Starting from Zero

"What I mean is to take all her items!" Little Su Mei explained her intent seeing that I was too slow to understand.

I gave her a thumbs up. "Great! You\'re good!" I turned and squatted next to God Messiah. "Hehe! I\'m so sorry! The timing of this new update didn\'t seem to be good for you! Your equipment seems neat and clean, I hope you won\'t mind me borrowing them?"

God Messiah shook her head with all her might indicating that she was unwilling, but with her mouth stuffed, she could not speak at all!

"If you\'re not going to reply me, I\'ll take it that you agree to it! I won\'t be polite!"

Lift her up!" I ordered the Phantom Knights that were holding her.

The Phantom Knights lifted her up, and I took her sword down. It was the Seraphim Sword, a top-tier Artifact Grade Weapon able to cause a crack in the Dragon Monarch Sword! After taking down her sword, the Phantom Knights kept their lances and swapped to holding her down with their hands, allowing me to take her equipment easily! It might have been my actions being too slow, but Red Cloud even came up to help! This God Messiah was truly loaded with good items, with the two of us at it, we finally took a pile of equipment!

After taking apart her equipment, the Phantom Knights looked at me and asked: "Master, what do we do with her?"

God Messiah was screaming and wanted to rush at us but was held back by the Phantom Knights, she was truly a rabid dog filled with energy!

"Ziri, you coward! You don\'t dare to fight me directly and have to depend on all of your Companions and Servants, if you have the balls, come and fight me, just the two of us! You trash, aside from your good equipment, you\'re just a trash with many Companions and no capabilities!"

As she talked on and on, my face became darker and darker.

"What did you say?" I kicked her in the face but regretted doing so. Due to my anger, I used a lot of strength, and was no longer able to retract it back! The Phantom Knights did not hold her down tightly, and my kick actually kicked her out of their arms, causing her to fly to the wall and ricocheting back. Before she could even crawl back up, the Phantom Knights ran over and suppressed her down.

"You coward!" The rabid God Messiah continued to scream while being suppressed.

"Hahahaha!" I laughed in anger. "My chivalrous attitude is being considered as cowardice? Have the virtues of the people in this generation become so degenerated? Are we still human beings? What are human beings? The one thing that makes human beings greater than all other living things is that we know about respect!" My Dark Dragon Lord Armor started to release high-pressure steam from its various joints, and after that, my armor started to fall, starting from my shoulders. This strange situation was out of my expectation, I had only wanted to remove my helmet and top armor, but I never thought it would be like this! The steam continued to spew out and the parts of the armor kept on falling until I was left with the newbie clothes that I had worn within.

Aldeina kept my equipment for me while Ling walked over, apparently she might have wanted to say something to me, but without saying a word, I handed over my ring and bracer over to Ling.

"Let her go, and don\'t butt in!" I allowed the Phantom Knights to let go of God Messiah.

"The two of us will have a real battle now, no equipment, no Companions, only our fists!"

Without saying a word, God Messiah pounced on me upon being released. I fell back and with a kick, I lifted her above me. Upon landing, she rolled backward agilely and jumped up once again. Like a carp, I flipped back up and faced her. At the moment she arrived in front of me, she unleashed a punch. I accurately grabbed onto her fist with my right hand and with her inertia, I easily forced her arm in a hook position.. Being grabbed by me, she was brought into a lift position and her left hand was forced above her head, which then I used to choke her. Crack. God Messiah slid along my body slowly like a noodle strand.

Xiao Su Mei jumped excitedly and ran over to me and stared at God Messiah in shock. A flash of light flashed, and God Messiah disappeared into the city.

"Are you some sort of special forces soldier?" Xiao Su Mei actually asked me this question.

"Your movements looked like the kinds that pro wrestlers perform!"

Red Cloud ran over to me. "What Level are you at?"

"I just reached Level 449! But now I\'m level 450."

"No way? God Messiah is a 100 levels higher than you!"

I revealed a ring on my last finger, I never took off the Ring of Stars. "You really think that I did all that barehanded?" I looked at the ring cheekily. "Am I truly a coward? Equipment wise or Companions wise, I never relied on myself to battle! Even when fighting against women, I will use my equipment!" I realized that my mood had become extremely bad, I had never thought about such things and never cared about how others saw me, I never questioned myself on senseless philosophies, because it was just too senseless for me! But now that the problem was related to me, I could not help but ponder about it!

