Starting from Zero

Book 4, Chapter 12

Kidnap

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"Ziri.....! ...you...asshole!... Help me!"

The ghost sounds really miserable. But how did she know my name? I don't think I've ever done anything serious to any women before. Did she have to become a ghost to revenge on me?

Now wait a minute. This is a game! I know plenty of ghosts and spirits in the Lost City, why would I be afraid now??

"Um Ziri? I think the ghost is coming for you, not me." Rose finally decided to look around.

The voice came again. "Help...help me already!"

"It's not far." Rose listened carefully. "I think...it's below us."

"Below?"

I steadied myself by holding onto a spike on Lucky's back and looked under. What I saw nearly shocked me into falling off!

"Re-Red Moon?? Bah-hahahaha!! How did you get up here?"

"HELP ME UP!!"

"You were trying to kill me for crying out loud! Why would I help you? Just teleport back to the city or something."

Her face went pale. No idea she's angry or is just too scared. "I...would have, done it, if I had one!"

Okay. She's still shaking.

"...Promise, don't do anything stupid."

She looked down and nodded unwillingly.

I returned onto Lucky's back. "Lucky, can you send our...passenger, up here? Oh and, try to be a little 'passionate'."

"I got it."

Lucky grasped Red Moon, who had been hanging on his other claw, and threw her high into the air. Then he flew towards her so she would land on us.

Red Moon's screaming echoed across the clouds in the whole process. I helped her keep balance when she landed, but she clamped herself onto me out of instinct like a koala. Now Rose is watching. Well, this is embarrassing. I tried to push her away, to no avail.

"Let go. You're safe!"

Red Moon raised her head slowly. What she saw is, of course, my face. She bounced away as if she touched some exposed electric wire, and almost fell off Lucky again. She looked down behind her and approached me again. I don't like where this is going so I grabbed Rose and stuffed her into Red Moon's arms.

"You can have my wife as your hugging pillow. And no, I don't mind it. I'm pretty generous you know!"

Rose waved her fist at me. She knows what I'm thinking though, so she didn't protest. Actually she is pretty surprised to find out that Red Moon is shaking like mad.

"Are you okay Miss Moon? You feeling ill?"

"I-I-I'm afraid of heights! When I was young I fell from my second floor balcony and got hurt. That's when I started to get terrified whenever I go to high places!"

"Ooooh. So the mighty Mrs Red Moon has her weakness. I thought you were like, a total fearless woman." Yes I'm trying to be sarcastic.

"What did you say??" Red Moon yelled and reached for me.

I stepped back. "Lucky my friend! It's a mighty fine day today, how about we fly higher and enjoy the sky?"

"Noooooo!" Red Moon cried. Her response wouldn't stop Lucky from following my words though.

"Roger that sir, gaining altitude."

He flapped his wings harder, bringing us above the clouds again.

Red Moon's face is white as paper now. "I'm gonna get you even if IT MEANS RISKING MY LIFE FOR IT!!"

She gave up rose and lunged at me!

"Lucky! Barrel roll!"

"AhhhHHHH--!!!"

That was Rose. She screamed even louder than Red Moon. Lucky, as a living dragon, is a lot more agile than an actual fighter jet. He did 7 or 8 side rolls without taking any break, almost making me dizzy as well.

When he stopped I can no longer see Rose nor Red Moon.

"Ziri!!"

I hear Rose's call from ahead. Then I saw her being carried in Lucky's mouth by her clothes. So I quickly pulled her up.

"You alright?"

She punched at my chest. "Why would you do that?? Thank god Lucky caught me. So where is Miss Moon?"

"Lucky?"

"I shook her off!"

"What?? Why didn't you catch her too?"

"Well, you told me to roll so I thought you just wanted to get rid of her. That's why I only saved the mistress but not the other woman."

"Oh shit! Get down fast and see if we can still save her!"

"Understood. Hold on tight."

Lucky folded his wings and began to dive.

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On the ground, a group of members from a small sized guild are inspecting the terrains.

"Boss, the place is good enough. That Mist Mountain ahead is a good place for leveling, and I heard the Wyvern Gorge not far got some pretty rare drops. There are two major cities in both left and right side of here, each about 300 kilos away. We should choose this place as our headquarter."

Whoooosh

"Hey Jason, did you hear something?"

"Nope. You saw anything, Brandy?"

"I heard something...above." Brandy looked up. "Hey you all check that out!!"

The whole guild looked upwards. They see a small dot falling from the sky at extreme speed, and another bigger dot, falling even faster. The small one seems to be a female, and the bigger dot came out as a fierce-looking dragon. That sharp noise is caused by the dragon's descending. It sounds like a mortar bomb is heading towards its target.

