Starting from Zero

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"Oh greeting my lady, the name is Nameless, a Spectral Mage. It\'s my pleasure to meet you!" Wayne appeared out of nowhere.

"What\'s he doing?" Elfy whispered to me.

I just shook my head and looked at the sky.

"Spring is coming."

"Ah." Everyone nodded in understanding.

I pushed Wayne away. I got questions to ask her first.

"So...let\'s have a little talk."

"If you promise not to send me to jail."

Is she trying to bargain with me??

"Why would I do that? I\'m not a bounty hunter."

She seems surprised. "Huh...so you don\'t know. If you use [Steal], whether it succeeds or not, you will become \'Wanted\' for some time. If any victim can capture me to the jail they\'ll have the right to take away half of my money. Now, I\'ll answer whatever you ask as long as you don\'t do that."

"Fine. I\'ll let you go."

"Thanks! So what do you want to know?" She seems pretty relaxed now.

"First, your name. I\'m Ziri, how do I call you?"

"I saw your name when I stole your items. My name is [Golden Coin]."

"That\'s a...worthy name for you." Elfy commented coldly.

"Good. So miss Coin, where did you get such powerful stealing skill? I don\'t know about it but it must have something to do with our Luck attributes. My Luck is pretty high for that matter, it should be hard to steal items from me. How did you lift two items in one try?"

She chuckled. "It\'s coincidence. I do have a high skill level but this is only the third time I actually seized two items. You just had a tough luck, if you ask me."

Well that\'s embarrassing.

"I see. Are you wearing something that gives you a lot of speed? You ran faster than horses!"

She just displayed her equipment window on her shoes.

"[Boots of the Spring Rabbit] (Nation Treasure) Defense 300, Dexterity +7, Base Speed + 21, Movement Speed +300%, Evasion +50%, Jumping +500%. Active skill [Wind Walker]: Doubles speed for one minute, cooldown: 1 hour..." Elfy read through the texts, "No wonder we couldn\'t catch her."

Razor: "Another nation treasure of ours!"

I interrupted their discussion. "Do you have other parts of the set?"

She shook head. "I won\'t be standing here in front of you if I did."

"Makes sense." I nod. "What\'s your class? You can steal, use Taoist skills, and that stab on my shoulder can kill most people in one hit. There are a lot of mysteries on you."

She smiles. "Same for you! I\'m both Taoist and Assassin. That attack is a combination of [Assassination] and [Magic Pierce]. I created the combo myself. I\'ve killed tanks with it before. Let me guess. You either have a lot of PvP experience so you weren\'t scared of the attack at all, or you have way more HP than that."

I smiled too. "I don\'t PvP much. Your damage is good but it will still take three or four more hits like that to take me down."

"You\'re the craziest tank I ever met." She mumbled.

"You\'re wrong. I\'m not a tank. My HP is high but I mainly survive with my high Defense. You only did 3000 damage to me. That wasn\'t really a deadly hit for average warrior classes."

"Just 3000? Your Defense is insane!"

"You\'re the insane one. Usually that damage is impossible with such Defense level."

"That\'s not what I mean!" She became excited. "I call that skill [Last Resort]. It depletes my MP and halves my own Defense if I use it. After hitting a target I\'ll be locked in place for a full second, you just missed the chance to finish me off. This skill will either kill my target or myself every time I use it."

"Wow. Looks like there is no perfect skill after all."

Still, I think Coin\'s skill is enough to help her win most 1-on-1 encounters.

"Oh right, you said you are Assassin and Taoist. But assassins don\'t learn [Steal]. Isn\'t that a Rogue skill?"

"I stole it!"

She showed us her ring. I read it aloud:

"[Eagle\'s Knowledge]: Permanently learn the skill that is activated by your enemy. Success rate: 0.1%. What the fu-- That\'s way overpowered! Pity the trigger rate is too low."

She canceled the window. "That\'s not the only problem. You need to be fighting with the target. And they must use it at least twice. Also, the skill must hit you! I asked a rogue to help teach the skill. He kept stealing stuff from me for four days before I finally learned it."

"I want to learn that Last Resort skill!" Wayne cut in.

I kicked him away. "Didn\'t you hear it? You need to take the skill, twice! You\'d be dead in one hit! ...Now I think about it, I can try to learn the skill."

"Yeah right!" Hawk pumped his fists. "If you can use that skill you\'d be killing dragons with it! When you go to Japan, just one-shot whoever\'s wearing their nation treasure and bring it back! No one would believe the host of nation treasure can get killed like that!"

"It will take a lot of time. And I don\'t think Coin\'s gonna agree."

