The man shook his head. "You need to see it yourself."

Hearing that irritated him even more.

Without another word, Bloodstain marched out of the office and his right-hand man quickly fell in beside him.

Several minutes later they arrived at one of Iron Vultures’ operational centers.

The moment Bloodstain entered, he knew something was wrong.

Everyone looked panicked. People were running around, multiple screens displayed were flashing notifications and operators were shouting at one another.

The atmosphere resembled a disaster zone.

Bloodstain slammed his hand onto a desk. "What happened?!"

Everyone immediately went silent while one of the senior operators stepped forward.

"Boss..." his voice trembled. "...ten ruins have been booked."

Bloodstain eyebrows rose in bafflement. "Ten?"

The operator nodded. "Ten."

For several seconds Bloodstain simply stared at him before letting out a short laugh...

The kind someone made when they thought they had heard something stupid.

"Ten?"

"Yes."

Bloodstain’s smile vanished. "How the hell did ten ruins get booked?"

The operators looked miserable. "We don’t know."

"You don’t know?"

"No."

Bloodstain’s eye twitched. "What do you mean you don’t know?"

The operator hurriedly pointed toward several screens. "It happened almost simultaneously."

Bloodstain’s expression immediately darkened as he stared at the screen.

Ten different ruin permits acquired and to make matters worse, most of them weren’t local.

His eyes moved down the list, noticing that one was nearly three cities away while another required air transportation.

Several were large-scale ruins that cost over two hundred thousand dollars just to acquire the permit.

The total amount spent quickly climbed from five hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand to one point two million to one point five million...

Bloodstain’s face became terrifying the moment he realized that nearly two million dollars had been spent trying to acquire these permits.

The room fell silent for an instant before he exploded in rage.

BLAM!

One of the nearby operators was backhanded so hard he flew across the room.

People screamed as computers toppled over.

The unfortunate man crashed into several desks before finally stopping and falling unconsciousness.

Bloodstain roared. "TEN?!"

"On a regular day we don’t book ten ruins!"

His voice echoed through the room.

"FIVE!"

"SIX!"

"Maybe seven if opportunities are exceptional!"

He pointed at the screen.

"TEN?!"

Nobody dared speak but after a while, his right-hand man finally stepped forward.

"Boss."

Bloodstain turned to look at him while the man spoke carefully.

"If we don’t clear them, the permits are wasted."

This only made Bloodstain angrier because it was true.

The money was already gone since the permits had already been purchased.

If they abandoned the ruins now, millions would be lost.

Several of those ruins could potentially generate huge profits so walking away wasn’t an option.

Bloodstain clenched his fists. "How many members do we currently have available?"

The right-hand man grimaced. "Not many."

Bloodstain already knew that this was due to increased security measures at certain areas outside of the base.

The double patrols, triple escorts, additional warehouse guards, surveillance teams, transport security business front protection and a bunch of other stuff.

The manpower requirements had exploded so a lot of force was currently being expended.

The right-hand man continued. "If we want to maintain current security..."

Bloodstain interrupted. "I don’t care."

The man nodded while pulling up figures. "If we send teams to all ten ruins..."

"...we can only afford about eight members per expedition."

Bloodstain cursed under his breath upon hearing that.

Normally fifteen to twenty awakened members would be assigned.

Anything below ten was considered risky especially for larger ruins.

Yet there was no alternative unless he wanted to abandon permits worth nearly two million dollars.

Bloodstain exhaled heavily. "Do it."

Orders immediately began flying, vehicles were mobilized, air transport was arranged and teams were assembled.

Members who had just finished assignments were immediately reassigned.

Some were pulled out of patrol rotations while others were redirected from ongoing operations.

Chaos spread throughout the organization and within hours, Iron Vultures became a giant machine scrambling to respond.

Convoys departed, teams left for the airport while some rushed toward distant locations...

Eventually, the base grew quieter due to the number of gang members that were sent out.

The right-hand man studied updated personnel numbers and his expression changed. "Boss."

Bloodstain looked over. "How many left at base?"

"Eleven."

Bloodstain cursed again.

Normally there would have been dozens or even over a hundred at the base but now only eleven awakened members remained inside headquarters.

Everyone else was occupied out there.

Bloodstain rubbed his forehead. He hated this feeling... something felt very wrong but right now the only thing he could do was adapt to the situation at hand.

Nearly two million dollars had already been invested but the profits could be substantial. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad...

