Chapter 678: "Stability"

At the temporary base in the Dock Area, the Detective Agency held its routine morning briefing.

"The number of people involved in last night's attacks significantly decreased, but the proportion of seriously injured and dead is increasing. Although the Police Station has cooperated with us to extend O'Sullivan and his group's detention, the Ireland Violent Group has not completely reined in its activities, and retaliatory actions still occurred last night.

"As for the other gangs involved, besides the Rabbit Gang and the Tuto Gang, the Claw Gang and the 'Michelson Brotherhood,' two smaller gangs, also complied with the request not to use firearms. The latter even suffered additional casualties as a result.

"The Irish community is generally stable. Some gang members stayed behind in the community last night and did not launch any further attacks. The residents were also willing to be persuaded to stay indoors; the number of people on the streets last night significantly decreased, and the situation has greatly improved compared to the 'riot' of the night before."

Doug finished reading the summarized report and then waited for the partners to speak.

Wayne pointed to Seth, who had also been pulled into the small meeting, briefly explained the areas they would be responsible for in the future, and then concluded.

In any case, the focus was on targeting those who opened fire. After rotating and resting well, they would continue to go into the community to do stabilization work.

Dealing with gangs was considered "private work"; the official business still needed to be done. One group of people would be assigned during the day to protect Seth and his team, assisting them in investigating the gangs' property. Some information already gathered by the intelligence team would also be gradually handed over to them via Lina.

Wayne had taken an interest in the Irish community these past few days. The workshop was currently short-staffed, and the canning workshop, which was in preparation, also needed workers.

While using slaves from the Beaton Family's Plantation was not expensive, it was essentially incurring a favor from the Beaton Family, and continuing this way was not a long-term solution. If some of the processes could be moved to the Dock Area, it would both reduce hidden risks and make subsequent transfers more convenient.

Those Irish people in the community were, in a sense, also a good choice. Many of them had families, mostly did manual labor, and banded together for support. Their average income wasn't particularly high.

With language barriers and their faith not belonging to America's mainstream Holy Spirit Church, even if they wanted to sell the workshop's trade secrets, they probably wouldn't get a good price.

Canned luncheon meat needed to be sealed first and then heated to solidify. Semi-finished products could be brought over from the workshop, so the location wasn't too picky, except that the steaming oven needed to be close to a water source.

However, if they were to do this now, it would look like the Detective Agency was also trying to seize territory. So, it would be best to build the canning workshop outside the Irish community, simply doing business harmlessly, maintaining some distance from the "troubled area," and then finding ways to recruit people after things settled down.

This would also give the Detective Agency a reason to maintain its presence in the Dock Area after the tax collection ended—doing business, of course, they would want the surrounding environment to be as stable as possible, allowing the Detective Agency to continue clearing out gangs.

If development went smoothly, it might eventually form a relatively stable small community in the Dock Area. Besides illegal immigrants, including the Irish, some local freemen could also be appropriately hired.

At that time, the Cathedral could be invited to send priests there, and some freemen could also register as voters in Richmond, or they could try to see if some of the illegal immigrants could transition to legal status.

If this path was feasible, by then, anyone who wanted to drive the Detective Agency away would probably find it as troublesome as the Detective Agency found dealing with the gangs.

Wayne did not intend to be a community councilor here, but he could use it as a pilot project. When Wayne later returned to the west to build Wichita and develop his own land, he would know better how to proceed.

This would avoid having to go through trial and error step by step later—that was Wayne's "home," and the townspeople were all old neighbors. If problems really arose, he couldn't just pack up and leave like he could in the Dock Area.

After the briefing ended, everyone left one by one, leaving only the three partners in the small room.

Inessa, who had only returned to the base before the meeting, now delivered some bad news:

"The power hidden behind the Ireland Violent Group might be stronger than we imagined. They may have already colluded with some forces from the Old Continent."

Hmm?!

That preposterous?

A mere community gang, although its size was indeed not small—it could even establish its own small town elsewhere—but here on the East Coast, at most, it meant that police officers usually didn't intervene, and they had someone covering for them in the city.

How could they have colluded with the Old Continent?

Inessa explained, "I looked at the interrogation records Willie brought from the Police Station yesterday afternoon. The prosecutor is currently cooperating with the City Hall to exert pressure, trying to get the arrested gang members to confess what they know about the gang's hidden assets.

"An Ireland Violent Group member, because he was found to be involved in a murder case, confessed a lot of things. He mentioned that when that dock accident occurred, he was arranged to dispose of some bodies.

