Chapter 1341: Idle Teammates, Unexpected Teammates
Luke didn"t care if he was joking or not. Only those who didn"t have an opinion wouldn"t open their mouths.
He nodded. "Then let me give you a joke reply: If you"re willing, I can pay you a ton of gold in one go, or give you a gold bar every month. Consider it… a small toy."
Carter Slade: … If Mephisto had been this generous back then, would he have considered it?
This was a hypothesis with no answer.
He could only shake his head. "I"m just kidding. I don"t need gold or cash."
Luke nodded. "Then you can treat it as a joke. However, I"ll give you a million in cash. You can use it whenever you need to. No matter how much you use, I"ll top it up the following year."
Carter Slade: "…I don"t need it."
"No, you do. This isn"t a salary, but an operations fund," Luke said. "If you don"t spend a penny this year, then naturally I won"t have to top up the fund next year. So, this money is just for operation expenses. After all, we"re not running a company; there"s no need for you to submit invoices."
The corners of Carter Slade"s mouth twitched. Why do I feel like this really is like a company, and I"m in partners.h.i.+p with a glib-tongued businessman?
No matter how uncomfortable the old man felt, however, he ultimately didn"t turn Luke down.
Or rather, Luke didn"t give him the opportunity to refuse.
While the old man dawdled, Luke injected him with Life 1.
The effect of 20mms of Life 1 was astonis.h.i.+ng. In less than a minute, Carter Slade"s hair and beard turned completely black, and the wrinkles on his face quickly disappeared.
Instead of 70, he now looked like he was 40 or 50 years old.
That wasn"t the end.
90% of the effect of Life 1 would only come out a week later.
The remaining 10% would last for a few months before slowly fading.
In half a year, he would look like he was in his thirties.
That was the effect of Life 1, which was why Luke didn"t use it most of the time, and used Tandy"s Life Dagger instead.
That was because it was too heaven-defying, and he didn"t know if there were any hidden dangers.
The system, on the other hand, had confirmed that Tandy"s Light Dagger ability was purely life force, and didn"t cause any side effects.
Who was more suitable as a test subject for Life 1 than an old Ghost Rider on the brink of death?
In any case, Carter would be able to live for a few more years. Luke"s conscience was clear.
As for the deal, it was simply for the sake of being prepared.
Ghost Rider"s flames and Penance Stare were very lethal against extraordinary beings.
Also, compared with the young and unrestrained Johnny Blaze, the less temperamental ex-Rider was more reliable.
This old man kept tight control over the vengeful spirits" desire for sinful souls.
During Luke"s surveillance over the last few months, the old man had never gone out to "sentence" evil souls.
It was far better to invest in this old man than in the young and brash Johnny and his "uncontrollable firepower"; at the very least, the old man wouldn"t cause too much trouble.
It didn"t matter that his combat ability was weaker. What Luke needed more was "magic damage," not physical strength.
The old man was also more patient; during the move to New York, he would quietly spend the time adjusting and learning Luke"s safety rules.
At the very least, he had to become familiar with the stealth suit and post-op cleanup; he couldn"t let himself become a target as soon as he went out, unlike the Ghost Rider"s spectacular entrance.
Nevertheless, the old man"s black h.e.l.l Horse wasn"t as explosive as Johnny"s h.e.l.l Cycle, and created much less property damage.
After taking care of Carter Slade, the clone finally returned to New York.
It was best that the clone was the one to sort out the matter with Carter Slade.
It wouldn"t be good if there was big news of NYPD detectives harboring evil creatures in the future.
…
Despite the bomb explosions, the people of New York were very hardy. After a few days, the only people still talking about it were the superhero fans.
But it was just one of many topics, and they weren"t as enthusiastic as they had been a few days ago.
Humans were mercurial creatures.
They easily forgot the good, and walked easily out of grief.
So, Luke didn"t feel strongly about any of it. In any case… there were still many big events to come, and it would be best for everyone to get used to it beforehand.
As for issuing a warning and telling everyone to leave, forget it.
This was New York, a financial, economic and business center, and the largest city in America.
Half of the old men in Congress would rather die than move away from the city.
The police department was also back to normal. The detectives at the bottom had nothing to do with the bigshots who fought in the dark.
Luke had a lot of time every day. He always got off work at two in the afternoon, and never stole the limelight.
If he continued being so diligent, what use would the rest of the Detective Bureau be?
He had the time to train his future teammates and study the new abilities he had just acquired. At night, he went out to throw the stock from the drug warehouses into the ocean to feed the fish. His life was peaceful and fulfilling.
During this time, only one thing happened which he didn"t know whether to deem good or bad: Alice and Carrie suddenly became 1-star teammates.
Luke was also surprised.
If Pheromone Control could brainwash people into becoming teammates recognized by the system, he would have had a few such teammates long ago.
In actual fact, only the mother and daughter had pa.s.sed the system"s evaluation.
To compare, there was Black Sky Elektra, who had been locked up in s.p.a.ce 2 this entire time and who got regular daily doses of brainwas.h.i.+ng with Pheromone Control and Basic Hypnosis, and Angel Dust. Both of them were still hostile.
What was the difference between Alice and Carrie, and Elektra and Angel? It was that the mother and daughter felt grat.i.tude to Luke.
He had only used Pheromone Control and Basic Hypnosis to stabilize their conditions, and had never intended to make them feel indebted to him.
This behavior made them lower their guard, or rather, made it easier for them to thank and trust him. Thus, they pa.s.sed the teammate evaluation.
In order to help them relax and as a test to prevent them from becoming completely cut off from society, he had also taken Alice and Carrie out several times to deal with a few would-be robbers.
The mother and daughter were the main attack force, while Luke picked up the pieces.
After several outings, the system teammate notification finally popped up.
This also gave him some idea about how the system"s teammate evaluation mechanism worked: common battle + enough trust = system teammate.
For example, he had let Elektra and Angel out before for a comparative test.
Again, they were the thugs who did the fighting, while he cleaned up after them.
The two women didn"t resist beating up or even killing people. As vigilantes, they did the same amount of work as Alice and her daughter, but they didn"t pa.s.s the system"s evaluation.