New Gods of North America

Having listened to the American History class with great interest, Wayne packed up his things, planning to return to his dorm room first to drop them off, and then head to the cafeteria for a meal.

Just as he reached the outside of the dormitory, Wayne spotted a carriage parked on the lawn beside the road.

Doug stood respectfully beside the carriage, his hands clasped in front of him, waiting.

"Doug, what brings you here?"

Wayne greeted Doug and a coachman who looked unfamiliar, indicating for Doug to follow him upstairs.

"Miss Linna had Parker bake a lot of Conkes pies based on your instructions, Mr. Wayne, and asked us to deliver them to her friends in the academy.

This one is specially for you, Mr. Wayne. Willie has already gone ahead; I stayed here to wait for you."

Doug didn't join the procession directly.

Instead, he signaled the coachman to open the carriage door and carefully carry out two large trays from inside.

One tray held cutlery and plates, while the other was covered with a handled metal dome.

After that, the two of them followed.

Conkes pies...?

Wayne lifted the metal dome and peeked inside.

It was an American-style pizza, estimated to be at least 14 inches, topped with a generous amount of cheese, bacon, ham, and beef granules—a luxury compared to the academy's cheap cafeteria offerings.

This kind of "cheese that stretches" wasn't even available in American stores at this time.

Wayne had simply pointed it out from memory, and Chef Parker had figured it out himself.

Of course, it tasted delicious,

but a 14-inch pizza... in this era without refrigerators or microwaves, who could possibly finish it?

Wayne had Doug take the items to the common lounge on the first floor of the dormitory.

Several senior students or classmates, who could be considered "roommates," gathered around, curiously asking, "What's this?"

"Free pizza! Conkes specialty, everyone can have a taste."

Wayne responded while grabbing Mcken Reeves, the "dorm supervisor," who happened to be passing by and seemed to be trying to avoid him, to help.

"Limited quantity, everyone can take a slice. Mcken, keep an eye on it."

Then Wayne asked Doug and his companion if they had had dinner.

The three of them demonstrated by each taking a slice with a plate and heading towards the dorm rooms.

As for cutlery...

The pizza had already been sliced by Chef Parker, so who needed knives and forks? Just use your hands.

Everyone was curious about this cheese-pulling pie and quickly gathered around.

One of the quicker guys had already copied Wayne, pulling a string of cheese and taking a bite from the pizza tip without even using a plate:

"Wow, this is awesome.

Wayne, you're the boss of our dorm today."

Such an unconventional personality was relatively rare in the academy.

Most students, whether rich or poor, were somewhat "proper" and "reserved" in the academy.

Wayne felt that this guy better fit his stereotype of an "American student."

So Wayne didn't hold back and teased him on the stairs, turning his head and saying, "Call me 'Daddy'."

"F*ck you."

The guy raised his middle finger at Wayne, and before Doug, whose expression changed slightly, could react, the guy finished chewing the pizza in his mouth and added, "But I love you too, Wayne Daddy."

After saying that, he immediately took another big bite from the drooping pizza slice.

Amid the jeering laughter of the crowd, Wayne signaled Doug to ignore him and continued upstairs.

...

The three of them ate pizza in the dorm room, and Wayne even sprinkled holy water on top.

It wasn't surprising that Doug was respectful to him, but the burly coachman's near-restrained politeness made Wayne feel a little curious:

"What should I call you, sir?"

"Just call me Sanders, Mr. Wayne."

The coachman almost put down his pizza and stood up to answer, but Wayne waved his hand to indicate that he didn't need to.

"Sanders is one of the companions I recruited on the way back, an excellent hunter, skilled in close combat, even capable of wrestling a black bear," Doug added in introduction.

A strength-type extraordinary?

After this period of "broadening his horizons" and personal experience, Wayne discovered that although the extraordinary in this world usually had better physical qualities than ordinary people, they were not that much stronger than ordinary people.

The Hunter Association regarded physical "significant enhancement" as a category of extraordinary abilities, which could be further divided into different sub-items such as "strength," "speed," and "recovery," with different focuses on enhancement.

Those with particularly outstanding single attributes, such as the "acid-attacked King Kong" or "Wendigo" that Wayne had seen, were either demolishing buildings on flat ground or too fast to be aimed at.

The average values were said to be relatively high for werewolves like Inisa and Linna.

Like Freddie, the "Gray Wolf" worth $250.

Wayne was a little curious, "Sanders, what's your combat power worth roughly in dollars... ah, no, Sanders, have you participated in the 'Arena' in the detective agency? What's your record?"

Doug smiled slightly beside him:

"Without using weapons, Sanders' record in indiscriminate combat with the agents was 'undefeated'. Even 'Vine' could only stalemate with him in the bushes.

But in battles with the partners, Sanders currently has 0 wins and 4 losses.

His best performance was lasting 120 seconds without falling."

Sanders also seemed to be an honest person.

Upon hearing this, he defended himself with a serious expression, "Mr. Peter is indeed very strong; I am not his opponent.

And Miss Linna also said that she is the weakest in combat power among the detective agency's partners, which indeed made me realize the detective agency's strength."

Peter... Mr.?

Wayne mentally filled in the gaps and roughly understood what was going on.

Inisa was currently not suitable for unarmed combat.

Linna must have enlarged the spider to bite people again, and then said something like "If you want to deal with the other partners, you have to get past me first."

This made it easier to understand Sanders' respect for him.

He must have mentally extrapolated his own combat power upwards.

Not to mention that Linna seemed to be able to call on "Wise Sage" for help in an emergency, just Peter and her "steel wool," Wayne himself wouldn't dare to go near her without a gun...

After finishing eating, Sanders helped collect the plates and left the dorm room first.

Only then did Doug begin to report to Wayne on his work over this period and the current recruitment of members.

It seemed that Doug really wanted to be the head of the office,

stating that even if the security commission from the steam train company hadn't come down yet, he could take a few agents and a bunch of peripheral members to conduct "sweeps" along the steam train lines.

As for the bounty earned from the suspects, it would be divided according to the detective agency's rules.

Wayne didn't object to his idea.

Anyway, he still had to stay in the academy for the time being.

It was always a good thing if the detective agency's members were motivated to take on work themselves.

So Wayne told Doug about the current situation.

The detective agency's members who were previously "at home" had all been assigned to Seth Grayson for a "special investigation commission."

As for the other members and the peripheral members recruited by Doug, Doug could take them to hunt in various places.

Doug was clearly shocked:

"Mr. Wayne, do you mean that the partners have now assigned the daily command and dispatch of the agents in the detective agency to a newcomer?!"