New Gods of North America.

Chapter 314 Skipping class
While it was still early, Wayne had the certificate written by David Mills delivered to the college, and then he skipped a day of class as ordered.

I catch up on sleep in the morning, and in the afternoon I continue to give lectures to members of the detective agency and do some ideological work.

The overall size of the detective agency is as follows:
There are three partners, and then there is Doug, the only "official agent" at present. He, Ryan and Willy can be regarded as the initial detective team of the detective agency.
Then there were the six "trainee agents" recruited later, the eight "peripheral members" recruited by Doug, the five friends who had just come from Kankers City, Seth who had pledged his allegiance, and the non-staff members including Big Spider Peter, Chef Parker, and a little Lolita.

After the initial adjustments,

All the friends from Kankers City were transferred to the reserve "trainee agents", and three of the peripheral members were also transferred, plus Seth,
The "agent" sequence now has a total of eighteen people, and the number of peripheral members has become five in total.

It is hard to say whether Peter is a coward at the moment, but for now he can be regarded as the "sixth man on the periphery".

The initial team of the office was Ryan as the person in charge, two new trainee agents from Kansas City, two trainee agents from earlier, and the original peripheral members who had become "three peripheral agents and two trainees".
That is, seven "agents" and three "peripheral members", a total of ten people.

The remaining ones in the detective agency are Wayne and his three partners, eleven "agents", two "peripheral members", and several non-staff members.
Compared to the situation before Doug brought his men back, the remaining combat effectiveness of the detective agency was obviously enhanced at this time, but nearly half of it had also been divided out.

“Although you are under the management of the office during your absence, you are all members of the detective agency. If you have any practical requests while you are away, you can raise them with the office or by letter to the detective agency.

"Because part of the office's salary payment has to wait for the annual settlement, if there are people who apply to leave the detective agency in advance, in principle they must return to the detective agency to confirm the process and final salary settlement. Those who fail to complete the 'exit' process may be regarded as 'abnormal resignation' or 'betrayal'.

"We don't even mind our detective agency members becoming our business competitors after they quit, such as recruiting or winning over other members to compete with us for business commissions.

"But I must make it clear that members who leave the detective agency will no longer enjoy the special charter of the Virginia Church, and will no longer be allowed to call themselves "members of the detective agency." If we become competitors, we also hope that the competition between us can be "clean."

After saying the ugly words, what's left is "painting the pie" and "talking about feelings".
The commission from the steam locomotive company and the establishment of an office are both big events for detective agencies today.

The contract has a guaranteed minimum of $6000. Even without considering the additional bounty for wanted criminals, if it is simply regarded as an "investment" by the partner, the net dividend for one year is $1800.

Each partner only gets a few hundred dollars a year, which is far from being rich.
But in this era, it can be said that one has begun to live a life where one can have no worries about food and clothing even if one just lies down.

After the conference, the real classes started.

Inisa combined the situation last night and explained to everyone how to deal with evil spirits:

“From the composition of our detective agency, the safest way to deal with an evil spirit is to evacuate as quickly as possible and then report the situation to the church or the Exorcist Association in a timely manner.

"However, if you encounter a situation where it is necessary to eliminate it, or if you have to fight against the evil spirit, then the most common and effective way to deal with it is to destroy the evil spirit's 'attachment'.

"Based on this premise, you can try methods such as pouring holy water and burning holy oil. Images such as flames and sunlight, which are usually considered to be related to the 'sacred' realm, are often effective. You can even consider making a loud noise or igniting gunpowder." Inesa drew a table on the blackboard, which listed the characteristics and common weaknesses of several low-level evil spirits, as well as some emergency measures.

The members who didn’t experience it last night might be a little more relaxed, but the members who “encountered a ghost” are now taking notes frantically.

Teacher Inissa continued:

"Just now, Wayne and several members told everyone about their experiences last night. When being deceived by evil spirits, not launching attacks rashly is also a way to protect your companions, so everyone can also agree on some secret codes in advance to distinguish the true from the false, and learn to sense the evil spirits in advance by observing flames and other methods.

"The status of the evil spirit last night should not be low. Under normal circumstances, evil spirits should not be able to 'mislead' to such a deep extent. We can roughly use it as a reference. If we encounter a spirit with stronger power than it, I would suggest to quickly move away, or be prepared for a desperate fight and leave a last will.

"Generally speaking, the direct destructive power of evil spirits of the same level is less than that of extraordinary people, but due to the characteristics of evil spirits themselves, they are not necessarily easier to deal with. For many extraordinary people, it is not easy to directly observe evil spirits in a hidden state."

Wayne even asked Ryan to take a photo. Many members had been taken to the site to visit the ruins.
Although some of the things were not asked by the evil spirit to Wayne, after seeing the bloody traces at the scene, many members of the detective agency developed more or less awe of the evil spirit.

The biggest contrast is Sanders.
Such a strong man is actually the one who is most afraid of ghosts in the detective agency...

Lina's teaching made the agents even more scared:
"Just in case, everyone needs to leave some personal belongings for 'record keeping', so that if someone really encounters an accident, the detective community will be able to find everyone, or everyone's remains.

"Ah, don't worry. If you are a member who has officially resigned, we will return or dispose of the items for record in a timely manner. The partners have no interest in monitoring or exploring your personal privacy. This is just a security measure and is generally not used to deal with traitors.

"In order to improve everyone's courage, I plan to bring Emma and Willy with me from time to time to conduct a 'courage test' on everyone. I hope everyone won't panic too much."

Lina's last words were spoken almost as she looked at Sanders and the two members who were obviously a little scared.

Wayne didn't comment on this in class, but he thought Lina might simply think it was fun to scare cowards.

But this combination that Lina pulled out,

Shattered limbs or pieces of flesh, doors and windows that quietly opened on their own, various objects that started to move for no apparent reason...

To be honest, even in modern society,
It feels more than enough to run a haunted house or shoot a horror movie...

(End of this chapter)