Chapter 64: New York? Upheaval?

Logically speaking, after three days of high-intensity work with less than three hours of sleep each night, Luca should have looked haggard, or at least shown some signs of physical fatigue.

However, perhaps because this body was still very young, or simply due to the sheer excitement of creating a finished product with his own hands for the very first time, Luca still felt full of energy at this moment.

Just as he was about to have Haro help him test the newly built 'auxiliary maintenance mecha', Shamira's inquiring voice drifted in from outside the underground laboratory.

"Young master, breakfast is ready. You wouldn't happen to want to eat in the lab again, would you?"

As she spoke, Shamira's footsteps drew closer.

Luca fell into a brief daze before hurrying over to open the door for her. He glanced back at the completed mecha.

*‘There’s no need to rush it right this second.’*

He decided to say directly to Shamira, "Let's go, let's go up and eat."

With a yawn after speaking, Luca turned his head back to look at Haro, who was still sitting inside the auxiliary mecha, and gave a soft call, "Come on, Haro, let's go together~"

As his voice trailed off, Haro, which had been connected to the auxiliary mecha, immediately fluttered its pair of ear-fins, extended its two short arms, and exerted a slight force against the connecting parts on both sides.

Immediately following, with a 'pop' sound, the orange Haro plucked itself out of the mecha's 'cockpit' like pulling a radish.

Then, it hopped and bounced over to Luca's side.

Well... and bumped right into his knee once again.

"Stupid Luca! Stupid Luca!"

"Cockpit too small! Cockpit too small!"

Watching the orange Haro angrily ramming against his knee, Luca simply chose to ignore it and strode toward the stairs.

In fact, during the process of building the auxiliary mecha over the past few days, this wasn't the first time Luca had made such 'minor errors'.

If Haro hadn't been watching closely and issuing timely reminders from the side, whether this piece of work could have been finished in the end might have been a question.

Therefore, by this time, Luca was already used to being frequently scolded by Haro, this 'strict teacher', a few times.

On the contrary, Shamira first cast a somewhat peculiar look at the spherical robot that was bouncing along behind Luca, and then swept her gaze over the messy state of the laboratory.

She thought to herself with a hint of strangeness:

*‘When the young master invented those little gadgets before, it didn't seem this complicated? And why did this one take so long?’*

*‘Could this pet toy ball be some kind of immensely powerful invention?’*

Though she had some doubts in her heart, Shamira was not naturally a very curious person.

Besides, she didn't know much about these kinds of inventions and creations, so she simply followed silently behind Luca as he went upstairs.

Arriving at the dining room, looking at the empty seats around the dining table, Luca turned around in confusion and asked Shamira, "Where are the others?"

Shamira, who was still lost in thought, immediately replied upon hearing this, "Shield Mountain took Green Bull and Wrench to convert the bonds and gold bars we originally collected from... Kingpin into cash."

Shamira intentionally lowered her voice slightly when mentioning Kingpin.

However, Luca himself didn't really care.

As for the gold bars and bonds Shamira mentioned, they referred to the items she had rummaged through and found in that room after taking down Kingpin.

It was only after returning that Luca finally had the time to examine them carefully.

Aside from the gold bars and bearer bonds—which Kingpin had presumably kept as a nest egg just in case—the most important item among them was actually a USB flash drive containing dark secrets and compromising material about the New York police officers and officials that Kingpin had bribed.

Inside this drive were substantive dirt on over a hundred people of all ranks, ranging from municipal council members and regional judges down to precinct detectives and prison guards.

In Luca's view upon discovering this afterward, the information on this USB flash drive might be far more important than the 10% share he had originally intended to acquire.

However, Luca hadn't yet figured out how exactly he should utilize this resource.

After all, these were all 'dirt' and scandals; once actually put to use, while they would exert their power, they would also instantly offend a batch of 'big figures' involved in them.

For now, Luca could only temporarily seal these materials away and keep them as a trump card of his own.

Returning to the dining table:

After stating the whereabouts of Shield Mountain and the other two, Shamira, who had been about to say something more, hesitated for a brief moment and decided to remain silent.

Luca glanced at her with slight surprise, but immediately understood what was going on.

Recalling their meals together over the past few days:

Thresh would bury his head silently in his plate without lifting it once, putting on the appearance of someone with severe social anxiety who was terrified of being noticed while eating.

And Longbow would lay out his meal and raise his red glass of wine in a posture of self-pity.

Presumably, with no other teammates present, those two probably weren't very willing to share a meal with him.

*‘So... these capable guys all have their own odd quirks to some extent, huh?’*

Luca shook his head with an amused smile, took his seat helplessly, and began to eat with Shamira.

Haro, seeing this from the side, rolled back and forth on the floor out of boredom.

"Eat! Eat!"

Ignoring the little gadget that was entertaining itself thoroughly, Luca picked up the remote control on the table and turned on the morning news.

As soon as the television screen lit up, the sweet voice of the news anchor washed over them, laden with tension.

"In recent days, riots in the Midtown district of New York have continued unabated, and the out-of-control situation is spreading to the entirety of Manhattan at a speed visible to the naked eye!"

The exquisitely made-up face of the female anchor was full of horror as the camera suddenly cut to a street view billowing with thick smoke.

"Following yesterday's alien weapon attack on the Fifth Avenue bank, the Chase branch on Wall Street had its roof blown open by heavy firepower again this morning. Within a mere five days, three major bank robberies have occurred consecutively, and the thugs wielding alien weapons are threatening the safety of the people of New York every single moment!"

"In the three armed robberies so far, seven innocent citizens have left us forever!"

"Yet even under such circumstances, a vicious incident of an on-duty white police officer shooting a Black citizen still occurred in Midtown!"

The footage froze on a Black citizen who had fallen to the ground after being shot. The news anchor leaned forward, her tone filled with accusation.

"May I ask City Hall? When the thugs are armed to the teeth with alien technology, what are our police doing?"

"Right now, I can't help but ask on behalf of those innocent citizens! New York Police Department, are you protectors or chaos creators?!"

The voice on television paused slightly, the female anchor taking a few angry-sounding breaths before finally speaking again.

"Next, let's connect with a survivor of the robbery at the Chase branch in Midtown, who experienced this..."

The voice continued, and the footage shifted to an on-site interview.

However, Luca and Shamira, who were in the middle of their meal, looked at each other in blank dismay at this moment.