Starting from Zero

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Hate content alert

I\'ll try to mitigate harsh words best as possible but some improper stuff in the main story can\'t be avoided.

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"Put me down!!"

Rosa is holding Red Moon up in the air by one of her ankles. She can\'t shake herself free with that upside down position.

I released that ninja first. "Come on. You can go."

He collected his weapon but didn\'t leave. He just stared at me.

"You aren\'t going to kill me?"

"Why would I? That\'s a strange request."

"I\'m a ninja!"

"Of course you are. Do you think I\'m blind?" I pointed at his equipment.

"You still let me go?"

"That\'s nothing to do with your class. Or do you wish to die actually?" I ordered Rosa to capture him again. "I wouldn\'t mind giving you a little help."

"Nononono!" He shook his head like mad. "It\'s just...Aren\'t Chinese players just gonna kill a Japanese ninja on sight? Especially someone strong like you. You don\'t hate Japanese?"

"Listen, I don\'t care where you from. I\'m practical, I look for benefit. Killing you means bringing myself another enemy but without any rewards, so I won\'t do that. You are not trying to do anything to me right? Then there\'s no point wasting my time here. Mind you, I don\'t like Japan either because what they did to us before. You\'d better run if you see me on your own land or I\'ll not hesitate to kill you."

"But I\'m not a Japanese! My name is Razor, I live here!"

"Ah don\'t worry. I said I won\'t kill you now and I meant it. It\'s not like I\'m going to stab you in the back or something."

I turned back to Red Moon.

Razor caught up from behind. I heard the sound of blade being drawn. The guy wants to go dirty??

I immediately turned around and readied my claw blades, but I stopped. He\'s pointing the katana handle towards me.

"What\'s that for?"

"Take this blade, please."

I didn\'t move. "It\'s your weapon. Why?"

"It\'s one of the Nation Treasures of Japan, [Rin Ray], the straight sword (*). It was a lot of effort for me to take this thing back here!"

I can\'t resist the curiosity and took the weapon in my hands.

"There are many problems here."

"Problems?"

"Ok first, what do you mean \'Nation Treasure\'? I only know about Artifacts or similar ranks. First time I heard about this kind of treasure. Next, they haven\'t opened international travel routes right? How did you bring a Japanese weapon here? And, I think you said you\'re Chinese before. Then however did you become ninja?"

"Those are simple. I\'ll tell you about the last question first. I was born in Japan but moved here when I was a year old, with my grand parents. At that time my identity belonged to Japan. Now I\'m already applying for Chinese citizenship but it haven\'t come through yet, when I started this game I used my Japan ID so I can choose ninja as a class. I was hoping to bring the knowledge of this class to other players here so they can learn about it.

Now, the second question. I went back to Japan to visit my parents the other day so my character moved along. You can\'t travel between countries yet but moving in real life will still affect where you spawn. That\'s all you can do though, you can\'t actually start a war in this way, but you CAN try to send a spy or something if you really want to. When I was there I happened to see a guild fighting with a boss monster. I snatched the treasure away when they\'re not noticing!"

He pointed at the blade.

"As for Nation Treasure, I just heard about it recently. To prepare for nation wars, they gave two sets of Nation Treasures to each country. The treasure is actually a equipment set, designed for nation wars. Two nation sets already got exposed in Japan. One of them is called the \'Invisible Ninja\', which gives you super powerful hiding skills and some insane Dexterity bonus. The other is a Channeler set, it lets you revive corpses on the battlefield and command them to fight for you. No one knows how many you can control yet. This sword is a part of that ninja set. Now I brought it here so Japanese players are never going to wear it in full."

That sounds interesting. I examined the sword carefully. Its appearance is just an ordinary eastern style katana, but a bit longer then average.

The attributes...are not really impressive.

[Rin Ray], straight sword,

Attack 400-480,

Attack Speed: Very Fast,

100-200 additional Lightening damage,

100% chance to cause laceration,

Amplified damage,

Targets hit will have all their attributes reduced by 20%.

Set bonus: invisible weapon, attacks do not cause pain.