She jumped. "Of course I agree! A living strike dummy to grind my skill level, why not? So what\'s the plan, right now?"

"Uh, not today. I\'ll tell you when I have time. That\'s all I have to ask."

"I\'ll leave then. Remember to call me! I was worrying about how to level up my skill."

Coin rushed away. She doesn\'t really meet the beauty standard but somehow I like her personality.

That reminded me of Red Moon. Ughhh. They\'re completely opposite beings.

Now that I get my items back, and know enough about the mysterious girl, there\'s no point in staying here. I talked about the plans with everyone and decided to go leveling a bit. Don\'t feel like going back to the streets now.

Hawk and Elfy asked to go with me, Yuri and Red Moon won\'t leave me, and Razor would come together as well since he\'s the only one left. A ninja can\'t wander around the city by himself.

As for Wayne...He took off after Coin!

We came to the Dark Forest outside of the Lost City. We\'re all good fighters so we simply picked on high level monsters. Everyone made good progress during an afternoon. With the lowest level among all, I earned a hefty 8 levels. Now I\'m at 321! I should have found a team like this sooner!

I have work from father on the next day so I told everyone to go without me for several days and logged off.

I drove to the laboratory the next morning. Father isn\'t here, a senior researcher picked me up.

"Where\'s my father?" I asked him when we reached the office.

"The president is still busy with some affair so he told me to do this..." He typed something into the computer and turned the screen to me.

Father showed up on the display. "You\'re here, son!"

"I thought we\'d talk about this here together?"

"I said I\'m busy! I won\'t be asking you for help if I got enough time with it."

"What do you need then?"

"Remember I said our nation is about to make a big move?"

I nodded. This sounds fun!

"What move?"

"I don\'t know. I\'m not their commander, it\'s classified!"

I hate secrets.

"Aren\'t you deputy of the congress? So what do you need me to do if you don\'t know anything?"

"Well, the military gave me a research schedule and a bunch of purchase plans. We\'re going to meet with their delegate today, I need someone I can trust, who knows our technologies, to speak with them. That means you."

"I got it. Where do I go?"

"Here."

Father\'s image moved to one corner. A map appeared on the screen.

I looked over the map. "Shanghai? Any particular reasons?"

"You know the Third Base beneath New Nanjing?"

"...We got another one under Shanghai?"

"Exactly." He seems rather proud. "And it was built earlier than the Nanjing one. Their representatives will arrive at noon. You will be leading them through the showcases of our company\'s newest products while giving brief introductions. You may need to operate some of them on the scene, to show them the actual performance. You can decide on the details!"

"Hold it!" I shouted before he can cut the chat. "That\'s not enough. What are the prices for the products? How do I introduce them when I don\'t even know what kind of stuff I\'m going to sell?"

"I\'ve sent the data to your car. Go through it on your way! Sorry for the rush, the original plan was that you can do it yesterday!"

"Will do then."

I hurriedly bid farewell with the researcher and took my car towards Shanghai city. I set my GT8000 into auto-pilot mode and began to read through the new products. These things are pretty complicated in terms of production procedure and technologies but I only have to remember those technical figures and numbers since I\'m about to be their salesman, not an engineer.

The computer alerted me that I\'ll be leaving the motorway soon. Geez, now I really hope I can use auto pilot on ordinary roadways too.

I came to where the map is pointing at. It\'s a mass construction complex, the entrance is inside a military base!

I\'m stopped by the gate sentry. I lowered the side window when a soldier walked over and gave me a salute.

"The area is off-limits, ma\'am. Your permissions?"

"Shoot. Read it!" I handed over my ID card.

He scanned the card on a device and gave it back. "I apologize. You\'re free to enter."

After I\'ve left, the soldier mumbled:

"Huh that\'s a man? I think I camped here for too long. I need a holiday..."

Well I\'ve no time to be concerned about what the soldiers are thinking. I went through another two check posts before I can reach the underground base. That\'s some tight security.

The military representatives are already here. A dozen lead researchers are talking with them.

I quickly parked my car and joined them. There are 7 people. Their leader is an officer about the age of 50. I never learned how to read shoulder marks so I don\'t know his rank.

Two officers stand on his sides. One in his 40s, the other is younger, must be around 25 or so. The remaining four men standing in the back must be guards.

I walked to their leader and raised my hand. "Welcome, sir. I\'m Sairin, tech department CEO of Dragon Fate Corporation."

This department CEO is a position my father forced on me just for this job. I used another two different titles when doing similar work before. The representative is a high-ranking official this time which means we can\'t send any ordinary employees here.

