There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 247 - 240. Vanity and Ability

Chapter 247: Chapter 240. Vanity and Ability

"Pfft--" Bassena leaned on the railing, letting off the last of his laughter as the AR field was turned off and the applicants were gasping for breath down there.

A staff came up to lead them down to another room where they would receive refreshments and guiding from the twenty guides. Alice went to the guides to collect their first sheet and lead them to the same room the esper went to, along with Abel. Both division heads would rotate between each batch to provide supervision and assessment. Of course, a few Trinity guides had already been stationed there to continue the guiding after the ten minutes of assessment that the guides needed to do.

They waved to Abel as the man went down, and Bassena continued to speak. "Actually, we do," he said while glancing at Zein with a smirk.

"Huh?"

"We accept people with good skills and good appearance," Bassena said, shifting his gaze to the applicants that had started to move toward another room.

It was hard for guides to not be good-looking due to their natural trait, but it was different with espers. They were people who regularly needed to face extreme dungeon environments and did physical training--not to mention being prone to injuries and scars. That being said, Trinity had succeeded in gathering at least decent-looking people, who managed to look even better after they joined the guild and enjoyed the many facilities here--including the spa and sauna that Rina vehemently requested from the management. Being regularly guided well also contributed to the espers looking brighter and healthier, on top of doing regular medical check-ups in Mortix’s affiliated hospital.

Zein did not pick it up until a few weeks later, even though Han Shin had already mentioned it before. And he only realized how many members were involved in showbiz after he started watching television shows because of Bassena. Most of them were modeling for clothing lines or taking advertising gigs, while some took acting or singing careers on the side. He found out that some of the members were already in the entertainment industry before getting scouted or registering with Trinity after they earned their esper licenses.

It wasn’t like Trinity opened the recruitment by saying it was an audition for entertainment talents, but after four years of being known as that kind of guild, people who registered this year were usually quite confident in their looks.

"It’s nothing uncommon; guilds--or, hell...any working place--chose people in their own category all the time," Rina shrugged.

"Like Glasswing?" Zein tilted his head, and the others snapped their fingers in affirmation.

"Like Glasswing," Bassena nodded. "There’s a guild that only chose orphans, guilds that are established based on skin color, and even guilds that only allow people from a certain academy," a corner of his lips lifted a bit while he made notes on his evaluation sheet for the first batch. "It’s kind of ridiculous to judge a guild based on their way of choosing members instead of their performance."

Zein mulled over Bassena’s words while looking at his own work; the guide applicants’ answer sheet. After having fun reading them--and yes, there was someone who wrote ’this esper is my type’ as their reasoning--he turned to look at Bassena again. "Hmm...perhaps because they see it as you only chasing as much profit as possible?"

Trinity’s revenue, after all, not only came from dungeon materials and security works, but also from the esper’s entertainment gigs and other commercial appearances. The guild had been cementing itself as having the highest revenue among all medium-sized guilds in the Eastern Federation. A lot of critiques actually came from the group of people who thought espers should only work in dungeon-related fields, and accused the members of ’stealing’ other people’s opportunities.

Quite frankly, the guild did not care for such sentiment.

Bassena laughed before replying. "People might say it in spite, but it’s true that we are a guild that chases profit," he looked down at the Arena and spread his hands, before speaking with a deep smile. "Because you know what makes all these good equipment and facilities?"

Zein replied easily. "Money."

"Money," Bassena snapped his fingers and winked playfully. "People spat on profit-seeking guilds as if we were monsters of society, but the equipment doesn’t just magically grow on trees, and espers still need to put food on the table. How can we expect Espers to focus on their work if they have to constantly think about their family’s meals back home?"

Ashur and Ulysses, who was actually the sole providers of their family, smirked in response. Florence and Sierra also came from guilds that were having a hard time with their finance and ended up overworking most of their members.

"This is work, this is not charity. You can’t expect someone to do a life-threatening job without ample compensation," Bassena crossed his arms, chuckled amusedly like every time he heard about people criticizing them for being like an agency or corporation.

Well, guilds were indeed a corporation. It was a company where people worked and expected to get paid for their services. It wasn’t different from private security companies who dealt with providing bodyguards for high-profile people.

"In an ideal world, people would pay good money for espers,"

"But the world is not ideal," Zein remarked.