It\'s powerful, but not THAT powerful. The main feature of this thing is invisibility, and now Japanese players have to find another weapon. So if I see a weapon floating in the air in the future, someone\'s probably wearing the remaining parts of the Invisible Ninja set.

This is fun. Now those Japs gonna worry about this weapon in their sleep!

"Why don\'t you use such a good weapon then? You\'re a ninja yourself you know." I looked at the young man in doubt. Now I can\'t understand what he\'s thinking about.

"They chased me all the way here! I\'d be in serious trouble if I carry this thing around!" He seems reluctant to give up the treasure. "You saw those four guys? They came just for me. They followed me to China in real life to get this weapon. I heard their leader\'s planning to bring even more high level players soon!"

"Crap. Just for a sword?"

"Just for a sword?? It\'s labeled 2.5 million Crystals on the Japanese market!" (**)

"That\'s...a lot of money. Why don\'t you just sell it back then?"

"Ha. I wouldn\'t have gone though all the trouble to bring it here if I just want money for it! I don\'t need money anyway. There\'s something I don\'t like about Japan so I decided to take it away."

"My respects man. Now I trust I can see you as a fellow player here, despite of your half foreign blood." I stretched my hand. "I\'m Ziri. Nice to meet you."

He shook my hand. "It\'s not half, just a quarter. My grandpa is a born Chinese too."

Alright. There\'s no doubt I\'ll run into tons of ninjas when I go to Japan, should I recruit this guy? He seems friendly enough, and he knows all about ninjas. His weaknesses are the weaknesses of every ninja!

"Will you follow me if I\'m to do bad things to Japan?"

"What kind of bad things?"

"Well, smash their stuff, kill some people and maybe burn their buildings."

"I\'d love it! I\'m planning to go over there and cause damage from the start. I chose ninja because of this reason, they\'ll never suspect me as a spy!"

I gave him the sword. "I know a place where you can try to get some EXP. And take this thing, they won\'t find you there."

"They will!" He complained. "This weapon ranks second on the Japanese weapon ranking list. That list will always display the weapon\'s owner and his current location. The game is big, how do you think those people find me so easily? I give it to you because I think you can protect it. And you can fly right?" He pointed at my wings. "Ninjas can\'t fly so they can never catch you."

That reminds me...There are many different rankings in China as well. The thing is, my Hermit\'s Ring hides my name from them. Or I\'m pretty sure every list except for the level one would have been showing my name all over them.

"But how do you grind without a weapon?"

"Oh. I have this one." He took out another katana behind his back. "My original weapon. Weaker of course but I can still use it."

"So where are you going now?"

"Find somewhere to grind. Let\'s go have some fun in Japan when nation war is open!"

"Wait, I\'ll take you to my friends. I got someone with me who also plan to do that. You\'ll level faster than doing it alone."

"Nice! Some teammates, that\'s what I\'m hoping for."

"Give me a moment."

I contacted Hawk and Wayne, asking them to meet me at the gate of the Lost City. They are all not far from there. And even if someone\'s far I just ask Lucky as transport. We won\'t have any travel problems with this large sized rotorcraft around.

We met as scheduled. Razor almost went into a fight with Hawk the moment they met, if I didn\'t drag them apart fast enough. I explained a lot but Hawk is still looking at Razor with a weird expression.

After some introductions I began to explain my main topic.

"I\'m here to tell you one thing: I\'m going over to Japan and do some nasty business to them when nation war system is open. Your opinions?"

Hearing this, Hawk started to inspect Razor up and down again, trying to find anything suspicious.

"I\'m in." Elfy is decisive as ever. "I don\'t like them. Let\'s go kill someone and get their stuff, that means we get profit AND have fun. Two birds with one stone."

Hawk followed up. "No objections here. Of course I\'ll tag along."

Wayne: "Take me if you don\'t mind I\'m not really a good fighter. I can\'t give up this online war this time!"

Yuri raised her hand too. "I\'ll go too! Granny told me Japanese are bad people. My skills are useful, you can keep me safe for three minutes and then do whatever you want!"

She confused everyone. The only people who witnessed her skills before are Wayne and me.

"Yuri, they don\'t know what you can do yet. Play a song for these guys."

