As the lights in the community gradually illuminated, and several teams of lights searched back and forth along the roads like agitated hornets, seeking the troublemakers,
Wayne and the others had already returned to the hillside where they had initially gathered.
Liam was still slumped against the base of a tree, his breathing uneven. "That scared me to death! I didn't expect there to be so many extraordinary individuals here. I hadn't been inside the woodworking shop for long before I was discovered. I almost thought I wouldn't be able to escape."
Thanks to the community's insufficient nighttime lighting, after the red flares went up, the others noticed the direction the lights were converging and tacitly began to create distractions of their own.
Iinesha fired blanks in the distance, and Linna even lit a high-explosive and threw it into an open space—if Wayne hadn't stopped her, reducing the additional damage to the community, Linna might have flattened someone's warehouse. Wayne was beginning to wonder whose extraordinary ability was actually 'Explosion'…
Even if Liam wasn't great in other areas, at least his will to survive was very strong.
In the end, he didn't let things develop to the point where someone needed to rescue him; he successfully shook off his pursuers on his own.
So, when the others saw that the searching lights seemed to have lost their target and their movements became scattered, they concealed themselves and returned one after another.
Iinesha had already begun drawing a topographical map under the light of a kerosene lamp with a lampshade, and then gradually refining the markings based on the others' additions.
The situation of the entire community gradually became clear on the map: two main residential areas, a central square, a factory district, a workshop district, and a comprehensive district.
The composition of the security patrol personnel seemed closer to the structure of a Western town. The members were mainly some of the original residents, and there were also white-skinned 'police' roles, few in number, but clearly with higher status.
According to Liam's observation, there were even organizations similar to 'gangs' here. These people were not the same group as the security patrol personnel, and even seemed to deliberately avoid them.
However, they had a stronger impulse to resort to violence. Liam had almost gotten into a real fight with them.
Then, unexpectedly, after the flares went up, those people also dispersed quickly, just like Liam, seemingly also avoiding a direct confrontation with the people who came in response.
The others ran to Iinesha one by one, pointing out the general situation of the buildings in their respective areas, and adding where there were hidden passages and which were actually dead ends.
Iinesha marked them while speaking without looking up:
"According to the records in the Hunter Association, when the Windsor colonists were dealing with some indigenous tribes in Virginia, they also encountered a lot of trouble. Among them, some relatively powerful indigenous tribes, although their primitive beliefs were not yet complete, had also entered the extraordinary realm to some extent, and had some unique applications."
Wayne put down his binoculars and turned his head upon hearing this. "According to the prisoners' descriptions, the missing small leader should also be an extraordinary individual. So his situation doesn't seem to be a special case in their tribe?"
Iinesha blinked. "Many records from the colonial period are not public, and Windsor Kingdom suffered severe damage and loss of archives when they were defeated and left. I don't know the specific situation. But from the current point of view, the 'gang' Liam mentioned, I think it is very likely to be a 'secret society' of those who have mastered extraordinary abilities among them—you also said just now that accepting the Holy Spirit faith seems to be one of the conditions for these indigenous people to be accepted into this community."
This judgment was very easy for Wayne to deduce.
There was a Holy Spirit Church in the middle of the community, and if you randomly selected two families, they would both have holy emblems at home, while items that originally belonged to their faith could only be hidden in strange hidden compartments and corners. This is what Americans would ask others to do.
So he then looked at Liam again, "Tell me about the situation you discovered over there."
"I was investigating that place just now."
Liam first pointed vaguely towards the community, and then consciously squatted down next to Iinesha, pointing it out for her on the map. "That's the border area between the 'workshop district' and the 'comprehensive district,' a woodworking shop. I noticed a reaction of extraordinary power there, so I went deeper inside. There's a hidden basement inside. There were probably twenty or thirty people gathered there at the time, but before I had time to investigate in detail, a person with feathers all over his head and paint all over his face issued a warning to them."
Hmm…
Wayne thought for a moment, "Feathers all over his head and paint all over his face", isn't that the image of a priest in an indigenous tribe?
"Is there a possibility that they are not allowed to spread and openly discuss their tribe's traditional beliefs and culture here, so they can only do it secretly?"
Liam was slightly stunned. "It seems possible… but they wouldn't directly draw their knives and take up weapons, would they? At that time, they not only used extraordinary abilities, there were swarms of snakes and things like leopard souls chasing me. If I hadn't dodged quickly, the javelins would have been able to nail me into a hedgehog, and some people even took out guns—in that situation, they wouldn't have been reluctant to fire."
"How many extraordinary individuals did you encounter?" Iinesha raised her head slightly.
"It seems everyone there was." Liam wasn't sure. "At least those who were there at the time looked like 'hunters' or something from the tribe. The kind who are responsible for using force."
"Did you see the target we were going to arrest?" Wayne asked.
Liam looked a little crestfallen. "Many of them had paint on their faces, and I didn't have time to observe carefully… and I've only seen that guy's portrait, not the person himself, so it's actually not very certain to identify him."
Alright.
Wayne imagined it a little. Maybe that group of people was secretly conducting a traditional ritual that was not allowed in this community, and as a result, Liam broke in, and they thought Liam was someone investigating their "illegal behavior", and then Liam released a flare for a wide-range warning, then anyone would panic.
If this is the case, then it seems more reasonable that the group of people subsequently avoided the security patrol personnel who gathered there—after all, in a territory where the Holy Spirit faith has an advantage, other "heretical beliefs" are not allowed to exist, even if this is the original faith of that group of people.
But this is just speculation, maybe they really are some kind of indigenous gang, maybe they are related to that missing small leader, then it is equally reasonable for them to be vigilant and hostile to "outsiders."
Under Liam's explanation, Iinesha completed the markings on that area of the map one by one, and then she pondered for a moment, and then confirmed to Liam, "They were gathering in the basement at the time, what was the air like at the scene?"
Liam shrank his neck and tried hard to recall: "Just ordinary basement air, a little dull, and a little damp?"
"That's not right."
