Since he would be using his Batman identity a few more times in the coming days, Luke had already prepared all sorts of escape routes.
The ocean was the simplest and most practical one.
He wasn’t someone who relied just on his physical strength to survive. He had already set up a counter-surveillance route in the ocean.
He could still use this trick to escape once or twice more before this method was found out.
At that time, Batman would probably go into hibernation, and would only come out when necessary.
While he could have fewer of other things, he couldn’t have fewer aliases.
Generally speaking, a superhero’s identity represented his beliefs and strength. However, he had many abilities, and they would only continue to accumulate.
He only had one goal in mind: to earn experience and credit points.
Whether in terms of sentiment or feasibility, the cost and difficulty of replacing an alias were very low.
Changing aliases every now and then wasn’t a bad idea to keep things fresh, Luke murmured to himself. He didn’t forget to keep an eye on the surveillance cameras that he had set up beforehand, and he observed the activity on his return journey.
He returned home safe and sound and helped Selina out with the tail end of her training.
Selina took off her gloves and canceled the silent mode on the tablet. Looking at the news, she said casually, “Lawrence spread word of the upcoming earthquake.”
Luke sighed. “It’s a little unkind to say this, but I really hope that his prediction is wrong.”
Selina walked up to him and rubbed his head. “Alright, we’re not God. We can’t protect everyone. I know you’re doing your best. That’s enough.”
Luke chuckled. “Thanks.”
“Good boy!” Selina rubbed his head again and walked out of the training room. “Okay, I’m turning in early. We need to conserve our strength in these two days. It’s fine to just make sandwiches tomorrow morning.”
Luke hummed and said, “Okay.”
Selina was telling him not to waste his time and energy on making exquisite desserts.
It was true that Luke didn’t need to cook to calm his mood in the next two days. Since Selina had brought this up, he could save more time and make more preparations.
… So, he had always planned to slack off.
Since Selina had said so, he couldn’t waste her good intentions.
In the morning, Gold Nugget looked at the two identical breakfasts and stared at Luke suspiciously as it whined.
Selina picked up a sandwich and said, “Okay, this is a top quality steak and tuna sandwich.If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. I’ll buy you pig swill at the police department later. How does that sound?”
Gold Nugget straightaway swallowed a sandwich in one gulp to show its determination not to eat pig swill.
When it came to food, if Selina didn’t have any complaints, Gold Nugget didn’t dare grumble about Luke’s cooking.
The world was full of fast food and pig swill which tasted much worse than what Luke made.
It also didn’t want to be punished by being the only one to eat pig swill while the two of them had a feast.
Luke asked casually, “How’s Claire?”
Gold Nugget barked softly.
Luke nodded. “Keep observing and don’t sneak a bite.”
Gold Nugget whined aggrievedly.
Luke said, “You said yourself that the energy is harder to resist than tasty food. I’m just reminding you.”
Gold Nugget lowered its head again and cried silently in its heart. I was only describing the taste of the energy back then. Why has it become your basis for giving me a warning now?!
After Claire got up and had breakfast, Luke put a food box in her car. “The food in the police academy isn’t nutritious enough. If you’re not careful, you won’t grow.”
The little monkey was suspicious. “Are you sure?”
Luke said, “In any case, just have some when you’re hungry. The cafeteria won’t always be open for you.”
The little monkey thought for a moment and agreed. She didn’t say anything else and drove off.
Luke, Seline and the dog got into the car and drove to work.
“Claire will still be suspicious, right?” Selina couldn’t help but ask.
Luke said, “Who asked Gold Nugget to be a glutton?”
Gold Nugget was displeased and barked.
Luke said, “It’s not a bad thing that you can eat. It’s nothing to apologize for.”
Gold Nugget turned its head away and refused to talk sense with Luke anymore. It had never been able to win.
Luke was right.
When Gold Nugget formed a symbiotic relationship with a host, it needed the host to provide it with energy.
Thanks to an innate trait, it didn’t have to eat its host’s body. It wasn’t a bad thing for its host to have a huge appetite.
But Claire was probably going to be paranoid again today. The little monkey was no fool.
Gold Nugget, however, was unperturbed. Hmph, don’t look down on me, fiend. I learned a lot from you.
They arrived at the police department at 8.20am, and it was as busy as they had expected.
All the officers had harried expressions, and few of them were fooling around. A subdued air had already enveloped the police department.
“Professor Lawrence Hayes, who predicted the first earthquake, last night predicted that another earthquake is imminent.” Dustin was already standing in front of the whiteboard when they entered the Major Crimes Division.
Pausing for a moment, he continued, “Those who don’t know the exact details, ask your partners later. Leave has been canceled, and everybody is now on standby.”
Everybody nodded silently.
“Weapons, ammo, bulletproof vests; be fully equipped. I don’t want to hear of anyone dying in the line of duty!” Dustin said solemnly. “Keep in touch with the teams who are on duty, and be ready to support each other at any time. Don’t be afraid to look embarrassing. This isn’t the time to talk about dignity.”
Everybody nodded again.
After a brief pause, Dustin said, “May God bless Los Angeles.”
He didn’t lay out a concrete action plan since one had already been set up after the last earthquake. This time, it was just a routine operation.
Luke and Selina were assigned to the firefighters like before.
After they left, Claire called and told them that all the students of the police academy were to enter the city to help maintain law and order.
That was because traffic in Los Angeles was already starting to become a problem.
Since last night, people had started to head toward places without skyscrapers; some had even chosen to leave for small towns on level terrain on the outskirts.
This large overnight migration was causing a huge traffic jam, especially on the roads outside the city.
Drivers were burning with anxiety. Small car accidents and scrapes were happening all the time, and it was easy for anxious car owners to start quarreling or even fighting.
There were traffic jams one or two kilometers long on every road.
There were TV helicopters in the air broadcasting the traffic situation in real time, but it wasn’t any damn use since all the roads out of the city were congested and it was very difficult for people to leave Los Angeles via any of them.
After the police academy pulled the trainees into the city, the situation improved slightly.
At that moment, the Chief of Police could only be glad that the police department suddenly had a free labor force thanks to the officer training program proposed by Senator Thompson.
