Starting from Zero

Book 4, Chapter 14

Ninja (Made in China)

Hate content alert

I"ll try to mitigate harsh words best as possible but some improper stuff in the main story can"t be avoided.

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           "Put me down!!"

           Rosa is holdingRed Moon up in the air by one of her ankles. She can"t shake herself free withthat upside down position.
　　
　　    Ireleased that ninja first. "Come on. You can go."
　　
　　    Hecollected his weapon but didn"t leave. He just stared at me.

           "You aren"tgoing to kill me?"
　　
　　    "Whywould I? That"s a strange request." 
　　
　　    "I"ma ninja!"
 　　
　　    "Ofcourse you are. Do you think I"m blind?" I pointed at his equipment.
　　
　　    "Youstill let me go?"
 　　
　　    "That"s nothing to do with your cla.s.s. Or do you wish to die actually?" Iordered Rosa to capture him again. "I wouldn"t mind giving you alittle help."
　　
　　    "Nononono!"He shook his head like mad. "It"s just...Aren"t Chinese players just gonnakill a j.a.panese ninja on sight? Especially someone strong like you. You don"thate j.a.panese?"
　　
　　    "Listen,I don"t care where you from. I"m practical, I look for benefit. Killing you means bringing myself another enemy but without any rewards, so I won"t dothat. You are not trying to do anything to me right? Then there"s no pointwasting my time here. Mind you, I don"t like j.a.pan either because what they didto us before. You"d better run if you see me on your own land or I"ll nothesitate to kill you."
　　
　　    "ButI"m not a j.a.panese! My name is Razor, I live here!"
　　
　　    "Ahdon"t worry. I said I won"t kill you now and I meant it. It"s not like I"mgoing to stab you in the back or something."

            I turned back to Red Moon.
　　
　　    Razorcaught up from behind. I heard the sound of blade being drawn. The guy wants to godirty??

           I immediately turned around and readied my claw blades, but I stopped. He"spointing the katana handle towards me.

            "What"s that for?"
　　
　　    "Takethis blade, please."
 　　
　　    Ididn"t move. "It"s your weapon. Why?"
　　
　　    "It"sone of the Nation Treasures of j.a.pan, [Rin Ray], the straight sword (*). It was alot of effort for me to take this thing back here!"
 　　
　　    Ican"t resist the curiosity and took the weapon in my hands.

            "There are many problemshere."
　　
　　    "Problems?"
　　
　　    "Okfirst, what do you mean "Nation Treasure"? I only know about Artifacts orsimilar ranks. First time I heard about this kind of treasure. Next, they haven"topened international travel routes right? How did you bring a j.a.panese weapon here? And,I think you said you"re Chinese before. Then however did you become ninja?"
　　
　　    "Thoseare simple. I"ll tell you about the last question first. I was born in j.a.panbut moved here when I was a year old, with my grand parents. At that time my ident.i.ty belonged toj.a.pan. Now I"m already applying for Chinese citizenship but it haven"t comethrough yet, when I started this game I used my j.a.pan ID so I can choose ninjaas a cla.s.s. I was hoping to bring the knowledge of this cla.s.s to other playershere so they can learn about it.

            Now, the second question. I went back to j.a.panto visit my parents the other day so my character moved along. You can"t travelbetween countries yet but moving in real life will still affect where you sp.a.w.n.That"s all you can do though, you can"t actually start a war in this way, butyou CAN try to send a spy or something if you really want to. When I was there I happened to see a guild fighting with a bossmonster. I s.n.a.t.c.hed the treasure away when they"re not noticing!"

           Hepointed at the blade.

           "As for Nation Treasure, I just heard about itrecently. To prepare for nation wars, they gave two sets of Nation Treasures toeach country. The treasure is actually a equipment set, designed for nation wars.Two nation sets already got exposed in j.a.pan. One of them is called the "InvisibleNinja", which gives you super powerful hiding skills and some insane Dexteritybonus. The other is a Channeler set, it lets you revive corpses on thebattlefield and command them to fight for you. No one knows how many you cancontrol yet. This sword is a part of that ninja set. Now I brought it here soj.a.panese players are never going to wear it in full."
　　
　　    Thatsounds interesting. I examined the sword carefully. Its appearance is just anordinary eastern style katana, but a bit longer then average.

           The attributes...arenot really impressive.

           [Rin Ray], straight sword,

           Attack 400-480,

           Attack Speed: Very Fast,

           100-200additional Lightening damage,

           100% chance to cause laceration,

           Amplified damage,

           Targets. .h.i.t will have all their attributes reduced by 20%.

