There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 516 - 509. Coverage

Chapter 516: Chapter 509. Coverage

The group of reporters was silent at first, looking at Lex with blank looks and parted lips. That was, until the most senior among them, the one in Leah’s van, laughed.

"That’s right," the senior nodded with a smile. "We’re not here for a curated show, but to see it as it is."

"I’m glad you’re on board. But of course, we wouldn’t just let you roam around without a guide," Lex smiled at the reporters. "Let’s see..."

He looked around, and just then, caught sight of a ’guide’ walking toward the stadium. "Dheera!"

The girl stopped and, upon finding Lex, ran toward the esper and greeted cheerfully. "Brother Lex, what’s up?"

"Are you free perchance?"

"Yeah, I was just finishing my shift. Do you need me for something?" Dheera glanced at the group of reporters and whispered. "Who are they?"

"Remember about the reporters coming?"

"Ah!" Dheera clapped her hands.

"The one who should be with them was called to the desert, so can you play guide for a bit? I’ll send you the schedule and everything."

Dheera blinked for two seconds before giggling at the choice of words. "Sure!"

"Alright," Lex turned toward the reporters again. "I still have pressing matters to attend to in command, so here’s Guide Neale to guide you around the base."

Just like that, Lex left and once again, the reporters were getting passed to another person. Well, at least this one looked more cheerful and welcoming. She looked at them, eleven people in total from six publishing and broadcasting companies, with a sweet smile.

"Hello, you can call me Dheera like anybody else!" the girl started with a simple introduction.

Rather than introducing themselves back, however, the reporters were asking her about where everyone was. Thankfully, she answered without a fuss.

"Well, they’re everywhere," Dheera shrugged. "But most of them are in the desert, I reckoned."

"...the desert?"

"Where is that? Can we go see?"

The girl tilted her head and tapped on her chin in contemplation. "Uhh...I don’t know about that, although I did read about the outpost tour for tomorrow, but...oh, right--there," she turned toward the east, pointing at the gate beneath a watchtower. "There, if you go through the eastern gate, there will be a forked path--one of the paths will lead you to a jungle, and then a canyon, and then there’s a desert! It’s huge and used to have tornadoes throwing you around after you walked for some time."

The reporters blinked as they looked at the laughing girl. "Did you...experience it yourself?"

"Uh-huh," she nodded with a wide grin that did not match the kind of story she was giving them. "Thankfully, we were protected by Mister Julian’s barrier, so we were not injured even though we were getting flung around like a ball."

"Was it...not scary?" Leah asked while wincing.

"Of course, it was!" the girl laughed. "But now it’s more like...thrilling since we survived anyway! Now, please follow me closely!"

They had to admit it was a bit uplifting after the cheery girl took over the ’tour’--even though the things she spoke weren’t so cheery. She brought them through the busiest district while pointing to buildings and tents telling them what they were.

Along the way, the reporters saw the espers actively moving supplies from the truck and hauling materials through a gate in an empty field which piqued their curiosity. But the girl was too talkative to be cut for a question, and she explained things so quickly that they had to pay attention--otherwise, they would miss some crucial piece of information about some infrastructures.

"This is where you’ll stay," the girl finally stopped in front of a semi-permanent building. "You might want to explore more, but I suggest you have some rest for now and get used to this place. Might not feel like it now, but waking up in the middle of darkness can make you feel unsettled."

"Is that from experience, Miss?"

"Of course!" the girl nodded. "I still remember feeling heavy for the first few days--well, you’ll get used to it after a while, but you’re not gonna be here long, aren’t you?"

"Ah..."

Dheera smiled and clapped her hands again. "Well, then! You’ll see the building manager inside, who’ll give you your room keys. Let’s see..." she paused to look at her commlink. "How about I pick you up in an hour, and I’ll take you to your dinner, ’kay?"

"Uhh...okay?"

Even the senior reporter could only agree obediently in front of the stormy girl, who waved her hand before skipping away to the stadium beneath the spire of light.

"...well, that was something."

* * *

"Lex said the reporters are here."

"We have reporters coming?" Zein tilted his head, before checking on his commlink. "Ah, right. Seems like Lex told Dheera to play a tour guide...well, good luck to them, I guess."

