New Gods of North America

After roughly determining the target,

Wayne focused on preventing further ambushes while contemplating the detective agency's plans.

Aside from the three partners, the most promising agents who could potentially compete for the "first tier" seemed to be Conner, Damon McReady, and Sanders.

However, none of them were particularly ideal "trainees."

Conner also held membership within the Hunter Association, making it difficult to determine whether the "Detective Agency" or the "Hunter Association" held greater importance for him during crucial moments.

If the Hunter Association needed manpower at any time, and he eagerly returned, the detective agency would suffer a significant loss.

Damon McReady had been rescued for the time being, and he certainly harbored hatred for his "former superior," but his views on his "former unit" remained uncertain.

Moreover, honest individuals tend to be too reasonable, which might make it impossible to assign him certain tasks, and he could potentially be "easily misled" by someone.

Sanders was slightly better in this regard; he appeared to have no prior experience with other organizations before joining the detective agency, but his past could not be verified, making him less reassuring.

This was perhaps the same reason why the Church required Ineisha to "clearly take sides."

If Ineisha publicly executed a well-known and important figure from the Windsor Kingdom Hunter Association today, Wayne believed that the Exorcist Association would send someone to release her from her "restraints" tomorrow.

If Ineisha could also manage to deal with an important figure from the Holy See, the Exorcist Association might even throw her a welcome party tonight.

This would be more effective than simply exorcising demons or accumulating contributions within the American Federation.

Unfortunately, without a suitable reason, that was not something Ineisha could do,

and the same likely applied to others.

From this perspective, Doug, Ryan, and Willie were more worthy of cultivation.

Before joining the detective agency, they had not received much attention or held high positions in Canks City.

Furthermore, they remained willing to serve as "vigilantes," and their long-term character had been indirectly verified locally.

Wayne at least didn't have to worry about them leaving easily without reason or simply betraying him.

However, their current combat capabilities were not yet sufficient to "hold the fort."

For the time being, he could only strive for "balanced development,"

taking things one step at a time.

The source of extraordinary materials was also a problem. The detective agency had recently been subjected to a series of attacks orchestrated by Cohen Pharmaceuticals, which, in peacetime, would likely be considered a relatively intense "small-scale conflict involving extraordinaries," but it had only managed to feed Wayne into a "bloated" Rank 4.

Even the previous collective "cleanup" operation along the steam train lines in the western mountains of Virginia was difficult to match the efficiency of the past few days.

Currently, the only "revenue-generating points" Wayne could think of were continuing to harvest Cohen Pharmaceuticals and continuing to "open branch offices."

He wondered if Mr. Baker had left any backup plans that could bring a group of people to avenge him…

Originally, that lawyer was also a good target, but he was just a local lawyer hired by Cohen Pharmaceuticals.

If the scope of attack was expanded like this, doctors and pharmacy workers might also feel threatened, and the detective agency itself might be reprimanded by the cathedral...

Directly charging in was definitely not an option; he would try to show the manuscript to Tom Hagen later.

...

He slept in the office until dawn, and the agents on night duty normally changed shifts.

Wayne looked forward to the possibility of someone coming again tonight while silently packing his textbooks for the academy.

Compared to his previous popularity in the academy, the students now maintained a bit of distance from Wayne, feeling that the "dispute" between Cohen Pharmaceuticals and the detective agency had affected everyone.

However, some "passersby" in the academy who had previously been completely unrelated to him seemed to have become much more friendly towards Wayne.

Occasionally, he could hear the whispers and teasing of several girls as he passed by, or strangers giving him a thumbs up.

Wayne thought about it and could only assume that they had perhaps won the lottery or were fans of "duels."

Like the Roman Empire to the people of the Old Continent, the persona of the "noble savage" was quite marketable in America as well.

Thus, several days passed relatively uneventfully.

The Church determined that Mr. Baker had died in an accident while attempting to violently break into the detective agency late at night, and the detective agency provided reporters with some of the dirt they had extracted from the prisoners.

Initially, there seemed to be no reaction. Some of the news pointing directly to Mr. Baker's crimes was published, but the news that could affect the entire Cohen Pharmaceuticals disappeared without a trace.

The detective agency also received a letter from the cathedral, which contained the dirt that Wayne had Doug send out, some of which was circled in red, some marked with an "X," and some unmarked.

Wayne roughly compared them and felt that he understood the cathedral's meaning. The remaining dirt was all attributed to Mr. Baker—logically speaking, things like "the drugs might have problems" should not be blamed on the "regional sales representative."

Then, a wave of public opinion suddenly erupted in both Richmond and Georgeburg.

Many businessmen, doctors, and journalists jumped out to accuse Mr. Baker, revealing more of his practices when he tried to promote Cohen Pharmaceuticals' products locally.

Bribery, inducement, threats, intimidation—in the end, Wayne himself felt a little dazed after reading the newspapers. It was just selling painkillers and the like, so why was it so fancy...

But their rebates to intermediaries were really not low, and they seemed to really value public opinion. Many people just wanted to talk about the dangers of "Green Elf," but inexplicably received "friendly reminders."

Then, in contrast, the image of the detective agency was inexplicably praised, making Wayne seem like a "brave man who was not afraid of coercion and dared to speak out."

Although the situation in the academy did not improve much as a result, the security commission for another section of the steam train line that was lost, suddenly came back.

Considering that the other party was "easy to talk to" at the beginning, Wayne did not take the opportunity to raise the price, and it was still the same as initially discussed.

Considering that the Cohen Pharmaceuticals matter may not be "completely resolved" for the time being, Wayne postponed the start date of the contract by one month.

No one came to attack in the middle of the night during this period, and the case of "Landlord" Mcken Reeves was still in a "pending" state.

Doug secretly asked David Mills twice, but David Mills neither said "not to file a case" nor said that it was "a case."

On the contrary, Simon Sherman, who came to congratulate Wayne on his duel victory and actually prepared to give Lina a gift to say goodbye,

unintentionally left the detective agency with an interesting thinking question:

"I don't know much about this. But since someone can sense how many 'rooms' are in that guy's heart, it means that his different 'personalities' were relatively stable, right? At least not a 'big room' being divided into different parts."

"If that's the case, what should the original medicinal effect of the potion that might cause his 'personalities' to begin to kill each other be?"

Wayne pondered for a moment,

and felt that his brain hole seemed a little unscientific...