Chapter 119: Zaun Investigation
Ever since her brother Levi inexplicably became the Chosen One of Janna, Lina's life has changed dramatically.
Less than two months ago, she was an international student with a dream of Piltover and regarded her hometown of Zaun as hell.
She studied and worked hard so that she could find an ideal job in Piltover after graduation and stay here forever.
And now, Lina still thinks Zaun is hell.
But she willingly returned to the city she had once tried so hard to escape from.
Because her ideal is no longer to escape , but to change the whole world.
"Let's go to the next one."
The trench area is deep underground. The light here is dim. But the light in the darkness is the brightest.
Lina looked up at the light leaking through the cracks in the ground, mustered up her tired spirit, and led the members of their Zaun social investigation team to knock on the door of the next house.
"Hello, is anyone there?"
Knock, knock, knock. There was a sound of footsteps and the door opened.
A middle-aged couple appeared behind the door. The man was holding a modified shotgun and the woman was holding an alchemical potion grenade.
This way of welcoming guests with military force first and courtesy later is actually not uncommon in Zaun.
Looking at the weapons slung around the waists of these leaders, both of them looked extremely alert.
Only after seeing Lina's innocent and clean face did they relax a little: "Who are you?"
"We are social investigators from the Leaders Association. We are here to interview everyone and investigate..."
As Lina spoke, she took out the small gift she had prepared in advance from her arms.
She knew that for the people of Zaun, who were generally impulsive and hot-tempered and naturally wary of strangers, a small daily gift worth one silver wheel would be the best helper to start a conversation.
It must be a small gift of 1 silver wheel.
If the value is too high, it will attract unnecessary covetousness from others; if the value is too low, the people of Zaun will not look down on it.
And if it wasn't a small gift, but money directly, and people found out that she had so many silver wheels hidden in her pocket...it would cause a big trouble that was bound to be bloody.
These are the experiences that Lina and her colleagues have summed up step by step through work practice in the past few weeks.
"Sir, Madam, this is a little gift from us."
Lina took out the gift with ease, a pack of first aid bandages that were very useful to the people of Zaun, and prepared to use it to start a conversation with this family.
But the middle-aged couple looked at each other and didn't rush to get the gifts like the others. Instead, they asked enthusiastically:
"You are the Wind Leaders, the Wind Leader Association that wrote the "Brief Account of Janna's Thoughts"?"
"Yes." Lina and the others couldn't help but be delighted: "Have you read our brochure?"
"I've seen it." The male owner of the house nodded happily: "Please come in, please come in——"
Lina didn't need to say much, as the couple seemed to be believers in Janna's ideas.
They warmly welcomed Lina and others into the house.
When Lina walked into this large single-family house, she secretly noticed that the interior decoration and furnishings of this family were much more tasteful than those of the several households in the sump area that she had visited before.
Of course, it’s also more expensive.
Apart from other things, the two and Seraphine's complete set of music tapes are not something that ordinary Zaun people can afford.
"Master, what do you do?" Lina couldn't help asking.
"Alchemists," the man said, "My wife and I are both alchemists."
In Zaun, alchemists do not refer to ordinary workers in chemical factories, but senior engineers who are proficient in alchemical technology.
"I see." They are educated people and highly skilled talents. No wonder their family conditions are obviously better than those of their neighbors.
But with such good family conditions, why do they still live in the poorest and most dilapidated slum area in Zaun where the poor gather?
"Have you ever considered moving to Black Alley, or the Border Market area above ground?"
"No, we like it here. It's quieter here." The couple's answer was a bit perfunctory, and they seemed unwilling to talk more about it.
Lina didn't force it. She never asked questions about topics that the interviewee didn't want to discuss in detail.
She just tried to open the conversation and investigate the couple.
The content of the survey was also very simple. It was to ask the local residents about the distribution of gang forces in the ditch area, the employment , income and expenditure, the types of goods, the prices of daily necessities...
The questions were mixed but not sensitive.
The couple had a good impression of the leader, and they were both willing to answer Lina's questions patiently.
After a long conversation, Lina and her companions had already filled several pages of notebooks with densely written notes.
"Ms. Lina, can I see your notebook?" The host seemed very .
