Starting from Zero

Of course I\'m not staying here acting as their practice target. I pried myself off the rock and jumped away before hey can shoot me again. I landed back onto the small boat, shook Felix awake from his trance and dragged him off the boat. I also de-summoned all the Phantom Knight, since this is faster than calling them to run. The enemies never made another shot again as the boat blocked their view. Or maybe they\'re trying to figure out why I\'m not dead after taking three cannon attacks.

We swam ashore to look at the boat being carried back into the cave by the water flow. Now that the Japanese can see us again, their artillery came alive soon. It\'s another three-shot volley. I guess they only brought three cannons.

The first one went into the air due to really bad aim. The second one is on its mark but we managed to run away from it. And the third one, is stopped by my quicksilver barrier again.

You\'re not the only ones with cannons!

"Tank!"

I can send these fools to hell using his crystal cannon shot but on second thought, it\'s not worth it.

"Use your air shots!"

As for Felix...I think I broke him. He has seen too much weird stuff today. A phoenix, a dragon, ten warriors in black heavy armor swept the floor with 30 enemies within 10 seconds, three cannon shots to my face and I\'m still up and kicking. Now a hill-sized bug.

Tank inhaled deeply and grew a bigger belly. I quickly dragged Felix behind the bug for cover. As soon as we crouched down we felt as if the air above our heads is sucked clean. Tank released a high-pressure air blast across the river, while cutting the water in half for a brief moment and revealing the stones below. The Japanese formation is blown away like they were hit by a tornado. Even some trees and soil were carried away with them. Several players are holding onto the cannon barrel to keep steady. But the cannon itself slowly rose into the air too.

Tank\'s Air Shot can\'t really do much damage but it\'s mainly used for disturbing enemies, cleaning obstacles or throwing groups of pursuers off their feet. I won\'t kill anyone like this. That\'s not my goal anyway.

Taking the chance when enemies are still down, I de-summoned Tank, grabbed Felix and ran up the mountain. We vanished from their sight before they can stand up again.

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I\'m now sitting inside a bush and breathing hard. I ran too fast trying to get away from the cannons as soon as possible, now I emptied my stamina bar.

"I can\'t believe we actually got away. You\'re so good at it!" Felix flattered.

"No big deal. There were six thousand players who want me dead last night and I still escaped, while killing half of them. Speaking of which, do you know any other Chinese players around here?"

"What for?"

"Well, I was alive yesterday because someone helped me in the end. They had an underground tunnel or something. He spoke good Chinese too. Shandong accent."

Felix held his chin. "I know several people but none of them are Shandong. Maybe it\'s someone else. Last I heard there were over 3 thousand people here trying to cause troubles in Japan, and I only know a few. I can take you to the man in charge if you want. Maybe he knows something."

"Man in charge? So you guys are like, hidden rebellions? Organized? Any secret codes?"

"No, no, none of that." Felix rubbed his temple. You can feel headache after stressed exercise in real life alright. So [Zero] even put this into the game?

"So...what was that white stuff that protected you and disappeared?"

I touched the fire gem on my head. "I think this gem absorbed the quicksilver in that bottle. And it makes a shield when I\'m under attack. But there must be a cooldown for it. It blocked the first and third attack for me back there, but I ate the second one.

"Neat. It can stop a fuking cannon, then it can stop anything! You know a cannon shot can kill any player on the spot right? And we all know you\'re not \'any player\'."

"Right. Now I\'m wondering if this thing can only stop cannons for me. Maybe it doesn\'t work for other attacks."

"Let\'s try it out later. I need your help." His expression suddenly turned serious.

"Help? Let me hear it first." I don\'t make early promises.

"Several days later, the guild masters from all major guilds in Japan will gather at Fuji Mountain to retrieve something together. Every man with good skills will show up there."

"You\'re not asking me to fight them all by myself eh? I\'m not superman."

"Nonono!" He quickly shook his head. "If they need such a team then there\'s either a Japan Nation Treasure over there, or a Chinese one."

"Good point. I heard that two of ours are located in Japan."

"Yup. And another two in India."

"Okay...they\'re going for the Chinese one then."

"How do you know that?"

"Just think. If it\'s a Japanese Nation Treasure, why would they tell so many people to come? They should have just kept the secret to a few people and use the treasure for themselves."

