New Gods of North America.

Chapter 315 Communication
After being lazy for a day, I still have to go to class.
According to the unwritten convention, after students successfully and reasonably request leave, they should not have to do the homework for that class, or at least make it up after the next class.

But Professor Aber Maisel, who was in charge of the math class, was very considerate and asked someone to bring Wayne's homework over...

However, Wayne's current focus is on the preparations for the office.

So Seth can only suffer a little longer.

The busiest person on this matter this week is actually Ryan. As the person in charge of office reservations, he not only has to prepare the corresponding luggage and equipment with the office members, but also has to think about how to put some of the partners' ideas into practice.

According to Wayne's plan, the office must at least be a semi-temporary "branch base" of the detective agency, so it needs a relatively fixed foothold, preferably near the middle of the steam train line, so that it will be easy to patrol both sides.

The town that was initially chosen was Clarisburg, where Wayne and his friends had been before. There was a steam train station there, which made it convenient for both traveling and providing support.

However, Wayne believes that the selection of the specific location should be decided by the members of the office based on the actual situation.

History has proven that micro-management such as "move the machine gun five meters to the left" is actually of little significance in practice. It is better to let everyone play their own role after clarifying the goal.

There is only one mandatory requirement on Wayne's side, which is to require the person in charge of the office to send a letter to the detective agency every two weeks. If there is a plan to go out to the mountains as a whole, then they must write a letter in advance before departure.
The reason for this requirement is to prevent the offices from collectively "disconnecting" due to accidents.
When Wayne and his team were sweeping along the steam train line, they had already witnessed a team of bounty hunters being almost wiped out, and they also encountered the Eagle Coin that could kill "Slender Man" instantly, so they always had to be careful.

Doug allocated two pigeons to the members of the office to contact the detective agency in case of emergency. Normally, they would send letters by post.

Taking into account the necessity of a certain degree of confidentiality in long-distance communications, Wayne also asked Ryan to bring a relatively niche general reading book "The Holy Scripture" based on the movies and TV series he had watched, as a code book to write some content that was not suitable for others to see.

By the way, we also referred to Lina's work experience and agreed on several codes with different meanings.
No matter if the main members of the office are sidelined or purged, or if there is an external threat, as long as there is a problem with the code or it does not match, the detective agency will know how to respond in time.

When David Mills came to inform Pastor Bazzini of the reward decision for the detective agency, he also happened to listen to the response plans of several partners on Wayne's side for some matters in the office.

In his own words, "The level of organization and meticulousness of your detective agency now is already very similar to that of some hidden organization that is about to launch a major operation."

If the detective agency did not have the bishop's special charter, David Mills himself would probably have wanted to close down the detective agency.

Unfortunately, Pastor Bazzini is a bit stingy.

Although he later called Wayne to George Berg's church and gave the detective agency an internal commendation for its assistance,
But the benefit he actually gave to the detective agency turned out to be some holy water, ostensibly to strengthen the agency's defenses against evil spirits.

The amount is not even as much as what Wayne drank last month to "aid digestion"...

Wayne was a little unhappy, so he took the opportunity to strike back.

The detective agency was praised internally in the church, right? So we are considered "insiders" of the local church?

Well, isn’t it reasonable for “brother units” that also have case-handling business to draw on, discuss and learn from each other?

Then Wayne found a breakthrough point from the honest man David Mills.
Strike while the iron is hot, choose the nearest afternoon off, and persuade David Mills to arrange for the two sides to have a study exchange. On the premise that Pastor Bazini did not express clear opposition,

The detective agency provided money and space, and invited David Mills to bring 20 members of the local exorcism department to the detective agency for "group teaching" and "business guidance".
By the way, we also organized "internal exchanges" and "peer gatherings", and even prepared small gifts.

Sly guys like Lina and Seth took the opportunity to get some inside information from the people who came over. They didn't care whether it was useful or not, they just secretly sorted it out and filed it.

It just so happened that someone on the other side was secretly doing something similar, and then both sides showed off their acting skills and screened information to each other, which could be considered as a real "internal communication" in secret.

David Mills is currently the head of George Berg's exorcism department, but he was "airdropped" from Richmond after all, and his subordinates may not all obey him. Some of the old members still have a bit of "local" complex.
Wayne certainly couldn't get involved in such internal friction within the church, but the "shooting range" and "arena" of the detective agency could help out.

Under the rules of "undiscriminate fighting", the agents have now accumulated some experience in beating and being beaten, and are more familiar with the terrain of the "arena".

On the surface, it was "friendship first, competition second", but privately, everyone was secretly competing with some members of the Exorcism Department who seemed to have prejudices against David Mills and the detective agency.

Connor, who had hidden his identity as a member of the Hunter Association, was currently number one on the Arena Agents list. He also had a rare opportunity to beat up a member of the Holy Spirit Church in broad daylight, and his hatred was instantly aroused.

When the wind is in their favor, they will show off all kinds of moves, but when the wind is against them, they may admit defeat immediately depending on the situation, not giving others a chance to get back on their feet. They are despised by people from both sides in the arena, and are also the ones who get drunk the most during subsequent dinners.

After all, David Mills was from the special forces, so he might not be very professional in management, but his combat skills were outstanding.

The "fluorescence" on his body is a bit like "poison attribute" to most extraordinary people. Even when it erupts, it can play a role in dispersing or weakening extraordinary powers in other fields within a certain range for a short time.

Since he was not weak to begin with, the agents had to give him some face, so David Mills became a highlight figure in the local exorcism department.

The person who was most hurt was the stubborn and unyielding Willy.

When the two sides were having a "friendly exchange" in the arena, they adopted a one-on-one team elimination system.

There are eight groups of people participating in the competition. The three people in each group decide the order of appearance in advance. They will play against each other in three rounds. Normally, they will play three rounds. The group with more total wins will advance to the next round. If the game is tied, there will be a tiebreaker.

After several rounds of promotion, the winning group will be finally determined.

Although it was a "friendly match" in theory, after entering the second round, each team started to take it seriously.
In addition, for fairness reasons, the overall combat effectiveness of each group was roughly balanced at the beginning, and both sides consciously divided the obviously stronger contestants into different groups.
So after tactical iterations, various winning strategies soon came into being.

Willy happened to be in a team with Connor, the strongest agent.
Unfortunately, this group made it all the way to the finals before losing to David Mills' group, which was one of the groups with the most games played.

In a tactical game similar to "Tian Ji's Horse Racing",
In many cases, the “low-quality horse” actually has to fight against the “high-quality horse”…

(End of this chapter)