"Impressive," Faen praised with a sincere nod.
In an environment filled with high-voltage currents, it would have been truly difficult to navigate without Zeri leading the way.
From another perspective, Zeri was indeed a little genius.
After awakening her arc magic, she hadn't undergone any systematic training and relied entirely on her own exploration and experimentation.
Under these circumstances, being able to combine Zaun's environment to develop a fighting style of her own proved her natural talent from every angle.
Zeri's hands-on ability was particularly strong—her magical talent was linked to her emotions; when her emotions ran high, her destructive power increased, but her control decreased correspondingly.
To address this, Zeri used scrap metal from Zaun's junk piles to create the circuit jacket she wore and the device named the 'Spark Capacitor' to absorb and store excess electricity.
For example, last night, when Zeri was fighting for her life at the end, she released the electrical energy stored in the Spark Capacitor. If Faen hadn't suddenly appeared at the alley exit, Zeri likely would have actually escaped.
Entering the secret base, the space inside wasn't very large, about twenty square meters.
There was a small table, a pile of circuits, wires, screwdrivers, pliers, and wrenches; the traces of work were very obvious. The equipment on Zeri's body was basically all hand-crafted here.
A small bed was relatively clean; it was clear that she took good care of it daily.
Thinking this, Faen also glanced at the spark gun tucked at Zeri's waist.
Unlike the red-painted spark gun in the game, this one had the color of cast iron and looked rougher.
According to Faen's guess, this must have been made by Zeri herself, and the craftsmanship was still relatively crude—it would malfunction if it touched water—rather than being hand-made by her mother after she returned home disheartened...
Noticing Faen staring at her, Zeri didn't feel shy.
Although Zeri hadn't realized it yet, the fact was that after absorbing Faen's plasma, her attitude toward Faen had become much more relaxed, holding a natural trust and inexplicable fondness.
Especially for Zeri, because her arc magic was directly linked to her emotions, she could feel that the electricity in her body became more active than usual when she saw Faen.
However, out of trust in Faen, Zeri didn't mind. She just put on her goggles and said, "I'll modify the door of the base so you can come back by yourself even if I'm not here!"
"Okay," Faen nodded, then reached out to summon a ball of water. "Then I'll clean this place up first."
"Hehe, sorry for the trouble!" Zeri grinned.
Although she loved cleanliness, she was born in a place like Zaun after all. No matter how clean she tried to be, she was still a member of the Sump.
Raised by parents to be an engineering girl who worked with her hands, although Zeri would clean herself up, dust and debris inevitably accumulated in the room when she got busy.
The not-so-large secret base wasn't messy, but even the corners and seams of the bedding held traces of unobvious grime.
Considering Zeri was either playing guerrilla warfare with Chem-Barons or making her Mickey Mouse gadgets here every day, she simply had no time to clean properly. The current environment was just unavoidable.
After speaking, Zeri didn't stay idle. Soon, she stuck out her round, perky little butt, sparks shooting from her fingers as she welded away with sizzling sounds.
Admiring the view for a moment, Faen praised his own taste in his heart—Zeri's tight and energetic figure was just perfect for tight clothes!
Her perky little butt was raised high, swaying along with her work; it was simply pleasing to the eye.
He didn't stare for too long; after all, he had appreciated it for quite a while during the cleaning yesterday.
Faen then controlled the water ball to soak into the bedding nearby. The water ball soaked in and out, quickly bringing out fine gray-black dust.
After a few rounds, the semi-clean bedding and pillows looked as good as new, soft and white.
While cleaning, Faen also paid a little attention to Zeri.
Zeri didn't know much about the Spirit Realm, but as an Ionian, it was impossible for Faen not to know. Coupled with the blessing from Ashlesh...
Does absorbing my plasma subtly generate affection for me?
Thinking this, but somewhat unsure, Faen looked at Zeri.
Just finishing a bout of welding modification with her arc magic, Zeri happened to stop working, lifting her goggles to wipe the fine sweat from her forehead.