"Of course!"

She took out her silver flute and began her performance. All the listeners enjoyed the great music for several full minutes before they finally realized they can\'t move their bodies!

"What\'s happening??" Elfy struggled. "I\'m stuck!"

"Surprise! This is Miss Yuri\'s special attack. She\'s a hidden class, the Spell Flute. Her skills are these music with all kinds of effects. The one you just heard is used to restrict people\'s movement. Those with similar levels will be frozen for about 7 or 8 minutes. If she keeps playing you will never move again."

I picked up Red Moon who\'s been following me all this time (now like a plaster statue), and put her onto Lucky\'s back. "Go. Come down after some minutes."

"Alright!" Lucky disappeared into the sky while carrying the helpless Red Moon.

I turned back to the others. "Now the trouble is gone, let\'s continue. Razor, you said you would join right? Everyone has agreed."

There\'s no need to ask him again, I\'m just making sure that the other people can accept him since we all have a same goal now. His ninja class makes it really hard for people to trust him.

"Of course I\'ll join. As a Chinese player."

Hawk looked consented after he heard that. Though I don\'t think he trusts Razor enough.

"Next, let\'s talk about ninjas."

"Something special about them?" Elfy asked.

"According to Razor, this class makes up a great portion of the Japanese player population. There will be a ninja in every five players there. There are many optional classes in [Zero] and still, 20% of them are ninjas. That\'s a lot! You may already know that this game claims to allow every player to play their own favorite, customizable class, so there can\'t be a particular class that too many players choose. Example, Elfy is an Archer, it\'s only a general concept and there are hundreds of sub-classes under it. Since there are lots of ninjas in Japan I think Razor can tell us something we should know about them. To know your enemies, as they say."

Razor stepped front. "A Ninja, just like Archer, Warrior, Wizard, Tamer and such, is also a general title. Everyone can choose to become sub class when they reach level 200. For a Warrior, he or she can become a Shielder, Lancer, Bow Fighter, Berserker and so on. Ninja too, has many further sub classes. My current level is 379, and my direction is Blader Ninja. This class usually has very high Attack Speed. My Attack is lower than most people but I can deal ten cuts when my enemy only makes one! My choice is not a major trend. Most people will choose from these four: Jutsu Master, Tool Master, Cloaking Master and Flash Ninja.

Jutsu Master is the ninja version of Wizard. They use all kinds of \'Jutsu\' just like spells, they possess the highest damage abilities among all other ninjas. But they\'re the easiest to kill. Their Speed and Defense are average and their HP is usually very low. As long as you are careful enough about their attacks, they won\'t cause much trouble.

A Tool Master uses concealed weapons to attack. They\'re like Archers. Main weapons includes darts, blowpipes, mini crossbows and similar trick weapons. But they\'ll also carry melee weapons like chain blades and daggers. Their main role is distraction--they don\'t have much power, so they can\'t kill you as long as you don\'t expose your weakness first.

Next, the Flash Ninja. Well, they are fast, really fast. Their movement and attack speed can usually go beyond the reasonable degree. They\'re troublesome, but shouldn\'t be hard to deal with if you keep your defenses up. One thing to note is that they\'re a nightmare for Archers because arrows can\'t hit them. That\'s why they always go straight to enemy long range damagers. They can still kill Archers easily even if their own Attack is poor. Wizards don\'t really have to worry about them cause they can\'t break through their mage shield. And some AoE skills can be deadly to them. As for Warriors...Well no Flash Ninja is stupid enough to take on a Warrior head on. They avoid melee dps whenever they can.

Cloaking Master...is the most nasty one among the four. Each of their attribute can be a bit higher than average. I mean, they\'re not fast but at least they are faster than wizards and warriors. Their Defense is not high but is still tougher than Wizards and Archers. Just like that. The problem is they can go invisible. People say that a high level Cloaking Master can move and attack without causing any noise, and they won\'t leave any traces either, like, footprints. There\'s no way to detect them unless you can hit them with an area attack. The good part is that there aren\'t many of them in Japan because monsters can sniff them out, so it\'s really hard for them to level up without their only advantage. Few people would choose this class.

