Starting from Zero

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When I\'m just enjoying myself with my grinding, Wayne sent me a chat.

"Boss! Got time?"

"What\'s the matter?" I ordered Phantom to take over my body and focused on the chatting. I came up with this idea not long ago. Now I can grind AND chat without having to worry about meeting any surprises.

"Someone killed me. The wizard robe we got from the raid, I dropped it!"

"Say whaaat? Your level is pretty high now and that robe got some nice defense, who killed you that easily?"

"It was a warrior called Big Blade More Killz, he finished me off with just two hits!"

"Huh? That number one on the ranking list? How did you get on his nerves?"

"I didn\'t. His wife wanted my robe for his brother, so that guy helped her rob it from me. Talk about bad luck. I only died once, and that robe is gone!" (*)

"Where are you now? I\'ll meet you at the teleport station!"

"I\'m not in the city cause I can\'t go back there! There are his men everywhere and they claimed to kill me until I drop back to level 0! You can go to Flowing Cloud City and bring me some potions!"

"Right. Wait for me! And be careful!" I cut the chat, called back Lucky and activated my ring to the Lost City. I rushed into King Chemist\'s shop and bought several dozen packs of Wraith Pills. I got the money and no inventory limit, so there\'s no problem about it.

I contacted Wayne again. "Your coords?"

"X is 1379, Y is 25680 and Z 364!" (TL note: I made it up)

I used my ring to directly transport to Wayne\'s location and appeared in front of his face, causing him to jump. He\'s wearing tattered cloth, and full of dust and dirt on his face. "What happened to you?"

"They killed me three times before I finally escaped!"

"Are you dumb? You could just keep as a ghost without coming alive!"

Wayne gave me a sad face. "Of course I knew that! But they got Resurrection Wizard, they can just revive me without me accepting it and kill me again! Their last [resurrection] failed, that\'s when I had a chance to run!"

He\'s still terrified of it!

"Well you may not know it. But getting killed really hurts!"

"What\'s your level now?"

"I was 73, I lost three from deaths, and the failed revive took another two levels. Now I\'m only 68!"

"That...sounds real bad. But don\'t worry, I\'m here! This is your medicine, now tell me where they are and your boss gonna revenge for you!"

*Cry* "Booooss! You\'re the best! They were killing a boss monster at the Fountain Forest. I was the one with the target but they just took over by force, and my robe!"

"Come, point them out for me!"

Wayne led me towards the forest. It\'s not far. It\'s only a small woods, with a small fountain in the middle and a spring in the center of it. I saw a group of people hitting a brown bear from afar. Seven people, the leading one is that Big Blade More Killz, his name is yellow (**), and the foxy looking woman beside him must be his wife. There are two Warriors, a Black Mage and two Priestesses.

I raised my hood. It hid my face well.

I held Wayne, who is still trembling, towards them. I didn\'t plan to ambush them yet so I left the invisible skill off. His wife, an Elven White Mage, saw us first.

"Huh, Look whos here! That loser came back! He called a helper too!"

The other people have finished off that bear, and gathered up.

I stood in front of Wayne. "Hey friends! My buddy here got a straight temper, I\'m sorry if he took your monster. But it won\'t be nice if you just take his gear. How about this, We\'re all grown people, you lowered his 5 levels already, how about returning his stuff?"

"Why would we listen to you?" An Angel Warrior called "Am Great" spoke aggressively. "If you want it back, kill us and get it!"

Then they laugh. They don\'t appear the friendly type, seems negotiation isn\'t an option now.

I handed a portal scroll of the Lost City to Wayne. "Use this to get back. If anyone stops you, tell them Ziri sent you. Wait for me at the city weapon shop. I\'ll come back later."

After Wayne disappeared in a blue light, I turned around, facing Big Blade. (Death is white light, Town Portal is Blue light, while my teleportation is...Black.)

"So do we do it one-on-one or all of you come at me together?"

Big Blade laughed: "That\'s big words. Have you ever checked the rankings at all? I\'m the top! Do I even need help, to kill you? Come, let\'s do it! Two cuts and you\'re down!"

"So be it!" I summoned Phantom while talking. This time I didn\'t let anyone see him. All of my attributes raised by a large scale.

Big Blade seems experienced, he came to me with a single leap slash. I didn\'t react fast enough, but Phantom used [blink] and helped me avoid it.

"Nice one! Someone dodged my leap strike!" He immediately made another horizontal sweep. I quickly gained some distance with several skillful backflips.

The other people just stared at me like looking at a monster. Woosh, my father forced me to learn a little bit of kung-fu when I was young, now they actually worked!

"Nice move kid, but do you only know how to escape?"

I didn\'t argue, and appeared behind his back with another [blink]. A surprised scream prevented me from back-stabbing him, but my quick drew isn\'t easy to avoid, either. He moved sideways, but my sword still broke his arm. He rolled in agony while screamed like when a pig is getting slaughtered.

I was just feeling victorious when a [Hell Fireball] hit me in the back, almost knocking me to the ground.

System: "Player [Let\'s Solo it] attacked you!"

Then I hear that Black Mage shouted, "Damn this guy\'s Magic Defense is huge! That one only did 1 damage!"

Oh idiot. I\'m a Divine Demon, a Dark-affinity class plus my Ring of Stars. And you try to hit me with a Dark spell?

Soon, that warrior called "Am Great" rushed and smashed me, making me a bit dazed.

