Starting from Zero

Book 4, Chapter 10

Unexpected Acquaintance

           "I told you, silly. Join our guild. Iheard that you got some really nice equipment. Oh and your Luck would help us alot too."

           The girl"s expression is super confident, before Rose rushedover and knocked her over. The screen shook again, then Rose"s face came up, withsome tears and messy hair. But she"s smiling big.

           "Don"t worry about itZiri! I won"t give up even if it means they would tickle me to death! Ah!...."

           There she goes.
　　
　　    Thatgirl showed up again. She tried to keep a stern face but her hair and thosestraws tangling on her head are not really persuasive.

            "Join us now or we"lluse some serious torture!"
　　
　　    "Sowhat exactly are you doing to Rose?" I can only see a group of girlsrunning back and forth in the back of the screen. That doesn"t look like whatwould happen inside a jail cell.

            "Hey, listen. I can get you all out ofthere, how about we talk about it in person? You ladies are making me dizzy!"
　　
　　    "Ahhhh!...Get her off me!... Eh-ha- " The girl didn"t get to answer before she waspressed down again. Rose must be pretty skillful at whatever they"re playing. Thesegirls... Now I"m worried. Not for her safety, but for fear that Rose might getled astray by their crazy playstyle.

           Ugh, gotta rescue her fast. I really don"twant to get myself a real "evil witch" instead. Though for somereason I think I"m already too late.
　　
　　    Amoment later, Rose was pulled away by someone and the "vice master" appearedon the display for a third time. Her clothes are all messed up.

           Elfyalmost slapped her hands against Hawk"s eyes. "Don"t look!!"
　　
　　    Myface feels a little hot too. "Can you, um, tighten up?"
 　　
　　    "Huh?AH!"

           She just noticed her breast-level collar and began to tidy up.

            "...Alright! Let"s talk business. You said you can get ALL of us out?"
　　
　　    "YesI did. I wasn"t chilling off when my wife is there. I"ve been looking for waysand improving myself just to get her out as soon as I can."
　　
　　    "Okay.Come meet me in the jail and let"s talk."
 　　
　　    "Understood."

           I used my Star Gaze to locate Rose, told Hawk to wait for me in the city andthen teleported in front of the prison.
　　
　　    "Ouch!"A girl yelled.
　　
　　    "Yowl!"I yelled.
　　
　　    Myteleport ring caused a little accident. It determines your target locationbased on the coordinate you set. But if there are obstacles at that location, itwill transport you to a random vacant location within 10 meters of the originalpoint, or simply doesn"t work if there are none. And now something is justblocking my target. Well, someone.

           I chose to get to the entrance of the prison.Someone is pa.s.sing through so my ring picked a point near this person, whichhappens to be right in front of her. Without much time to react, she walked intome and sat back on the ground, knocking me flat as well.
　　
　　    "Oh!I"m sorry!" I apologize in order not to cause too much trouble.
　　
　　    "Heywatch it!" Another girl came, who obviously doesn"t know how I get here. Allshe saw was someone b.u.mped into her friend. She helped the sitting girl upwhile mumbling: "Geez. Why would someone rush into a prison so fast? Thereare enough rooms in there."
　　
　　    "Sorryladies, that wasn"t on purpose. I...was distracted!" I tried to help thegirl too. "Did I hurt you?"
　　
　　    "I"mfine! I"m not made of gla.s.s or something. And Snowy, you don"t have to blame him like that." She pulled on our hands and stood up. "So what haveyou done?"
　　
　　    "Em?"That"s not expected. I thought she forgave me, did she just decide to get backon me again?

           "It was just an accident, I promise!" I need to get outof this.
　　
　　    "That"snot what I meant. I want to know how you appeared out of thin air. It didn"tlook like someone just logged on. Player who just came up will appear slowly, butyou got in front of me in a flash!"