Noticing Faen's gaze, Zeri showed no nervousness or restraint; instead, she returned a brilliant smile full of vitality.
Accompanying this smile, the joy and happiness generated in the spiritual realm toward Faen became part of the 'joy' Faen needed, further confirming the speculation in Faen's heart.
However, Faen didn't say it outright. He returned a smile and continued organizing—having just come into contact with Ashlesh's blessing, Faen himself needed some time to explore and sort out the situation he was facing. Like what was gained, and what was lost.
When Faen finished tidying up the room, Zeri's voice, full of surprise, came from behind.
"This is... you cleaned this?!"
Turning around, Zeri's face was filled with shock and disbelief.
The plush mats, which were originally a bit dirty due to the environment, were now as clean and tidy as if they had just been bought from a store. The visible fluffiness made Zeri, who had been wandering alone for a long time, eager to move.
Seeing this, Faen smiled and gestured for her to enjoy. Zeri immediately sprinted and dove, landing in the soft mats, hugging a pillow and rolling around.
"Long live! Finally, a clean place! Long live!"
Feeling Zeri's joy, a smile appeared on Faen's face. He then controlled the cleaning water ball to compress the stains inside into a dry small block and expelled it.
Then, he controlled the restored clean water flow to fall onto Zeri's body, rolling and washing away the sweat and stains from her work.
The water ball washed gently over her body, like a pair of slightly cool, large hands.
This made Zeri think of something, and her pretty face blushed. She buried her head in the soft cushion and stopped talking, only letting out two soft whimpers when the water ball washed over her inner thighs.
For the next two days, the two chose to live a low-profile life. Aside from buying supplies, most of their time was spent following Zeri to the scrapyard to recycle scrap metal.
Zeri's mother was an artisan. Living with her mother since childhood, Zeri had also acquired decent mechanical skills.
During this process, Faen was constantly learning about the situation of Zaun in this world...
It was no wonder Faen had to specifically investigate, because the official world-building planning for League of Legends was truly terrible.
It's hard to imagine that a game running for fourteen years still has its background story in the beginning stages, and even major events end up being anticlimactic.
Zaun and Piltover were even worse. They were changed seven or eight times back and forth. Just when it stabilized, Arcane Season 1 was released and exploded in popularity, causing the envious Riot to immediately announce that Arcane is the main universe story.
They completely disregarded that Arcane directly wiped out the foreshadowing for the origin of Hextech crystals, the tragedy of the Brackern, the unknown killer 'Jhin' (not the Golden Demon), and the Piltover shadow government.
Although born in Ionia, Ionia's isolation was truly beyond imagination; just what Faen knew was that it had been cut off from the world for thousands of years.
Now in Zaun, he at least needed to determine which version of Zaun this world was—Zeri had no role in Arcane.
After three consecutive days of gathering information, Faen gradually understood the situation of this world. generally speaking, it was the story happening after the end of the first three episodes of Arcane Season 1.
Vander had exited the stage, and Silco was the uncrowned king of Zaun.
But according to Zeri, Silco didn't seem that glorious. Many Chem-Barons were not interested in Silco's so-called rise of Zaun. Instead, they were happy to sell out Zaun's own interests for greater profit, obtaining more valuable things from the merchant families of the Upper City, willingly becoming Piltover's black gloves and cooperating with them.
But as for the specific situation... Zeri was just a minor rebel in Zaun; her resistance against the Chem-Barons had just begun, so she didn't know the exact details either.
The reason Zeri couldn't return home now and was firmly fighting the Chem-Barons was simple... She had long been dissatisfied with the tyranny of the Chem-Barons.
Especially a few days ago, the Chem-Barons claimed they found a resource better than Hextech crystals that could make Zaun stronger and richer, so they built mining facilities nearby.
But the Chem-Barons didn't tell the people the risks of this mining.
Coupled with the harsh production environment, the vibrations generated during underground excavation soon formed a regional devastating earthquake under Zaun's special geological conditions—the Chem-Barons knew there was such a risk, but still refused to provide any safety production equipment for their own benefit, instead forcing the chemical factory workers to gamble their lives working.
