In Piltover, there's a saying: "When the Ferros thrive, Piltover thrives."
It's a slogan that the Ferros family must include in their advertisements in the Piltover Daily. Most people in Piltover are familiar with it.
Although the Ferros family lags behind the Medarda family in terms of assets, the Medarda family has become the wealthiest family in all of Piltover thanks to the dividends from building the Sun gate Sea Dam and the piston patent established by their ancestors.
But times have changed.
The Hex Gates have been constructed, and the way most families transport their goods to various parts of the world will change.
Compared to the smooth and safe method that takes only a few seconds to reach the destination, who would choose the long and risky sea route?
Moreover, the Ferros family has entered into a cooperation agreement with the Kiramman family to manufacture energy crystals.
Cassandra is more inclined towards the Ferros family in investing and building the Hex Gates, so the Ferros family's share is much higher than Medarda's.
Furthermore, Lord Jago did not expect the emergence of Hex Gates technology. He had some reservations about building hydraulic turbines for power generation within the Sun gate.
The Ferros family seized the opportunity and, along with the Kiramman family, vigorously constructed power plants, taking the lead in the development of basic electricity ahead of the Medarda family.
It won't be long before the Ferros family catches up with the Medarda family in terms of financial strength and becomes the number one in Piltover.
With Li Lin's new inventions and technologies driving it, the Kiramman family, which has benefited, will also quickly rise in comprehensive strength and surpass the Medarda family. It's only a matter of time.
But Li Lin doesn't plan to let the Kiramman family ascend through this method.
Moreover, the elite enforcers of Piltover have been equipped with charged armor, which is already his biggest concession to dockworkers or miners wearing a simplified version of powered armor.
The technology of Project Genesis -Infinite - is something Li Lin intends to firmly control.
Li Lin didn't rush to answer Abus's question. Instead, he looked at Cassandra beside him.
Cassandra gave him a look that clearly meant everything was up to him, and there was no need to seek her opinion.
She knew Li Lin's character and remembered the agreement they had made.
The Infinite Armor is dangerous technology, and he couldn't possibly hand it over. So she had no intention of forcing him in this regard, especially since Li Lin was now practically part of her family.
Abus seemed to sense Li Lin's hesitation and continued, "We've already discussed with Councilor Kiramman, and she said she would respect your wishes. So you don't need to consider family matters."
"You can be like Talis, and each family will provide you with generous sponsorship. At the same time, we'll provide various materials and technologies for free. You just need to continue researching and perfecting your inventions. You don't need to worry about anything else."
Abus's offer was very tempting, and others would surely agree. After all, it was like being offered a "pie in the sky" treatment.
But Li Lin was different from others. "Your offer is very generous, but I refuse."
"Yeah~~ Let's discuss the contract... Wait a minute!" Abus suddenly realized and looked surprised, "You refuse?"
It was the first time someone had refused sponsorship and investment from the Ferros family.
If Li Lin knew what Abus was thinking, he would have scoffed: Last time your grandmother Camille wanted me to join the Ferros family, I refused. Now you want to buy my armor technology with sponsorship alone? Sorry, I'm not short of money now, just time.
"Mr. Ferros's offer is so superior, how can you refuse?" The speaker was a woman in her forties, wearing the badge of the Kevor family on her chest.
Following her, the representative of the Joysen family continued, "You brat, don't be ungrateful. The Ferros family's interest in you is giving you face. So many people are scrambling to attach 'Ferros' to their names, yet you dare to refuse Mr. Ferros?"
With these words, the scene fell silent, with only the sound of people's suppressed breath and the energy sound of the battle armor function.
The tone of the Joysen family representative's speech was somewhat sarcastic, and Li Lin frowned, suddenly getting angry.
Not only him, but Cassandra, Tobias, and even Caitlyn all frowned simultaneously.
Even Abus's smile disappeared by half, revealing a hint of displeasure.
The Joysen family's strength is one level lower than the Kiramman family's, but their own strength is still not to be underestimated.
To completely get rid of them, Kiramman has to make a big move.
They often use other families to belittle Kiramman on certain occasions, making them the family with the worst relationship with the Kiramman family besides the Odelenk family, which was previously planning a kidnapping case and was expelled.
If I can't beat you, I don't care. Since you won't really kill me, then I'll just disgust you.
Li Lin didn't know much about the Joesen family and the grudges between the two clans.
However, Cassandra was determined not to lose face in front of the numerous family representatives.
Before she could speak, Li Lin had an idea and challenged them first, saying, "I won't agree to cooperate on the battle armor, but perhaps we can discuss other aspects..."
He ignored the crowd, opened the door to the workshop, but instead of inviting everyone in, he deliberately snapped his fingers.
Fifteen storm robots and a Dawnlight had already been activated in another room and quickly floated out.
Many present had heard of the aerial combat machines, but had never seen them up close.
The peculiar Dawnlight was even more mysterious, having only been seen half a year ago on the streets of Piltover with Li Lin, floating high in the air upon their return.
Li Lin had hardly used it in front of the artisans in Piltover, so almost no one knew its specific purpose.
