Starting from Zero

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Alert: Minor offensive content towards Japan.

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"Hahaha that\'s so lame!" Everyone laughed.

Even Big Pot himself began to laugh hard, which made us worry that he\'s too stressed because we laugh at him.

Violet nudged him. "Hey. You ok? We didn\'t mean to make fun of you, sorry for that."

Violet gave us a look. We all nodded quickly until we felt dizzy.

"See, we meant no harm. We were trying to lift the mood."

Big Pot posed a "V" at me. "Thank you for throwing me off like that!!"

"Did you bump your head somewhere?" Hawk looked at Big Pot with a raised eyebrow.

Razor checked all those footprints on his body. "Maybe someone broke him by stepping on his head?"

Merciless pointed out the question. "You fell into the water right? It didn\'t wash off the footprints? And, why are you not wet?"

"Oh yeah! That doesn\'t look right." We just noticed the missing point here. What made him so happy if he dropped into the moat and without any water on him?

Big Pot looked at himself and spoke: "Wet? Of course I\'m not wet! Ziri buddy, you\'re awesome! I\'m so following you from now on, you\'re my belief!"

"...What did I do?" Something feels creepy.

"You don\'t know? You and your knights pushed like a thousand people down into the river. It\'s just a small water ditch. It was filled up with all the players! I fell on top of a group of cute girls! They felt so soft!"

Ok. Is that making him happy? I don\'t want to question it.

Hawk interrupted his daydream. "Alright, let\'s get back to business. Where\'s the crystal cannon, Zirai?"

"I put it at the central plaza. Skyfire is watching. Nothing to worry about, this place is like a ghost city or something, I don\'t see a single living thing."

"You know what, I enjoy places like this." I led them towards the plaza while chatting about random stuff. "It\'s like being the king of the entire city. I can use anything here as I like! Oh, Hawk, do you still have the money I gave you for selling the companion eggs?"

"Yeah. We don\'t lose money on death anyway so I didn\'t take the time to bring it to bank. You want it back?"

"Yes, all of it. I need to pay my debt."

"Debt?" Zirai gave me a puzzled look. "You borrow money from someone?"

"An NPC. He repaired my armor last time and I didn\'t have enough to pay him. Now I have some money so I\'d better pay him fast!"

"NPCs allow IOUs?" Everyone opened their mouth wide, except for Wayne and Rose. They already know about my business.

"Why not?" I turned to Hawk. "I\'ll go take care of it. You all wait for me at the plaza. Won\'t take long."

"Clark?" I rushed into his shop. Of course, no one\'s here. He\'s probably over at the clothing store again.

Sigh. This sugar guy...

I ran to the clothing store. Yup, as expected.

"Why do you run wild all day instead of looking over your own shop? Here, 150 thousand crystals."

He took the money. "You actually got enough money all of a sudden?"

"I sold something and made a small profit. Oh, right. Do you know how to use a cannon?"

"Cannon? You mean, the magic crystal cannon?"

"That\'s it. We stole one of them and haven\'t figured out how to get it working. Actually we don\'t even know how should we make good use of it."

Clark was a chief in the demon legion, he must know about such stuff.

He held his chin for a while. "Where is it? I need to take a look. Our troops had mobile ones and stationed ones, they all work differently. Can\'t give you answer before I look at it myself."

"Follow me then!"

I poked my head around Clark and shouted to the store mistress. "Hey sister, I\'ll borrow your dear husband for a bit."

"Oh shush you!"

Is she blushing??

We walked to the central plaza. Everyone else is waiting. Hawk drew his sword hastily when he saw us.

"Ziri, behind you!! A Shadow Warrior!"

"It\'s my friend!"

Clark walked straight to the cannon while only sparing a small glance at Yuri, of all people. Looks like everyone else didn\'t add much Charisma like us.

He touched around the two-meter tall mechanism and spoke: "Good stuff. This is the biggest sized magic crystal cannon used for military fortresses. We also have some here in the Lost City."

"You do?" Well I never saw them.

"Yeah, hidden in the river. When the Eye of Underworld opens, they\'ll emerge from the water and attack anyone who approaches. You can\'t see them now. You stole this thing from Cloudtop I assume?"

"Huh?" I jumped. "How did you figure that out?"

Clark pulled out a giant violet crystal as big as a human head from under the cannon.

"The crystal still has Cloudtop\'s mark on it. Look here."

We all looked at it closely. There is a strange symbol on the crystal, though it seems no one knows what it means.

"This thing is the energy source of the cannon, be very careful with it. The crystal becomes pale after every shot, and depletes when it turns pure white." Clark jumped off the cannon and turned to me. "Don\'t throw it away when that happens. You can sell it to me, I recycle these things."

"What for?"

"It\'s a perfect material for crafting high level armor pieces, what do you expect? Oh one other thing. You can\'t shoot the cannon too fast, make sure you wait at least 30 sec before the next shot. Otherwise the cannon may explode!"

