Luke hadn't targeted the Joint Advanced Research Unit before because he had too many targets on his blacklist.
But since the other party had chosen to start things, it was up to him how to end them.
Luke had always felt that superheroes and supervillains were similar to falling in love and getting married.
When they didn't know each other, they were on the same level; it didn't matter who was stronger or weaker.
Once one side started to take interest, they would sound out the other party and attack.
Once both parties tangled together and acknowledged each other as rivals, the love-hate relationship would be officially established.
He couldn't be the only one to decide to end this relationship in the future.
The other party might not want to let go or give up, even if he beat the crap out of them.
For example, Luke had had a few girlfriends in his last life. In the end, when they weren't compatible and broke up, Luke never became entangled with them again.
But the enemy in this life was experience and credit points.
For the sake of the system, he had to beat the crap out of them.
This was like how assets were split during a divorce.
There was no way Luke couldn't do something that the ex-wives of America could.
The next day, Luke went to the police department as a formality.
He had made it clear yesterday that he wasn't going to get involved, and he would keep his word. He would give the work, no, the credit, to someone else.
In the end, Walter stopped him.
Walter knew that he couldn't out-talk Luke, so he just tossed a file at him. "Batman and the Black Cat sent another group of people to the hospital last night. I don't have anyone else to look at this. This case might take a while, and I can only give it to the two of you. Is there a problem?"
Luke: "…No problem."
Walter was clearly implying that it was useless for Luke to refuse.
Except for the office personnel running around outside, there were no signs of any of the detectives at all — they had all gone to the hospital. Luke couldn't refuse the case.
However, he was also a little interested in it.
There always had to be fresh things in life in order to improve its quality.
Working on difficult cases every now and then would preserve his and Selina's identities as "detectives."
Luke and Selina went to their desks with the case file.
Luke opened it and was lost for words. This… could this be considered his fault?
That was because the case happened when he and Selina were beating up people last night.
It wasn't because they had beaten up the wrong person, but that a core gang member had been interrogated by John and Joe.
All four of the unlucky guy's limbs had been broken, but John and Joe had kept him off the treatment list.
They made cynical remarks, like how broken arms and legs could get necrosis after a long time, and would be amputated after half a day at most, while a person would need care for the rest of their lives after that.
Frightened at turning into a human stick, the guy cried and confessed a lot of things.
It was very common for gang members to sell drugs or weapons. At the end of the day, John and Joe were most concerned about homicides.
After the man was done, John and Joe spent the night investigating a lead that suggested a human organ trafficking ring.
But they didn't find anything.
The two of them returned and dragged the guy who had provided the information out of the ward, threatening again to turn him into a human stick.
But no matter how the guy wailed and confessed, he just said the same thing.
Experts like John and Joe could basically confirm that the man wasn't lying.
So, while this might be a huge human organ trafficking case, leads were hard to find.
Given the current situation in the Detective Bureau, Walter couldn't give them time to investigate it slowly.
John and Joe didn't want to give up, so Walter said that he would give the case to Luke and Selina.
After a brief hesitation, John and Joe agreed.
Firstly, they didn't want to fight for cases with Luke and Selina.
Secondly, Walter wanted John and Joe to take advantage of this opportunity to accumulate more credit so that he could recommend them for promotion.
They only had suspicions so far, and the case might be a waste of time. It was better to leave it to Luke and Selina, who were capable but didn't want to work too hard.
After scanning the file, Luke gave it to Selina.
Although she could already view the projection on her sunglasses, Selina had a small habit of preferring to flip through paper documents and using Little Snail to add reminders. She said she was more inspired this way.
After reading for a moment, she frowned. "Why does this sound like the nonsense of a drug addict? There's a man-eating monster in the sewers, and bodies thrown inside disappear the next day. Did that guy watch too many horror movies?"
Luke tapped his finger on the table. "John and Joe think there's something fishy about it, so it's unlikely to be pure delusion."
That made sense.
John and Joe were veteran frontline police officers, and even without any evidence, had a sixth sense of sorts.
Even if they weren't sure what was going on, their intuition told them that something wasn't right.
That was why Luke and Selina had been given the case.
Luke got up. "Let's go and take a look."
Selina got up as well and chuckled. "Going into the sewers? Some people are quite familiar with that."
Luke rolled his eyes as they went to the parking lot to get their car.
After crossing Brooklyn Bridge, they drove along the sea to the southwest corner of Brooklyn.
The June sea breeze blew in through the open window as they discussed the case.
On the beach not far from the crime scene, Selina looked at the people who had come early in the morning to have fun, and then at the clear sky. She couldn't help but feel envious. "Sunbathing!"
Luke said, "If it isn't a complicated case, we can have lunch here later. Choose a good spot, and you can come back tomorrow to sunbathe."
Selina was satisfied. "Fine, I'll remember that when we're crawling through the sewers later. I'll get compensation tomorrow."
Luke smiled and didn't say anything else.
When he and Selina went out at night, it was basically through the sewers.
No matter how good a sewer was, it was still a sewer. Even if New York's sewers were a little wider, they still stank. It was inevitable that there would be rats, sewage, sludge and moss.
Fortunately, Selina wasn't squeamish. However, it was inevitable that she would prefer sunbathing. Unfortunately, New York hardly ever had good weather, compared with Los Angeles on the west coast, which got sun over 200 days a year.
Luke was well-used to this sort of rainy or gloomy weather from his previous life.
After passing the beach, they reached their destination.
This was the edge of a middle-class neighborhood, and a lot of cars used the main street next to the beach not far away.
Gangsters driving here at night to dump bodies wouldn't draw much attention.
The police department was extremely busy today, and this had yet to be officially classified as a crime scene, so there was no cordon tape up.
Luke and Selina got out and walked unhurriedly to their destination.
As they walked, they observed their surroundings.