After they reached the police department, the policemen covered Eli with his jacket under his request so that people outside would not identify him or take pictures.

10 minutes later, Eli was escorted to an investigation room. Inside the room, there was a metallic table, three chairs, and a one-sided viewing glass. Two of the chairs on one side of the table were occupied by two police officers. Eli was then sat down on the opposite chair before the escorting policeman gave the cuff keys to one of the sitting officers and exited the room.

The officer that sat on the right, a large Caucasian man in his early forties, said in a slightly warm voice, "Hello, Mr. White. I am chief Investigator Liam, and this is Investigator Wyatt. We will be interrogating you about this case, as we want to clear some doubts we have. Overall, though, this case is pretty much solved. We have an audio recording of the entire event through 911, the testimony of Ms. Boisseau,  the weapons of the serial killers, torture tools we found in the basement, and even an SD card we found on the female serial killer that depicted what she was about to do to Ms. Boisseau. Wyatt, please remove Mr. White's handcuffs. We won't be needing them here."

Wyatt, a tall man in his early thirties, removed Eli's handcuffs and sat back down. Eli, now free from the handcuff, relaxed a bit more but was curious about the torture tools and the SD card they found.

"Torture tools? SD card?"

Wyatt answered, with disgust clear on his face, "Yeah. Those two apparently had an extreme fetish to... Get off... On mutilating young women."

He then changed his tone to a thankful one, " Luckily, Ms. Boisseau only got a mental shock from them and didn't experience the torture in person. All thanks to your timely intervention. If you waited for us, we wouldn't have made it in time."

If Eli saw the serial killers as human until now, he now suddenly felt like they were less than animals, lessening his mental burden about killing them.

Liam asked him, "Eli, let's start from the beginning. How did you arrive at the first crime scene, where you found Ms. Boisseau's handbag?"

Eli couldn't help but cry in his mind.

Damn... The toughest question to explain right off the bat. I can't just tell them I am a psychic, could I? Think Eli... Oh, right, wasn't there a food stand in that area?

"Actually, one of my colleagues retired today, and we needed to stay an extra hour. Although we ate there a bit, I was pretty hungry, so I wanted to eat from a certain food stand midway. I just so happened to pass by that alley when I chanced on Chloe's bag."

Liam raised an eyebrow at this answer, as it sounded a bit... Unnatural and coincidental. However, he couldn't refute it, and he was not interested in refuting it either since he took this investigation as a formality.

"Alright, next question. How did you manage to track their whereabouts?"

Another tough one... Ugh... There is no escaping this one. I need to say something that is at least mildly plausible. Hm... Chloe had a bleeding head injury, right? Maybe I can play on it.

"I dimly saw a trail that was still unwashed by the rain containing blood. I followed it, as well as my own gut feeling."

Although it sounded a bit farfetched, Liam had no way to refute that, as the rain already washed up the trail. There is no telling if what Eli said was true or false.

"Alright, next question. How did you notice the killer on the second floor? From my understanding, it should have been dark over there."

"Well, I dimly saw a shadow aiming a pistol at me. I got scared and shot two rounds at him. On the second shot, I lucked out and hit his arm."

Liam nodded since that sounded far more plausible than the other answers.

"Why did you go for the killer on the second floor and not the one in the basement?"

"I figured that Chloe would probably be placed downstairs, and I was afraid of entering a deadlock in a hostage situation and then getting pincered."

Liam agreed with this statement, as it was a tactically correct move.

"Why did you kill the male serial killer?"

"I didn't intend to, but I got startled from a creaking noise behind me, so I instinctively shot him. As luck would have it, I hit him square in the chest. He was also about to shoot me at the same time, but as luck would have it, I took him out first."

"Fair enough. So why did you attempt negotiating with the second killer? What assurance did you have that you had the guts to pull that off?"

"Well, first of all, she had a hostage, IE, Chloe. I couldn't go in guns blazing on her when she had a gun to Chloe's head. That's why I attempted to negotiate instead. As for my self-assurance, I have a technique I trained out of boredom, where I hide a pistol in my sleeve and then draw it out quickly. So, I hid the other killer's pistol in my sleeve."

