Starting from Zero

Book 4, Chapter 20

Indian A-Sirs (*)

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

Alert: minor offensive content against India and Japan.

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

"We recovered!"

"Hooray!"

People celebrated for getting out of the curse. The newly arrived girl just looked at the group without knowing what to do.

"You--but, who are you people??"

"Well, I'm [Ziri]," It doesn't look like the other people are going to answer her. "good day."

"Oh, uh. Hi, I--I'm[Shura Violet]."

She's stammering. Hasn't recovered from all the shock, maybe.

"What are you...?" She waved her finger at the scene.

I answered with a question instead: "Why are you looking for the ox?"

"OH!!" She finally remembered what she came for. "The ox!! Did it drop anything?"

I picked up the token I just dropped. "This. A black...metal plate, haven't identified it."

The girl's eyes are beaming. "Are you selling it??"

"Sell?" I looked at the plate again. "Not yet. I'll decide after I figure out what it is."

Obviously the girl knows something about it. I'm not giving it for free though.

"I'll [Identify] it right now if you're in a hurry. I'll sell if I have no need for it."

"No you don't have to! 100 thousand crystals! In cash!"

"...Let me think about it."

Curious. She's either rich as hell, or this thing values a lot.

"Why do you offer like that? We don't know what it is yet."

"But I know! Trust me, 100 crys is pretty good price! And I really need it now! Please please sell it to me!"

She's looking left and right when she said that, which means someone else is looking for this thing as well.

A chance to make a fortune.

I can wait for her competitors and ask them to bid for it. Maybe I'll earn a lot more.

"No, I'll get it identified to make decision. That's a high price, and there must be a reason."

She seems really worried: "Do it fast!" Then she gave me a recall scroll. She's making sure I don't bump into anyone on my way back.

That's what I'm hoping for though.

"It's not far. Let's walk it. These scrolls are not free you know."

Aha. Her face is turning red. And she's stomping her feet because of the impatience.

"Why the hurry? It's not like I'll lose it."

She looks about to explode!

"Stop right there!!"

Another group showed up.

Jackpot.

When I'm inspecting the new arrivers I suddenly felt a sting on my chest.

"Yaaaw! Hey what the fuc??"

The girl wants it so bad and now she's trying to take it by force!

My team immediately came standing in front of me. I hired them as bodyguards after all, they know they shouldn't slack off on that job.

"What's that for?" I pretended to be angry with the girl. That hit didn't hurt much. I was expecting her to do that anyway. "You want to spend time in prison??"

She just stared at me in shock without responding to my provoke.

"You're not dead??"

"Huh? You're expecting to one-shot me like that?" I robbed my chest, pretending to be hurt.

Of course I'm not hurt at all. The Dark Dragon Lord set counts as heavy armor, I won't feel much pain if it didn't get penetrated. Still, I need to put on an act since I'm a "Wizard" now.

"But that was my special skill! Aren't you a caster?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"I used [Mana Burn]! It damages your MP and causes double damage for how many mana points you lose. No casters would survive that!"

I looked at my status bar.

"...It didn't do anything. The skill failed maybe?"

Must be the resistance of my armor. It nullified the attack.

The new group arrived at the scene. They look...brown. And they're wearing cloth folds on their heads.

Indian A-sirs?? Aren't international routes not opened yet? Why is tourism becoming so popular in China?

The leading Indian man walked to me. "Hallo flend. Mai I aska if you took da token from da sacred cow?"

His language sounds so awkward. The guy didn't even buy the system translation?

([Zero] doesn't translate foreign languages. You can pay some money to buy the simultaneous interpreting system, paid by hours, very convenient.)

"Yes I did. Here." I held up the black object. "Why? You want to buy it too?"

"Don't!!" The girl yelled from behind. "That's their Nation Treasure! If we take it now they'll have nothing to counter us in nation wars! You are a Chinese player right?? Sell it to me!"

She must by panicking since she let out the secret on her own. Still, I think she's doing the right thing. I tried to rip her off when she's protecting our country...I should apologize.

Shame.

The A-sir laughed. "If ya sellit we pay you good plice! Nation war ish not fun if we don play it fair! Come on flend. Giv me a plice, we pay you here!"

The girl clenched her teeth. "150 thousand crystals. That's all I have! Think carefully. Please!"

My helpers looked at me as well. They would want me to reject the A-sir too.

I turned to the girl.

"Take it!"

I tossed the token over. She caught it and looked back at me, eyes wide.

I shrugged to the now blue-faced A-sir. "Sorry my friend, who pays more gets it. You'll never pay enough to win our passion for our home. "

It seems they're about to start violence. I waved at the Phantom Knights. "Get into position folks! We got work to do."

They lined up in front of the nine Indian players. Now that will scare them. We got over 30 people here if I take my companions into account. They only got 9. And I don't think they can survive against the level 850 knights anyway.

We ignored the foreign players and headed towards our destination again. Every helper nodded to me along the way and patted on my shoulder.

"Respect man."

"Good job back there."

That satisfied my ego a lot. Though I do hope they could be more gentle next time, cause a dozen hit on my shoulder would have hurt me, if not for my armor.

"Hey wait!" Violet caught up. "You take it!"

"...What do you mean?" I took the token back, not sure what she wants to do anymore. "Weren't you trying to buy it?"

"That's because I didn't trust you. I don't want the Indians to have it. You proved your standing point so I can let you keep it. It's safer."

Umhmm. That smile is so sweet. Now she's friendly, I can see she's pretty passionate girl.

"Since you two are so modest with it, we'll help you get it off your hands!"

The A-sirs appeared again. More of them this time! I see somewhere near forty people following behind. So they were just waiting for backup?

"I knew we wouldn't get out of this easily." The unknown girl stepped ahead. "This is our land and you will remember it! Go, everyone!"

