Starting from Zero

Chapter 144: Cherry Blossom Season

Translator: blackberrry Editor: blackberrry

(Note: This chapter will be more racist and prideful than usual.)

After walking a distance, Night Shade suddenly stopped.

I looked up and realized that we have already walked out of the dense forest and arrived at an open space within the dense forest.

There were many Japanese Players in this open space training, and I assumed it was a leveling spot.

"Who are you? This place has been reserved by our Cherry Blossom Organization" A sweet female voice came out not far from me.

I turned to look towards the direction of the voice and saw an Elf Warrior dressed in Wood Armor, the green wood armor matched with the red sword that looked like a set. I then noticed that the people training here were all women, all of which were female warrior White Elves. It was a rare group, and they resembled Red Moon's Goddess Alliance, but in truth, Goddess Alliance did recruit male Players. The Cherry Blossom Organization in front of me was rather weird, the 200 members were actually all females!

"I am just passing by!" Although I did not like Japs, I could not murder women, I do not have any perverse hobbies!

"Are you Ziri*?" The female Elf that spoke to me quickly became hostile and exhibited an offensive stance, while all the other female Elf Warriors immediately surrounded me after hearing her question.

I had miscalculated and should have never spoken, once my mouth opened, my cover would be blown as the translation system of the game sounded too unique!

"You recognize me?"

"Are you the Ziri that slaughtered 3000 Black Dragon Force Members?" The same Elf questioned me.

"Am I that famous?" I pondered about the accusation: "How did you know it was me?"

"At the start, when I saw your Dragon shaped Armor, I already suspected you. We heard that a Devil called Ziri has come from China and killed over 3000 Black Dragon Force elite members. Also, we heard that Ziri's donned in a black dragon-shaped armor, and at our levels, equipment is hard to come by, and finding set equipment isn't easy at all. Very few people can find black set equipment, much less such an exaggerated set. And the translation system's voice is too obvious, this means that you are a Foreigner, thus I was sure you're Ziri!"

I took off my helmet and hung it on Night Shade and sighed. I equipped my lance.

"I initially planned to pass through peacefully, but since I was found out, I can only kill all of you!" I used the Dragon Lance and demonstrated a few slashes in the air, which revealed threatening swish sounds as the blade tip cut through the air.

The Elf quickly sheathed her weapon and revealed her empty hands.

"Don't be impulsive, we do not wish to fight you!" She quickly waved her hands, and the other Elves behind her sheathed their weapons.

"Then what do you want?" I summoned Phiona in her Aurora Heaven Bird Form*, who landed on my extended arm. I pushed Phiona up into the sky: "Go up and investigate the area, if there are any ambushes, let me know. Likewise, if there is anyone approaching us!" I spoke in Chinese, not intending to allow the Elves to understand my words.

"You don't have to try to avoid us!"

"I am not intent-.....wait, you know Chinese?" I was slow to react and took awhile to realize that she had spoken to me in Chinese.

"All of us know Chinese, although we are all from different places, we are all students in the Chinese Language Department!"

"If you don't want to fight me, why are all of you surrounding me?" Regardless of who they were, I did not wish to continue the quarrel with them.

"We want to know if you have a boat?" The Female Elf that talked to me previously asked me, and I noticed a younger girl behind her.

"Hahahaha! Are you joking with me! You think I swam over from China?"

Chuckles could be heard from the other girls. The Female Elf in the lead spoke up again: "We wish to borrow your boat!"

"Borrow my boat?" At that moment, my train of thoughts could not follow what the ladies were trying to say.

"We seem to belong to nations that are hostile to each other?" I caressed the Dragon Lance in my hand, the tip of the Lance flashed with cold light. "We should let this do the talking!"

"We do not plan to use the boat to fight, we just hope that you can send us to China!" The Female Elf anxiously shouted in hopes of clarifying the situation.

"You're a Japanese, why do you want to go to China?"

"Isn't there Chinese people doing the same thing, running over to Japan?"

"They are degenerates, traitors to China! I hate such people the most, those who migrate to Japan or America. At first, they said that they were compelled to do so for their livelihood because China was poor, but our Country is now well-off, but there are still people migrating, to them, the foreigners' farts are all fragrant!"

Our Dragon Fate Corporation had subsidiary companies and branch offices all around the world, but they never hired the Chinese nationals that lived in those countries. Our subsidiary companies and branch offices only hired the locals or China expats that lived in those countries, and we never cared about the Chinese people who migrate out of China. They had walked away from their motherland, why should we care about them? I believed that if war were to ever break out, they would even volunteer to join other countries to open fire on our fellow citizens!

