Starting from Zero

"...Why are you here?"

I can recognize my father’s appearance across the video. He chose an orc berserker as his character. Interesting.

"You’ve been missing my calls all day!"

Okay, he\'s a bit mad at me. I see blood veins pumping on those orcish muscles.

"It was you who asked me to prepare and infiltrate Japan."

"Alright alright, back to business. You have time?"

"I always have time. You\'re not going to let me play an arm dealer again eh? I refuse!"

"No." He quickly explained. "It’s some other business."

"Let\'s hear it first."

"Do you know about the Paradise Island?"

"I...think so." I held my chin and tried to recollect what I know about it. "The man-made island, built by the government officials? It’s on the South China Sea right?"

"That’s the one. Of course you would know it."

But his expression indicated otherwise.

"Now those officials decided to sell the island."

"To whom? Don’t tell me you plan to buy it off?"

"Smart as ever, boy! It has nice views and landscape. The important part is the island is directly open to the Pacific. Dragon Fate needs a sea-front base like this, and the island is a perfect choice. Since it is artificial, the smooth coasts can be easily built into transition ports. We\'re planning to buy the island and re-develop it into another base of ours. But of course we won’t let anyone else know about it, if anyone asks we just tell them this is a new holiday resort for Dragon Fate employees."

"You...want me to go there? It\'s the south sea for god\'s sake, it will take at least a week or so."

"That’s what I\'m thinking. You can take Charon along, just consider it as a holiday for you two."

"You want Charon to cut her studies?"

"You think I don’t know? She will always be the top student even without attending to those classes. Unlike you! I talked with your supervisors, you finished less courses than other students drops!"

"Wait, you talked with my teachers?"

"A parent needs to know how their kid is performing!"

He’s getting angry, or pretending to be angry.

"Do you go or not?"

"Okay okay! Tell me my schedule."

It’s best to accept my father\'s request. I can just bring two helmets with me so we can go into the game anywhere.

"You’re not the only one going. Someone will tell you the plans. Go to Charon\'s apartment tomorrow eight and wait there."

"Got it."

I contacted Rose after seeing father off. "Rose? Dad told us to go on a holiday on the Paradise Island tomorrow."

"Hm? Tomorrow?"

"Yes, eight in the morning. Do you need to prepare?"

"Not really. But why suddenly?"

"It\'s a little...complicated."

I told her about the holiday plan which is actually a business tour.

Rose said she can understand father\'s plan. I was kinda hoping her to complain but she didn’t.

"I always wanted to see the sea!"

So that\'s what she\'s thinking.

"We\'ve been fighting on the sea for several days now."

"That\'s different!" She gave me a shy look. "A seaside trip, just the two of us..."

"Oh, ahem. Well remember to get there on time tomorrow. I\'ll go catch you. Now I need a good rest."

It\'s almost 7 in the evening. The whole afternoon\'s fight is exhausting as hell, I don\'t wish to go on the holiday with panda eyes.

It\'s the end of January, the days on the island could be pretty hot, and I don’t have any summer clothes in my closet now.

Oh forget it. I\'ll just go buy some at the place. Money can solve anything these days.

I arrived at Rose’s dorm at around seven, and walked straight into it without much concern. The robot dogs all looked at me with wagging tails for some reason.

"Rose?" I knocked on her door while looking at all the girls wearing messy hair and half-open pajamas walking to the public water closet. I guess that\'s how they usually look when there’s no need to keep their image.

Since I\'m staring at someone else, I never noticed that the door is already opened. My next action is to knock on a girl\'s head.

"Hey! Do you have to hit a lady like that?"

"Oh oops, sorry sorry. I was distracted."

She didn’t complain further. I didn’t actually hurt her anyway.

"So what do you want?"

"I\'m looking for Charon. She awake yet?"

"You\'re Ziri right?"

It looks everyone around here knows me now.

"Oh, actually I didn’t see you before. Last time you saved Charon back, she shared all those expensive clothes with us. That’s when we heard your name. Now come in. She’s still on the bed."

I entered the room filled with the smell of several different perfumes.

"Take a seat. I\'ll go call her."

"Wait, let me do it."

I walked to her bed. The room is warm, she isn’t having her blanket on, instead she\'s hold onto it like a hugging pillow.

I carefully pinched her nose, which didn’t wake her up. She just switched to mouth breathing mode.

Sigh. I pushed her shoulder. "Rise and shine!"

"Emmm..." She slowly sat up, looked around, then fell back down!

I turned to the other girl. "When did she sleep last night?"