            She asked that while staring at myface. I think she looks familiar but...I can"t remember who she is. She looksbeautiful. No, "magnificent" would be the better word. It"s thefeeling of a women who can lead other people into actions. Though that kindafeels weird when a young girl is carrying that kind of temperament.
　　
　　    "Itwas teleportation. I think the system caused an accident by placing me right infront of you."
 　　
　　    "Teleport?"She lowered her head for a moment. "So...you got the hidden cla.s.s as aTaoism Sorcerer?"
　　
　　    "Taoism?I"m a knight." I touched my armor. "Would a Taoist wear heavy armors?"(*)
　　
　　    "Oh,my bad. Then how did you?..."
　　
　　    I"min a hurry here so I just displayed my ring to her. "Got it?"
　　
　　    Hereyes went wide. "However did you get this thing?"
　　
　　    "Systemreward. I"m the first player to use a teleport station within the China region."
 　　
　　    "Thereis a reward for that??" The girl called Snowy stared at the display in shock.
　　
　　    "Willyou sell it? I"ll pay a high price!" The other girl exclaimed.
　　
　　    Idrew my hand back. "Nope. I apologize for what I did. But that won"t beany reason for me to sell my ring. I"ll go inside now if there"s no morequestions."

           I left them behind me.

          The structure looks pretty good. It"s asingle hallway behind the entrance, the walls are well painted, and the floor isboarded using big flagstones. The place is much tidier than I expected. Whoeverdesigned this place didn"t plan to make it the same as those terrible places inreal life.

          Two doors stand at the end of the hallway, a blue "M" anda red "W". I can see they tried as best as they could to make themNOT look like a toilet.

          I walked into the women"s door. There"s nothing likethose heavy metal blast doors you would imagine, it"s just a bamboo curtain. There"sonly one large room inside, with a light-blue barrier splitting it up into twoareas. I"m standing in the smaller area, the other side must be for theprisoners.
　　
　　    "Heylove, right here!" Rose noticed me as soon as I entered the room.
　　
　　    Iwalked to the barrier. A dozen or so girls are all staring at me. From thelooks of their hair and those messed up straws everywhere, they didn"t stopwhatever they were doing after I cut the chat with Rose.
　　
　　    The"vice master" came over to me. "Well that was pretty fast. Butweren"t you outside the city just a moment ago?"
　　
　　    "Never mindthat. I"m here to speak to Rose."

           She moved closer.  "Ziriyou...cleaned your red name?"
　　
　　    Iheld up my left hand and displayed my bracelet to her. "Nice trick right? I"llask my friend to take this thing to you, then you can just walk out of here. Bythe way, where is your friend you mentioned before? [Rosy]? Let"s take her along."
　　
　　    The"vice master" humphed. "This lady doesn"t need your service! My status will return to normal in 20 hours anyway."
　　
　　    "...Soyou"re Rosy?" My mouth went wide. "But, you were just, I dunno, forcingus to join--"
　　
　　    "Master!"Rosy suddenly looked behind me.

            I turned to check the new arriver. It"sthe girl who b.u.mped with me back at the entrance.

            "You! You"re Ziri?"
　　
　　    "Howdid you know?"

            My face is covered up, and she didn"t recognize me just nowdid she?

           "I"m [Red Moon], leader of G.o.ddess Alliance. I knew somethingwas familiar when I saw you. Rosy told me that Rose"s husband is coming tovisit her, and he"s called [Ziri]. That"s why I immediately returned."
　　
　　    "RedMoon?  I knewit! You didn"t come just to get some revenge because I pushed your off theplatform last time eh? I didn"t do it on purpose you know, my hands slipped!"
　　
　　    "Waitwhat? That was you? Then why are you suddenly Rose"s husband?"
　　
　　    Huh?What is she talking about?

            "Are you coming to settle that matter or not?"
　　
　　    "What--no!Rose has been telling me that you"re powerful and such so I just came to recruityou since I have this chance. And I always thought the Ziri she mentioned andthe one I met in the dungeon are two different people with the same name."
　　
　　    That"sa relief. "Phew! So I"m safe."
　　
　　    "Notreally. You have to join us."

