Chapter 70 - Harvest, and Questioned by Old Friends
Reading the system notifications, Luke was both apprehensive and satisfied.
He had earned more than 2,000 experience and credit points for saving the townsfolk in the supermarket yesterday, and he had leveled up again.
System: As experience has reached 3,000 points, the host has leveled up to level 7.
Extra stat points: 4
After level five, he got one more stat point with each level up.
This meant that his strength could hit 40 by the time he was level 11. He would also have enough credits to buy the basic self-healing ability.
He had read Carol’s autopsy report and asked her about it in person.
Carol had been shot in the abdomen and in the heart, which had been critical hits. However, she had automatically recovered by the next day.
For Luke, this was more enticing than any other ability.
With this ability, he could become more bold in obtaining experience and credit points.
Neither common gangsters nor low-level supervillains would be of any threat to him.
He added the points to strength without any hesitation. His stats were now strength 21, dexterity 20, and mental strength 14.
He had 3 stat points, 1,830 experience points, and 7,630 credit points left.
Until now, he had only spent 700 credit points on basic firearms, basic special combat, basic tactical command, and basic helicopter piloting.
What caught his attention was another notification.
System: You have received Alice Miller’s gratitude. You may now learn all her abilities.
Alice Miller’s abilities list: Basic self-healing (gene mutation; prerequisite: 40 Strength): 10,000 credits.
Luke fell into deep thought after he read the notification.
Alice didn’t look like anyone special. Had she been hiding all this time?
He soon stopped thinking, because he had acquired Alice’s ability anyway.
However, he was bummed by the fact that to learn either Carol’s or Alice’s basic self-healing, his strength had to first reach 40.
From the system’s explanation, he had been able to acquire their respective abilities because of different reasons. It seemed, however, that the requirement was the same.
Analyzing his strength, he knew that his body would get a boost.
When his strength reached 20, his physique had been enhanced. What about at 40? Would it be another bottleneck? It was possible that his body wouldn’t be able to take the basic self-healing before then.
On the other hand, Carol and Alice didn’t seem to have twice as much strength as Luke did.
So, the system’s self-healing ability might be based on a different mechanism.
It was unlikely that the system would cause his genes to mutate, right?
While Luke was pondering this, someone knocked on the door to the lounge.
He turned back and saw two men in black. He greeted them with a smile. “Captain Wales, Agent Charles, nice to see you again.”
The two men nodded and smiled. “We came as soon as we got your call. We need to ask you about last night.”
Luke nodded. “Alright, I have to tell Chief Thomas first.” He had called Wales when he was on the helicopter.
With S.H.I.E.L.D. involved, it would be unnecessary for the military to try and shut Luke up.
Wales made a “by all means” gesture.
Luke called Thomas, and hung up soon after. He said, “Should we go elsewhere? Also, these are Alice Miller and her daughter.”
“We know them, don’t worry.” Wales nodded his head. He and his colleague borrowed two interview rooms with the intent of questioning Luke and Selina separately.
They didn’t borrow the interrogation rooms because Luke and Selina didn’t want to sit where the criminals sat.
Selina blithely bought two more Dr. Peppers and gave one to Luke.
Since she had finally made Luke finish a whole can just now, she had decided that she would only treat Luke with this in the future.
The two fake FBI agents both felt weird, but were also relieved at the same time.
Wales clearly didn’t consider Luke and Selina suspects as he asked them questions.
That was only reasonable; Luke’s and Selina’s histories were clean, and S.H.I.E.L.D. already knew what was behind the mist incident in Rumford.
Luke and Selina, on the other hand, grew up in Shackelford. There was nothing suspicious about them.
They had only been in Houston three days before taking this trip.
Haplessly sent off to Laquin by their petty boss, they just happened to pass through Rumford.
Besides, Wales had been personally involved in the smuggling case, and had been the one to sign off on the report for it.
So, Wales was only here because it was routine to make sure that the insiders remained mum.
They clearly couldn’t interrogate Luke and Selina as criminals.
Because of these reasons, the conversation went quite well.
A few hours later, Wales was done with his questions, and he bade them farewell.
However, he took Alice and her daughter with him
Wales didn’t tell Luke why. He only told Luke not to worry about them.
What could Luke say? He was only a minor detective and definitely couldn’t tell the “FBI’s 17th Division” what they could or could not do.
He could only tell Alice to take care, before he watched her get into Wales’s helicopter.