"Understood!"

I wasn\'t expecting the cannon to be so complicated.

"Where can I find extra crystals like that one?"

"That\'s beyond me. Go ask Domergor, that kid should know something."

"I see. How do I operate it?"

"Here." Clark pointed to a handle-like part on the cannon base. "Pull that thing and the cannon will shoot. It goes back on itself when the shot is over. Don\'t break it."

"Thank you!"

"No need to. Just help me collect materials. You still have that list I gave you right? Don\'t forget."

"Of course brother. I\'ll keep it in mind."

Hawk went to me when Clark left.

"Is that an NPC? That\'s really different from everyone else."

"The NPCs in this city are all different, just try to be nice to them. So what do we do? Leave the cannon here? There are still months before nation wars start."

"I have an idea." Merciless stepped up. "We use it to fight Japan right? We can deploy it in naval wars first."

"Naval wars?" Hawk looked between us. "What do you mean naval wars?"

Everyone seems lost so Merciless began to explain. "Ziri, you remember the Far Land city?"

"Yeah. That\'s where we met."

"You left in a hurry and didn\'t get a good look at it. It\'s actually a port city."

"Port city? As in, a city with a lot of boats?" Passerby became excited. "It\'s my dream to sail the sea! They have boats in this game? Then I\'m definitely going!"

Elfy seems interested too. "Are there any seaside entertainment? Some enjoyment would be nice!"

Merciless chuckled. "Yes. There\'s also one other thing you won\'t be expecting."

"What?" We asked that together.

"Japanese pirates!"

Ohhh!

"But nation war hasn\'t started yet?"

"That\'s true. But the game world is still a complete map. All countries or regions exist on the same planet, so we\'re pretty close to Japan. There\'s only a small distance on the sea. Same for other adjacent countries you can find on the globe. We\'re separated by mountain ranges. So, you can travel to whichever country you like as long as you get past a special zone. When nation war starts, travel routes will appear and we can fight with them for real. We can\'t do that now but small teams with several dozens of people can still cross the border if they can manage it. So if you want to go to Japan, just use a boat."

"You mean those scums can send people to us right now??"

Zirai seems the typical anti-Japan extremist. She gets drastic whenever someone mentions Japan.

"In theory yes. But they haven\'t done anything big, only some random players will show up now and then and raid the citizens who live close to the sea."

"What did you say??"

Man, I see blood veins in her eyes. I\'m really worried she might just jump into the sea, swim there and get revenge.

"Have we done anything to stop them? We just let them do whatever they want?"

"Some of the guilds sent patrol teams along the coastline. They usually level up there while watching out for enemies. I even heard some richer guilds have their own battleships. But...you never know when those pirates will come, and we can\'t be staying on guard twenty-four-seven, so they won over us most of the time."

"Argh I can\'t believe this!!"

Now Zirai looks like an infuriated bull with those steam coming out of her nostrils. Scary.

"Hey calm down. Calm it!" We tried to soothe her. Or she might do something stupid for real! She was brave enough to steal property from the system city after all.

I tried to change the topic. "So how are we going to use the crystal cannon?"

"The pirates come here on boats right? So what if we sink their boats with the cannon?" Someone suggested.

"Oh nice idea!" Zirai jumped up again. Hawk and I tried to press the girl down, and we failed. "Let\'s go get the cannon over to the sea!"

"Hold it!" Elfy stopped us. "The coastline of China is...over 26 thousand kilometers. One cannon won\'t help much." (*)

"Ah..." We all became quiet.

Having a big land isn\'t all about advantages it seems.

"Merciless mentioned battleships. How about building one of those ourselves?" Big Pot raised a very practical point. "The cannon can\'t protect much area on its own but what if we place it on a ship and move around with it?"

"Yes, yes, YES! Let\'s do it! Quickly!!" Zirai went berserk for a third time. "Skyfire, go!"

We reached the Torrent Point city (with a little bit of chaos, with Zirai urging our asses), which is the biggest port city within the Chinese game region. We\'re more familiar with the Far Land city but it\'s too small to hold any big vessels. Of course we can\'t put that cannon on a pathetic wooden plank.

It\'s almost evening. After some dedicated persuasion, Zirai finally allowed us to log off and rest, leaving the plan to tomorrow.

We went straight to the port area the next morning. And wow it looks big! The docking area expands more than 10 kilos along the sealine, full of all kinds of ships and boats. But I can only see a small number of combat cruisers, most of the rest are fishing boats.

The biggest sailboat attracted our attention. It\'s made of wood, with tons of people working on it. I can\'t tell which are players and which are NPCs from here. A giant triangular sail hangs on the main mast, with a small flag on the tip of it. The actual size of the flag should be pretty big though. It appears to be small compared to the other parts.

There\'s a sun on the flag, similar to the red object on the Japanese nation flag. A shark is drawn beside the sun, with its maw wide open, ready to swallow the sun in whole.

