New Gods of North America.

Chapter 709 New "Tourists"

With the help of factory professionals, our guide, Seren, quickly understood the specific requirements the cannery had for its employees.

At the same time, because Wayne brought Alex Brooke, who was a "new face" but had a family factory and a certain reputation in Richmond, the guide, Ciarán, was finally convinced that Wayne's talk of a cannery was not just empty talk.

After a brief introduction, not only his own family members, but also several neighbors from the same house and nearby areas, quickly gathered in his "living room."

The person primarily responsible for providing technical explanations was, of course, Alex Brooke. However, as one of the de facto owners of the cannery, Wayne's answers to questions were more closely watched – after all, what he said directly affected his salary and benefits.

"According to my current thinking, the employment in the cannery will be divided into two categories. One is short-term employment, which is paid by piecework based on actual work output and can be settled on the same day; the other is relatively long-term employment, with a guaranteed weekly wage, but the corresponding requirements and benefits will be more."

"Because food safety and quality are involved, we will have supervisors on-site. Even for short-term hires, they need to receive relevant training beforehand. If any accidents are caused intentionally or due to improper operation, we will refuse to pay the wages or refuse to hire them again, and in serious cases, we will pursue legal action."

"However, the workshop has only just completed site selection, and it will probably take some time before construction is completed. During this period, people who are interested in our workshop can also participate in the early construction of the cannery as manual laborers. They will not only receive pre-employment training in advance, but will also be given priority in hiring."

Having spent so much time in the dock area, Wayne is no stranger to this place now.
The wages he offered were roughly the same as the daily wages of dockworkers, with a slight increase of a few percentage points. The wages for piece-rate temporary workers were even slightly lower.
As for specific benefits, Wayne intends to do more and say less, leaving some room for discretion.

It needs to be competitive enough to attract people, but it can't be too high.
If the former cannot be achieved, the canneries will not be able to recruit enough employees. However, if they do it too conspicuously, it will indirectly increase the average wage level in the dock area, and may even cause a significant shortage of manpower in some docks.

Wayne himself wouldn't mind making life a little better for the dockworkers—after all, the average wage here isn't high—but the gentlemen in Richmond who profit from trade would probably be very averse to the increase in labor costs.

If this leads to a rapid increase in overall logistics costs in the dock area, then the detective agency, having touched the wallets of so many big shots, will most likely become even more disliked than the gangsters in the dock area.

Wayne wasn't ready to openly gamble on this yet, so he planned to secretly put in some effort. At least providing one or two meals a day, ensuring timely pay, and occasionally letting employees take home unpackaged products to improve their meals should be manageable.

This is also because "if the cook doesn't steal, the grains won't be harvested," and Wayne thought it wasn't very scientific to make the employees go hungry while producing food.

It's better to be more generous and avoid things like cheating in advance.

After a lengthy explanation, although the dimly lit "living room" in guide Seren's house, where only one candle was lit, was now almost full of people,

However, if we ignore some odor issues and certain unconscious, low-quality interjections, it is actually quite orderly overall.

Wayne had said everything he wanted to say and could say, and now he was listening along with everyone as Alex Brooke explained the specific production process of canned goods, especially the specific operations that employees needed to perform.

Then the sky near the community started to move again.

"save--

"save--

"Boom! Boom!"

Two fireworks were launched, one red and one yellow. According to the code recently agreed upon by the Detective Agency and Brother Merlin, this meant that a certain group was calling for reinforcements.
The situation is a bit more complicated than a single "red" event, and it falls into the category that the team believes is difficult to control on their own, but it is far from the level of discovering Jason or a high-level extraordinary being, which is called a "triple red" event.

The residents of the community now generally know that Wayne is the leader of the "Red Armbands," and they also know that these fireworks are related to the "Red Armbands." There are even rumors that "the dock area at night now belongs to the 'Red Armbands.'"
Part of this is actually a misunderstanding. The detective agency gained influence by assisting Brother Merlin and his undercover monks. Because the cathedral directly intervened in the manhunt for Jason, even the police secretly gave the green light to many things. Some gangs also found that it seemed that complaining to anyone was useless lately.

The detective agency naturally had no motive or motivation to actively clarify these rumors, so it simply ignored them.

Seeing that everyone's attention was gradually turning to him, Wayne, in order to maintain the detective agency's cornerstone image of "actively protecting peace," could not ignore the warning outside the window and had to appear calm and composed. So he responded casually:

"It's alright, everyone continue."

"Sanders, go and get two people from nearby to stay here and protect Mr. Brooke. We'll go check that out later."

Last night, not many gangsters dared to cause trouble against the wind, so why is it starting again tonight?

It seems that the massacre of the Sailors' Gang is not enough; we still need to arrest a few typical cases and put them to public trial.

……

Upon arriving at the docks, which were within the territory of the Elran gang, Wayne discovered that the fireworks were actually set off by Brother Merlin.

To be precise, they were proper "cathedral guards," not just "church monks" in general.

"We were just conducting random inspections of cargo ships that docked at night when we encountered resistance from the Extraordinary Ones."

"There appear to be at least two people on the other side, whose identities are currently unknown. However, their attack just now didn't seem particularly aggressive; their main objective appears to be to conceal their movements."

If we were to analyze this carefully, the docks would actually be a place with a very complex composition.

In addition to the sailors and shipwrights on board, as well as the dock managers, gangsters, and manual laborers, the ship will also spawn employees of different trading companies and various government officials.

These days, customs and tax departments aren't that strict. To get a position, you need to be a local citizen with basic education.
They usually come to work during the day and return to the city before dark. Their anti-smuggling and on-site inspections depend on their mood, luck, or personal relationships, leaving considerable loopholes.

However, most legitimate ship owners are hesitant to gamble on the odds—the laws in this area are quite strict. Someone might slip through the net a hundred times, but if they're caught and win the lottery even once, it could mean financial ruin for some ship owners and cargo owners.

So secretly bringing a few people or slightly underreporting the goods is only human nature, but normal people wouldn't go too far, and they are almost completely different from those who engage in "large-scale smuggling".

The two extraordinary individuals discovered tonight were the type who could have slipped through the net. Customs and tax authorities didn't have any activities planned for tonight, and the cargo ship itself didn't seem to have any major problems.

They could have secretly disembarked in the middle of the night, but they were caught in a random check by the cathedral guards.

"The other side is very strong? I came here because I saw your fireworks." Wayne asked.

"Their exact rank is still unknown, and our people are currently questioning the captain and sailors."

One of Merlin's men shrugged helplessly as he said this, "But it's obvious we failed to stop them. If they had done something wrong, they would have already escaped successfully."

It's a bit annoying.

Why can't these extraordinary individuals from the Old World wait until the Detective Agency has stabilized the dock area before coming over?

(End of this chapter)