A huge thank you to DeathsGrace, Don_RaDjinn, Carlos_Tagle, Robert_Curran, Astrea_Livingston, Lady_Lily, Squirtlee, thortheoverlord, gundam, Toby_Morris_3701, David_Lewis_4670, mizorekitten, Deepdragon, Diablos, Evvan, Jimmy_the_waffle, Unwilldien7days, Aaron_Guaman, and Charles_Butrim for the Golden Tickets!

Your support truly means a lot and keeps me motivated to continue writing and improving the story.

++++((((5/@))))++++

"Didn’t they say they returned? Why are there so few people?"

"Where’s Argus? Where’s Silas?"

"And where did all the high-ranking members who went with them go?"

Seeing these laboring members return with metal, an ominous premonition flashed through Snape’s mind.

"Boss, I’ve asked them. They all said that after collecting the metal, they didn’t see Brother Argus or Brother Silas."

"I just tried to contact Brother Argus, but he didn’t answer."

"What do you mean, you didn’t see them!"

"It’s one thing to lose things, but you lost several living people? Are you messing with me, you bastard?" Upon hearing this, Snape grabbed the reporting Survivor by the collar, his face became darker than the bottom of a pot.

The Survivor, caught in his grip, dared not utter a sound, his face full of bitterness.

"Boss, calm down. This person is just a messenger. He didn’t go out with Argus, so how could he know so much?"

"Besides, with Argus’s strength, what major trouble could he get into?"

"Don’t forget, he alone held out for several minutes against an Epic-level zombie. No matter how dangerous it was, escaping shouldn’t be a problem for him."

Upon hearing this, Snape took a deep breath and slowly lowered the Survivor he had been holding up with one hand, and thrown him on the ground.

"Get lost!" The other party gave Edmund, who had helped him out, a grateful look before scurried away from the troublesome place.

"How could such a large group of people just disappear?" Snape knew he had been a bit impulsive, but he still angrily punched the wall.

The thick metal wall which was quite strong, immediately dented with a small fist print.

"No problem, I’ll go to that resource point to look for them for you then."

Looking at Snape, who was still fuming, Edmund knew his opportunity had come. Now he can go there.

He had heard that the resource point was incredibly large. If Snape hadn’t asked him to be responsible for digging sulfur ore, he would have secretly slipped away long ago.

Not only that, if it was truly as Snape thought, and the person Argus met with some misfortune and was still half-dead.

He could then finish him off, turning into full dead, and the benefits that originally belonged to the other party would definitely fall to him.

Snape was about to agree to Edmund’s request when, at that moment, his left wrist vibrated.

Looking closely, it was Silas’s video call, which made his previously gloomy expression brighten considerably.

Without hesitation, he clicked the connect button. But things were completely different from what he imagined.

The person who appeared on the screen was not Silas at all, but another face, which he was familiar with.

Snape’s heart sank to the bottom.

"How can you be here? Where is Silas?"

On the territory 2, Vikram was talking to Snape through the screen, could hear the anger in his tone.

"Let Silas show his face, otherwise don’t blame me for immediately sending people to wipe out your trash Shelter."

Snape was indeed the leader of a dominant Shelter; in just an instant, he confirmed that Silas was still fine, and he glared at Vikram, threatening him.

"Who are you talking to?"

"Your little nephew is in my hands right now; how dare you speak to your grandpa like that, did you not fear death?" Vikram was not one to be easily provoked.

Snape had repeatedly launched sneak attacks near his territory, which had long annoyed him.

If it weren’t for the need to collect supplies during that time, leaving him no time to bother the other party, he would have slapped this beast to death long ago.

"Want to see your little nephew? No problem, send me some supplies, otherwise, no deal." Vikram glared at Snape and gave him the middle finger, a look of disdain on his face.

Hearing this, Snape’s veins bulged on his forehead, and he spoke through gritted teeth, "Do you know that with just a flick of my finger, I can have hundreds of Survivors overwhelm your Shelter?"

"If you are willing to cooperate and release Silas, then I can consider not bothering your Shelter anymore."

To this day, Snape was still very confident in his Shelter, believing that previous failures were merely due to his subordinates being too stupid.

"You old geezer, you don’t understand human language, do you? Fine."

"Then your little nephew’s life is forfeit." After Vikram finished speaking, he pulled out a long knife and gestured with it, then kicked Silas, who was under his control.

Kicked in the abdomen, Silas immediately spat out a mouthful of stomach acid, tears streaming from the pain.

"Dad! Save me, he really will kill people! Argus and the others were killed by him, I don’t want to die!"

"Waaah! Waaah! Waaah! Waaah!" This made Vikram pause.

Part of it was because Silas had said some things he shouldn’t have, but the main reason was that his ’Dad’ surprised Vikram a bit.

"He’s your uncle, so how did he become your dad?" Giving the other party another kick as punishment for revealing that Argus was killed by him, Vikram questioned immediately.

"Waaah! Waaah! Waaah! Waaah! Stop kicking, I’ll tell you!"

"I was his son all along; ’nephew’ was just a lie to deceive my fake dad, who was kept in the dark." Frowning, Vikram sorted out the relationship, his eyes lighting up, then he gave Snape a thumbs-up.

"Damn, Snape, you’re something else! You look like neither human nor ghost, but you managed to get along with your own sister-in-law. How did you do that?"

