Chapter 635 Oddities of the World
Now, all that mattered was whether or not LAPD could suppress the riots before they got out of hand.
If they succeeded, then everything would be fine.
If they didn’t… then it was inevitable for Luke to make a killing in experience and credit points.
But he wasn’t hoping that things would go bad.
He had a lot of ways to earn experience and credit. He wasn’t insane enough to want to accumulate points at the cost of ordinary people encountering disaster.
Luke and Selina drove to In-N-Out for a takeout of burgers.
Looking at Gold Nugget’s doubtful expression, Luke said helplessly, “We have to work today. We can’t sit down to eat in a restaurant when everybody else is busy, can we?”
As a tagalong, what could Gold Nugget say? It simply opened its own bag of two burgers and ate them.
After finishing the two burgers, it raised its head and whined.
Luke knew it was complaining about how lousy the burgers were. He said with a smile, “It’s five dollars each. How can they compare to the top burgers that cost fifty dollars each? Just deal with it.”
Although they were served by the same restaurant, the fifty dollar burgers were specially made for Tony, the great magnate.
Gold Nugget whined pitifully.
Luke looked at Selina.
Selina’s voice was muffled by the burger in her mouth. “It’s only commenting on the burgers, not complaining about you.”
Luke: “Gold Nugget, good boy!”
Gold Nugget mumbled to itself, It’s not like I’ll be able to eat any top quality burgers today, no matter how much I complain. I don’t want you to hold a grudge against me. Right at that moment, Luke happened to see an image on the TV in the fast food restaurant. A female anchor seemed to be asking something, and a bearded middle-aged man was answering her.
Luke’s eyes swept past, but he was suddenly stunned and immediately looked back.
He had already learned to read lips, which was a useful ability.
Just now, the middle-aged man had clearly said “earthquake.”
Staring at the TV screen for a moment, he frowned hard. Selina found that odd. “What happened?”
Looking at the TV which had switched to another channel, Luke had a bad feeling. “There was an interview with some sort of seismologist just now. He said that this earthquake is the beginning of the plates slipping in the San Andreas Fault.”
Selina was stunned for a moment. “The San Andreas Fault? Wait, the beginning? Does that mean… there’ll be even bigger earthquakes later?”
Luke: “Yes. He said that what happened in Los Angeles is just the beginning. The subsequent earthquake that will take place in San Francisco will be even stronger.” Selina was surprised. “The official measurement for the earthquake this morning was a magnitude of 5.3. Won’t it be a magnitude of six or seven if it’s stronger?” Luke nodded. “We need to look at the seismic intensity of an earthquake. The one in the morning was probably a five too; it won’t be a small one if it hits a seven.”
What he didn’t say was that if what the middle-aged man said spread, even bigger problems awaited LAPD.
Of course, it was the San Francisco Police Department that would suffer the most, since a large-scale exodus would take place over there.
But Luke had no time to worry for the San Francisco police. He had a minor problem himself.
He had initially been planning to clean up the gang members on the east side of Los Angeles and harvest the lives of the desperadoes who had come here from around the world for the hundred million dollars.
Now that this earthquake had happened, he wouldn’t earn any less experience and credit points, but he might not have time to carry out his plan.
But law and order in Los Angeles was still somewhat under control today. Perhaps he could get it done at night?
With that in mind, Luke still wasn’t free in the afternoon.
The assignments came in non-stop as there was a constant stream of lootings and shootings. As long as they drove out, it didn’t take long for them to receive calls for help from nearby patrol officers.
Like startled loaches coming out after the tremors, the people who lived on the bottom rungs of society crawled out of the corners and mud and searched for targets.
The bizarre lootings in the morning were just the appetizer; Luke and Selina were deluged by more oddities in the afternoon.
Some women broke into convenience stores and looted baby diapers and milk formula. They had children but no income.
Robbery was a crime, but could these people be sent to jail?
After Luke escorted them home and confirmed that they had babies at home, he could only let them go.
He dealt with them exactly like how he dealt with the kids who looted beers: He wrote down their names and addresses and said that they were all on the blacklist. Then, he left.
Selina simply looked at him without saying anything
Everybody had different views.
Some people might believe that it was best to send them to prison, otherwise they might think they were lucky and commit a crime again.
Luke, however, felt that it was enough to teach one or two of them a lesson.
If a person didn’t change their ways even after their names were recorded by a detective of the Major Crimes Division, the chances of pulling them back onto the right path weren’t high.
Luke just wanted peace of mind.
He didn’t want to make a few children orphans after an afternoon of work.
There was also a group who stole a car, and in passing helped the house owner “move house” free of charge.
When the house owner got home and realized something was wrong, he called the police right away and reported the robbery. Luke and Selina, who happened to be in the area, went to stop the “moving company.” The three men from the moving company even claimed that the house owner had asked them to help with moving, but when Luke asked them for the house owner’s name and number as well as their own identities, they couldn’t answer him at all.
As the moving company team was collectively escorted to the police car, Luke agreed with the house owner’s request to have the stuff moved back to his house.
These three guys had taken the house owner’s microwave and fridge.
Without these items, it was basically impossible for regular people to eat. After all, most locals ate takeout – they took it out of the fridge and heated it in the microwave.
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It was pretty heartless of this “free moving company” to go after the house owner’s food, as if they wanted him to starve to death.
Incidents like these could be considered the normal ones.
On a Hispanic block, a mother called the police and claimed that her son had threatened her with a gun and robbed her of her money.
After they came over, they found that the son was only ten years old and was holding a water gun as he argued with his mother.
His mother didn’t give him money to buy toys, so he took out the water gun and said that he would kill his stingy mother.
Then what? Then nothing.
Luke confiscated the “murder weapon” and told the mother that he could send her son to the custody center, and the juvenile detention center after that, for him to be reeducated.
However, he wasn’t clear on the terms of bail and the fees at these places, so she could wait to be notified later.
The mother and son immediately stopped fighting