In the shallow ditch area of Zu'an, five or six Zu'an fans played outside the pipes of the drainage canal.

The only difference between the shallow ditch area and the ditch area is that the shallow ditch area is not allowed to be built, and there is no civil building of any kind, and the only remaining part of the old buildings have also been demolished into ruins.

The only function of the shallow ditch is to direct the filtered water from the dam and the dirty water discharged by Piltover to the Zaun ditch area, so as to achieve the effect of 'purification'.

Because of this, most of the shallow ditches are hidden circular pipe structures, with only one old pipe, which has been abandoned due to improper repairs, exposed to the surface, and a relatively 'clean' light green stream is formed by the clear water seeping out of the canal.

The staggered building structure and the rare micro-toxic canal have become one of the favorite places for Zu'an fans, running along the creek to their heart's content, and when they are tired, they will gently pat their feet in the water that is not clean but cold enough to soothe the fatigue of the whole body.

Unfortunately, not all Zuan fans can get laughter in the shallow ditch area.

Watching the other children climb up and down the pipes and mounds in groups, the six-year-old Victor withdrew his envious gaze and walked away from his peers on crutches of his own making, until he could no longer hear the laughter of others, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and feel a little more comfortable.

Staggering to the side of the ditch with his right leg, Victor listened to the sound of the stream and glanced down at the clockwork boat he was holding in his left hand.

As a child of Zu'an who was born frail and has a disabled right leg, Victor, who can't climb up and down like other Zuan fans, has been looking for his own happiness.

It seems that he really has a unique talent for mechanics and transformation, and through constant reading and studying books from the black market of Zaun, Victor soon fell in love with research.

Encouraged by his parents, Victor soon discovers that his favorite thing to do is to be alone in a room full of metal parts and tools, dismantling the most popular mechanical products on the market, figuring out how they work, and then modifying them with other parts according to his own understanding.

For the other Zaun fans, it was unimaginable and boring to lock himself up in a dark room with a pile of cold parts, which was tantamount to confinement, but Victor had enough patience and time to do his own modification research, in fact, he could only feel some rare joy when he spent his time researching.

"Can you run?"

Victor was not very confident that the wind-up mechanical boat, which he had made entirely himself, would be able to move on the surface of the water instead of sinking to the bottom of a ditch, and Victor, who was doing the final checks, did not see a little brown-skinned girl staring at him with a worried expression not far behind him.

"Skye! Come on! Your turn! Leave that boring little cripple alone! ”

Hearing the call of her friends, the little girl named Skye discouraged one of the few courages - if she chose to play with the discriminated Victor, she would probably become one of the discriminated and bullied people, and she didn't seem to have really made up her mind to do so.

One last glance at the lonely Victor, Skye turned and ran away after deciding to maintain the status quo.

"It's coming!"

It wasn't until Skye responded to his playmate that Victor noticed the little girl not far behind him, but for Victor, it was normal for him to be abandoned by others in his choice, and it was not worth being disappointed, but if Skye chose to play with him by his side, he would not be at ease.

"You can do it."

After checking that everything was correct, Victor began to wind the mechanical boat, and with the drive of the springs, the paddles on both sides of the mechanical boat began to turn, placing the boat on the ditch, and Victor involuntarily held his breath.

"Click, click......"

The paddles are like powerful oars, and the mechanical boat does not sink to the bottom of the ditch due to weight problems, but gradually accelerates in the direction of the flow of the ditch like a real big ship.

The first few steps could keep up, and as the ship got faster and faster, Victor finally realized that he might well lose the mechanical ship.

Before testing the mechanical boat, he hadn't investigated where the water was going, and if he went deep into the sewers, the mechanical boat, a symbol of success, would leave him.

Thinking of this, Victor simply gave up his numb right leg and ran forward along the ditch using only his crutches and left leg as a support point.

Not surprisingly, Victor, who had never felt any kind of coordination, tripped over his right leg and left his cane aside, and could only watch as the mechanical boat descended the ditch into a foul-smelling arched sewer.

Not discouraged, Victor, who had long been accustomed to falling, stood up again, although he could no longer see the mechanical boat, but he knew that as long as he walked all the way down this ditch, he would always get an answer that he had to accept.

"What is this place?"

Careful to avoid every stone and metal object at his feet, Victor pinched his nose and walked into the low sewer, soon discovering that the stench was nothing compared to the bad attitude of his peers.

The road is not easy to walk, but it will not make Victor stop, walking about a hundred meters or so, Victor heard the sound of the mechanical ship paddle turning, and couldn't help but be a little surprised, but the surprise did not last for a second, and Victor, who turned his head, became frightened.

The cave next to the small waterhole had been converted into a room, and on top of the rock, a large purple lizard with teeth and claws was sticking out its tongue and looking at it viciously, as if it was about to eat itself.

"Don't be afraid, Leo, take it easy."

The voice of the words calmed down the terrible lizard.

Victor looked at the man who spoke, and the man was playing with his mechanical boat at the moment, and his expression didn't seem to be malicious.

"Did you make this thing yourself?"

Victor nodded, there was nothing to deny, but the man sitting on the rock changed the subject, and his eyes flashed with a light that Victor couldn't understand.

"Why don't you play with those kids?"

Without speaking, Victor just took a few steps forward and looked down at the cold cane in his hand.

The man nodded knowingly, and put down the delicate clockwork mechanical boat in his hand.

"With a genius mind, you can't avoid enduring loneliness, and God will not always be kind to a person."

"What's that?"

Gradually letting his guard down, Victor looked at the big-eyed lizard, he had never seen such a large lizard, not even in those pictorial villain books.

