There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 86 - 83. A Tall Wall

Chapter 86: Chapter 83. A Tall Wall

"We’ve got some system going on in the translation thing, got someone from otherworld linguistic pulled to our side," Eugene reported their progress as Zein took a seat on his now permanent swivel chair in the lab. It was the closest one to the glass window, where he could conveniently look at the shard.

Over time, Zein had experimented on communicating with the shard without direct touch. Expanding his consciousness to the pulsing crystal. So far, he managed to at least tell it to stop rejecting the researchers’ presence. He tried sending simple thought like greetings through the glass window.

Just like now. The shard would send a different mana wave with every different response, and the researcher would capture it to be analyzed. So Zein’s role as of right now was like a conversation mate with this shard.

Someday, they might be able to ask the shard about the method to completely dissolve the miasma in its surrounding. While they were able to record the process with the help of the corrupted mana stone, understanding it was a different matter.

"Still no dice on the Specter’s cores?" Zein asked after a session of greeting exchange with the shard.

"No, the composition is totally unique. That team still had no idea how elemental mana and miasma could mingle in balance," Eugene sighed, eyeing the wrapper in the guide’s hand. "Is that a candy?"

"Hmm..." Zein nonchalantly put a small jar of assorted candies on the table, which got the other researchers--who always craved sugar as a fuel for their brain--perked up. "Rather than knowing how it worked, can you just use it to make a Specter detector or something? Since the composition is unique, the pattern of the mana frequency in the core should be unique too. If we can detect a Specter, we can detect a shard too...what?"

The researchers, who were in the middle of opening the candy jar, paused and stared at Zein like a statue.

"You...never thought of that?"

Eugene cleared his throat, as the assistants turned their heads away sheepishly. "I’ll...call that team," Eugene said with an embarrassed smile. "Gosh, Zein--we really need you here."

"Sir Zein, might I know which school you were going?" one of the assistant researchers asked curiously.

"Oh, I was wondering about that too..."

"Yeah, Sir Zein is really knowledgeable about this thing,"

"Isn’t that a given? Sir Zein is a specialist after all..."

Taking the coffee that Balduz made for him in his hand, Zein turned his chair to hide himself from those assistants’ inquisitive stare. His role in the research was marked as Specialist, but there was no detail on what he specialized at.

It was true though, that compared to anyone here, Zein was the most knowledgeable about the Deathzone and Setnath’s fragment. He might be ignorant in anything else, and had no idea how to operate anything in this room, but if it was about any details regarding the shard or mana core, he had an upper hand.

That advantageous knowledge and his nonchalant yet confident attitude made him seem like a wise scholar, when in fact he didn’t even finish any school.

How could he, when he was forced to work since he was ten? The only reason he didn’t seem so ignorant was his brother’s textbook he sometimes read.

"Stupid! Sir Zein is a guide, so of course he graduated from the Temple."

Well, that was wrong too. But it was a waste of time to correct them, so Zein just ignored the discussion about him and tried conversing with the shard again.

What he didn’t expect was to hear the same question came from his chicks--ahem, subordinates.

"Which Temple did you go to, Captain?" Dheera, who never shied away from asking him many things, asked one day, as Zein threw a wooden knife toward five guides in the arena.

A blunt-headed arrow flew from another side, which got the guides scattering like chickens. They were training their reflexes, and Zein did it by throwing things to these guides until they could avoid it. He also asked Sierra to help him, after meeting the esper one day in the coffee shop.

Nora, who crouched near them with panting breath from the previous batch glanced at Zein, and so were the other guides. Just like his appearance, their Captain was truly shrouded in mystery. So far, they only knew that he was an A-class guide with a skill level that was almost on par with a Saint, who somehow spent the last four years in the borderland before coming to Trinity through personal recruitment.

And they kind of guessed already from whom that personal recruitment came--seemed like the rumor about the Guide Captain and the Strike Commander would never go away.

But was there anything about the Captain’s past? Not at all. The only one who could provide information, Nora, also kept mum about it. So they were all waiting for any tea about their elusive Captain.

Without even flinching or lessening the strength of his throw, Zein answered nonchalantly. "I didn’t go to any Temple."

Which rendered the rest of the guides speechless--except for the one rolling around the training arena.

"Huh? Then how do you--"

"I got pointers from older guides and learned by myself."

"Wha..." Dheera couldn’t even string coherent words, just parting his lips in shock, wonder, and confusion.

Nora leaned his head back to the wall, looking at Zein with a bitter smile. It never changed--that back was like a giant wall. The reason why some guides despised Zein was, funnily enough, the same reason why the others loved him--that overwhelming talent.

Zein himself probably didn’t know it, how absurd it was to be able to learn guiding by himself, with just a lousy pointer from other guides--lousy red-zone guides for that matter. But even while he had such talent, there was no one who worked as hard as him to improve himself.

To survive--he said.

That wall called Luzein, was something that people either used to protect themselves with or threw stones at.