Su Mei walked over and smacked my legs. "You don\'t have to care about such things! Are equipment and Companions not part of your own strength? Your equipment are tools, is there something wrong to have better tools than others? The reason why America is able to go around beating others up in their own countries is because of better equipment, thus they are able to bully others, but if other people are strong, they have no choice but to hold onto their anger because they are on equal grounds. If you give everyone the same armor as you, I can assure you that no one else will say anything about you! As for Companions, that is because of your high CHARM. Isn\'t that part of your own strength as well? According to what she said, it would mean that the big bosses of the triad gangs are all helpless people because they depend on their underlings to fight. People say that without your equipment and your Companions, you\'re nothing. But are they some huge and powerful figure without their own Equipment and Companions as well? If the game has two Players and aside from equipments, levels, attribute distribution and choice of class being the same but still has an obvious difference level in strength, then that is called unfair. No one will ever play that sort of game, because, who will ever play a game knowing they can\'t be better than that person? But in this game, people can say that others have better equipment and hope to obtain better equipments. That is the principle of Invidious Comparison, people would work harder for the sake of surpassing others, which is the charm of online games. If Players can\'t realize their strength through equipment, then what else can they do it through? PK skills? Then what kind of game is that? They can just go ahead and learn the tactics to PK, after learning the various sorts of techniques, they will become experts! Then what\'s the point of grinding levels? Will Players still buy equipment or care about loot? I truly don\'t know how they think about such things, it\'s simply unreasonable! A game is a game, just be happy and content playing it, what\'s the point of being so serious? Aren\'t you sick and bored of living the real life of harsh rules and discipline? If the game is exactly the same as the real world, then what\'s the point of playing games?"

Everyone around who heard Xiao Su Mei\'s speech was dumbfounded. Was that even a child talking? I felt as though I was being consoled by a psychologist!

"You\'re really a genius!" I emotionally hugged Xiao Su Mei and gave her a kiss, if only I had such a little sister, she was too adorable!

"What are you doing?" Xiao Su Mei used all of her strength and wiped the place where I had kissed. "Put me down now, you dare to kiss me, what happens if my boyfriend were to hear about it!"

"Huh?" I was startled. "Your…..your boyfriend?" I was confused, was she 10 or 30? No matter, I quickly put her down first, this little devil was something else! At that point in time, I was thinking to myself if all the kids of the age were like that?

"Is everyone fine?" A man sprinted in from outside the city and his voice could be heard even before he was seen.

"Eh? Boss, why are you here?"

The man was actually Wu Yu! From my side, Xiao Su Mei slipped away and pounced into Wu Yu\'s bosom. "See, this man here is my boyfriend! You can\'t kiss me in the future, understand? If you want to kiss me, you have to defeat my boyfriend first, understand?"

My eyes almost bulged out from their eye sockets, I pointed at Wu Yu, and did not know what to say. Wu Yu quickly handed the little monster over to Red Cloud, then pulled me to the side to explain.

"Wu Yu, your child is really adorable huh?" I took the initiative and teased him.

"No, no no!" I realized that Wu Yu would be ashamed as well. "Red Cloud over there is my girlfriend, the little devil is her sister. I encountered them by chance and saved them when they were out training and accidentally met a BOSS. After that, the little devil said something about how a person must always remember grace and kindness and have to devote herself to me! But in fact, her elder sister is my girlfriend! But after all, she is still a child, we don\'t really want to make her cry, so at that time, we agreed that I would be her boyfriend!"

"HAHAHAHA!" I hugged my stomach and knelt on the ground laughing my heart out to the point that my stomach actually hurt!

"You\'re really….hahhahahahah…..too easily played with!"

Wu Yu replied helplessly: "Don\'t see that she is from the Angel race, she is, in fact, a little devil with angel wings!"

Wu Yu seemed to have come to a decision upon seeing me laugh so badly as he pulled me back to the group. "I have to say, Su Mei! Please don\'t play me like this, big brother here is an adult and you\'re a small child. You can\'t be my girlfriend! I am your Sister, Red Cloud\'s boyfriend!"

Su Mei\'s face immediately changed, she looked back at Red Cloud who was hugging her, then jumped down and pulled Wu Yu\'s hand over and clasped it with Red Cloud\'s hands. "Sis, I\'ll hand Wu Yu over to you! You better love and protect him, don\'t let me down!" To everyone\'s surprise and confusion, the little devil actually ran over to me.

