New Gods of North America.

Chapter 238 A familiar scene

To be honest, before the operation began, Wayne felt that their plan still seemed very "special forces"-like.

Wayne and several members who claim to be good at close combat,

After tying a rope to a tree above the mountain wall, I grabbed the rope and stepped on the mountain wall to descend quickly. The friction between the gloves and the rope generated heat.

The team below, who were good at swimming, dragged driftwood as "water ghosts". The driftwood served as a safety net and also to prevent torches and some guns from getting wet.

Inissa took her bolt-action rifle and found a commanding height on the other side of the mountain wall, ready to be the "wall breaker" of the mountain wall and the "supervisor" of other members.
Lina unlocked a new skin, changed into a cowboy outfit, with Peter on her hat, a gun and a small backpack on her back, and followed Wayne and several agents to rappel the attack.

With a "bang!" sound of gunfire, the camouflage on the mountain wall shattered and collapsed like a glass curtain wall.
Just like the hidden cave in Blackrock Town before, the mountain wall soon revealed its true appearance in front of everyone - a semicircular entrance that was nearly three meters high and four meters wide, and not very regular.

There were a few things like rune cloth strips hanging across the entrance, and some decorations such as skulls, small bones, and some even more bizarre odds and ends hanging on them.

The "water ghosts" leaned on the driftwood, holding their guns and standing guard or slowly going deeper.
Wayne and the assault team members, who were already half-hanging in the middle of the mountain wall, also descended quickly, pulling on the ropes and stepping on the mountain wall to continue falling.

When we got to the upper position near the cave entrance,
Wayne slightly increased the force of his push against the wall, slid down a distance in the air, then put his feet forward, ready to swing his body into the cave to land.

grass……

Why is the cave full of rivers? There is not even a place to stand nearby...

So the assault team members who were descending quickly from above were only half-cool and could only lie obediently on the driftwood provided by the "water ghosts" and paddle in half floating and half sinking.

There were a few burning braziers in the cave, and some extinguished spare braziers beside them, but the overall tone was still dark and gloomy.

Continuing to explore along the water flow, we first went down a long slope and finally saw a "branch cave" where we could land.

There was a pile next to it with two small boats tied to it.

“It feels like everyone has gone out…”

Lina muttered, and jumped from the driftwood to the branch hole first, stepping on the ground.

Wayne and his team of assault team members also left the water and jumped or climbed onto the shore.

With the vision of simple lines, Wayne was not afraid of the dark environment. He walked in front with a gun in hand and began to move deeper into the cave along the wall.
Big Spider Peter was also very active at this time, and soon surpassed Wayne to become the pioneer.

Lina was at the end of the team, and if anyone made any unusual movements, even if they were "one of us", they would probably be shot.

This place seems to be a natural cave. If you throw a big rock, the echo can reach far away.

The weird thing is that there isn't even a bat, and it doesn't feel that "natural".

Mr. Daggett and Chris were also members who were pulled in to attack the enemy. At this time, Wayne couldn't just leave them outside to wait, and even tried to make the ratio of members in each place "half on each side".
Mr. Daggett's men seemed to be more well-trained. They soon lit torches behind Wayne and explored together at a distance.

Although I didn't see anyone here, this place looked like the base of the "Skinny Gang".
The group first passed by a larger area that looked a bit like a "hall", with a "kitchen" next to it, and a space that looked like an "entertainment room" - there were wine barrels, wine bottles, and a lot of cigarette butts and scattered cards next to it.

A little further on, the circle connected to the "hall" looks a bit like a "dormitory".

Some of the broken forks or shallow holes had haystacks or something like that, showing signs of someone lying there.

Wayne roughly identified the direction and tried to explore in the direction of the "missing child" that Lina told him was currently located.

After passing through a narrow and sometimes wide path, we arrived at a place close to the location.

There was light in front, and the space suddenly became clear.

After letting the "lens" of the simple line vision drift inward and confirming that it was generally safe,

Wayne poked his head in and looked inside.
My goodness, this is like a dream returning to Blackrock Town.

This place is actually a place similar to a sacrificial site, which is at least 80% similar to the hidden cave in Blackrock Town.

A circle of "small towers" made of skulls were built at intervals, with thick white candles next to them.

In the middle was an inverted pentagram surrounded by several concentric circles, filled with strange patterns and incomprehensible symbols.
There was still an amorphous black gas above the center of the magic circle, but it was not as "dangerous" as the one in Blackrock Town in terms of spiritual intuition. It looked a bit like a simple mini replica of the same style, but the number of skulls was at least 70% less.

The good news is that the missing child should have been found.

But the bad news is that even if the biological parents were present at this time, they probably wouldn't be able to tell which one was...

