Book 4, Chapter 28
Another Me?
I woke up early enough. According to plan, Ineed to pick up Merciless before we head to Hawk and the others.
"Oh,you"re already here? Am I late?"
"Nope.I came too early."
"Followme."
Igrabbed Merciless"s arm and teleported to the station in G.o.ddess City. This iswhere we"ll meet up.
No one"s here. Yup, this is too early. We found a corneraround the street where we can see the station and sat down. I watched thepa.s.sers-by in boredom, while Merciless plays with that black kitten.
"HeyMerciless. We look like some beggars. Someone"s not going to throw coins at us right?"
Mercilesslooked at me, then turned to his cat again. "Definitely not you. Not sureabout myself though."
"Whatdo you mean?"
"Duh,that robe on you is obviously something expensive. No one is wearing anythingbetter as far as I can see. They must be blind if anyone thinks you"re poor."
"Hey!The Wizard over there!" A female voice called out.
I looked around, theonly one that qualifies as a "wizard" is me.
"Are you calling me?"I looked at the woman who just approached me. Something caught my mind. She"sfamiliar, as if we see each other everyday. But...I can"t remember who she is.
Ican see the same doubt on her expression too.
"We met before?"
She"saccompanied by a male Warrior, who looked between us for several rounds. Mercilessis attracted too and began to check our faces.
Thewoman finally spoke.
"Are you--"
But she stopped, not sure what tosay.
Themale Warrior stared at us for a full minute, rubbed his eyes, then staredagain. He spoke to Merciless instead. "Are you thinking what I"m thinking?"
Mercilessnodded. "I think I agree."
Thewoman fished out a mirror somewhere behind her back and looked at it, then atme, the mirror, repeat. She then turned the mirror towards me.
I observed myself inthe mirror and--
"You,huh? Wait, I"m--nonono, you"re--" I stuttered without making out any fullsentence.
I turned to Merciless: "5 minutes!"
"What"sgoing on?"
I didn"t reply. I just quickly logged off.
AndI saw the woman did the same.
Ididn"t leave my Iron Unit, I used the built-in telephone and gave my father acall. I also dragged my mother into the conversation.
"What"s up son? It"sstill early."
"Ihave a question, and I want a clear answer for it."
"Somethingwent wrong?" Mother seems worried.
Iconsidered for a while. How do I put this, to express my doubt without soundingtoo harsh?
"Are you sure I"m the only child in the family?"
Motherpaused. "What"s going on dear? That"s out of the blue."
"Just tell me. Am I the only child? Do I have any twin brothers or sisters orsomething?"
Fatherchuckled. "You lost your mind son? Why, you want a little brother now?"
Mymother seems annoyed. "You don"t believe your own mother huh boy? Do youthink I can"t even remember how many kids I have?"
"Nono no no that"s not what I meant! "
Apologize first. Getting mother angrymeans she"ll take me back to the company and give me punishment, which means, askingme to manage business.
"I met some problem and I"m just making sure. Well,not going to disturb your work. Bye!"
I quickly cut the comm. Any more and I"mgoing to get myself a serious mouthful.
Iwent back into the game to see the female Warrior just logging back too. Westared in silence again. When we noticed we"re already walking in circles, inspectingeach other.
I finally decided to starting talking first.
"I"m Ziri, andyou"re...?"
Yup,she"s surprised by my name.
"I"m Zirai! Divine Demon race."
Welooks like a pair!(*)
"Same here. I have double cla.s.ses."
"Metoo. That"s quite a coincidence. And I believe we did the same thing whenoffline?"
Inod.
"So we got the same answer?"
"Idon"t have a twin!" We spoke and laughed at the same time.
Thenmy appearance issue hit me, so I quickly asked: "Are you female?"
She(he?)just gave me a weird look. "I may not be a star but I"m confident in mylooks. Can a man have such a bright face like me?"
"So,you"re a woman?"
"Ofcourse!"
Ichuckled. "You"re wrong then. I"m a man with that bright face you mentioned."
"What??"That shocked her for good. "You"re not messing with me right?"
"DoI look like that type?"
"Waitwait wait, you"re serious?" She got closer. "You didn"t use your trueappearance for your character?"
"Yeah.I made it 10% more masculine. I tried to make those body curves and lines straight."
Ziraisnickered. "Ah I did the same! I wanted to look cooler so I attract less stalkers. I wonder if welook the same in real life."
She took out her mirror again and began tocompare us. "Almost the same person! Funny. Never thought I"d run intosomething like this in my life."
"Wheredo you live?"
"NewNanjing. You?"
"Same.I study in the Neo-Dragon Academy."
"Youdon"t say? I read in the Zenith Faculty."
