Selina comforted Luke. “Luke, don’t worry. It’ll be fine. This is America. The Carlos Family can’t do whatever they like here.”
Luke could only nod silently.
Sure, they couldn’t do whatever they like; if they couldn’t use the AKs and grenades they wanted, they would attack with pistols instead.
Both he and Robert could stay vigilant and protect themselves. But what about Catherine? And Claire? And five-year-old Joseph?
They would be completely helpless against the gangsters.
Luke sank into a short silence before he stood up. “Let’s go, Selina.”
Selina asked blankly, “Huh? Where are we going?”
Luke replied, “Patrol. That’ll help calm me down.”
Selina replied, “Oh.” She quickly got up and left with him.
Robert had said that they didn’t have to patrol today as long as they paid attention to emergency callouts. They could dedicate the day to gathering information instead.
But since Luke wanted to go on a patrol to calm down, Selina would most certainly back her partner up. In any case, Robert wouldn’t do anything to Luke.
So, was Luke really going out to calm himself down?
Of course not.
When facing something like this, he needed to get stronger, and the easiest way to do that was to level up.
He had about 600 experience points right now. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be long before he reached level four.
Sure enough, after Luke issued a ticket for illegally parking three days later, he received a notification from the system.
Mission: Dealing with illegally parked vehicle, issuing a ticket, completed.
Rewards: 2 experience points, 2 credit points
As experience has reached 700 points, the host has leveled up to level 4.
Extra stat points: 3
Luke was overjoyed when he received the notification, and he nearly used the stat points on the spot.
But he managed to stop himself.
When they returned to the police department at noon, Luke seemed preoccupied.
Selina asked curiously, “What’s up with you?”
Luke answered, “Nothing. Are you going to have lunch?”
Selina nodded. “Yeah. Coming with?”
Luke took out 10 dollars from his wallet and said, “Buy me three sandwiches and a bottle of mineral water.”
Selina snorted. “You’re really shameless.”
Luke didn’t seem to care.
He remained single by choice, so he didn’t really care what women had to say about him.
Even when he was munching on the sandwich Selina bought for him, Luke’s mind was still preoccupied.
Selina had brought her lunch back to the police department and was eating beside Luke.
She much preferred Luke compared with her previous partner.
This new partner was hardworking, a good fighter, and a brave officer.
More importantly, Luke was much more handsome than her previous partner.
They had been training together for the past two days, and Selina had also discovered a tiny secret about Luke.
They had been practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu together frequently, and she wasn’t an idiot. She was in fact a very observant veteran police officer.
She didn’t need to see with her own eyes to be sure of how muscular Luke was. Just from their body contact when they trained, she could tell that he was completely ripped.
Selina had always been a woman who loved guys with muscles, and for her, a perfect man was akin to Captain America, both muscular and handsome.
Although Luke was rather ordinary and was only slightly above average in terms of looks, he was still pleasing to the eyes. Coupled with his perfectly chiseled body, it was impossible for Selina to not like this new partner.
When she saw Luke spacing out, she asked, “Are you still worrying about the Carlos Family?”
Luke shook his head, “No.”
Selina continued, “Don’t lie. Apart from them, nobody can make you this worried.”
Luke replied, “Fine, yes, I’m still somewhat worried.”
Selina spoke fearlessly, “If they dare come, I’ll deal with them for you.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “They aren’t pushovers. The next time they come, it might be in a large group of about 10 or 20 people.”
Selina gave it some thought and said, “Well, just find a way to split them up before killing them off one by one.”
Luke replied, “Split them up? Sure – you still need someone to do it though. Unless they’re stupid… huh? What did you just say? Split them?”
Selina asked doubtfully, “What? Is it really such a bad idea?”
A look of realization flickered in Luke’s eyes as he muttered, “Right, why didn’t I think of that? Yes, I can split them up!”
Then, he stood up. “I’m going to take a quick break.”
Selina: “Huh?”
Luke was so happy he even gave Selina a hug and said, “Thank you for the reminder. Lunch tomorrow is on me.”
Selina was completely confused, and when Luke entered Robert’s office, she muttered, “What’s up with this guy? Why is he suddenly so happy? And lunch on him? Lunch won’t cost him more than 10 dollars anyway! What a cheap guy!”
Even though she grumbled, her lips still curved in a smile.
No matter what, she was still happy to see Luke recover from his depressed mood.
After entering Robert’s office, Luke lay down on the sofa.
He was the only person here that could do this. Nobody could say anything about it.
Then, in the invisible character window, Luke started allocating his stat points.
Dexterity +1 to reach 15 points.
Then, the familiar numb feeling assailed his body again.
But as expected, the sensation was much less intense this time.
This was an idea he got after speaking with Selina.
All along, he had been allocating all three points from his level up in one go, like how he would in a video game.
Today was the first time he asked himself why he was allocating all the points at once.
Allocating skill points usually came with discomfort as the system altered his body. That was something unavoidable.
But what if he only allocated one point a time?
When he first allocated stat points to dexterity, he added three points at once to reach 14 points.
A simple calculation showed that in one level up, his dexterity had increased by about 27 percent.
A massive transformation like that would cause him great discomfort.
But now, he was only adding one point to his existing 14 points of dexterity. It was only an increase of about 7 percent, which was roughly a quarter of his growth from when he had first allocated stat points to dexterity.
And as expected, the sense of discomfort was significantly less as well.
Previously, the intense numbness and stabbing pain assailed him mercilessly, but now, he only felt a faint numbness that came and went.
Compared with his previous experience, this level of numbness was something he had no problem enduring. There was no fear of mental trauma.
Apart from that, he could also deduce that when he next allocated a stat point to dexterity, the numbness would only lessen.
After all, he would have 15 points of dexterity by then. Thus, the change would be even smaller.
By using the three points one by one instead of all together, it wasn’t even a waste of time. Instead, it helped him manage his time better.
If he allocated all three points together, he had to rest for a long time. Otherwise, he would feel too unwell to do anything else. Thus, he could only do it during the holidays or weekends.
But now, he no longer needed to take that into consideration and could allocate his stat points at any time.
In fact, his next break was scheduled for three days later.
But after three days, these three stat points would be long gone.