Starting from Zero

------------------

I enjoyed a good night\'s sleep. Today I\'m gonna break through the guard system of Dragon State city.

To improve my odds, I dragged Wayne along. His task is to help me figure out a route to my target before I attack the city, and then follow me closely when I\'m being chased, so he can pick up any equipment I may drop in case I\'m killed. I even gave him my bracelet to prevent any unexpected situations. I configured my armors and other equipments as first pick-up priority. No one can snatch things faster than the auto-pick function of my Space Bracelet.

With my name color, I\'m pretty sure at least half of what I\'m wearing will drop on the ground if I die.

"Leave assured, boss! I will make sure you don\'t lose anything!"

"...That sounds like you\'re seeing me off to the executioner. Seriously now, don\'t even blink. If I lost any one piece I\'d go suicide, and make sure you\'re dead too before I do it."

"Yeah yeah." Wayne answered with impatience. "I\'ll scout the city."

There he goes.

I stood just outside the attack range of the city archers and prepared. First, I summoned all of my companions. Phantom merged into me as usual, while the others...look really pumped up. Somehow they\'re even more excited than me.

Then I summoned my main force this time--the ten Phantom Knights. I ordered them to stay in a row on a slightly higher plain ground and wait for Wayne\'s signal.

It\'s still early in the morning, with few players outside the city. Not many people play the game at this hour at weekdays. But that doesn\'t mean this conspicuous group wouldn\'t be noticed. Before Wayne came back, a group of players gathered up. They kept approaching us until they can see our details.

One of the bystanders, a Fighter, asked his partner: "Is that a boss monster?"

"Don\'t think so. Look at that name, a red name!"

"Ziri?... I\'ve heard it before."

Another player chipped in: "Of course you heard it before. That\'s the top wanted criminal in the game!"

"It\'s her!"

"It\'s really her!!"

A lot of Oohhs and Aahhs rose among the players. I listened to their comments while sitting on top of Night Shade. That somewhat satisfied my vanity. I never knew I\'m THIS well-known!

"Wait, it\'s a woman?"

An annoying voice came about.

"I know right? I thought it was a huge guy with scars and a big axe and stuff, so I can kill him and become a hero. Now look at that face, I don\'t want to hurt her!"

That\'s...move annoying.

But the third voice almost caused me to fall off Night Shade.

"She looks beautiful!! I don\'t care who she is, I want her as my girlfriend!!"

"Yeah!! She\'s brilliant! I gonna keep her as my wife, she must be good at both fighting and...you know!"

"Pfft. As if you can win. Look at that set up. I bet she can take down three of you within a minute."

"I agree. She got a whole lot of companions. I mean, a lot! And is that a dragon behind them?"

"Oh come on. It\'s just eleven people, plus three companions. Won\'t be TOO hard to deal with."

That idiot misslooked Night Shade. He even saw Phantom Knights as players! I wonder how they\'ll react if they know they are all actually my Servants.

A guy who\'s carrying an owl on his shoulder spoke: "Four companions is already impressive for 11 people. Do you know how hard it is to get even one companion? Maybe you all have two or three slots, but more than 90% of people don\'t even have a single companion now. And look at that, a dragon! Or at least something similar to dragon. It can wipe a group of you guys with one hit!"

"I want her armor!"

"But there are too many of them!"

Wayne sent me a message when the players had their discussion. "Boss, I\'ve found it. The quest NPC is not far from the city gate, I\'m standing at the gate now. Come on!"

"Understood!" I lowered my helmet mask and shouted: "Form up! Guards to the front! Praetorians, stay close to me! Onward!"

The knights moved into position the moment I finished my orders. We marched towards the city in a tremendous formation.

A great number of the bystanders began to panic. "Oh my gosh! What are they doing? A red name is going to the city!"

We didn\'t receive any attacks when we move into the city territory, I got a system notice instead.

"Please select whether this is an individual action, or a city siege. You have 5 seconds."

"Individual!"

Once decided, I ordered the group to speed up. The five stronger male Phantom Knights at the front deployed their shields. Good choice, because a wave of arrows rained down upon us just as they raised their shields. Most of the arrows landed behind us, they probably didn\'t expect us to be so fast.

A small number of the attacks still hit us, without causing much damage. (In [Zero], projectile weapons need to hit the target to cause damage. Arrows or bolts hitting the shields will not deal damage, while melee weapons will.)

The second arrow barrage arrived several seconds after the first one. We are prepared though. Phiona cast a flame storm and burned out all the feathers, causing the arrows to tumble in mid-air, without hitting anything. But some of the arrows still managed to hit my shield, causing my arm to go numb. Level 600 city guards are not to be underestimated.

Leveraging the fast speed of our mounts, we didn\'t give the guards a third chance to attack. There\'s also a bridge outside Dragon State city. But unlike the giant stone bridge of the Lost City, this is just a small wooden bridge which stands on top of a city moat.

A row of warriors are already defending the bridge when we got there. It\'s not a siege war so the city gate is left open.

I ordered the knights in the front: "Ignore them. Charge ahead! Lucky, clear a path for us!"

Lucky swooped down from the air the breathed fire all over the bridge, forcing the warriors to break out of their formation.

The five vanguard knights tightened their group until they\'re the same width as the bridge. They let out a battle cry in union, drew their spear and began to accelerate. With the speed and weight of their combat mounts, they tackled the warriors in disarray down the bridge, followed by several water splashes.

The players far away are watching the scene with their mouths wide open. Someone finally gave a single comment: "Well I certain would not want to ever get knocked over by those guys."

The level 600 warrior guards failed to stand their ground against the level 850 Phantom Knights. Now all of them are swimming down the river. When I got into the city I saw Wayne waving at me from a corner. There\'s no time to mind where I\'m going now. I grabbed Wayne and dashed straight towards where he\'s pointing at, while causing all kinds of mayhem on the street.

Ugh. My reputation is going to become even worse at this rate.

Lucky and Phiona are setting fire here and there along the streets. The whole city is probably on fire now. And I can notice my Evilness increasing already!

Loong\'er deployed a huge crystal barrier behind us. A group of pursuers didn\'t stop in time and crashed into it like dumping potatoes into a barrel. The other riders far behind didn\'t hit the wall but they pulled the bridles too hard and all got thrown off their horses.

The obstacles didn\'t last long. A group of city defense cavalries soon approached us. These guys are level 800, and their leader is 850. Besides there are too many of them!

We cut countless corners and rushed into a small alleyway when Wayne shouted: "That NPC is in here, and there\'s only one exit. Ask your men to block the entrance for a while!"

"Team! Hold them off at the entrance!"

"Yes sir!"

Ten Phantom Knights should be enough to cover up here. The alleyway is too small, more helpers won\'t make any difference.

"Lead the way!" I followed Wayne deeper into the alley.

I eventually had to ask Night Shade to wait outside. The path became too narrow for riding!