There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 223 - 217. Night of Contending Might

Chapter 223: Chapter 217. Night of Contending Might

"Where?" Bassena asked immediately, and Zein was pointing downward.

"Basement, no--parking lot?"

"Rina, go to the hotel’s basement. Don’t let any pass through," Radia said, motioning for Zein to follow him as he walked through the door. "Youngests--follow her and stay closed. Guard them, Lex."

Zein glanced at the venue, which started to become chaotic. But the association immediately took charge of the situation and rally up the espers in the hall. Mobius and several association agents were moving to secure the VIPs staying at the private booths, but he saw Han Joon walk in a different direction.

"Bas, you go down," Radia continued with his order as the summoned guard opened the door.

The hall had been filled with people who were either getting escorted to safety, or started pulling out their equipment after hearing about some disturbance. Although it was common here to stay inside a secure room like their private booths in case of emergency, they were all a part of the sentinel community, so hiding was not an option.

"Nadine, go with him," Zein said as they walked down the hallway, to which Bassena turned his head in surprise. "I had somewhere else to be."

"Where?" Bassena frowned, definitely feeling disappointed that Zein sent someone else with him.

"You don’t need a guide for something like this," Zein patted the esper’s cheek. "But others might. Most of the guides did not come here today."

"Okay, but where are you going?"

Instead of answering, Zein looked at Radia and asked. "Where was ’he’ going?"

"Who?" Bassena tilted his head, getting even more confused. But Radia seemed to understand who was Zein talking about.

"The room where the auctioned goods are being kept, most probably," Radia answered dryly, stopping at the junction before they reach the stairs to make way for the people getting escorted to safety--the royals, the representatives, the government agents. He stood still for a bit, before opening his commlink, pulling the building’s map, and marking a place to be sent to Zein.

"Who?!" Bassena snatched the guide’s elbow, frowning.

"Han Joon," Zein answered briefly, before shifting his gaze to Radia again. "Where will you go?"

"Don’t there," the crimson eyes glanced below. The organizer was making an emergency meeting right on the auction stage. They might have made a measure against human attack, but an instant outbreak was something that no one could ever predict.

And it happened right in the building where most of the sentinel community was gathering? During the auction?

"Something’s fishy here," Zein muttered. Was that why Han Joon went to the storage room? Was he suspected someone would take advantage of the situation?

"Which is why I’ll go there and ask for more details," Radia smirked. "Bas, if you see anyone suspicious, don’t kill them."

Bassena, however, was busy staring at Zein. He was no longer frowning, but there was a weird, unsettling expression on his face. "Are you...going to go alone?"

"Of course not," Zein chuckled. "What’s the use of having a guard attached to me all the time?"

Bassena looked at Jock, who returned his gaze with a subtle smile. He knew Zein would be in good hands, but he felt weird that he should be separated from Zein during an emergency when they were in the same building.

And...there was something rolling around in his stomach knowing that Zein voluntarily looking for Han Joon.

"You have my dagger, right?" Bassena asked worriedly, rubbing the ring on Zein’s thumb, and then feeling the Paladin’s Tear in the guide’s wrist. "Make sure to be care--"

Bassena’s words stopped when, in a quick moment no longer than a second, Zein retracted his mask and kissed him, before pressing the button back. It was clear that he did that to reassure Bassena before the esper could manage to feel jealous.

Zein might know about Han Joon and Radia’s relationship, but not Bassena--weirdly enough.

"See you later," the guide calmly patted the stunned esper’s cheek, before walking away with Jock, following a new route that Radia made for him.

* * *

"Do you have any intel so far?" Zein asked Jock, who had been suppressing his smile all the way to the third floor.

Since he was someone who had been guarding Zein since the start, he was privy to almost anything related to Zein, including the change that slowly happening. It was as if looking at a nephew or something. It was nice seeing Zein loosen his stiffness and become less pricky over time.

"The association took charge and requested cooperation from the guilds," he explained while listening to his subordinate. "Celestia and Azure are to escort the VIP into safety, and the rest of the top guilds are to assist Sir Vaski with the outbreak."

"The guides and civilians?"

"The rest of the espers from the association and the other guilds are gathering them in a conference room, and the rest are securing the perimeter around the building."

Zein hummed in response. "Are there any other outbreaks happening outside?"

"There is none so far."

The blue eyes narrowed, and with a low chuckle, Zein muttered. "What a bullshit coincidence."

"You seem to think the outbreak is premeditated," Jock commented while observing Zein’s face.

He too, was actually quite curious about the fact that the outbreak happened in this place at this time. It was almost like a terrorist attack, but how could people predict an instant outbreak?

