New Gods of North America

Because the temporary base still had a pile of evidence and captives needing protection, and the fingerprint collection and comparison hadn't been completed, and now all three partners were out, Wayne and his team didn't actually have many people with them.

For example, Connor had originally hoped to come along tonight, but as the arena champion of the detective agency's first season, with the partners not at home, he had to cooperate with Doug and the others to guard the base.

Fortunately, Mr. Moliere's Frankish agent bodyguards seemed to be of good quality, and could barely fill the gap left by the partners' absence.

According to Connor's informal assessment after sparring with them, four of them were "good", and one was "quite good"—given his personality, the latter was at least someone he would need to pay a certain "price" to defeat, or could only defeat in a "non-sparring state", like Damon McReady, the current arena leader, who Connor currently assesses in this way.

Wayne and his group, two carriages and six people, arrived late at night at the so-called "Castallo Community."

At first glance, it looked a bit like a closed industrial park, with walls and gates on the outside, and iron chains blocking carriages at the entrances and exits. Inside, the residences were all small, detached wooden houses, along with places like factories, warehouses, school buildings, and a small church.

But at least it didn't look like a prison. At least there weren't any guards with guns standing next to the gate in the wall.

Several heads huddled together on a small hillside outside the wall.

Wayne looked out at the community with its scattered lights and described the mission:

"Our scheduled goal tonight is to confirm the environment and investigate the basic situation within the community. After everyone enters separately, the principle is free movement, but focusing on concealed reconnaissance and self-preservation, returning before dawn. Afterwards, you need to submit the corresponding information, which will be compiled into a map.

"If there are unexpected circumstances, such as being routinely arrested by the community's security patrols, immediately launch a yellow flare. Sanders, who is guarding the carriages, will be responsible for entering and communicating as a 'special police envoy', trying to peacefully take the person away. I will also try to meet up with him on the way.

"If we clearly provoke the other party's hostility and are forced into a firefight, then launch a red flare. In this case, you are no longer allowed to reveal your identity. You can fight back, but try to avoid causing too many casualties and strive to get away as soon as possible. If you get caught, we will also try to rescue you secretly."

A simple small square was drawn in the dirt. Lina was in a good mood at this time, and generously handed the small wooden stick to Liam, "One direction for each person, you choose first."

Inisa was not suitable for close combat in "peace mode", and of course, she shouldn't be in "non-peace mode" either, so she was mainly responsible for finding suitable high points, grasping the overall route and general layout of the community, and just circling around at a distance, without needing to investigate too deeply. The details would be filled in by others.

Liam sensibly chose the direction that required the longest detour. "Chameleon" chose one adjacent to him. Finally, Wayne and Lina each chose one, plus Sanders, the most macho-looking one, as the reserve team, and that was basically it.

A grappling hook caught on the top of the wall, and Wayne quickly climbed over from his side. When he landed, he bent his waist and legs to reduce the impact and noise, and reached out to steady his hat.

Then a few "small spikes" quickly landed on the back of Wayne's hand, and then jumped away lightly. Wayne looked to the side and, sure enough, Lina quietly landed next to him.

"Aren't you supposed to start from that direction?" Wayne asked.

"Tch. I suddenly thought that it's rare to come out for fresh air, but without a companion, how boring. Anyway, it's free movement, and this place isn't big. We'll just go halfway around and head over there later."

Okay, a combination of a man and a woman makes work easier...

In all fairness, the scale of this community was actually not too small. Statistically speaking, it had more than 120 households, which, placed in a western town's residential area, was already above the average scale.

However, from the hat rack next to the door, you could still see aboriginal-style feather hats, decorations, and fur coats hanging. In the utility room under the stairs, there were also things like "wind chimes" made of thin bones and earth-made bows and arrows full of aboriginal characteristics. Maybe because they didn't quite match the overall style of the house, they were stored in the dark, or someone didn't allow them to be displayed publicly.

Lina glanced around the house and quickly found a small hidden compartment in the kitchen, which contained something made of fish bones, animal bones, feathers, and teeth, I don't know what it was, but judging by the style, it should belong to a relatively primitive nature worship.

The other family hid even more exaggerated things. There was also an additional wooden painted oil lamp in the shape of a human face or a ghost face. Lina shone it with a small kerosene lamp with a cover, probably thinking it was boring, and quickly dragged Wayne to change places.

Walking along this residential area towards the "community center", there was a small square surrounded by many buildings.

The church looked like it was in the style of the Holy Spirit Church, and there didn't seem to be anything to see. The one next to it was probably the council hall or management center, which was dark at this time. The small hospital seemed to be still open. Wayne and Lina peeked out from under the windowsill, and then passed it by.

Walking towards the side that Lina was originally responsible for, it was the "big factory area" in the community. This broken place actually had high walls, and it seemed to be working non-stop even at midnight, with lights and faint mechanical noises.

As soon as the two of them climbed into the factory area, they looked at each other, and their spiritual intuition felt the existence of extraordinary power.

There was a colorful totem pole in the dead corner next to it, which looked like it had stacked the heads of different animals. The rows of eyes painted on it from top to bottom were staring wide, and there were small wings near the top.

Lina and Peter the Great Spider were still observing it, wondering if there were any valuable parts on it. This time, it was her turn to be dragged away by Wayne, "We're here to see the situation, you're not allowed to damage public property."

The guards on the factory side were slightly stricter, but they were still in a state of not being very defensive. There was a strange stench in the workshop. Wayne was wondering what was going on here, and then quickly found the answer. It turned out to be one of the top polluters of water sources this year, the tanning industry.

The leather tanned by the natives felt like it should be genuine animal leather. There were also some leather bags and belts piled up in the finished product warehouse. The style was average, but it focused on being sturdy and reliable. Wayne pulled it hard and thought the quality was not bad. If there was a chance, he could consider buying a batch and re-equipping the agents later.

Just as he was planning to continue to figure out the purpose of the other buildings in the factory area, a bright light flashed from a distance outside the window, dragging a faint trail into the sky.

"Save—Boom!"

The flare then scattered, it was a bright red.