A swift and decisive victory in the early stages, a post-apocalyptic survival story in America!

In the warehouse park.

Lola ate the biscuits left by the young man and drank some water. After her strength had mostly recovered, she cleaned herself up and slowly got up.

After moving around a few times and searching again to confirm that everything was correct, Lola looked dejected.

All the valuables were taken away by that bastard drug addict.

All useful evidence and clues have been disposed of.

She had nothing left, except the pickup truck license plate number she had been staring at for days.

Nick Grant's van was ransacked by that bastard, leaving nothing of value behind, including the rental agreement for this 24-hour private warehouse.

Lola didn't even know where she was...

Lola got into her Honda, drove around for a bit, and then finally found her location.

She found a bike hotel nearby, took a shower, changed into clean secondhand clothes she had bought, and after thinking for a long time to make sure that the story she had made up had no loopholes, she picked up the hotel phone and dialed her boss's number.

Nick threw away the SIM card; the situation was urgent, so this was the only option.

"Chief, this is Laura Thorne..."

"I'll switch lines and call you back, just a moment." Chief Maeve McCallister, sensing something amiss, hung up the phone immediately.

Soon, the landline in Lola's room rang.

"Tell me, what exactly happened?"

"These past few days, I've been imprisoned by Nick Grant in..."

Apart from the young man whose name she didn't know, Lola told the whole truth, how she discovered Nick's problem, how Nick tricked and kidnapped her, and how she escaped when Nick and his accomplices turned against each other. She told the whole story in great detail, half true and half false.

Maeve McCallister was shocked. After a long silence on the phone, she finally ordered, "Stay where you are and wait for my call! Don't tell anyone about this. Leave it to me!"

This was within Lola's expectations.

The shooting in Minnesota had just happened, and the department was already embroiled in a legal mess. If, at this time, a scandal broke out involving senior agents colluding with outsiders to kidnap and traffic illegal immigrants and attempting to murder a colleague, it would be like adding insult to injury.

It seems likely that Nick Grant will be able to receive the honor of dying in the line of duty and being buried in a national cemetery.

How ironic!

After hanging up the phone, Lola was exhausted and remained silent for a long time.

She was exhausted, but she knew it wasn't time to sleep yet.

Nick Grant's body still needs to be dealt with; the mess from this incident hasn't been completely cleaned up yet.

She had already prepared a story based on the scene: she didn't kill Nick; rather, he and his accomplices had a dispute over the loot, which led to a shootout. She took the opportunity to escape, and when she returned, Nick was already shot and dead...

After leaving the hotel, Lola went to the warehouse park and checked her story again to make sure there were no obvious flaws before she felt relieved.

Not long after, a convoy of ICE police cars appeared in the distance, their lights flashing, looking imposing.

……

……

At the William Thomson mansion.

Li Qi spent half a day in the garage, but couldn't find any clues about the other location from the pile of bills and letters.

Eleven people are still missing. It's unlikely that Nick would go to the trouble of undertaking two such large-scale projects. Therefore, the whereabouts of those eleven people remains a big question mark.

Nick has two cell phones. The one he used as an ICE agent was given to Laura Thorne, while the other, which contains the recordings and belongs to "William Thomson," is still in Richie's possession.

Having already cracked all the software codes while Nick was still alive, Li Qi searched through the files but found no valuable clues.

Logically speaking, if Nick can use the identity of William Thomson to manage the live streams featuring these six women, then he might also use another identity, taking advantage of his position, to run other side businesses that don't require such daily attention.

For example, human trafficking? Or even more so, the trafficking of human organs?

In his past life, Li Qi would have thought that his ideas were too far-fetched, but in this life, Li Qi only feels that his imagination is too limited.

Given Nick's obsession with money and indifference towards women, he's very likely capable of doing something like this.

However, it seems unlikely that there could be other transit warehouses, so this other identity is questionable.

Since it didn't concern him, Li Qi decided to stay out of it.

Whether or not to save lives, I don't have that kind of sentiment. When fellow countrymen are in danger, that's fate. If we happen to meet, I don't mind lending a hand, but I don't have that noble awareness to act out of a sense of justice and save lives.

The most urgent task is to restore physical fitness.