"On my way back just now, I specifically took people to look for them, and those bodies were very likely killed by high-level Extraordinary Persons."

Wayne looked at Inessa, a hidden Rank 7, and then at Lina, a known Rank 6 within the agency. It was no longer news to the Detective Agency that powerful wild Extraordinary Persons came from the Old Continent.

Just a few days ago, they had dealt with a wave of evil god cultists, and in practice, it wasn't that big of a deal.

He casually confirmed, "High-level? How high, roughly?"

In colloquial speech, high-level and low-level were often comparative concepts. For example, priests in the church could also be referred to as high-level priests or low-level priests in daily life, referring to differences in their seniority and authority. In the church's definition, their status was theoretically equal.

And when the Detective Agency encountered enemies in the field, they often simply categorized Extraordinary enemies as high-level or low-level. "High-level" referred to those Agents generally found difficult to deal with, while "low-level" was the opposite; specific numerical ranks were what truly indicated their power.

Inessa's expression was always calm, and at this moment, she didn't look relaxed either: "I'm talking about truly 'high-level,' possibly above Rank 8. The kind that even the Silent Sect's evil god cultists might not be able to deal with if Coatle isn't summoned."

"No way?" X2

Lina, who had been teasing the large spider with her fingers, instantly looked up.

Wayne was also a bit startled. Could this Ireland Violent Group really be that absurd?!

Inessa's expression was very serious. "Lina should have a general understanding of my situation back then. The key opportunity for my rapid promotion was gaining an advancement during a 'trial,' and the Extraordinary abilities I used completely changed."

Seeing Lina nod beside her, Inessa continued:

"At that time, they were actually conducting a forbidden experiment, injecting excessive amounts of Extraordinary potions into children with sufficient tolerance, and then having them try to merge with a core remnant left by an ancient high-level Extraordinary Person.

"After being rescued from the orphanage and no longer taking calming potions at the Hunter Association, I vaguely remembered some things from back then. In my memory, I should have been the seventh experimental subject to meet the conditions, and after surviving, I was once evaluated as 'a gift from the Holy Spirit.'"

"If coincidences are ruled out, those few bodies were very likely killed by an Extraordinary ability of the same origin. Not only was the blood taken, but the 'vitality' naturally present in living beings was completely absorbed, showing the characteristic withered features. Judging from the state of the bodies, the opponent's current rank should be above mine."

Wayne couldn't help but confirm, "According to my understanding, above Rank 7, an Extraordinary Person's state should start to become unstable. If they're Rank 8, wouldn't the opponent be..."

It felt hard to describe; Wayne immediately thought of a nuclear power plant about to have an accident.

However, as soon as he said this, Wayne seemed to find the answer from the "flash of inspiration" he gained after directly facing the Wise Sage.

It was originally a thought so faint that he had almost completely ignored it, but now it suddenly seemed to light up—Extraordinary power itself had no concept of "stability" or "instability." They were somewhat like water in a balloon, which, under mutual interaction, would squeeze and change the "container" into the state best able to contain them, just as electric current always preferentially passes through the path of least resistance.

The so-called "instability" was actually the "container" being changed into a more "reasonable" form. Even "an Extraordinary Person completely exploding and Extraordinary power completely dissipating" was a broad sense of "reasonableness."

It was just that what was "reasonable" for Extraordinary power was completely unacceptable by human standards.

Inessa, however, understood what Wayne wanted to ask. After a brief thought, she replied:

"Considering that there have been no suspicious signs or incidents in the Dock Area recently, the opponent likely has a way to temporarily stabilize their state.

"This usually only represents two possibilities: either the opponent has a large amount of Extraordinary materials that can be consumed, or they have already transformed into a semi-mythical creature with non-human characteristics, but still temporarily maintaining sanity, and potentially 'hungry' at any time."

Mythical creature sounded impressive, but in reality, it wasn't a good term.

Ghouls covered in corrosive fluid, hellhounds with uncontrollable drool, and even the "mushroom heads" and "pus-oozing King Kongs" Wayne had seen, were all members of the "mythical creature" family.

The images in Wayne's mind quickly shifted from "a nuclear power plant about to explode" to various bosses from Resident Evil.

No way?

Such a small Dock Area, could it really be so full of hidden masters without being discovered?

Could there be an underground city beneath it?

Lina pondered for a moment, "Could the opponent have already left the Dock Area?"

Inessa nodded: "It's possible. But even if that's the case, right now, when dealing with the Ireland Violent Group, we might have to be prepared for it to return at any time."