No one made a sound, most probably because they were all shocked by my sudden change of temperament! It took them a long while before the lead Female Elf spoke up again.

"Maybe you look down on people that have abandoned their motherland, but I am one of them!" The Female Elf did not seem to have confidence when she spoke those words.

"You're a Chinese?"

"No! You've misunderstood what I meant!" The Female Elf quickly explained: "I am a Japanese, but I don't wish to stay in Japan but have always wanted to live my life in China!"

"Is it really true that the grass is always greener on the other side? There are Chinese people that want to run to Japan and Japanese people that want to run to China! What the hell! People! In truth, you guys just don't know what you want!"

"Don't make it sound so unpleasant!" The Female Elf's words revealed her unhappiness to me.

"We are just chasing different things, can't a person have a different opinion and mind on things?"

I did not wish to debate over human conduct with her and quickly changed the topic.

"You guys can just buy your own boat! Why must you use my boat? Don't Japanese Pirates frequent China Seas and raid our boats there?"

"If we could, we would have done so long ago!" The Female Elf spoke angrily: "Boats are too expensive, do you think anyone can just build one? Those ambushes in off the coasts of China are mostly large corporations like the Inagawa Union or the Black Dragon Force people! They have financial backers behind them, and they pump real money into the game! Furthermore, to get to China, we have to first cross through Korea's territorial waters, our boat will be sunk even before we get through that, how can we possibly get to China? Your boat is from China, the Koreans will definitely not do anything to you!"

"But why should I send all of you to China? All of you are Japanese people, although all of you might be a left-wing organization, it does not mean you'll be accepted by China players! Right even now, I can't accept you! Honestly, if not for all of you being ladies and I believe in the Chivalry spirit, this place would have already become a slaughterhouse!"

"You…..!" One of the female Elf that looked to be more aggressive in temperament rushed forward. "We merely wanted to negotiate a deal with you, you don't have to go overboard!"

My next sentence was spoken in an extremely articulated and emotionless tone: "So what if I go overboard? So what if I bully all of you? I don't even know what benefits I can receive from helping all of you immigrate illegally, furthermore, it might even bring harm to my Country! You think that just by saying you want to live in China, you can go to China? How do I know that you are not spies? You have to know, Japan's international reputation has never been good, the value of your guarantees are less value than what you think is worth!"

"Big sister**, stop trying to talk to him. He only knows how to humiliate us, and never had the thoughts to help us!" The impulsive Female Elf shouted to the Female Elf who was apparently the leader, and from the looks of her actions, as long as the leader were to nod her head, she would instantly rush at me.

Right at this crucial moment, Phiona suddenly descended down from the sky and landed on my shoulder: "Master, there is a regiment of knights ahead, they will arrive at this location in 20 minutes!"

I looked at the head of the Female Elves: "The adorable young lambs have finally tear down your sheepskin and reveal your big bad wolf fangs?" I waved my Lance lightly.

"Since everybody knows me as the Devil, I shall not care about adding the guilt of slaughtering a few ladies!"

The impulsive Female Elf saw my actions and immediately prepared herself to fight me to the death. Everyone had heard Phiona's words. Right when she was about to rush at me, their Leader stopped her.

"We did not leak your location, they might have obtained your information from other places, or maybe it is just a coincidence!"

"You can say whatever you want!" I maintained my distrust and distance with them.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Fine! We will go out all with this since we can't even stay in Japan anymore!" She suddenly turned and faced the other Elves: "Sisters, to show our sincerity, we will intercept those Knights that are approaching. Whoever dies in this battle, gather over at Shiromizu! Understand?"

The impulsive Elf spoke up. "Big sister, we will sacrifice too much for this!"

"You want to end up like Big Sister Cherry?" This sentence caused everyone who objected to maintaining silence. It seemed like this "Big sister Cherry matter" was extremely important to them! The Leader turned her head and looked at me: "Can you tell us how many people are we up against?"

Phiona looked at me, and I agreed. Phiona immediately spoke up: "There are 200 Knights at the vanguard and more behind them!"

"That means a total of 400 enemies?" The Elf was obviously shocked by the number, she only had a total of 200 odd with her and thus placed them at a 1:2 ratio. Most importantly, they were all warriors, they might not lose in a 1 against 2 battle, but the problem was that they were all of the same profession. A warrior and a supporting profession were definitely more able and durable than two warriors, this was a point everyone knew, but the problem was that all of the ladies were warriors, and none of them had a secondary profession! But luckily, they were Elves, and could at least use low-level self-restoration spells!