"Zenith?That"s close."
Zenith Faculty is just behind Neo-Dragon. There"s only awall separating the two places.
"I"mfree tomorrow!"
"I"mfree everyday!"
We both smile again. This is fascinating, the girl infront of me is just like myself. We look alike, we think alike...You know thefeeling when there"s someone who can totally understand your own thoughts.
Communicationwithout having to speak...wonderful!
"Letme trying something out." I got a wicked idea.
"Youwant me to trick people?"
Bingo. We"re in tune!
"Myfriends. They"re arriving soon."
I told Zirai about the characteristics ofHawk and others.
Shortly, Hawk, Elfy and the rest of the group appeared, and I can seeRose too. She"s been away for quite a while. I dragged Merciless and the maleWarrior somewhere to hide, while Zirai simply went to greet them like I would.
"Heydear! Miss me?" Rose leaned into Zirai"s chest. Even Rose didn"t notice!This is just why we both went to confirm with our families if we have a long-losttwin.
Hawkpatted on Zirai"s shoulder. "Good morning mate."
That"s notsurprising. This muscular big bro carries the least awareness among us all. Well maybe not, cause there"s Big Pot.
BigPot joined them. "Yo Ziri! That monster hunting was awesome! I"m lookingforward to today"s work!"
Violetlooked at Zirai and tilted her head. But she didn"t catch anything.
"Where"syour armor Ziri? And your robe?"
Ziraiis quick enough. "I changed so no one would recognize me here."
Flawless.
"Whathappened to your voice?" Elfy noticed something amiss. "It"s...sharper?You sound more like a woman now."
"Pffha hahaha!" Zirai looked towards my location. "Come out already, Ican"t hold it! Ah hahaha! Oh wow this is so much fun!"
Everyonefroze. Except Rose, who immediately jumped away from Zirai"s hug.
"Huh,what is--" Rose looked between us for a while and finally came over me."Ziri?"
I nod to her.
Sheheld my arm. "Who is that?"
Ididn"t answer. "How do you make sure this is the real me?"
Sheraised her head. "I don"t. But I can feel it. So who is that? I won"tnotice at all if you didn"t show up."
"She"sZirai. My twin sister." I dragged Zirai to stand beside me.
"Iknew it. You two look no different." Hawk is as careless as ever.
BigPot scratched his head. "I thought you learned how to use those shadowclone skills. Totally the same one if you ask me."
Everyonenodded and commented about how we look so alike, except Rose. She knows ourfamily and she"s definitely aware that I don"t have any sister. But she onlyobserved the scene without pointing it out.
HoweverZirai failed to hold it back again. "Hey you all believed that?"
"Believewhat?"
Rosestepped out: "Ziri is the only child. There"s no sister or brother. OtherwiseDragon Fa woooo--"
I held her mouth. I don"t think it"s a good idea to let the others know about my ident.i.ty.They"ll just think someone in the company gifted all my resources for free.
"Alrightalright, can you introduce her to us? And that two new faces over there?" Hawkopened the topic.
"Thisis Merciless, I met him in a quest yesterday, a high level a.s.sa.s.sin. We don"thave any a.s.sa.s.sin in our team so I invited him. This pretty lady here is Zirai,we just met. Trust me, I know nothing else. The gentlemen is together withZirai, I don"t know him yet."
"Letme introduce myself!" Zirai sure feels like a boy and I like that. "Goodday. I"m [Zirai], Divine Demon, duo cla.s.s, Dragoon and Sealmaster. Pleasureto meet you. Ziri told me all about you so you don"t have to introduce back. Thisis a friend I just met today, name is [Pa.s.serby], I think his cla.s.s is calledChaos Rider or something. And ugh! I forgot why I came today because of all thefuss!"
"Whatare you doing?" We looked at her curiously.
"Iwant to steal the city defense cannon of G.o.ddess City!"
Say whaaaat?!
"Youmean, that energy crystal cannon on the city wall?" Hawk pointed towardsone of the giant weapons located on the battlement.
"You"reserious?" Ialso looked at the cannon in shock. "We don"tknow if we can move it at all. Even if we can...how? That thing looks like atleast a dozen tons, and it"s set high up on the platform."
"It"snot safe here, let"s talk about it outside."
Zirailed us into a forest far from the city.
"I"ll call my companion now. Don"tget scared!" She waved her hand. "Come, Skyfire!"
With a strongair current, a red dragon similar to Lucky descended from the sky. Apart fromthe bright red color, it"s also a bit bigger than Lucky.
"How does helook?" Zirai touched the large dragon"s nose and waved her other hand."Come, Big Bill, Little Bill!"
Boom! Two giants taller than the citywall appeared near us.