"Oh, her name is Leo, and she's a rare variant I bred, born with an incurable disease."

Sensing that Victor seemed to be a little scared of Leo, the man pulled out a purple trumpet flower from his pocket and pointed to the mutant Pike lizard that was staring at Victor with wide eyes.

"Come on, she won't hurt you."

Victor stepped forward to take the flower, letting Leo's purple tongue curl it into his mouth, and he was surprised to find that he was not as timid as he thought.

After looking at Ao's sticky and slippery saliva, the corners of Victor's mouth twitched, not knowing where to wipe it, but the man watching this scene sighed and stroked Leo's trembling scales.

"She's dying, and I'm trying to find a way to save her."

The man gestured to the lab behind him.

"A variant like her must live, and if Leo dies, it will be a huge loss beyond the biological world."

Hearing the man say this, Victor realized that Leo was indeed trembling involuntarily, and the beautiful color brought Leo a sickness - like him, Leo was not complete from birth.

A brief but gentle exchange with a man made Victor realize that he didn't hate communicating with others because he was an introvert, he just hated communicating with certain people.

"Can I help?"

Victor looked at the man, and a look of surprise appeared on the man's face.

"You want to be my assistant?"

The man looked down at the wind-up boat in his hand, which was large enough to place in the top three places in the Piltover Craft Competition, smiled more, and returned the boat to the boy.

"It's good, we can enjoy solitude together."

Patting Victor on the shoulder, the man walked to the research room.

"Your name?"

"Victor, Victor Toronte."

"My name is Sinjid, let's go Victor, I hope you enjoy it."

Following the man step by step, Victor took the initiative to touch Leo who came up, Leo glanced back at Victor, and then returned to lie down on the rock.

Walking into the dazzling alchemy laboratory, Victor's eyes were full of curiosity, there were dozens of animals here, mainly gray mice, and two sleeping cats in cages.

"Mr. Sinjid, do you usually live here to do research?"

"Hehe, sometimes I go to another place to do research."

Opening the steel lockbox, Sinjid took out a violet of dilution of violet lichen.

Although Hilko and Fandel reached an agreement to interrupt his plans for human experimentation, he would not allow himself to be idle,

If you can't figure out the physical and chemical properties of the violet lichen solution, no amount of human experiments will be a waste of life, and he doesn't mind doing all kinds of inhumane human experiments for the continuation of life, but it is difficult to tolerate worthless sacrifices.

Picco Leo is born with a defect, his body organs will gradually fail over time, and the only way he can think of it is to use various irritating chemical agents to stimulate Leo's body functions, but now with the solution concocted by purple light lichen, he may be able to find a better way to heal from the road of 'mutation'.

"Of course, I leave here when I eat."

Victor leaned his face to the glass rat box, startling the sleeping rat rat and standing up with his hands raised and squeaking.

"Teacher, where do you live if you don't usually do experiments? I live in the middle floor, and my family runs the [Vic Workshop], and my parents are there, so maybe they will know you, the teacher. ”

Sinjid dripped the extract into a heated test tube and said without looking back

"This is my home."

Victor was stunned for a moment, and there was a little more hesitation in his tone.

"Then, teacher, your family ......"

"The wife is dead, and the daughter is ...... also died, all of them died of illness, and they couldn't be saved by spending money. ”

“…… I'm sorry, teacher, I don't know ......"

Turning his head to look at Victor, who lowered his head and blamed himself, Singid smiled, and his smile was gloomy.

"Victor, you seem curious about my past?"

Victor didn't speak, just listened silently.

"When I was living in Piltover, I was studying advanced biology and alchemy at the Bandel Academy of Sciences, and at that time, I was also the number one person in the academy.

At that time, it was really beautiful, I was smooth sailing in my studies, and I was valued and cultivated by many professors, and in my career, I invented the [condensation purification method], and applied for three patents for alchemical experimental instruments that were enough to make me worry about food and clothing for the rest of my life.

I reaped love at a young age, and I was in love with my wife, and I soon had the crystallization of love - a beautiful and lovely daughter,

As soon as I graduated from the academy step by step, I would become an admired professor of alchemy, and when I thought my life would be smooth as in a fairy tale until I grew old, the nightmare began. ”

As if to say something inconsequential, Sinjid's cold voice never fluctuated in any way...... Or rather, Victor couldn't hear any fluctuations.

"My wife soon collapsed in the hospital bed, nothing happened, as usual, playing with my daughter, having dinner, sleeping, she suddenly couldn't get up, at first, I even thought she was joking with me, I wished, it was a joke......"

"I have found the most competent physician in the academy, or you may have heard of it, his name is Philippon, and he is the most famous professor of medicine in Piltover, specializing in internal medicine.

After the examination he told me that he could not save my wife, just like a small boat drifting with the tide and drifting to the edge of the waterfall unconsciously, mortals could not pull back the boat that had fallen into the abyss, and Philippon could not stop the organ from failing.

I questioned Philemon, do you know what Philemon told me, who admired modern medicine? ”

At this time, Victor saw the unwillingness and anger in his eyes that was enough to burn the world under the teacher's calm face, and the sense of power in his eyes made his soul tremble.

"He said that only God can save my wife, and he is not God."

"I prayed to God, knelt on the ground, and prayed day and night, hoping that Heaven would save my wife, but all I received was her increasingly cold body, and her death notice.

In the happiest time of my life, I lost the wife I loved the most, and my daughter lost the mother who loved her the most, because God played a joke on me, a cruel joke. ”

(End of chapter)