Chapter 1378: Delicious and Fun
Cheering, the four turtles disappeared into the sewers. Selina drew closer to look. “They were trying to say ‘s.h.i.+fu’ right?”
She said it correctly.
Luke nodded, then shook his head. “I don’t know. They might have learned it wrong, or their master may not know especially much of it.”
He had told Selina before what “s.h.i.+fu” meant.
Those in ancient times who imparted knowledge and dispelled confusion were called s.h.i.+fu.
In modern times, this t.i.tle was used for people who were experts in their chosen craft.
But saluting and calling someone “s.h.i.+fu” should only happen between an official master and disciple.
It was impossible for Batman to take in a disciple, much less four mutant turtle disciples. It could only be said that the other party had erred in their learning.
However, they said they were born and bred “New Yorkers” who had been here for fifteen years. Making blunders when it came to a foreign culture wasn’t unusual.
Moreover… they said that they were ninja turtles.
If Luke became their master, would that make him a ninja? No thanks.
Also, if he crawled around in the sewers every day, wouldn’t he really become a grandpa turtle?
Thinking about how he and his four mutant turtle grandkids could dominate the sewers… It was a bittersweet feeling. Feeling torn, Luke returned home.
Gold Nugget took off its h.e.l.lhound uniform and ran over.
Luke, who was studying the pizza recipe, found that odd. “What’s wrong? Fine, you can speak.”
It was enough for Gold Nugget to bark and use body language in everyday conversation, but there were some complicated things that could only be expressed clearly through words.
“Luke, can I play with those four little turtles?” said Gold Nugget.
Luke was stumped. “You? Why?”
Gold Nugget: “I just find them interesting…”
“Tell me the truth, or wait to be punished according to house rules.” Luke’s face turned hard as he took out his killer weapon.
Gold Nugget scowled, but it didn’t dare say anything else. A moment later, it mumbled, “It feels like they have tasty energy inside them.”
Luke was enlightened.
Gold Nugget and Dollar existed in perfect symbiosis, but Luke, Selina, and Claire all had the special energy inside them which Gold Nugget liked to eat.
Luke had tested it. None of his remaining family members had this special energy, so it probably wasn’t inherited.
Gold Nugget reacted to Alice as well, but Wade was unique; Gold Nugget described him as “chocolate-flavored sh*t” — he smelled fragrant at first, but on closer inspection, was so smelly it could puke.
So, Gold Nugget was only interested in certain types of energy, not the energy of superhumans.
Thinking for a moment, Luke asked, “How good is it compared with what Selina, Claire and I have?”
Gold Nugget hesitated for a moment, clearly comparing the two.
After a long while, when Luke’s pizza was ready, it finally said, “Yours is hard to describe, and I can’t make a comparison. Theirs is a little similar to Selina’s, but it’s like how strawberry and vanilla ice cream are different but both delicious. As for Claire… hers is slightly inferior. Hm, just a little.”
The energy in Luke and Claire’s bodies was at least one grade lower than Selina’s, but it didn’t want its dog head to explode, so it could only tell a white lie.
Luke, on the other hand, knew this dog head well. It didn’t think much of him and Claire; the comparison with Selina was enough.
“So, they’re similar to Selina?” he murmured.
Gold Nugget suddenly nodded. “Then, let me eat a bit for a taste, and I’ll tell you more when I get back?”
“Forget it.” Luke curled his lip. “Eat this first. Who knows, those four little turtles might let you have some of their energy in exchange for the pizza.”
With that, he stuffed a steaming hot pizza into the dog’s mouth.
Gold Nugget looked at Luke aggrievedly. Knowing that the fiend hadn’t given his permission, it chewed twice, and suddenly felt that the taste in its mouth was a little strange. “What pizza is this?”
“Is this blue cheese pizza good?” asked Luke.
Gold Nugget tried hard to discern the taste. “I think it’s a little like… the stinky tofu you gave me? That’s right, that’s the taste.”
Luke was lost for words. Although he rarely made pizza, to say that a cheese pizza tasted like stinky tofu… this dog head really deserved a beating!
Driving the dog head away, Luke refined the pizza recipe again and looked up information on the Foot Clan while he was at it.
This gang wasn’t famous, and their main territory had always been the docks.
When Luke dealt with gangs, he prioritized gangs in residential areas whom people had more grievances against.
The Foot Clan wasn’t based in New York, and only carried out the occasional transaction or so here. Luke had swept through their warehouse just once before, and they only lost dozens of kilograms of weed and crystal meth.
A lot of empty areas at the docks were under surveillance, and the Foot Clan wasn’t stupid enough to move their goods through areas that were specially monitored.
It was understandable that the battle between the little turtles and the Foot Clan hadn’t been captured on video.
Also, the Foot Clan had only gone to Newark to avoid Batman.
If things got out of hand, who knew if the little turtles would be fine, but the gang would definitely be in trouble.
Everybody in New York knew that the more they jumped in joy, the quicker they would be to run into trouble.
When Batman wiped out a bunch of gangsters at the beginning and the other gangs realized that prices had skyrocketed, they immediately took over the territory happily and flexed their muscles.
In the end, less than a month later, these gangs that had just started to expand were turned into “examples” by Batman.
Not all the gangsters were fools. They quickly realized that Batman was baiting them.
Half a year later, all the gangs in New York were very shrewd and switched to guerilla and divide-and-conquer tactics.
They would rather take a little more trouble and sell less than carry out a large-scale operation.
It was as if Batman could smell them out if they exerted themselves even just a little more, and he would quickly come knocking.
The Foot Clan was even more decisive.
After the first few purges, they completely withdrew from New York, canceled their small-scale sales, and became suppliers.
In any case, New York and Newark were separated by water. They reached the docks by speedboat and left immediately after the transaction was done.
The only unlucky ones would be the gangs who received the goods, while the Foot Clan relied on wholesale distribution to make money.
“They’re really smart,” Luke remarked.
While other gangs were still thinking about how to take over territory, the Foot Clan had already slipped away and switched to wholesale distribution.
More importantly, when Luke had been beating up the small fry, he had asked them who the suppliers were; there had indeed been many speedboats that delivered goods.
The names were different, but there had been none called the Foot Clan.
He had thought that this might be a new player, but it now seemed that members of the “Foot Clan” were hiding their ident.i.ties.
New York was a port city, with water on three sides that led to the sea.
A speedboat could perform transactions anywhere along that long sh.o.r.eline, and might not necessarily need to go to the docks at all. If everything was done in ten minutes or so, Batman definitely wouldn’t have time to track them down.