There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 518

Chapter 518: Chapter 511. Pursuit

"My apologies, Sir Vaski," the senior reporter hurriedly apologized, followed by some of the other reporters. "They misspoke. Please forgive them as they are still young--"

"Young?" Bassena scoffed, although he did step back to let the reporters breathe. "They are older than half the people here."

The senior reporter pressed his lips and bowed while apologizing once again. Thankfully, someone came to divert Bassena’s attention from them.

"Bas, do you need me?" Ron tilted his body slightly to observe the poor reporters eclipsed by the Saint-class.

"Yeah," Bassena turned around, but the reporters were yet brave enough to let out a breath of relief. "Please escort them back to the Borderland. I’m sorry for doing this when you’re just here, but--"

"It’s fine, I understand," Ron glanced at the two trembling reporters who were in the direct line of Bassena’s ire earlier. "You want me to tell the Captain too, right?"

"Yeah, I’m not sure if..." Bassena glanced in the direction of the desert. "Just keep on standby for now, and only come if we burn the black sheet."

"Got it. Say hello to Zein for me, yeah?"

Bassena patted the scout’s upper arm before vanishing in a wisp of darkness. Ron turned toward the reporter then, who could finally breathe easier. They looked at Ron, whose dry smile was enough to make him look like an angel in their eyes, despite his even drier words.

"I’ll give you five minutes to pack your belongings, and we’ll go even if I have to drag your tied-up body, understood?"

* * *

"Fuck--are we really just returning like this? What about all that money we paid them?" San grumbled as they watched the main base getting further and further away; a sentiment that was shared among some other reporters.

"They said they’ll refund us," Leah warned her partner, for a millionth time, to shut up.

Of course, she was also disappointed that they had to return early before they could do more coverage. But there was always a time and place for everything, and she could see how much tension there was in the seemingly safe main base. People, however, were prone to be unreasonable at any time.

"It’s not about the money," another reporter clicked their tongue. "It’s about what we’ve been promised!"

"Unexpected thing happens all the time, you should know that!" another, more reasonable one argued.

"But can’t we just stay in the main base? Isn’t it supposed to be safe? We should be able to at least record the aftermath and do some intervie--"

"Then stay," a nonchalant voice came from the front, which made the reporters froze. "We’ll stop the car and you can jump off, go wherever you like."

For a moment earlier, they forgot there were espers there--the defender and the Borderland’s scout tasked to escort them out. They saw the scout’s cold eyes in the rearview mirror and gulped.

"I only read the contract briefly, but I remember a clause saying we are not to be held accountable for any irresponsible act or disregard for safety protocol," the defender who was driving the Humvee they were in added with a cheerful voice that sounded more eerie than uplifting.

The senior reporter let out a tired sigh and looked at the other reporters. "How about it? I myself still want to live so I can write the articles," he said calmly with a subtle smile but stern eyes. "You should be able to make something with what we got already anyway, and we’ll still get our money back. So what are you complaining about right now?"

Leah, who had been holding back before, finally let her voice out. "Please have more self-awareness--we are in a dangerous place. People like us staying there means they’ll have to think about our safety, when they are already busy thinking about surviving on their own. This is not like the outside, okay?"

The protesting reporters pressed their lips; not everyone agreed, but they didn’t have the leeway to argue anymore with two 4-star espers at the front ready to drop them anytime, so they just kept their begrudging to themselves.

"But...Sir? Can you at least tell us what kind of creatures attacking them now?" the senior reporter asked. It was one thing to be cautious and self-aware, but gathering information was still his job.

Thankfully, the esper seemed to be willing to share at least that information. "Hmm...how should I explain it to you?" the scout tapped on his arm in contemplation. "You know there’s a hierarchy among beasts in the dungeon, right?"

"You mean...things like minions, commander, general--like that?"