Chapter 159
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Chapter 159: Straight Hook with Salty Bait
Something feels off; too many things feel off.
By the next day, Luke and his subordinates had made some headway in their investigation.
But the number of baffling issues was simply overwhelming, leading Luke to suspect that perhaps the entire world was deceiving him.
His action teams captured six gunmen from both sides, and after separate interrogations, they confirmed the physical characteristics of the "Heart Snatcher."
This individual was only about one meter fifty tall and was quite thin.
The description matched perfectly with the profile in the outer city’s security bureau files.
Frustrated, Luke wanted to fire all the incompetent people in the outer city.
Excluding the possibility of collective amnesia, the current image of the Heart Snatcher was: a small, weak but ruthless killer.
There was a certain endearing contrast to this image.
Undoubtedly, that profile had issues. Having read the files in detail, Luke knew that the inept from the outer city had never seen the Heart Snatcher face to face.
Especially during the investigation of that series of cases, they were ambushed by gangs from the outer city, which resulted in heavy casualties.
As for why not a single bullet hit the Heart Snatcher throughout the ordeal, the criminals had varying opinions.
Some believed that the Heart Snatcher possessed the ability to deflect bullets, while others thought they had hit their target, but it had no effect at all.
This was another problem troubling Luke.
If the profile could be misleading through camouflage, then dodging bullets would indeed be a genuine superpower.
Based on the Heart Snatcher’s common methods, Luke deduced that their ability was most likely to swap two identical items or items that were very similar.
But such an Ability Description didn’t fit with dodging or deflecting bullets.
There were only two explanations: either the Heart Snatcher was not a single person but a gang disguising themselves as one to mislead the investigators,
or the Heart Snatcher was an extremely rare superpowered individual who had undergone at least one anomaly in their powers.
As time passed, the number of registered superpowered individuals in Hope City had approached twenty thousand.
A small portion of these individuals had already died, but their Ability Descriptions and records after level up were still preserved.
According to the records, superpowered individuals would strengthen various aspects of their abilities after a level up.
Some would even experience anomalies in their original powers or develop new abilities.
However, such individuals usually needed to undergo at least two level ups, typically taking at least three to four years.
But this person was only one meter fifty tall…
Could the Heart Snatcher be a dwarf?
Thinking about this, Luke, stumped, raised his right hand.
He and his father were clearly the rare second type of superpowered individuals.
Although their enhancements were not based on natural level ups but rather forced enhancements through enhancement surgery,
it cannot be denied that the shield ability he now possessed, capable of covering Hope City, was completely different from his previous Energy Shield ability, which could only protect a few people.
At this moment, Luke could only hope that Heart Snatcher was the type of criminal he initially suspected; otherwise, unless he intervened personally, his subordinates would stand little chance against a criminal possessing at least two similar abilities.
Aside from the discrepancies between Heart Snatcher’s appearance and abilities and the records, another issue plagued Luke: where had the guns gone?
Every account confirmed one thing: the agile Heart Snatcher who had darted through the warehouse last night could not have carried two hundred guns while moving so swiftly.
In fact, no one in Hope City could manage such a feat of endurance, unless they were members of a top-tier superhero team, like his former Captain, Master Hand.
Those two hundred obsolete guns, though phased out, had not been destroyed. After maintenance and resupply, they could arm two hundred-man units.
This was nearly equivalent to the firepower of a wall defense squadron.
If these weapons were merely dispersed through black market channels, that would be one thing. But if they were stockpiled by someone with malicious intent, they could one day become a genuine destabilizing force in Hope City.
The more Luke pondered it, the more absurd the situation seemed, and the stress of it was causing his hair to fall out daily.
He meticulously reviewed the reasons for this failure and concluded two key points.
First, the reports submitted by the incompetents from the outer city were virtually useless!
Second, he had not anticipated that Heart Snatcher would extend their reach into the inner city, much like Master Hand had done.
Heart Snatcher seemed oblivious to why Master Hand had vanished completely after committing a single crime in the inner city; they were merely fixated on the vacant "ecological niche," eyeing it with insatiable desire.
If this continued, it wouldn’t be long before the Ministry of Internal Affairs turned the Heart Snatcher case into a formal assignment for others.
And that was not the outcome Luke desired.
Now that he had confirmed the strong likelihood that Heart Snatcher was a superpowered individual, despite their multiple murders, Luke still couldn’t determine whether the amnesty bill would apply to them.
Moreover, the more he observed this individual, the more they resembled a member of the "Believers." Only by capturing them personally could he unveil their true value.
Luke wanted to be Luke, not merely Lucas’s son.
Finally, he summoned the captains of his two action teams to begin assigning tasks.
“Team One, divide your subordinates into two groups: one will investigate the military officer’s backers, and the other will look into the black market contacts’ supporters. If you confirm any connection to the case, arrest them directly. If anything goes wrong, I’ll take the responsibility.”
“But this isn’t within our jurisdiction, Commissioner. Shouldn’t you reconsider?”
“There’s no such thing as jurisdiction when it comes to justice; we’re part of the enforcement system. When we encounter such cases, we must pursue them, or we’re enabling the next violent incident.”
The captain of Team One accepted the order and left, and Luke turned to the other captain:
“Investigate inner city officials with ranks similar to that military officer who also exhibit unlawful tendencies.
“Heart Snatcher isn’t foolish; they won’t target the true key figures for assassination. Their targets must be below a certain rank. Identify those with dirty hands, keep them under surveillance, and notify me immediately if anything suspicious arises. The day we capture Heart Snatcher will come!”
“Commissioner, are you suggesting…?”
The captain’s expression shifted several times, but he ultimately refrained from uttering the word “fishing.”
“Exactly, I am fishing. My father once said that he took on this responsibility for the majority of hardworking people, not for the few.
“After all, those parasites are of little use alive; it’s better to use them as bait, as a way to serve Hope City.”