Apart from Ninja, there\'s another featured class in Japan called Channeler. They\'re like those Necromancers who can manipulate corpses, a lot of them!"

Wayne cut in: " As a Spectral Mage I can control corpses too. I can just summon all the corpses on the field and then make them disappear, so Channeler is no threat for me. A corpse rots beyond use after it\'s controlled once. I can make sure there are no corpses lying around for them."

Razor looked at Wayne: "It\'s always good to have professionals in the team. Alright, that\'s all I know. What\'s the plan now?"

"Do we go level up now?" Yuri asked. "We need to get more levels if we are to invade another country."

"Before that, I need to go visit a city. I haven\'t go inside cities for ages!"

Hawk pointed at the sky. "What about that missy up there? You\'re the number one criminal plus kidnapper in the whole country! You\'re not planning to take a walk on the street like that, right?"

"That\'s why I must go now! Before more people know about it!"

Yuri asked: "I always wanted to ask... Who\'s that lady? I think you hate her."

"Hate? More than hate! I think she\'s the most devilish being out there. Now I know why you don\'t judge a book by the cover! I became the top pervert in the game because of her false accusations!"

"Pervert? Hahaha! You?" Yuri laughed. "I\'ll pass today, got to leave. Maybe tomorrow!"

"Oh, it\'s pretty late I see. Then you guys should rest early. Let\'s make a schedule and have some fun in the city next time."

Razor: "Yeah, I never actually went into any cities, since I\'m a Ninja and all. It should be no problem if we all go together. I\'m itching to see what those Chinese cities look like!"

"So I\'m not the only one expelled!" I exclaimed. "Let\'s make it up tomorrow. So when do me meet? Can you all get up early? I never sleep in you know."

"I always sleep in!" Wayne said.

"Me too." Elfy followed. "Girls need enough sleep to keep their image!"

"I see. Let\'s make it 10 o\'clock then. You should all be awake by that time. Let\'s meet up right here, do whatever you want if you get on earlier than that."

"It\'s settled!" Everyone agreed.

I feel faint when I took off my helmet. Now I think about it, I never had any lunch today!

"Wayne? Hey Wayne!"

"What?"

"Let\'s eat out." Rose is needed at the labs and she won\'t be back till night.

"You finally remembered me. Aren\'t you going to have your happy hours with your wife?" He joked.

I changed my tune. "Oh you\'re right! Maybe I should go enjoy something at the Fortune Grand Hotel...with Rose only!"

I can already see he fell for it. Over all the years, I know he never rejects hot girls and hot food.

"Boss! I\'m sorry! Please please take me with you!" His expression makes me worried that he might eat me up if I say no.

"Go get dressed! Are you going to go out like this?"

That was quite a feast. For Wayne at least. He ate until he can\'t sit up anymore. Ugh, money is always a good thing to have.

On our way back, he just limped slowly like a pregnant. I kept looking around for people and kept distance with him whenever there are people around. This is too embarrassing!

It\'s already dark when we finally made it. I hear my phone ringing inside the room.

It\'s dad.

"Out playing at such an hour huh boy? At least remember to take your phone with you! Got time tomorrow?"

Well that\'s straight. Seems he got some more business for me.

"I\'m planning to play together with some friends. They are the people I found to help me with your infiltration plan. Gonna socialize with them."

"I see..." He thought about something. "What about after tomorrow?"

"I can do it. So what do you need?"

"A business trip!"

"A trip? Ask an employee will you? I\'m not your worker."

"I have several business talks here and I don\'t have more time on my schedule!"

"Those managers in the company are not just freeloaders right? Why me?"

"This job has some company secrets involved, the only ones I trust are all busy! You\'re the only choice left."

"Well shoot. I\'ll do it. But don\'t forget the rules!" I grinned.

This is a special term between me and father. If he asks for my help he\'ll need to agree on something I ask, as long as it\'s reasonable.

"Sure. Go to our secret lab in the morning the day after tomorrow. It\'s the one you went with Charon last time."

"Got it, I\'ll be there."

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(*) Japanese Straight Sword

(**) ≈ $ 3.65 million