Li Lin had the mechanical soldiers send Katarina and Talon to Piltover's security prison, where the mechanical soldiers were tasked with guarding them.
Because Katarina was capable of using "spatial magic," she couldn't be held anywhere without restrictions. To prevent her from escaping, Li Lin specifically arranged for her to wear magical suppression shackles, a resource promised to him by Jarvan IV for research purposes.
Two days ago, mechanical soldiers had taken samples from a Petricite tree, packed them into specially designed boxes that could isolate the magical suppression effect, and transported them via Hexgate to Palclyff City south of the Argent Mountains. From there, they were sent back to Piltover.
Li Lin had left a small portion of the Petricite for the AI to analyze. After all, Petricite was a fossil from an ancient tree species, and its gene sequence was crucial for research.
With his current technology, it should be feasible to replicate its genetic sequence, either for mass production through cloning or to insert the Petricite gene sequence into other living beings.
The arrival of Katarina made the use of this material quite timely.
Li Lin had thoughtfully spared Katarina and Talon's lives instead of executing them immediately.
While killing heroes came with rewards, those rewards were only proportional to the threat they posed, granting experience points, skill points, and blue and orange essence in varying amounts.
Even though his current level had reached 80, the rewards for defeating heroes were becoming increasingly sparse. Killing someone like Katarina or Talon, both mere mortal heroes, wouldn't yield much. It was better to keep them alive for now.
Even if Marcus Du Couteau, Katarina's cold-hearted father, might abandon them after their failure, the two top assassins of Noxus would prove valuable in helping Swain clean up resistance forces in the future. With their demonic powers and ability to foresee part of the future, Li Lin was certain Swain would not give up on them easily.
Li Lin knew full well that this operation was likely personally ordered by Swain. But Swain's motives weren't just to steal information. He had sent Katarina and Talon to test Li Lin's strength.
Among Noxus's assassins, Katarina ranked second in power—potentially even surpassing her father—and Talon ranked third, though he lacked magical abilities.
If Li Lin could handle their trial, it would demonstrate his potential as a valuable ally. If he couldn't, Swain would likely continue sending warmason spys to infiltrate Piltover.
Once Noxus dealt with the lingering issues from the last emperor, Darkwill, and the devastating losses from the Noxian War, Swain would focus on attacking Demacia and Piltover—it was only a matter of time.
Li Lin speculated about Swain's personal plans. In the original world timeline, warmason had already infiltrated Piltover's Medarda family, and other political families likely had spies as well.
Since the mage riots in Demacia, Noxus had taken the opportunity to annex Nockmirch, an ally between the two nations. Garen's investigation into the matter had almost led to his demise alongside Quinn of the Demacian Wings, signaling the looming threat of war.
Having enhanced his brain, Li Lin recalled many details, including the fact that LeBlanc had disguised herself as Demacia's ambassador—Garen's uncle. After their victory over Noxus and the announcement of Nockmirch's new queen, a raven with red eyes had flown from the battlements, marking the shadow of war on the horizon.
By this point, the events were already unfolding after the Curse of Ruin, with Demacia preparing to invade Shadow Isles while Swain had to build forces to counter Mordekaiser's undead legions.
Without Li Lin's presence, Piltover, already infiltrated by spies and dealing with issues from Zaun, would likely have fallen to Noxus.
Now, Li Lin was like a pawn in a game with Swain, while Katarina and Talon were pieces sent by the general.
If these pieces were captured, Swain would have a clearer understanding of Li Lin's strength, and future negotiations would become easier. This would also help in establishing the League of Legends and avoiding internal conflicts among humans.
Sitting in his workshop chair, Li Lin pondered for a long time, then decided to put Katarina and Talon out of his mind for now.
Reaching level 80 today had been an unexpected joy. According to his original plans, he intended to first craft the dimensional teleportation device and upgrade the battlefield mechs he hadn't completed.
Once he unlocked anti-gravity technology, he would finally be able to build his own Titan-class mech.
For now, though, the new blueprints could be postponed.
Li Lin shifted his focus to the system panel.
This upgrade had unlocked six new technologies across three major categories: anti-gravity technology and space technology from the Inventor tree, gene chain unlocking from the Individual Enhancement tree, and space construction factory, giant assembly factory, and Gigantus from the Combat tree.
However, the Gigantus required 1,000 orange essence, and since he had already enchanted his Infinite Battle Armor with four pieces, he only had a little more than 500 orange essence left, meaning he couldn't unlock it yet.
The prerequisite technologies for the other upgrades had all been unlocked, so he immediately spent 9 skill points to master them all.
With only 146 skill points remaining, Li Lin raised an eyebrow, contemplating whether to unlock the "Mechanical Ascension" path in the Individual Enhancement tree.
