Hearing the tall man's words, George was shocked—the other side actually wanted to turn the people of Hilltop into their slaves?
At that moment, the sound of a branch snapping came from behind the two of them.
"We've got people behind us!"
They were about to instinctively draw their weapons and fire when they heard a very familiar voice from behind.
"It's me!"
"Jesus?" George looked at the long-haired man and asked, "Why are you outside?"
The one who had silently approached them was Jesus, who had left Hilltop not long ago. At this moment, he looked in the direction of his refuge and asked anxiously: "I was on my way to the Kingdom, but I got a call on the way. What are all those people doing outside Hilltop? Why are they surrounding the gate?"
Bob looked at George beside him, hesitating about whether to tell him what they had discovered.
"Tell me!"
Seeing that the two men's expressions weren't right, Jesus seemed a little impatient. He grabbed George's arm and shouted in a low voice: "What's going on?"
"Uh… Jesus, you need to calm down. We just got here ourselves, but from what we just heard, those people want to turn the Hilltop folks into slaves."
"What? Those damn bastards…"
At first, Jesus wanted to rush in and try to help his people, but the two beside him forcefully held him back.
"Calm down! Do you want to die instead of helping your people? We don't even know where these people come from, we don't know their numbers, and we don't even know the basics. Being impulsive now won't bring any benefit."
George analyzed the situation calmly.
Raphael also thought it through calmly. After a while, he understood that their side was still hidden in the dark, because the people at Hilltop and the Kingdom didn't know where they were stationed. Since the other side said this was the first place they had found, it meant there was still time, so they couldn't make mistakes.
Jesus was not an impulsive person to begin with, and after hearing these words, he became more clear-headed. He resolved his chaotic thoughts and then asked in a deep voice:
"So, what do we do now?"
Raphael thought for a moment with a serious expression before speaking.
"First we'll…"
Bang! Bang!
Before he could finish, two gunshots rang out from the village gate. The three of them turned their heads to look. Raphael even raised the binoculars and put on the headset. The arrogant voice continued endlessly.
"You just can't recognize reality. I said you're slaves, so you must look like slaves. Otherwise, these two guys will be you next time, understand? Hahaha!"
Although Jesus didn't have binoculars, he could see the other side had fired and killed two people. His eyes widened instantly, and his body began trembling uncontrollably with resentment. It wasn't fear—it was anger!
Bob tugged on his clothes nervously, afraid the other man might recklessly leap out. Not only would they be exposed, but the other side would very likely kill them or capture them as slaves since their own numbers weren't many.
But Jesus wasn't reckless. He just patted Bob's arm to signal he was fine and kept calm after letting go.
"We can't stay here. Gregory can't keep a single secret. He'll tell them about the Kingdom soon. We have to go to the Kingdom right now and talk to them about this," Jesus said, calm in the situation.
Once he regained clarity, he immediately realized the other side would definitely pressure Gregory for information about other nearby forces, and the word "credibility" didn't exist in that old man's dictionary—he seemed to be the leader.
Gregory at this moment was acting just as Jesus had thought. Although those two gunshots had killed two of his people, they had also pierced through his fragile authority.
"Sir, allow me to introduce myself. I am the one in charge here. Seeing as you've already fired before we reached an agreement, I have very important information that I think will be useful to you. If this information is valuable, could I join your group?"
The tall man looked coldly at Gregory and thought for a few moments, but as the seconds passed, those fierce eyes made Gregory's legs grow weak. Just as he felt he was about to wet his pants, the tall man's mouth curled slightly. His expression quickly turned much more genial, and he slapped Gregory on the shoulder behind him, nearly breaking the old man's bones.
The tall man leaned in close to Gregory. Their heads were nearly touching. Following the man's breath, Gregory smelled strong foul breath, but he didn't dare mention it and just looked at him with a forced smile.
"What's your name?"
"Gregory, sir!"
"Gregory. What a shitty name. But very well, you can call me Simon."
Seeing the other man reveal his name, Gregory secretly sighed in relief. He knew now that half the work of surviving was done, and the rest would depend on whether his information was enough to trade for the other half.
Simon didn't care about how fearful Gregory was. He didn't know what the old man was thinking, and simply asked with interest: "We'll hear this important information you know. Depending on that, I'll consider letting you join us."
Gregory's eyes wandered over Hilltop's residents, then he extended his hand and gestured for Simon to come closer, indicating they should talk off to the side.
The two walked aside until the others could no longer hear. After speaking, Gregory pointed in a direction and said: "Mr. Simon, in that direction you can still find a community called the Kingdom. You just have to go down the road. They have livestock. Their strength isn't much, from what I understand, and the leader has a strange mind, from what I've heard. Are you satisfied with that information?"
Simon's expression gradually changed from excitement at first to indifference. He looked at the old man in front of him with some disappointment and clicked his tongue.
"Gregory, Gregory… I was really optimistic about you, but this news really let me down. I thought you could surprise me a little."
Hearing this, Gregory's face turned pale. He hadn't expected the other side to have no interest in this information at all. Could it be they weren't lacking in people?
His doubts didn't last long, and soon he heard Simon whisper in his ear: "I'm disappointed. We already knew what you just said, so if you don't have any better news, you'll just have to go with them."
Looking in the direction Simon indicated, Gregory could only see the corpses of the men who had been killed. His face turned green and his head shook. He quickly turned his head, looked at Simon, and continued: "No, I also have information about another organization. There are at least dozens of them."
Simon, suddenly interested again, looked at the old man with great curiosity, waiting for his next words.
"It's like this… Some time ago they came to Hilltop. They offered us protection in exchange for our loyalty. Of course I refused, but surprisingly we continued trading resources with them. They're very mysterious and never say where they come from, but I know they probably come from that direction."
Simon's face darkened—he felt insulted. This old man wanted to trade information about a settlement whose location wasn't even certain. He simply considered him a fool.
"Are you kidding me?"
Seeing Simon already showing a hint of murderous intent, the old man's heart pounded, his mind turned sharply, and suddenly he remembered something and blurted it out quickly:
"I have other news!"