Chapter 1757 - Moving the Base of Operation, and Killing Three Birds with One Stone

At the end of September, Luke's Level 1 clone finally moved.

After waiting at the seaside villa in Tijuana for a month, Haley left after confirming that Simon wasn't coming back for her.

She returned to America through private channels, but didn't go to New York. Instead, she went to San Francisco under an alias.

Naturally, Luke followed her.

He could guess why she was going there: Simon's stepfather, Raman, owned a pharmaceutical company in San Francisco.

The chances of Simon appearing here were higher.

Since they had already waited a month, they didn't mind waiting a few more days. This was what the watcher and the person being watched thought.

To hide her identity, Haley turned into a disheveled homeless woman in a hat.

These people were everywhere in the big city, and nobody cared about them.

As long as it wasn't in a rich neighborhood, the police wouldn't bother with them.

There was no benefit in the police arresting these people, plus the police would have to cover their food and shelter.

Secondly, the homeless here weren't what many Chinese thought of as "beggars."

Some people just couldn't find official jobs for various reasons; it wasn't surprising to find an ex-IBM manager turned tramp picking up scraps.

It was probably because his pension wasn't enough for him to live on.

Thus, while many tramps indeed weren't exactly that hygienic or polite, there were also many who were.

Haley was pretending to be the more civilized type of tramp.

In truth, while she didn't have the smell of perfume on her, there were no odors either. Her gray face was just makeup.

Her jacket was a little dirty, but didn't have any old stains on it.

But coupled with her shabby trolley and her mismatched rags, she looked 70 to 80% like a real tramp.

It had to be said that this female doctor was the polar opposite of her silly, sweet art student of a sister.

Art was a hobby for Margaret, and was purely about spending money.

Psychology was Haley's hobby, but she could use it to disguise herself and make money.

In the days after, Luke watched her use her understanding of psychology to easily make people empty out their pockets.

After an hour or two, she could easily earn more than 100 bucks. It was much easier than what regular workers did.

For a psychiatrist who earned 300 dollars an hour for counseling, this wasn't a lot of money.

However, the reason Haley could charge 300 dollars an hour before was mostly because someone was willing to spend more than the market price to hire a beautiful female psychiatrist.

What she was doing now was purely for practical purposes, and she had to make it impossible for ordinary people to detect her.

Just like that, Haley spent some time every day making enough money. The rest of the time, she appeared near Raman's company headquarters to gather intelligence.

Not long after, she simply set up a "base" near the company so that she could monitor the place practically day and night.

Luke didn't think much of it.

Haley's behavior was actually his doing.

He had fueled Haley's urge to find Simon, and embedded an irrefutable logic in the depths of her heart — Simon had been sent running by the Clown, and didn't even dare show his face now.

As long as she couldn't find Simon, part of her admiration of and obsession with him would be transferred to the Clown.

Once she was thoroughly disappointed, Haley would abandon the useless Simon in favor of the even stronger and more mysterious Clown.

So, Luke wasn't in a hurry at all.

Whether or not it was fair to Haley was another matter.

2

If it was that easy to get rid of Simon's control over Haley, Luke wouldn't be after Simon's abilities.

This was the lesser of two evils.

At the very least, Luke had the system to remind him not to do anything bad, while Simon didn't.

It was better for Haley to be under Luke's control than to become an accomplice of a monster like Simon.

But without the seaside villa, Luke lost interest in keeping an eye on the female doctor at night.

After setting up enough surveillance equipment, the Level 1 clone went off to do its own thing.

It was incumbent upon him to help relieve the San Francisco drug dealers of extra stock and dispose of redundant personnel.

He carefully selected targets who had committed heinous crimes and were worth a lot of points, and both men and goods went missing.

Most of the mid- and low-level members who were left behind were confused. Did the bosses run off on their own?

As the number of missing bigshots increased to ten, some smart people with good memories finally remembered what happened a few years ago.

The urban horror legend that had once shrouded the neighboring city — the Ghost Butcher.

Tempted by the money, however, most people couldn't help but take over the territories and businesses left behind by the missing persons.

Now, when no more people went missing, the gang members who had picked up the spoils were overjoyed. The terrifying legend was tossed to the back of their minds.

In fact, it was only because Luke realized that many people wanted to run that he stopped harvesting points.

Who knew how long the Level 1 clone would have to stay here – a path of sustainable development was necessary.

He had already learned this lesson in New York.

It was already bad enough when Luke and Selina continued harvesting there.

Then, Frank, the little turtles, and Damon and Mindy went out every now and then to adjust their moods.

All that was left now was a small harvest.

Besides, if the guys from San Francisco ran, Luke wouldn't have the time to look for them.

He could only restrain himself a little and shear the sheep with a little more skill.

Apart from monitoring the female doctor, Luke's Level 1 clone found Dr. Pym, who was hiding in a small building in the wilderness.

Assuming the identity of the bigshot who sold everything, he took the initiative to drop by for a visit.

Luke was in a good mood after obtaining another six Pym Particles.

But this time, the bigshot had agreed in part to Dr. Pym's small request to consider helping him take back his company when the time was right.

Darren Cross, the current CEO of Pym Technologies, was already upset by Dr. Pym's small actions, and it seemed that he was prepared to carry out some less benevolent experiments.

Luke hadn't agreed to deal with Darren before because Darren was a neutral yellow, and it had been a business dispute between him and Dr. Pym; there was no saying who was right or wrong.

But if this guy carried out human experiments that went beyond legal and moral boundaries, he might turn from yellow to red in the system.

At that time, not only would he lose the system's protection, he would also cross Luke's moral bottom line.

Killing Darren would definitely be overboard, but beating him up to learn the Pym Particle technology could only be considered a reward for Luke's righteous hard work.

In any case, Luke wasn't short of money, and the Pym Particle would only be for his own use, so it wasn't like he was digging a hole for Dr. Pym.