"No worries, physical hits will hurt him. But man his hard, that was only 300 damage. Come on guys let\'s kill him!"

I\'m not planning to be a target dummy, so I switched my sword to my left hand and took out my [Revenger], then shot at Big Blade\'s wife. That was a Soul Chaser bolt enchanted with Curse effect. Ha, you wanted my brother\'s stuff, and now you\'re gonna pay!

The crossbow has Accuracy bonus. My bolt hit his wife dead in the middle of her brows, and pierced her head too. The tip went through. Now I know this b**ch\'s name. The system notified me that I killed player [I WANT IT], if I kill another player within two hours I will be red named.

Seeing the scene, the two Priestesses started to scream, and one of them fainted. Pity, I was never the type to go easy on women. I always hated how some females leverage "gender equality" but actually play males around. (But I\'m still a gentleman!)

My rule: You treat me with respect and I\'ll treat you even better. You offend me, I\'ll give you hell.

I dodged the Warriors and a fireball from their mage, then rushed in front of the two beautiful girls.

"I\'m sorry my dear ladies. Would you go back to the city on your own, or may I help you with it?"

One of them quickly used her scroll. I guess she just got into the team and doesn\'t have much connection with these guys.

The other one is even quicker, she held up her staff and brought it toward me, without hesitation. I said I don\'t go easy on women and I meant it. One slash, a pretty head flew into the air. I found it just recently: No matter what their Defense is, if you hit their vitals you kill them instant.

When I finished off the Priestess, Big Blade is already at me, and cut my back. But some electric arcs followed his blade and hit him.

He flew backwards, while screaming like a pig, again.

"Oh, I wasn\'t expecting the lightning to be so powerful. Man you\'re unfortunate, that was only 5% and you hit it!"

Big Blade is still not convinced and charged at me again. I [blink]\'d to his back again, aimed at his heart, and pierced his body. Take that!

With a white flash, Big Blade went ghost. The two warriors were just standing there, shocked. And I don\'t blame them, because the top player in the game just kicked the bucket real fast.

Am Great shouted to the others: "Run. This guy is strong!"

Run? Forget it!

I [blink]\'d again behind that dazed warrior and cut his neck. He went down. The other two guys have already activated their scrolls. Out of panic I threw my sword like a dart, which hit "Let\'s Solo It" \'s chest. He\'s a squishy mage, it didn\'t hit his weakpoint but still killed him.

The scroll in Am Great\'s hand is shining now. My [blink] is on cooldown so I can\'t make it. Even if I get there it won\'t help. I don\'t have my sword!

Then I realized I have another Soul Chaser bolt! I shoot. Too late. The bolt stuck into the tree behind Am Great.

On the other side, Am Great is sweating hard at the teleport station. He watched that bolt coming straight at his eye before he managed to get away, and his heart is still racing.

"I gotta turn that Reality Setting lower when I PvP next time. Or I\'ll get a heart stroke!"

I\'m still feeling disappointed at the battlefield. Oh why it didn\'t hit him...

But only one of them got away. Still a victory. I looked at the ground. A staff is stuck near my sword, guess it\'s from that poor Black Mage. The attributes are good, Wayne could use it. The other are junk. And the robe didn\'t drop!

I opened the chat. "Wayne! My bad! They didn\'t drop that robe!"

"Don\'t worry! You killed them, that\'s enough!"

But Wayne\'s voice sounds sad.

"Wayne, you go and level up for the moment. I will find him, kill him until I get your robe!"

Wayne sounds worried now: "Hey boss, keep it calm! If any-"

I cut the chat before he can finish. We are brothers for years, of course I would help him this time!

I looked around, no one\'s here, so I called Lucky and flew towards the city gate. I reached the city and called back Lucky in advance so no one would see him. Since Big Blade was leveling here, he must have been revived in the nearest city. I may find him in the Wizard\'s Guild in Flowing Cloud! They died in big numbers, it would take a while for them to come back. Maybe I can bump into them in the city.

With the plan set in mind, I ran towards the city. When I\'m about 500 meters from the gate, a feather arrow stuck into my leg. Ooooouch!!

System: "Player Ziri commenced player kill and is now red named. City Guard Archers will attack."

Damn it I forgot. I killed several people and I was the one making the first move, of course I\'m a red name now! I looked at my HP. 5. Close!

When I\'m reacting, another arrow came. Ohhh no. I [blink]\'d backwards, the arrow hit right at where I was. That archer is good!

Then I heard talking. Some passerby players saw the city guard attacking me, and they\'re looking at my red name now. I guess I\'m the first player in the game to get attacked by city guards!

They began to close up on me. No doubt, they planned to kill-and-take. There is still an arrow on my leg, from the city guard. They should know I can\'t have much HP left.

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(*) (**)

PvP punishment system, a popular mechanism in some online games.

Player A initiates attack towards player B, player B will have the right to kill A without getting punished, for the current battle.

Player A kills B, then player A will have a "yellow name" as an alert. But it will have no actual effect.

If player A kills someone else while yellow named, he will become red named, aka a criminal.

NPC guards will attack a red named player on sight. And they are strong, too.

Other players can attack the red named player without getting punished.

Players will lose their item randomly when killed, with a low chance.

But red named players will lose more stuff.

A seriously red named player (who massacred a lot of people) may even drop his inventory clean upon death.

The "criminal gauge" will slowly drop when you\'re online. It raises faster and faster the more innocent people you kill.