           Set bonus: invisibleweapon, attacks do not cause pain.
　　
　　    It"spowerful, but not THAT powerful. The main feature of this thing isinvisibility, and now j.a.panese players have to find another weapon. So if I seea weapon floating in the air in the future, someone"s probably wearing theremaining parts of the Invisible Ninja set.

            This is fun. Now those j.a.ps gonnaworry about this weapon in their sleep!
　　
　　    "Whydon"t you use such a good weapon then? You"re a ninja yourself you know." Ilooked at the young man in doubt. Now I can"t understand what he"s thinking about.
　　
　　    "Theychased me all the way here! I"d be in serious trouble if I carry this thingaround!" He seems reluctant to give up the treasure. "You saw thosefour guys? They came just for me. They followed me to China in real life to getthis weapon. I heard their leader"s planning to bring even more high levelplayers soon!"
　　
　　    "c.r.a.p.Just for a sword?"
　　
　　    "Just for a sword?? It"slabeled 2.5 million Crystals on the j.a.panese market!" (**)
 　　
　　    "That"s...a lot of money. Why don"t you just sell it back then?"
　　
　　    "Ha.I wouldn"t have gone though all the trouble to bring it here if I just want money for it! I don"t need moneyanyway. There"s something I don"t like about j.a.pan so I decided to take it away."
　　
　　    "Myrespects man. Now I trust I can see you as a fellow player here, despite of yourhalf foreign blood." I stretched my hand. "I"m Ziri. Nice to meet you."
　　
　　    Heshook my hand. "It"s not half, just a quarter. My grandpa is a bornChinese too."
　　
　　    Alright.There"s no doubt I"ll run into tons of ninjas when I go to j.a.pan, should Irecruit this guy? He seems friendly enough, and he knows all about ninjas. Hisweaknesses are the weaknesses of every ninja!

            "Will you follow me if I"mto do bad things to j.a.pan?"
　　
　　    "Whatkind of bad things?"
 　　
　　    "Well,smash their stuff, kill some people and maybe burn their buildings."
 　　
　　    "I"dlove it! I"m planning to go over there and cause damage from the start. I choseninja because of this reason, they"ll never suspect me as a spy!"
　　
　　    Igave him the sword. "I know a place where you can try to get some EXP. And take this thing, they won"t find you there."
　　
　　    "Theywill!" He complained. "This weapon ranks second on the j.a.paneseweapon ranking list. That list will always display the weapon"s owner and hiscurrent location. The game is big, how do you think those people find me soeasily? I give it to you because I think you can protect it. And you can flyright?" He pointed at my wings. "Ninjas can"t fly so they can nevercatch you."
　　
　　
　　    Thatreminds me...There are many different rankings in China as well. The thing is,my Hermit"s Ring hides my name from them. Or I"m pretty sure every list exceptfor the level one would have been showing my name all over them.

           "But how do you grind without aweapon?"
　　
　　    "Oh.I have this one." He took out another katana behind his back. "Myoriginal weapon. Weaker of course but I can still use it."
　　
　　    "Sowhere are you going now?"
 　　
　　    "Findsomewhere to grind. Let"s go have some fun in j.a.pan when nation waris open!"
　　
　　    "Wait,I"ll take you to my friends. I got someone with me who also plan to do that. You"lllevel faster than doing it alone."
　　
　　    "Nice!Some teammates, that"s what I"m hoping for."
　　
　　    "Giveme a moment."

            I contacted Hawk and Wayne, asking them to meet me at thegate of the Lost City. Theyare all not far from there. And even if someone"s far I just ask Lucky astransport. We won"t have any travel problems with this large sized rotorcraft around.

           Wemet as scheduled. Razor almost went into a fight with Hawk the moment they met,if I didn"t drag them apart fast enough. I explained a lot but Hawk is stilllooking at Razor with a weird expression.
　　
　　    Aftersome introductions I began to explain my main topic.

           "I"m here to tell you onething: I"m going over to j.a.pan and do some nasty business to them when nationwar system is open. Your opinions?"
　　
　　    Hearingthis, Hawk started to inspect Razor up and down again, trying to find anythingsuspicious.
 　　
　　    "I"min." Elfy is decisive as ever. "I don"t like them. Let"s go kill someoneand get their stuff, that means we get profit AND have fun. Two birds with onestone."
　　
　　    Hawkfollowed up. "No objections here. Of course I"ll tag along."
　　
　　    Wayne:"Take me if you don"t mind I"m not really a good fighter. I can"t give upthis online war this time!" 　　
　　  

           Yuriraised her hand too. "I"ll go too! Granny told me j.a.panese are bad people.My skills are useful, you can keep me safe for three minutes and then dowhatever you want!"
            She confused everyone. The only people who witnessedher skills before are Wayne and me.
　　
　　    "Yuri,they don"t know what you can do yet. Play a song for these guys." 　　
　　  