During the earthquake, Zeri used her abilities to find and save many people—but Zeri knew this was avoidable, so she decided to fight against them.
However, compared to these things, Faen cared more about today's dinner.
Using money swipe from a factory thug, he bought some fresh vegetables—this was quite expensive in Zaun, but as an Ionian, Faen really couldn't accept that green thick soup made of chemically contaminated large rats mixed with various mushrooms.
It was too terrifying.
When Zeri handed over the soup bowl, Faen wanted to ask what the cost was...
It couldn't be the destiny of an Ionian, right?
This was the third day; Faen really couldn't stand it anymore. Ignoring Zeri's whispered complaints about him being a spendthrift, he took the money stolen from the factory thug and went to buy vegetables immediately.
Although forced, he was, after all, the Joybringer of the Primal Demon Ashlesh, yet he used this ability to steal money to buy vegetables... it was speechless.
Speechless as it was, having not eaten properly for two consecutive days, Faen excitedly cooked three dishes and one soup.
At first, Zeri had some opinions about Faen's extravagance, her heart aching to the point of suffocation watching Faen use various seasonings lavishly. But after seeing a sumptuous dinner full of color, fragrance, and taste, she obediently shut her mouth.
Putting the fresh, spicy, and fragrant sliced meat into her mouth, the slightly spicy taste was a brand new gustatory experience for Zeri, who hadn't eaten many good things. She immediately stopped talking, burying her head to eat while giving a thumbs up wildly.
But after eating, Zeri was also puzzled—"You cook so well, why didn't you cook before?"
Faen glanced at the rat skull the size of a human fist not far away and chose to shake his head in despair—even a clever housewife cannot cook a meal without rice. The ingredients in Zaun didn't even count as sustenance for lifeforms; it was literally drinking poison to quench thirst. It was just that the vast majority of Zaun workers wouldn't live long enough for the toxins to erupt before dying from sudden death during processing or accidents...
Pollution toxins were just poisons affecting health; the Chem-Barons were vicious tigers eating people without spitting out bones... Neither were good things, but Zaunites didn't have much choice.
Seeing Faen not speaking, Zeri didn't know what to say. After all, she grew up in this environment and was long used to it. And being a young girl, her experience was just so; expecting her to understand was purely asking for the impossible.
After dinner, Zeri excitedly went to continue her manual work—the spark gun that broke in water earlier needed modification, and her electric jacket too; she planned to strengthen the spark capacitor, striving to store more electricity.
Faen directly controlled the water ball to clean the pots and pans.
At first, Faen was quite happy finding Ashlesh's demonic power so convenient, but as it became habitual, the joy provided by this happiness reached a threshold, unable to save Faen from the invasion of the emptiness of disordered joy.
When Zeri finished, Faen patted the bed, and Zeri trotted over with a dive.
Landing on the soft mats, her face was filled with happiness—a constantly clean and tidy environment could also make people feel happy.
Unfortunately, just like using the water control ability to assist daily life, this was the third day; Zeri's small joys could no longer satisfy Faen's needs.
The secret base was small, with only one bed, but considering Faen mostly replaced sleep with meditation, the space was quite sufficient.
But today was different... completing the intelligence gathering on Zaun's current stage was a good thing, but three days of getting along meant the joy Zeri could produce couldn't satisfy Faen's daily requirements—the threshold had risen, and the joy from Zeri's general gameplay here could no longer satisfy Faen.
Feeling the torture originating from the emptiness in his heart, Faen knew he couldn't wait any longer.
He cast a fierce gaze at Zeri, who was already asleep beside him... quietly tucked her in, and left the secret base under the cover of night.
Faen didn't know that after consuming Faen's plasma, Zeri's senses toward Faen had become very keen, or rather, sensitive. Coupled with Zeri's arc magic being exactly related to emotions, Zeri opened her eyes not long after Faen left.