Broadcasting Live From Inside An Eldritch Horror Game

Chapter 74: To The Royal Capital We Go! Part-4.

[Rolling_Crocodile: D*mn, I thought that rain of ’laser beams’ was already dangerous enough, but to think that this world has something even more terrifying than that!? A city where miasmic corruption rains down all day long!? That’s insanity!]

[Invincible_Bob: I know that our invincible tank god is indomitable and undefeatable in all aspects, but miasma is clearly an unpredictable power that is full of deceit and lawlessness; it would be a good idea to stay away from it...]

[Blue_Dinosaur: Indeed, if it were me, I would have declined the offer at the very beginning the moment she mentioned the word ’Miasma’... I am fascinated by Goddess Xinran’s beauty and all, but I know my limits...]

[Shady_CrookedEye_Ron: I am a professional nuclear scientist, and I am not afraid of working in close proximity to radioactive material, but even I would not dare to go to a place where corruption rains all day long and weird horrors wander the streets.]

[William_Mex: To think even the great and mighty ’Ron,’ the all-knowing, will have a day when he will say that he was not willing to do a job. Well, it’s miasma we are talking about, so it’s understandable...]

[Shinning_Lorraine: No no, you guys are ignoring a crucial fact when judging the danger of this royal capital. Didn’t you hear Goddess Xinran’s words?

It seems like she’s been to that place quite a few times before! And she’s clearly not corrupted! This shows there’s a way to avoid corruption and still explore the mysterious city!

This might be an opportunity to dig deeper into this world’s secrets and also find out what kind of plan Goddess Xinran has and how she’s going to avoid corruption!]

[Invincible_Bob: D*mn! I almost forgot that Hero Layla also seemed to have entrusted the task of delivering relics to the city as if she were sure that Goddess Xinran had some method to avoid corruption!]

’Heh, they noticed this point too... although a bit late, but that’s good enough; at least there are some decently intelligent people in the group here...’

Zephyr had actually already noticed that Xinran likely had a reliable plan; otherwise, she wouldn’t be so confident when she agreed to Layla’s request of transporting the relics to the capital.

Xinran agreeing to that request showed that she had a safe and reliable method to enter the city without being affected by miasma.

In fact, Zephyr could vaguely already guess what those methods would be, but he didn’t want to interrupt Xinran, so he kept silent for now.

"I know that what I am asking for seems abrupt, but the main reason I am seeking your assistance is because with the ’Obelisk’ in your possession, you have now become incredibly resistant to miasmic corruption like Layla used to be..."

"I still remember that in a crucial battle she got submerged in miasmic corruption for an entire hour, and yet she managed to walk out unscathed from it and managed to recover in just a few days."

"As the current owner of the ’Obelisk,’ you will likely also have a similar level of miasmic resistance. In a land where miasma is everywhere, finding people that can resist corruption and remain sane is extremely rare..."

"That’s why I want to establish a cooperation agreement with you temporarily. Of course I will not let you work in vain."

Xinran took out a thick book from her space ring and spoke in a calm voice,

"I have noticed that you have always been eager to know more about the world either by direct or indirect methods and have even asked me about many things in the past."

"Your curiosity is something that I have rarely ever seen in anyone before. This book here is the first volume of the historical records of the Jauregia Empire."

"I have many such books in my possession; you can say that I am carrying an entire library with me at all times. If you help me, I don’t mind lending you these books to read."

Hearing those words, Zephyr was pleasantly surprised and without a single hesitation agreed to Xinran’s agreement of cooperation on the spot!

Although it was just a mere verbal agreement that held no real binding powers, both Zephyr and Xinran were satisfied with it for now, as they both knew that establishing long-term or permanent contracts required mutual trust between two parties.

Both of them had only recently met each other and had already fought a life-and-death battle once; it was going to take a long amount of time to establish mutual trust.

’Tch, if not for the fact that she is so extremely charming and beautiful and had attacked me, I might have let my guard down more easily and would have trusted her more easily...’

’Unfortunately, she’s too beautiful and good-looking, and in nature, beauty is equivalent to danger! Especially in this degrading, corrupted world!’

As they say, roses have thorns!

Most of this world seemed to be filled with despair, death, degradation, and corruption, and yet, Xinran was able to survive it all and still maintain her incredible beauty intact!

Only cunning and powerful people could survive in this hellhole-like place for so long!

’She’s extremely cunning and powerful; I better not let my guard down. That verbal agreement can’t bind her much at all.’

Xinran was a powerful mage, and perhaps she even knew how to form magical contracts and binding oaths, yet she didn’t bring anything related to them to the conversation.

This was a clear indication that Zephyr was not the only one who wanted to get tied with shackles and wanted more room for maneuver; Xinran was the same.

"I can agree to your agreement, but there’s one condition. I want a map of the Kingdom of Jauregia and a world Map."

"Its not that I doubt you or anything; I just want to understand the situation better and prepare escape routes if things go wrong."

"I am sure you have prepared your own escape routes too, and I have no problem with that, after all, in this dog-eat-dog world, personal safety is the most important..."

Xinran’s eyes narrowed for a second, but she didn’t deliberate on the matter for long before agreeing to the request.

Although Zephyr was only considered prey by her when she first met him, now that he had obtained a status equal to that of a ’Hero’ and had the ’Obelisk’ in his possession, Xinran was more inclined to stop treating him as simple prey.

After much thought, Xinran decided to give Zephyr a map of the Jauregia empire and the first volume of the national history book that she had shown before.

As for the world map and the other books, she promised to give them if the agreement proceeded smoothly and they managed to carry out their cooperation without troubles.

Xinran was no saint, and she was not going to give all the rewards right from the start; she was going to use them as her trump cards to sway Zephyr’s heart.

Since Zephyr was not swayed by her beauty and flirtatious words, it was time for her to shift to a new strategy, and that was to make Zephyr realize how great she was and how many benefits she could provide him!

And this time her strategy had succeeded flawlessly!

Zephyr agreed to help her without much resistance and even relaxed his vigilance against her a bit.

This was already great progress from Xinran’s point of view.

’Tch tch, this man is really a piece of work!’

’In the past many noble heirs tried their best to win my favour and showered me with praises and gifts just to make my heart sway, but look at my current situation!’

’Now I am trying my utmost to make a man’s heart sway for me... sigh, is this what they call retribution? The price for being too arrogant and domineering?’

Thinking about various things in her mind, Xinran could only sigh in helplessness; it was simply too difficult to make Zephyr let his guard down. He was like a shy and reserved maiden that refused to let anyone even hold her hand, let alone go any further!

"Now that we have established a basic agreement of cooperation between us, let’s talk about the plans and strategies we will need to adopt."

"In the past I went to the capital alone, and with my own powerful strength I was fast and agile in my work. But this plan also had a downside; a single person is not enough to explore that vast city."

"The capital city is spread across a massive area of about 1000 sq. kilometers! It’s such a vast area that even when I was the princess of the nation, I still hadn’t explored the entirety of it myself!"

"Moreover, now that the entire area has been transformed into a completely unrecognizable form by miasmic corruption, even I don’t have a proper sense of direction in that place."

"You can’t even use mana detection properly to scan the area around you because miasma and mana repel each other, and mana detection weakens in the presence of dense miasma."