            "Ofcourse!"

            She took out her silver flute and began her performance. All thelisteners enjoyed the great music for several full minutes before they finallyrealized they can"t move their bodies!
　　
　　    "What"shappening??" Elfy struggled. "I"m stuck!"
　　
　　    "Surprise!This is Miss Yuri"s special attack. She"s a hidden cla.s.s, the Spell Flute. Herskills are these music with all kinds of effects. The one you just heard isused to restrict people"s movement. Those with similar levels will be frozen for about 7 or 8 minutes. If she keeps playing you will never move again."

            I picked up Red Moon who"s been following me all this time (now like a plasterstatue), and put her onto Lucky"s back. "Go. Come down after some minutes."
　　
　　    "Alright!"Lucky disappeared into the sky while carrying the helpless Red Moon.
　　
　　    Iturned back to the others. "Now the trouble is gone, let"s continue. Razor, yousaid you would join right? Everyone has agreed."
　　
　　    There"sno need to ask him again, I"m just making sure that the other people can accepthim since we all have a same goal now. His ninja cla.s.s makes it really hard forpeople to trust him.

            "Of course I"ll join. As a Chinese player."

            Hawklooked consented after he heard that. Though I don"t think he trusts Razorenough.
　　
　　    "Next,let"s talk about ninjas."
 　　
　　    "Somethingspecial about them?" Elfy asked.
　　
　　    "Accordingto Razor, this cla.s.s makes up a great portion of the j.a.panese player population.There will be a ninja in every five players there. There are many optionalcla.s.ses in [Zero] and still, 20% of them are ninjas. That"s a lot! You mayalready know that this game claims to allow every player to play their ownfavorite, customizable cla.s.s, so there can"t be a particular cla.s.s that toomany players choose. Example, Elfy is an Archer, it"s only a general conceptand there are hundreds of sub-cla.s.ses under it. Since there are lots of ninjasin j.a.pan I think Razor can tell us something we should know about them. Toknow your enemies, as they say."
　　
　　    Razorstepped front. "A Ninja, just like Archer, Warrior, Wizard, Tamer and such,is also a general t.i.tle. Everyone can choose to become sub cla.s.s when theyreach level 200. For a Warrior, he or she can become a Shielder, Lancer, BowFighter, Berserker and so on. Ninja too, has many further sub cla.s.ses. Mycurrent level is 379, and my direction is Blader Ninja. This cla.s.s usually hasvery high Attack Speed. My Attack is lower than most people but I can deal tencuts when my enemy only makes one! My choice is not a major trend. Most people will choose fromthese four: Jutsu Master, Tool Master, Cloaking Master and Flash Ninja.
　　
　　    JutsuMaster is the ninja version of Wizard. They use all kinds of "Jutsu" just likespells, they possess the highest damage abilities among all other ninjas. Butthey"re the easiest to kill. Their Speed and Defense are average and their HPis usually very low. As long as you are careful enough about their attacks, theywon"t cause much trouble.
　　
　　    ATool Master uses concealed weapons to attack. They"re like Archers. Mainweapons includes darts, blowpipes, mini crossbows and similar trick weapons. But they"ll also carry meleeweapons like chain blades and daggers. Their main role is distraction--they don"thave much power, so they can"t kill you as long as you don"t expose yourweakness first.
　　
　　    Next,the Flash Ninja. Well, they are fast, really fast. Their movement and attackspeed can usually go beyond the reasonable degree. They"re troublesome, butshouldn"t be hard to deal with if you keep your defenses up. One thing to noteis that they"re a nightmare for Archers because arrows can"t hit them. That"swhy they always go straight to enemy long range damagers. They can still killArchers easily even if their own Attack is poor. Wizards don"t really have toworry about them cause they can"t break through their mage shield. And some AoEskills can be deadly to them. As for Warriors...Well no Flash Ninja is stupidenough to take on a Warrior head on. They avoid melee dps whenever they can.
　　
　　    CloakingMaster...is the most nasty one among the four. Each of their attribute can be abit higher than average. I mean, they"re not fast but at least they are fasterthan wizards and warriors. Their Defense is not high but is still tougher thanWizards and Archers. Just like that. The problem is they can go invisible. Peoplesay that a high level Cloaking Master can move and attack without causing anynoise, and they won"t leave any traces either, like, footprints. There"s no wayto detect them unless you can hit them with an area attack. The good part isthat there aren"t many of them in j.a.pan because monsters can sniff them out, soit"s really hard for them to level up without their only advantage. Few peoplewould choose this cla.s.s.
　　
　　    Apartfrom Ninja, there"s another featured cla.s.s in j.a.pan called Channeler. They"relike those Necromancers who can manipulate corpses, a lot of them!"
 　　
　　    Waynecut in: " As a Spectral Mage I can control corpses too. I can just summonall the corpses on the field and then make them disappear, so Channeler is nothreat for me. A corpse rots beyond use after it"s controlled once. I can makesure there are no corpses lying around for them."
　　
　　    Razorlooked at Wayne: "It"s always good to have professionals in the team. Alright,that"s all I know. What"s the plan now?"
 　　
　　    "Dowe go level up now?" Yuri asked. "We need to get more levels if weare to invade another country."
　　
　　    "Beforethat, I need to go visit a city. I haven"t go inside cities for ages!"
 　　
　　    Hawkpointed at the sky. "What about that missy up there? You"re the number one criminalplus kidnapper in the whole country! You"re not planning to take a walk on thestreet like that, right?"
　　
　　    "That"swhy I must go now! Before more people know about it!"
 　　
　　    Yuriasked: "I always wanted to ask... Who"s that lady? I think you hate her."
　　
　　    "Hate?More than hate! I think she"s the most devilish being out there. Now I know whyyou don"t judge a book by the cover! I became the top pervert in the gamebecause of her false accusations!"
　　
　　    "Pervert?Hahaha! You?" Yuri laughed. "I"ll pa.s.s today, got to leave. Maybe tomorrow!"
　　
　　    "Oh,it"s pretty late I see. Then you guys should rest early. Let"s make a scheduleand have some fun in the city next time."

