he will really become a sinner of Zaan. He knows this better than anyone else.

He even knew that after his death, no matter whether he succeeded or not, future generations would not erect a statue for him, and he would never be as respected in the hearts of the people of Zaun as Vandel, but so what?

"The glimmer is our only trump card. With the glimmer, we can at least make Upper City fear us, and thus gain the right to speak. Without the glimmer, we don't even have the right to sit at the negotiation table with the Piltover people."

"But you should have heard the voices outside, Hilco. Everyone is afraid of you now, and they have set up organizations in private to resist you. You said you were doing this for the good of Zaun, but didn't what you did make Zaun even more chaotic?"

"It's just some minor fights." Xierko said indifferently. He picked up the wine on the table, drank it in one gulp, put the glass on the table, wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and said in a deep voice:

"They have forgotten the past and who brought them to where they are today. This is not only due to Vandel, but also to me."

"But they all forgot that in their hearts, Vandel is the great hero of this city-state, and I am a traitor. But in fact, these things don't matter, because I don't care how others see me. Or, it's better if they are afraid of me." Xierko looked at Li Ke calmly and continued:

"Kindness doesn't buy you dignity, Li Ke, but fear does."

Li Ke had a headache.

Hilco is not an idealist, he is a realist. In his mind, in order to achieve his goals, the current unrest and infighting in Zaun are acceptable and are what he deliberately promotes.

If Zaun is not in chaos and does not create a big commotion, why would Piltover pay attention to Zaun?

You can tell about the character Hilco by just taking a look at the forum. Some say he is a person who truly works for Zaun, while others say he is just a drug dealer. The opinions on him are polarized.

But in the anime, Hilco did rely on the Shimmer to exchange for "autonomy" from Piltover. Although Li Ke felt that it was not solid and reliable because Piltover could overturn the table at any time, Hilco was indeed the only person who did it in the hundreds of years since Zaun was divided into Piltover and Zaun was divided into Pitover and Zaun.

He did restore a little dignity to Zaun.

Therefore, Li Ke suddenly found that it was really difficult to gently persuade Hilco to give up and cooperate with him.

Perhaps, no one except Jinx can make Hilco change his mind.

So, Li Ke took a deep breath and said to Hilco: "But have you ever thought that what you are doing now is the same as what the people of Piltover did to us."

"You let low-quality glimmer products flow into the black market, allowing ordinary people to come into contact with glimmers, and causing countless families to perish. Have you ever considered them? You keep saying that you want to boycott Piltover, but what you are doing now is no different from what the people of Piltover did to us."

"Even now, the wastewater they released is not as bad as the damage you caused. Yes, Zaun has become rich in recent years, but where did all the money and power go? They all went to the gangs and the chem-barons!
The lives of you middle and high-level people have improved, but what about ordinary people at the bottom? You said that Vandel did a lot of wrong things, but when he was in power, everyone lived well.

At that time, we had to avoid the Pilthogs and could only watch them come to our territory to show off their power, but we would not fight each other for a silver coin, and we would not kill people we knew for a potion. "

Hilco was silent, poured himself a glass of wine, drank it again, put the glass on the table and closed his eyes. After a while, he said quietly: "This is a necessary sacrifice."

"Sacrifice? So why would you let them sacrifice for your cause?"

"If I don't do it, will their lives get better?"

"At least it won't be worse than it is now." Li Ke affirmed.

Li Ke knew best how harmful the glimmer was. As far as he could remember, after Hilco came to power, all the people that Li Ke was familiar with in the Black Alley had changed completely in just a few years.

Some died, some went crazy, some disappeared, and some, like Marsson, had no choice but to join gangs in order to survive, and then turned around and started hurting the people around them.

"Stop it. First, stop half of the glimmer factories. You can continue to let your doctoral student study glimmers, but you can't sell them anymore. I don't care how you use them on your people in private. But if I see glimmers circulating on the black market again, I will destroy all your factories without leaving a single one."

As Li Ke spoke, he reached out and grabbed an ornament on Hilco's desk. It was an iron product, weighing more than ten pounds, and was a huge animal head. Looking at Hilco, Li Ke began to pinch the iron product with both hands.

The animal head kept changing shape in his hand, and finally, it turned into an iron ball the size of a fist. Li Ke had a blank expression on his face, but veins bulged on his arms, which were exposed in his short-sleeved shirt, as he tried hard to pry the iron ball apart.

"Kacha——"

The iron ball shattered. Li Ke looked at Xierko, put the two pieces of iron on the table, and said, "I found that you and I cannot cooperate. We have different ideas. Therefore, this is not an application for cooperation, but a unilateral threat from me to you."

Hilco leaned back and looked at the two iron balls placed on the table, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

This thing might not be deformed even if it was blown up by a bomb, but Li Ke reshaped it with his bare hands, and then broke it into two halves.

This is something that the faint-light-transformed humans under his command are simply unable to do.

He took a deep breath and his eyes changed when he looked at Li Ke.

There was no fear in his eyes, but rather questions, full of - how on earth did you do it?
"Then, let's stop here."

After Li Ke finished speaking, he looked at Xierko and saw that he was still looking at the iron ball.

Li Ke looked at him and said:

"Silco."

"Zaan will not become independent in your hands, but will rise in my hands."

"We'll see."

Taking Isa with him, Li Ke left the Fugen Tavern.

This place is familiar yet unfamiliar to him.

After Li Ke and Isa left, Hilco looked at the piece of iron on the table, reached out to pick it up, and stroked the broken marks on it. His expression was a little unnatural.

"Okay, let's wait and see."

Hilco said to himself.

(End of this chapter)