           Oh please not again.
　　
　　    "No can do." I shook my head, then took off my helmet so I can shake my headeasier. My appearance won"t be too much of an issue in front of a bunch ofgirls right?

            ...right?

            I"m hearing a lot of gasps. d.a.m.n it.
　　
　　    Rosytook out a small mirror and looked into it, then looked at me, and looked atherself again, before she sat down into a corner. Snowy did exactly the sameand decided to sit with Rosy.

           Now I"m seeing a line of girls crouching againsta wall together.
　　
　　    "What"sgoing on?"
 　　
　　    RedMoon just chuckled. "Well...girl problems, not going to explain. So why doyou refuse my offer? We"re the second largest guild within the region of China,apart from the number one, which is the Righteous League. All other guilds arelike totally powerless compared to us. And Righteous League is just a tiny bitbigger than us. We don"t even know who would win if we actually fight with eachother. We won"t fight though, because their leader is my brother. Believe me, we"llgo surpa.s.s them soon enough."
　　
　　    "Imean no offense to your guild, but whether to join you got nothing to do withhow big you are. I already have my own guild."
　　
　　    RedMoon interrupted me. "I heard it. The "Blizzard Rose"? With just twopeople? What can you do with that? Join us. Come on."
　　
　　    "That"snot important. Blizzard Rose is created by me and Rose, for that reason alone Iwill see to the end of it. Besides there are other facts why I shouldn"t joinyou. From the looks of it the majority of your members are females right? Iwould feel really constrained if I"m in there. I"m trying very hard here toprove to everyone that I"m a guy...Joining G.o.ddess Alliance will totally ruinmy effort. And, as you can see I"m the loner type. I don"t like staying amongother people all the time. I"m pretty strict about my schedules too. It will bebad manners if I join someone and refuse to partic.i.p.ate in your quests andactivities, am I right?"
　　
　　    RedMoon"s face is getting redder and I get the feeling that she will punch at meany time. However she just let out a deep sigh.

           "Huh...If that"s what youhope for. We do need talents but we don"t have to go as far as to begpeople to join. Snowy, let"s go."

           She dragged Snowy out of the room. I thinkSnowy is still depressed for whatever reason.
　　
　　    Rosebeckoned me so I walked close to the barrier. She just looked at me with aweird look. "What are you afraid of? Come in."
　　
　　    "Eh?I can get inside?" I pointed at the barrier doubtfully.
　　
　　    "Ofcourse. It will only block red names. Other players can just ignore it."
　　
　　    Ipoked at the barrier. She"s right, I don"t feel anything. 

           "So this is...the very expensive outfit you told me?" Rose leaned close to inspect my armor.
　　
　　    Inod. "Yeah. I wouldn"t have it repaired yet but...you know, to save you. Iowed the repair fee to Clark, now I still need to give him 150k Crystals."
　　
　　    "Itlooks worth it. What"s that on your hand? Is this a weapon?"
　　
　　    "This." Ipressed on the spring and released my claw blade. "One on each hand. Andthis..." I pulled out the dragon cord. "Use this as rope or cut stuff."
　　
　　    "Wooh!Where on earth did you get this thing?" The sitting-at-corner Rosy is nowattracted as well.
　　
　　    "Oh,you"re ok? What"s gotten into you all?"
　　
　　   "Because of you, lady boy! Geez why would you look so nice? We werealready feeling defeated by master and Rose. Now even a man looks better thanus!"
　　
　　    "...That"sit? Wellsorry! I didn"t ask for it. The job was nicely done by my parents, you shouldcomplain to them not me. Or maybe go ask your parents why didn"t they give you the face of a super star."
　　
　　    "Ugh.Forget it!  So what"s the level of your armor? I never seen anything like this.There are too many weapons! What"s this hole?"
　　
　　    "Hole?"
 　　
　　    "Thisone." Rosy pointed at the back of my hand. "The hole above the threeones where your claw comes out."
　　
　　    Iaimed my hand towards the door and pressed something. Thud! A bolt stuck intothe wall beside the door, followed by a scream.

