After the basic training, "Maggie" asked Sean to have a three-round boxing match. Sean defended with all his strength, but was still a little dazed by the heavy punches.
"Boxing trains your fighting reaction and will. When facing evil things, just having weapons is not enough." After the game, Catherine walked out of the role. She looked a little tired, as if playing took a lot of energy.
Then, Catherine took Sean to the shooting room on the other floor and started shooting training.
The revolver in Sean's hand roared, and a hole was blown out of the paper target.
Sean imagined the corpse of the woman crawling towards him. Several rounds of shots emptied the bullet chamber, and the woman's head and chest were hit by multiple bullets. In Sean's imagination, although the dead skeleton was not completely eliminated, the opponent also suffered heavy losses and was wary of attacking.
"If you can draw your gun in time and shoot steadily, you will be able to fight even when facing violent corpses - firearms will greatly improve the explorer's self-defense ability."
Catherine said on the side: "I know what you are thinking, but you have to remember: use, but don't rely on firearms. Otherwise you will always be a weak person."
Sean nodded, threw out the cartridge case, poured out the hot cartridge case, and stuffed the brass bullets into the magazine one by one as quickly as possible. When there was an empty magazine left, Catherine handed over something - a bullet without a warhead.
"What's this?"
"Ectoplasm bullets." Catherine said calmly, "Bullets that can hurt the spirit body."
Sean touched the invisible warhead with some curiosity, and felt a numbing pain coming from his fingertips. Catherine used her previous magic to transform Sean's vision into a "spiritual vision" state.
He could see that there was a blue translucent warhead on the bullet. The texture was very similar to the tentacles that he extended out. Considering that Catherine might find that she could control ectoplasm, Sean resisted the idea of activating the symbol and stretching out the tentacles for comparison.
"Can you see the spirit target?" Following the direction Catherine pointed, Sean saw a wraith fixed on the wall by some kind of magical chain. With a chaotic face, it was wailing and struggling...
"Give it the last bullet."
After Catherine finished speaking, Sean raised the revolver, and the first five bullets still hit the paper target.
The last shot... He tried his best to aim at the unclear and wailing resentful spirit.
boom! The recoil of the ectoplasm bullet is obviously larger, and the gun flame is also weirdly pale.
The ectoplasm bullet penetrated the resentful spirit, and it kept twitching and seemed to be in great pain.
Ectoplasmic bullets can damage a wraith, but one shot is not enough to destroy it.
Catherine reminded: "Ectoplasm is the extension of the soul's growth. Even the size of a bullet is very precious, and the process of making an ectoplasm bullet is very complicated, so if you have the opportunity to use this kind of bullet in the future, be sure to Do not waste."
Sean recalled an ectoplasmic warhead the size of a peanut, and Catherine actually said it was "very precious." Then the volume of my spiritual matter is about the same as that of my body, does that mean I am extremely "rich"? Sean resisted the urge to ask questions - the existence of the symbol was his secret and could not be exposed voluntarily.
After completing the day's training, Catherine and Sean returned to the office. In order to get asylum, Sean was already considering choosing a faith, so he asked Catherine.
"About faith, I hope you can consider it carefully." Catherine said solemnly, "If you change your faith midway, the gain of your previous faith will be permanently lost. So unless you really decide to believe in a god devoutly, then I suggest you It’s best not to make decisions about your beliefs just because you want to seek refuge.
"This lack of pious motivation is not conducive to the improvement of faith gain."
Sean has almost finished reading the book "Theology and Divine Magic" and already knows what "belief gain" is - after choosing to become a believer in God, the believer will definitely gain certain benefits.
For example, if you choose to become a believer of the "theocratic" righteous god [Abel] in the Salvation Religion, the believer's spiritual strength and personal aura will be improved. Moreover, when learning and using the "theocratic" type of magic, there are Corresponding bonus.
This "belief gain" will increase with the time of belief and the degree of piety. For example, the "belief gain" obtained by a "theocratic" bishop is greater than that of ordinary believers.
Sean understood what Catherine meant, and he also realized that it was undesirable to randomly choose a belief in order to be protected - the gains that could be obtained were too little, and it was very easy to lose the accumulated advantages.
Sean asked casually: "What do you believe in?"
"A small god, there are many explorers with related functions who believe in him." Catherine pointed to a "crying and laughing mask" amulet hanging on her chest, "The God of Interpretation [Diony]. He can Improve our ability to empathize and better understand the mood of the characters in the story... The power is not as powerful as the righteous god of the Salvation Church, but choosing a belief that suits your own is better than choosing a righteous god for some kind of gain. More sensible.”
