New Gods of North America

About half an hour later,

Wayne drank the holy water and walked out of the carriage holding the potion which had changed from opaque "black coffee" to clear like "beer".

The feeling was similar to that after absorbing the "dirty bomb pollution" in Tecumseh's tribe.

After these spiritual forces are absorbed into the body, they seem to be piled up in the "stomach" and swaying around, causing bloating and indigestion.

Moreover, the quality of the black air this time is obviously higher. My mouth feels as if it is so bitter that I have lost all feeling. Now I can’t even taste the holy water.

But Wayne is now considered an experienced man.

As long as you drink more holy water and exercise more, you will be able to digest them after a while.

It's probably similar to a bond that can only be redeemed when it matures.

To be fair,

The "spiritual power" that Wayne absorbed from Tecumseh's tribe last time was difficult to digest. At that time, he drank the holy water as medicine, which seemed to have taken more than half a month.

But they actually don't contribute much to the increase in Wayne's "blue bars".

Fortunately, Wayne felt that he was only a little bit away from "upgrading". After absorbing such a large bowl of bitter water with a higher concentration, the increase would not be worse than the last time.

And Inissa also said that although there are certain risks in digesting such spiritual power with the residual breath of the upper evil spirit, the effect of the benefits is still uncontrollable.

But it is generally beneficial to extraordinary people who are about to break through their rank.

——There are quite a few extraordinary people who, although they are of sufficient status in theory, will actually be stuck at a relatively low level and unable to break through.

So the orphanage where Inesa grew up would use such drastic measures when "screening" the children.

It is said that children who are able to pass the "screening" and be kept to continue their studies are usually much more "smooth" and "sophisticated" in the use of their extraordinary abilities than wild extraordinary people of the same level.

The pass rate of "screening" does not seem to be very high.

Inesha said she had gone through three major "screenings" before leaving the orphanage.

After each "screening", you will usually never meet any of the familiar companions again, and then you will get to know new unfamiliar children of the same age.

She and Lina met after a certain "screening".

The two were taught by different nuns, and there weren't many opportunities for them to communicate privately. However, they were rare familiar faces that never suddenly disappeared.

Compared with the experiences of Inissa and Lina, Wayne feels that his current situation is not bad.

Even if you can't upgrade, at least you won't be "sent away".

…

Since the next round of heavy rain was expected to start in a few days, Wayne and his crew had a relatively smooth journey.

After nightfall on the third day, Wayne and his gang finally arrived at a small town beside the steam train line like a gang.

The Slim Gang's base is roughly on the state line between Ohio and Virginia.

If we continue along the steam train route, crossing the state line to the nearest stop town in Ohio,

After that, the steam train line was no longer owned by the company in which Mr. Russell had a stake.

A large group of armed people entered the town at night. The local sheriff soon brought a group of enthusiastic townspeople to send a relatively friendly greeting to the members of the detective agency - at least they did not directly fire guns to drive them away.

After Wayne announced his identity, he didn't expect that the "Wayne National Detective Agency" would be well-known here.

The sheriff briefly confirmed the "document" that Wayne had produced, and preliminarily allowed everyone to stay in the town's hotel temporarily.

Then he signaled the enthusiastic townspeople to take their weapons and disperse for the time being.

But the sheriff himself continued to stay at the hotel.

It is a relatively polite supervision.

Since they were already here, Wayne took the sheriff to see the wanted criminals that everyone had brought back.

The sheriff was quite easy to talk to. He not only confirmed the wanted criminals who were easier to identify, but he also did not raise any objections to the body of "Thin" Charlie, whose features did not particularly match the wanted criminals.

He said that Wayne could go to the police station with him tomorrow to complete the handover and then receive the check and certification documents.

The sheriff also seemed to show a certain degree of trust in the detective agency:

"I read about your deeds in the newspaper recently. I believe that a reputable detective agency like yours would not do something that would damage its reputation for the sake of the bounty like some bounty hunters do."

newspaper……?

Wayne suddenly had a bad feeling, "Which newspaper is this? Can I take a look?"

"Of course, I can... But this is a newspaper that came in two days ago, and the actual printing time is even earlier. I guess I have to look for it in the pub. I hope some drunkard hasn't torn it up yet."

The sheriff explained a little, “Our town is not an official stop for steam trains, but there is a patrol station responsible for road maintenance.

"Someone in the town would give some money to the townspeople working there, and ask them to use their connections to ask the steam train crew passing by to help bring small commodities from all over the place. From time to time, some newspapers from other places would be delivered. They might not be new, but they could be used to learn about news from other states."

Following the sheriff to the tavern, the bartender was doing a pretty good job of managing the old newspapers.

Apart from giving them to some townspeople for reading, the books were basically kept by no one, at least no one used them for strange purposes.

I ordered two glasses of slightly better wine as a thank you gift, one for the sheriff and one for the bartender.

Wayne quickly flipped through the pile of newspapers and found a report about the detective agency.

It was another Chicago newspaper, and the signature was not a stranger either, it was the female reporter who had dealt with Wayne and his team before, Freddy Rounds.

——"Steam train passengers successfully repelled robbers."

“It is understood that yesterday, a steam train departed from New York City and arrived in Chicago, bringing exciting news.

“When the steam train was passing through the border area between Virginia and Ohio, it was surrounded by nearly a hundred bandits who attempted to rob it. However, due to the heroic resistance of the passengers, the steam train successfully escaped from danger without causing any casualties or property losses.

"…This is a rare victory! In order to safeguard the freedom and justice of America, the passengers, inspired by their courage, and together with the steam locomotive company staff, launched a counterattack against the brutal bandits…

"...In addition to the above-mentioned heroic passengers and staff, the Wayne National Detective Agency also participated in this public crime-stopping justice. It is a well-known detective agency in the West, founded by..."

Wayne read the entire report.

Fortunately, it turned out to be the incident when the detective agency was fighting against the "Gary Adventure".

It seems that this report was bought by the steam train operating company or the "brave passengers" who were named. Basically, it means to encourage passengers to spontaneously fight back against the bandits.

The detective agency was mentioned only in passing.