"Why is the president Sai-Jingu absent?" The youngest officer asked first. He seems unsatisfied.

Now this is fun. I don\'t think that\'s a wise move in front of our main guest, by which I mean his own boss.

He continued. "We\'re here to settle a contract involving hundreds of billions worth of military assets, and they sent a woman?"

Crap.

Before I can explain, their leader took my hand. "Yan-Ray, lieutenant general, manager of the General Armament Department. Your name is Sairin right? That isn\'t a common name in China. Are you Mr. Jingu\'s...?"

Old wiser.

"I\'m his son."

"Ahh!" He gave me a firm handshake again. "We never heard about president Sai\'s inheritor. The company surely keeps their secret tight!"

"It\'s not really a secret. I\'m the family\'s only child so my father is just protecting me from harm as best as he can. That means to keep my true identity low." I tried to steer the topic back to the main course. "Shall I show you the products now, or do you prefer a lunch first?"

"Oh don\'t worry about eating. I\'ve really wanted to see those wonders!"

The general is obviously the straightforward type. And speaking with these people saves a lot of effort.

"Please follow me."

I led the way. When we arrived at the elevator I turned and asked him: "Can I know about your...companions?"

"Oh, my bad there. I forgot!" He dragged the 40-rish officer in front of him. "This is colonel Shin, from the NSA." Then he faced the other officer. "Major Junken, Political Department. And these four are my personal guardsmen."

I shook hands with colonel Shin but left out Junken, intentionally.

"The area below is highly restricted, I\'m afraid I can only take Mr. Yan-Ray and colonel Shin with me." Then I asked a company personnel nearby: "Please take the general\'s guards, and the...other guest, to the lounge room."

Junken failed to conceal his anger. I didn\'t even look at him.

I led the general and colonel into the lift. The elevator began to descend after I went through several super complex authentications.

It kept moving for about 350 meters before reaching our destination.

The pair stopped when they stepped out of the elevator door. The underground area in front of them is too big. We\'re standing on the spiral observation platform in the middle of the room. The platform has many more levels to provide a better view for weapon experiments from all angles.

I called the general\'s name for three times before he noticed me.

"How did you build something like this below the surface? I think you at least need to remove an entire island."

"The base was not built in one go. Our initial plan is about a third of what you\'re seeing now, and we enlarged the area to such size after three expansions. This place is mainly used as a testing area for advanced weapons. We can test almost anything here excluding airplanes and nuclear weapons."

The colonel recovered from shock as well. He looked down at the vacant area below our feet. "How deep is it? More than a hundred meters I\'d say."

"174. We\'re standing on the middle level, the area above us is a similar space."

"Impressive."

I took two copies of purchase plans from the secretary and gave them to the two officers. "Pray tell me which ones you\'d like to see first and I\'ll show them right here. Oh, no airplanes please. The digital plan books on you hand have all the product numbers and brief introductions on them, along with the prices. Tap on them to check their pictures."

The general looked at the page number. "That\'s over 200 pages. This will take some time."

"Don\'t worry. You will be staying here for several days I assume? We have enough time."

The colonel pointed at something on the list first. "This...TZ-01 Magnetron Tank, can we see it?"

I told a worker to bring a tank in.

"Let\'s get to the base level. The tank is not a hazardous weapon so we don\'t have to stay far."

"I\'d love it!"

The general walked down first like a child waiting to see his new toy. But I think such weapons are pretty much toys for these military leaders.

The tank is already stationed when we got there. It\'s big, with blue-gray outlines.

They touched around the armor on the tank, while I searched around what I learned this morning and began to introduce:

"Special alloy outer shell, produced by one-time metal stamping method. Hard to repair but can provide solid defense. The front armor can withstand multiple hits from kinetic projectile weapons using 120 mm caliber or lesser ammunitions propelled from 200 meters or farther. Similar for the side armors, against attacks from 400 meters or above."

The colonel looked up at the main cannon. "Isn\'t the barrel too long for a tank?"

"That\'s a 180mm electromagnetic cannon. We can\'t put a standard-sized transformer on a mobile tank cause it will too big, so we can only increase the barrel length to give the shell enough initial speed. Well new products always carry some flaws. But I guarantee the power and accuracy of these cannons are way beyond common explosive powered ones. And the shells can be smaller because they don\'t need all the extra compound, which means you can carry more shots around."

"Can I see a live shot?" asked the colonel.

"Ready targets!"

Three armor plates raised at about 1.5k meters away from our location. The plates are 200 centimeters thick, 10 meters away apart from each other.

"Fire!"

