New Gods of North America

Wayne crouched in the stairwell outside the basement, listening for a while.

Because "Macon Reef" treated Emma as a somewhat ignorant little girl, although his explanation was lengthy, he didn't elaborate on many specific theoretical and technical details.

However, setting aside those overly profound parts, Wayne quickly understood what he was doing.

In short, due to the previous soul-swapping ritual or some other reason, "Macon Reef's" body was rapidly heading towards "decay" or "corruption." Therefore, more urgently than escaping Georgeburg after breaking free from the Church's control, he needed to stabilize his physical condition.

According to his own view, the extraordinary power of the Life domain had special advantages in maintaining "life indicators."

Regardless of whether it would cause him to mutate into a strange appearance or lead to loss of control, he had chosen the technical route known as "Life Alchemy" in the hope of extending his survival time to some extent.

"Macon Reef" also mocked the so-called "wild extraordinaries," believing that the practice of directly absorbing extraordinary materials was quite stupid and inefficient, almost like "burning banknotes for warmth."

Wayne listened silently from the outside, feeling somewhat offended.

Especially after hearing "Macon Reef's" brief introduction to the process of the "Life Alchemy" ritual he was about to perform, Wayne was even more astonished.

Seriously?

Using a still-alive and kicking Life domain extraordinary as the "main material," plus a complete set of extraordinary materials from all eight domains as "consumables," in addition to setting up a magic circle to complete the ritual, requiring living blood, internal organs, bones, and corresponding ritual materials as "preliminary preparations,"

And in the end, it was only "possible" to temporarily "stabilize" or "enhance" his physical condition, which sounded like winning the lottery by luck.

Who exactly is "burning banknotes for warmth" here?!

That's quite a double standard.

Wayne felt obligated to stop such wasteful behavior. Although intervening before the other party was ready might seem a bit impolite,

At least eight portions of extraordinary materials, Wayne thought, could be distributed to the partners in the detective agency, one for each, with the remainder used as season prizes for the arena, and there would still be some left over.

He couldn't let him squander them so easily.

So, Wayne initially determined that there were only "Macon Reef" and his two accomplices in the basement, a total of three bad guys on site.

He gestured to Conner next to him, preparing to do something to "stop" their actions.

At this time, "Macon Reef" had finished talking about his affairs. Perhaps he felt that Emma was being cooperative, or perhaps he had a pang of conscience, he suddenly asked the little girl if she had any last wishes or anything she wanted to ask.

Lina seemed to have given Emma a heads-up in advance, and the little girl appeared very sensible at the moment, directly putting on a curious expression and asking about the sealed items hidden in the city of Georgeburg.

Bad guys who are about to die seem to easily develop a bad habit of thinking, "Since you're going to die anyway, I might as well tell you." After hearing the little girl's question, "Macon Reef" actually started talking about the sealed items.

This saved Wayne some trouble. The reason "Macon Reef" was allowed to take a stroll tonight was because the Church needed to know the clues he possessed about the sealed items. If he told the little girl himself, the credibility would be higher than what would be interrogated later, and it would save the time wasted on mutual pulling.

Unfortunately, "Macon Reef's" actions didn't completely stop. He chatted while working, so his speech speed was a bit slow.

When talking about those sealed items, he didn't directly reveal all the locations in one breath. He basically talked about one item first, discussed its possible origin and story, then talked about what role it could play, and finally said where it was placed.

He was just like those long-winded but clumsy salesmen.

Time slowly passed.

During this process, Emma pouted her little mouth and was half-invited and half-stuffed into a sack by an accomplice, then carried into the magic circle.

Although the other party didn't seem to have seen Emma's extraordinary abilities, the "stuffing in a sack" trick was a perfect counter to Emma. Even Wayne felt that he had learned a simple method that could be used to deal with naughty children.

Fortunately, "Macon Reef" had been talking to Emma about those sealed items, so the accomplice didn't spoil his fun, and tentatively left the little girl's head outside the sack.

Damon McReady's treatment was much worse in comparison. He was directly dragged by another accomplice to the symmetrical position at the other end of the magic circle, looking like bartenders throwing drunkards out the door when they get off work.

According to the content revealed in "Macon Reef's" previous words, it would still take a few key steps before the ritual officially started. For example, those poor people next to him would have to be "processed" a little more to meet the basic conditions for the ritual to be used.

Therefore, Wayne could only patiently hide in the dark, eavesdropping and counting, maintaining a state where he could take action at any time, in order to intervene at the most appropriate time.

He needed to obtain as much useful information as possible while avoiding these guys causing irreparable harm to innocent people.

Around the time he was talking about the seventh sealed item, "Macon Reef's" two accomplices, under his instructions, began to walk towards the potential victims in the corner of the basement with daggers.

Wayne's bottom line tonight was roughly "preventing bloodshed from happening in front of his eyes." Although he hadn't heard all the information at this time, reality never gives people the best opportunity. So, taking advantage of the fact that the bad guys were busy with their own affairs and didn't seem to pay much attention to the entrance, he gave Conner the "go" signal.

"Don't move, you're under arrest!"

Wayne didn't know where Conner learned it from. When Wayne suddenly jumped out at the entrance and shouted to attract the other party's attention, he rolled into the basement, found a wooden barrel nearby as cover, and formed a mutually supporting position with Wayne.

Not to mention "Macon Reef," this sickly fellow, but the two accomplices reacted very quickly. Almost in the instant they turned around, both of them were holding guns in their hands.

"Bang bang!"

"Bang!"

"Clang——"

Sounds from different directions seemed to intertwine at the same time.

The detective agency mostly operates in groups. Some things have been rectified quickly after discovering something was wrong. For example, in "many-on-many" scenarios, stragglers easily encounter situations where "some people are focused on, while others are completely ignored."

Wayne and Conner attacked nearby according to the internally agreed-upon convention. One accomplice took "a shot to the chest and a shot to the head" from Conner, while the other accomplice was luckier. Wayne shot the revolver in his hand away, intending to keep him alive for a confession.

Almost at the same time as that revolver landed, Wayne realized that he might have been tricked.

The reactions of these two accomplices clearly showed that they weren't people who knew how to use guns. The fact that they could take the guns in their hands in advance could only mean that the other party might have discovered Wayne and Conner's tracks long ago.

So, Wayne quickly turned his gun and aimed it at "Macon Reef" in the center of the magic circle.