When the psychiatrist broke free from her shackles and returned to her natural self, Luke had been silently watching her from behind.
He could only sigh at her swimming in the middle of the night: What a great swimsuit! Hm, no, it was really big.
He had been in Tijuana for the past few days.
He had already set up detection devices around the villa, but these devices were all passive receivers.
That was because when he had been tracking Simon that night, he had realized that the other party seemed to be able to sense the wave signature of the detection devices.
It wasn't wrong to pay more attention to this strange and troublesome Simon.
Luke was even willing to let his level-two clone stay here and wait for him. Of course, it wasn't because he wanted a certain psychiatrist's body.
He just wanted Simon's abilities.
Although he hadn't defeated Simon that night and couldn't obtain a list of the other party's abilities, that in itself was a very clear reminder.
The tall and thin white man who had been knocked out in the villa wasn't Simon Nepel, but Jamie Thomas, an American magnate with a proven background.
This magnate's background had been thoroughly investigated in the past few days, and there was a 99% chance that it wasn't Simon.
The only similarity between him and Simon was that he had come to the Tijuana villa on vacation seven or eight days ago.
Although it seemed unusual for him not to bring his wife along on vacation, it was actually very reasonable.
There were cameras in some public places in Tijuana. After this magnate came here, he would play with one or two hot young Mexican girls every day.
This was enough to prove that it was reasonable for him not to bring his wife on vacation, and instead lied about going on a business trip.
On the other hand, this magnate's "corpse" had been examined in Space 2.
Many areas of his brain had been damaged, and it would be difficult for him to recover. He was 100% in a vegetative state.
Luke had also secretly checked the suspicious targets on Simon's escape route, and found that they all had mild brain damage.
Haley, too, showed signs of mild brain damage.
In fact, before Haley woke up in the villa the next day, Luke had already dug into her memories.
He had analyzed Simon countless times when he had brought her to Tijuana.
The conclusion was that Simon was no longer a person on the physical level, but more like a "ghost."
He could quickly enter and control a person's body.
During this period, the consciousness of the person being controlled might be able to sense the outside world, or they might be completely asleep.
Haley was the only one who could sense the outside world. The others were in deep sleep.
This would also explain how Simon had moved from the villa to Tijuana so quickly.
He was like a ghost playing checkers, constantly shuttling through other people's bodies.
As long as the time taken to enter and exit was short enough, it could achieve an effect similar to teleportation.
Luke had been very suspicious when he speculated about Simon's abilities that night.
After confirming Simon's ability through all sorts of clues, he was even more determined to find this guy.
It had to be noted that Luke's "Star of Justice" was a combination skill of Elementary Mental Body and Doppelganger.
No matter how he looked at it, Simon's ability seemed to be related to a mental body, and Luke might be qualified to learn it.
Considering the practicality of the Star of Justice, how could a certain someone not covet Simon's possession ability, even if it was only a partial qualification to learn it?
That was only one of the reasons.
The second point that was worth investigating was why Jamie, who had been possessed by Simon, kept trying to attack Luke with both hands.
Then, he suddenly gave up on Jamie and possessed Haley, surprising Luke and injuring him.
After a thorough examination, it was confirmed that Haley didn't have any superpowers. It was impossible for her to scratch through the nano suit with her fingernails or even pierce into Luke's muscles.
Thus, Simon's possession had probably given her the ability to break armor with her bare hands.
As a master of control, Luke speculated that Simon's possession wasn't a simple mental control, nor was it a physical control like pheromones.
The fact that he could use the body of the possessor to unleash his superpowers made Luke think of many things.
For example, this ability to break armor with bare hands was very similar to the bare-handed dissection of Patient 3, the "cosmetic surgeon," at Kings Park Sanatorium.
He had taken Haley into the ocean through the sanatorium's sewers and swam 50 kilometers to New Jersey. This was also very similar to the ability of Patient 4, the "Murloc."
More importantly, Haley was one of Simon's doctors and one of his main research assistants.
That was because Simon had a double identity at Kings Park Sanatorium.
Since he was the researcher of Patients 0 to 4, including Luke, he was also the main research subject of the entire project.
He was a completely different existence from a normal person, a monster who was happy to study himself.
According to Haley's speculation, Simon had probably fled the sanatorium because he had a serious disagreement with the investor of the sanatorium.
The investor simply wanted to control Simon and even use him to control other superhumans, thus forming a superhuman squad.
Simon, on the other hand, was mainly studying how to control other superhumans.
For the investor, an uncontrollable Simon was scarier than an enemy. At the very least, the enemy didn't need to be supported.
Thus, after more than a year of research, they finally decided to attack Simon and turn this monster into real research material.
Haley didn't know much about the specifics of the conflict. She had simply been taken away by Simon.
But from the information she had given him and the information he had gathered from the sanatorium, Luke guessed that Simon was probably wary of the investor.
Or rather, the investor had the ability to pose a threat to Simon.
That was why Simon had decisively given up on the sanatorium and run to Mexico.
Of course, it was also possible that Simon had already obtained a way to use Patients 1 to 4's superpowers, which was why he had left without hesitation.
Simon's possession was the ability that Luke was most interested in and was determined to obtain.
The way he could obtain other people's superpowers was his second goal.
Faced with this kind of buy-one-get-one-free deal, even if this "one" couldn't be learned in the end, that wouldn't stop Luke from being determined to catch Simon.
With that in mind, Luke found Haley, who hadn't slept in the middle of the night but had come for a night swim, rather pleasing to the eye.
If it hadn't been for the intelligence provided by this insider, he might have missed Simon, who was a "treasure trove."
If he didn't learn of Simon's existence after two years, it would be very difficult for him to obtain Simon's abilities.
After all, Simon might only have the abilities of Patients 1 to 4, and none of them were particularly strong.
Once this guy learned abilities like magnetic field control to make up for his shortcomings, or strengthened his advantages with pheromone control and mental hallucination, he would become a super troublesome opponent.
Even so, Luke was glad that he was using Lord Chou's identity this time. Otherwise, he would really be worried about Simon's counterattack.
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