"Can you even hear what you're saying? Are you trying to kill me with all the stress about your safety?" A feminine voice came through the earpiece of the phone held by Kate's ears.
"Mom, you have to understand, I am a police officer. How am I supposed to gain merits and be promoted if I don't deal with criminals?
If I come back home, I will not be able to experience anything. How am I supposed to grow if I cannot face challenges?" Kate responded, her expression showing that she was completely unwilling to follow through what her mother was telling her.
"Kate, you know that I lost your father. It is already good enough that I allowed you to be a police officer, but, you cannot follow the same trend as your father.
The issue concerning your father is something that I don't want it to repeat again. So, for your mother's sake, can you please stop putting your life in danger?
You know, after your father left, you are the only one left. If you leave, then who is going to stay with me?
Mom cares about your safety. I allowed you to become a police officer, but you had to sneak away to a small city that is filled with gangsters.
I could have already intervened using the family influence, to deal with those small gangsters there, but you should know, those small gangsters are related to the big syndicates in one way or the other.
It is better not to continue provoking them. Otherwise, something small might suddenly grow into a mountain that might crush our entire family." The lady's voice from the other hand seemed to be quite desperate.
Kate was also feeling helpless. She understood what her mother was trying to imply.
But even then, she had her own vision and aims. And right now, she had the intention of dealing with the gangsters.
She hated gangsters the most. After all, when she was young, she had lost her father, due to the schemes of the gangsters.
While until now, she did not really understand much about what had happened, she basically understood, it was all due to gangsters.
It was for this reason that she wanted to become a police officer. And, using her own effort, climb the ladders, all the way to the top level possible.
There, she should have enough authority of dealing with those gangsters that were involved with the death of her father.
It was just that, she understood, it was not going to be easy to be able to deal with them.
After all, even with the influence that her family had, they had not managed to deal with the perpetrators, even though several years had already gone by.
This in itself was enough to indicate just how powerful the gangsters behind the death of his father were.
It was just that, Kate did not believe that those gangsters were stronger than the law.
They might be strong within a city, within an entire province, but were they strong enough to be able to compete against the entire national government?
She did not believe so. That was why, she decided to try as much as possible, gain merits, reach the highest level of authority as possible.
With a high level of authority, who would control her? It would be quite easy for her to be able to deal with the perpetrators.
And where was the best place for her to grow? It was obviously an area that was teeming with gangsters.
That was why, after she went through the police academy, she used the connections that she had, in order to be brought to Drenn city.
This was one of the small cities within the eastern province that was quite dominated by gangsters.
She thought, facing gangsters occasionally would allow her to grow.
While there was danger, she believed that she would be able to deal with them slowly. She believed in her own abilities.
It was just that, due to the previous incident where two police officers ended up dying, her mother had gotten the news and was extremely worried about her.
It was due to this that previously, she immediately asked for her to be transferred from the previous department to another.
And, that was because she had refused going back home.
And right now, Kate understood, her mother had already gotten the information that she was currently investigating a certain gangster.
As for the gangster that she was investigating, it was none other than Dante.
She understood, Dante was related to the Phantom gang, which was a big gang within this city.
If not for the connection with this Phantom gang, Kate believed that those two police officers would not have died.
When she saw the death of two of her colleagues, she was infuriated. She was reminded of the pain of losing her father, and her hatred for gangsters grew.
It was for this exact reason that she was even willing to defy her mother, to continue searching for evidence against Dante.
She understood, even if she gained the evidence, it would not be enough to be able to deal with that guy.
After all, within this city that was mainly dominated by gangsters, how was it possible to be able to deal with the gangsters on their own turf?
So, she was intending to use some connections that she had, to make sure that Dante was locked in prison.
"Mom, you don't need to worry. I will be here for at most a month. After that, I will come back.
But before then, please allow me to continue with what I am doing. I promise, I will not put my life at risk. In case of any danger, I will retreat immediately." Kate took a deep breath before she spoke.
She understood, she had to assure her mother. Otherwise, if she kept on insisting otherwise, her mother would use force to bring her back home.
If her mother really went all out, there was not even a chance for her to be able to resist. She would be forcibly brought back home.
"Sigh!" After quite a while of silence, a helpless sigh came from the other end of the call.
"Okay, one month. But, understand that I am keeping watch of what you are doing. If I get the information that you have gotten yourself involved in anything risky, there will be no any further discussion." The lady stated before she ended the call.
Kate felt quite helpless, sitting on the couch in her apartment.
"I guess I will have to speed things up. Otherwise, I might not be able to even do what I want before being taken back." Kate mumbled in a low voice.
Immediately after that, she put her phone on top of the table, before taking the laptop that was on the table, as she began to search for information.
...
For 3 consecutive days, Michael kept following the same routine.
It was now the fourth day since he entered the hotel, and the 11th day since he got the system.
The people that were in charge of serving his meals had not changed, with the lady during the day shift, and the man during the night shift.
It was just about an hour after he began reading, after the lunch break. Now, the progress bar had already reached 99%.
Currently, Michael was lying on the couch, his belly facing the ceiling, while watching a video in fast forward.
It was a video from outside the car, as the car maneuvered on a bumpy terrain.
And as the video was coming to an end, the progress bar finally reached 100%.
[Experience full. Level up. Driving skills upgraded to the intermediate level. +10SP.]
Not long after the prompt from the system arrived, there was a wave of information that appeared in Michael's mind.
And a few seconds later, the information began merging with Michael, making it seem as though Michael had been reading about that information, and understood it clearly.
At the same time, his muscle memory was also enhanced, with his reflexes matching those of a driver who had been driving for several years.
At the moment, Michael had gained the experience of a driver who had been driving for at least 5 years.
It was quite amazing, to gain 5 years of experience within just 3 days. And more than that, all that he had to do was to read and watch a few videos.
'What would I do without the system? Maybe, until now, I would still be working for Dante, still holed up in the basement, recording some transaction details.' Michael shook his head as he thought about this.
Now, Michael focused on something else. That was, what skill to advance next.
During the past 3 days, he had managed to do some research before going to bed.
He was looking for the skills that required him to read less, so that he would target them for advancement.
Currently, he had a total of 24.975 SP, which was not enough for him. He still needed that 1000 SP, before heading out.
Even though he had already done some research, and got a few skills that he could focus on, he decided against it.
It was better for him to advance one of the two intermediate level skills to the advanced level.
Even though he was not sure about the time that he would need in order to be able to advance the skill to the advanced level, it was worth a try.
And if it did not take a considerable amount of time, he might as well decide to advance the other intermediate level skill as well, before focusing on the other skills that he had researched on.
"Okay, then, let's try the unarmed combat skill." Michael muttered before he began downloading some PDFs.