Regardless of the attributes panel, just looking at my small frame of less than 100 pounds, I'm not cut out for anything dangerous or bloody.

Putting aside skills and focusing solely on physical strength, I probably couldn't beat a stronger woman, like Sofia before her injury.

Looking at his character attributes after bringing up the system panel, Li Qi fell into deep thought.

Currently, his mental energy is at its peak, reaching 9 points. Li Qi doesn't know what the normal mental energy level is, but having experienced the invincibility of having 11 points of mental energy, he is somewhat hesitant about whether to create a super brain.

I've increased my endurance before, but there haven't been any changes in my body.

I've never touched strength or agility before, so I don't know what would happen if I added them.

In the skill binding section, there's a new skill called "Surgeon," which is also worth one star.

It would be great if these skill points could be used to add stars...

The moment the thought crossed my mind, the stars behind those skills started twinkling, glittering and dazzling.

Li Qi was taken aback. He looked it over and, without hesitation, chose to use the firearm and focused his mental energy on it!

【Ding! 】

[Weapon Usage Skill Upgrade: ★★]

[Weapon Handling: Your weapon handling skills have greatly improved. Compared to novice shooters, your shooting accuracy is higher, your ability to complete shots in complex environments is stronger, and your ability to handle certain special firearms has also significantly improved.]

Succeeded?

Li Qi was overjoyed.

Compared to their inherent attributes, these skill bonuses are actually more appealing.

Especially in terms of firearms handling, during last night's gunfight, I could clearly feel that I was having a very difficult time controlling this 8-inch Python revolver. Apart from the first shot being somewhat reliable, continuous firing was simply like a human outline being drawn by a master.

This is only a one-star "Weapon Use" skill. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably have a hard time even aiming at an elephant from ten meters away.

Come to think of it, most people can't handle a 6-inch revolver, and an 8-inch one is more for hunting and self-defense. The fact that Decado made such a gun is more about showing off and intimidating people; it's not practical at all.

After being promoted to two stars, Li Qi did not feel any obvious difference. He only felt that the python revolver was much more handy. With a casual swing, he could hit whatever he wanted.

The worry and concern about the shooting percentage disappeared, replaced by a confidence akin to knowing that a shot will definitely make it.

The fact that free points could be used to upgrade skills made Li Qi ecstatic, but he was conflicted about what to do with the remaining two points.

I wanted to try adding it to Strength to see what would happen, and I also wanted to add it to Spirit to see what kind of changes ten points of Spirit would bring.

Thinking about what to do next, if I'm going to Nick's house to look for money, it seems more useful to be mentally prepared.

Strength and endurance can gradually recover now that my body has recovered its health.

However, when walking on the street, using a two-star firearm seems insufficient to protect one's safety...

Damn it, I don't have enough points! Why can't I just get 10,000 points at once?

Li Qi secretly grumbled that the system wasn't generous enough. After thinking seriously for a moment, he decided to add a little more to the use of firearms and a little more to the mental aspect.

Let's get started! First, click "Use Weapons"!

【Ding! 】

[Weapon Usage Skill Upgrade: ★★★]

[Firearms Handling: Your firearm handling has reached a state of perfect harmony between man and weapon. Your experience is incredibly rich, and your handling skills are superb. Now, what limits your further progress is your limited knowledge of firearm principles and mechanics. To advance further, you need to master more firearms knowledge; you need to go to the library and pore over classic texts, rather than rushing to the battlefield or shooting range to hone your skills.]

Li Qi thought to himself, "Does this mean that I've reached a bottleneck in combining theory and practice? If I want to improve further, practice is useless, so I have to rely on theory?"

It looks like Samsung isn't at max level yet, how can it be five stars?

As his skill level increased to three stars, a strange emotion washed over him, and Li Qi finally understood what it meant to be one with his weapon.

Holding the python revolver, he could clearly feel from what angle to fire and where to hit, so that a single shot could penetrate the wooden wall and kill Nalin, who was standing around the corner spying on him.

That feeling was too mysterious to be described in words, it could only be understood intuitively.

Nalin cautiously peeked out, instinctively sensing the intense killing intent emanating from the wiry, blond youth. After hesitating for a long time, she finally mustered the courage to say, "My dear master, you must be hungry. I have prepared a sumptuous dinner; please come in and enjoy!"