"You’re quite the beast."

Evidently, this poked a nerve in Snape; as soon as these words were spoken, Vikram watched his previously calm face instantly turn ashen.

However, he dared not flare up. Silas’s words just now revealed too much information. The most important of which was Argus’s death.

This made him realize that Vikram might not be as incompetent as he had imagined.

Moreover, Silas was still in Vikram’s hands; if he provoked the other party further, he might actually kill him.

That was his own son, whom he doted on too much to lose.

At this moment, he could only swallow his anger and spoke calmly, "What do you want?"

"That’s better; wouldn’t it have been over sooner if you’d compromised? I might not even know about your little secrets, that you even climbed on your sister-in-law."

Vikram gave the other party a disdainful glance, then pondered for a moment before slowly saying, "Mutated crystals, give me as many as you have. Don’t try to pull a fast one; I’ve already asked your son how many of these you have in your vault. If you dare to fool me, I’ll kill him immediately."

"Edmund, bring all the crystals from the warehouse." For his son’s life, Snape was quite decisive.

"Boss, the mutated crystals in the warehouse are enough for us to cultivate another high-ranking member. Are we really just giving them away?"

Snape didn’t speak but glared at Edmund. He knew the other party’s little schemes and he was too lazy to say more at the moment.

Feeling uneasy under his gaze, Edmund recoiled his neck and had no choice but to comply, adding Vikram as a friend. He then took out all eight mutated crystals from the warehouse in Snape’s room, one of them was the mutated crystal Snape had just promised him, and he traded it over as well.

Fortunately, the market trading function still had one chance per day, and these crystals weighed less than kg, successfully reaching Vikram’s hands.

Having obtained what he wanted, Vikram naturally looked pleased.

He didn’t go back on his word, immediately letting Silas’s elbow retract and turning the camera to Silas’s face, which was covered in frost and palm prints.

Snape felt a pang of heartache.

Taking another deep breath, he tried hard to suppress the anger in his heart, "Send my son back safely today, understand?"

Although even a Shelter like his found those mutated crystals difficult to obtain, Snape was confident.

As long as he redeemed his son, he would soon make Vikram cough up these external possessions.

However, he quickly realized his wishful thinking was wrong.

"Send him back? When did I promise to release your son? The crystals you just gave were just for your son’s screen time."

"They were for you to confirm that your son doesn’t have any missing arms or legs."

"If you want me to release him, you’ll naturally have to pay more."

Vikram rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, making a gesture for more supplies.

"Young man, don’t be too presumptuous. Leave a line for future encounters, understand?"

"Oh, please. Future encounters, my foot. I didn’t care about that."

"If you don’t give me twenty Territory Cores today, do you believe I’ll make sure you and your son never meet again?" Rolling his eyes, Vikram knew what this old fox was thinking.

He immediately placed the knife he was holding on Silas’s neck and said.

As for why he didn’t ask for metal and the sulfur ore they mined, it was purely because these items were overweight, and he couldn’t trade much of them over.

And Territory Cores were very useful and not very heavy.

Vikram calculated that twenty of them would be roughly a few kg.

"Give it to him!" Snape’s face on the other side grew increasingly ugly, changing from green to red like a chameleon; he practically squeezed out these words through gritted teeth.

This time, Vikram had Ron add the other party as a friend to receive the supplies.

Upon seeing Ron’s profile picture, Snape became even more furious.

This was originally a high-ranking individual who was supposed to join his Shelter, but he had also been intercepted by Vikram.

Looking at Vikram, who was still counting the Territory Cores, Snape’s chest heaved, wishing he could tear him apart through the screen.

"Can you release him now?"

"Of course."

Snape breathed a sigh of relief.

Compared to his son, these supplies were nothing.

With the strength of his Shelter, acquiring these things wouldn’t take much time.

His mind was currently filled with the thought of waiting for Vikram to release Silas, then immediately dispatching dozens of men to flatten Vikram’s Territory.

Unfortunately, he still didn’t understand Vikram well enough.

While he was still fantasizing, the video communication screen suddenly went black, silently closing.

Just as he thought Vikram had gone back on his word again, Edmund, who was beside him, received a trade request.

Edmund, knowing that Snape was already furious, widened his eyes on the spot, looking at him with a grim and bitter expression.

"What’s going on? Speak if you have something to say!" Snape frowned, still wondering what tricks Vikram was trying to pull.

But when he saw the trade information Edmund displayed, he instantly froze.

After five or six minutes of stunned silence, Snape’s facial muscles were tense, and veins slightly bulged at his temples.

He didn’t speak, his breathing became increasingly rapid, and he was like a lit powder keg, exuding a dangerous aura.

"Trader: Percy, Traded Item: Head, Required Item: None."

A head, exactly the right weight, was delivered directly in front of Snape.

At the same time, a new application appeared in Snape’s friends list.

"Vikram requests to add you as a friend. Note: I’ve delivered your son to you with free shipping. I can’t send them all at once, so I’ll send the rest in installments. Happy cooperation. (Handshake emoji)"

"Vikrammmmm...!" Snape gritted his back teeth, forcing out a name filled with rage from his throat.

Looking at Silas’s head, his eyes still wide open in death, Snape felt a dizzy spell. After a few rapid breaths, he collapsed directly onto the cold ground...