The caravan from Red River Town came earlier than planned.

After hearing the news of the Clan's demise, these merchants rushed to the northern suburb of Spring City in only two and a half days.

The longer the time dragged on and the colder the weather, the lower the chances of the captive surviving. They need to transport these captives back to Red River Town before they freeze to death, and then sell them to suitable buyers. If more than half of them die on the way back, the trip won't make much money...

Facing the heavy snow that was flying all over the sky, the travel-stained caravan arrived at the gate of the abandoned tire factory.

Signaling the line behind him to stop, a man in a cotton overcoat with a semi-automatic rifle hanging on his chest came out.

Looking up at Lucius and Harvey standing on the gate, he said in a loud voice.

"I am an employee of the Horseshoe Firm, and all the goods you want are here!"

Harvey's bodyguard named Nile was also in the caravan. However, his identity did not allow him to intervene here, so he just stood beside the yaks carrying supplies, cleaning the magazines of the revolver rifles, and passing the boring time.

"Hold on."

Lucius made a gesture, and then looked at the players beside him.

The players, who had been waiting for the plot, could not wait to see Manager, and immediately turned the winch and opened the wooden gate.

As the gate opened, a group of predator captives came out of the dungeon dejectedly under the custody of 4 players.

"Be honest!"

"Don't dawdle!"

In fact, these predators didn't dawdle, but the players just wanted to shout something, or they always felt that something was missing.

Due to the language barrier, the predators and captives couldn't understand what the blue coats were saying, they could only feel it from the shaking muzzle, probably urging them to move forward.

Looking at the yak team at the gate of the village and the badge in the shape of a horseshoe, many veterans of the predators had already guessed their ending, and their faces were filled with dead despair.

There were only a few young predators with blank faces, not knowing where they would be taken and what would happen to them.

Players holding rifles were talking quietly aside. Some of them died in battle just a few days ago, and they are all alive now.

Red Face Boxer: "There are a few captives here who look familiar."

Big Eyes in Debt: "Hey, who killed them?"

Red Face Boxer: "Ghost knows, the sky is so dark, and the bullets are whizzing, I think it may be the black hands of the opposite side. Damn it! Thinking about it makes me angry, why did I die?"

Big Eyes in Debt: "It's alright, at least you get the pension from Manager, right?

Red Face Boxer: "Okay, let's not talk about this... tell me, where will these predators be sent?"

Big Eyes in Debt: "It looks like Manager is planning to sell them to Red River Town."

Red Face Boxer: "Red River Town?"

Big Eyes in Debt: "It's in the setting set on the official website, haven't you read it? It's a town below Spring City, about tens of kilometers away. There are a lot of pre-war landfills there, sell them there slaves would be sent to the mines, where they would dig until they died."

"Tsk tsk, it's too miserable..." Red Face Boxer rolled his eyes, and suddenly thought, "But then again, if I sell myself there and then commit suicide, wouldn't I be able to prostitute for nothing?"

Hearing this coquettish operation, Big Eyes in Debt was shocked.

"Damn it, why did planner leave this kind of bug?"

Although the crimes they committed were enough to hang them on the gallows ten times, Lucius still retained their basic human rights, allowing them to keep their clothes and shoes, eat the meat of unknown composition in the warehouse, and use a small amount of bandages from the search.

It was not done out of mercy. It was purely worried that too many of these people would die, which would affect his income. The better days for these people are yet to come.

"30?" The man in the lead counted the number of prisoners, looked at Lucius and asked, "Why is there one less?"

"Probably frozen to death."

Lucius, who came down from the gate of the factory, looked back as if nothing had happened, and happened to see a player dragging a corpse with a broken leg out of the dungeon.

Seeing that the numbers matched, the leading man nodded and didn't say anything. He just called the guards behind him to help unload the goods.

The sooner the deal is done, the sooner they can go home.

...

According to the agreement between Lucius and Harvey, regardless of whether they are disabled or not, each prisoner will be exchanged for goods of equivalent value based on the standard of 20 kilograms of coarse salt.

One of the 31 captives died, counting as 30, a total of 600 kilograms of coarse salt.

Here, coarse salt is a specialty of Red River Town, and it is also the general equivalent of the transaction between the two parties.

