Chapter 8: The Rage of the Zaun
On the other side, Levi has already started his work for the night.
The factory where he works is small and its business is also niche:
The products manufactured here are Hextech speakers, which are magical versions of home speakers powered by Hexgems.
Levi's job was to sit in a narrow workstation, holding an electric mithril welding gun, and soldering components and mithril circuits onto the printed circuit boards of the Hextech speakers.
This job is not tiring, but it requires precise operation. Otherwise, a wrong soldering will ruin the entire board, which will further reduce your already low salary.
Mithril is a precious material, and if it is wasted too much, compensation will be required.
Repeating the same work over and over again and having to pay attention to not making mistakes every minute and every second will undoubtedly bring great mental pressure to people.
Levi had only been sitting here for two hours, but he already felt dizzy.
He had to put down the mithril welding torch and rub his sore eyes.
"What's wrong, Levi?"
A co-worker at the next workstation, a skinny guy who looked like a monkey, asked him with concern.
Levi "remembered" him. This guy was called Baku, and he was the original owner's best friend in the factory. Naturally, Baku was also from Zaun.
"Are you sick today?" Baku asked.
"No."
"You're not sick, why are you so weak today?" Baku laughed, "It's only been two hours, isn't it too fast?"
Levi pretended not to hear the guy's dirty metaphor and just complained from the bottom of his heart:
"Two hours is already tiring, okay..."
"Tired?" Baku was stunned for a moment: "Isn't this much easier than when we were in Zaun?"
"Uh..." That's true.
There's no such easy job as circuit board support in Zaun.
There are only dark mines, steel mills with slag flying everywhere, alchemy plants with sewage flowing everywhere, and machinery factories filled with iron filings...
In order to obtain iron ore, Levi's grandparents were buried under the mine.
While trying to turn iron ore into steel, his father slipped and fell into a furnace.
His mother's hair was caught in the machines that were turning the steel into parts.
Now Levi has finally made progress.
He only needed to sit in the bright and safe factory in Piltover, assemble the mechanical parts , install the core components of the mithril circuit board and hextech gems, and process them into speakers.
It’s not tiring, it’s safe, and you earn more (compared to Zaan).
"What else do you have to complain about?" Baku kindly encouraged: "Levi, we have to work hard and don't let our squad leader see you slacking off!"
“…” Levi was speechless.
He suddenly realized that he seemed to have misjudged the situation before.
He originally thought that the group of Zaun apprentices had become a powder keg that would explode into fireworks with just a spark.
But the reality is:
Compared with the purgatory-like life in their hometown of Zaun, these Zaun apprentices who have already run to Piltover... seem to be quite satisfied with the current situation?
“Hey, hey…Levi, seriously, don’t rest for too long!” Baku kindly reminded him, “If you are fired for being lazy, you will be sent back to Zaun directly.”
"You don't want to go back to Zaun and hang out with those losers, do you?"
“…” Levi was even more speechless.
Well, I haven’t even obtained the right of abode in Piltover yet, and I’m already discriminating against my poor relatives back home…
No wonder Baku is so contented - thinking about the bunch of poor relatives on the other side of the canal who are drooling over him with envy every day, he must be motivated to work!
"But don't you think we're not much better now?" Levi quietly began to stir up trouble: "In the eyes of those Piltover people, what's the difference between us and the people in Zaun?"
"..." Baku was silent all of a sudden.
He held it in for a long time before finally saying, "Who made us Zuan people... our lives are cheap."
"The lives of the people of Zuan are also lives, why should they be treated as cheap?"
"We do the same work as those Piltover workers, and we even do more and heavier work than them. Why are they treated so much better than us?"
In order to give priority to employment for its own people, Piltover stipulates that at least 50% of employees in each factory must be from Piltover.
The salary of these local workers in Piltover is almost ten times that of Zaun apprentices in the same position.
The inequality is obvious.
The slightest arch will cause fire to burst out.
"Ah... what's the point of saying so much?" Baku was so frustrated that his face turned black: "No matter how much I say, those Piltover guys are still riding on our heads, right?"
"No, are the people of Piltover riding on our heads?" Levi took advantage of the situation to guide him: "Are the policies that discriminate against Zaun workers formulated by the Piltover workers we see every day?"
“These Piltover workers are just ordinary people. Should they be blamed for all this?”
"Of course it's their fault!" Baku said without stopping.
