Chapter 8: The Showcase
The Piltover Academy Innovation Showcase was many things.
For some, it was a debut a stage to announce themselves to the world of progress. For others, it was a proving ground, where noble families and sponsors waited to see if their investments were justified. For Steven, it felt like walking into a lion's den wearing a paper suit.
He arrived early, but the main hall was already bustling. Long tables stretched down the marble floors of the East Pavilion, each one occupied by students in pressed uniforms and polished tools. Gleaming hex-tech displays pulsed with carefully tuned lighting. Everything looked sharp, expensive, and intimidating.
Steven's booth stood at the far end, tucked into the corner. His "display rack" was made from repurposed scaffolding and stripped copper. The contrast was glaring, and he knew it.
Still, he set up with slow, deliberate care.
Repulsion Bracer – v3
Recon Visor – Adaptive Lens
Shock Ring – Controlled Discharge Model
He placed a fourth item quietly behind them: the unfinished schematic for the Magnetic Stabilizer Belt. Too unstable for use, but the concept itself might earn a glance. Above it all sat his note:
Project Archive – Echo Tech
Steven Liam – Apprentice Tier One
Status: Orphan, Academy Welfare Program
He left it there on purpose. Let them read it. Let them see what kind of student had built all this.
The judges arrived late, fashionably so. A wave of tension passed through the students as the faculty entered—robed professors, sponsors, and a handful of key figures from Piltover's Council of Progress.
Steven spotted him almost immediately.
Viktor.
Dressed in a sharp, modest coat, cane tapping gently with each step, Viktor moved with quiet authority. He didn't speak much, but his eyes missed nothing. Students leaned toward him as he passed, hoping for a nod, a question, anything. Some of the older inventors third years, even a few assistants of Jayce himself stood straighter as he walked by.
Steven didn't expect Viktor to notice him.
But Viktor stopped at the project three tables down. The student was showcasing an "energy condensing lens" with a static field cage. It was clean. It was safe. It was utterly boring.
...
...
Steven forced himself to look away.
The judges moved slowly. Too slowly. Steven's nerves frayed with every minute.
Elsie dropped by mid-morning. "You okay?"
"No," he replied honestly. "I feel like I'm about to throw up."
She smirked. "Then you're doing it right."
He gave a weak laugh, grateful for her brief presence. Then she was off again, working one of the refreshment tables. She didn't have a project of her own this term. She said she was waiting to be inspired.
Steven wished he had that luxury.
...
...
By noon, he'd already demonstrated the bracer seven times.
It wasn't flashy, but it worked. The Repulsion Bracer launched a small dummy with a solid pulse of energy. Controlled. Clean. And it recharged faster than most similar devices students were building.
The Shock Ring got the most attention. Compact, stable, and equipped with a variable dial for intensity. When one of the sponsors asked what inspired it, Steven simply said, "Non-lethal defense."
He didn't mention how it was a mix of three different ideas: a villain's shock gauntlet from My Hero Academia, Tony Stark's pulse ring, and a real-world Taser he once saw during police training in a documentary.
The Visor, though that was the one people lingered on.
Its ability to cycle through enhanced lighting, heat signatures, and arcane residues, all using a single hex crystal circuit? That wasn't student-level work.
A short, sharp woman from the engineering division asked him if he'd had any outside help. When Steven said no, she raised an eyebrow but said nothing more.
By late afternoon, the judges reached his corner.
...
...
One man yawned. Another scribbled without looking.
And then... Viktor stopped.
He didn't say a word at first. Just stared. His eyes swept across the bracer, the visor, the ring and then to Steven's note.
His gaze held there for a moment longer than necessary.
Steven swallowed.
Viktor stepped forward, slowly.
"You designed these?"
"Yes, sir."
"Where did you get the crystal modulation design for this visor?"
"I... developed it myself," Steven said, carefully. "From combining older energy sync methods with recent hex-core memory experiments."
Viktor tilted his head. "That is not an easy balance to achieve. Even Jayce had trouble with modulation drift in his early designs."
"I read all the case studies," Steven said. "Multiple times."
That earned a brief, almost imperceptible smile.
Viktor examined the bracer, adjusted the settings on the Shock Ring, then turned back to Steven.
"I look forward to seeing what you become."
Then he was gone.
Just like that.
No signature. No invitation. No applause.
But Steven stood a little taller anyway.
After the showcase ended and the hall emptied, Steven sat alone at his table. He was exhausted. He hadn't won anything. No sponsorships. No medals. Not even a special mention.
But that didn't matter.
He hadn't come to win. He'd come to prove he could be here.
And Viktor—Viktor—had stopped to look.
He flipped open his notebook, the one with the Project Archive – Echo Tech list, and scratched out three ideas he'd already tested.
Then, beneath the others, he added a new title:
Arc Reactor Prototype – Draft One
And beneath it, with a shaky hand, he wrote:
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist—wannabe."
And he smiled.