New Gods of North America

With the battle on that side concluded, the fight at the detective agency was also nearing its end.

Perhaps the agents were becoming more skilled, but the two teams attacking the detective agency tonight, despite clearly transforming into various monsters, seemed somewhat 'weaker'.

At least, the average quality of the extraordinary materials didn't feel as high as the group from last night.

When Wayne, David Mills, and several members of the exorcism department rushed back to provide support, Doug was already interrogating the guy Lina had dragged back.

This guy seemed utterly terrified, claiming he was a member dispatched from Cohen Pharmaceuticals headquarters and had come with Mr. Baker tonight to attack the detective agency.

Their goal was to eliminate Wayne, the bastard who had caused Mr. Baker to lose face, and to give the local church, which was secretly causing trouble, a silent blow.

However, they didn't expect an explosion to occur on their side before the attack even began, and Mr. Baker had apparently lost control.

No one bothered to refute or correct him; they simply continued to question him, hoping he would reveal more information.

This was mainly because the presence of 'official personnel' from the exorcism department provided a witness, preventing anyone from later accusing the detective agency of making baseless accusations.

As for why they were in such a hurry to interrogate him without even hiding him in the cellar, it was because this guy was already beginning to 'melt' like a wax figure...

By now, even his hands and feet had turned into blood, and he was 'displayed' like a human stump.

He himself didn't seem to notice the abnormality in his body, still believing that the people around him raising their guard were cheering him on during the interrogation, making him even more cooperative in confessing.

The slightly 'older' members of the detective agency had heard Instructor Inessa's popular science lectures.

They roughly understood that this guy had also 'lost control,' but it currently seemed to be a 'relatively benign' form of loss of control.

Knowing where Wayne's curiosity lay,

Doug tried to inquire in a relatively subtle way whether he had touched anything strange or eaten anything tonight—for benignly out-of-control individuals, it's important to avoid making them aware that they have lost control, otherwise, regardless of whether their sanity collapses as a result, they would likely have to fight again.

However, the guy said that everything had been normal tonight. Mr. Baker had assured him that he didn't need to personally take risks, only to 'watch' their actions, and that regardless of success or failure, he would ensure the guy's timely and safe evacuation.

This guy hadn't taken any potions tonight, and his diet seemed fine as well.

The only thing Wayne found suspicious was that this guy had sat in the carriage with Mr. Baker, who was smoking a cigar, while waiting for the detective agency's gathering to end, presumably inhaling a lot of second-hand smoke.

At Wayne's signal, Connor quickly took people to search for it.

They originally wanted to continue questioning him, but unfortunately, even his mouth was gradually melting. Doug could only advise him to rest for a while and take him to the police station to turn himself in tomorrow.

An exorcist priest quietly lit two oil lamps, it was not clear whether they were for 'observation' or to exert some other effect,

Regardless of whether the guy was a believer in the Holy Spirit, he began to move his lips but silently 'sent him off'.

The situation was preliminarily confirmed, and the scene was roughly being cleaned up.

The detective agency's gains were undisputed, but there was a slight problem with the ownership of the extraordinary materials from the other side.

The exorcism department was somewhat similar to the police in a sense. Once they took action, the corresponding items theoretically became so-called 'evidence' or 'seizures'.

Otherwise, the actions and injuries of the exorcists, as well as the consumption of using emergency formations, would be difficult to explain in internal procedures and accounts.

Wayne then learned that the so-called 'professional equipment' like formations in various exorcism departments were very 'localized,' with different configurations.

The Georgeburg parish was considered relatively 'old' and 'affluent,' which was why they had emergency formations that consumed a lot of extraordinary materials deployed on the front lines like the one just now.

It was like pulling out a cannon in the middle of a fight between cops and robbers... The power was certainly not small, but the cost and corresponding risks were not low either.

Wayne wouldn't argue with David Mills about the few companions who had been eliminated by the 'ghoul' himself.

After returning, the guy would still need to write a report and face his superiors, and they couldn't give him another demerit because of this. It was better for the detective agency to 'have acquaintances' in the local exorcism department.

However, Wayne wanted the extraordinary materials from Mr. Baker, who had turned into a 'ghoul'.

After all, the blood clots extracted from the 'ghoul's' remains had been so contaminated that they smelled like some unknown Ganges River.

Moreover, there were obvious signs of loss of control remaining on them. Even approaching them caused a slight stinging sensation in the head. Several exorcist priests felt they had no value in preserving and suggested they should be destroyed as soon as possible.

Therefore, David Mills' side was still reasonable, and the exorcists who had lost money also vented their anger by the way.

Everyone cleaned up the scene, and the remaining matters would be discussed later.

It was a pity that no remaining cigars were found at the scene, only an empty collector's edition cigar tube; otherwise, it could have been sent for identification.

...

Back at the detective agency, Inessa's condition still didn't seem to have fully recovered. After the danger was eliminated, she returned to the cabin again.

Wayne picked up a large pile of contaminated extraordinary materials, as well as a lump that felt 'extraordinary'.

Lina still didn't stop Wayne from courting death, but she drove Wayne to the small woods outside the courtyard.

Then, based on her assessment of the situation, she called several agents to guard the surrounding area, lest Wayne lose control after eating it and the detective agency wouldn't be prepared at all.

Compared to this, Wayne was more shocked by the 'methods' by which everyone absorbed extraordinary materials.

Inessa's situation was special, Lina seemed to like feeding it to Peter, and the Hunter Association relatively advocated brewing it into corresponding potions first,

But after listening to Doug and Liam, Wayne learned that, except for a few extraordinary people with special abilities,

The mainstream way for most wild extraordinary people to digest extraordinary materials was to 'eat them directly'.

Tom Hagen seemed to have said something similar before...

No wonder the agents' expressions were so strange when they saw him taking the contaminated extraordinary materials to absorb.

After seeing this lump of foul-smelling blood clots that had been left behind tonight, they became even more 'awe-inspiring' towards Wayne.

Hey,

Who in the world would eat something like this?!

There's nothing wrong with my sense of taste!

Unfortunately, with Wayne frequently drinking holy water for no reason in the past, the agents now seemed to have deep-rooted stereotypes about Wayne's 'sense of taste' and 'physical resistance'.

Therefore, Wayne could only silently absorb a large pile of extraordinary power that couldn't be directly digested. Although he didn't directly eat it, the taste he felt was indeed terrible. It could only be said that everyone's views weren't 'entirely wrong'...

According to Wayne's own assessment, if all of this extraordinary power was digested, it was estimated that it could fill his 'mana bar' again.

Although the 'mana bar' seemed to have become a continuously pressurized gas cylinder, even if it was 'full' now, it wouldn't necessarily be able to level up directly,

But this time, he didn't touch that stone slab fragment again, thinking that it would be better to drink holy water and digest it slowly, perhaps it wouldn't put too much pressure on the 'mana bar' at once,

Lest he suddenly 'explode' again.

Last time, it was because the spiritual power in his body was still abundant, and his self-healing ability quickly took effect after the explosion.

At this moment, Wayne felt that the spiritual power directly available in his body was still in a 'bottomed out' state, and he had to wait for them to slowly recover first,

Otherwise, if he exploded again now, the consequences would probably be dire...