The dragon caught up with the female before she can reach the ground (which obviously would result in a bloody mess), then spread its wings to slow down, which still didn't provide a safe landing, so the dragon stomped on the ground and turned its momentum into a close-to-ground glide instead. The giant force and the air current following behind knocked everyone over.

The dragon successfully went up again, with that woman caught inside its jaws. It vanished into the clouds as fast as it came, like nothing ever happened.

Several minutes later

"Um boss? I think I saw a dragon fly by. Am I seeing things?"

"I saw it too!" Brandy pointed at the ground. "Look at that footprint! So I wasn't dreaming!"

"...Jason, how about we find another place to build our city?" Their boss asked.

"Agreed. Let's move."

"Yeah... The dragon ate a woman right? We won't be recruiting any pretty girls if that dragon just came to pick up a snack when it feels like it. And I don't want to run a man-only guild."

The guild packed up their tools and ran away.

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I'm sitting on Lucky, looking at Red Moon, who's been lying still for a while now.

"Phew, we did it."

"Close one." Rose patted her chest. "We almost killed her. So what's going on now?"

"Maybe she's TOO scared." I checked her face. "Well, she'll wake up."

Rose is still worried: "She's afraid of heights right? Did we cause too much trouble? We might have hurt her if she got a weak heart or something."

"Oh don't worry, I asked father about that before."

"You asked father?"

Wooh. She actually addressed my father like that, probably because she's in panic.

"Be patient alright? Already calling 'father'? I hope you keep it that way."

Rose just knocked me on the head. "Tell me already!"

"So, our father said:" Ouch. Another hit. "...The helmet will completely cut off the connections between your brain and the other parts in your body, including those autonomic nerves that control your breath and heartbeat. The designers already thought about the possibility when some of the content in the game might over-stimulate the players and cause negative effects. So they simply set up a computer to control your nerves, and return the control back to you when you exit the game safely. So you don't have to worry about anyone having a heart attack and such."

"I still don't feel good!" Rose held Red Moon up. "She's out cold. I don't want to give her a mental scar. This was how she acquired acrophobia right?"

"...I'm not sure about that." I spoke to Lucky: "Find a clean water source and bring us down."

"On it."

Lucky landed towards a giant lake. We carried Red Moon to the lake and wiped her face with lake water.

No reactions.

"Okay. Lemme try it."

I raised her up and threw her into the lake, which caused Rose to scream. "What are you doing???"

"Argh-*cough* You jerk!!"

It worked. Red Moon jumped onto the land so fast as if the lake water is boiling.

"You AHHH---" She fell back again.

"Pfff. That should teach you not to get in my way again." I turned to Rose. "Let's go."

She looked back at the now wet Red Moon who just crawled back ashore. "Let's take her. I don't see any city around, she'll lose her way. She doesn't have any scrolls on her right?"

"Lose her way? Sounds good to me." I huffed. "So I'll never see this nuisance again."

"Come on. Pleeeeeease." Rose shook my arms. Ugh, I can't resist those kitten eyes.

"Ok ok my good Rose!"

I switched back to my angry tune and spoke to Red Moon. "Get on."

Red Moon peeked at Lucky in horror and shook her head. "NOT AGAIN!!"

"Geez fine!" I summoned Night Shade. "Come on, get on!"

"I-I don't know how to ride horse!"

"For the love of--" I waved my hand. "Phantom! Get her. And Red Moon, relax, don't resist."

Phantom controlled her body and hopped onto Night Shade skillfully. After a while she recovered from all the scares. She began to check around Night Shade with curiosity.

While Night Shade is quite annoyed. "...Can you not touch me like that?"

"You can speak?" She began to fiddle with Night Shade's ears like a little girl!

Night Shade looked at me with all the annoyance I can see from his expression. "Hey you! Where the hell did you find this thing on my back?"

I glanced at Red Moon. "Picked up by accident."

Then Night Shade asked in a mocking tune: "By accident? So you won't mind if I break it by accident eh?"

"Break?..." I see Red Moon totally unable to comprehend what we are talking about. "I guess not."

"Where are we heading?" Night Shade asked.

"The Lost City."

"Kay. Find me there."

He dashed away at the speed of wind. I can hear a faint scream from his direction.

Rose didn't hear our conversation so she asked in surprise: "Where's he going?"

"Oh. He said we're too slow so he went to the city by himself."

"I...see."

I patted at Lucky. "Let's take the air too. He's right, we should save some time."

"Sure."

Of course it's faster to be flying but we still can't catch up with Night Shade. I can only see a small black spot disappearing from our view, with a trail of dust behind his path.

