Dinner was a rather casual affair.
Mexicans attached great importance to family, and they had a habit of chatting with family members over dinner.
The kids gathered together and muttered among themselves. Selina’s siblings and Joseph had agreed to go play in the yard after dinner.
As for the toys they would be playing with, it would naturally be Joseph’s football and Julio’s baseball. Even their family dog, Dollar, would be playing with them.
As for Luke, he chatted with Selina and her mother on various topics.
But when Sandra accidentally mentioned the Carlos Family, the mood became rather gloomy.
Both Sandra and Selina understood that after suffering such a loss, the Carlos Family’s revenge would be even fiercer, and at that time, moving would probably be their only option.
But they would require a large sum of money to move, especially for a family as large as theirs. And after moving away from town, they would also lose their jobs.
Without jobs, how would they support the three kids? In the time that they remained unemployed, they would be using up their savings without any income coming in.
Nowadays, plenty of Americans didn’t have any savings; a lot of them didn’t have a habit of saving anyway.
Although Selina’s family had been living rather comfortably in recent years, they didn’t have a habit of saving money as well. It was mainly because their expenses were high given how big the family was, yet their earnings weren’t exactly high. Thus, they weren’t able to save much.
Because of that, their only hope was that the Carlos Family wouldn’t come, or if they had to come, that it would be way in the future.
It was also pointless to blame Selina for provoking the Carlos Family. They had obviously come to slaughter the entire family previously. Peace between both parties was no longer possible.
Luke remained silent.
He couldn’t exactly tell them to relax because he had killed them all, right?
But after a few days, he could contact Chris and pretend to ask for updates on the Carlos Family. From there, they would be able to obtain news of the Carlos Family’s destruction. It wouldn’t be too late to tell Selina about it then.
He had risked his own life to exterminate the Carlos Family. He only wished to keep a low profile for a while.
Leaving Selina to worry for a few extra days wouldn’t kill her.
After finishing the dinner that wasn’t exactly a joyful one, Selina drove Luke and Joseph home.
Silence enveloped them as the car sped along the road. Suddenly, Selina said, “You’ve changed.”
Luke replied nonchalantly, “Oh? Did I become even more handsome?”
Selina giggled. “No, you’ve become… more dependable.”
Luke looked at her. “Thank you.”
Selina sighed. “Truthfully, I much prefer the previous you: a boy as warm as the sun. Now… you’re becoming more and more like Robert.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “Piss off. I would prefer you tell me that I’ve become more handsome instead of saying that I’ve turned into another Robert. That’ll only make me less attractive.”
Selina giggled again. “Fortunately, when you’re joking, you turn back into the previous you.”
At that moment, the car arrived at their destination. Luke got off and carried the sleeping Joseph out of the car; he had exhausted all his energy playing with Selina’s siblings earlier, and was dead tired.
“Don’t worry. I’m still me,” Luke said as he stood next to the car.
Then, he waved his hand. “Goodnight. Drive safe.”
Selina nodded and watched silently as Luke entered the house.
What she left unsaid was the fact that she had sensed something else apart from dependability from Luke. What she sensed was… bloodlust.
It was similar to what Robert had emitted the other night when he killed a bunch of gunmen.
Selina didn’t know why there would be such a change in Luke after not seeing him for only a few days. It was an odd feeling which seemed to have come out of nowhere. Thus, she didn’t intend to tell anyone about it.
No matter what, Luke was her partner, a partner who would put his life on the line to save her. Because of that alone, she wouldn’t speak ill of him to others, not even a bit.
This wasn’t exactly love; rather, this was a camaraderie between partners.
Luke entered the house, and as he watched through the window as Selina left, he sighed inwardly. “Sure enough, killing too many people still changed me. If even Selina sensed it, what about Robert?”
Luke didn’t want to dwell on it. He greeted Robert, who was watching TV in the living room, and handed Joseph over to Catherine before he showered and went to bed.
Robert watched Luke’s back disappear as the latter climbed the stairs, a deep frown on his face.
The next day, Luke canceled his leave and reported back to work.
All his new stat points had been used up by now.
After his strength reached 20 points, he allocated the remaining 2 points to the mental strength stat for the very first time.
His latest stats were: 20 points of strength, 20 points of dexterity, and 14 points of mental strength.
Different from improving strength and dexterity, improving mental strength made him rather… sensitive.
His mind worked in tandem with his superb physical qualities and gave him an enhanced awareness of his surroundings, and his thoughts had become much faster as well.
The biggest benefit the improvement had given him was much better control over his body.
Unlike improving strength and dexterity, the development of his mental strength allowed him to better control his body.
Even though he had only allocated 2 points to his mental strength to reach 14 points, the result was very much to his satisfaction.
Higher levels of strength and dexterity required a stronger brain to control them, and it was only a matter of time before he was forced to start upgrading his mental strength to at least 20 points.
Real life was unlike video games. He couldn’t afford to leave any obvious weak point in him unattended.
After work, Luke went to practice his aim as usual. After shooting practice, Selina picked him up before heading to the gym to practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
During training, Luke sensed that fighting Selina felt much easier now.
He had the same strength, but with better control; he was able to unleash a force more than twice what he used to be capable of.
Now, he was able to start reading Selina’s moves to suppress her even more effectively during their sparring sessions.
In this training session, Selina suffered a worse defeat than before.
After the training session, she was already drenched in sweat while Luke was only sweating mildly.
She stared at Luke in disbelief. “How is that possible? Why have you grown even stronger? You’ve grown so much stronger!”
Luke wiped his sweat with a towel before helping Selina put her towel away as well. He had enough energy left to continue sparring with a few more Selinas. Thus, he also took it upon himself to get the towels and drinks for both of them.
He pondered for a bit before answering, “Perhaps I’m a genius.”
Selina: “Are you saying that I’m stupid?”
Luke returned to his normal life. The days were peaceful.
Before Luke could even give Chris a call, Chris called Robert and informed him of the Carlos Family’s destruction.
That was right. The Carlos Family was finished.
In truth, Luke’s rampage didn’t kill off everyone in the family, but when the other crime family in town discovered the drop in numbers, it moved against the Carlos Family unhesitatingly.
That was how things were among crime groups in Mexico.
In three days, the remaining members of the Carlos Family were either captured or killed. Their bodies were used as a declaration of dominance to let the townsfolk know of their downfall.