           Razor: "Yeah, I neveractually went into any cities, since I"m a Ninja and all. It should be no problem if weall go together. I"m itching to see what those Chinese cities look like!"
　　
　　    "SoI"m not the only one expelled!" I exclaimed. "Let"s make it uptomorrow.  So when do me meet? Can you all get up early? I never sleep in youknow."
　　
　　    "Ialways sleep in!" Wayne said.
　　
　　    "Metoo." Elfy followed. "Girls need enough sleep to keep their image!"
　　
　　    "Isee. Let"s make it 10 o"clock then. You should all be awake by that time. Let"s meet up right here, do whatever you want if you get on earlier than that."
　　
　　    "It"ssettled!" Everyone agreed.
　　
　　  

            Ifeel faint when I took off my helmet. Now I think about it, I never had anylunch today!

            "Wayne? Hey Wayne!"
　　
　　    "What?"
　　
　　    "Let"seat out." Rose is needed at the labs and she won"t be back till night.
　　
　　    "Youfinally remembered me.  Aren"t you going to have your happy hours with your wife?" Hejoked.
　　
　　    Ichanged my tune. "Oh you"re right! Maybe I should go enjoy something atthe Fortune Grand Hotel...with Rose only!"
　　 

           Ican already see he fell for it. Over all the years, I know he never rejects hotgirls and hot food.

            "Boss! I"m sorry! Please please take me with you!"His expression makes me worried that he might eat me up if I say no.
　　
　　    "Goget dressed! Are you going to go out like this?"
　　
　　   

           Thatwas quite a feast. For Wayne at least. He ate until he can"t sit up anymore. Ugh,money is always a good thing to have.

           On our way back, he just limped slowlylike a pregnant. I kept looking around for people and kept distance with himwhenever there are people around. This is too embarra.s.sing!
　　
　　    It"salready dark when we finally made it.  I hear my phoneringing inside the room.

           It"s dad.

           "Out playing at such an hour huh boy? At least remember to take your phonewith you! Gottime tomorrow?"

           Well that"s straight. Seems he got some more business forme.
　　
　　    "I"mplanning to play together with some friends. They are the people I found tohelp me with your infiltration plan. Gonna socialize with them."
　　
　　    "I see..." He thought about something. "What about after tomorrow?"
　　
　　    "Ican do it. So what do you need?"
 　　
　　    "Abusiness trip!"
 　　
　　    "Atrip? Ask an employee will you? I"m not your worker."
　　
　　    "Ihave several business talks here and I don"t have more time on my schedule!"
 　　
　　    "Thosemanagers in the company are not just freeloaders right? Why me?"
　　
　　    "Thisjob has some company secrets involved, the only ones I trust are all busy! You"rethe only choice left."
　　
　　    "Wellshoot. I"ll do it. But don"t forget the rules!" I grinned.

           This is aspecial term between me and father. If he asks for my help he"ll need to agree on something I ask, as long as it"s reasonable.
　　
　　    "Sure.Go to our secret lab in the morning the day after tomorrow. It"s the one youwent with Charon last time."
　　
　　    "Gotit, I"ll be there."