As we finally arrived within the vicinity of the Lost City, we saw Hawk and Elfy as well as Night Shade. We planned to meet up at the city gate. Elfy is waving at us, Hawk is facing against the city wall, no idea what he's doing. Red Moon is leaning over the railings near the bridge for some reason, and Night Shade is trotting around her as if he's satisfied with something.

Lucky landed at the graveyard outside. The bridge is wide but is still inconvenient for his current size.

Night Shade came running at us and helped us cross the bridge. Now I can see the scene: Hawk is inspecting the carvings on the wall, while Red Moon...is vomitting into the water.

I looked at Night Shade. I'm sure he's grinning. "What's the deal?"

"Oh nothing really. I was a bit too fast. It must have been a tough ride for her."

Red Moon raised her head and looked at me weakly. "You...Even your horse is a stupid ruffian like you! I hate you! I hate you both! Gurrrrrr....!"

She continued producing rainbows.

Rose went over to her and patted on her back. "Ziri? You should be gentle to girls!"

"I'm always gentle to girls!" I play dumb. "Am I not to you? Or...do you think I should be more, rough, from now on?"

Rose didn't say anything this time but Elfy gave me a knock. "Oh shut it! Don't teach any wrong idea to MY husbando here!" She looked at Hawk, who quickly shook his head.

"Nonono, I'll always follow my dear waifu's orders!"

A palm-sized angel appeared near Red Moon, carrying a small camera on her shoulder. Well, that's not a monster, it's a video tool in [Zero]. Everyone is free to chat with each other but you need to buy the video tool to use the related additional features. The tools come with various models and sizes. By the way, mine is a cartoonized bee carrying a camera on a fishing pole.

A voice came from Red Moon's camera. "Master! Finally! Where have you been? What happened? You just, disappeared in front of us! We thought you were blown away by the wind but we never found you. Then we can't send you private chat because the system said you are unconscious! Then something about 'extreme conditions', and 'severe illness'! What in the world happened to you?"

Red Moon glanced at me with a...wicked grin. Okay, something is not going to end well. I can feel it.

She managed to squeeze up some real tears and began to cry in front of the camera. "Take this video to my brother! Waaah! I'm kidnapped! That Ziri took me to some strange place and I can't get away now!"

She filmed at the lake under the bridge, which is giving out creepy green bubbles.

"See that? Help me! He's mean! Noooo he's coming again! No, please! I'm not calling for help--"

She shook her camera while screaming. It's obvious what she's up to.

I hear a lot of angry voices from her chat. "ZIRI! Let our master go now or you'll really regret it!!"

I tried to take her camera away so she won't be ruining my reputation further. But she took the chance to make a scene as if I'm seizing her camera by force. Now I can never clean myself up!

Red Moon took the camera away from her angel and tossed it into the lake. Then she shouted into her voice chat: "Oh no! He broke my favorite camera! Help me!! Ahh! Don--don't pull my clothes!"

Oh fuc it! I look like a universal pervert now!

Next she cut all her chat and looked at me with a victorious expression. "That's what you get when I'm angry. Humph!"

"So you really want to make me condemned by everyone?" I gave her a stern face.

"No one rejects my offer. You're the first one and will be the last one! From now on you will always be the worst hentai out there as long as I don't tell the truth. Our Goddess Alliance and the Righteous League will be looking for you! You won't be playing this game even if you can get your name white again!"

So she's serious. Fine.

I turned back to Rose. "You have research work to do right?"

She nodded.

"Go. Sorry I can't give you ride today, just call father for a car. Take care."

"Ziri!..."

She took back whatever she was going to say, since she knows I won't listen to her when I'm mad for real. She just handed the bracelet back to me and logged off.

Next, I looked towards Hawk and Elfy. "I owe you two big this time, but it's not really a good time to thank you, let's find another chance. There's a valley behind the city, the monsters are good targets for leveling up. You can find strong monsters deeper inside. Oh and, keep away from any dark fighters and similar monsters. They act in groups, you won't stand a chance against those guys."

They can see the situation and just nodded and ran away as fast as they could.

So there are only two of us here...

I slowly walked towards Red Moon and began to undress myself, which caused Red Moon to step back.

"What what what are you doing??"

I didn't stop my actions. "You've already told the whole world that I'm a big villain, looks like I'm never going to clear that out. I'm going to carry this made-up crime anyway...so why not I just make it real? I mean, I can't just earn that title without...enjoying my privilege."

Red Moon is so scared that her voice sounds funny now. "Don't-you-don't you dare! I'm the leader of Goddess Alliance! We have more members than you think!!"

"Leader of Goddess Alliance? Just about right. I'm curious about what makes a goddess different from normal women!"

"Noooo...Ah!....!"

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Oh don't worry. The author is not going to write about "explicit" stuff.

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