"5 in the morning. I think she\'s drunk."

"I told her we got plans today, and she did what??"

"Oh um, one of our friends was going the leave the school yesterday so we held a party. That\'s why we all stayed up late."

"I see..."

I kept pushing and dragging Rose without much success. The best response I can receive are some groans and moans.

I simply removed her blanket, put her on the edge of the bed and began to dress her up under the shocked expressions of her roommates. They all came to help once they know what I’m trying to do.

These girls are obviously better at the job, we put Rose into her daily wears in no time. I carried her to the water room and helped her clean her face (attracting more amused stares). The cold water woke her up, but she\'s still dazed. At least she can move on herself now. I took the chance to help her finish up washing and then carried her downstairs.

When we reached the school gate she’s fast asleep again. Geez.

The time reads 7:50. So I\'m not late after all. Keeping the time is the basic of basics to respect people and I don’t plan to break this rule.

After some waiting, two familiar figures came to us.

"Butterfly and...Big K? Are you sure you two came for the right mission?"

"We\'re professionals! Of course we don’t make that kind of mistake." Butterfly spoke, while Big K only gives me some humble chuckles, as usual.

"What is your task then?" I\'m still confused. Shouldn’t they send me a financial assistant or something?

"Our task is to ensure the safety for you and Miss Charon, and this is her, I assume?" Butterfly pointed at Rose, who’s still leaning on my shoulder as if someone just got drunk after losing their only job.

I just smile in embarrassment and try to change to topic. "So how do we get there?"

"You have a car right?"

"My car was a bit damaged by the Iron Unit last time and I sent it back to the base for maintenance. I don\'t have it yet."

"Oh crap." Butterfly looks surprised. "I thought we can use your car so we didn’t drive. Okay, now this is trouble."

"Ask our branch to sent a vehicle here then." I suggested.

"It\'s too far. And the traffic can be pretty bad in such hour."

"Uhm...Okay, wait here."

I passed Rose to Butterfly. Then I dashed back to my dorm, entered my Iron Unit and jumped down from the window. I operated my giant toy all the way back to the gate.

"Will this do? We only need to get the the airport right?"

"You have an Iron Unit in your room?? ...Right, the company makes these stuff all day. But we have four people, there’s only room for one."

I opened the front hatch, carried Rose inside and closed it. The pilot seat is enough to hold both of us, just a bit awkward.

"You two can sit on the shoulders."

"Take it slow alright? There isn’t really anything to hold on to up here."

We ran to the airport in this strange setup. I also talked to the company and applied for another two units for Butterfly and Big K. We may use them later. As for Rose...I\'ll just keep her in here. She can’t pilot these anyway.

Our private plane is already waiting on the runway when we reached the place. At least I think it’s our plane. However I can’t understand why they sent a camouflaged B-72 military transporter here, there’s not even standard passenger seat on it, so I stayed in the Iron Unit after the plane took off.

"So why are we traveling on this thing?"

"This is not from the company." Butterfly already received her Iron Unit, and spoke to me through her radio. "It\'s a supply aircraft from the south sea marines. It is planned to go to the Nansha Islands today, and we\'re just taking a free lift to the Paradise Island."

"Can that small airport on the island take this military transport in it?"

"Oh don’t worry, we’re not landing." The captain walked to us.

"Hello sir." I first paid my respects to the military man. "What do you mean we’re not landing?"

"They drop us off from the air when we\'re flying above the island." Butterfly explained.

"What??" I looked at the captain in shock. "From the air?"

The captain just nodded. I checked the altitude meter on the Iron Unit\'s controls.

"You want us to jump from 20 thousand meters above the earth? I don’t know how to use parachutes!"

He knocked on the Iron Unit. "You have this. Besides you don’t really need to learn how to use the chute."

"We\'re at the target, captain." The speaker in the cabin lit up.

"Roger that." He gave us a salute. "Have a nice trip!"

When the captain left the cabin, the plane hatch behind us slowly opened up.

Butterfly controlled her unit towards the exit. "Need me to teach you?"

"I learned it before but I never actually tried it out for real."

"Give it a try then. If anything happens switch to auto-pilot, or give remote control to me."

"Let’s do it!"

She posed an "ok" towards Big K, who walked to the open hatch and jumped off the plane, followed by Butterfly.

I dashed out of the cabin with my eyes closed.

In the air, I carefully kept balance using the air thrusters. When I felt content enough I pressed the parachute button. Poom, the parachute was spread out above my Iron Unit. I felt a sudden force dragging me.