Even after four years, nothing had changed. No--it seemed like while Nora was trapped being a lackey for other guides, Zein kept on getting better. At least if they were talking about skills.

Other things though...Nora still remembered the depth of darkness in that blue eyes when he asked Zein if he was sick of living in danger like that.

"Alright, that’s it!" Zein clapped his hands then, to the relief of the last batch of guides. "We’ll end it after a short quiz."

The guides, who were filled with shock before, now groaning and wailing for mercy. Zein always closed their training session with quizzes about the beasts and various characteristics of dungeons. It felt like they were preparing for a Sentinel Bureau exam.

Actually, the bureau’s exam might be easier than Zein’s.

Before their whining even ended, their commlinks already beeped, and the question had already been sent to their interface by the expressionless assistant. For some reason, Alice’s deadpan face always seemed a tad bit happier every time she sent the quizzes.

While they were struggling with the quiz, Zein had his own training session, having Sierra shoot him with her real mana bullet rapidly. So the guides also struggled between concentrating on the quiz or watching their Captain’s fascinating reflex.

"It’s a good day tomorrow," Zein gave off a rare smile as the day ended, to the other’s astonishment. "Your uniforms are here."

Finally, the tired face perked up. "Before that, however, you’ll go to the fourth floor tomorrow."

The beaming faces stiffened up then, as Zein let out another, more sinister smile.

"It’s time for your simulation training."

* * *

"Hey, what exactly did you do to Bas?"

The simulation training control room, which was located on the fourth floor, and was filled with nervous murmurs of the guide as well as the voices of staff controlling the simulation inside each chamber, suddenly descended into silence.

Eyes and ears were upon the center of the room then, at the Guide Captain sitting casually with arms crossed and eyes focused on the many screens showing the visual inside the simulation. Leaning into the guide from behind, arms propped on the guide’s shoulder and chin resting on the guide’s head, was the chief researcher, who brazenly asked the question in the middle of the training session.

"What do you mean?" Zein replied indifferently, before clicking on the speaker button to talk to the guides in the simulation. "Alright, we talked about this. All you have to do is acclimatized yourself to the dungeon’s atmosphere. Feel everything, and keep your mind steady. For every minus point, I’ll add an extra lap to your daily exercise."

It wasn’t just the guides inside the simulation that was groaning, but also the ones still waiting for their turn. The guides inside the simulation, however, did it quietly, while crouching in the middle of a dark jungle.

"You’re a demon," Han Shin laughed, scratching the guide’s neck playfully while at it. "But anyway, Bas had been spacing out lately, like he was in a daze. You must have done something..."

"I don’t know about that,"

"What were you doing on your date anyway?" the healer tilted his head. He was sure that anything weird happening to Bassena must have had something to do with Zein.

At this, the people inside the control room got even quieter and perked their ears to listen keenly.

"We’re just driving around--crank up the beast sound on room 3," the blue eyes swept the screens once again, "And Ambrosia."

"What the hell? You’re going there without me?!" Han Shin slapped the guide’s shoulder in reflex, and Zein glanced at him with a raised brow. "Oh right, you’re on a date..." Han Shin grinned sheepishly, "--but still!"

"He ordered a box for you--add gravity to room 1,"

"Oh...well, in that case..." Han Shin shrugged and leaned on the guide again, like a clingy koala. "Hmm...the last time I saw him like that was when you cleansed him to white that time..."

A full silence ensued then, since Han Shin also paused and stilled on Zein’s back. The guides also widened their eyes and clasped their mouth at the notion of the Serpent Lord ever getting a full cleansing.

The tall wall that was their Captain seemed to just getting taller.

But Han Shin was reacting to something completely different. "Did you--"

"No," Zein replied immediately, before the healer could finish the question.

"No?" Han Shin narrowed his eyes dubiously.

"We weren’t doing any guiding."

"Hngg..." the healer tilted his head here and there in ponder, messing the guide’s black hair he used as a pillow. "Did you kiss him good or something?"

Zein tapped on his elbow in contemplation. He hadn’t seen Bassena ever since their date, and while he didn’t think much about it before, he felt it was quite weird now. The esper usually always found some excuses to see him when the man wasn’t on a business trip.

But they didn’t particularly have a heated exchange like that time in the training hall though, just...

"Just on his cheek..." Zein answered quietly, almost like a mumble, but enough to be caught within the silent room.

In his back, Han Shin grinned wide, stroking the guide’s masked jaw playfully. "You pretty incubus, you~"

"Get off," Zein shrugged his shoulder with an exasperated sigh, just as his commlink beeped with an announcement.

"Why, why, are you getting flustered, hmm? Our stoic Zein~" the healer giggled, before stopping at the guide’s serious expression. "What? What is it? Are you angry?" he asked cautiously.

But the firm blue eyes suddenly narrowed sharply, and Han Shin could feel the smirk behind the mask. "What? What?" he peered at the guide’s interface, and whistled.

"So it’s here, huh?" the healer chuckled, turning his head to look at the other guides. "Your first official dungeon raid."

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