New Gods of North America

Wayne had been very busy these past few days,

He had to think of ways to build momentum as much as possible, while also preventing the other party from running away.

He used his connections to desperately obtain a certificate from the local exorcism department, and used his old injuries as an excuse to request leave from the academy; Wayne hadn't even been to class lately.

Some things didn't go so smoothly.

Although the residents of Richmond and Georgeburg were indeed curious about the public duel, it seemed completely unrelated to them.

The public's enthusiasm seemed to stop at the "watching the show" stage, feeling a bit indifferent.

Some things progressed as expected.

He arranged for people to stake out the Cohen Pharmaceuticals office for a few days, and the other party seemed to be indeed getting busier, not knowing what kind of fart they were brewing this time.

Lena even sneaked in at midnight and picked up a bunch of "personal items" that might be useful; although she couldn't do experiments in advance, she probably wouldn't let the person run away.

But some things progressed so smoothly that it was a bit beyond Wayne's expectations.

The American Federation often doesn't fit people's stereotypes in many ways.

For example, as a country largely developed by Puritans, the American Federation is, in principle, basically under a "total ban on gambling".

Ah, don't get me wrong,

Playing a little bigger with family and friends at home, or betting a little higher at the racetrack on the estate, those are not considered "gambling" in America.

The "gambling" that the American Federation prohibits refers to casinos and the like that are open to the public.

Due to the advocacy of the Holy Spirit Church and the insistence of the Puritans, the American Federation adopts a "whitelist" system for some things.

Without a license, it is illegal.

So, the casinos that currently exist in America can basically be said to be illegal.

But just as the law also prohibits "murder" and "robbery\

,"Gambling, which seems to be of a lighter nature, is, in the final analysis, "just like that" in the actual management of this era.

However, legal "gambling" is not completely absent.

The American Federation's lottery industry can be traced back to the colonial period.

Lotteries in this era are not considered a form of "gambling", but rather a voluntarily paid "tax".

Usually issued separately by each state, they are used to raise various "public welfare funds".

As early as before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Virginia had publicly issued lotteries to raise funds to build fortifications.

Even individuals could issue lotteries.

The "Founding Father" Washington once presided over the issuance of lotteries to raise funds for the construction of a local road—the "Founding Father" had a large amount of land in the area, and the construction of the road would help increase the value of the land.

Unfortunately, his issuance was not successful, and basically nothing was sold, so the lottery draw never happened.

Wayne didn't catch a good time.

Due to frequent corruption and fraud incidents, and there had even been cases of issuing agents absconding with large sums of money,

So, probably around the time "Wayne" was born, the states began to ban lottery sales one after another.

Virginia hasn't banned it so strictly yet, but "commercial lotteries" are no longer allowed to be issued publicly.

Therefore, in order to prevent the other party from being a turtle, Wayne had no choice but to choose a compromise, applying for the issuance of special lotteries.

The rules were similar to horse racing, betting on whether the other party would accept the challenge, who would win, and how many games Wayne could win, and then distributing the prize money from the prize pool according to the determined ratio.

The funds raised could not go into his own pocket, but could only be used as public welfare funds in the state, all donated to local medical undertakings, and he could not decide where they went.

He missed the opportunity for insider trading and getting rich overnight, simply earning a shout.

Wayne was just trying it out casually, and thought that such an application would basically not be approved.

But he didn't expect it to be approved the next day.

The printing of lottery tickets was easy; it was already relatively mature this year, with various fonts and patterns for anti-counterfeiting, which could be solved with money, paid in advance, and then deducted from the prize pool later.

Different situations corresponded to different lottery numbers, and the basic amount of each ticket was fixed, similar to tearing up invoices; after winning the prize, you could bring the lottery ticket to redeem the prize.

What was more troublesome was that the lottery tickets this year needed issuing agents to sign on them.

Wayne and Seth's hands were about to break from writing.

Then Wayne cheekily put the lottery sales point in Richmond next to Malcolm Baker's office.

Pulling up a white cloth, writing black characters, setting up a small table next to the carriage, and having government staff supervise, everyone lined up on the sidewalk.

The staff only talked about lottery tickets, and some detectives pretended to be passers-by to popularize and promote them.

"Duels" this year were a matter of dignity and honor, and the results of the duel would be talked about for a lifetime; decent people wouldn't joke about this kind of thing, let alone something that had been reported in the newspaper.

So, many citizens who saw the newspaper or heard the news began to buy them one after another.

It was relatively leisurely at first, but it started to get lively at noon the next day.

Simon Sherman, that guy, probably wanted to flatter Lena, so he brought his servants over and bought a lot at once.

This caused the signed lottery tickets to become insufficient, and Wayne had to hurry up and write next to him; during people's usual rest periods, the queue was almost like a autograph session...

Some citizens, after buying lottery tickets, went outside Cohen Pharmaceuticals' office to shout, some were nice, some were not, and some used provocative methods.

"Come on! Mr. Baker, you must win!"

"Immoral pharmaceutical company! Quickly lose and get out of Virginia!"

"Long live Cohen Pharmaceuticals! You must win more than three games in a row, otherwise I will tell everyone that you sell inferior drugs!"

Wayne didn't care about these people, and honestly sold lottery tickets.

He also let the chef Parker set up a stall next to him, selling hamburgers and hot dogs, and the business was actually not bad.

Then, when it was time in the evening, he closed the stall, and specially drove the carriage loaded with cash back to the detective agency with the detectives every day, waiting for someone to attack.

People working for Cohen Pharmaceuticals did come over to try to question Wayne.

However, with the detectives leading the rhythm next to him, the other party was treated as someone who wanted to cut in line and was driven out of the crowd by the lottery-buying citizens.

There were also reporters next to him who wanted to interview and ask the other party's name, and whether they would accept the duel challenge.

After coming twice, Cohen Pharmaceuticals became silent.

On the fourth day, no one even went to work, but they didn't publicly express acceptance or rejection of the challenge.

Lena didn't have any other tasks these days, so she was responsible for stalking that guy every day.

As long as he dared to run out of Richmond, then according to the security situation in America this year, he might encounter robbers.

Wayne wouldn't rush to take action; when the time came, he might tie the other party up and throw him back.

He babbled a lot, mainly to show a pro-people and public welfare image, and take the opportunity to recover the detective agency's reputation.

Even if he couldn't recover the reputation, he had to make a show.

At least let as many people as possible see that the detective agency was not so easy to mess with.

Wayne attached a countdown to the public challenge to the other party; if they accepted the challenge, they needed to respond within ten days after the challenge letter was published in the newspaper.

The detective agency had been selling lottery tickets for almost a week, but there was no movement on the other side.

Wayne even prepared to issue an announcement saying that the other side had admitted defeat, and then prepare to start "martial arts".

Until the last night,

The carriage encountered a "roadblock" on the way back.