"Well, that’s why I want to go where the government official goes, before they can cover the truth," Zein said, and Jock raised his brow in surprise.

Zein acted like he was worried about Han Shin’s brother, but that was his actual intention? The guard let out an amused chuckle.

"If someone truly plans something here...it means they know the outbreak would happen somehow," the guide added. "We surely can’t let that kind of people go, can we?"

"Absolutely, Sir."

They arrived on the third floor then, and as they got closer to the vault room that Radia had marked for them, they could see traces of people. The door was opened wide, and the light from inside bleed into the corridor. However, they couldn’t hear the distinctive sounds of battle that they predicted.

"Hmm...seemed like we’re too late?" Zein chuckled as he peeked into the room.

And by that, he didn’t mean it in anything bad. It was just that...they didn’t need to do anything anymore, because, in the short time it took Zein and Jock to travel from the private booth to the room, the people who tried to go inside the auction storage room had already been subjugated.

Around a dozen espers in suits and plain clothes were strewn around the room. There were auction goods on the shelf to the side, and the big vault door mounted on one of the walls was splattered with blood. From the sounds of their groan, it seemed that they were still alive.

Some of the guards from the association seemed to be unconscious, probably due to a skill or poison, and the ones who were still sober were in the middle of tying the intruders and putting on sealing handcuffs.

The one Zein had meant to meet, meanwhile, was cleaning his metal wires in front of the vault. Three bleeding--but alive--espers were under his feet. When Zein arrived at the door, the black eyes glanced at him and asked nonchalantly.

"Sightseeing?" there was a tiny smirk that most people would miss in the corner of the soldier’s mouth.

The association’s espers looked up in surprise when they realized someone else was coming, but turned out to be a guide. Or rather--the guide. The recording of Zein’s indignant speech in the guide’s conference had been circulating in the association, and he was secretly becoming a celebrity among them.

Looking around, Zein opened his arms and shrugged. "Charity."

Han Joon laughed--a sound that was also surprising the association’s espers. But it was short and soon, the soldier was back to his stoic self, glancing at them. "Anyone needs guiding?"

The espers shook their head simultaneously. Well, they barely did anything. Half of them were fallen unconscious suddenly during the break after the second batch. It was when some of the workers were sending out the goods to the buyers, so the security was the weakest. The rest of them who managed to stay conscious tried to send an emergency signal, but the earthquake-like vibration happened, and these people attacked them right after.

They were still in a daze after the skill that made them unconscious before, so it was hard trying to defend themselves. Not to mention, they had to protect their unconscious comrades too.

At that desperate time, the one who fell first was actually an esper with a camouflage skill, who was in the middle of messing with the vault’s door. An invisible metal wire snared around the esper’s arms, and blood splurted out in the air from thin air, along with a loud scream and a writhing body. More and more camouflaged people were getting rooted out of their hiding places, joining the confused band of the association’s workers and the intruders.

After five ’victims’ fell in a matter of a few minutes, it took them the seventh one to realize who it was. A faint shimmer in the air; an unbeatable stealth; a precise movement of a hunter. It could be no one but the Night Star, Han Joon.

These intruders actually worked as fast as they could. They knew someone would come to the vault room after they realized an instant outbreak happened. But they didn’t calculate someone would get there that fast. And above all, they didn’t calculate someone could see through the five camouflaged espers, who were the assailant group’s insurance.

The association’s espers used the chance when the assailants were in shock to deliver a counterattack, while Han Joon finally came out of his stealth mode and took care of the rest--with a dull wire this time.

One of the assailants, the one in camouflage before, didn’t look too agitated, however. Either the man had given up, or...

"Have you checked the room and the vault’s door?" Zein asked the soldier, who looked back at him with an arched brow. "There’s something attached to the door and the shelf--ah, the corner too."

"We have barrier formation attached there," one of the government workers, who was waking up their unconscious friends, replied to the guide.

"No," Zein narrowed his eyes. He had gotten familiar with barrier formation’s mana sequence after living in the fortress that was Trinity compound for half a year. So he could tell that there was a slight difference there, hidden so masterfully that only someone with high sensitivity for mana could feel it. "There is something else, and new, probably attached not long ago."

The assailant flinched, and Han Joon, who saw it, pressed the heels of his boot to the man’s shoulder. "Not long ago like the time when these people came?"

Zein shrugged--he wasn’t really an expert on that. He was just able to feel mana.

Han Joon shifted his gaze to the association’s workers, who immediately contacted the committee to request a formation expert and highly-sensitive detection device.

While they were on a call, a crisp voice suddenly greeted them from the door. "Aww...is the party over already?"

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