Starting from Zero

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Don\'t take the story for serious!

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We followed dad to the laboratory. We\'re now standing on a giant trestle bridge. An area the size of four or five football courts lies below us. Three really big...machines are located there. I see the emblem of Dragon Fate printed on them. They are about 10 meters high, with octagonal shaped foundations. Hundreds of thick cables are connected to them. There are cooling devices attached on the cables, which would release out some vapour now and then. They must have implemented a really good ventilation system in here, since the place doesn\'t feel damp in the least.

"Now what you see here is the very core of my Dragon Fate--Nova!"

"Is that the game server of [Zero]?" Rose asked, a bit excitedly.

"Well, we also use Nova as the game server yes. But not these three. The game server is a simplified version. We removed a lot of components that are useless to host a game, and of course it won\'t be as powerful as the three complete machines."

"So these three computers are Nova?" Rose\'s face is getting red. I moved behind her in case she faints.

"They\'re not computers! Photoelectron computing units, they\'re semi-biological machines." Father pointed at those cables. "Look at the biggest one. That is not an electric cable, it\'s a nutrient canal. What\'s inside these machines is basically composed of insectoid brain tissues."

"Insect? Why not human?"

Father knocked me on the head, while Rose also rolled her eyes.

"First of all, my boy...you don\'t find free human brains lying around! Using a human brain will bring a lot of...ethical issues. Besides, the only advantage of the human brain is the excessive capacity."

"But there\'s no doubt humans are the most intelligent creatures out there." Rose commented.

"That is also because of our brain size. Now suppose an insect can grow a brain as big as ours, they will outsmart us in no time. Their brain cells are independent, each cell is like a single digital chip that can function on its own. As for human brains...they\'re useless if separated. The most important reason though, is the low cost. We can breed tons of semi-products within a year, thanks to their reproductivity."

"I can use Nova to do my simulations?"

"Yes. We will allow you 20 percent of our system resources for your project."

"20 percent?"

"That\'s more than enough. That old computer back at school probably can\'t even match 1% of Nova\'s true capability."

"This is brilliant!" Rose jumped. Thank god there are safety bars on the bridge. "I believe I can finish my experiment in no time! By the way, what kind of \'weapon\' did you turn my project into?"

"We gave a vivid little name for your theory." An old man with white hair, wearing clean room suit, walked to us. "The \'Commercial Nuke\'. Boring, I know. But is enough to tell us the idea of it."

"It still sounds dangerous though." I joked.

"Of course it\'s dangerous!" The old researcher continued, "Our progress has proved it to be reliable, and we have already found a proper detonator for it."

"Exactly." Father took over the topic. "The detonator is no other than [Zero]."

"Wha--" I yelled. "Zero? The game I\'m playing?"

Rose smiled. "I get it. So who\'s your first target?"

"Take a guess."

"Japan?"

"Bingo." The researcher smiled. "Tell us dear, how did you reach this conclusion?"

"Several reasons. To begin with, the first target who took the \'bomb\' is the last one expecting it, so the bomb will have its best outcome, which means we should pick a tough target. Next, we\'re using [Zero] as a middle. So who loves games? Japan or Korea. Lastly, Dragon Fate has its influence all over the world but is weakest within Japan. If we can force a power shuffle there, we will have a chance to get a big haul in the process."

"Clever. Very clever!" He commented. "Why didn\'t you consider our ethnic contradictions though?"

"A businessman talks business. We pursue profit, and all for profit. Without an actual war, ethnic and nation conflicts are just political lies, profit decides everything."

Rose is speaking with a high spirit like those ambitious empresses in movies. I never knew she had this in her! Geez. I hope she can be as good when it comes to dealing with emotions.

Father and the researcher chuckled. Dad explained slowly. "Nice insight. But not thorough enough. It\'s totally understandable though, for your age."

"I was...wrong?" Rose asked in shock.

"Nonono, I said \'not thorough\'. That ethnic issue which you considered least, is actually our biggest motive."

"But how?" Rose questioned, "Why would you act to your emotions?"

"We\'re not acting on emotions." The researcher explained. "I don\'t hate Japan. On the contrary, I admire them. Japanese people have always been living under great pressure of all sorts, thus they developed some of the best awarenesses. As you may heard, they work with great efficiency, they never slack off on their job. They don\'t enjoy much spare time because they\'re the first ones to know how to face crisis. They learn fast, too--they can always study from the other nations and races, then leverage the best parts. Sadly, our ancestors already claimed we should learn from the foreign world, but we never took it seriously. That\'s one of the many aspects where the Japanese people would win over us."

