Starting from Zero

Chapter 39

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Book 3, Chapter 39

I didn"t find a t.i.tle for this chapter, and the story seems a bit off, like something is amiss.

The author mentioned he was busy with his graduation so he made some mistake here.

I guess the story starts from when the characters defeated the minotaur, exited the dungeon and was stopped by those previous thugs who asked for money.

"Oh lookey here! A pair of couple ontheir honeymoon!"

    That came from a black knight in front of me. This guyis wearing a cheap, gray-colored knight armor set. It"s still a lotbetter compared to the others. He doesn"t even have a horse, though I can tellhe"s a Black Knight from that lance he"s carrying.

    "What do you want?" I asked while checking mysurroundings. From a vague look I can make out about 50 people. Or more. Thisis the first time I saw so many players together. Well, I"ve always beenhanging around NPCs.

    I kept talking nonsense with him to buy time and a.s.sessthe situation. The 50+ players are obviously from the same guild, and the onetalking with me is their leader. They have c.r.a.p gears. Really. Look at those--mopsand sticks and broken swords from garbage dumps. They look more like armedrefugees.

    However, they"re organized. The ones in the back areapparently priestesses. I think Wayne mentioned he always wanted to meet a cutelooking little priestess. This cla.s.s has nearly no damage, with poor HP andhard to grind. That"s why few people would play it. In [Zero], most priestesseswould be some mild girls who are too afraid to see blood. They can greatlyenhance the battle capabilities of their team so this cla.s.s is one of the mostwelcomed. There are few cases when a priest or priestess would get killed by other players, since they never go out alone.

    So...This guild brought a full team, including healers, justfor me. Well I"ll be.

    "Haha! You know what, wejust talked about this. We will let you go, as long as you leave that girl behind."

Yuriflinched behind my back. That"s all I need to see.

"I"m not afraid of you lot. Look at what I"mwearing, we"re not on the same level."

    I"m confident I can deal with thisgroup and escape. But...I have Yuri behind my back. With that HP she"s easilykilled. I can"t fight against 50 people while keeping her safe at the same time.So the best outcome is that I can successfully bluff my way out of this. I"mnot sure I can manage that though.

    "Well, you do have some nice equipment on ya. Butdid you ever notice we have 57 members? Seriously, 57 to 2. We"re on the upperhand here!"

    "Is that soooooo...?" I intentionally askedthat question in a dramatic way. "Night Shade! Lucky! Phiona! Loong"er! Come!"

    I didn"t call the Phantom Knights. NormallyI can pa.s.s them as players to fool people but now it"ll be meaningless if I dothat in front of their face.

    "You--what--how--" The black knight steppedback and fell on his hips. The others moved back too, someone even took outtheir town recall scrolls.

    "Off with you. I do not have time for trash talk. Don"tmake me kill all of you!"

    "But tha-that"simpossible! Don"t get scared you all! Those are fake. That girl must be anillusionist!"

    I was going to tell Lucky to charge in when Yuri pulledon my hand. She spoke up.

"Leave. I don"t want to kill anyone. We all came to this gameto have fun, can we not take any personal issues in here?"

The black knight stood up. "Cut that out lady. We"reenough to crush you with our manpower! Besides, I have companion too! Come out,"Punk"!"

A...big lizard, appeared and began to display its claws and teethat us.

But it froze up the moment it saw Lucky.

Lucky looked at the "small dude" andstretched a claw like a "hi there" in front of the lizard, who justslumped down like a deflated balloon. Then Lucky grinned, revealing his white, shinyfangs. I wonder what kind of toothpaste can make your teeth clean like that.

    Thelizard ran away like flying!

    Yuri giggled. "You look scary but never thoughtyou"re humorous too!"

    Lucky puffed up to that compliment and roaredproudly. Some more companions in that group fainted, and it seems that lizardwasn"t the only one who ran away.

     Their masters couldonly watch as their companions fled and can"t do anything. They know it willbe more trouble if they break their formations.

    "So you"re not getting out of the way. I have nochoice then." Yuri held up her flute. "[Variation of the Fallen Ones,Chapter Two--Melody of the Dead]."

    We"re now in the same team so I simply enjoyed themusic without receiving any effects. The rest of the people, however, began toshow minor symptoms. But none noticed it because the music is so nice to theears. Besides, Yuri"s skills will not cause any system notices, unlike the onesthat you will receive when taking regular attacks.

Three minutes pa.s.sed. Theidiots still haven"t noticed anything!

"Wait, I can"t move!"

Pfft. Finally.

I"ll not letthis pa.s.s though, it"s my motto to get back to anyone who dares to offend.

"Told you. You wouldn"t believe us, now I"ll makeyou believe us."

I quit the team in order not to bring any Evilness toYuri too. I walked to that leading black knight.

"You asked for it. Don"tworry, no biggie. Just a little sting."

A nice and clean cut to the neck.

    Iasked Lucky to finish off the rest of the people. I don"t really like thefeeling of slaughtering. That"s not something I can enjoy.

    "Is this the right choice?" Yuri looked atthe falling corpses as Lucky does his job. "Are we taking it too far? Theydidn"t attack us for real."

    "To me, their intention is enough. I don"t think there"s muchdifference between actual murder and intended murder. They are already planningto hurt us, so that means I need to get rid of them. The faster the better. Nothingto worry about here."

    We left the woods after I comforted Yuri.

    "Do youhave any plans from now on?"

    "Not for now."

    "Then...canyou help me with something?" Yuri"s skills are quite handy, I should makeuse of this.

    "Go ahead. Anything I can help. You kinda rescuedme out of that place, just returning the favor." She patted on her chestas if ready to dive through flame and flood.

    "The truth is, I"m not playing solo, I had a girl friend withme."

    "So where is she?"

    "She"scaught and locked up into prison because of red name. I wanted to rescue her. Itried to break into a small city, and I did, but couldn"t get back out."

    "You want me to stall the guards?"

    I love talking with smart people.

    "Eeyup. I think I can manage it with your help."

    Yuri pondered for a moment. "There are...someproblems."

    "What kind of problem?"

    "First, I"monly level 171, and I never tried to confront any city guards. I don"t know ifmy skills can affect them at all. It may work, but it"s very possible that mysongs will only have reduced effect on them. Besides, how do we survive thefirst 3 minutes? I"m sure those level 800 guards can one-shot me even if I onlytook a minor scratch from them."

    "I have plan for that. The reduced effect can be aproblem. As for protecting you, do you remember those riders I brought with me?"

    "I saw them."

    "They arecalled the Phantom Knights, level 850. They should be able to keep the guardsaway for 10 minutes at least."

    Yuri raised her eyebrows. "How did you capturelevel 850 monsters in the first place?"

    "Well, I sort of, tricked them over. But let"stalk about this later. Now we should find a city guard and try if thiswill work."

    "Wait, for real? As in, right now?"

    "Umhmm. Right now."

I pushed her onto NightShade, then jumped on Lucky"s back myself.

"Here we go!"

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