Gerald arrived much earlier than expected, though he'd broken away from the main group and only brought a helicopter, traveling light.
Seeing the ground covered in mercenary corpses, Gerald wasn't too surprised. After all, he knew Roy had gone up against the Demon King with Iris.
Taken down the Demon King? What's a few mercenaries?
Roy: That sounds a little sus!
"Mr. Black, no survivors?"
"Don't you trust my work?"
Roy nudged the mercenary captain at his feet with his shoe.
"This guy's a special one I saved just for you, and I even recorded our conversation on my phone."
Saying that, Roy pulled out his phone and played the recording for Gerald.
The more Gerald listened, the brighter his eyes got, especially when he heard the mercenary captain say:
"You're certainly not the first, and you won't be the last!"
The phone recording quality wasn't great, but Gerald wasn't a judge. For the FEA, this evidence was more than enough to nail Amalgamated Technologies and Black Mountain Military Corporation.
"Mr. Black, you nailed it!"
Gerald was so excited he almost jumped for joy.
"There's even better news. I took out a monster Amalgamated cooked up using bio-engineering in the swamp. All those giant spiders you saw were born from that thing."
"Excellent! I'll take custody of the body once the main force gets here! Oh, by the way, Mr. Black, do you know where Amalgamated's lab is?"
"It should be inside the gold mine in town, not too far from here."
Hearing this, Gerald let out a weird "heh-heh-heh" laugh.
"Awesome! This time, I'm definitely going to make Amalgamated eat dirt!"
Looks like Amalgamated had really given Gerald a hard time before. Judging by the way he's acting, he must have been holding back for a long time.
Poor guy, looking at his thinning hair, he might be completely bald the next time we meet.
Just then, Samantha, who was standing nearby, asked Gerald with concern.
"Sir, won't Amalgamated try to get revenge on us later?"
Gerald snapped out of his excitement and looked at Samantha, surprised.
"And this lady is?"
Roy gave a quick introduction.
"Samantha Parker, the sheriff of this town, a friend I just met."
Gerald's lips twitched a little. He knew Roy's MO and probably figured this somewhat attractive female sheriff was Roy's new conquest, so he patiently explained.
"If it weren't for the evidence Mr. Black found, Amalgamated might indeed try to retaliate later, but with this evidence in hand, any retaliation would be suicide. Besides, Mr. Black has agent status, and Amalgamated messing with people around him is a big no-no."
Roy hadn't thought of that.
America is a real cop country. There are over 800,000 sworn police officers, an average of one for every 350 people. And that doesn't even include all the secret service types you never hear about.
Going after an agent's family is a major taboo. After all, every agent has family, and then you'd have the FBI, CIA, and who knows who else knocking on your door.
Gerald winked at Roy, like he was saying: "You're welcome for the assist!"
Roy rolled his eyes.
"Even so, you still owe me the money."
"Oh, Mr. Black, that really hurts my feelings!"
Gerald said it with the most serious face, making it hard not to laugh.
Samantha looked at Roy and Gerald strangely. One was an agent, and the other was a director, but their relationship didn't seem like boss and employee at all; it was more like they were buddies.
What happened next was pretty straightforward. The FEA's main force arrived in the mining town pretty quickly. Then, the First Response Assault Reconnaissance Team (FEAR) started going into the swamp to clear out any giant spiders that had escaped, rescue any kidnapped residents, and recover the corpse of the human-faced spider.
The FEA agents headed to the gold mine to take over Amalgamated's research facility.
None of that was Roy's problem, so after giving the mercenary captain and the recording to Gerald, and after they settled on the price, Roy said he wanted to take off.
Gerald didn't object. He really didn't need Roy anymore.
"Samantha, do you and the kids want to come with me? If you don't, you might have to stay in town."
Even though she'd thought about leaving her hometown before, Samantha still hesitated when the moment actually came.
"Don't you need to pack your things?"
Roy knew Samantha was already leaning towards moving, she just hadn't fully committed yet.