The Elves quickly formed a defensive line in front of me, I did not know why they were so agitated, I had only casually spoken, but they had actually set their resolve to fight their fellow countrymen with their lives on the line! The head of the Female Elves stood behind the Female Elves and shouted: "Sisters, we must persevere! I have already gathered the other Sisters in the Guild Channel, the enemy only has 400 men, the time where our reinforcements arrive will be our victory!"

I controlled Night Shade to walk over to the Leader of the Elves. "You have reinforcements?"

"Our Cherry Blossom Organization has a total of a thousand sisters, what we have here is the organization's Third Main Force! And I am not the President but the Captain of the Third Main Force! In the entire organization, everyone doesn't want to stay in Japan anymore!"

I chuckled. "Why are there so many of you that have the same thoughts?"

The Captain immediately blushed: "You also know that Japan's Porn Culture is flourishing, in the outside world, we are constantly being harassed and even in the game, we are never free! The Sister Cherry that I spoke about just now is one of them. She was originally the Captain of the Third Main Force, and at that time, I was her Deputy Captain! But someone in Kyoei Organisation fancied Sister Cherry, but she did not like him. Because of that, he constantly nagged at her, and ultimately, he threatened to destroy our guild, and for us, Cherry quit the game and deleted her character! But after that, we heard from some the Sisters who knows Cherry in real life that the man had somehow located Cherry. In the end, she was still caught by him! He is a member of some gang in the outside world!"

"T-then what is Cherry doing now?"

The Captain was already on the verge of tears: "That asshole sold her to the Entertainment Industry!"

"Entertainment Industry?" Isn't that the place where many young ladies go to in China?

"To film Adult Videos!" Seeing that I did not understand, the Captain added in.

"You can just sell people off here? What is the government doing?"

"You can't do it to men, but no one cares about the women! Japan's women are domestic animals raised by the men used to satiate their lust at night and housekeepers in the day. In times of poverty, we can even be used as money making tools!"

"Aren't you Japanese women very open-minded in this?"

"Open-minded?" The Captain's voice was already trembling incessantly, I could see that if not for her endurance, she would already be crying: "Many girls chose to give their bodies to their boyfriends when they are young, for the sake of experiencing the sense of love. If they don't do it early, they will simply become livestock when they are older, at that time, there will no longer be feelings attached to it, and it becomes a duty!" When she said the last sentence, tears rolled down her cheeks, but her expression was one of a smile. It made me feel terrible, as though something was stuck in my heart.

"Found them!" A loud and clear voice interrupted our conversation. It was from the Knights. In the blink of the eye, many Knights surged into the open space from the forest.

The Captain wiped away her tears and walked back to her troops: "Prepare for battle!"

The Knights quickly formed up, and an extremely familiar person appeared from behind one of the Knights in the middle. Ikeda Rikio.

I instantly knew what was going on. After getting killed by me, Ikeda Rikio returned to Inagawa Union and gathered his subordinates to take revenge!

"Isn't this the Cherry Blossom Organisation? Is there a collective public show today?" Ikeda Rikio was no kind soul and whatever that came out from his mouth were not kind words.

The Captain of the Elves did not cower back. "You better not be too arrogant! Our sisters are already on the way, you only have 400 men, you can't do anything!"

Ikeda Rikio laughed. "Can't you see that I've brought Knights with me? Quickly kneel down and let us dominate the battlefield, after destroying Zi…..! You're a woman?" Ikeda Rikio then noticed me on Night Shade, I had removed my Helmet, and he could see my appearance. If not for my equipment being too unique, he would never have recognized me.

I did not say anything, but raised my hand towards him.

"[Shinryuu Dark Missile]!" I accurately struck Ikeda Rikio's body. He actually tried to use his hands to block my spell, but a pity, the Dark Missile was extremely corrosive and would burn whatever it touched! Ikeda Rikio rotted slowly and turned into a puddle of black water amongst the exclamations of the Knights around him, and the ground emitted a green smoke and the smell of burnt pork.

Only after turning into black water did the Knight beside Ikeda Rikio, presumably the Leader of the Knights, shouted out. "Everyone get ready, capture her alive and let our brothers enjoy her body! Mages, begin the supports."

The pillion riders behind the Knights all jumped down, the majority of them Mages, with a mix of Ninjas and Archers in the middle. A sheet of gold brilliance flashed past us as the Knights dazzled with gold light.

Seems like the enemy knows some large area of effect Protection Spell, the light looks like some sort of Defensive Barrier!