Judging by its design and the gun barrel on its right arm, it was clearly a combat mechanism.
Yabus twisted his bushy mustache, raised his eyebrows, and fell into thought.
Since the investment in battle armor didn't work out, perhaps these robots would be a good alternative?
"Hah, what's this? Looks so ugly," Joesen sneered, relentless as ever.
Li Lin stared coldly at him, and the other representatives standing beside Joesen sensed the tension and instinctively distanced themselves from him.
This provided Li Lin with an opportunity.
He commanded the storm robots to activate their "overload charge" function simultaneously, emitting a blue glow all over their bodies.
They arced through the air and flew straight towards Joesen before he could react, surrounding him in no time.
"What... what are you doing?!" He dodged awkwardly, but there was nowhere to escape, forced to endure the flames from their propulsion.
Li Lin intentionally controlled the distance of the storms, ensuring they wouldn't harm Joesen but would touch his clothes.
In just a few seconds, most of his clothes were burned, revealing charred skin.
"Damn it! I am the representative of the Joesen family! How dare you humiliate me in front of so many families!"
Li Lin paid no attention to Joesen, just smiled and looked around at the other family representatives.
They had come to him seeking cooperation, and now he held the upper hand.
The other representatives wouldn't offend him for the sake of a second-rate medium-sized family.
Plus, this was Kiramman, his territory.
That's where Li Lin's confidence lay.
"I seem to hear a dog barking... I wonder which family can't even train a dog properly."
"You... you!"
As Joesen tried to retort, the storms approached him, causing him more pain with each word he spoke.
"It's just a dog. Since its owner can't train it and it keeps barking at me, isn't it fair for me to teach its owner a lesson?"
Li Lin deliberately showed a distressed look and muttered to himself as if no one was listening, "Hmm, it might also be rabid, then it's troublesome... It's better to kill it, for the greater good."
"How dare you kill someone in public... Ahh!"
As Joesen spoke, the storms closed in, and he could already smell the burnt flesh.
He looked to the other family representatives for help, but they pretended not to hear him, even Yabus seemed to be angry about what happened earlier.
Suddenly, Joesen remembered what a friend from another family had said, that this guy had traveled to Shurima with a group of ruthless Noxians and returned with only a mercenary captain and a demigod warrior, and they seemed to have a good relationship...
Killing in the desert was commonplace, and in Piltover, he was just a nobody from a second-rate family, not even worth comparing to this renowned craftsman.
Even if he killed him, not only would Kiramman protect him, but other families would also act as if he never existed...
Seeing that Li Lin didn't seem to care about his life, Joesen was almost in tears.
Originally, he had been ordered by the family head to deliberately make trouble for the Kiramman family, but unexpectedly, he hadn't gained any advantage and had instead suffered, facing the possibility of losing his life.
"You... you can't do this... It's against the law!"
"Yabus, I think we can discuss the cooperation of Storm now."
"Oh? Storm..."
Li Lin pointed to the floating device behind him.
Meanwhile, the storms continued to approach.
"I'm sorry! I was wrong... Please spare me!" Joesen begged desperately for his life.
"Alright, Li Lin, he's been punished enough, let him go," Cassandra suppressed her satisfaction and reminded, "You are a public figure now, be mindful of your influence."
As she spoke, she leaned close to Li Lin's ear, supplementing in a voice only they could hear, "Besides, he won't live long anyway. Old man Joesen won't spare him."
Li Lin nodded and waved his hand, commanding the storms to return to him.
As Joesen, tears streaming down his face, covered his exposed body and ran away amidst the mocking gazes of the crowd.
Li Lin's gaze lingered on Joesen for a moment before returning to Yabus, a polite smile back on his face.
"Alright, the troublesome dog has left. Shall we continue our discussion on our cooperation?"
"Well... can we only cooperate on this floating device?" Yabus seemed unwilling, "What about these robots?"
He was quite interested in the aerial combat machines.
Although Piltover didn't advocate for the development of weapons, it didn't mean that every family didn't have them.
Firearms were one thing, and the emerging energy weapons were mostly monopolized by the Kiramman family.
They had considered the issue of combat robots before.
But since there were no intelligent chips before, and the auxiliary chips only reduced some of the input programming processes, making the robots do some repetitive simple tasks was already good.
Now that Li Lin had developed intelligent chips and applied for a patent, the first few batches of chips were bought by him alone for his own use and were not sold externally.
The Ferros family was unwilling to fall behind. Buying the storms meant the artisans wouldn't have to go through many detours.
"I once attended a council meeting where most families were against the development of weapons."
"Is that so?"
Yabus glanced intentionally at the representatives of the Bolbok and Shoola families.
Both of these families were arms dealers but had nothing to do with opposing the development of weapons.
The representatives of Bolbok and Shoola intentionally or unintentionally avoided meeting Yabus' gaze, pretending they hadn't heard anything just now.
"Piltover hopes for peace, and my machines will only bring conflict, so let's skip that."
Li Lin brought Dawnlight between himself and Yabus, smiling faintly, "Dawnlight is different..."
(End of Chapter)