Caitlyn considered herself a lone warrior, believing she was the only sober soul in an intoxicated world, the only pure beacon in a sea of corruption.
But who hadn't been young and passionate once? It wasn't as if everyone had lived in a daze for three hundred years before someone suddenly woke up with the idea of changing this filthy reality.
Caitlyn was not the first good person in the history of the Twin Cities.
This world had seen many good people.
Especially in the civilized and progressive Piltover.
"This is what I like about Piltover," Heimerdinger said. "At least when your children are still young, you are willing to teach them pure and beautiful things."
"Unlike Noxus, where children are sent to the battlefield from a young age, knowing nothing but burning, killing, and looting all day long. Sigh, it is utterly barbaric."
"But Piltover is different. Even within merchant families like yours, there are always children who emerge gentle, kind, passionate, and radiant as the sun."
"It is because of you that I am fond of humanity."
Heimerdinger looked at Caitlyn with approval, then let out a faint sigh. "But children always grow up."
"When your mother was little, she always liked to pat my big head. As she grew older, she loved dragging me into discussions about her ideals. A bit older still, she began to fantasize about changing the world. And then, eventually, she just sat in that high Council chair and called me Councilor Heimerdinger."
"Caitlyn, you are the same."
Hearing this, Caitlyn was left completely speechless.
She finally understood why her mother had been so certain that she would never be able to persuade Heimerdinger.
Because Heimerdinger was a Yordle; he had lived too long and seen too much.
A long-lived species who had been around for hundreds or thousands of years would not let their blood boil at the drop of a hat like a tiny human such as herself.
Heimerdinger had seen things similar to today long ago. And, without exception, they had all ended in failure.
"Caitlyn, go back," Heimerdinger urged with a hint of guilt.
Even though this was far from the first time, he still couldn't help but sigh and feel pity for every young person who appeared before him.
"This is not your fault, child."
"The human world has always been this way."
Caitlyn finally fell into despair.
It turned out she wasn't special. She was just an ordinary person among the countless individuals who had struggled in vain over the millennia.
Perhaps in a few short years, she too would be assimilated by the world, turning into the very thing she once hated most, just like her mother.
Caitlyn despaired for herself, for Piltover, and for all of humanity.
"I apologize for disturbing you."
Caitlyn turned around dejectedly and walked out, looking completely crestfallen.
"You haven't taken your documents," Heimerdinger reminded her softly.
"They don't matter anymore. Professor, please throw them away for me."
Caitlyn left the office with a numb expression. Heimerdinger sympathetically wanted to chase after her, but helplessly stopped in his tracks and sighed.
She didn't know where she should go or what she should do.
Cold reality was laid bare right in front of her.
Her boiling blood was finally meant to cool.
But she was so unwilling to accept it!
Could this world truly never be changed?
Caitlyn pondered these questions in a daze, wandering aimlessly without realizing where she had ended up.
Finally, after roaming without purpose for a long time, an unusual noise coming from a small laboratory building ahead suddenly jolted the lost Enforcer awake.
"Hehehe!" A burst of hearty laughter rang out.
This was followed by the sound of rising smoke, melting metal, and the heavy clanking of falling iron. It sounded like welding and cutting, but much smoother and far more terrifying.
"Professor Viktor—"
"Your invention is absolutely amazing!"
Accompanying the noise were the excited cheers of students.
"With this Hextech mechanical arm, we won't have to fear the Iron Fist Gang anymore!"
Iron Fist Gang?
That keyword instantly triggered Caitlyn's alert radar.
She immediately forgot her self-pity and pushed the door open, driven by curiosity and concern.
Wearing her blue Enforcer uniform, Caitlyn's entrance caused the air in the entire room to freeze.
Inside the spacious laboratory stood a crowd of university students, almost filling the room. They were dressed in University of Piltover uniforms and wore Academy of Hextech badges.
That would have been fine on its own, but the crucial detail was that every single one of these students was holding a weapon.
There were pistols, rifles, Gatling guns, and rocket launchers. Their firepower looked even more devastating than the standard equipment of Piltover Enforcers.
Furthermore, these weapons weren't the mass-produced goods circulating on the market. Each had a different style and unique design, clearly custom-made by professionals tinkering by hand.
In the magical world of Runeterra, handcrafted custom guns imbued with the spirit of the artisan were far more formidable than soulless, mass-produced industrial goods.
It was no exaggeration to say that the hardware these students were carrying was enough to arm a medium-sized gang.
"Y-you all..."
"What are you doing?!"
The mechanical equipment laboratory of the Academy of Hextech had actually been secretly turned into a handmade weapons workshop by these students!
Caitlyn opened her mouth wide in astonishment.
Then she realized that the students in front of her looked somewhat familiar.
Right, she had seen the vast majority of them at Levi's business lecture yesterday.
"Um... your name is Lina, right?"
"Levi's sister?"
Caitlyn recognized an acquaintance first.
Lina, holding a grenade launcher she had built herself, wore a very subtle expression. "Uh... yeah, I'm Levi's sister."
"Officer Caitlyn, what brings you here... haha."
Caitlyn didn't explain how she got there; she only wanted to know what these students were up to.
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
"Why is everyone holding a gun?"
Why would students be armed? To blow up the school?
"Uh..." Caitlyn's conspicuous Enforcer uniform made everyone very nervous.
"Well," Lina said, her expression a bit panicked. "We're all Hextech Mechanical Engineering students. The professor is taking us to build some mechanical equipment for practice. T-that's perfectly reasonable, isn't it?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" A classmate carrying a Gatling gun chimed in with a completely straight face. "This is our major's metalworking internship."
Caitlyn: "..."
"Do you need to build guns for an internship?"
"You quietly forged all these weapons. What exactly are you planning to do?" Caitlyn interrogated them with extreme vigilance.
"Well, security has been a bit poor lately..." Lina racked her brains to spout nonsense. "So everyone wanted to take advantage of the internship to conveniently make some weapons for self-defense."
"If everyone has a gun, t-things won't descend into chaos, right?"
Caitlyn fell into another bout of silence.
Then, she couldn't help but point at the only adult present, Professor Viktor, who currently looked the most awkward of them all.
"And what about him? Is he trying to defend himself too?"
Viktor stood out like a sore thumb among the students.
He was wearing a mechanical exoskeleton that was clearly a rushed, makeshift creation, its appearance somewhat crude and rudimentary.
And on the spine of this mechanical exoskeleton armor, a peculiarly shaped mechanical arm had been temporarily welded and installed.
It was like a person's third hand, suspended steadily behind Viktor through the connection and control of the mechanical exoskeleton.
Furthermore, a faint blue light flickered on this mechanical arm...
At a glance, it was obviously a powerful piece of equipment installed with a Hextech crystal!
"What is this?" Caitlyn demanded aggressively. "What is it used for?"
"Uh, this is..."
"For welding."