"t.i.tan!"We stepped back. She got a lot of interesting members!
Ziraiseems satisfied with our expressions. "Now how"s this? Big Bill and LittleBill can help us carry the cannon. I just need some helpers to take care of the NPCguards. These two are big but they"re not good at fighting. We can"t defeat toomany enemies. And Skyfire is not enough to fend off hundreds of guards. This iswhy I came for help. What do you say? I"ll pay for the extra hand!"
Hawkand I exchanged a glance.
I spoke: "Our team has set up a goal to go toj.a.pan and cause some troubles there. We"ll help you get that cannon if you agree to join ourmission."
Ziraiseems embarra.s.sed. "Not "that cannon". I need THOSE cannons!"
"Huh?All of them?" Gold Coin looked towards the city wall and shook her head."Oh dear. Now here"s someone even greedier than me."
"No,not like that." Zirai explained. "I"m helping our country. I"m goingto carry these weapons to the Nation War border and use them as the lastdefense line. Or what other reason do you think I have? For fun?"
"We"rein the same team then! Hahaha! Let"s do this!" Everyone laughed.
Istopped them. "Not yet, we have problems. Wecan walk into the city alright, but how do we get out?" I looked amongthem. "You can summon your t.i.tans inside the city, how can we get them outafter that? Are they able to climb over the wall with the cannon? The main gate isno-go. It"s like a doghole for these big guys, and there"s no way for thecannon to get through. Putting your hands on the cannon means to start a city siegewar. We will be facing more than city guards. G.o.ddess City is a major systemcity, it can sp.a.w.n 100 thousand regular army units during a war, you sure oursmall team can handle that?"
Theyfell silent.
Icontinued: "Now suppose we can get out of the city. There are five energycrystal cannons on the walls of G.o.ddess City. So, we carry one, the one in theopposite direction can"t see us, but the rest three will have no troubleblowing us up. If my guess is right, those cannons are not designed forindividual player targets at all. One hit and we"re done. Death maynot be a problem but it will destroy the cannon we"re carrying. What do we dothen? Go back and get another?"
"Ouch."Zirai slumped down. "I thought this would be easy...now you broke all hope."
"Notreally."
They stared at me again.
"How much weight can your Skyfirecarry?"
"Notsure but must be a lot." Zirai is uncertain what I"m planning. "How doesthat help?"
"Lucky!"I summoned my No.1 a.s.sistant. "Say, if they work together, can they carrythe cannon into the air?"
Ziraididn"t answer. But Hawk shoot his head.
"Not likely. Even if they can it willbe too slow."
"Phiona!Loong"er!" I summoned everyone who can fly. "What about now?"
Zirairecovered her smile. "Yes, yes! We can do it! Two dragons? Oh my. I wonderwhich one is stronger, Lucky or my Skyfire."
"Forgetit. Skyfire will definitely lose unless it reaches level 1000." That I"mconfident.
"Why"sthat?" She"s not convinced.
Iopened Lucky"s status and showed her. "As dragon king, he does doubledamage to any dragon-type monsters. Phiona can give him a free revival once perday. Can Skyfire kill him twice?"
"Isthat dragon king"s crown in the inventory?" Zirai swallowed. "I wantone for my Skyfire..."
"It"sa crown, not a cheap hairpin. It will make no sense if everyone has one."
"Sowhen do we start?" Hawk asked."It will really help us if we can putthose cannons into the war zone."
"Howabout this evening?" Zirai suggested.
"Let"sdo it in the day." Gold Coin proposed with a professional att.i.tude. "Thisis a game, those NPCs can stay fully awake even in the night. But we can"t. Andthe view is better during the day so we can give it our best. There"ll becomplications in the evening. You"re carrying a big object, we"ll need someoneto give orders within sight. And NPC"s visual field stays the same during night hours, if I remembercorrectly."
"Goodpoint. I agree with Coin." I gave my stand. "Let"sprepare, we do it in the afternoon."
"Okay!"
"Let"s see what we"ll need." I drew a picture in my mind. "Potionsand consumables. A lot of them. Be sure to stock up. Some ropes. Long ones."
"What"sthat for?" Big Pot asked.
Violetknocked his head. "To bind up those cannons! Do you think we can carrythem just with dragon or bird claws??"
"Oh!Right."
"Oknow, go get the items now." I dismissed them.
Ziraistayed and looked at me. "You are not going?"
"Me?I"ll stay in the back and give orders. Oww don"t hit me! Hey!"
(*) It"s too hard to turn their names into English while keeping the meaning behind them, so I didn"t.
Ziri: the purple sun. Ziyue: the purple moon. I altered the latter. Directly calling them purple sun or moon doesn"t feel right.