New Gods of North America

In Lina's second week of her business trip,

I miss her…

When this thought popped into Wayne's head in the middle of the night,

He had already sneaked into the academy's church and was figuring out how to pick the lock.

Originally, after saying goodbye to David Mills, Wayne secretly signaled Inessa and Doug that they could slack off, as long as they kept up with the latest clues.

Then he returned to the dormitory and waited obediently for the joint inspection organized by the local exorcism department and the academy.

This inspection was naturally different from the previous ones.

The academy temporarily arranged some professors and staff who had not left the office or lived within the academy grounds to lead the teams, accompanied by exorcist priests or church clergy.

The inspection teams would have the dormitory head temporarily call the students in the dormitory to the common lounge on the first floor, pretending to represent the academy in seeking students' opinions on the accommodation conditions and management system, while in fact allowing the exorcist priests to secretly confirm the students' states.

The inspection teams would even go to the dormitories of some students who did not go to the gathering.

Such a screening naturally required a lot of manpower.

So after Wayne was checked, he returned to the dormitory and looked out the window.

Oh,

Even the clergy in the academy church were being rounded up by David Mills.

At this moment, Pastor Pasil was hunching over, leading a team, stubbornly moving forward at a snail's pace outside a dormitory not far away.

Woohoo, good luck to you.

Wayne joked in his heart, packed the textbooks and homework he needed for the next day, and was about to go to bed.

Then he realized something.

There were not many clergy in the academy church to begin with, and now that so many people and Pastor Pasil were busy, wouldn't the academy church be empty or almost empty now?

Moreover, tonight there was a special advantage for Wayne.

The detective agency was aware of the investigation into the "lucky coin" incident, even if Wayne sneaked out of the dormitory in the middle of the night and was accidentally bumped into.

With David Mills as a witness, Wayne could say that he felt something was wrong, so he ran out of the dormitory to check.

If anyone dared to doubt him, Wayne could use the previous situation to slap them in the face—

Even the local exorcism department was notified by our detective agency, and the academy only started to conduct security checks because of this, and you dare to question our professional standards?

Then why didn't we see you report to the church before?

So Wayne pondered for a while, took out his gloves and changed his shoes, then took his small backpack and sneaked out of the dormitory.

As early as when the academy was a "native school" in the colonial period, providing higher education for "descendants of colonists" and "some natives", the academy church had already been established.

Then, after years of intermittent expansion and renovation, the current academy church is a "group" of buildings connected together.

The detective agency had studied the incomplete floor plan of the academy church.

The initial framework was provided by Miss Ovilia, and then it was supplemented by Inessa and Lina's imagination, as well as the confirmation and modification of students like Seth and "Dormitory Head" Mcken Reeves who had been inside the academy church.

If there were any hidden spaces or safes, Wayne might not be able to find them.

But Wayne knew roughly where the room was where the academy's "fallen" students usually drank medicine when they reported to the academy church.

That's right, Wayne actually didn't have any bad intentions.

He just felt that the conditions and timing were so good tonight, if he didn't take the opportunity to go to the academy church and try to steal the potions that Pastor Pasil usually gave to the "fallen" students,

He would feel a little sorry for Teacher Lina's constant teachings…

The main reason was also Wayne's stereotypes, feeling that in this magical land of America, if someone always secretly and semi-forcedly fed others medicine, then he would feel that the other party should not be doing anything good.

From the side wall, which was not very high, he climbed into a window at the end of the corridor.

No one could be seen in the academy church at this time. Although it was late at night, it was not completely dark.

At least the prayer hall was still lit with candles and "sacred body lamps" burning whale oil—or maybe they had been replaced with kerosene lamps with the development of the times. Wayne didn't bother to take a closer look. Anyway, it was the so-called "eternal light".

If it had been when Wayne first came to this world, he might have played a prank and secretly lifted the crystal cover and blown it out to play with, etc.

But since he had seen the pressure of the "Wise Sage" and heard about the "descent" of even more powerful holy spirits,

Wayne now didn't plan to enter the prayer hall at all when he passed by, wishing to stay away from it.

