Origin Territory, a large stone house near the east gate.

Hou Tielong stood at the door with a complicated expression as he watched the crowd rushing to and fro in the distance.

In the past, the surrounding of his stone house was always deserted, and not many people dared to mess around his area because of his bad reputation.

However, his place had been extremely lively and full of people since yesterday.

After observing for a while, Hou Tielong simply opened the door behind him and returned to the house after being upset by the noise.

A fully armed man hurriedly greeted him after seeing him enter the house.

“Tielong, all the supplies are ready to be transported away through the secret passage we dug out.

“Our men at San Yuan Hotel will be returning soon, and we can leave any time.”

“Good!”

Hou Tielong’s agitated emotions disappeared upon hearing the good news.

It was necessary for a bounty hunter to be well-informed.

Thus, they had already discovered something unusual in the past few days through the information gathered.

First, the reward for bounty orders was swapped to Origin coins instead of physical supplies.

The supplies that could be exchanged with Origin coins had a daily limit implemented and did not allow them to exchange everything at once.

With only these two points alone, it was insufficient to make him cautious or anxious without any definite evidence.

The main reason he prepared to leave the territory was the disappearance of several captains responsible for managing the warehouse supplies after the fight at Main Peak yesterday.

Sun Bahu’s cronies disappeared without a trace in one night, just like those who caused trouble in Origin Territory in the past.

The vice-captain of the guards was almost like a brother to him but also had a change in attitude toward him in the morning. They only exchanged a few words before Hou Tielong was chased away and told not to worry and wait for news.

After piecing together these doubts, it was not difficult for him to realize the huge problem in Origin Territory.

Although he did not have concrete evidence, he still decided to take his supplies and stay outside the territory to avoid chaos before the great cooling disaster struck. It would not be too late to return after everything had calmed down.

As for finding the whereabouts of Marshal Wang to collect the enormous bounty reward had to wait.

“There are too many people outside right now. We will evacuate as soon as the sun goes down.

“I’ve got a feeling that the territory isn’t going to be as peaceful as it used to be during this coming disaster!”

Hou Tielong looked at the thick stack of documents on his desk and bookshelf with a worried expression.

He frowned and said again, “How many times do I have to tell you guys that intel is the foundation of our job? Even if Origin Territory changes, we’ll still have a chance to make a comeback if we have our intel!

“Hurry, even simple information cannot be left behind. Load them with the supplies and take them all with us!”

“Understood!”

After scolding them, the men in the house packing some other stuff immediately put down their work and turned to carry the documents.

Soon, the muscular men packed all the documents into boxes and tied them up with hemp ropes.

Hou Tieling relaxed his frown and was about to compliment them but suddenly pretended nothing happened and looked outside with his fist clenched.

‘It’s time I filter out some of them!’

These muscular men were very respectful to him when everything was going well.

However, as soon as things turned south, these people would be the first to reveal their true nature. They were stubborn and the hardest to tame.

It would be better to kill them instead of wasting supplies on them in the secret base.

Not only would he save some supplies, but the risk of being betrayed could also be minimized.

After Origin Territory’s environment was stable again, he could always come back to recruit more people. Since he had a lot of supplies, he was not worried that no one would take the bait to join them.

‘After killing them, I could continue to gather more supplies and get through this winter more comfortably!’

Hou Tielong was excited after he found the last reason to convince himself.

It was easy to feed a large group of people in the era of civilization, let alone in an apocalyptic.

Recently, he aged a few years just because he was worried about collecting more supplies for winter.

Now that there would be some layoffs from the team, he could inherit their personal assets too.

It meant that he would be able to have two sources of income and would definitely safely survive the winter.

‘It’s settled!’

Hou Tielong abruptly sat up as he roared in his heart.

However, the door of the stone house was kicked open from the outside just when he was about to call his cronies.

He subconsciously reached out to the secret drawer at the side of the table as he felt incoming danger.

Unfortunately, a figure came through the door holding an object that exuded an icy cold light and smashed it on his forehead before he could move.

At the same time, an icy cold question that shook him to the core sounded from the attacker’s mouth.

“Are you the one, Hou Tielong?”

…