"Kill them all!!" My temporary mercenaries all charged forward.

"No, wait a sec--" They're too hot-headed! "Phantom Knights, go help them!"

They wouldn't send any ordinary people for this job, plus my helpers are not really high-end players so the outcome is pretty obvious. Three of my team members died on the first conflict!

To my relief, the Phantom Knights are still deadly to the enemies. These Indians all belong to one class called "Pope". They look like our Taoists, good at both physical and magical skills. Still, their level is too low compared to the knights. Nothing to worry about.

Violet joined the fray as well. I already know she's a melee class with all those red armors on her, what I didn't expect is that she is 100% damage dealer. None of her skills have any showy effects, every hit of her aims for best and fastest damage. She can almost take down any of the Indian players with just two hits. That's impressive!

Without clear targets, all the mages and the fake mage (me) have to stay put on the outside.

The battle ended after about a minute. It would have ended even faster, but the knights couldn't use their team attacks because too many players are blocking their way.

We began to clean up the battlefield after all the enemies are dealt with. There are many small bottles scattered on the ground. I picked one up.

"[Blessing Oil]?... What's this?"

People inspected the bottles too.

"I don't think it's healing item."

"Let's try it then!" The female Warrior is straight enough.

I thought she was going to use the potion on her own, however she dragged the Swordsman over and stuffed the bottle into his mouth.

That looks...uncomfortable.

"How about it?" She asked the now mouth-filled Swordsman.

He didn't answer. He just crouched and started to vomit.

There are letters printed on the bottom but...I can't read Hindi. I paid for the system translation. Then I held my stomach and laughed.

"It's not for drinking!"

"Really? Thank god I didn't do it." A Black Mage from the female Warrior's team mumbled. "Wow look at Till's face. He's green."

Violet asked me. "What does it do?"

I'm still trying to hold my laughter. "This is sold in Indian temples. It's mostly the same thing as those holy waters in western cathedrals. Your pour it on your body to increase your status for a short while."

"I was wondering why those people are so strong. But...look at your Swordsman, bah-hahahaha!"

He's going to throw his lunch up. His Black Mage teammate is still joking. "Hey Till! Think about it, holy oil sold in Indian temples! What do they call it? Indian god oil! You just drank a full bottle of it. You gonna pierce the sky! Girls will scream after you! "

All the guys laughed hard. Violet followed them with several dry laughs and asked me. "What is Indian god oil?"

"Ah so you don't know?" I looked at her in surprise. "Then why are you laughing?"

"I don't want to feel awkward. Tell me, what is it?"

"Ahem. The oil is used on the..." I whispered into her ear.

Then she laughed for real!

"HAAAHahaha! So that's why they fought so hard!" (**)

"Hey what's this?" The Priest picked up a long stick and gave it to me.

I used [Identify] and almost jumped.

"Holy shit! Their other team arrived late because they were after this thing, and they didn't even have time to get it identified!"

"What? What?" Violet urged.

"It's a Nation Treasure of India, the [Almighty Rod]."

"Really??" Violet took the item and checked. " They didn't send enough force after me because they were after a bigger treasure!"

While my team passes the item around I asked Violet: "But why would TWO Indian Nation Treasures show up here?"

"Pre-war treasure exchange." Violet explained with an "I know everything" attitude. "Not all Nation Treasures appear inside the original country. For every country, there will be four pieces located in foreign lands! This is written on the official site. I can't remember the details. Two pieces of ours should be in India, another two in Japan. For India, two in China and two in the UK. As for Japan...two here, one in America, and one in Korea."

"All unfriendly territories." The Priest commented. "They're trying to start a war?"

"Of course they are! The nation war system is coming, they'll cause more conflicts and attract more players to join!" The female Warrior explained.

"I see it now." I held my chin. "People will now try to find their own treasures in other nations. This will create a lot of hostility among players before the incoming wars."

"That's what they're trying to do." Violet agreed.

I heard my private chat ringing.

"Ziri! How's it going on your farming? I found the seller [Arch Necromancer]!"

"Hawk!" I just remembered what I was trying to do. The Hindus distracted us! "Not yet! What about you? What did he say?"

"Good news and bad news. He's a good guy, but he can't decide because the treasure doesn't belong to himself! The good news is he already prevented foreign players from joining the auction."

"That's not enough. You know there are always people who'll help the enemies! What if the Japanese hire someone for the job?"

"Oh shit...you're right! Better than nothing, at least it will buy us some time! Oh and, I asked our friends and we managed to collect 100 thousand crystals so far."

"Far from enough."

"I know! We're still trying!"

"Alright. I'll work on it too!"

Violet noticed my expression. "Something went wrong?"

"Yes." I nod. "Someone is selling our treasure piece in Goddess City. We don't have enough money, and I'm worried it would get taken away by Japan."

"Here." She opened up the trade system and gave 150 thousand crystals to me. "All I have. For the motherland."

Oh thank you thank you thank you--

But her following words prevented me from actually saying thanks.

"I'm glad I met sister today! If you need any help, as long as it's for our country, I'm all yours, sis!"

Oh for the--

"I'm a gentleman!!"

"You are??"

Everyone, yes EVERYONE, stared at me.

"No kidding?"

"You're a guy??"

"Lies!"

"I don't believe it!"

That explanation took some more time. Ok, I really need to make a hood for my wizard robe. Or this will never end!

"Ok now, back to business!" I asked them to continue with our hunting plan.

No more surprises this time. Shura Violet also volunteered to join our quest.

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

(*) "阿三" (a san) is a joking, sometimes offensive way to address Indian people. I'm not sure how to properly put it here so I'll just create a word for it: A-sir.

(**) It's a product which is said to be able to...make you last longer. On the bed. Oh well.