Chapter 1166: Ultimate Turn Technique and Taking Stock of Gains
Luke cursed inwardly. The four auxiliary wings on his back popped out, and the jets spurted bright white flames.
With a whoosh, the Big Dipper Armor sped up and charged into the tunnel.
Clinks rang out as the metal armor brushed against the cement walls. Even the rushing water behind Luke couldn’t drown out the sound.
The Big Dipper Armor used all its tricks as it shot around corners.
At the final turn, to avoid slowing down, Luke braced himself and performed the ultimate technique — the Big Dipper Armor swung around the corner on the metal piping that ran along the wall in what amounted to a leg split in the air.
He dashed forward, regardless of how his crotch felt.
He wouldn’t die; he would never be killed by something small like this, but if he got trapped under the base, who knew when he would be able to extricate himself from it.
His time was very valuable, and he certainly didn’t want to waste it.
Thankfully, he was on top of things, and was escaping a little faster than the rate at which the base was being destroyed.
The Big Dipper Armor reached the end of the escape tunnel in seven to eight seconds, where there was a metal door.
“Open!” Luke roared as he raised his fists in the classic Superman flying pose and charged forward.
Duang!
Even with Luke’s sturdy physique, it was a little unbearable.
There were actually multiple layers to this door, and the Big Dipper Armor wasn’t the most powerful armor. It actually couldn’t instantly break through the final obstacle, and Luke got stuck halfway.
Struggling to pull himself free, Luke looked at the rolling water behind him and the tunnel that was swiftly crumbling. The funeral BGM for tonight was still in his ears. “…Walking through the city streets, Is it by mistake or design…”
Pained, Luke could only curse, “Motherf-”
Rumble!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Big Dipper Armor was buried under the collapsed base.
Ten minutes later, a transparent shadow broke out of the lake.
Depressed, Luke looked at the information from the drone on the virtual screen. Polaris was already reporting, “The medium-sized drone didn’t detect anything. There is no sign of anyone else escaping the base.”
After a brief silence, Luke sighed. “I’m sorry. I tried my best.”
He apologized to the innocent superhumans in the base.
There weren’t many of them. Even if the base hadn’t self-destructed, they might not necessarily have been able to live for long, but in the end, they still died.
Although Luke had lost the chance to obtain more abilities because of this, he didn’t want to think of it that way.
There would always be a chance to collect abilities, but Luke felt that it was better to maintain basic respect for the lives of innocent people.
Stephanie’s clear and crisp voice was still in his ear. “…Choose your last words, This is the last time, Cause you and I, We were born to die!”
Lowering his head, he observed a moment of silence for the innocent.
The Big Dipper Armor cruised southwest at low power, and arrived at Anvil Island half an hour later.
Luke flew slowly and close to the surface of the ocean. He tossed the “garbage” that was in his inventory one after another into the ocean.
He had collected a lot of these things recently, and had yet to throw them away.
This could be considered the end of his mission.
After disposing of the trash, he flew to Vancouver in the south.
Switching to a new alias, he entered Vancouver International Airport. After buying a flight ticket back to New York for six in the morning, he sat down in a quiet corner of the VIP lounge.
He then put on his sunglasses and reviewed the cleanup operation on the virtual screen.
When he came, he naturally used a fake alias, which was abandoned forever after touching down in Vancouver.
Likewise, the identity he was using to go back to New York would no longer appear again after this.
It didn’t matter if the Big Dipper Armor was exposed on this operation.
This alias, which wasn’t afraid of using any sort of ability, was destined to participate in all sorts of matters related to superpowers. It would also kill countless criminals with superpowers or people who wanted to use superpowers to commit crimes.
To be blunt, Big Dipper was certain to be the biggest fall guy among his numerous aliases.
If this alias provoked too much trouble, then… he would switch to another set of armor and nickname.
In any case, he was too used to this sort of thing.
He quickly finished his review of the operation this time. He then took stock of the gains.
First of all, he had rescued Alice Miller and Carrie Miller, which wasn’t too much of a surprise.
According to intelligence he had gathered, it had indeed been possible that the mother and daughter were in the hands of Sentinel Services. Although it was a less than 20% chance, it was already very high.
That was also why he had prioritized eliminating Sentinel Services.
Next were the guards which the system had already paid out for; 147 individuals gave him a total of 47,000 experience and credit points, with each person worth over 300 points.
When he emerged from the bottom of the lake, the system gave him the remaining notification.
System: Eliminate the Sentinel Services guards and destroy the secret research base. Mission accomplished.
Total experience: 50,000. Total credit: 50,000.
Contribution rate: 100%. EXP +50,000. Credit +50,000.
Host’s experience: 193,500 / 500,000.
Credit: 489,500
Luke’s expression was odd. So, the destruction of the base was still credited to him?
Based on his past experiences, the system only deemed him to have contributed based on his direct actions during a mission.
For example, he hadn’t earned any experience or credit for issuing an earthquake warning through Professor Lawrence Hayes.
Even if the system didn’t acknowledge the TV program, there had still been dozens of staff members in the studio when Professor Lawrence shared the news.
However, the system didn’t give them any experience and credit points for preventing earthquake casualties.
Thus, if the dam base’s self-destruct mechanism was a light switch, the system wouldn’t consider Luke to have contributed anything if Luke had gotten someone else to flip the switch.
If he told Selina to go out and beat up hooligans, the experience and credit points would go only to Selina, and not him.
However, the system credited him with the destruction of the secret base, which meant that he had personally flipped the switch.
Thinking that, he felt a little embarrassed. Was he just fooling himself?
Puzzled, various data scrolled over his lenses, and after a simple filtering of certain factors, he finally found two suspicious points.
When the base’s self-destruct mechanism was activated by an unknown signal source, it was exactly five minutes after he put Alice Miller into Space 2.
And when the base self-destructed, it was five minutes after it was activated.
Not one second more, not one second less.