It was useless for Lucius to ask for so much coarse salt, so except for 200 kilograms of coarse salt, the remaining 400 kilograms of coarse salt were replaced with some special products of Red River Town.

These included 30 revolver rifles, eight boxes with a total of more than 4,000 rounds of handmade bullets made of copper skin, a large number of copper ingots, zinc ingots, chromium ingots, and strong oxidants such as potassium permanganate.

The former meets the defense needs of the outpost, while the latter is the raw material that drives the industrialization of the outpost.

In addition, there are some hardware parts used in processing machinery, as well as some mechanical parts such as gears and drive shafts. These are mainly prepared for the proprietress of the weapon shop.

Although a few small metallurgical players can also make it by hand, the problem of steelmaking has not been solved, and the strength of the material is always a flaw.

The quality of the hand-grinded knives can only be described in words. It is okay to use it for a while, but the wear and tear in actual use is surprisingly high, and it even needs to be replaced every few days. So much so that Lucius wondered several times whether Sumeria did it deliberately for laziness.

Although Red River Town's industrial capacity is not as good as that of Boulder City, there is no problem in producing some processing tools, and the quality is not bad.

This time Lucius bought a few more sets on purpose, and it should be no problem to use them in the spring of next year.

In order to transport these goods, the Horseshoe Trading Company mobilized a total of ten mutated yaks, and also assigned eight gunmen with revolver rifles as guards.

Looking at these people unloading, Lucius glanced at Harvey next to him and said.

"By the way, the man said he was an employee of the Horseshoe firm. Are they your colleagues?"

Harvey explained with a hey smile.

"Although we are all employees of the Horseshoe Firm, employees like me may be slightly different from the employees you understand. Simply put, our relationship with the firm is more like cooperation than employment. The ones you see the caravan guards and yaks are the property of the trading company, and those goods were bought by us employees ourselves.”

Lucius's heart skipped a beat.

"Bought it from a business store?"

Harvey looked at Lucius in surprise, as if surprised that he knew, nodded and said.

"That's right, our goods are all purchased from the commercial firm, and the sellers are basically customers of the commercial firm... Except this time. We will reconcile every transaction, deducting the cost of purchasing goods and hiring guards. It needs to distribute 60% of the profits to commercial banks."

This sounds a bit like a franchisee system. Purchases, logistics, and even customer relations are all "Headquarters", while merchants like Harvey are like franchisees.

In this way, even if the business loses money, the Horseshoe Firm does not have to bear any risks, and the loss is entirely the franchisee's own. And if the sale is profitable, the firm will take 60% of the proceeds.

No, even if it is a loss, it is still a profit for the commercial bank. After all, all "Franchisees" get goods from commercial banks, and it is definitely impossible for commercial banks to sell these goods to franchisees at cost prices, and some profits must be withheld.

Thinking of this, Lucius couldn't help but sigh with emotion. These natives are still good at cutting leeks. Compared with them, I am simply too kind!

However, this trading model, I can learn from it in the future. For example, it is used in the running business system.

...

"Goodbye, my friends, I hope to have a pleasant transaction with you next spring!"

The delivery of the goods was finally completed, Harvey and his two bodyguards stood beside the caravan and took off their hats to Lucius.

Lucius smiled lightly and waved his hand.

"Bon Voyage."

Harvey said with a hearty smile.

"Hahaha, I'm afraid we have to walk against the wind for a while! Let's take a step first, I wish you good luck!"

A group of people started on the road.

At this time, Lucius noticed that the female mercenary who was following Harvey suddenly turned around and gave him a resentful look.

The eyes just met, but the female mercenary was not shy, and even blew a kiss to him in the air, and left a sentence of "We will see you again" with her lips. Then, she disappeared into the snow and mist along with the caravan.

Lucius froze for a moment, frowned and thought for a while, but he didn't remember the name of this person, and he was even more confused about her last behavior.

Is it...Suna? Or is it Nona?

After all, he only heard the merchant named Harvey say it once, who would pay attention to the name of the mercenary next to a merchant?

Forget it, too lazy to think about such irrelevant issues. Lucius shook his head, beckoning the players to load the materials exchanged by the slaves onto the cart and prepare to drag them back to the warehouse at the outpost.

However, although Lucius himself didn't care, he couldn't hold back the gossiping enthusiasm of the players around him. Especially when they saw the last kiss.