All good now.

"What are you doing??" Butterfly’s voice came from the radio. "We are 20 thousand meters above! It will take hours for you to land with your chute out so early! And the sea wind can carry you off our target for hundreds of miles!"

"Huh? Sorry I didn’t know! What should I do now?"

"Cut the main parachute. There are two backup ones on our units, release them when the altitude reads 7 thousand."

"Got it!"

I did as told. The altitude meter is dropping fast and we reached the designated height pretty soon. I already see two parachute spread open below me, I mean, above me. I’m descending way faster than them.

"Open it now you\'re going too fast!!"

"Yes!" I quickly pressed the button. I felt another slow-down but it quick vanished, after which I’m free falling again.

"Your first backup chute is broken! Open the other one! And activate your bottom thrusters too!"

"O-okay!"

I activated them both, which finally reduced my speed within an acceptable threshold. I\'m only one or two kilos from reaching the ground now. That...was close.

But there\'s another problem: I’m above the sea! I can see the island not far from me. I can even see passengers walking on the beach, but I’m going to fall into the water at this rate.

In the final distance, I gave up the parachute and began to glide towards the island as best as I can using the thrusters. I didn’t make it though. With a giant water splash, my Iron Unit dropped into the sea.

This attracted a lot of people coming along the beach to watch the scene.

Butterfly and Big K already landed near the port. They soon came running towards the gathered crowd, which scared most of the people away. Unlike my customized toy Iron Unit, these two guys are driving real stuff--with several Gatling guns installed on them!

I managed to crawl back ashore. They considered nuclear and chemical hazard situations when designing the Iron Unit so it is waterproof.

The bystanders only saw a giant monster covered in sea weeds coming out of the water. Now they all left the beach screaming. Good. Now I don\'t have to worry about jammed traffic.

"You alright?" I asked them while trying to drag off all the plants.

"That\'s my question!"

"I\'m good. The thrusters were pretty handy, I almost made a perfect landing. Can you help me with all the weeds? I can\'t open my hatch, something is caught on it."

"Oh, right."

A team of patrols came marching at the scene with weapons raised, but they all paused when the saw the armed metal monsters. Of course those tiny pistols aren’t used to fight with something like us.

"Easy, we’re from Dragon Fate!" I pointed at the emblem on the Iron Unit\'s shoulder. A group of higher-ups standing in the back of the line quickly swarmed up on us to offer pleasantries.

"Can anyone show us to our rooms? Let\'s talk in the evening, I need to get myself in shape first."

They moved aside, giving us a passage. Well that felt good.

The patrol leader took us to a hotel we reserved. Our first task is of course, park our Iron Units in the underground parking lot. The patrolman is obviously shocked when he saw me leaving my unit. Probably not expecting someone so young. Again.

"Oh right, make sure you tell the other people to stand clear of the Iron Units. The security system will shock anyone who gets too close."

"O-Okay sir. Now follow me please."

When we stepped into the main hall, a big-bellied man quickly approached us with a business smile. It\'s the hotel manager. He came as fast as he can when he learned about our arrival.

"Welcome my friends. I’m the lead manager of the island and this hotel, you can call me Wang Hai. How should I address you?"

Butterfly and Big K are now walking behind me. Anyone can see that they\'re my bodyguards. Rose is lying in my arms now, so the manage directed his question to me.

"Sairin, tech department CEO of Dragon Fate Corporation. Just call me Mr Sai. I\'m responsible of negotiating with the island affairs. This lady is my...girlfriend, she got airsickness. Can you prepare another room for her? "

"Already in place. Follow me, Mr Sai."

The hotel is decorated in extremely luxurious ways. Well, this is a world-class vacation site, that\'s for sure.

"Are there any good clothing stores on the island? We came in a bit hurry and didn’t bring enough luggage."

"Of course there are. I will show you once we settle the lady in her room. Or you can just tell us what you need and I will order services to save you the effort."

"I\'ll go myself. Oh, can you not tell anyone about my identity for now? I want to get a good look around the place, it will be difficult to do so when people keep trying to talk to me."

"That you can rest assured." He nodded with much professionalism. "I will also remind everyone you encountered just now about it."

"My thanks. If I may, can I know about your plan after selling your island? You can remain here if there’s no other plan. Dragon Fate needs someone with good experience, like you."

"Ah I\'ll be very glad then!" I saw a spring in his steps. "Now I won’t lose my job. Here, your room."

The elevator door opened, revealing a...another single door, instead of a hallway I was expecting.