Well, listening to this is surely depressing. "Are you saying our billions of people are weaker than them?"

Father turned to me. "You didn\'t understand. We admit that they can do SOMETHING better than us, not everything. Of course our overall strength is better. We should know their advantages and learn. I know you don\'t like Japan, Sairin, but don\'t take that emotion to the whole nationwide level. There are a lot of good people, apart from those intruders and slaughterers you learned from the history book."

Researcher: "Japan\'s geographical location is far from ideal. They never had much nature resources. It only got worse when we sunk their Honshu Island last time. Nobody would just sit there and wait for demise, they need to grow, yet they don\'t have the land for it. The obvious way to get out of the situation, is war. They can solve all of their problems if they simply seize the land and resources from nearby countries. And the best choice--us. China sits in the way when Japan wants to develop. That\'s why they planned to remove us; On the other hand, Japan is an obstacle for China as well. They\'re like an outpost for America, and pose threat to us at all time. They are in the way for our fleets towards the Pacific. Our boats need to make a detour and avoid their sea when going anywhere. Do you know what that means, when everyone is trying to harness ocean resources? It\'s like someone is preventing us from reaching a gold mine. Wouldn\'t it be nice if this \'someone\' just disappears? It\'s never a good thing to wait for the intruders. We should act first! Do you understand now? As you said, the real problem is always caused by profit. The existence of Japan is a threat to our survival, and the same can be said in both ways. Eliminating the other one will always be the ultimate decision for either of us."

The old man is getting over excited. I think I need to stop this.

"Wait! Stop! I get it. So China and Japan are like two hungry wolves in front of only one piece of meat. We both need to dispose of the opponent in order to get the meat--or rather, eat the other wolf as well."

Father frowned. "That\'s not really a good way to put it but... close. We were just trying each other out during the previous conflict, and Japan fell behind." Then he pulled us near and whispered. "Now you\'d better not tell this to anyone else: It\'s very possible that there will be a war between us very soon, a big one."

"Are we going to do a genocide?"

Father slapped me on the head. "What\'s going on inside your brain?? That\'s not how a war looks like. If possible, we can just take control of the nation. Now that we mentioned it, I do hope there is a day when I don\'t need to waste my time getting a VISA to travel abroad anymore."

"What about America? Surely they won\'t just watch us beat up Japan."

"I\'m not sure what they\'ll think. They may just decide to give up on helping Japan. It\'s never been easy to keep a leash on them anyway."

"So that\'s the reason behind it." Rose nodded in understanding," Looks like I was thinking too simple. I\'ve always believed that we hate Japan because of those old histories."

"Don\'t worry." I comforted Rose. "It\'s already something that you can understand these things, when you were born in that kind of family."

"Pfff. My dad and stepmom never succeeded when trying to teach me to follow their steps."

"Sairin, I believe you got quite some nice equipment in the game?" Father grinned at me in a...creepy way.

"What are you planning?" I know something is coming.

"Oh simple. I need you to go to Japan and cause some damage to them."

The researcher took over. "According to the records, the total player investment into [Zero] around the globe has went beyond 10 billion. It\'s not a noticeable number compared to the economic of an entire country, but is enough to qualify as that \'detonator\'. If you manage to damage their assets in [Zero], they will certainly try to throw in more fund in order to reduce and recover their loss. That\'s when Dragon Fate can make a move inside their financial market and cause a big surprise to their groups, even breaking them apart."

"That sounds easy but there are a lot of problems I need to deal with first." I considered.

"Take it slow. We\'re in no hurry, so you may act on your own decisions. Oh and, we have some news for you too. Guild wars will be unlocked in at most two months, then nation wars, in another four months. When that happens, all maps in different countries will become connected, and I\'m positive the whole game world will fall into total chaos by then. Whatever you\'re planning, you should try your best to improve your strength during the six months!"

"Okay then. I\'ll see to it. Why don\'t you just rig something for me in the server?"

Another slap on the head. Ouch.

"The other administrators are not fools! The server of [Zero] went under the supervision of five countries, that is China, the USA, the UK, France and Russia, from day one. We can only look at the data but not make any changes. You need permissions from all five countries to modify any game data. That was what we did when we contacted you in-game and recovered those abnormal gold you got from the bugged NPC, and it were the others who asked us to do it, otherwise we could just let you keep the extra money. We need to follow the majority. And that crossbow, we paid them greatly to change their mind or you would really lose it forever!"

"Oh wow. I didn\'t know that incident caused so many scenes behind us."

We chatted until evening before I got to drive Rose back. Man, this is a tiresome day.

According to father, I need to be more aggressive in the game from now on...no more goofing off I guess.