On the screen, Luke’s hair was still there; it wasn’t standing up, nor had it withered.
Very good! This was his worry whenever he added points to Mental Strength.
It was probably because a particular bald big shot had left too deep an impression on him.
He checked his stats, which were now 40 Strength, 20 Dexterity, and 16 Mental Strength.
As someone with minor OCD, Luke would make up for the last shortcoming soon, which was rather exciting.
Thinking that, he went to his workshop and started working in high spirits.
The next day, Luke and Selina went straight to a crime scene without dropping by the police department.
Yesterday, Elsa had told them again to stay away from the Elsworth family.
Old Elsworth had declared that they were going to find the mastermind behind the string of violent attacks against his family.
What Elsa meant was that even though Luke was only investigating and had nothing to do with the mastermind behind the attacks on Old Elsworth’s sons, there was a good chance that he would be caught in the middle if the old man flew into a rage.
Luke could only nod his head; as expected, a smart boss was the best.
Today, both Luke and Selina could only work on petty cases like bank robberies.
In Los Angeles, robberies of banks or cash carriers happened three times a day on average, and the number of all such cases a year was greater than the total number of members of all the Major Crimes Divisions in Los Angeles.
So, these cases really were petty.
As long as the robbers didn’t kill anyone, they would be out again after a few years in prison.
Luke and Selina drove to a bank called Los Angeles First Financial Bank; it wasn’t a name that Luke would take seriously.
It was easy to estimate the scale of this bank from the amount of cash that it had lost in a robbery the previous day.
Yesterday, two masked robbers with revolvers broke into this bank that had just opened and looted… 3,756 dollars.
There were no casualties or collateral damage. If the clerk had moved a little slower, they might only have needed to give the two poor robbers two thousand dollars before sending them on their way.
But this was still a robbery, no matter how small the amount.
The Major Crimes Division was officially known as the Robbery and Homicide Division, so this case was their responsibility.
Luke and Selina parked on the road next to the bank and walked in with the odd customer or so.
Cries of alarm suddenly rang out in the bank.
Looking at each other, they moved faster and entered from a side door.
As they expected, another robbery was taking place. Selina was about to grab her gun, but Luke stopped her with a strange look. “Wait. That guy is holding a… squirt gun.”
Selina was speechless.
While fake guns and realistic-looking toy guns weren’t rare in a robbery, Luke and Selina had never seen one in person before.
A black man with a black silk stocking over his head was standing in front of the counter. He waved his hands angrily and stopped the middle-aged clerk from taking cash out. “Wait, wait. Do you think I’m here for money?”
The customers in the hall trembled as they hid at a distance. What are you here for if not money? A dream? The man holding a realistic-looking squirt gun shouted, “You think I’m such a sh*tty person? I’m here with a gun for the useless cash in your drawer? I want a bloody job! Do you hear me, you b*tch?”
Luke and Selina were both lost for words. What?
The customers didn’t know what to say either.
“If I loot some money, I’ll be poor again after I spend all of it, but if I have a job, I’ll have precious work experience that I can put on my resume later. So, cut the crap and tell me where your manager is. I want a bloody job!” declared the masked robber.
Everybody, including Luke and Selina, was dumbfounded.
The clerk subconsciously looked at a man in a suit who was hiding in a corner. The robber looked over and pointed his squirt gun at the guy. “Are you the manager?”.
The suited man nodded hopelessly. “Yes, I am.”
The masked man rudely pointed the gun at him. “Now, I only want forty work hours a week, paid annual leave, and health insurance…”
Everybody was speechless.
Amused, Luke gestured to Selina, before he swiftly stepped up to grab the squirt gun of this ambitious and optimistic “robber.”
“Excuse me, but shouldn’t you present your diploma, resume and recommendations when you’re looking for a job?” He weighed the squirt gun and smiled. “This doesn’t look like a diploma, does it?”
The robber: “…”
Everybody: “…”
The farce came to an end, just like that.
While the patrol officers were on their way, Luke played with the squirt gun and said with a smile, “How creative of you to use this to look for a forty-hour job with paid leave and insurance, I’ll give you that. Everybody wants a job like that!”
The “robber,” whose black stocking mask had already been pulled off, was desperate. “What choice do I have? Nobody is willing to hire me. I’ve tried very hard to get a job, but I have a criminal record. My daughter is only a year old. I need a job to buy her formula and diapers.”
After a brief silence, Luke said, “But you can’t use your daughter’s toy gun to steal yourself a job, can you?”
Embarrassed, the robber said in a low voice, “That’s my neighbor’s kid’s toy. I grabbed it from him when I left.”
Luke and Selina were speechless. Even your squirt gun was stolen? What a diligent robber!
Ten minutes later, the officers arrived and arrested this “robber” who had tried to steal a job for himself.
In the car, Selina remarked in amusement, “Seriously, if he’s so hardworking, why didn’t he start from the bottom? Is he crazy?”
Luke didn’t think much of it as he drove. “Maybe he tried, but it didn’t work out. He has a criminal record, after all. Guys like him can only dream of working as a bank clerk.”
Selina thought for a moment and realized that it made sense.
For guys on parole, their parole officers could arrange jobs for them, but these jobs were mostly heavy labor with low pay.
Even then, they got twenty to thirty percent less of their pay; it wasn’t a tax, but an unspoken rule.
It shouldn’t be hard to infer whose pockets the twenty to thirty percent went into.
Those who had criminal records were more likely to commit crimes again, but not for any single reason.
However, this weird “robber” wouldn’t go to jail this time.
Firstly, he didn’t hurt anyone. Secondly, he was holding a toy gun. And thirdly, he had been trying to steal a job.