"Sure." Lina handed over her notebook generously.
The man took it and looked at it carefully:
The details recorded in the notebook were almost the same as the questions Lina had asked during the conversation just now, all of which were trivial data and intelligence.
Zaun’s gang forces, business conditions, transportation and logistics, import and export trade, and the detailed status of all industries...almost everything is covered.
Just for the item of import and export goods, Lina and others listed in detail all the information on the import and export goods of the two major trading partners, Zaun and Noxus, and Zaun and Piltover.
Imports from Noxus include: tea, milk, fur, leather, bristles, bones, bakelite, vegetable oils, grease, flour, rice, starch, corn, soybeans, sugar, salt...
Imports from Piltover include: dyes, fabrics, fibers, inks, cigarettes, books, table lamps, refrigerators, stereos, typewriters, passenger locomotives, steam robots, special steels, mining equipment, industrial machines, Mithril circuit boards...
Exports to Noxus and Piltover include: clothing, ore, coal, paper, guns, ammunition, wires, steel, mechanical parts, chemical raw materials, alchemical potions...
"What's the point of investigating this?"
Lina remembered it in such detail that the male owner felt dizzy:
"I thought that the leader was pursuing... a more ambitious goal."
After reading that booklet, one will always be inspired to change the world.
But when the leaders actually get down to work, they are so "procrastinating" and "trivial".
Such a detailed investigation had never been done before in Zaun. So the people of Zaun could not understand what the Wind Leader was doing.
“We are doing a social survey.”
“Only by discovering problems can we solve them. Social investigation itself is a process of discovering problems.”
“Everyone knows that Zaun is not good, but when asked what is wrong with it, they can’t say.”
"So when they succeed in their struggle, they can only solve the problems they can see - it's nothing more than defeating one or two eye-catching chem-barons, so that everyone can breathe a sigh of relief."
"What Zaun needs now is not a 'relief'. It needs a thorough change, and every specific problem needs to be solved!"
Lina explained this, but the man still couldn't understand.
"Give me an example?" He looked at the overwhelming investigation notebook and asked, "What problems have you found in Zaun from these intelligence and data?"
"This..." Lina thought about it.
Then, as soon as she opened her mouth, she overturned the man's perception: "Everyone thinks that Zaun is the world's factory, but after our investigation, this is actually not true—"
"We are not worthy of the title of 'world factory' yet."
"For example, you should have seen in your research notes that Zaun's textile and clothing industries are very developed , and the export of ready-made clothes to Piltover and Noxus is a major item every year."
“But the question is, we produce so many garments, where do the raw materials come from?”
"It's provided by Noxus. Down, wool, linen, filaments, and staple fibers all come from Noxus's colonial plantations."
"But when these raw materials arrive in the Twin Cities, the first stop is not Zaun."
"Dyes, wool, fiber, fabrics, non-woven fabrics... these slightly technically demanding midstream raw materials are all produced in Piltover."
"The only thing Zaun offers is cheap labor. They use midstream materials imported from Piltover to manufacture garments at the bottom of the industry chain."
"This is the case with raw materials, not to mention the more lucrative aspects of clothing sales, design, brand packaging, etc."
"If one out of 10 silver wheels for every piece of clothing sold remains in the hands of Zaun people, that's pretty good."
Lina said a lot.
The host seemed to be thinking: "You mean, the problem with Zaun is that its overall technology is backward and its industry is large but not strong?"
"This is still a small problem." Lina sighed: "The big problem is that our channels for importing raw materials and exporting industrial products are all firmly controlled by Piltover and Noxus."
"We import all our raw materials and machinery from them, and we can only sell the goods we produce to them."
"If something happens in Zaun...like independence, it will anger Piltover and Noxus."
Zaun has never become better just because it has become independent. A quick search will reveal that there are still many problems to be faced after independence.
If not handled properly, independence may even be worse than not being independent, or even worse than being a semi-colony of Piltover:
"All they need to do is impose a trade blockade on us, and within a month, all the factories in Zaun will have to close down. More than 2 million people in Zaun will face a terrible wave of unemployment in a short period of time."
Even that is a minor problem by comparison.
“The real big question is…”
"Zuan doesn't produce food."
