New Gods of North America

The initial cleanup of the scene was completed.

Thirteen attackers were dead, twelve of them, but only six extraordinary materials could be recovered, four of which were "contaminated."

The attacker taken down by Inessa, although seemingly drained of some blood during the pulverization, still had his extraordinary material gathering and "precipitating" normally from the pile of minced meat.

Faced with Wayne's curiosity, Teacher Linna, who seemed to have experience with this, explained succinctly, "There are many ways for spiritual power to 'gather' within extraordinaries; it's not necessarily entirely concentrated in the blood."

Of the missing six extraordinary materials, three should logically belong to those unfortunate souls eliminated by the 'Wise Sage'.

However, there were no eyewitnesses at the scene. The agents nearby, after hearing Linna's warning and sensing the immense pressure, were too busy running away to dare stay and watch.

So, when they returned to the scene and found those guys had turned into soft, mollusk-like meat mixtures, they could only assume that they had completely lost their extraordinary powers, which should be considered a 'normal phenomenon'.

The remaining two sets of remains missing extraordinary materials were a 'spider silk ball' that Wayne had 'damaged' and a 'bamboo whip' left by that 'bamboo shoot'.

Both of these items had completely lost their extraordinary 'function,' but they didn't become 'ordinary' like the other corpses; they still looked different from regular items of the same kind.

According to the Hunter Association's theory, this might be related to the degree of 'transformation' of the extraordinary, believing that certain transformation processes themselves consume some extraordinary power.

In this era, even viruses hadn't been discovered yet, and bloodletting and easy skull drilling were still considered beneficial and having various therapeutic effects.

Medicine was like this, and extraordinary knowledge, which wasn't allowed to be publicly disseminated, was even more like a 'blind box' for the detective agency.

The Hunter Association's theory was at least logically self-consistent and systematic, so everyone tentatively believed it.

The last missing extraordinary material was swallowed by the monster that everyone finally took down together—to be precise, when it swallowed it, that extraordinary material could still be considered its 'companion'.

Then the monster became even more severely mutated, and it's said that the 'seaweed' on its body only sprouted rapidly after that.

With such a vivid example in front of them,

no one was willing to compete with Wayne, the 'daredevil extraordinaire' in everyone's eyes, for those four contaminated extraordinary materials.

Linna saw that Peter seemed to like that 'spider silk ball' very much, so she chose that thing.

What remained was the equally unwanted 'bamboo whip', and the two extraordinary materials that many agents wanted. How to divide these things became a problem again.

Wayne chose to copy the church's contribution system, simply separating the extraordinary materials from the detective agency's existing bounty distribution system.

Salaries were distributed proportionally, and eligible members could basically have a 'bottom line,' but if they wanted extraordinary materials, they had to record 'individual performance'.

Tonight, several partners had all taken action, and were currently in a state of 'lingering might'.

Wayne proposed a plan, Linna thought it was reasonable, and the agents had no collective objections, so it was basically officially passed.

The ideal was beautiful, but in practice, there were still problems.

Extraordinary materials weren't easy to 'preserve'; some extraordinary materials would slowly 'evaporate' the extraordinary power contained within if left for too long.

And according to the confession of the surviving prisoner, the attackers who came tonight were all 'life' domain extraordinaries screened by Cohen Pharmaceuticals.

Even if some agents were qualified to apply, their domains might not be exactly within the 'one-to-three' range of the life domain.

In the end, Sanders took one share as a 'half-settlement, half-advance,' and Seth wrapped one share with 'film' as Wayne instructed.

The 'bamboo whip,' which looked more glossy and supple than an ordinary horsewhip, was still unwanted even with a discount, so it was temporarily thrown into the safe for storage.

Wayne absorbed all the contaminated extraordinary materials using the old method.

These extraordinary materials were all 'a bit interesting'. Individually, they didn't feel as good as the three 'roadblocks' encountered that night, but they seemed to be of higher quality than the previous batch.

Especially that 'big guy' who had devoured even its companions, feeling like it weighed more than 'one plus one' on average.

Supporting his stomach, he went to find the stone slab fragment again, but Linna rarely reminded Wayne of the risks again.

Wayne had almost forgotten how powerful the 'Wise Sage' was, and tonight he 'reviewed' it again, gaining a personal and direct understanding of the danger of these so-called 'upper-level existences'.

But his spiritual intuition really didn't give any warning...

One last time,

Next time, I won't use that thing to 'aid digestion'. At worst, I'll drink holy water to grind it down slowly in the future.

After Linna reminded him, she didn't stop him, and took Peter, who was hugging a large ball of 'spider silk,' to a place in the yard where they could see the cellar entrance.

Then, they watched Wayne go down to tinker.

In the cellar, Liam was still chatting with the only surviving prisoner tonight, holding a small notebook and asking for more information.

Wayne was pleased to see that he could manage himself so well, so he didn't disturb them and quietly went to rummage through the stone slab fragments himself.

If some strange evil god really descends,

Wayne felt that he might still have a chance to outrun these two prisoners... or everyone could have a companion on the road.

Finally, the 'blue bar' rose directly to the upper limit, but Wayne was strangely not showing any signs of 'advancement'. Instead, he felt that the 'blue bar' seemed to be able to 'squeeze in more'.

His spiritual intuition was also as dead as a doornail, not prompting him on what to do next.

After quickly closing the stone slab fragment again, he quickly returned to the ground to find Linna.

Linna helped Wayne count the number of times he had 'leveled up':

"For many extraordinaries, the stage from Tier 4 to Tier 5, or what the Wisdom Church calls 'low-tier' to 'mid-tier,' is a stage they can't overcome until their death or loss of control. Some senior scholars in the Life School are also like this, preferring not to improve until they find a solution to avoid risks."

"Everyone's situation is different at this stage. Some people need to repeatedly 'transform' and 'purify,' some need to strengthen the 'development' of their extraordinary abilities, and some finally need some strange stimuli to survive without losing control before they can advance."

"I don't know your specific situation. But since you don't have any signs of rank improvement, it means you need more accumulation. Generally speaking, spiritual intuition will remind you when the time comes."

So the so-called 'big stage' is so坑的吗… (So the so-called 'big stage' is such a pit...)?

After Linna finished speaking, she leaned in a little closer, "If you ever feel like you're about to advance, remember to tell us in advance."

"Why?"

"Considering the current situation of your little wooden house, I think you might still explode next time... Rather than blowing up our own people, I think you should find a safe place to deal with it yourself in advance. Or have Sanders throw you far away in time."

"..."

Wayne silently lowered his head and glanced at Peter beside Linna's feet. The little guy was 'slurping' next to a large ball of 'spider silk,' and his abdomen was bulging in a circle.

Noticing Wayne's gaze, Peter also pulled out another 'thread' with one of his long legs, as if asking Wayne, "Do you want one too?"