"My god! There is a story in that look!"

"I saw it! That blown kiss!"

"Do you think something happened between Mr. Manager and that woman?"

"Isn't it? They only stayed for a few days in total."

"It's been a few days!"

"Hey, what about the proprietress of the weapon shop?"

"Big news! A one-million-word untold story between Master Manager and the caravan mercenary!"

"Tsk tsk, it's not simple! It's definitely not simple! It still looks like there is a big plot to discover!"

"Understood, let Brother Mole draw a book when we go back!"

Tsk. These people really are. Lucius's eyebrows twitched, but he finally restrained the urge to complain and maintained the restraint that an NPC should have.

Coughing, he used a commanding tone to urge those players who stopped gossiping and forgot about business to continue working.

"Hurry up!"

"Because the snow at noon is not as heavy as before, we have to drag all the goods back!"

Under Lucius's urging, the players finally stopped dawdling, and loaded the packed goods onto the wooden cart with all their hands and feet. Even though they were still chattering, they never stopped from beginning to end.

Finally packed up their things, a group of people ready to go.

Looking at the gate of the factory behind him, the [ The Boy On The Construction Site ] who was on duty took a step forward and asked Lucius for instructions.

"My Dear Manager, what should I do with this stronghold? Do I need to keep guarding it?"

There was nothing in the stronghold, and he was wondering if he could collect the task reward in advance if he didn't need it anymore.

Lucius thought for a few seconds and ordered.

"The gate of the factory is burned."

"The rest, leave it to the alien species."

This stronghold is too far away from the resurrection point of the players, and its geographical location has no strategic value at all, so it is unnecessary to keep it.

Besides, just standing inside, Lucius felt that his sense value was dropping. He really can't figure out how these predators lived here with peace of mind.

[ The Boy On The Construction Site ] nodded excitedly, and said in command.

"Yes!"

Destruction is much more interesting than cutting down trees!

...

Lucius can trust the players' search ability.

That was like digging three feet into the ground, not to mention not even letting go of the chips hidden in the corner of the cabinet, and even moving the entire cabinet back if it was a bit cruel.

In the stronghold of the entire Bloody Hand clan, there is almost nothing left that can be used. And those leftovers are either inconvenient to take away, or have no recycling value. Like the air-dried meat in the warehouse.

Obviously, a considerable part of these meats were not taken from normal prey. After air-drying, it is difficult to distinguish which is the meat of prey and which is the same kind of meat from the appearance.

Out of mental cleanliness, Lucius simply gave up.

Some of them were thrown as fodder to the predators in the dungeon to eat for a while, and a large pile was simply hung on the suspension beams of the tire factory warehouse. It's like feeding mice and cockroaches.

As for potatoes like croissants, full-grained grains, and a vegetable that looks like cabbage, Lucius had someone transport them back for storage.

These are all good things. Especially those vegetables, which add up to three or four thousand kilograms, mixed with grains and meat, are enough to eat for a long time, and can also balance the nutrition of the clones.

Not surprisingly, these grains were probably obtained by the predators from Brown's farm in the autumn.

In addition to food, there are also some furs such as hyena skin, deer skin, wild boar skin and even bear skin, which counts to 230 pieces.

It is unlikely that all of these pelts came from Beit Street.

There are only a hundred households in Beit Street, and even if the bone of the old leech is extracted, it may not be able to collect these offerings.

Lucius speculated that a considerable part of it must have been tributed by other nearby survivors' settlements.

The loot the predators had been collecting all fell in his pocket before they had much time to enjoy them.

Naturally, Lucius had no intention of returning them.

Rules in the wasteland, Whoever finds it belongs to him.

A raging fire was ignited at the gate of the factory, and the sparks blown by the north wind kept floating in the direction of the main building.

Looking at the fire in front of him, and thinking of the contents of those two diaries, Lucius felt a little emotional.

Pulling out the "Silver Snake" revolver inserted in his waist, he fired a shot into the sky.

"Boom--!"

The gunshots echoed on the snow-covered street, submerged in the wind and snow, and it was a confession to the souls who died here.

Wipe away the white smoke floating from the gun barrel. Lucius inserted the revolver back into the gun pouch made by Shuri, turned around and looked at the waiting players, and walked in front of them.

"Go home!"