"Just bring some changes of clothes. We can always come back and stay in the old house here once in a while."
The old houses in a run-down little town like this probably wouldn't sell anyway. Luckily, the property taxes in these places aren't too bad, so leaving it here wouldn't cost much.
"You're right. I'll go get Ashley and Mike."
"Don't tell anyone else we're leaving. I'm only able to go because of Mr. Ollin's connections."
"I understand."
Back in the warehouse, Moke was still dreaming that his relationship with his dream girl, Samantha, would improve after they went through this tough time together. Little did he know this would be the last time he ever saw her.
A yellow Chevrolet Camaro drove across the desolate Utah plateau.
This state has a total area of 219,887 square kilometers but only a little over three million people. The population density is pretty low, you could say.
For comparison, Dongda Sanxiang, which is about the same size at 210,000 square kilometers, has a resident population of sixty million.
Plus, eighty percent of Utah's population lives in the capital, Salt Lake City, so Roy drove the whole way without seeing another soul.
The scenery around them was pretty boring, so the people in the car just chatted to pass the time.
"Roy, since you're heading back to Texas from Los Angeles, why are we going through Nevada and Utah?"
Ashley, who was away from home for the first time, was like a little kid, constantly asking questions.
Compared to her, Ashley's mom, Samantha, was pretty quiet, staring out the car window, probably lost in thought.
And her younger brother, Mike, was more introverted, so he didn't say much either, only chiming in occasionally when a topic he was interested in came up.
"Because I'm going to get baptized into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Mormon Church, and the Fundamentalist branch is the traditional group that still holds onto the practice of plural marriage.
After the Mormon Church went mainstream in 1935 and ditched the tradition of polygamy, the Fundamentalists were pushed to live on the border between Utah and Arizona.
Roy had written letters to the Mormon Fundamentalists a while back and finally got a reply agreeing to let him join. He just needed to get baptized.
Ashley looked at Roy in shock, and even Samantha looked at him curiously. Only Mike was too young to really understand what the Mormon Fundamentalists were all about.
"Roy, why do you want to join the Mormon Church?"
"Because I have a lot of girlfriends, and I want to give them a home."
Roy didn't try to hide anything. There wasn't much point in lying. Ashley would find out eventually, so he figured it was better to be upfront and lower her expectations.
That way, Ashley might be more likely to accept reality later on.
Ashley opened her mouth, a little taken aback. She'd just been daydreaming about her Prince Charming Roy taking her home to get married, and now Roy had just burst her bubble.
Samantha subtly glanced at her daughter.
"Roy, do you have a lot of girlfriends?"
Just then, Elureesa, who was sitting in the passenger seat, suddenly raised her hand, eager to answer.
"I know! I know! Elureesa has lots of mommies! There's Mommy Dahlia, Mommy Heather, Mommy Penny, Mommy Saltana, Mommy Amy..."
Elureesa started counting her mommies on her fingers, but she ran out of fingers on one hand and had to switch to the other to keep going.
The more Samantha heard, the more worried she became. That was already five!
Ashley stammered, interrupting Elureesa's rapid-fire list.
"Ro... Roy, can you really take care of so many girlfriends?"
"Of course, no problem! Looks like we're here!"
Roy drove the car into a peaceful and quiet little town. There were a lot of those wooden houses with really big yards. These were the traditional homes of the Mormon Fundamentalists, where one house housed a whole big family.
Roy followed the road to the church in the center of town, where he completed the special immersion ritual of the Fundamentalists with the bishop they had arranged to meet.
This ritual was basically just the baptism to join the church.
Afterward, Roy donated some money to the Mormon Fundamentalists and got his official Mormon Fundamentalist ID. With that, he could openly marry multiple wives.
After the joining ceremony, Roy and the others didn't rush to leave the valley. Instead, they decided to rest in town for a bit.
After all, nobody had gotten much sleep last night because of the eight-legged monster incident.
Especially little Mike, whose eyes were practically falling shut. Roy talked it over with Samantha, and they decided to hit the road again tomorrow.
