There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Chapter 51. Let’s Do This

That single piece of information effectively rendered the whole room speechless. Even Radia seemed to only hear about it now. He raised his brows and smiled in amusement.

How fascinating.

"Fully—what...h-how?" Abel stared at Zein with a whole new look in his eyes; Astonishment, disbelief, confusion.

But the guide soon calmed himself down. He recalled then, that there was a huge discrepancy among A-class guides. It was because the determining factor to decide an A-class was by fully lighting up the measuring plate. But there was no way to precisely measure how big an A-class vessel was. They were guides with the biggest vessel below the Temple-raised Saints. Whether it was just slightly bigger than the minimum requirement, or so big it nearing the Saint’s vessel—no device could measure that.

So his doubt easily vanished just like that, thinking that Zein must have a huge vessel—bigger than him, obviously. "Wow," it was replaced by genuine astonishment.

"So, how about it? We can consider the emergency situation as a special case and just give you the same incentive as the other guides," Radia clapped his hand to bring the focus back to the contract. "The rate for the 5-star’s guiding will follow the rate of the Temple. Fair, no?"

"I’m not a Saint, though?"

Radia just smiled mysteriously at Zein’s remark. "It doesn’t matter if you work like one," he shrugged. "Do we have an agreement, then?"

"Hmm," Zein took the contract from Bassena’s hand, and for the first time started to peruse the document seriously.

"Ah, we can send you the amended contract through the commlink, but I see you don’t have one," Radia tilted his head and snapped his fingers at the butler, who swiftly walked out of the room. "Please read that now while we wait for the amended version. Minho and Sina, come with me," he stood up and called at Director Lee, as well as the woman from Mortix, and left the room with his other summoned creatures.

Once the Guildmaster was out, Zein could hear a collective sigh from the other staff. Han Shin swiftly moved to sit at the guide’s other side, and the others seated themselves on the other chairs. Suddenly, the atmosphere became more relaxed with the absence of the boss.

"Is he that scary?" Zein asked while flipping the page.

Bassena leaned back and chuckled. "Let’s just say he has various ways of destroying people."

"Mm," Zein hummed in agreement. Radia didn’t look like much—wasn’t particularly dashing or strong-looking. But the man had powers in every aspect, and would hesitate at nothing to use them for his gain.

At any rate, he wasn’t someone Zein wanted to end up as an enemy.

That being said, Zein was in awe throughout the contract reading. It was thorough, detailed, and not once felt exploitative. It was miles different from the contract he had with Umbra. The contract fee and salary were written in detail, including the incentives. Zein presumed it was this section that would be changed.

But boy—what kind of money was this?

Zein spent quite some time just staring at the page filled with numbers. He looked at Bassena with widened eyes. "Hey, this is..."

"Hmm? Do you find something you don’t like? Radia might seem like a cunning businessman, but he is always fair when it came to fees," Bassena leaned closer and peeked through Zein’s shoulder. "Ah, the new contract would include the Temple rate for the separate payment, so it’ll be bigger, don’t worry."

Zein blinked. Worry? Worry about what? Did this esper think Zein was disappointed at the payment?

"Hmm...but I think the contract fee should still be bigger, don’t you think? I mean, isn’t this using the basis of a regular A-class guide?" Han Shin, who peeked from the other side, chimed in. "But Zein would be considered an executive, right? Since he’d be a division advisor..."

’What is this crazy punk saying?’

"You’re right. And considering that he’ll also be involved in the main research team..."

"I’ll go and speak to him," Han Shin stood up and abruptly left the room, leaving Zein feeling dumbfounded.

After being stunned for a while, Zein laughed inwardly. He wanted to talk about the absurdity of this currency, but someone who thought the numbers were extravagant did not exist in this room.

A million just for the contract fee. A hundred thousand in fixed salary, not including incentives, accommodation and food money, as well as a percentage earning from each dungeon raid’s net profit. And that was only talking about Trinity. Since Zein basically worked in tandem with Mortix too, he would also receive research expenditure.

Zein put on his mask again, because he felt like if he looked distressed somehow, they would make a fuss about it. A million was enough to buy a luxury condo in an upscale green-zone, and probably a whole mansion in the lower zone. Hell—a whole estate in the orange zone. He could buy the whole residential area in the red zone and rebuild it if he wanted.

If he recalled correctly, he was sold to Umbra for five thousand nocs. For the first three years of his contract with Umbra, Zein was only paid with stale bread and leftover meat. He got paid 5 nocs per day for the next five years, only because he finally became a decent guide. In the red-zone, they could get a cooked meal with 1 noc if they weren’t picky, or get a whole loaf of decent bread. He could at least start to feed his brothers with real food with that payment.

He received twice the amount for the remainder of his two years contract, and 18 for the other additional three, whereas the Borderland gave him around 11000 per year. Even with the payment he received from Mortix for the two weeks expedition, Zein received less than a hundred thousand throughout his life so far.

And he could get that much per year now, even if he did nothing but showed up in the guild’s building. With all the added incentives and separate payments...Zein suddenly felt at a loss for words.

It wasn’t that he felt it was too much. He just realized again how big the discrepancy between each zone was. It was something like a culture shock for him.

There was a time when he had nothing in his person to the point that he had to dive into the garbage can to look for food. But now, he suddenly had no idea what he should do with that much money in his possession.

Of course, he knew that the living cost in the green-zone was incomparable with what he was used to. But considering that lodging and meals were provided, as well as basic uniforms that served as equipment, Zein didn’t think there was a need for him to touch that money.

Just as Zein was drowned in a sense of incongruity, Han Shin came back with a bang on the door. "It’s done! I talked to him and they are adjusting it now,"

"Oh, good job," for once, Bassena gave the healer a thumbs-up.

What good job?! Zein was tempted to massage his temple. But his attention soon turned toward the ’butler’ that came with Han Shin. He brought a box and walked toward Zein, putting it in front of the guide.

"A gift from my Master," he said dryly. Zein couldn’t help but stare at this creature—a phantom. It was the first time for him, to see a human summon. The blue eyes flickered and glowed slightly, peering into the phantom’s inside. Just as he thought, the flow of mana was different, filling the entire vessel rather than flowing through the circuit like ordinary humans.

The butler paused for a second, staring with slightly widened eyes at Zein’s inquisitive gaze. He let out a smile for the first time, and Zein blinked, realizing his transgression. "I’m sorry," he apologized while taking the box. "Thank you,"

"My pleasure,"

With that succinct reply, the phantom butler walked out of the room again.

The box was actually for a commlink, and Zein stared at the sleek black bracelet with a deep red and gold line in a mix of interest and confusion.