"Oh forgive me. This is the top floor, and there\'s only the presidential suite here."

"I see!"

The manager opened the door for us. Before we enter, he signaled us to wait. A camera appeared from the wall, when the manager asked us to align our eyes in front of it for once. Though it took us some effort to manually open Rose\'s eyelid.

"This is pupil recognition lock. The door will open next time when you step out of the elevator if the camera catches your eyes so you don’t have to carry a keycard around..."

I stopped him from giving us further instructions. "This is produced by Dragon Fate if I remembered correctly."

"Oh, uh, yes. How did I forget that, heh heh heh."

"Not a problem. I’m glad you like our products. You\'re soon one of us now."

"Yes, yes!" His business grin came back.

After I put Rose on the bed, the manager suggested taking us to the stylist center. I rejected since it may attract too much attention if he accompanies us too much. Putting the business talks aside, I don’t really feel like getting along with such people. Their attitude is always fake.

I came to the stylist center he mentioned. It’s pretty crowded. Most of the people are here for the island auction, and of course they pay close attention to their looks.

Crowd is something I always avoid so I decided to come back later. We went to a seafood restaurant to fill our stomach. The whole restaurant building is designed as a giant cooked lobster, and I’m already feeling hungry by looking at it. Rose has to blame herself for losing her meal. That said, I’m going to take her to eat later anyway.

Butterfly and Big K’s daily menus only contain those routine meals in their training base. They may be nutritious but are for from delicious. Now that our trip is provided by the company, the pair showed their demanding stomach to the fullest extent--Big K is wolfing down lobsters one after another using both hands, while Butterfly is also stuffing her mouth with sea cucumbers and crab meat like there’s no tomorrow, completely ruining her "profession lady" image.

I’m no better though. I spent most of my time in the game in my dorm and would only snack on fast or processed food. Now I\'m also working all-out on the dining table. It\'s two in the afternoon, there are not many people around.

A man with black hair and blue eyes came beside my chair as I\'m trying to swallow another fish slab. He\'s wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, about 1.8 meter tall, with very slim build. Looks like someone cultured.

"Greetings, I’m Rezard, from Britain."

Gulp!

"Cough. Hello, I\'m Sairin. Butterfly and Big K. Do you need anything?"

I looked at my oily hands and decided against shaking his hand.

"Um, they say a gentleman isn’t supposed to eat like that but, I really wanted to enjoy a good meal right now. Can I join you so I don\'t have to...?"

Pffff.

"Of course you can. Let’s eat."

I gave him a seat and we soon began to fight our food war together. It didn’t take long before a big pile of remains of sea creatures are loaded on our table.

Another group entered the restaurant. A beautiful lady is walking in front of the group. She\'s wearing pretty heavy paints but I must say she looks good. Backless top, mini skirt... Hmm. Hot.

Two males, obviously toy boys, are following behind her. Rich people, since they are both carrying holographic laser projection phones on their waists which cost at least a million on the market.

Behind the three there\'s a plain looking girl, about...15 years old? A timid and cute type. The girl is carrying a lot of shopping bags which seem to be stressing her out.

Another woman came in, middle aged, with suit dress and also gold-rim glasses. That stern look on her face reminded me of the headmaster of my high school.

A new group showed up after a while. I dropped the half-chewed lobster from my mouth. I instantly recognized someone among the newcomers--Zirai. She looks a lot better than her character in the game. She has waist-level long hair, tight hot pants and a cute midriff-baring top. I never imagined this is how she dressed herself in real life.

Before I can go and greet her, someone else came into the door and shocked me again.

Huh, two Zirais? They look exactly the same! Apart from the color of their waist belts, one blue, one green.

The latter one saw me first. "Ziri??"

"...Zirai?" So the late arriver is Zirai. Who is the first one with green belt then?

"You\'re Ziri?"

"That\'s me. Come, you can join us." I pointed to my table. The girl with green belt thrown a sharp look towards the first group of people before she walked to us.

"Introduction then. My real name is Zu Ray, this is my twin sister Rin Ray, she was born about ten seconds later then me."

"I’m Sairin, here are Butterfly, Big K, and Rezard."

The British man quickly stood up and stretched his hands, only to redraw them again when he saw all the food craps on them.

"One minute!"

He dashed to the toilet, and ran back to us within ten seconds.

"Pleasure to see you, ladies."

"Why are you using different family names when you’re twins?"

Zu Ray (Zirai) explained to me: "I followed my dad\'s name as the older sister, and my little sister used mother\'s name. My parent usually call us Big Ray and Little Ray when at home."