Maybe because Roy had come clean about having so many girlfriends, Ashley's enthusiasm for him had cooled off. She didn't come to bother him that night.
That made Elureesa pretty happy. She could finally enjoy her fresh baby milkshake without being disturbed.
As if she was trying to make up for the baby milkshake she missed yesterday, Elureesa slurped extra enthusiastically this time. For a while, the "squeak, squeak, squeak" sound filled the room.
Anyone who didn't know better would have thought there were mice in the hotel!
In the end, Elureesa insisted on sleeping with her feeding tube, which left Roy feeling pretty helpless.
After trying to coax her for ages without success, Roy just let Elureesa have her way.
The next day, Roy woke up early and went outside the hotel to get some fresh morning air.
The town was still quiet, and the residents hadn't woken up yet.
The pace of life here was really slow. Roy suddenly thought this place would be perfect for retirement. Maybe one day when he got old, he could move to this town.
"Roy, you're up really early."
Samantha appeared from the hotel sometime later. She had dark circles under her eyes, so she probably hadn't slept well either.
"Samantha, why don't you sleep in a little longer? We're not leaving until noon."
"Aren't you up this early too?"
Roy looked at Samantha, sensing she had something she wanted to talk about.
"Hehe, my body's a bit different from yours. Even if I don't sleep for three days, I could still easily run a marathon."
Samantha thought Roy was full of it. Who could run a marathon after being awake for three days? That's not even human.
Well, Roy wasn't exactly human anymore. He was a Nephilim now.
"Roy, I want to talk to you about Ashley."
Samantha finally couldn't hold it in anymore and wanted to talk to Roy about her daughter.
"Samantha, just spit it out."
"Roy, Ashley seems to have a crush on you. She couldn't sleep all night because of you and just finally dozed off."
"Uh-huh, and?"
Roy raised an eyebrow, his expression unchanged.
Samantha took a deep breath.
"Roy, if you can't break up with your other girlfriends, then please leave Ashley alone."
As a traditional Christian, Samantha obviously couldn't accept the Mormon Fundamentalists' practice of plural marriage, even though she still liked Roy.
Though what kind of "like" it was, was hard to say.
Roy shrugged.
"Samantha, I never made a move on Ashley. She's always the one who comes to me, including last night."
Samantha opened her mouth. Actually, she knew what her daughter was like. This kind of thing, going to a handsome guy's room in the middle of the night, was definitely something Ashley would do.
This kind of forward behavior made Samantha, as her mother, feel a little embarrassed.
But there wasn't much she could do. Girls this age are easily swayed by charming guys. Samantha should probably be grateful that her daughter was somewhat cautious and hadn't let any of those smooth talkers get too far.
Roy patted Samantha on the shoulder and started to sweet-talk her.
"Samantha, life's too short. When you're faced with a choice, it's best not to go against your heart, or you'll definitely regret it when you're older. Besides, the choice you're facing now might just be a test from God. All you need to do is make a choice that aligns with your heart and what's right, and leave the rest to God."
Roy pulled out his "leave it to God" card again. He'd used it to charm Jennifer and Needy before, and now he was using it on Samantha.
This line of reasoning was pretty effective on more traditional religious Americans.
Samantha happened to fall into that category. After listening to Roy's words, she lowered her head and fell deep in thought.
Roy quickly pressed his advantage.
"Samantha, I don't think you should only be thinking about your daughter. You need to think about your own life too!"
Hearing this, Samantha instinctively looked up at Roy. His mesmerizing blue eyes made her heart race.
Samantha quickly turned her head away. She was afraid that one more look would make her explode, and getting any closer would melt her.
"I'll go check if the kids are awake!"
Samantha's heart was pounding, and she hurried away from Roy.
Roy raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly, not paying too much attention, and continued to enjoy the view of the valley.
By now, some of the residents had woken up, and the small town in the valley was starting to come alive.
Support me by leaving a comment, voting, and visiting my Patreon at belamy20