Sharp electric charging sound came from the barrel. After five seconds we heard a damp "Poof", then a distant explosion up ahead.

I jumped onto the tank\'s edge. "Let\'s get close while you can see the mobility of this thing on the way."

General: "I\'m afraid these old bones will break if I sit on that thing. I\'ll just take the cart."

He got into the tour cart prepared by a worker while the colonel jumped up beside me.

"Let go!"

The tank levitated about half a meter above the ground and raced towards the targets.

"Can it shoot while moving?" the colonel asked.

I lifted the hatch and told the operator inside: "Two shots on the move. Use AP shells."

Poom. Poom.

I looked towards the colonel. "So what do you think? 5 seconds per shot, that\'s 3 seconds faster than America\'s STS-1." (*)

We arrived at the target location. The plates are already scattered open from the center.

The general reached us in his cart soon after. "That\'s fast. This utility car can\'t catch up with you!"

"It can run at 200 kph, and that vehicle of yours isn\'t designed for such speed. Are you satisfied till now? This is the first electromagnetic cannon in history that can be actually used in real wars you know."

"Of course I\'m satisfied!" General nodded. "But what about fuel consumption? We need to consider all aspects. We will put too much burden on the support team if it eats oil like a lion."

I spoke towards inside the tank again: "Open the engine chamber!"

Psssssh! The rear hatch of the tank bounced open while releasing some white vapor, revealing the signature radiation mark inside.

"This is nuclear powered??" The colonel yelled.

I grabbed a handle, rotated it in three spins and pulled it out, bringing a water bladder shaped container with it.

"Atomic fusion reactor, driven by tritium rods. Each rod can last for seven years or so, we usually prepare two for each unit, the other one is a backup in case the main rod malfunctions. Convenient, and safe."

"Is this necessary?"

"Don\'t get fooled by the speed you saw. The body weighs 27 tons! If it runs on liquid fuel then we\'ll have to attach a pipe behind it at all times. Besides, tritium rods are safer than fuel. They don\'t blow up at least."

"I see." Colonel seems satisfied.

General checked his list. "Mark this down as preliminary selection. Oh one more thing, how\'s the fire control?"

"You probably can\'t use the cannon to kill a mosquito but...we can try hitting a fly."

That was only a half-joke.

The general didn\'t question my answer. I\'m sure they know the computing capabilities provided by Dragon Fate.

"Here, what\'s \'ICA\'? Never heard of it."

"Individual Combat Armor, can be worn by soldiers." (**)

"Bullet proof vests?"

"Oh no, totally different."

I asked the workers to recover the tank and bring an ICA over. A trailer dragged a row of 2-meter high robot-like devices to us.

"These are ICAs. Sometimes we just call them iron units."

"That\'s a lot of them." Colonel looked among the armors. Every one looks different.

I explain: "What you see here is the entire armor series. The first one is assault unit, next is heavy suppressor unit, the third, anti-air unit, fourth, sniping unit, fifth, support scouter, sixth, automatic unit, the last one is anti-riot. They\'re only meant for special forces because the production cost is too high. You can assign only one to each platoon at best even if I keep the price low for you."

The colonel seems interested. "I know it\'s impossible to arm the entire army but we can at least establish several special op divisions, no?"

"I can only tell you that each of these costs 2 million, basic, since I don\'t know how much expense you\'re allowed. But I do know our country hasn\'t put up much war expenditure in these years." (***)

I jumped onto one of the assault types while they had their discussion. I opened the front hatch and climbed in. The four limbs of the armor are designed for human bodies to fit their own limbs into them. Since the armor is bigger than a human, my hands and feet can only reach the elbow and knee part.

I controlled the unit to jump down from the trailer. It\'s simpler than I expected, just like playing in [Zero]--you give the command using your brain, and receive feedback inside you brain too. Sigh. Even a game made by Dragon Fate has lot of crazy technologies in it.

The general and colonel are still arguing over the armors when they see me hopping around with one. There are wheels under the feet of the armor so I can run freely like skating. It\'s even equipped with a booster system so I can make short-range flights, or really big leaps.

I made a demonstration in front of the general. The armor is able to jump as high as a hundred meters, and land slowly using the air thrusters.

The general said he would talk with the higher-ups. But his expression told me he\'s going to buy it for sure, which is good news to me. If I sell enough of these stuff I might as well ask father for one and put it into my collection.

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(*) I didn\'t find this tank. Maybe the author made it up.

(**) The original name created by the author makes no sense so I altered it.

(***) The novel started in the 00s, which means some concept will be a bit off according to modern standards, such as the cost for producing weapons.

Also, recent updates will be slower, because...