After a moment's consideration, he decided against it.
The subsequent technologies and design blueprints he could view required a significant amount of skill points to unlock, and he feared that by the time he defeated Bel'Veth, he might run out of points and be unable to unlock new technologies.
After quickly absorbing the new technologies, his battle armor enveloped his body again. He activated the Hextech teleportation and set the destination to Piltover University, quickly vanishing from his location.
---
Two weeks had passed since Noxus's "guest" arrived in Piltover.
To Li Lin's surprise, both Katarina and Talon, locked up in prison, remained extremely quiet. There were no complaints or noise from them.
Talon's behavior was understandable. Being the quiet type, he preferred solving problems with his blade rather than words. Katarina, however, was different.
With her fiery personality, she should have been causing a ruckus every day.
After the first week passed, Li Lin reviewed the prison's surveillance footage and noticed that after Katarina was fitted with the magical suppression shackles, losing her ability to blink, she seemed distant and unfocused, as though her soul had wandered elsewhere.
Based on the psychological theories provided by the AI, Li Lin speculated that her pride had been wounded, compounded by the humiliation of failing another mission and losing her magical abilities. The combined blow had left her in a state of despair, unable to recover.
Li Lin, however, was too busy with his own affairs, working with Heimerdinger, Jayce, and Viktor on the development of the interdimensional teleportation device. He had no time to deal with Katarina.
Besides, Piltover's security regularly employed psychologists—if there was an issue, they could handle it.
Amidst all this, Li Lin also found time to return to Demacia.
The artisans of the Kiramman family had already struck a deal with the head of the Lightshield royal family to determine the location of the Hexgate to be built outside the city of Dawnkeep.
The teleportation technology had already matured, so there was no need for Li Lin to oversee the installation. However, Barrett's personal guards, acting on Eldred's testimony, had found evidence of him secretly transporting unlicensed mages to Noxus. Jarvan IV didn't want to take any chances, so the planned execution, originally scheduled for after the spring, was moved up. Li Lin's visit to Demacia was to witness this historical moment.
In addition, Li Lin had to check on Sona and provide her with a communication device capable of projecting images. Though they couldn't communicate telepathically directly through the device, the AI could access their neural network to capture and transmit thoughts, allowing for remote communication between them.
Aside from these personal matters, Li Lin spent most of his time in the Piltover University laboratory.
His urgency in developing the interdimensional teleportation device stemmed not only from the various flaws of the Hextech teleportation but also from the high costs of installing teleporters on mechanical constructs.
With the new teleportation gate, he could open a subspace channel using a single controller, allowing his mechanical army to undergo quantum teleportation and dramatically reducing expenses.
As for Hextech teleporters, they were better suited for rare types of mechs, such as large mechs, mid-sized War Lords, and smaller battlefield mechs like Kog'Maw—mechs that weren't mass-produced.
With the successful prototype of the Hexgate, the success rate of the interdimensional teleportation device, following discussions with Heimerdinger, had reached 98.64%. It was nearly certain to succeed, far surpassing the success rate the AI had predicted when it created the theoretical model.
In the following days, they successfully built a small-scale prototype of the interdimensional teleportation device.
Li Lin and Heimerdinger were confident that while living beings could not yet be transported through subspace via quantum teleportation, machines could be.
Thus, mechanical soldiers became the subjects of their experiments.
Equipped with the necessary testing equipment, the group traveled once more to the open plains in the southern part of the twin cities for their tests.
This trial would cover a distance of ten kilometers. With the assistance of the mechanical soldiers, Li Lin and Viktor positioned themselves at the exit of the teleportation device, while Heimerdinger and Jayce monitored the entrance data, ensuring no accidents occurred.
Dressed in their protective battle armor, Li Lin, Viktor, Heimerdinger, and Jayce kept their communications open.
After double-checking the data and making sure everything was in order, Li Lin and Viktor exchanged a look and nodded. They pressed the button to activate the interdimensional device.
As the four large mechanical cubes, each about four meters on each side, ascended into the air, they gathered at the designated location. The fusion reactor's energy increased, and the machines began to tear apart the space around them, creating a violent gust of wind.
The space before them stretched open, revealing a portal entirely made of blue and white energy.
The subspace channel had been opened.
At the other end, Heimerdinger's four mechanical devices activated automatically, opening their own teleportation portal.
"Oh, oh, oh, oh! For the great cause of science!" Heimerdinger's sharp voice echoed through the communication channel.
Li Lin was equally excited. This was the first practical application of quantum theory beyond computing, and if successful, it would be a qualitative breakthrough, greatly benefiting the development of future technologies.
[Mechanical soldiers are in position. Should the experiment begin?]
"Proceed."
(End of chapter)
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