Bassena laughed, but honestly...he also forgot about those reporters. In the first place, there was no plan to do anything special--they had no leeway to do PR stunts or whatever. Radia decided to allow some coverage after the operation entered its third year and they had really stabilized their ’region’--which included the desert now.

For months and months, they scoured the wide desert and tried to find something other than piles of sand. Other than a few entrances to the underground system--some of which they sealed instantly--they found two unfortunate ruins in the size of a little town, as well as two dungeons. One of the dungeons was just spawning, which was why Bassena was calling people over.

Bassena himself spent his time going around the desert to place markings all over the place. For the past two months, they had been installing beacons and burying controlled bombs in places that would not compromise the integrity of the underground system. It wasn’t an easy task and needed a lot of calculation, which was why it was such a time-consuming job.

But it was a wide field they couldn’t use as anything but a battlefield, so might as well.

"What are they trying to see here, anyway?" Zein asked while stretching his arms, before jumping off the truck’s roof he’d been using as a resting stool.

Bassena shrugged. "Just some updates, perhaps?"

"I thought the guild gave them routine updates?"

"Yeah, but it’s what we said," Bassena smirked. "People are questioning whether or not all of them are true; if it’s all just an edited picture to hide the true condition."

Zein frowned in confusion. "What’s the true condition got to do with those people? It won’t affect them, will it? It’s not like we use their money or anything to fund this operation."

"Curiosity is like...human trait," Bassena shrugged. "Sometimes, it’s easier just to give them some so they can shut up--is what Radia decided."

"Hmm..."

"Also, it’s better to let some reporters do a coverage than risking them entering the Deathzone illegally," Bassena sighed.

Zein groaned at the prospect of some idiots challenging themselves thinking it was easy now that Trinity managed to do it, just to end up injured or dead and blame it on them. Sounded ridiculous, but the extent of humanity’s ridiculousness was not something he was willing to guess.

"Well...wish they have the best of time, then."

Which they did, actually. At least some of them.

Dheera continued to be their tour guide since she was free and bored and had too much energy to spend. She brought them to the watchtower while giving them a brief history of the main base establishment, as well as giving them general information on where the other bases were.

Of course, she did not tell them anything about the source of the shards--which people outside called ’keys’--but most of the reporters enjoyed it nonetheless. She was energetic and fun to listen to, and she had been there since day one, so her story was very reliable. In the part where she wasn’t involved because she had missions elsewhere, she just told them to ask the executives later.

Apparently, the girl was also pretty popular among the others, so they gained a lot of impromptu interactions with the busy espers, including the guards manning the watch tower. They were allowed to climb into the gun chamber and even use the telescope.

"Is there no beast? I thought the Deathzone is crawled with them?" Leah’s partner asked in disappointment.

"Well, then you should come here from the first day, Uncle!" Dheera replied with curled eyes and a wide smile.

"U-uncle?" the late-twenty reporter choked.

"Yeah! If you come here from the start, you’ll be able to see the beasts every minute! Oh, oh, and sometimes, there will be hordes of them coming here--right?"

Dheera turned to the guards, who were chuckling. One of the guards patted one of the guns with a smirk. "Well, how else could we play with these guys?"

"We’ve already cleaned this area, so if you want to look for some beasts, you have to go past the border," the guard leader added. "But we can no longer guarantee your safety, then."

Once again, Leah was tempted to smack the back of San’s head. She let out a sigh and diverted the question to how many times they usually got attacked and how long it took for them to free the area from the beasts. The other reporters followed with similar questions, trying to dig whatever they could without risking being sent back.

Because they quickly realized, as they listened to Dheera and the others, that their safety was in these people’s hands. They couldn’t return on their own, unless they wanted to spend days walking through perpetual darkness and grotesque jungle. The place only felt safe because they were in the main base that had been painstakingly secured for two years by these people.

Even if they didn’t receive any juicy story, just their personal experience was already a story on its own.

But perhaps someone prayed for some sensational news, because on their third day--the day they were supposed to make a journey to another base--a sirene was suddenly ringing in the middle of the main base, filling the space with a deafening, eerie sound.

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