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I sensed something wrong but was too late to make a run for it. The Little Devil grabbed my hand. "I\'m heartbroken! Do you like me? Elope with me!" With that, she started to pull me out of the City.

I was dragged towards the City Gates, but explained myself while running: "Since when did I say I like you?"

The Little Devil suddenly stopped then looked at me with her large and tear-filled eyes. Her expression seemed to say "If you dare say you don\'t like me, I will cry for you to see!"

How could I dare offend the little Devil, furthermore, she was such an adorable little sister, how could I bear to make her cry! "Ok ok ok, Su Mei is the most adorable girl, I love Su Mei the most!"

When the Little Devil heard my words, she immediately turned and continued to run with me while muttering. "Quickly bring me away from this heartbreaking place!" I did not dare do anything to make her cry, so I could only run along with her! All my Servants and Companions behind were confused, upon seeing that I was running away, they quickly followed along. The Phantom Knights quickly grabbed onto God Messiah\'s items and ran over. Aldeina placed my entire Dark Dragon Lord set onto Lucky\'s back then quickly chased after us. The Snow Demoness quickly followed along, and the large group of people ran out of the City in a mess.

I suddenly remembered that I have not retrieved my Dragon Monarch Sword and quickly turned back and got Ling to bring the summoned monsters to retrieve the 8 Sword of the Flying Dragons back. Ling immediately got everyone to find the swords while I continued to run out of the City with the Little Devil, unsure if she had a goal or was just randomly running, I could only follow along!

We ran and ran when the Little Devil suddenly stopped. "Ziri?"

"Yeah?" I knelt down and looked at her. "What\'s wrong?"

"You must call me Xiao Mei from now on, ok?"

"Yeah!" At this point in time, I could only go along with whatever she said!

"Then I will call you my Dear from now on, you have to promise me that!"

"Huh?" I fell to the ground. "Can you change that?" People who knew me might be fine with it, but for strangers who did not know the situation, they might assume that I\'m a pedophile if they heard it!

"Then can I call you my Sun?"

"Sun?"

"Aren\'t you called Ziri? Although Ziri* is purple, it\'s still a sun! I\'ll call you my Sun from now on, is that fine?"

"Why do I seem to recall that there is a famous dog called Sun?"

"Then what do you want? It just has to be special, I can\'t be calling you what others call you."

"What about big brother? I\'m almost twice your age, it\'d be good for you to call me big brother!"

"Alright! Then I\'ll call you big brother." Su Mei stopped for a moment. "I\'m not very happy now, can you bring me into the City to play?"

"Into the city?"

"I want to go to one of the Main Cities to play but all the sisters are always busy, and Wu Yu that idiot is always missing!"

"Ok ok, I\'ll bring you!" Although it was rather tiring for me, I wanted to visit one of the Main City as well and it coincided with my intent.

I carried Su Mei on my shoulder, although I was not as massive as Hawk to allow Elfy to sit on her own shoulder, Su Mei was only 10 years old, and I was barely able to do it. I subconsciously reached for my Ring of Teleportation only to find it missing. I had nothing on my hand. I then remembered stripping everything off to fight with God Messiah and was left with the Ring of Stars. But I remembered that I still had the Hermit\'s Ring and the Shroud Bracelet that concealed Red Names from Ling. Fortunately for me, I chose to hold onto these two items. I quickly equipped the Hermit\'s Ring, who knew if there were anyone looking at the Ranking board, I truly hoped at that time that no one was looking!

"Do you have a Teleport Scroll?" All my items were in the Bracelet Inventory, even my Teleport Scrolls were inside, without them, I had nothing!

"I never bring things on me, the sisters always prepare everything that we need!"

"Oh my god!" I pointed to my own body. "I don\'t have anything on me!"

"Don\'t you put your things in your ring?" Su Mei asked me.

I pointed to the Shroud Bracelet on my wrist. "You see this? I have two of these, this is the Shroud Bracelet that conceals Red Names; the other one is the Bracelet Inventory that can store things. As it ignores weight, I put everything in there, so I don\'t carry things around with me!"

"Then what do we do?"

"Don\'t worry, I have an idea!" I summoned Night Shade out. "Hehe, I have a mount!"

"Your mount is so big!" Su Mei was only about a meter tall but Night Shade in Heavy Armored Dragon form was almost 4 times as tall as her.