An unfamiliar voice dragged us out of admiration mode.

"The Ocean Might is the biggest battleship in Torrent Point city. She already took down seven Japanese ships in the past two months."

I turned to look at the new face. He stands taller than average, with full black battle armor on his body. But it looks seriously rusted. Very common appearance. That pair of thick eyebrows gives him a heroic look.

He stretched out a hand. "Hello, name is [King Conqueror], leader of the Anti-Japanese Association."

"Good day. I\'m Ziri!" I shook his hand. "So that boat belongs to your guild?"

"Aye. Our members raised all the money for this customized galley. It cost us 500 thousand crystals! But those trophies are worth the ticket! Want to join the board, miss? Our guild-- Uh, hello?"

I face-palmed and crouched on the ground. Not again! They\'re hurting my feelings!

King Conqueror\'s hand is still left in the air. Zirai quickly took it over. "Anti-Jap Association? I like that name. We need people like you!"

Obviously he never noticed Zirai until now. He looks more than surprised. He shifted his gaze between us for several times before finally asking Zirai: "That\'s...your sister?"

Zirai didn\'t answer him, "Where did you order your ship?"

"Oh, you want one too? It costs a fortune you know!"

"Just tell me." Getting a ship to fight pirates is the only thing on her mind now.

"If that\'s the case...follow me ma\'am."

He kept chatting with us on the way. "May I know your name too?"

"It\'s Zirai."

"So, Ziri and Zirai? I knew you\'re sisters! You look almost the same."

Zirai gave me a glance and smiled but didn\'t help me explain. Geez.

We walked a long way to reach the edge of the docking area. There\'s a giant harbour structure, separated from all the other ones. It has a roof too.

"Here. This is the boatyard. Go talk to the NPCs to order a ship."

Before he leads us in, someone rushed to King.

"So you\'re here! Move it! The Japs showed up again. Ocean Might is departing!"

"Again? Then let\'s show them who\'s boss!"

King ran away while shouting back to us: "I\'ll be back once we rid those thieves. Will talk to you then!"

There he goes.

"That\'s an interesting dude." Hawk commented. "Alright, let\'s go get our own ship so we can beat up some pirates too!"

"Let\'s do it!!" Zirai is pumped up again and dragged me towards inside. "Hurry up sister!"

She\'s doing that on purpose!

There are many people running up and down in the boatyard. The keel structure of a medium-sized boat is placed in the middle, with people fixing planks onto it. Must be another new order they received. (**)

I dragged a random NPC over and asked him where to order for a ship, and was told to go find their designer in a small room deeper inside.

We reached the said room in the far corner. It looks broken, and feels like about to come down at any moment. Still, we pushed the door open. There\'s an old man inside writing something on a piece of paper. He stopped his work when he saw us.

Pale blue gown, a big apron, typical carpenter setup. He\'s also wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

"You want to order ships?"

"Yes. A special one!" I spoke before everyone else. I have the highest Charisma here so I should do the talking to make thing easier.

"Come here then." He opened a room and signaled us to get in. I never noticed there\'s a door on the wall...is it a hidden backdoor?

We walked into a place and saw a series of giant sailboat keels lined up.

"These are keel templates. You choose which size to use based on what you want to do with the ship. The smallest one is for ordinary fishing boats. You might need to choose the bigger ones if you want to catch whales or sea monsters."

"Pardon me please," I stopped him from explaining further. "We need a battleship."

"Battleship? You should\'ve said that earlier."

He led us around the keels and towards another area with even more templates. These ones are big, and they all have more frames and beams to make them sturdier.

"These are warship keels. You need to choose a keel first because it decides the ship\'s overall size. Equipment and everything else can be determined later. So, anyone catches your eye?"

"Are there any bigger ones than these? Truth is, we have something really bulky to load onto the ship and I think we need something extra large. The larger the better."

The biggest one I see here is about only 50 meters in length, which means just a bit bigger than the Ocean Might we saw outside. The cannon is apparently too large for a ship like that, and we already saw how much kickback it produces. I don\'t want the cannon to sink our own ship first.

The old man inspected us for a while. "I do have a secret collection but..."

Persuasion check, successful.

I quickly tried to flatter the old man with every commendatory word I can dig up in my brain.

"Alright, I\'ll share the knowledge since you\'re such a bright and mannered young man. I have another keel which may qualify as \'extra large\' you mentioned."

He glanced around and then whispered into my ears:

"It\'s actually the corpse of an ancient beast. Those breast bones are perfect for forging the keel of a ship. However, the beast was once a foul existence. Its plagued aura still lingers even after it has been dead for a thousand years. With those bones you can make your ship exceptionally huge, and way stronger than those ships you can see out there. But...!"

He stopped where it\'s important!

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(*) This may not be a correct number.

(**) A "keel" is the base frame used to support a ship\'s hull. I hope I used the right word.