Wayne had some experience by now, so he signaled everyone not to enter the range of the magic circle.
Stay quiet, keep a low profile, don't move, and wait for professionals to handle it.

Then Wayne divided everyone into small teams according to proportion and went to explore other places in the cave to confirm whether there were any living enemies here.

It turned out that there were still people staying in the cave. Soon, the sound of gunfire "bang, bang, bang" echoed.
There weren't many actual shots fired, it was mainly the echoes that lasted for a long time.

Wayne was a little frightened when he heard the noise at the sacrificial site.
He was afraid that the black energy would explode again and bring Wayne to the ground.

After confirming that the magic circle was still intact, Wayne followed Peter and found that Chris had reached a space similar to a "treasure room".

The two gang members who stayed behind hid inside and took the initiative before being shot dead on the spot.

Lina was in a group with Mr. Daggett, and she supervised him.
After they came over, they met again. Peter jumped back to Lina, and Lina secretly made a gesture to Wayne, indicating that there was nothing unusual.

It seems that it is no longer popular among gangs these days to hoard a lot of gold coins.
Everyone took a quick look inside. The cash hidden here, including coins and banknotes, was only a few dozen US dollars. There was some good wine and cigars, and some brand new spare guns and bullets.
Lina looked around and took out a waterproof leather bag from a hidden place. Inside was rolled up banknotes of various denominations, with a total value of more than one thousand US dollars.

There was also a small box of strange things that Wayne dug out from behind a cave wall in a corner after Peter noticed it.
It feels like some material that can be used in mysticism, but there are no extraordinary items that can be seen with a quick glance.

The gang was not at home, and some other members also entered the cave one after another, moving whatever valuable things they could.
Inissa first evaluated the magic circle.

Finally, she came to the conclusion that although she could blow it up directly, it would be better to hand it over to the church or the Exorcist Association and let them send someone to deal with it, and she could also make some contributions by the way.

As for the small box of things that Wayne found, it was difficult to collect and its value was difficult to define.
Most of them are black magic materials made according to the practices of a specific faction, which are almost similar to semi-finished parts or screws of special models.

For most people, these things are useless and the materials are not precious, almost like garbage, but for those who need them, they may be willing to buy them at a high price. If they are taken to the church, they will probably be smashed or burned.

After the loot was transported out of the cave and packed into boxes, Chris and Mr. Daggett had no objection to the detective agency keeping all the loot.

On the one hand, this was indeed an agreement made in advance. On the other hand, the hidden base was found by the detective agency. The sacrificial site inside was enough to silence many people who might have changed their minds halfway.

"So what are you going to do next?" asked Mr. Daggett.

Wayne thought about it for a moment:
"Now that we have found the possible base of the 'Skinny Gang', why don't we continue to wait outside for a few days to see if there is a chance to ambush them? But if they don't come back, the detective agency won't stay here for too long.

"If we fail to ambush them, since you know the location of this stronghold, you can organize people to encircle and suppress them."

If it is an ordinary cave, then hiding inside and ambushing is actually the best option.

Unfortunately, when seeing things like sacrificial sites and magic arrays, one has to consider whether the other party can still obtain other blessings in the corresponding environment. One cannot treat them as simple extraordinary people. In order to avoid excessive casualties, it is best to change the place to attack.

As for the detective agency, it's a pity that they didn't catch anyone.
However, without having to fight, I pocketed more than a thousand dollars, which was worth the money, so I didn't lose anything if I left.

I was willing to stay a few more days, not only to expand my gains, but also to take care of Mr. Daggett and Chris's feelings.
Otherwise, it would be much easier to just report it to the church and let the church arrange people to monitor the situation and deal with the aftermath. It would also be nice for Wayne to collect some contributions and make a profit from the difference.

After four days of waiting, the Skinny Gang still hadn't returned.

The dry food that everyone brought with them has been almost used up. If they continue to wait, if the dry food is finished, everyone will go hungry if they fail to catch any prey.

So everyone took down the rune cloth hanging at the "door" of the cave and reluctantly went home.
There was nothing wrong the past two days. I didn't see any gangsters chasing after me.

On the third night, an outside member of the detective agency suddenly screamed while on guard.

Wayne jumped up and ran to support with his gun, but he saw a tall figure in the woods a little further away -

The figure was about 3 meters tall and slender.
Overall, it looks like a "person", and it seems to be wearing a black formal suit.
But there seems to be no facial features on the head, not even hair, and the upper limbs do not look like "hands" but feel more like "tentacles."

Slender Man?!
Charlie "Skinny"?
Wayne scratched his head. Shouldn't that urban legend have only been spread in the Internet age? Aren't you a little ahead of your time?
(End of this chapter)