           "AHH! Who was that?? Thisis murder!"

           It"s Elfy. Hawk is following her too. They were walking intothe room whey I shot my crossbow, and Elfy just saw something pierced the wallbeside her left ear.
　　
　　    "Oh,sorry sorry. You came! I was...telling them about my weapon."
　　
　　    "Watchit! If I moved faster that thing would opened up my nose!"
 　　
　　    "Arethey the new friends you mentioned?" Rose looked towards the couple.
　　
　　    "Yup.This is Hawk, a Paladin. And his girl friend Misty Elf, Archer.  Thisis my wife, Crimson Rose."
 　　
　　    Weexchanged some greetings and began to discuss about the rescue plan.

           "The situationis simple:" I raised my left hand. "Any player wearing this braceletmay pa.s.s through the barrier as they wish. We will first exit the city, andHawk will take the bracelet back to Rose so she can leave. We just need somemore tours if we want to bring everyone out. Easy enough right?"
　　
　　    "Yeah...butthere"s a big problem." Said Elfy.
　　
　　    "Whatproblem?" I don"t see anything. "Just, walk around theentrance for a couple of times right? What"s wrong with that?"
　　
　　    Elfypointed at the girls against the wall. "They all know what the braceletdoes right?"
　　
　　    "Yesthey do." I"m still confused.
　　
　　    "Rosy,the prisoners are not ALL from your organization I guess?"
 　　
　　    "What do you mean "organization"? Well, only three of them are. Andmind your words! That sounds like women mafia or something. Our guild is made up of good people. Even if we joined some sort of group fight, therewouldn"t be so many prisoners from our guild."
　　
　　    "I...apologize. I just needed to make sure. So most peoplehere are not from your guild, how do we trust them then? If anyone get themessage out that there is a bracelet capable of getting rid of your red namestatus, what do think will happen?"
　　
　　    I"mstill slow. "Robbery? But this is inside a city! Robbers get caught."
　　
　　    Rosyanswered before Elfy can explain: "Use your brain! The bracelet will sellfor at least 200k Crystals on the market. And Hawk will be carrying it alone, so ifanyone kills him they will only earn 100 Evilness--just a day in the jail. 200k CrystalsI say! A bunch of people would try to rob us for way less than those money."
　　
　　    "Thisthing costs so much??" I"m beginning to wonder if I should just sell itlater to pay my debt!
　　
　　    "Whatshould we do then?" Rose asked.
　　
　　    Igot an idea though. "Rosy, your guild is like, second in command in thewhole country right? And your brother commands the biggest guild? Can you sendsomeone as escort?"
　　
　　    Sheshook her head. "You"re not our member, we don"t have to help. You justshut the door in front of our master"s nose and now you ask for her help? She"salready helping, by not sending anyone to take your bracelet!"
　　
　　    "Butyou need to get out of here right?" 

　　    "Forgetabout it. We"ll all be free in at most three to five days, not like your dearwife. Some extra days won"t be an issue for us. If Rose isn"t my friend I"dalready ask my members to come take it from you. This thing is priceless infuture group fights or guild wars. Sigh, why did I meet with Rose first? Andnow I don"t want to make her feel bad. O lord. Am I being too kind to thisworld?"
　　
　　    Hawknudged me. "Don"t worry, we can take a little risk. You see how Ifight, and I can just run if I need to."
　　
　　    "Noother choice I guess."

           Elfy suggested: "Let"s go together. Ifanything happens we run in opposite directions so they must split up as well, whichmeans better chance for us. They won"t know who"s carrying the bracelet anyway."