Chapter 1034: Harvest and Aftermath

Once again, Luke’s willpower was put to the test.

He chose to put this big reward off until he left Shackelford and returned to New York.

The gains after exercising patience were always sweeter.

It was just like when a hungry person, who originally despised fried rice, would say, “How delicious.”

The difference was that Luke was certain that the remains of the Destroyer absolutely weren’t ordinary fried rice; they were definitely “delicious.”

The remains could be converted into 50,000 points, which was more than double the total of 20,000 points for Blackheart’s wicked thoughts.

He looked forward to seeing what new functions would be added to the inventory.

That was Luke’s biggest gain from fighting the Destroyer.

As for the experience and credit points, they weren’t much.

System: Destroy the Destroyer, save the residents of Shackelford and SHIELD agents. Mission accomplished.

Total experience: 10,000. Total credit: 10,000.

Contribution rate: 30%. EXP +3,000. Credit +3,000.

Host’s experience: 53,300 / 300,000

Credit: 81,000

He had earned 3,000 experience and credit points just by playing support. This exceeded his expectations.

However, he had less than 100,000 points, and the credit points required for Thor’s abilities would easily be thousands or tens of thousands.

That Advanced One-Handed Hammer Proficiencycost two million points. Luke suddenly felt that he was too poor.

His only consolation was that he had never considered using the hammer as his main weapon.

Secondly, this ability was grayed out. He didn’t have enough authorization to learn it.

Instead, Thor’s Elementary abilities and lower were lit up and available.

Obviously, Thor and Tony, these two “heirs,” were “children of destiny,” and could be said to have “overflowing luck.”

Luke passed the day with complicated feelings.

After seeing off Thor and the others at noon, he told Robert what happened last night.

SHIELD naturally made him sign a non-disclosure agreement again, but Luke didn’t think it was a good idea to hide it from Robert.

After all, Shackelford was where the hammer had fallen.

Also, as a retired RED agent, Robert couldn’t be considered an ordinary person.

If he knew what was going on, he would be mentally prepared for anything that happened in the future.

There was no need to stop the “ranch employee Christmas tour” in Houston.

It would only cost a little more for them to play for a few more days. It would be dangerous if Thor and Loki were for some reason to suddenly turn back and fight it out again in Shackelford.

Thus, as long as the ranch employees were willing, they could continue playing before coming back in a few days.

In particular, Luke secretly asked Catherine to have Claire and Joseph keep Drax occupied for a week.

If the stubborn old man came back now, he would realize that not only was there a rundown concrete maze on his ranch, but even half of the main house he lived in had disappeared.

When Thor fought the Destroyer, it was unfortunate that he had attacked it in the direction of the main house — which was why Dr. Jane and Darcy had arrived on the scene so quickly.

When Thor successfully smashed the Destroyer to pieces with a final blow, he blasted out a huge crater in front of the main house.

The rocks and earth that was sent flying, along with the broken pieces of the Destroyer, had brought down part of the main house dozens of meters away.

The only thing that Luke was glad about was that the section that had been wrecked was the kitchen, dining room, toilet and bathroom, which didn’t contain anything important.

The most critical workshed was fine, and Drax’s precious pickup, which was parked inside, was safe.

If the car was gone, the stubborn old man would probably explode when he came back. He would make an exception and give his grown-up grandson a spanking like he was a little brat.

Don’t assume that wasn’t possible.

When Robert had discovered that the back door of the F150 had suffered a tragic fate, his expression had turned ugly.

Of course, he had never once hit Luke.

But this was just a car door.

Drax’s temper was worse. He treasured his self-modified pickup even more.

If the entire car was gone, Luke would probably be beaten up.

That was the reason for Luke’s complicated mood. He quickly finished dealing with the aftermath in Shackelford, then left for Houston in the afternoon with Selina.

The two of them had to go over so that their families would be reassured.

Luke also had to give his grandfather a little warning in advance, in case the stubborn old man exploded in anger.

Before nightfall, the two arrived in Houston and found their families having dinner.

Today was 31 December. The “tour group” was having a hotel buffet. Those who were full could go off to have fun together later; they were all adults, and could do whatever they wanted.

Luke and Selina’s arrival delighted everyone. Dinner was extended by half an hour, before everyone took part in the New Year Eve celebration in Houston.

After a night of fun, everyone went home.

Luke booked a room for himself, while Selina asked to share a room with Claire.

On the first day of 2005, Luke and Selina bade farewell to their families early in the morning and boarded a flight back to New York with Gold Nugget.

Back at his house in Clinton, Luke called Dustin and told him that he was back.

Dustin just said that he got it, before he hung up.

The moment Luke stepped into the house, he selected the option to modify the inventory.

As expected, his consciousness was kicked out again.

The inventory’s functions were sealed once more during the upgrade.

After finishing this most important task, Luke relaxed.

He had done all that he could. There was no need to worry about the rest.

That itch naturally disappeared, and was replaced by an indescribable sense of lightness.

After making himself a pot of Pu’er tea, he sat by the window and looked at the heavy clouds outside and the snow falling in New York. He was in a very good mood. He was finally home.

He handed all the data he had recorded over the past few days to Little Snail for analysis. He sipped his black tea and took out some snacks, before calling for Gold Nugget.

One person watched the snow while one dog watched its TV show. Both enjoyed themselves.

As he watched the snow, Luke reviewed and summed up the previous battle in his mind.

The Destroyer really was very strong, and ridiculously so.

Even the special armor-piercing shell at close range could only scratch its skin a little. Its movements were extremely fast and agile, and it was strong enough to tear down a building with its bare hands. In addition, it also had the ability to hover and fly, and had a long-range laser beam attack.

This was a cheat-level boss.

But Luke was able to successfully complete his experiment, so the outcome wasn’t bad.

By adding Elementary Annihilation to the Viper machine gun’s ordinary armor-piercing bullet, he was able to interrupt the Destroyer’s light beam because the bullet damaged its transparent defense.

In gaming terms, bullets with Elementary Annihilation dealt more damage than -1.

In the end, Luke was able to deal a pretty critical hit with the Barrett sniper rifle.