Eventually he addressed the teams preparing that were already on their way to the ruins through communication channels.

"I don’t care how difficult those ruins are."

"I don’t care what creatures are inside."

"You clear every single one."

His eyes were cold.

"I want my money’s worth."

The responses came immediately.

"Yes Boss!"

"We’ll clear them!"

"Leave it to us!"

Responses came in from all over while Bloodstain stood in place watching and waiting.

•••

•••

Elsewhere within the unusually quiet Iron Vultures headquarters, a figure stepped out of the darkness.

Glowing blue-white eyes opened beneath the shadows with a grin slowly spread across his face.

"Time to go hunting."

The figure vanished without a sound, leaving only darkness behind.

---

Several hours later...

Bloodstain sat behind his desk with his fingers pressed together.

It was nearly three in the morning and normally he would’ve been asleep by now or gone clubbing.

Instead, irritation had kept him awake here.

The entire ten-permit incident continued to bother him.

The more he thought about it, the less he liked it.

Nothing about it felt normal.

Ten ruin permits suddenly purchased at nearly the exact same time across multiple regions?

Something was very wrong.

His right-hand man stood nearby without making a sound and after a few more minutes, Boodstain finally broke the silence.

"I want answers."

"We’re trying."

"Try harder."

The right-hand man sighed.

"They’ve checked every terminal."

"Every account."

"Every authorization."

"And?"

The man shook his head. "The operators insist it was some kind of system malfunction."

Bloodstain’s eye twitched. "A malfunction."

"That’s what they’re claiming."

Bloodstain snorted. "Convenient."

The right-hand man didn’t argue because he honestly didn’t believe it either.

The chair scraped loudly across the floor as Bloodstain stood to his feet. "I’m taking a walk."

His subordinate frowned. "At this hour?"

Bloodstain looked at him. "Something feels off."

The man immediately nodded. "Understood."

...

That was the first thing Bloodstain noticed was how strangely quiet the headquarters were.

Usually Iron Vultures headquarters never truly slept... Just like any normal gang, it was always crazily loud.

Someone was always moving... someone was always training... someone was always arguing... someone was always drinking... someone was always causing problems...

But tonight, it was just silent.

His footsteps echoed through corridors and the few awakened still stationed around the compound saluted as he passed.

Bloodstain acknowledged them absentmindedly since his thoughts were elsewhere.

The gang compound was enormous with several uncompleted looking buildings. Apparently this was how Bloodstain liked it.

Nonetheless, there were training areas, storage sectors, vehicle garages, operations centers and a bunch of other structures.

Bloodstain walked past them all, silently observing how hollow the surroundings felt.

His frown suddenly deepened as something else occurred to him.

He stopped walking and looked around more keenly.

His right-hand man had said eleven members remained inside headquarters... then why had he only encountered eight so far?

Bloodstain was usually very observant so despite how tiny this detail was, he noticed it.

There were supposed to be three more around but he hadn’t spotted them.

Bloodstain immediately changed direction and started checking the vicinity.

He checked the first three buildings but he found nothing.

His expression darkened further as he checked the fourth and still found nothing.

Now he was actively searching for the three missing.

As the minutes rolled by, the compound seemed increasingly empty.

After some time, he reached one of the older storage sectors that was barely ever visited.

Massive containers filled the building. They contained equipments and materials awaiting transfer since this was a temporary storage location.

The lighting inside was dead, making the surroundings very dim. Several overhead lights flickered weakly while others had gone completely dark.

Bloodstain frown deepened as he stepped inside.

The darkness greeted him but since he was quite powerful, his senses were enough to get him through without stumbling into anything.

Rows upon rows of tall storage containers spread throughout the silent facility.

"Anyone here?"

There was no response.

Bloodstain kept scanning and listening for anything out of the ordinary till he reached the far end of the space.

A tilted gigantic storage unit blocked part of the path preventing further advancement.

Bloodstain reached out to grab it casually and moved it out of the way.

The moment it shifted off the path, Bloodstain froze.

He spotted three battered awakened members, tied up and gagged up ahead.

One of them immediately started struggling.

"HNNM!"

"HNNMM!"

Bloodstain’s eyes widened. "What?"

The man continued desperately.

"HNNMM!"

"HNNMMM!"

It took Bloodstain half a second to understand that the man wasn’t looking at him... he was looking behind him.

The moment Bloodstain turned, he spotted a figure standing within the darkness.