Bassena chuckled in agreement. "The citizens are not the ones who paid for Espers and Guides’s services, unless they belonged to government agency and military. Espers got their money from selling dungeon materials, and guides got their money from Espers who got cleansed,"

"And both also pay taxes to the government," Rina added with a sarcastic laugh. "Just like the protesting civilians."

"Exactly," Bassena shrugged. "The cost to maintain a guild and give decent payment to the espers and the guides is crippling to the guild. And to have decent equipment and facilities above that? It’s a financial disaster."

"That’s why a lot of guilds are seeking sponsors," Rina smiled deeply, with a hint of bitterness that came from her own experience of nearly being ’offered’ to the sponsors by her former guildmaster.

"Yep," Bassena smiled and patted the defender’s shoulder lightly. "There are no big guilds on this continent that appeared without sponsors. They are basically a company with many shareholders who, logically and rightfully so, would like to see their investment returned."

Florence added; "So they sold materials at a high price, or pushed the members to work as much as they could while lowering the payment."

From the sigh coming out of the other espers, Zein understood that this was a pretty common occurrence, even in the green-zone. He wasn’t surprised though, since the rogue guild did all that and much much worse--including putting people in slave contracts and buying trafficked human resources at low prices, forcing them to work without pay.

He just thought places with a much higher level of prosperity like green-zones--or anywhere but the red-zone, basically--wouldn’t really face the need to do that.

Apparently, he was wrong.

There were always things to learn every day, it seemed.

"Trinity can’t take too much profit from materials selling, because, well...it was established to provide materials for Mortix in the first place without having to compete with the market’s price and availability," Bassena continued.

"So you look for profit in another way," Zein nodded, finally seeing Radia’s vision of making the guild the way it was.

"It’s not a crime, and everyone’s involved happy," Bassena shrugged. "Or at least they’re not as miserable?" he glanced at the other espers, who responded with chuckles.

"The guild never force the members to take entertainment work, but they also knew the money will help them and the guild, so they took it willingly," Rina added to the guild praising train.

"All of the guild’s revenue is used for the guild, and none is going into Radia’s pocket except for his salary as the Guildmaster," Bassena told the guide.

"Honestly, what’s wrong with putting good-looking people into the guild? Glasswing only takes women too," Florence laughed. She was actually scouted by Glasswing too after setting fire to her old guild’s building. But it was Mortix’s legal team who helped her settle the trial in her--and many more of her colleagues--benefit, so she chose to join Trinity in the end. "It should only be a problem if we can’t do our job properly, but..."

The magician spread her arms and shrugged, and the deep smile on the other’s faces was a testament to their confidence in their ability and credibility. They didn’t care much about people’s mockery, since they could easily debunk those with their excellent track record.

Sometimes, Trinity felt like a utopia for them--that was, if they didn’t suddenly have to prepare themselves for a massive challenge that was the Deathzone.

"Hmm...alright, so you do choose good-looking people, noted."

Zein concluded, and they laughed again just as Abel and Alice came back to the viewing room, along with the twenty guides--some looked more at ease, some looked even more nervous. If that was how they were when Abel was the one supervising, how would they end up when it was Zein’s turn? The espers wondered with arched brows and deep smiles on their faces.

Just in time, because it would be a long day for them, the staff had already led the next batch inside. These people too, froze as they looked at the Arena and the viewing balcony. This time, fortunately, there was no foul play, although the overall performance was fairly boring.

"I gave your message to number 13, Boss," Alice told Zein as they went down to the guiding room.

"Thank you,"

Through Senan, Zein had covered Arlo’s travel expenses from Mimera to Althrea. The young esper arrived this morning and came straight to Trinity, so Zein didn’t have the chance yet to give the man the information on the accommodation he prepared for Arlo to rest after this. And seeing the schedule, Zein didn’t think there would be a chance for him to meet the young man at all today.

So he asked Alice to give Arlo the hotel room key, as well as a money card with enough allowance to let the young man have some fun in Althrea while waiting for the result to be announced. Zein didn’t expect it, but he was confident Arlo would pass, as long as the young man did not botch the final interview.

Without realizing it, he smiled subtly behind his mask. The slightly soften gaze was perfectly captured by the keen assistant, however. "Who is he, Boss?" she asked curiously. The young man should be around her age, she felt, and she had never heard Zein mention him before.

Zein took a while to ponder, before deciding on a vague answer. "Either my nephew or my cousin, I’m not sure."

Alice just got even more confused than before. Oh well, basically, Zein said he was a family, right?

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