62: Carol's Gratitude, Windfall, and Cooking

Carol's Gratitude, Windfall, and Cooking

System: You have received Carol Mira's appreciation. You may now learn all her abilities.

Carol Mira's abilities Elementary Self-Healing (X-gene; prerequisites: 40 Strength and 10,000 Credit points)

Luke couldn't help but smile.

Why had he let Carol go instead of capturing her?

It was because she had been a huge surprise.

Carol Mira was none other than the ordinary woman who had been shot in her apartment. He had accepted the case that morning.

Carol was only a waitress in a restaurant and had no criminal history. It was one of the reasons why Luke had let her go.

As for why S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were after Carol, the answer was obvious.

S.H.I.E.L.D. might have noticed that Carol could come back to life. The agents were here precisely to deal with the issue.

Therefore, Carol's disappearance from the morgue might be related to S.H.I.E.L.D.. At the very least, it must've been Cheney who had wiped the security footage.

It was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s responsibility to cover up such supernatural incidents, so that ordinary people wouldn't panic.

This could explain Cheney and his teammates' operation.

However, Carol's Elementary Self-Healing was definitely one of the abilities that Luke desired most.

Since he had obtained this ability from her, he was willing to return the favor even if she didn't know what it was about.

Besides, Luke had figured out one of the system's rules.

Carol Mira's gratitude had allowed him to directly unlock her abilities.

Luke was quite excited. This meant that bad guys now weren't the only source of abilities for him.

He could acquire abilities from good guys, too, as long as he earned their appreciation first.

Putting it together with his speculation about "fortune," Luke guessed that the learning requirement might not have anything to do with stealing luck.

The conclusion was clear in Carol's case.

Luke was a police officer, not a fake FBI who had been there to catch her. After he let her go, he won her appreciation.

At that point, Carol had subconsciously lowered her defenses, which had allowed Luke to acquire her abilities.

Another example was when Luke defeated Robert in a bet. That had lowered Robert's defenses, to the point that Luke could learn his abilities.

But Robert inevitably had bad luck after that because his defenses had deteriorated.

The third example was when Luke killed criminals. He was like a hunter in that sort of situation, and everything the prey had would become his trophy as long as he took them down.

However, he had to verify his assumption first.

There was still no telling if Carol would start to be haunted by bad luck.

After analyzing the situation, Luke pondered the Elementary Self-Healing ability.

According to the file, Carol had been shot the day before yesterday and had been in the morgue until today.

She was shot twice in the abdomen -- or more specifically, in her gut and her heart.

From that point of view, the speed of recovery with the Elementary Self-Healing ability wasn't very high, but Luke would never let go of such a life-saving technique.

However, it required… 10,000 credits?

Compared with Basic Firearms which cost 100 credits and Basic Special Combat which cost 200 credits, Elementary Self-Healing was outrageously expensive.

Furthermore, it had a prerequisite, which was 40 Strength.

That meant that Elementary Self-Healing demanded a lot of the body's abilities.

Starting from level six, he would receive four basic points at each level, and even if they were all invested in strength, he still needed to level up five times.

The experience required to level up was getting higher and higher, and Luke wasn't sure when he could reach 40 points for strength.

Luke was deep in thought, when Selina suddenly called his name. He opened his eyes.

He then saw Selina lying on the sofa in an even more comfortable position. Her short pants were obvious under her loose T-shirt, and highlighted the curves of her body.

"What are we having for dinner? I don't want takeout anymore," said Selina.

Appreciating Selina's sexiness, Luke was in a good mood. He stood up with a smile. "I'll cook. Just wait."

Selina opened her eyes in surprise. "You can cook?"

Most Americans didn't know how to cook. Or rather, they were too lazy to cook.

The supermarket had all kinds of pre-packed meals that just needed to be heated in the microwave and were then ready to be eaten.

Their apartment didn't have a gas stove or an exhaust hood in the kitchen, but there was an oven.

Luke chuckled. "Just wait."

Selina expectantly watched Luke dig around in the fridge before he went to the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Luke came back.

Selina looked at his empty hands and asked, "Where's our dinner?"

Luke replied, "I'm still cooking. You can eat something else first if you're too hungry. Do you want chips? It's a garlic and cheese flavor."

Selina said disdainfully, "No, I don't want to be dreaming about garlic."

Luke shrugged and tossed the weird-flavored chips that he had bought by accident back onto the table.

Forty minutes later, beeps echoed in the kitchen. Luke's eyes finally moved away from his laptop and he stood up.

He was busy for a while. Ten minutes later, Luke was back. "Dinner will be ready in ten minutes."

Selina sat up and said, "I'll take a look."

Luke chuckled but didn't stop her.

Selina rushed into the kitchen. She saw shreds of something on a chopping board and a steaming pot, but nothing else.

She returned in disappointment. "What are you cooking? I didn't see anything."

Luke said, "Just you wait."

It was Luke who had bought the pot.

Houston had a Chinatown where many Chinese lived, and some Chinese food culture could be found here. The common belief that Americans had no access to Chinese food wasn't true.1

On the contrary, Texas had many decent Chinese restaurants whose businesses flourished.

The supermarket that Luke and Selina had visited before, for one, was opened by a Chinese. Besides the pot, Luke had also bought a lot of Chinese condiments.

A few minutes later, Luke went into the kitchen again, and Selina followed him this time.

Luke took out two bowls. He stirred the food inside the pot with a wooden ladle, and had a taste with his chopsticks, only to discover that it was too bland.

He poured some soy sauce into the pot and stirred again, before he had another taste.

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