Luke hugged her with a smile and shut the door. “It’s fine. I’ve already taken care of it.”
Annie was astonished. “Huh?”
Sitting on the bed with her, Luke said, “Just pretend that you don’t know anything. If anyone asks you, have them talk to me directly. Right, here’s my contact. Keep it.”
He gave her his card.
They had only exchanged numbers before. Luke hadn’t given her a card, which had his title on it. Annie read the card, only to be surprised. “The Major Crimes Division of LAPD? You’re a level two detective?”
She had thought that Luke was a rookie officer, or maybe an intern, or he wouldn’t have been sent here to be a safety training instructor.
Luke stroked her back to calm her down. “There’s an inside story to this – it’s best if you don’t know anything about it. Don’t worry. I just pissed off some guys who don’t appreciate the rules.”
He held her in his arms and said, “Sorry. You must’ve been frightened when I left beforehand.”
Annie shook her head. She had thought about it.
Luke had left quietly probably because he didn’t want to get her involved.
After comforting her, Luke called Juliet at the campsite and told her that he was safe. He also informed her that he might not be able to return on time the next day.
Lucas Barton and his men had been to the campsite, and had indeed made Juliet uneasy.
But Luke was the only one who could say anything now, and the dead officers couldn’t cause him trouble any longer.
After receiving Luke’s call, Juliet was reassured and told him not to worry about the campsite.
Then, Luke sent a text message to Elsa and told her the gist of the situation.
Certain things had to be kept confidential, but there was no need to hide the deaths of Lucas Barton and Wade Davis; it was better to tell Elsa so that she would be prepared.
Elsa soon called him.
Luke smiled at Annie apologetically and answered the call in the hallway.
He wasn’t done until ten minutes later. After returning to the room, Luke hugged Annie, who was still in a daze.
Annie exclaimed, “What are you doing? Ah…” Luke said, “I think I need another shower.” “You jerk. Ah…” Stunned for a moment, Annie moaned soon after.
The next morning, the sun found its way through the gaps in the curtain to create two bright strips of light in the room.
Luke woke up early and checked the system notifications.
He had been rewarded 20 experience and credit points each for rescuing Steve, Janet and Annie, for a total of 60 points. There were also a bunch of other notifications.
Mission: Eliminate the adolescent drug dealers. Completed.
Total experience: 500. Total credit: 500.
Contribution rate: 30%. EXP +150. Credit +150.
Mission: Eliminate main members of Lucas Barton’s criminal group. Completed. Total experience: 300. Total credit: 300.
Contribution rate: 30%. EXP +90. Credit +90.
Mission: Crack the Texas ranger’s murder case. Completed.
Total experience: 100. Total credit: 100.
Contribution rate: 50%. EXP +50. Credit +50.
Mission: Eliminate Wade Davis. Completed.
Total experience: 100. Total credit: 100.
Contribution rate: 30%. EXP +30. Credit +30.
Luke scratched his head.
He had received the most experience and credit from getting rid of the bad kids.
The reward for eliminating the dirty cops and Wade Davis seemed quite small. Daddy System clearly didn’t give rewards based on the law, but according to the impact which the crimes had on other people.
That meant that the bad kids had harmed more people, while Lucas Barton and his gang probably had to pretend to be good officers, so had hurt fewer people.
By the same logic, Wade Davis yielded little experience and credit probably because he had only killed two people, and was only partly to blame for the death of the Texas ranger.
Therefore, Wade Davis, a big businessman, was the least valuable person in the system.
But the three missions had been easily accomplished in one fell swoop, so the harvest wasn’t bad at all.
Then there was Jason Voorhees.
System: Stop Jason Voorhees from killing people. Completed.
Total experience: 200. Total credit: 200. Contribution rate: 100%. EXP +200. Credit +200.
Luke sighed.
No matter how terrifying a monster Jason was, he wasn’t as much of a danger as drug dealers.
An average-sized gang of drug dealers could endanger hundreds of people at the very least.
Comrade Jason, who silently and diligently reaped heads with his machete, was clearly nothing compared with the drug dealers.
All in all, six hundred experience and credit points for just a few hours of work wasn’t bad.
After checking his gains, Luke began to review his actions last night and think about follow-up plans.
While he went over the details of his actions last night, Annie’s warm and soft body lay in his arms.
Finally, Annie moved and woke up in a daze.
Looking at the strange room, she finally remembered where she was a moment later.
Sensing the strong body that was right behind her, she subconsciously wriggled and took a deep breath. “Don’t you need to sleep at all?”
Luke chuckled and kissed her cheek. “I’m absolutely fine.”
Lost for words, Annie then asked, “W- When are we going to have breakfast?”.
Luke smiled. “I’m having mine right now. It’s delicious.”
Annie blushed. “You animal…”.
They didn’t get up until noon. When they checked out, the owner of the hotel didn’t even dare look Luke in the eye.
After they checked out, Luke took Annie to the police station in town and found the two constables whom he had talked to yesterday.
When Luke mentioned Stephen, the owner of Eden Lake Campsite, to the constables, Annie finally realized that she had forgotten about her uncle all this time.
It wasn’t entirely her fault. Stephen wasn’t really her blood uncle, and they were only distantly related.
She had only worked at the campsite for two days, and to her, Stephen was a stranger whom she had just met.
Too many things had happened last night for her to have time to worry about Stephen.
The two constables said that they would send out a search party for Stephen.
After asking for Annie’s opinion, Luke then drove her up the mountain to fetch her personal belongings, including her cellphone, her ID, her credit card, and so on.
After lunch, Luke dropped Annie at a bus stop on Route 405 and waved goodbye to her.
After that awful experience with the murderous kids at the campsite, Annie wasn’t going to continue working there – she would rather go back to the city.