"I wish I had a sister, haha. Come on, take a seat."

I sat on my chair and stood up again. "Let\'s uh, use another table."

I can’t see them across the food pile!

I told the waiter to prepare another table for us and went to wash my hands with Butterfly and Big K.

"Woah I can’t tell you two apart at all." I spoke after cleaning myself up.

"Duh, twins. The question is why do YOU look like us? We look like triplet now."

Rezard looked among us and scratched his head. "I knew something feels off. Now you mentioned it..."

Butterfly agreed. "If our young master grows some bigger chest muscles and hide his neck with a scarf or something, anyone will see you three as triplets. Right, Big K?"

The giant man spoke, which is quite rare. "They\'re totally different."

We all looked at him with curiosity.

"Young master carries a strong smell of violence, like those biological engineered cells. But the two ladies only have perfume smells, mixed ones. They have nothing to do with violence."

Everyone now has a "huh?" look on their faces. Butterfly quickly tried to change the topic. "Oh don’t mind him, his has some, um, mental issues! Eh heh heh..."

"Are you here on a vacation too?" I helped Butterfly.

"For the island." Rin Ray huffed. "My parents want this island so they came. And they demanded us to follow them. I don’t really mind but we just ran into that witch!"

"Witch? That woman walking in the front?" I turned my head and looked at the other group. The woman is also looking towards us, with...killing intent.

"Oh god. Are you enemies or something? "

Zirai explained: "She is the daughter of our father\'s competitor. The two families have been on bad terms for years, especially between Rin Ray and Miss Cindy. Cindy is the name of that woman over there. She\'s been a superstar, who participated in a lot of movies and concerts. Rin Ray once tried to set a stage in the show business but she quited because of all the...unspoken rules. The women has been criticizing Rin Ray about it since then. They almost got into another fight, if I didn’t stop them."

"Humph! You don\'t have to sis. I can beat her teeth out!" Rin Ray still looks furious.

"No please. They had more people, you will only get yourself hurt."

"Now WE have more people! Let’s teach those bastards a lesson."

Just like her sister, Rin Ray is pretty hot tempered too.

"Hey Sairin, you’re friend of my sister right? Do you help me or not?"

...How do I answer this one? Both yes and no will cause me troubles here.

But Zirai dragged me out of the situation. "Don’t worry about her. She’s still young."

Rin Ray stood up. "Young?? Yes we are young! Just about right, cause kids are supposed to fight a lot. Sairin, take care of the two guys will you? Don\'t worry, they won’t get back to you since my family is here."

So the girl is worrying about me receiving revenge. Ha.

"That’s not the question here. Violence is never the right way to solve problems. Besides she\'s not my enemy."

"So you don’t want to help? I’ll deal with them myself then. I may get hurt but at least I can make the woman pay!"

She walked towards them for real!

"Okay okay I\'ll do it!" I quickly pulled her back. "On one condition: follow my lead. What you\'re doing is too reckless."

"Your lead?" Rin Ray stopped. "Let’s hear it."

"Who\'s the little girl walking behind them?"

"Cindy\'s private assistant, name is...Obaly? But she’s actually Cindy’s handy girl, sometimes her punching bag. It looks a poor position but the pay is pretty good, for her family. Why do you ask?"

"What do you think will happen, if we help Obaly turn into a superstar and nudge Cindy off her stage?" I already have a wicked plan set in my mind.

Rin Ray grinned. "Interesting. But how do you do that?" She inspected me up and down. "You know how entertainment works? Either you throw in a lot of money, or you have a good look and pay a little ‘respect’ to those managers, directors or producers. You know what I mean right?"

I’m wearing a simple summer school uniform right now since I haven’t gotten anything else, while Butterfly and Big K are wearing their light summer mercenary suit. They are actually costly, but people won’t easily notice it.

"Oh, we didn’t bring enough clothes for this trip. Don’t worry, money isn’t a concern for us."

"No matter. You plan sounds good. Tell me if you lack money, I\'ll help you."

Lack money? You must be joking. But I cannot show that.

"Alright, I\'ll remember it." Then I turned to Zirai. "Rose is here too. Do you want to see her?"

"Rose? Perfect. I always wanted to meet her in real life. I never believed her when she said her character is 10% better than herself. Come, show me! Hey sister, let\'s go meet the beautiful girl since we have this rare chance!"

"Really? You don’t usually describe someone like that. Okay, let\'s go!"

The two girls dragged me out of the restaurant.