The Elf Warrior Captain immediately roared: "Attack!" It seemed to me that she was intelligent, and knew how to play to her own strengths. The agile Elf Warriors could not withstand the Knights rush by standing still, but if the Elves were to take the initiative to fight in a melee, the effect would be different. The advantages of Dexterity were easily displayed in close quarters combat.

When the Elves had reached the Knights, the Support Spell had just ended, and the Knights immediately began their assault. It was just a few meters, and the mounts immediately mixed in with the Elves! All the Elves seemed to use the same actions, they bent and knelt down and slashed at the horses' legs! All of the war mounts immediately fell at the same time, and in the few seconds of battle, the 200 Knights found themselves off their mounts.

I quickly retreated to the side of the empty space, and found a large rock to sit on. The Saddle was not comfortable at all! Night Shade stood by the side and observed the battle with a sneer on his face. I summoned Phiona and Lucky as a precaution. I never had the thought to participate in the battle, although both parties were fighting for my sake, but to me, it was just two groups of Japanese people engaging in PK, there was nothing for me to do.

"Go and die!" One of the Knights (now a footman) actually rushed out from the crowd with two swords in hand, and actually threw one of the sword at me. I did not even bother about the sword, Lucky had smacked it back at 10 times the speed the Knight had thrown at me. The Knight's sword grazed that idiot's ear and flew past him, in which he followed and looked back, to see the sword stabbed deep into another Knight who was looking back at it before falling. He wanted to explain, but the Knight had already transformed into a white light and disappeared.

At least this idiot did not continue to advance towards me, he turned back and fought his way back into formation, what a smart*ss! Although he was a coward, at least he knew of his shortcomings! If all the Japs were like this, things would had been more complicated!

I suddenly remembered that Aldeina was a Command type Companion, and summoned her out to experience the battle. Being able to watch the Japanese Players fight in a large scale battle was a rare opportunity! Aldeina was instantly attracted by the battle before her.

"Woah! Is this a campaign?"

"How does it feel?" I pulled Aldeina over to the side and sat down. Although she was a Companion, she was still a beauty, even without Rose, I could still get by!

"Their formations aren't bad at all! Where do we support?"

"We are spectators, this is a performance!"

"A performance don't have to be so serious and ferocious right? They look like enemies that had crossed paths! Ah…..!" Aldeina was speaking when a Knight's Helmet flew over with his head still intact inside.

"F*ck!" I grabbed the tip of the Helmet and threw the disgusting thing behind us.

"AHHHHHH!" A scream from behind scared the hell out of me!

When I turned back, Felix and Hope were already walking over. Hope was constantly turning back to look. I was 90% sure that the scream came from Hope!

"What're you two doing here? Was it you who screamed?"

"What are all of you doing? We were just planning to sneak up on you and Hope wanted to scare you by covering your eyes, but who knew a human head would land up in her embrace, and she scared the shit out of herself." Felix explained the cause for Hope's fright.

"Yeah! What are they doing?" Hope already noticed the two factions fighting ahead, but she did not know why two Japanese Factions were fighting while I, a Chinese, was actually spectating by the side!

I called them over to sit with me, then explained everything to them: "Those Elves are from some Cherry Blossom Organization, they hope to borrow my Boat, while on the other side, they are Ikeda Rikio's Inagawa Union subordinates."

"Where's that Ikeda Rikio? Why don't I see him?" Felix had stared at the chaos for a long time before asking.

"I just killed him, and he went back to respawn!"

"Why is he so weak? I used to hear that he is very powerful!" Hope did not believe me.

"He is a Soul Manipulator and relies on Companions. I killed him too quickly, preventing him from summoning his Companions, so what can he, an Army of One, possibly do? Furthermore, He is a Mage, but he actually stood at the frontlines, tell me, is he voluntarily looking to die or what!"

"Why aren't you helping them?" Hope looked at the Elves in the hard-pressed battle and somewhat sympathized with them.

(*) Have you guys read Rebirth of the Thief who roamed the world? I was thinking of using the MC's real Chinese name as his name in the translated novel, but instead of Ziri as his IGN (In game name), will Purple Sun sound better? Zirai will be Purple Moon, like how Nie Yan (In RotT), is called Nirvana Flame in the novel! (But remember, at the beginning of the novel, when the MC was creating the character, the game encouraged him to use Chinese Characters, I don't really know how the Japanese or other nationals playing the game do the same thing. HMMMMM.)

(**)I used Big sister, but they are Japanese Players and thought of using Oneesan, oneechan, etc etc. what do you guys think?