Catherine's words made Sean give up the idea of deciding his faith immediately.
On the train back, Sean felt a little tired and began to sort out the current situation.
"In the photo at Bill's party, this line was interrupted due to human intervention. However, I still have the blurry photo of the man in the tuxedo, and this clue can still be used.
"There is still a need to delve deeper into the corpse of the witch. Whether it is the identity of the witch or the female workers who were burned to death, there must be clues worth digging into. But before having basic self-defense capabilities, I can foresee , it is very dangerous to conduct an in-depth investigation of that factory. We cannot go to the scene yet. At most, we can only collect some information about the fire.
"But Aaliyah's whereabouts are still unknown, so I still have to do something!"
Sean thought for a long time and suddenly thought: "All kinds of things happened all the time, and I forgot about the original plan.
"If the existing clues cannot be advanced, go to the newspaper and publish a missing person advertisement!
"It's impossible for that organization to erase all the missing persons information in the newspaper, right? It's impossible to tamper with the memories of people who have read the newspaper, right?" Sean thought with a challenging mentality, "The more they have to cover it up, right? The more I publicize this matter! As long as someone provides clues, I can find the direction of the investigation!"
With this in mind, Sean changed cars and went directly to the "New Testament Daily News" newspaper office.
As a journalist, Sean has professional insight into newspaper sales, coverage and advertising costs. He knows that considering the money in his pocket, it is best to publish a missing person advertisement in the "Daily News" s Choice.
The "Daily News" newspaper office is located on Fifteenth Avenue. On the top of a building with red and white exterior walls, there is a "Daily News" signboard.
Sean could feel that this newspaper was a new player in the industry and was eager to seize the market with the established newspapers.
They like breaking news, exclusive reports that other newspapers cannot get, and "big reporters" who can attract readers and write in-depth reports.
In short, they like anything that can increase sales.
Sean naturally loves this kind of vibrant newspaper, so he chose them out of his own preference.
In the newspaper office, the phone kept ringing, people were walking in a hurry, and people were talking one after another. It was a busy scene.
Sean searched for it with ease and walked directly into the editor's office.
Usually, to publish missing person information, you only need to find a front-line editor, but Sean knew that if he found the editor-in-chief, his matter would be taken more seriously.
The editor-in-chief is a middle-aged man with agate-rimmed glasses, a somewhat bald head, a big nose, and a stocky build. He scolded a reporter to his face that his manuscript was a pile of "dried horse manure."
The reporter with freckles on his face was about to cry. When he saw someone coming, he took the opportunity to slip out of the door.
"I've never seen you," the editor-in-chief said a little warily, "What are you here for?"
After introducing himself, Sean explained his situation and origin.
Knowing that Sean is from Leon and has many years of experience in the industry, the editor-in-chief named Edward Smith immediately softened his attitude: "I like your reporters. Not only can they accurately state the facts, but the wording of the manuscript is also very beautiful. ——Leon’s journalists are at least strictly trained!
"Unlike young people like us, a manuscript can have more than a dozen grammatical errors! He should go to a grammar school to retake it instead of a newspaper!" Edward said, his face turned red with anger again, and he restrained himself. , "I'm very sorry about your sister. If you want to publish a missing person notice, I can introduce it to you..."
Sean stated his plan: "No, I plan to publish three issues of medium-sized ads, with Aaliyah's photos and the text I wrote."
Edward's eyes were a little surprised: "As for the advertisement... the cost is much higher than the missing person notice."
Sean knew that missing persons notices were buried in various commissions and could easily be ignored. It would be better to run three advertisements to have a greater impact.
Now is certainly not the time to save money. Money can be earned; but searching for Aaliyah cannot be delayed even a day!
"Okay, I understand what you mean. Have you written the accompanying text for the advertisement?" Editor-in-Chief Edward said, "If you can give me the photo and text, your advertisement will be published in tomorrow's newspaper."
Sean borrowed a pen and paper from Edward, wrote the caption in front of him, and handed it to Edward.
The editor-in-chief was a little surprised by Sean's writing speed. His professional habit made him pick up the paper and start reading.
"Her name is Aaliyah, she is my sister..."
A medium-sized advertisement can only hold a few hundred words, but Sean used these more than a hundred words to write an emotional "letter" that clearly explained the future.
This concise letter seems to show a brother who is deeply worried about his sister and hopes that she can return home soon.
Seeing such a simple but wonderful text, Edward couldn't help but sigh: "I believe everyone who reads this letter will be moved by this brother and want to help him find his sister..."
Then, Edward looked directly at Sean with the eyes of a thirsty man looking at a source of water: "Sean, are you interested in writing part-time?"
