Starting from Zero

"Argh!"

I was too focused on the new enemy that I didn’t notice a zombie approached me and bit my leg.

"Well I know how to deal with corpses!" I grabbed the body and threw it into the air. "[Fire Blast]!"

It disappeared under the explosion. I’m part wizard too so I know several entry-level spells.

The other corpses slowly moved towards my position. These are killed players, now they\'re slow, broken, and without any tactics. I can always take down one or two with one attack.

But I soon noticed that my attacks didn’t actually kill the zombies. They always come back!

"Tank!" I called out to my last helper. "Wash them over with your acid!"

Tank began to move around spilling fluid like a watering cart. None of the corpses know how to dodge attacks so they\'re soon covered in green liquid. The battlefield now sounds like a frying pan with hot oil in it. White smoke rose from all the zombies with a faint "fizzz" sound.

However the acid-burnt zombies are still trying to reach me. Those already lost their legs are crawling on their arms. Even the arms without a body are still moving!

I’ve been to my dad\'s lab a lot so I don’t feel anything here. If anyone else looking at thousands of dead bodies melting into yellow or green pus, they sure won’t be able to hold their lunch inside the stomach.

When the acid mist cleared up the plaza is empty of any moving object, dead or alive.

"Don’t hide behind dead men. Come out and fight!" I yelled.

The answer came from all around me, so I didn’t get to find its source.

"Afraid already? I haven’t shown you the main dish yet!"

"So you can’t come out? Too ashamed to show your face in the public? I heard your country has project or something that unites and protects animals in Southeast Asia. Are you one of the product? Yeah that\'s it. Let me guess, who gave you birth? A pig? Such nice of you to preserve the animals! You even use yourselves to breed them eh? Respects, man!"

A figure wearing Taoist-like costume appeared at the edge of the tower plaza. He wears a white robe with a giant, black eight-diagram in the middle. Typical Taoists wear blue, so I guess this man is a diverted class. Razor mentioned before that they\'re called..."Onmyoji".

The man standing far away is clenching his fists firmly in anger. I’m sure he would have come and punch me up close if he\'s not a ranged class.

"Hear my name carefully you filthy chink! I am the very top Onmyoji in the entire Japanese Empire, Tanaka Shota! And you will know the consequence of your pathetic insult! I will kill you, order your corpse to run around the city naked, and upload the video for the whole community, the whole world to watch, and--"

Thud. This Tanaka Shota fell flat on the ground.

He didn’t get to finish his words because two bolts are now stuck inside both of his eye sockets, with red and milk colored fluid coming out.

"Has anyone ever told you not to make long speeches on the battlefield?"

Something is shining near his corpse. And the moment I noticed it, a roped hook appeared and snatched it away.

That must be something Tanaka dropped upon death. The ground is covered by a good number of dropped equipment from the dead players and no one paid them any attention, now someone took back Tanaka\'s item instantly, which means it must be something really valuable. This also means I need to get it.

I shot my dragon cord. The metal tip of the cord clashed with the hook, causing the item to drop on the ground. It’s a...strange shaped weapon. I’ve read it somewhere...It’s called a "vajra".

The ninja carrying the rope hook quickly retracted the rope to throw it again, attempting to retrieve the item. My mind-controlled dragon cord is faster. But as I made a second attempt, another hook appeared and knocked into my cord, twisting them together. The second ninja and I pulled on our ropes at the same time and began a pulling competition.

I saw him smiling with the only exposed eye. He has successfully stalled my action, letting his teammate to get the item first.

What he doesn\'t know is that my dragon cord is not some ordinary rope. It\'s used to cut stuff.

I channeled some magic into the dragon cord. The next second, the ninja\'s rope was sliced into several parts, causing the surprised ninja to fell backwards. I shot my second cord on the other hand towards the other hook, knocking it out of the air, while using the one I just pulled free to seize the vajra.

Without anyone else to stop me, I pulled the item back and immediately put it into my bracelet inventory, since I have no time the check it in detail at the moment. I also began to sweep the floor for all the dropped equipment using my werewolf body\'s extreme speed.

The Japanese players are still blocking the entrance of the plaza without coming in, fearing that I may choose to suicide bomb the place. They don’t know about my bracelet so they think I can only take several more items before I overload my inventory. However, they gradually realized something\'s wrong when I’m almost done cleaning half of the plaza.

Those entered the plaza and fought with me were their elite teams, and elite teams drop better items. Now they can’t just stand and watch me take them all away. Some hundreds of players rushed in.

I was waiting for them to do this. Their defense grew thin, if they send more people in here there will be weakpoints in their formation on the outside.

I jumped over the incoming attackers, towards the main gate of the plaza. Matsumoto has been staying far and commanding his ranged attackers to watch my action and shoot me when they see a chance. But he wasn\'t expecting me to escape from the main door. There aren’t enough people guarding here now.

I’m faster enough to gain distance from the pursuers. After several jumps, I landed on the bell tower Matsumoto has been hiding in. I\'m planning to kill him again before escaping.