"But maybe it\'s guarded by really powerful monsters so they need the help?"

"No. Even if that\'s the case they wouldn\'t need to spread the message to the whole nation. It\'s still better to get the treasure within smaller groups at bigger cost. So whatever they\'re trying to get, they don\'t mind sharing it with the others, which means it\'s a Chinese Nation Treasure. Because no one can use it."

"Nice thinking." Felix flattered me again. "I just need you to help us mess up their plan. Of course we can try to seize the treasure too, but at least we can\'t let them have it."

I stood up and dusted some dirt from my bottom. "I\'ll do it. Why not?"

"Perfect!"

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After the plan is set Felix and I stayed in the mountain area to grind. I hit level 479 before logging off, which is not really impressive, since I got more levels last time by killing 3 thousand players.

I can keep playing but I have to make sure the system doesn\'t kick me out again when we invade Fuji Mountain. So I decided to rest for a whole day. I\'m still inside this water tank...with nothing to do and nowhere to go. There are only machines around, and no researchers. It\'s not like they can do anything even if they\'re here.

I tried moving my body. It feels too weird. It’s hard to control my limbs, and both of my legs are now bent to a strange angle which is only possible when someone fractures their legs. As the scientist said, my bones are soft now.

I stared at the air for two hours before I can\'t keep it up anymore.

I brought up the game menu and logged into the game forum. I hasn\'t been here much since I started playing. The Chinese forum section is filled with random posts. There\'s a post titled "The biggest villain in China". And yeah, it says me. The article described me as some...brutal murderer who doesn\'t know any moral or humanity. The author is called I-Know-All. Guess I need to remember him so I can teach him a lesson some time. Even I actually feel a bit ashamed after reading his post. He\'s really good at making up stories.

I learned some pretty useful information from the other posts. I also noticed that half of them on the section are written by that I-Know-All guy. Is this man a professional intelligence provider or something? And there\'s more. The other half of the posts, belong to someone called "I-Know-Everything". Are these two guys related?

One of the post mentioned the most powerful battleship in China region, Bi-Lin, also known as the "ghost ship", returned to the port after being away for an entire week. It also brought back large number of pirate ships with it, which caused the coastal defense forces to freak out and stay guard along the shore for half an hour.

"Ghost ship?? Who came up with this shitty name? So Hawk and the other are safe."

The post continued, saying that Bi-Lin had a giant door made in pure gold on it.

"They carried the Door of Truth back too, nice."

The door was transported away from Torrent Point City and no one knows where it went.

"Humph. Can\'t let too many people know about it."

I then switched to the international section. There\'re more interesting stuff here.

Let\'s see...India constructed two super defense towers to guard their capital city. I wonder what that is.

American players found out a new Archer variant class--the Musketeer. It requires Archer as your base class and a series of special quests. Musketeer has high Attack but low Attack Speed, and uses more expensive ammunition, so it\'s only for rich players. Well, Americans are rich alright. Let them have it.

There\'s also a new class in Germany called the Valiant Knight, who owns crazy Speed and Attack bonus at the cost of Defense and HP.

Most news are about Japan. There are a lot of players saying that they\'re now staying in Japan trying to make a name or fortune. They are from...China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Russia...there\'s even someone claiming to be some sort of anti-fascist association who plans to blow up Black Dragon Force\'s main city in a few days.

I spent all rest of the day on the forum. When I opened my eyes again I see father, mother and...Rose?? I quickly tried to cover my private part with a hand. The water tank is completely transparent and I\'m totally naked now! This is when I realized I can\'t control my hands now. My condition developed fast when I was reading the forum.

Rose grinned a little upon seeing my reaction. But she also has some tear stains around her eyes. Same as my mother, who\'s looking at my bottom-half, where my legs are twisted in several turns.

Rose went close to me and said something through the glass, but I heard nothing. The glass isn\'t sound-proof. I can\'t hear her because my ear bones already lost their function.

I tipped my head towards the screen. My mother caught my message first and told Rose to look in that direction.

"Don\'t worry, I\'m fine! A worm just needs some time to turn into a mature butterfly. Speak into that microphone or I can\'t hear you!"

She took the said microphone from the table.

"I know what\'s going on. I just, can\'t hold back the tears..."