Luke arrived at record speed, bringing along a team of armed men as well as various investigators.

When they saw the bloody mess, to say they were shocked would be an understatement. The armed team went in first to check whether there were still threats, and didn’t know what to feel when they confirmed there were really none.

Luke, on the other hand, headed straight to Naia and the twins to check their conditions. He didn’t even have the thought to ask why she was involved in another murder.

"I’m alright, Captain," she said, patting his arm. "I’d like your help to bring these two to the hospital, however."

"Ah, yes, of course."

Leaving his team to handle the aftermath, Luke brought the three to the hospital. At the same time, they took this chance to complete the required ’questioning’. This way, they did not have to go to the station to make their statements.

Naia began to tell him the story, and the other two nodded and added details. Before the police arrived, they had naturally agreed upon a story and its details to make sure it was convenient. Luckily, they had a writer on board, making it rather easy to craft a believable story.

How believable the story is, however, would depend on the person.

For example, Luke had a cynical look on his face the whole time. Considering how unchanging his face was, this was already saying something.

His expression changed when she got to the part where she entered the warehouse.

"What? You went to their hideout alone?" Luke exclaimed, tone uncharacteristically loud, and he glared at her. She gave him a sheepish smile, a little embarrassed.

"I...improved a lot since we last fought," she said, making Luke pause. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked at her.

He remembered that he had indeed fought with her before and it was even a close fight.

That’s right: He, who had been training since he was a kid, considered undefeated in his unit, could’ve been beaten by this young girl.

He narrowed his eyes, looking suspiciously at her.

"Tell me honestly, who shot who?" he asked. He did not believe her story from the start, but somehow he realized that she had a higher head count than he thought.

"I don’t want trouble, Captain," she said.

"I won’t say," he said, but cleared his throat when he realized it. "It wouldn’t have mattered since they’re dead anyway, and we should have the evidence we need."

He was referring to the video recording that Spider had been taking before the phone was taken away from his hand, turned off, and then transferred to the space.

The recording included the man threatening them. The most important part was the mention of the name Ginna, and most especially the Red Gang.

Someone from the team was shocked to find the infamous Spider among the corpses!

Speaking of Spider, that guy actually had a full million bounty on his head. Luke was applying for it to be given to Naia. Despite the death being an ’accident’, it could be counted as compensation.

"The leader shot them first, then the rest retaliated," she said. "They were arguing about how to divide the reward money and...us."

Luke paused and didn’t ask anymore. He stayed for a while—a bit longer than he should, in fact—and he left only after receiving a call from the team.

"Don’t worry," he said. "We’ll handle this."

...

As soon as the man left, the two teens with bruised faces stared at Naia with sparkling eyes. "Who’s he? Who’s he? Your boyfriend?!"

Naia rolled her eyes. "No," she said, without a hint of bashfulness. The two saw this and were a little disappointed.

Their ship sank? Just like that?

But it was hard not to be attracted to someone like Officer Luke, right? He was tall, handsome, had a great figure, and had an impressive aura!

He was, by far, the only man who could be barely qualified to stand alongside their very awesome sister!

"Really? No?" Linlin asked, then looked at her cousin with narrowed eyes. "Do you like someone else?"

Naia blinked, and her fingers tapped her arms for a moment. "Hmn," she said, acknowledging it.

The twins gasped.

"REALLY!?" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"WHO!?"

"TELL US!"

Unexpectedly, just as she wanted to stand up and run away from this noise, her phone vibrated.

It was Kael.

Her eyebrows rose. She ignored her cousins and headed out before answering the call.

Before she could say anything, he spoke first. "Are you alright?"

Naia’s eyebrows rose. She didn’t ask why he knew what happened, nor did she feel uncomfortable.

Instead, hearing his panicked voice, she just wanted to ease his mind.

"I’m fine. Do you think those small fries could do anything to me?" she said. "I’m even about to earn a million~"

There was silence on the other side, and Naia did not feel impatient.

"Call me if anything dangerous happens," he said. "The people here are weak, but don’t underestimate them."

...

An hour later, Michael arrived at the rehabilitation department with some documents.

There, he saw Kael was drenched in sweat. He was already walking without support, and now he was trying to increase his pace.

At this rate, he could be running in a week or so.

It was unbelievable. Hasn’t it only been a month since he woke up?

According to his research, people who went through similar conditions might only be able to sit up a month after they woke up. And this was already a hopeful case. Some people remained paralyzed for life.

"Is this healthy?" he couldn’t help but ask the doctor in charge, who was recording everything on that clipboard of his.

Normal people, when pushed this hard, could probably have permanent damage.

Michael, for better or for worse, had found himself genuinely caring for the young man both as a boss and as a little brother.

It was quite mysterious. Michael wondered if he had a hidden masochistic trait.

"We have checked his data and were surprised to see he is fine," the doctor said, eyes sparkling. "He heals faster than normal. This is something we have already confirmed."

Samples of his blood, with his permission, had been sent to various laboratories. One of them even claimed they might find the most advanced and non-invasive cure for cancer yet.

They could only be thankful that this country was controlled by law. Not to mention, Kael was technically a public figure as the central figure in a news story that aired all over the country.

Until now, the shocking news of what his uncle’s family had done to him was still being discussed here and there.

That said, even if there were some evil organizations possibly eyeing him and his blood in the future, that would be after some more official studies and results popped up. By that time, the apocalypse had already begun, and Kael could just burst people’s heads at will.

This was why he didn’t hold back during his rehabilitation, not caring if his rate of recovery was considered abnormal.

He just wanted to be able to run to her when she needed him again.

...

Meanwhile, deep into a base by a mountain range, a few people gathered for an urgent meeting.

This was a gang, but somehow there was still a dash of formality there, as if it were a formal organization.

A normal gang certainly wouldn’t be able to afford a mountain base with relatively complete facilities.

Hidden inside this base, there was even a laboratory.

This meeting room had about a dozen people there. Most of them were burly gangsters, but there were also some classy middle-aged men in suits.

The leader was one of the latter.

"Spider and his team are dead," one of the men said, flashing the pictures of the people who had perished during the warehouse attack. "We are now attempting to make contact with some of our people inside to be updated with the investigation results."

The Red Gang team leaders had had their watches connected to the gang’s system. Since their field was dangerous and there were missions to areas with low signal or areas they could not send contact to, they set up this system so they were aware of their key members’ deaths.

This was not just limited to team leaders, but also a good portion of members with tenure. Only the newcomers did not have this advantage because they were not yet exposed to the gang’s inner workings.

Spider’s position in their gang wasn’t that high, just above-mid-level at most. However, the leaders were definitely in a bad mood.

Not long ago, two of their members hidden in another organization—one that dealt with weapons with Mikara country—also perished in Colden Town.

Now, there was another group that died.

Was this year a bad year for them?

Later, they’d even find out that both cases had some of the same names associated with them. Fortunately, the country’s police system was not as lax as others, so this discovery took a bit of time.

"Last location?" the leader asked.

"Amber City," the briefer said. "Last contact: Houser’s wife."

The leader nodded, darkness twirling in his eyes. "Clean it up well."