But I wasn’t expecting someone else to be here--a female ninja is standing in front of Matsumoto, weapon ready. I was trying to reach Matsumoto\'s floor. The female ninja saw a chance when I’m still in mid-air and stabbed me in the chest.

Unable to change direction, her kanata pierced my chest nice and clean, causing me to fall down the bell tower. I crashed on the ground and no longer have any strength to stand up.

Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed me from...behind? And pulled. I didn’t struggle because I heard some familiar words.

"I can help you but don’t move!"

It\'s Chinese language, and native, with some central accent. It definitely didn’t come from a foreigner.

When I stopped all actions the hands pulled me into the ground. I only had a brief consciousness to de-summon Tank, before my vision and mind both went black.

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"WHO IS IT?!" I woke up from the game screaming and startled Rose.

"Finally, you came out." Rose glanced at me. "The other boys and Coin respawned from Bi-Lin. What happened?"

I raised a hand to tell her to stop. "Give me a moment. I’m not sure myself. Tell me something first."

"What is it?"

"Did you see Red Moon and Zirai?"

"Not on the ship. But Zirai was offline too, she told me they reached the sea with the door of...Door of Truth? And she needs us to pick them up."

"Nice. Where is she now?"

"She’s sleeping. Been staying up too long. Can you tell me what happened now?"

"I helped the two of them retreat, then I fought with the Japanese by myself, against six thousand."

"What?? So, you\'re dead? Or are you coming out to hide from them?"

"Neither. I think someone saved me, then I blacked out. But I don’t remember I logged out."

Rose looked at the clock. "Maybe the system kicked you out. It happens when you stay in the game for over 36 hours within two days, and you won’t be coming back in there for three hours."

"Wait, I played THAT long?"

"Almost."

"What’s the time now?"

"Three in the morning. I\'ve been waiting for you, now I really need some sleep."

"Let\'s both catch some sleep. We need to report back to the school soon."

"Yeah...yawn..."

Rose is fast asleep quickly. I also fell into slumber while thinking about who could have saved me.

-----------------

"Hey get up!" Rose dragged me up into a sitting position. But my eyelids refused to function.

"A little longer..."

"The sun\'s shining on your face!"

"It\'s fine. Fewer misunderstandings if I have a darker skin."

It’s pretty early still, and Rose seems all energetic.

"Get up now or I’ll use my dirty moves!"

"Go ahead. Nothing will scare me now."

"Good. Remember what you said."

Rose fetched some ice cubes from the fridge and poured them into the water in the bath tub. She then soaked a towel in the icy water, went back to my room, removed my blanket and pressed the towel against my chest.

"Ahhhhhhrgh!!"

I bounce up from the bed, almost knocking into the ceiling. I couldn’t think clearly with all the drowsiness. My first instinct was to punch at whoever attacked me. Thank god I halted my fist before actually hitting Rose.

Rose already closed her eyes, expecting the punch. That was stupid of me. But my mind is fine now. Rose is still standing still not knowing that I stopped my "attack".

I simply surprised her by an affectionate French-style kiss.

"This is for what you just did."

She returned the favor with an even longer one, almost choking me.

"This is for not answering my call!"

"Then I\'m sleep in every time so you can kiss me everyday."

"Ahem!"

Oh shoot. Zirai has been standing at the door.

"Finished, my lover birds? Time for breakfast!"

"Coming!"

Rose hopped down the bed and rushed out of the room with her face burning.

I cleaned myself and walked to the main room. Rose and Zirai are chatting, with their backs against me. Zirai\'s sister saw me coming in and...dropped her fork on her plate, causing a loud "clang". (*)

"What\'s the matter?" Zirai and Rose looked at her.

Linn opened her mouth without saying anything. She just pointed at me. Zirai and Rose then turned around and stared at me for a few seconds.

Zirai gasped.

Rose covered her mouth with one hand and pointed at me with the other.

What the heck? I looked down on myself but didn’t notice anything. It\'s not like I came in without my pants or something.

"Ziri?" Rose whispered.

"What\'s going on? Something on my face?"

"Are you...feeling alright?" Zirai finally recovered. "I mean, you\'re still you, right?"

"I\'m what? Come on, it\'s not April Fools."

"Get to the bathroom and look in the mirror! Your eyes!"

"My eyes??"

I walked to the mirror in puzzle and--woah!

"What\'s this??" I pressed my nose against the mirror and pulled on my eyelids to check my eyeballs here and there.

The girls came after me. I turned and asked them: "Since when did it happen?"

"I don’t know. You were fine when you just woke up."

"But--"

I’m not sure what to say. I just looked in the mirror and observed both of my eyes again.

"What--how--? Are these even human eyes?"

Linn nudged into the bathroom. "You\'re like this when I saw you. Don’t tell me you\'re a vampire or something, I don’t believe those. So are you wearing those color contact lens or something? Where you bought them? I\'ll get a pair and scare people when I go back!"

"I\'m not wearing anything!" I panicked. Something unknown and horrible is going on inside my body!

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(*) I made a mistake with Zirai’s sister’s name before. I’ll call her "Linn" from now on.