The minimalist lines of sight were quite useful in the dark.

For example, in a dark corridor, a normal view would be a black void, but Wayne could tell where the door was and where the wall was by the outline or baseboard.

However, the interior of the academy church also had defensive measures. Some places didn't seem to have "lines" in the dark, but there were actually things, which almost made Wayne crash into the wall head-on.

Compared to the depths of the cathedral, although this place also made Wayne feel a slight burning sensation on his skin, the degree was not severe.

In comparison, what made Wayne feel more uncomfortable here was a slight "suffocation", feeling a bit like entering a warehouse that hadn't been ventilated for a while.

No wonder Pastor Pasil usually looked like he could blackmail someone at any time.

If you stayed in this environment for a long time, you would feel like you would get sick even if you weren't sick.

He groped into the internal reception room that Miss Ovilia and Seth had mentioned, but found nothing.

Then Wayne groped into Pastor Pasil's office next door and quickly found the hidden secret door—this was the only area in the entire room where no "outlines" could be seen, and it was protected so specially that even a fool could see that there was a problem here.

He found something to cover the light, secretly lit the kerosene lamp and turned it to the dimmest setting, then moved the cabinet away.

Then Wayne was a little embarrassed.

This thing was locked, and it was the kind of "hidden lock" installed inside, only revealing the keyhole.

In the detective agency, there was actually a lock-picking class taught by Teacher Lina, the purpose of which was for emergency rescue when, for example, a client was tied up by a criminal with chains, or was trapped in a fire.

Regardless of whether this reason couldn't stand scrutiny, at least Wayne defined it that way.

Unfortunately, in the detective agency, the only students who Teacher Lina thought "passed" this course were Willie and Emma, and even Wayne could open locks faster with a gun.

Therefore, Wayne fiddled with the lock-picking tools for a while, but failed.

He hesitated for a while, then missed Teacher Lina and Senior Willie.

Alas… you hate to have too little knowledge when you need it, and you only know how annoying it is when you have to pick a lock.

However,

Since I'm here, right?

First lock the office door, then move a chair to prop it up, and then open the window in the office in advance.

Wayne took off his gloves and put his hand on the lock cylinder of the secret door.

This thing felt specially made, and it was a little difficult to inject spiritual power into it.

Wayne fed half of his spiritual power into it, then put his gloves back on and hid by the door, detonating it.

"Click—"

The situation was a bit beyond Wayne's expectations. Normally, when his explosive ability was applied to metal similar to a warhead, the situation after the explosion should be a sudden "shake", and may even be deformed.

Wayne originally thought that using it on the lock cylinder might be similar to hitting it hard with a hammer, so he was on guard against someone hearing the sound and coming over.

But the lock cylinder was broken inside, and the noise was not too loud.

He used the lock-picking tools to pull out the fragments, feeling that it was a rather hard material, some of which became cracked large pieces, and some became powder.

He pulled and tugged at the secret door for a while, and this thing finally opened.

Behind it was a medicine cabinet and a safe. Don't worry about the safe. Tonight's target was the potion.

The medicine cabinet looked quite high-end. The thing on the top, whether it was glass or crystal, felt quite thick when knocked on. The hard wooden frame was also decorated with patterns and decorations.

There were quite a few potions inside, and there were no labels or anything.

Fortunately, Wayne was prepared. There were holy water bottles he had used before in his small bag.

Many people had drunk the potion given by Pastor Pasil, and some had to drink it every week when they reported, so the dosage must be large.

So Wayne filled some of the potions that seemed to be in larger quantities, the type depending on the number of empty bottles Wayne brought.

Afterwards, he collected the broken lock cylinder fragments as much as possible and took them away, leaving only an empty lock hole on it. He restored the items, closed the window.

Then he ran away quickly.

Just in case, Wayne didn't dare to take the things back to the dormitory. He found a place where he could see the dormitory from a distance and buried the small backpack, then returned to the dormitory and put the small flower pot on the windowsill, waiting for Doug's silly bird to come and get the note.