While heating the lunch in a microwave in the lounge, Luke also made himself a cup of coffee from the coffee machine. As he ate, he continued going over the folder.
After finishing his late lunch, he looked outside and checked the time, and discovered that it was already four-thirty in the afternoon.
Robert wouldn't have forgotten lunch because of work, right? Um, with Selina there, that was quite unlikely.
It couldn't be that both of them were absentminded enough to forget lunch, right?
As Luke mused to himself, Robert and Selina returned.
Behind Robert was Selina and a girl, Jessica.
On the girl's other side were her parents, as well as a man who was dressed formally. This man was also carrying a black briefcase.
When Luke saw that, he frowned.
The guy walking behind everyone with a briefcase reeked of a lawyer. Luke could guess his identity without being told.
It seemed that although Robert had brought Jessica down here, her parents weren't to be trifled with either. They had directly brought a lawyer along with them.
Luke mused to himself that they sure were rich. He quickly wiped his mouth and hands with a paper napkin before throwing the trash into the trash can and stepping forward in the newcomers' direction.
He remained silent, but when he looked into Robert's eyes, he received no hint that he should do anything.
Fine, it seemed that Robert intended to do everything according to procedure.
Next, Jessica was brought into the interrogation room while her parents waited outside. Naturally, the lawyer went inside with her as well.
Inside the room, Selina asked the questions.
Selina spoke gently. "Jessica, where were you between 6.00pm and 12.00am yesterday?"
Jessica replied, "I was home, with my dad and mom."
"Bingo!" Luke thought to himself.
The lawyer didn't prevent Jessica from answering. After all, that was an extremely ordinary question, one that didn't even touch on his client's privacy.
Generally, if the suspect refused to say anything, that would be when they knew that they had no hope of escaping. The more they spoke, the more they revealed. In such a situation, the suspect would simply refuse to talk so as not to reveal even more clues.
At the moment, Jessica still wasn't under arrest. Thus, the lawyer naturally wouldn't tell her to refuse to answer the questions.
But Luke believed that Jessica probably hadn't told her parents that she had been at the party yesterday. Otherwise, the lawyer would have taught her a completely different set of lies to say.
The interrogation proceeded smoothly and at a moderate pace, and Selina wasn't too aggressive with her questions. She only asked about Jessica's relationship with the deceased and the other suspects, and asked her if she had noticed anything unusual before this, and so on.
In less than an hour, the interrogation ended. Robert then sent the family off together with their lawyer.
When Luke saw them drive off, he said in a low voice, "That's it?"
Robert replied, "Of course. At the very least, we have a recording of the interrogation today. That will serve as strong evidence to support our case."
That was true. They only needed to find proof that Jessica had been at the party. By doing that, even if they couldn't prove that she was guilty, they would be able to prove that she was lying.
Next, Luke wasn't sent out to work on the case. Rather, he was left in the office on shiftwork and dealt with the town's minor cases and issues.
Luke didn't seem to mind.
After solving a case which involved a brawl, he obtained three experience and credit points.
After solving a missing dog case and delivering the dog back to its master, he obtained two experience and credit points.
After helping a granny back home, he obtained two experience and credit points.
After dealing with a noise complaint against some kids who were blasting rock music, he obtained two experience and credit points.
After issuing a fine to an illegally parked car, he obtained two experience and credit points.
Luke worked diligently as he handled the numerous issues, such as calling for a dispatch for incidents that required it, solving some unresolved issues on the spot, dragging things out if necessary, or redirecting people back to the police department as needed.
After about five days, he had accumulated 76 experience and credit points.
Excluding the 10 points and 2 points he gained when he had first been hired and when he had rescued the cat, he had earned 64 points over the past 5 days.
He was making more than 10 points per day. Although this was quite slow, Luke was in no rush.
And then, the weekend arrived.
He woke up late on the weekend, only getting out of bed after nine in the morning. Yawning, he entered the kitchen and gave the busy Catherine a peck on her forehead. "What delicious food are you preparing today?"
Catherine smiled. "Steak, salad, apple pie, and tomato soup."
Luke nodded. "That sounds so good." It wasn't like he had to do anything himself. He was eating for free. Was there anything bad about that?
Catherine asked, "Try asking Robert if he has any free time. Maybe we can have a barbecue tonight."
Luke shook his head. "Forget it, he's still busy. I'm sure he won't have any free time." After saying that, he took a bite of bread.
Right at that moment, there was suddenly a reaction from the system.
Mission: Michelle's murder case solved.
Completion of the mission is worth a total of 100 experience and 100 credit.
Since the host's contribution to the mission was 70 percent, 70 experience and 70 credit points have been awarded to the host.
As experience has reached 100 points, the host has leveled up to level 1.
That caused Luke to choke on his bread before he coughed it out, spraying bread all over the table.
This surprise… had completely caught him off-guard.
Faced with Catherine's curious look, Luke said that he had carelessly choked on the bread, before he ran out of the kitchen with the bread and a glass of milk.
He sat down on a chair in front of the house and placed the milk and bread on a table before he shifted his focus to the system.
This stupid system had remained silent for the past few days, no matter what he did.
The only reaction he had gotten from the system were the experience and credit points he had gained from the police work he did.
But today, he had actually leveled up?
After a short while, Luke checked the information in the system, and was overjoyed.
Character: Luke (alias: Luke Coulson)
Extra stat points: 3
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 11
Mental strength: 12
Level: 1
Experience: 46
Credit: 146
Holy shit! Level up!
There were free stat points upon leveling up? That was great news!
Luke loved a simple system like this. Fine, he could excuse the system for its lack of reaction. Since he could obtain additional stat points, that was more than enough for him.
But 100 points had been deducted from his experience, leaving only 46. As for his credit, he still had 146 points.
Evidently, the experience indicated here was something like an experience bar, which only showed his progress for his current level. The missing 100 points had been used for his level up.
And the benefit of leveling up was free stat points.
He didn't even need the system to explain the stat points. He knew the three points could be added to the three main stats.
What did that mean?
An ordinary person would have an average stat of 10 points. Luke only needed to level up three times to obtain 9 points, and if he added them all to the same stat, his stat would be nearly twice that of an ordinary person.
Upon reaching level 10 or something like that, he would be akin to a mini-superman.
But now was not the time to be overly excited about this.
Michelle's murder case had been solved, but in truth, Luke hadn't participated in the entire case. And from this, he was able to glean an important piece of information on how the system worked.