Elsa and Luke were no longer partners but still in the same team. They could work on more cases, and their abilities wouldn’t go to waste.
At Luke’s heads-up, Elsa found an important lead and solved the William Johnson case.
The DNA test on the blood left behind by the wounded female shooter confirmed that she was the sister of the college student suspected of dying from a drug overdose.
In the end, it was discovered that the shooter was the elder sister who went missing as a child, and the college student was the younger sister.
There was no telling how they met, but the younger sister, who studied at USC, moved into her elder sister’s apartment.
William claimed ownership of the building not long ago, and wanted to drive out Rebecca, the elder sister, who had signed a long-term lease.
But Rebecca wasn’t living in the apartment, though she was paying the rent.
For some reason, William sent a guy to kill Rebecca’s sister and make it look like she died of a drug overdose.
After discovering that her sister was dead, Rebecca, with her terrifying skills, easily tracked down and killed William, who had murdered her sister.
In fact, after William’s death, two men in his gang were also shot in the head in their apartments.
One of them died the day after William’s death, and the other died just yesterday.
Nobody had made the connection between these cases before. Thanks to Luke’s heads-up and Elsa’s deductions, they finally figured out that this was one murder case with multiple victims.
Luke and Elsa even guessed why Rebecca, the female shooter, had shown up at the apartment the previous day.
Perhaps, Rebecca had returned to the apartment to offer her dead sister the lives and blood of her enemies, so that she could rest in peace.
Dustin didn’t pursue the case any further.
After all, Rebecca had disappeared, and there was motive for the murders of William and his subordinates. Now was a good point to close the case.
As for Rebecca who hadn’t been caught yet, all they needed to do was put her on the wanted list.
It was impossible to dispatch anyone to capture Rebecca.
After listening to Luke’s assessment of Rebecca’s capabilities, Dustin didn’t want any of his men to be killed over someone like William.
After a busy week, Luke and Selina went to Elsa.
Hearing what Luke had to say, Elsa raised her head from the desk that was overflowing with files. “Are you kidding me? What did you say?”
Luke said with a smile, “I’m asking for leave, boss.”
Elsa leaned back in her chair. “Do you have any idea how busy we are?”
Luke nodded his head. “I do, but I’m hoping to visit my uncle. He’s in Vegas, so I won’t be away for long.”
Slapping her forehead, Elsa asked, “Do you have to?”
Luke put up one finger. “Yes. We’re leaving on the weekend and we only need one day’s leave.”
Lost for words for a moment, Elsa searched the desk and said, “Since you’re going to Vegas, then bring back the test results for these cases from the forensics center there.”
Luke asked, “Then would this count as a work trip?”
Elsa rolled her eyes. “In your dreams! I’ll ask the boss to send someone to fetch the results if you don’t want to take the job.”
Luke shrugged. “Okay. Do you want any souvenirs?”
Elsa glared at him. “What souvenirs can you get from Vegas? Chips?”
Luke laughed. “I can buy you a pair of sunglasses. I heard that the sun is very strong there.”
Elsa was rendered speechless. “Go away! I’ll cut your leave if you’re there for too long!”
Luke saluted her and said, “Yes, ma’am!”
The next day was a Saturday. Luke checked in at the police department, but soon slipped away.
Selina had other things to do in the police department. They would take a flight to Las Vegas that afternoon.
They could make the trip by car, but Luke was too lazy to drive.
A flight would only take an hour, which saved a lot of time.
After making preparations at home, Luke finally added the last stat point.
40 Strength!
He was immediately seized with unimaginable agony. The muscles all over his body seemed to twist and burn.
Biting down on a towel, Luke groaned harshly. “Damn it! I knew it couldn’t be that easy! Arghhhh!”
When his main attributes reached 20, his body was significantly boosted and much stronger than before.
What would happen when his main attributes reached 40? Luke had made a couple of guesses when he remembered that Elementary Self-Healing required 40 Strength.
He screamed for almost an hour, and finally weathered the most painful phase.
He still felt uncomfortable and grimaced in pain, but he wasn’t screaming wildly anymore.
Also, Luke couldn’t just lie around on his bed.
He knew that he had lost more body fat again in the past hour, but he wasn’t happy at all.
His smooth skin had turned slightly dry. It was obvious that his fat was being consumed like crazy.
Gritting his teeth against the pain and soreness in his muscles, Luke devoured the food that he had prepared in advance.
He also injected himself with his own mix of nutritional fluid to replenish his almost drained body.
He then started feeling uncomfortable again.
The upgrade process wasn’t over yet – even the first wave had yet to pass. He had felt better earlier because the system had slowed down the process due to his low energy level
With the new supply of nutrition, the upgrade was activated once more, though it wasn’t as painful as at the beginning.
Luke simply gritted his teeth and panted heavily, and turned the agony into appetite.
Eating, drinking, and injecting himself with the nutritional fluid, Luke finally survived the first phase of the upgrade five hours later.
He almost burst into tears.
It was as terrible as torture, and he didn’t even have the luxury of passing out.
He had to stay awake and consume a tremendous amount of food and energy to sustain the upgrade.
During the process, Luke went to the toilet more than five times.
When his Strength reached 20, he only went to the toilet once.
It wasn’t just because he was consuming too much food, but also because his body was discharging surplus waste now that it had been boosted to a new level.