Starting from Zero

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I wandered around the city for three full hours without buying a single pill or piece of equipment. It\'s not like I can\'t find any store, the problem is, they\'re all closed! I was unable to find a single soul ever since that group of knights left.

The city is huge, I mean, HUGE, there are countless roads and streets and I\'m not really good at remembering directions. Now I\'m totally confused.

I lost patience. I found a small alley and logged off. Took off my helm, I saw Wayne sitting in front of the computer.

"What you looking at?"

Wayne called me over with excitement. "Look over here. The official site of [Zero]!"

"Hmm? What\'s in it?"

"There are some game rankings and announcement and such." Wayne explained while strolling though the menus.

"Anything worth noticing?"

"Hold a sec. I think I saw some. Ah, here!"

I stood up to Wayne\'s side and began to read the announcement he just pointed out.

"According to Zhong Hua Company, there are a total of 10,100 accounts issued today. These players will be the Public Beta players. All these accounts will have a chance to draw a number of rewards, 4 is most while 0 is minimum."

Wayne turned around and looked at me in shock. "You can get no reward at all? I thought everyone would at least get something! So how many did you get?"

I made a V-sign and smiled. "Your awesome boss here is born lucky who just got a FOUR! Hahaha! Now what do you say?"

"Nice! Right, when I get my account I\'m totally depending on you!"

I scowled. "I\'ll try."

Sensing something amiss, Wayne asked: "What\'s wrong? Someone killed you?"

"Well that would be better!" I dropped on the bed. "The system must hate me. I encountered two NPC monsters fighting each other. One of them got knocked over my head, I used my sword to block it and now my sword is broken!"

"Huh? Don\'t tell me you broke your only Rookie Sword?"

"Ugh! You know what? I found a Common sword in the forest, it isn\'t good but at least is better than the rookie one, which cost only 1 copper even if I sell it, so I just threw the Rookie Sword away. And now I\'m stuck with no weapon to use!"

"Boss! Then how are you gonna level up like this?"

"I\'m thinking about it. I got into a city and tried to buy a weapon first, but none of the stores in that city was in business! Never mind. Nothing serious. I just need to spend more time to look for a shop!"

Wayne shifted back to the webpage and continued reading. "You\'re really lucky boss! It says 5,307 players got zero reward, so the number of actual gifted accounts is only 4,793."

"Really? So many people got a Zero?"

"Right. The company said the success rate is configured based on ratio, zero has the biggest chance and higher numbers are harder to hit!"

"Did they tell us how many players got the other numbers?"

"They did! 3,797 players got One. 792 got Two. 203 got Three. And Four is---wait what the fuck?!

You\'re the only one who hit Four! Omg boss, in the whole world, you\'re the one and only who got all the reward! Now I\'m beginning to worship you! You\'re my god!"

"Is that true?!" I\'m surprised too. I thought at least hundreds of people will get four rewards.

"Anything else on it?"

Wayne continued reading. "Now the top player in the game is level 68, a Warrior named...Big Blade More Killz."

Then Wayne paused.

"What\'s wrong?"

"Oh I saw something interesting."

"What?"

"The number two, is a female player called \'Red Moon\', a Dark Wizard, she is level 67 now! I wonder how she managed it. Aren\'t casters supposed to be slower when it comes to grinding?"

Sigh, now I\'m becoming more and more unconfident seeing these guys. "Geez. I\'m only 29, and they\'re already beyond 60. That\'s more than double my level! How do I catch up?!"

"Come on you will make it!" Wayne comforted me while looking for anything else interesting or useful. "It says here that there are a total of 7 Companions appeared in the game so far! The top one is the companion of that female wizard, called \'Mist\'. It was a level-800 boss monster \'Mutated Night Spirit Lord\', and now it\'s level 38. Now I know how she did it. She got a really nice pet!"

Strange. Lucky is level 1000 boss and it isn\'t top 1? It is only level 1 now but still...

Oh, is it because of that Hermit\'s Ring?

"What about the other ones?"

"The other ones?" Wayne read through the list. "The rest are all junk. Number two is only a level 80 boss, something called the wild horse leader, level 21."

The ring definitely worked! I told Wayne, "Go on!"

Wayne continued . "The game now has officially entered auto-management mode, all controls and operations are done by the system, anything about quest generations, event occurrences, NPC action patterns...The company will not interfere, everything will be handled by Zhong Hua Company\'s supercomputer, Nebula. They will not appoint any game masters and such personnel in the game. It\'s gone full-auto."

"For God\'s sake! That\'s crazy! What are they trying to do?"

"It says this is for testing purposes, they want to see how well the AI system handles emergencies."

"That makes sense." While listening to Wayne, I grabbed some fast food from the fridge and began to munch. "Anything else important?"

"They will issue another 100,000 accounts at 8 am tomorrow, and then lift the restriction after tomorrow. When that happens players will not need to register, their ID number will be their account."

(Now people in the world use universal ID system. The first three numbers represent country, the rest are determined according to reach country\'s own rules. Wherever you go, you\'ll be fine as long as you bring your ID with you, it is bound to your bank credit card. Although the ID number is pretty long and can be troublesome under certain circumstances.)

"That\'s all. They say they will update anything new on the page, and at the same time publish them in-game."

"Alright. Now excuse me. I need to rest for a bit!"