Liam was a bit surprised to hear that Eli had such a trick, but it was not beyond his expectations. He knew of a few people capable of such a trick.

"We have a law that forbids concealed weapons. However, considering the situation, you probably didn't have a choice. Can you demonstrate your trick?"

"Yes. Can I have an unloaded pistol?"

"Wyatt, give him your unloaded pistol."

Wyatt complied, unloaded his pistol, double-checked for bullets, removed the magazine, and gave the pistol to Eli.

Eli took the pistol and placed it inside his right sleeve. When the pistol was fully tucked inside, he willed it to go inside his inventory.

He then took a deep breath before quickly extending his right arm while extracting the pistol right into his palm, causing a visual effect as if he sleeve-drew it to his hand.

I hope I didn't mess up...

Wyatt drew a long whistle and couldn't help but comment jokingly, "Hey, can I hire you to be a magician for my son's birthday? That was some fine trick you did there. I didn't even see how you drew it out."

Liam, who was also a bit amazed, couldn't help but comment, "No wonder you wanted to negotiate with the killer. You had things under control all along, didn't you?"

Eli shrugged and said unashamedly, "Pretty much, I guess."

And I had to turn back time 14 times, get shot a dozen times, and use 53 seconds...

"So, you disarmed yourself to drop down the guard of the killer and make her target you instead? And then you get the drop on her? Did I understand it correctly?"

"Yes, that is exactly how it went."

Liam couldn't help but applaud Eli, "Good thinking, kid. You need to have the skills, courage, and wit to pull something like that off. Tracking the killers back to their hideout is already worth great merit, but singlehandedly taking care of a case that an entire SWAT team would have a problem dealing with? Marvelous."

Eli smiled sincerely, "Thank you, sir."

The recognition of my efforts feels good. Still not worth being shot a dozen times, but it still feels good, nonetheless.

And then Liam changed his tone a bit, "And that brings me to a point. You may keep the credit of locating the serial killers, allowing the timely rescue of Ms. Boisseau. However, I am afraid that you would need to switch the rescue part to us."

Eli already knew this would come, so he just wanted to ask to confirm, "Why?"

Liam sighed, "It is because you could be charged with gross negligence and reckless behavior. While in actual fact you did nothing wrong, and your conduct could be considered exemplary in standard procedure and results... You are not a policeman. Even if you have the good samaritan law on your side, you were fully aware that you risked Ms. Boisseau's life the whole time, rendering it void and null. Even if she or her family doesn't sue you, the state might sue you."

He then added, "What's more, it does not benefit you to be known as the guy who singlehandedly rescued a girl and killed two serial killers in the slightest. On the contrary, some people would view you as a murderer instead. The family of the killers might view you with hostility as well. Naturally, you may choose to keep the whole credit, but I am afraid that it would only bring trouble to you. In a sense, it's for your own good."

Eli knew that there were probably other motives behind the scenes... However, he didn't give a damn about any of that. He was just glad Chloe was safe, and publicity was not something he desired.

He said truthfully, "Honestly, I really don't care about the credit as I have nothing to use it for except for honor. I also don't want publicity, so you can say that an anonymous informant gave you the details about the place. All I care about is that my friend is safe and sound."

Liam nodded, "I respect that. I wish we had more people like you, who were not so selfish about such things."

Eli was then asked a few more questions before he was finally released and was given a ride home. By the time he arrived, it was already 11 pm.

After he arrived, the first thing he did was to take a hot shower and eat something. Today, he was too exhausted to do his daily quest, so instead, he checked his status and the system prompt he received from before.

There were three changes in his status. First, he got 2 points from killing the serial killers. Points he wished that he didn't get in the first place. Second, his accumulated time dropped to only 37 seconds. And most importantly, his precognition increased by 34 points.

He expected the first two changes, but the third change was unexpected.

Was this because I used precognition all the time? Well, I did rely on it to track down where Chloe was, and it did warn me a lot about danger. I guess this counts as training too.

After that, Eli also checked the system prompt he received. It was actually a quest he got right before he entered the alley.

Quests:

Main Quests:

Side Quests:

1. Basic training(3/30)
2. Save Chloe(Complete)