Chapter 1078: Bottom Line, Choice, and Good News
Selina was lost for words. “Do you have any sense of shame at all? Look at you. Does it look like you’re annoyed?”
Luke shrugged. “That’s because I’m home.”
Lost for words, Selina could only go and wash up.
During breakfast, Luke told her what happened.
After hearing the whole story, Selina’s first words were, “You’re not… going to help John ‘comfort’ Gianna, are you?”
Luke looked at her in surprise. “How is that possible? She’s the young miss of the Camorra and is about to become the head of the family. I would’ve killed her if not for the fact that she can help me learn about the twelve members of the High Table.”
Selina knew him too well. Seeing his expression, she knew that he was serious. She couldn’t help but scratch her head. “No way. She’s so devoted. I thought you would sympathize with her.”
Luke took a sip of his latte. “Love – how many crimes have been committed under the pretense of this label?”
Unlike before, whenever Selina was free now, she would read some cla.s.sic and well-known precepts to jog her intellect.
Listening to Luke’s words, she frowned. “Are you saying that she doesn’t love John that much, or maybe it isn’t love at all?”
Luke shook his head. “Whether or not she loves John and how many bad things she’s done are two different things. Besides, she didn’t do them for John, and I’m not John.”
Pausing for a moment, he then said, “It’s in our interest to keep her alive. It won’t be much of a difference if there was one more or less of the twelve members of the High Table, but I can get a lot of information from her. I don’t believe that they’re close. There are probably enemies at the High Table, and it definitely won’t be just one; this is more valuable than just killing Gianna.”
Selina was a little confused. “But you just said that she’s a bad person.”
Luke shrugged. “I know, but technically, most of the magnates in this country are bad guys. How many people have broken down and jumped off a building because of Wall Street financiers? Even if I abhor evil, I shouldn’t kill all of them first. Their names are all in the financial news; there’s no need to investigate them.”
Selina nodded subconsciously.
Wall Street financiers were all bloodsuckers: this was the basic understanding of the people on the bottom rung of American society. It was an ingrained understanding, like the daily habit of cursing out the president.
Luke said, “Look, even if I hate evil, there are countless villains in this country on the surface, and I won’t be able to get rid of all of them in my lifetime, so I can only rely on personal judgment to make a choice. Also, the Camorra may become my best ‘spy’ at the High Table, so of course I won’t deal with it right away.”
Pondering for a moment, Selina was still a little puzzled. “But the Camorra has done quite a lot of damage, right?”
Luke was amused. “I’m not a machine, nor am I a G.o.d. Of course I have my own thoughts. I can only say that if Gianna does something I can’t tolerate, I’ll kill her, even if she’s my mole. Is that clear?”
Selina rolled her eyes and suddenly asked, “Will you kill me if I do something that you can’t tolerate?”
Luke looked at her like she was an idiot. “Firstly, that’s not how you think. Secondly, there’s no reason for you to. Thirdly, if you really did it, I would ‘teach’ you the twelve-word mantra until it’s ingrained in you.”
Looking at his strange expression, Selina s.h.i.+vered.
She was very familiar with that gaze, which meant that he was thinking about something extremely bad.
For example, when he tortured Kilgrave with a basketball last time, he had pretty much the same expression on his face.
She decisively abandoned this unpleasant topic and quickly finished breakfast before she went to train.
Luke couldn’t help but shake his head.
This silly girl followed him every day, and still a.s.sumed that she could do something bad.
Did he learn Mental Communication for nothing?
His use of Mental Communication with Selina wasn’t mental control.
It was the subtle influence of their interactions, which made Selina conscious of her bottom line.
Unless it was some kind of mental control or interference from some mysterious force, she would never lose control.
But Gold Nugget wasn’t a freeloader either; whether it was direct mental control or something like Kilgrave’s physical control, it was pretty much impossible to control Selina.
You, do something bad? Hehe, just be good and be a righteous warrior in this life; the most you would do is earn a bit of dirty money to top up your personal stash.
As for Selina’s questions, he had already come to a conclusion.
He had lived up to his thirties in his last life, and had been a master online user for many years in an era which had seen an explosion of information; his own worldview had long been set in stone.
Luke had just one basic requirement for himself: Don’t be a bad guy.
Naturally, he wouldn’t force himself to be a good person or some emissary of justice.
As the saying went, “Do your best to live up to expectations, but with a clear conscience.”
He tried to do what he could, and didn’t bother with anything that he couldn’t do in reality.
It was for this reason that Luke didn’t feel arrogant, even though he had killed a lot of bad guys and done a lot of good deeds.
He also never felt that he was some high and mighty savior of the world who had to show benevolence and uphold justice.
He was just himself; it was enough to be a kindhearted, ordinary person.
…
In the morning, Luke and Selina went to work as usual, reaffirming their colleagues’ impression that they were “still around.” Once again, they dumped a large pile of cupcakes with Connie.
Luke also accepted a major theft case from Dustin.
After Luke left Dustin’s office, he talked to Joe about whether or not Detective John was still being a sh*t recently; this was indispensable small talk.
Joe’s answer was as expected. “Yes, he’s a pile of sh*t right now.”
Luke and Selina could only shrug helplessly.
They had lunch and brought food back for Dustin and Elsa, before staying to chat with Elsa for a bit.
With Little Snail collecting intelligence, Selina had more inside information of some incidents in New York than Elsa did.
But the smart program couldn’t summarize things like overall law and order in New York, office politics in NYPD, and the meaning behind promotions and transfers in important departments.
Elsa now knew a thing or two about this.
She had discussed it with Dustin.
To a large extent, her intelligence-gathering had already started to turn inward instead of outward.
Here, Luke heard a pretty big piece of news.
Samantha Reyes, the district attorney who was interested in running for council member in the next election, had suddenly become a public enemy.
There was evidence that she had violated regulations multiple times during her term in office and obstructed justice, and even caused the deaths of innocent people.
Now, the federal prosecutor was about to investigate her.