Chapter 1043: Different Views and a Concussion
At ten in the evening, Luke and Selina put on their special stealth suits and left the house via the underground tunnel.
The first thing the two of them did was to go to Lawyer Matt’s house.
Selina didn’t go in as Luke entered through a window. Looking at Matt, who had a pinched expression from where he had withdrawn into a corner, he sighed. “Did someone beat you up again?”
Matt s.h.i.+fted, then immediately relaxed. “Puncher?”
Luke nodded. “What happened?”
The Clinton area had been rather peaceful recently. Apart from Frank Castle ma.s.sacring the Irish gang and chasing one of them to the hospital last night, there had been no activity from the Hand or Kingpin.
It could be said that Luke had sent Lawyer Matt’s old adversary packing, so why did it look like Matt had been beaten up?
Matt shook his head and managed to get to his feet. Luke realized that the guy was listing as he moved, as if he didn’t have any balance.
He walked over, picked Matt up, and put him on the sofa. He looked at the results of the a.n.a.lysis projected on his lenses and asked, “A concussion?”
Matt: “You could say that. I went out last night, ran into someone, and got shot.”
Luke frowned. “Who did it?”
Matt said, “The guy who killed the Irish gang. I followed him around the Metropolitan Hospital last night. We fought and he shot at my head.”
Luke had a strange look on his face. He hadn’t expected that reply. “Then why aren’t you dead?”
Matt grimaced. “I don’t think he wanted to kill me. He just wanted me to stop bothering him.”
“He shot you in the head just to stop you from bothering him?” Luke sweated a little. This army comrade of Robert’s didn’t seem to have a good temper. Was he really not worried about blowing up Lawyer Matt’s head?
Matt said, “He knew my helmet was bulletproof. Otherwise, he could’ve killed me with one shot after he knocked me down, but he didn’t. He just left.”
Speechless for a moment, Luke asked, “Then why were you looking for him?”
Matt said, “If he messes around like this, he’ll wreck the security that has just started to improve. People from elsewhere will also think that h.e.l.l’s Kitchen is still that chaotic and violent place. I can’t let him do whatever he wants. Also, his methods are too violent. I don’t think it’s the right way to deal with these people. Those traffickers should have a chance to change their ways.”
Hearing that, Luke realized that it was a conflict of views.
In this respect, he was actually on Frank Castle’s side.
It was a good thing that Matt didn’t know what Luke had done in the guise of his other aliases, or he would also try to change Luke’s mind.
Luke also had no interest in convincing Matt.
A life philosophy was worthless. For the sake of money, many people would cross their bottom line.
Although it was worthless, it could still make two people who had no conflict of interest become mortal enemies, even if they weren’t bad people.
That was why Luke had created so many aliases, and none of them had anything to do with each other.
It should be easier for Batman to win Matt’s approval, and easier for V to win Damon and Mindy’s friends.h.i.+p.
These superheroes who were far more powerful than ordinary people all had their own pride and values. It was very difficult to make them act against their views.
Luke had always been a pragmatist.
He didn’t care about these people’s views. His views were more like that of normal people — if the big baddie died, they deserved it. If the little baddie died, they were unlucky. Ordinary people and good people could help as they saw fit.
That was all.
He abided by many rules, but he wouldn’t let himself be constrained by them.
That was because he had a supervisor that was far better at getting to the heart of a matter than ordinary laws — the system.
Many heroes didn’t dare kill people casually because they were afraid that they would grow out of control.
Luke wouldn’t.
Recently, he even speculated that the way the system judged the host’s behavior very likely had to do with the host’s own views.
Take for example if a regular police officer attacked Luke, only for Luke to kill him.
If Luke had deliberately created this situation, his points would be deducted.
Although this had never happened before, the system had given him a faint warning when he had thought of this possibility very early on.
If Luke happened to hit a police officer with a stray bullet during a fight, the system wouldn’t deduct any points.
That was because Luke hadn’t intended to harm the police officer.
To put it simply, the system’s criteria for deducting points had nothing to do with the law, but Luke’s own heart.
The system itself was just a program, and could only talk in terms of logic and rules.
To play the law and escape blame, money was all that was needed.
To play with the system that was connected to his soul, however, was really too difficult.
Luke had no interest in messing around with such a troublesome matter. In any case, he had never thought of killing innocents.
Hence, he didn’t feel conflicted in front of Matt, and just treated him as a good person.
After pondering deeply for a moment, he shook his head and said, “This matter is more complicated than you think. Rest well and recover.”
Matt said nothing.
Sensing his emotions, Luke didn’t say anything else.
He himself was also a stubborn person, even though there weren’t many things that could make him express it.
But when he acted stubborn, it was useless no matter what others said.
In some ways, Matt was no less stubborn than he was. There was no point in saying more.
Soon, Luke left Matt’s house.
He had just come by to take a look and make sure Matt wouldn’t die from serious injuries.
Matt only had a concussion. Given his resilience, he would be fully recovered in three or five days. There was nothing to worry about.
After Luke walked out of Matt’s door, his figure became a transparent, distorted shadow.
After leaping across a few buildings, he met up with Selina and they moved through the Clinton area at night.
…
The search for Frank Castle wasn’t going well.
Luke and Selina spent two nights searching around the gangs, but didn’t find Frank.
On the third night, Luke left the house without Selina.
Selina wasn’t like him, and couldn’t sleep for just two hours every day. She still needed to undertake all sorts of training to strengthen herself. It would be best if she only went out once every two or three days.
Luke didn’t wear his armor when he went out alone. He just disguised himself and drove around in a rented car.
He was searching for Frank, and didn’t need to go too fast.
If he slowed down, he might be able to find more clues with Sharp Nose and Elementary Sound Wave.
He started his search in Clinton and then moved to the upper city district in the north, then moved from the south to the north through Harlem, East Harlem, Manhattan Mall, and Was.h.i.+ngton Heights, before he repeated the circuit again.
Stealing and robbery were common in New York at night.
Robbing pa.s.sers-by and 24-hour supermarkets at night was what many hooligans did every day.
When Luke encountered some petty theft and robbery, he threw out one or several small metals in pa.s.sing.
This thing was better than a gun or a throwing knife in a situation where he wasn’t aiming to kill; he could even use some evasive techniques to knock down these hooligans outside their line of sight.
That way, Luke wouldn’t be too conspicuous and wouldn’t leave any trace of having done a good deed as he acc.u.mulated experience and credit points one after another.