He was so angry that his teeth were itching, and he started to curse: "Those damn Piltover guys get high salaries every day but do nothing, and whenever there is work, they push it to us... We are simply raising these fat pigs for free... And they call us Zaun people and gutter rats every day... All the benefits go to them, the Piltover guys, and when something goes wrong, we, the Zaun people, are fully responsible... No matter how well we do, we can't get a promotion or a raise, and any dog in Piltover can be our leader..."
Baku kept cursing for several minutes, and the content of his curses was never the same.
This shows how much he hates those Piltover people.
This gave Levi a headache.
"Mr. Summoner." Bluebird Janna moved in his work clothes pocket and quietly communicated with him through her mind.
"Isn't this what you said before..." She learned a lot of new words today, and wanted to put the theory into practice whenever she saw an opportunity: "Transfer the contradiction?"
"Yeah." Levi replied.
"It seems that this child hates the wrong person." Janna sighed sadly.
"Not entirely. After all, the contradiction already exists objectively. It won't disappear just by talking about theories or shouting slogans."
"The people of Piltover have already formed systematic discrimination and collective oppression against the people of Zaun, and this is also the most common type of oppression that Zaun laborers like Baku encounter in their daily lives."
"And those big business owners who really caused him pain were so far away from his daily life that he couldn't even hate them."
“So what should we do?” Janna asked.
She gradually realized that Levi was taking her to do something that could subvert the world. Even a goddess like her would feel confused and helpless about this matter.
But Levi, who had zero practical experience, was actually not much better than her.
Faced with Baku's outpouring of resentment, every word of which was laced with blood, he didn't know how to persuade him.
Those hardships were all his own experiences, and were more convincing than Levi's principles.
Helplessly, he could only listen to Baku's talk quietly and persuade him not to get too excited: "Baku, calm down... You'll be in trouble if the squad leader hears you. The squad leader is also from Piltover."
"Hey..." Baku stopped cursing.
The fire that Levi had ignited in him seemed to have finally burned out.
At this time, I only heard this guy sighing sadly:
"Oh, I wish I were a woman."
"ha?"
"It would be great if I were a woman. I could just crawl into the bed of those Piltover guys, get a certificate and become a Piltover citizen."
"Look at the female workers in our factory. They are now hanging out with team leaders and technicians... They are not having an easier life than us."
Levi: “…”
Is this what you think after cursing for so long?
I don’t even dare to think about anything big, can you be a little more promising?
"Hey, why are you looking at me like that? Are you looking down on me?"
Baku's mood was stable, but his smile became mean again:
"Levi, think about it yourself-"
"If a rich woman from Piltover wanted to support you, would you refuse? You probably wouldn't even be able to pull up your pants!"
"Get the hell out of here!" The people of Zaun speak with a strong sense of motherhood.
Li Wei followed suit and cursed: "Do you think everyone is as spineless as you? You sleep with a rich lady just for a little money, and you don't feel disgusted!"
"Oh, what if it's a young rich woman?"
"Bah, why would a young rich woman like you? What kind of person can be so good if she likes you? Aren't you afraid of getting a sore?"
"Get lost! Can't the one who likes me be a pure and beautiful lady?"
"Let me give you an analogy—"
Baku really started to YY with him seriously:
"For example, our boss, Mr. Erwin's daughter."
"If she falls in love with you, can you still refuse her?"
"Hmm?" Levi frowned slightly.
The original owner's memory told him that Boss Erwin did have a daughter.
But this young lady might have some strange disease. She hid in her home next to the factory from morning till night all year round and almost never left the house.
The original owner had never seen what she looked like and didn't know her name.
"Have you seen it?" Levi was really curious.
“No.”
"I've never seen you say shit before?"
"Is it necessary to meet her? You have seen Mr. Irving and his wife before. How can their daughter not be pretty? If Mr. Irving wanted to recruit you as his son-in-law, could you resist?"
"Oh, why not?" Li Wei smiled arrogantly. It was just bragging, and being arrogant was worthless.
"How can a swallow or a sparrow know the ambition of a swan?"
"I won't just become anyone's son-in-law, even if it's Mr. Erwin."
"Unless Mr. Irving's daughter is after me—"
"There's still a tiny possibility!"
The cow is blowing here...
"Levi!"
Suddenly, a majestic and deep male voice sounded behind me.
Then a slap hit him on the head:
"My daughter is chasing you?"
"You're just wishful thinking!"