There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 160

Chapter 160: Chapter 155. Calamity Profiteering

[...A line of mourners has formed on the site of the memorial event to remember the sacrifice of the fallen espers and the unfortunate victims of the simultaneous outbreak happening last Saturday, October 25th. The citizens and the sentinel community have gathered to cherish the memory of those who had passed as...]

The voice on the television accompanied the scene of a memorial plaque surrounded by flowers and candles. Some photographs of the victims could be seen lining up the periphery, as the mourners prayed for their beloved. The camera panned out and then split to show simultaneous events happening in the places where the outbreaks happened last week.

Except for Althrea and one other town, all of the places that experienced the instantaneous outbreak suffered casualties. It couldn’t be helped since they happened on the weekends, and most of them occurred either in the middle of a crowd or in a residential area. Most of the victims came from those who were unfortunately present when the outbreak first happened, and although it was only a yellow dungeon at most, civilians and 1-star rookie patrols could do nothing against the beasts.

Althrea had no memorial event since there was no casualty, and Zein watched the procession from the big screen of the executive lounge with Han Shin and Radia.

"That’s awful..." Han Shin sighed at the scene shown on the television. While it was also under the dramatic effect of sad background music, it was indeed heartbreaking to see someone mourn for their loved ones.

Zein, on the other hand, felt his heart growing numb. Rather than feeling sad or sympathetic, those scenes were just reminding him of the daily life in the red-zone; espers died after coming out of the dungeons, and civilians died from starvation or miasma poisoning.

No one would ever say ’that’s awful’. Something like ’oh, another one?’ was more common. Unless it was their own family members, people wouldn’t waste their time and heart feeling sad. Otherwise, they would have to mope every day when orphan number twelve died, or the homeless man on the corner of the fourth street finally stopped breathing. _{frёewebηovel.cѳm}

Zein almost wanted to chuckle. It was funny; not only happiness, but even sadness became the privilege of the fortunates.

While he did feel awful when he first saw the site of outbreaks in those other cities, he grew desensitized to it fast. For Zein, it didn’t matter even if they were to cry and whine now. It didn’t matter unless they did something to the source of the plague.

"Was there really no policy they made regarding the Deathzone?" Zein asked after the mourning montage ended. He might be numb, but he still could wait for the others to express their sadness in peace first. "You’re not making them give up on Deathzone just so we could manipulate the project, right?"

"Have you no faith in me, Luzein?" Radia tilted his head with a forlorn face.

"I have faith you can do anything for your profit."

Radia raised his brow, observing the cold blue eyes. It was only Zein’s nonchalant tone that kept the remark away from being accusatory. "You talked like you’re on your period," the guildmaster chuckled.

"I can’t have one, I have no womb," the guide replied dryly. "So what happened there?"

It took Radia one second to recall Zein’s medical record and frowned at the guide’s words; the womb was there, it was just damaged beyond repair. "You haven’t visited the hospital for that since the first one, have you?"

"Stop talking about my body. What happened there?" Zein replied with a sterner tone, and Radia had to swallow his sigh since Han Shin had started to confusedly stare at them both. Zein was easier to handle than the others, except when he was being stubborn and reclusive.

To stop Han Shin from getting interested in the sensitive topic, Radia fulfilled Zein’s demand and started to talk about the weekend emergency meeting.

"First, the project IS the countermeasure," Radia told them. "As we predicted, the government officially announced the draft bill for the reclamation act to those who were summoned by Protocol Aspen."

Radia told them then, that they finally found out why the reclamation act was being drafted in the first place. Just as Zein had thought, it came from a ’revelation’ that the Saintess of Mogu Temple received last year, stating that the human would need to clear the remaining darkness in the east sooner or later.

"There’s something I’ve been wondering," Zein suddenly said in the middle of Radia’s deliberation. "Why does the government decide to go with this auction thing, rather than doing it themselves?"

Radia’s initial response was a deep smile, before it turned into a hopeless chuckle. "Because they don’t have enough power," Radia said with a wry smile. "The government’s authority lies in the support coming from temples and towers, but most of the powerful espers have their own group; they make guilds, mercenary troops, or join the sentinel association. Using the government’s military prowess alone would never be enough."

Zein noted the way those crimson eyes twitched at the mention of the military, but decided now wasn’t the best time to tease the guildmaster. "And they can’t draft those powerful espers? The Rankers, for example?"

"They could," Radia smirked. "But who can guarantee those espers would show up? They were powerful because no one could make them submit."