Arcane: Let's Burn Down Runeterra!

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"No need for coercion; it's the old capitalist trick," Justin sneered. "They claim it's up to you whether you work or not, but in reality, you have no choice. Silco monopolizes all the factories in the lower city, squeezing wages to the minimum. If you don't work from dawn till dusk, you'll run out of money. Worse still, Silco controls Shimmer, artificially inflating the cost for addicts. To get Shimmer, you have to earn money producing it, only to give your wages back to buy Shimmer produced by them. Bodies get ravaged, labor is exploited, and you're trapped in this endless cycle until death."

"Get to work!" With a foreman's shout, Justin and the others donned their heavy protective suits and returned to the dark, windowless assembly line. The structure of the Shimmer factory was oppressive. It was a cylindrical building with various factory sections responsible for the stages of manufacture around the perimeter. In the center lay an empty hall where guards patrolled the corridors on each floor, keeping watch over every part of the factory.

At the center of the hall was a massive reservoir filled with Shimmer, linked by pipelines to the other sections. No one was allowed near it. Isaac observed the direction of the Shimmer flowing through the pipes, focusing on a room on the lowest level. Leaning against the gray-black wall, like all the construction here, devoid of any other color, Isaac blended easily into the surroundings, making the pink shimmer stand out even more strikingly.

After a while, a group of employees walked into the room, and Isaac followed behind, keeping pace as he entered along with them. As expected, the room was loading Shimmer. The color was pure, undoubtedly high-grade, likely destined for the upper city. Isaac smoothly joined the workers, helping to load the goods. Isaac couldn't turn invisible like Twitch; his illusions functioned by creating a deceptive perception in others, often more useful than invisibility. Just like now, the workers had no awareness of an extra person; they even handed him gloves.

"Where's this batch of Shimmer heading?" Isaac risked asking. "Of course, to the upper city—you see the quality of this Shimmer; only the Chem-Barons and the upper city lords can use it." They weren't supposed to discuss these things, but seeing Isaac's face suddenly put the worker at ease, making him spill everything he knew.

"Ugh... when will Justin and the others come out?" Jinx lay on the rooftop of a nearby building, boredly scanning the area with binoculars. "Don't worry, as long as nothing goes wrong, they'll come out tonight, whether or not they get the goods," Caitlyn said, crouched beside her with a sniper rifle, unsure how to handle the girl next to her.

After all, she counted as her... sister-in-law? Vi had confided about past events, and Caitlyn understood how pitiful this girl was. However, she was also the main culprit behind many enforcer deaths. When they were with the others it was fine, but alone, what attitude should Caitlyn adopt? Caitlyn was worrying unnecessarily. To Jinx, it really didn't matter what Caitlyn's attitude was.

"If they don't come out soon, I'll throw bombs down the chimney," Jinx muttered, not even discussing with Caitlyn, sincerely intending to do so. "Don't!" Caitlyn quickly restrained her. "Look, they're coming out."

"Whoa!" Seeing Justin, Jinx jumped straight from the rooftop, zipping down the cable and landing directly into Justin's arms. Justin was startled but tapped her nose, smiling as he scolded, "You little rascal, this is still Silco's territory, you know. Come on, let's talk when we get back."

"Did you get any results?" Caitlyn inquired. "Here, these are photos of the Shimmer production," Justin replied, handing over a camera. "Taken by Isaac. We're not sure which ones will be useful, so take a look."

"We got lucky, a batch of Shimmer is getting shipped to the upper city today," Vi said, cracking her knuckles. She and her sister both enjoyed stirring up trouble. "Isaac is tailing the shipment team, so we're just in time for some fun!"

"Yahoo!" Jinx cheered, raising her arms and legs enthusiastically from Justin's embrace. Three hero-level figures, plus a protagonist, ambushing a shipment crew should be a piece of cake, right? However, the key to this operation wasn't to cause destruction but to catch Silco smuggling Shimmer red-handed. Jinx and her team might not handle the situation with the right restraint. Caitlyn naturally took the role of the team leader, constantly reminding them to preserve evidence and avoid casualties.

They followed the shipment crew to the border between the lower and upper city, at the bridge crossing the river. But before entering the upper city's territory, the shipment crew unexpectedly stopped, looking around as if waiting for something. "What's going on?" Justin gestured to Isaac, who shrugged, clueless as well.

"Who cares, this spot is good enough!" Jinx had brought along her and Justin's latest big invention—the Fishbones Launcher, which could be a light machine gun in hand and transform into a rocket launcher. "Take this!" Jinx ignored Caitlyn's warnings, firing a rocket directly into the crowd. It nearly hit Isaac by accident.

"Don't be reckless!" Caitlyn was stunned. She hadn't even given any orders yet! "Relax, I didn't hit the cargo boxes," Jinx, in her madness, held a sliver of logic as she switched Fishbones to machine gun mode, stepping out of cover. Vi went even further, charging straight at the transport team under Jinx's firepower support.

"You'll get used to it," Justin said, giving Caitlyn's shoulder a pat, sighing helplessly. He felt something was off but with these two rushing ahead, what could he do? "Let's go, finish this quickly!" The Shimmer transport guards were armed but couldn't withstand the might of these four. Even pulling their punches, it didn't take long for them to disarm the guards.

"It's definitely Shimmer," Justin confirmed, opening a sealed wooden barrel containing high-quality Shimmer. Despite not touching it, he instinctively wiped his hands on his clothes in disdain. "I'm Enforcer Caitlyn!" Caitlyn announced, flashing her badge towards the far end of the bridge. However, it seemed no one was looking their way, and curiously, the enforcers who usually patrolled the bridge were nowhere to be seen.

"Justin! People are surrounding us!" Vi was the first to notice something amiss. Dozens of heavily armed thugs, equipped with Shimmer injection gear, suddenly rushed out from the lower city's residential buildings. "We're ambushed!" How did it come to this?