"Come, let us go up! The top is extremely high and provides quite a good view!" I carried Su Mei and jumped up Night Shade\'s back, Clark had prepared a larger saddle for me, allowing Su Mei to sit in front of me without feeling cramped.

I guided Night Shade towards the closest Main City according to the map. Hovering Flower City was not far from Sky City with only a series of mountains between the two. Su Mei sat on Night Shade happily and looked around, although she was a genius child, a child was still a child, her curiosity was still extremely high.

Night Shade moved extremely quickly and we felt as though we were riding on a motorbike with the wind blowing rapidly against us. All the time I rode on Night Shade was while being equipped in the Dark Dragon Lord Set, so I did not feel it at all, but since I was only dressed in newbie clothes, I realized how powerful the wind was blowing against me! Su Mei did not feel anything sitting in front of me, she was dressed in Mage Robes and even had a face mask, although the Mage Robes were not as tough as my Armor, it was still able to deflect wind.

We quickly arrived at the outskirts of Sky City. I had not been here for a long time, and a lot of changes had occurred to the City. Sky City had plenty of new structures built on its outskirts, but their structural forms were all extremely strange without any consistency. As we got closer, we saw more and more Players. There were many Players inside the structures outside the City setting up stalls with all sorts of newbies in their ragged clothes. I unsummoned Night Shade from a distance to prevent attracting any attraction.

Upon entering the structures, we immediately sensed the flourishing crowd, all the buildings were personal buildings that belonged to the Players, Wayne had even informed me before about buying some designs but at that time, I had not much money, thus I did not attach importance into it. Who would have known that Sky City would have so many personal buildings constructed outside, as expected from the Main City!

"Brother, come and take a look at my equipment! I sell equipment with the best attributes, upon wearing them to train, you\'ll definitely be very powerful!" One of the Players at his stall passionately called out to me.

Before I could even reply, another Player shouted as well: "Brother, come and see mine instead! Aside from Equipment with good attributes, I have some Gold (Rare) Grade Equipment!"

The stall owner by the left who shouted first immediately stood up. "Brother, don\'t buy from him, the things he sells are all too expensive, you can\'t buy them!"

The stall owner to the right retorted. "He sells cheap goods, although my things are slightly pricier, they are high-grade goods, I can promise you that your strength will increase. You will be able to kill higher level monsters faster, and who knows, you might be able to build your own guild in the future."

"Don\'t listen to him! He is trying to cheat you, you\'ll waste all your money buying his equipment, and without any more for pots, you\'ll train even slower!"

"I say, Wang Wei, what\'s the matter with you? Why are you trying to spoil my business?"

"What do you care! Is it my fault that other people dislike your items?"

…..

I stood there innocently watching them attempting to steal business which resulted in a quarrel, which escalated into a PK, even without me saying a thing from start to end! Truly, their spirit for business was indeed worth respecting!

I decided that entering the City was better off, and carefully avoided the two PK\'ing each other! Su Mei rode on my shoulder and looked around, and upon seeing interesting things, she jumped down and ran off, completely forgetting that I exist! From that, I could tell that a woman\'s love to shop never differed in age!

"I want this!" Su Mei finally remembered me and brought over a strange badge.

"What\'s this?"

"Angel Badge! I need to use it!"

"Oh!" I turned to the stall owner and asked: "How much?"

"2 Crystal Pieces!"

"Alright!" I casually handed 2 Crystal Pieces over to him and obtained the Angel Badge. But upon the completion of the transaction, the badge in my hand suddenly unleashed a bright light and gradually turned from white to red, and became extremely hot.

"WOAH!" I threw the Badge onto the ground as I sensed its temperature was as hot as molten steel.

"What happened?" Su Mei carefully used a Dagger to poke at the Badge. "Wasn\'t it just fine?"

"Brother, are you alright?" The Stall owner who sold it to us looked at us strangely.

"It\'s nothing, it\'s nothing!" I waved my hand, acting as though it was nothing although my hand was extremely painful. The badge was too evil!

The badge on the ground gradually turned white again. Su Mei then tried to pick it up with her bare hands. "Why am I fine holding onto it?"

"I don\'t know!"

"Give me your hand!"

I extended my hand out and Su Mei placed the badge in my palm. The white Badge started to release light again, then gradually turn red.

"Ouch!" I anxiously threw the badge out again, it had turned hot for no reason again!

(*) - Ziri, is the name of the movie Purple Sunset, which yeah, involves the sun.