Chapter 1421: Another Realm, and Combat Teaching
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The mood of some bigshots was as gloomy as the weather in New York.
In just a few days, news of Senator Stern’s suspected involvement in the human trafficking case, as well as of a certain FBI department found guilty of tax evasion, made the headlines.
After the department head turned green in the face from being questioned by IRS in a small dark room over certain “internal documents,” Homeland Security arrived, and then his face turned gray.
Word of what the director had done spread online, and everybody learned that he was avoiding paying taxes because a lot of what he had was dirty money.
The director used his authority to privately embezzle illegal drugs seized by the FBI and resold them.
How to get this income past the IRS had always been a problem.
There were various ways to launder the money, but he couldn’t do it all the time.
Luke gave a copy of the department head’s most secret accounts to major media outlets and the IRS, as well as other suspicious evidence to Homeland Security.
There was evidence to show that this FBI department was selling the drugs through the Foot Clan.
This information wasn’t made public, but compared with dealing with Batman, investigating the mastermind behind the attack by the test subjects in New York took priority.
Thus, it was announced the next day that the FBI department head was stepping down.
Luke pretty much just tapped the keyboard a few times, and this department head was packed off to a small dark room at Homeland Security.
Luke chuckled inwardly.
He might not have been able to do this before the Internet developed; as long as the other party controlled the media and TV, he might have gotten stuck at the last step of spreading any real news.
Ultimately, TV networks and news media needed to use real people to disseminate the information, but the Internet didn’t.
The government’s specialty was controlling people, not controlling programs.
There were tens of millions of online users in the United States who were paying attention to the news that was trending on computers and phones. It wasn’t easy to suppress their voices.
Under this pressure, the government didn’t dare let any more scandals get out, and could only deal with the problematic people first.
During this time, Luke only needed to watch.
Use the power of public opinion? I can do that too. Luke smiled.
It wasn’t uncommon for people to hype themselves up, only to crash and burn.
If public opinion was so easy to control, why did all the big entities guard so tightly against it?
These people stirred the waters in the wake of the attack by the test subjects, only for it to crash down on their heads and drown a few of them.
In any case, they were the ones who said it; if they needed someone to shoulder the blame, Luke would help them find a few people, and everybody would be happy.
Look at how quickly the department head disappeared.
Backers, power, and circles were useless.
In the face of imminent disaster, everybody hoped that the department head would draw all the fire, even if his accomplices wanted him dead even more.
That was just how things were.
Luke looked at the rain outside the window and fell into deep thought.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the car window. He turned around and saw Mindy’s bright face under a pink hood.
Luke pointed at the backseat with a smile. Mindy smiled again before she opened the back door and got in.
Two slim girls got in as well. “Hi, Luke. Long time no see. You’re really busy.”
Luke turned around and nodded with a smile. “Hey, Monica. Hm, there are towels in the box. Dry your hair.”
Then, he greeted the other girl. “Nikki, nice to see you too.”
Nikki took the towel from Monica and smiled as she toweled her wet hair. “Mm, long time no see. NYPD’s really busy right now, right? You actually didn’t have to pick us up.”
Luke shrugged. “I’ve been busy for almost a month. I need to take a break. I should give you some pointers in passing. Alright, let’s talk about lunch first.”
Mindy leaned against the back of his seat and immediately suggested, “How about we go to Mr. Bud’s BBQ restaurant? That way, we’ll be full.”
Luke didn’t say anything, and waited for the three girls to agree on a place.
He didn’t want to be a player or a judge. It was best for him to just be the driver.
In the end, everyone went with Mindy’s suggestion because she gave a good reason — they couldn’t put on weight anyway.
Luke was doubtful, but he couldn’t say anything. He could only secretly resolve to make Damon pay attention to his daughter’s diet.
A thick and stocky girl with pretty and delicate features was not what he wanted for Mindy at all.
After all, Angel had already demonstrated what it meant to be a brawny woman, and Mindy really didn’t need to take this route.
He had picked up the three girls from school today to give them two to four combat lessons in one go.
Selina was also taking the weekend off to spend time with her besties, and had already made the arrangements with Elsa and Elizabeth.
As a man, it was clearly inappropriate for him to go and spend time with the three women. He could only assign Gold Nugget, this dog head, to be their bodyguard.
He had been busy screwing people over for the past month, and Mindy had already asked twice about the combat training.
Although they hadn’t fixed a time in the first place, he clearly hadn’t lived up to the promise of one lesson a month.
It happened to be raining at noon today, so Mindy had called Luke in advance to pick them up.
Luke called Damon, who grunted to indicate he understood, before he hung up.
This cartoonist had recently been inspired to create a new comic based on the attack by the test subjects.
Also, Luke had told him that Batman wanted to give his image copyright to the father and daughter, and use it to provide financial aid to the innocent.
Damon readily agreed and was prepared to donate all the proceeds from his comics to the foundation.
Luke rejected the idea since the foundation wouldn’t accept any external donations.
It wasn’t until Luke told him the reason that Damon understood.
However, Luke suggested that he wait a while. Damon could choose another similar foundation, and also use his royalties to buy the image copyright for Batman and various other superheroes to turn his work from “fake” to “genuine.”
Damon was stunned for a long while when he heard that. He was lost for words. This… was really doing it the long way round.
But this way, it would indeed be a commercial operation and not a charity donation, and nobody would be able to say anything.
After all, the concept of genuine goods was still deeply ingrained in people.
Mindy didn’t know that Luke had sheared her Pink Bear, and her Black Bear father still had to generously give away his income.
She also didn’t know that lunch and the combat training today were Luke’s compensation to her.