Chapter 431 Mental Strength 20
This also proved that it wasn’t as if troublesome monsters like Bruce couldn’t be kept under control; conversely, there were even many departments that were interested in them.
The two FBI teams and that duo made three parties tonight.
It was just that the duo had wanted to dispose of Bruce, whereas the two FBI teams wanted to catch him alive.
Given the current situation, their appearance made no difference to Luke; at least, the two FBI teams had to clean up the mess.
Luke checked the system notifications.
System: Stop Bruce the tyrannosaur from stealing important intelligence. Completed.
Total experience: 1,000. Total credit: 1,000.
Contribution rate: 50%. EXP +500. Credit +500.
Rescue Jeff, Karen, Tim and Natalie. Completed.
Total experience: 200. Total credit: 200.
Contribution rate: 100%. EXP +200. Credit +200.
After all the fuss, Luke earned seven hundred experience and credit points. He was quite satisfied.
But Bruce was quite the curiosity.
Luke had thrashed him soundly, but the system didn’t acknowledge this victory.
It was the same with the blonde beauty who had been shot in the legs and b.u.t.t by Luke.
The blonde hadn’t lied. Physical attacks didn’t work on their kind; bullets couldn’t cause them any fatal injuries.
Something also clearly wasn’t right about the blonde’s toy banana, but unfortunately, Luke didn’t know what it was, nor could he use it.
Otherwise, he could’ve attacked Bruce with the toy banana, and after killing him, he would definitely know what these guys were and what abilities they had.
Should he also learn Bruce’s abilities? Remembering this Mr. Tyrannosaur in all his glory, Luke felt that he absolutely wouldn’t.
Because the system would never let him learn this sort of disfiguring ability!
There was no point thinking about it. Luke decided to just wait for an update from Wales.
In this matter, he as a lone wolf wasn’t as well-informed as the FBI’s 17th Division.
In the next two days, Luke’s life was peaceful once more.
It was just that Agent Flegg came to see Luke on the second day.
Flegg didn’t even enter the house. He simply stared at Luke at the door for a moment before he said, “Detective Luke, you can call me if something like this happens again.”
Luke shook his head with a smile. “This doesn’t happen to me often.”
Ignoring Luke’s attempt at diversion, Flegg said again, “I think that you are a man of conviction, and that you will protect this country in a crisis.”
Luke frowned but didn’t say anything.
Flegg said in a low voice, “I belong to the United States of America; I’ll give you a sign to prove it. But as for Wales and his men… Hehe.”
Luke could see the disdain on his face.
Flegg left after dropping those cryptic words. But when Luke went to work the next day, he received an order of commendation from the Department of Defense.
Of course, it was purely a verbal commendation, and there wasn’t even a medal.
Luke knew that this was probably the sign which Flegg had mentioned.
Flegg was clearly demonstrating that he had ties to the DOD, while hinting at the same time that Wales and the others… didn’t belong to America. Luke was lost for words. Of course he knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t belong to America!
Flegg’s agency, on the other hand, was most likely a pure American product.
No wonder both sides had moved to s.n.a.t.c.h up the supernatural creature; no wonder Flegg and Wales didn’t see eye to eye!
Luke pondered for a moment and felt that he really might lean more toward Flegg from now on.
It wasn’t anything personal. It was just that the internal issues at S.H.I.E.L.D. were too serious – the “Hydra” S.H.I.E.L.D. in his last world was no joke.
But that was only if he were to once again run into supernatural creatures that he couldn’t handle on his own.
In this regard, Luke felt… that it was inevitable.
On the other side, Tim and Natalie said their farewells and left on the night of the incident.
They had accomplished their mission, and their boss didn’t have to deal with the follow-up, so they still had to work hard for their retirement plan.
Because of the extreme shock Jeff and Karen experienced, Tim helped them to apply for leave with MBI.
Jeff’s daughters were away at spring camp and wouldn’t be back for another ten days.
The couple thus decided to go on a holiday to Marrakech, a place which Tim had mentioned before, partly to avoid a possible retaliation by what was left of Bruce’s underlings, and partly to relax.
Selina was envious. “They can go on vacation whenever they want. That’s a pretty good life.”
Luke coughed and said, “Don’t forget that Jeff has been parking in Section D for twelve years.”
Selina made a noise and nodded helplessly. “That’s right. Like Bruce said, he’s one of those non-essential mid-level staff. It makes no difference to the company whether he goes on vacation or not, right?”.
Luke agreed. “We, on the other hand, definitely aren’t replaceable.” Selina could only acknowledge this fact. She and Luke were the most capable squad in the Westside Major Crimes Division, and were as efficient as two squads put together.
They had even been promoted as level three detectives not long ago.
It took Elsa over eight years to climb her way up from rookie officer to level three before she was finally promoted as sergeant.
As officers from a small town, Luke and Selina accomplished the same thing in just ten months.
As part-time students, they would only be able to get their diplomas in two years, and level three detectives also needed to serve for at least two years before they could apply for a promotion.
It was thus impossible for them to be promoted for now.
Most people had enough experience but hadn’t made enough contributions – it was only these two who had made excessive contributions but didn’t have enough work experience.
Dustin felt that things were a lot easier with subordinates like these.
There was only one really big thing that happened in these two days, which was that Luke finally used his last remaining stat point.
Mental Strength: 20He had made preparations beforehand; skipping work in the afternoon, he told Selina that he had something he needed to handle himself, before he went down to the bas.e.m.e.nt on his own.
Compared with the first time he leveled up on a large scale, he had now set up a complete set of monitoring and medical equipment.
They would record the changes in his body while he was leveling up, and conveniently inject him with nutrition so that he wouldn’t need to gorge himself on food.
The level-up proceeded pretty much the way Luke had antic.i.p.ated. While the pain was beyond his imagination, everything else was within tolerable range. With a bitter smile, Luke got up from the special bed and plucked off the patches and needles on him. He heaved a long sigh. “d.a.m.n, you really can’t boost the brain so easily.”
From personal experience, the pain of leveling up to Mental Strength 20 was worse than when he reached Dexterity 20, which in turn was worse than when he reached Strength 20.
Thankfully, Elementary Self-Healing gave him ample confidence, and he didn’t despair no matter how painful it was.
Otherwise, he was genuinely afraid that his head might have exploded during this level up.
Several hours had pa.s.sed, and the initial, most severe stage of the transformation was done. However, his head was still swollen with pain and itchy.