Starting from Zero Vol 1 Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Shopping

Author’s note: Just a small statement that the original text was named . Using the current name is purely because the original was renamed, so everyone should not try to link the text to the t.i.tle, because there isn’t any relations.h.i.+p from the start!

“Are you kidding! We’ve been waiting for so long!” A youth grumbled.

“So what! I came without even having time to eat breakfast, at least you ate a hamburger!” Ah Wei mumbled to himself.

Ah Wei, named Liang Wei, is my roommate and best friend and we’ve known each other since we were young. We were in the same cla.s.s in junior high and we also attended the same school during our high school years. In university, we were again sorted into the same cla.s.s as well as the same dormitory. We’ve been playing games together since junior high and at that time, the game room in Ah Wei’s house was our favourite! Now that we’ve entered university, Ah Wei and I cohabit in a two person room; it’s mainly because I am more antisocial by nature, and therefore, have no friends other than Ah Wei! Currently, we are first year students. Now that the summer vacation has just ended, since we’re here early and it’ll be a long while before we start having cla.s.ses, using this time to play games in the dorm is also not bad!

Ah Wei’s family is pretty rich since his family deals in estate but I do not know exactly how much they have, except that it’s less than my family. Next to his own room is his specialised gaming room, and the hundred or so different electronics in it are all bought for him by his family! My family’s situation is a little more complicated. My father operates a multinational corporation named the Dragon Fate Corporation. The corporation does not have a main operational system; it basically does anything that can get money.

Actually, the Dragon Fate Corporation’s greatest source of income are specialised military contracts What? You don’t know what specialised military contracts are? A special sort of army craft refers to the manufacturing of various sorts of military equipment, like live military equipment, electronic military equipment, energy-fueled military equipment, s.p.a.ce military equipment, etc. that require an especially high amount of skill to craft and is not suitable for ma.s.s production. If not for the fact that I’m the young master, I really wouldn’t know what the Dragon Fate Corporation deals in! This Dragon Fate Corporation was left to my father by my grandfather, and it is now the world’s second largest enterprise. Father holds a total of 51% of the shares. I’m also not clear as to how much these shares are worth, except that it is higher than the country’s Gross National Product last year.

Mother is China Company’s president but her circ.u.mstances are different from father’s. China Company was brought up through her own effort and as such, mother is in control of 78% of the shares. Even though China Company isn’t big yet, the net value of mother’s shares still comes to more than a hundred million. Of course, compared to father’s Dragon Fate Corporation, it is merely a drop within a vast body of water! Because my family was too wealthy, I did not have the normal childhood a child should have. Instead, no matter whatever I did, I would be followed by more than a hundred bodyguards. Even when I was going to the toilet, ten or so men would circle around with their backs facing me. My parents were always busy with work, and both of them even clinched a business deal each during my tenth birthday party!

Because bodyguards would follow no matter where I went, it was really difficult to make any friends. In addition to that, I grew to not be able to believe in friends.h.i.+p because the rare few who approached me of their own accord all turned out to have befriended me due to my family’s wealth. As such, I only have Ah Wei as my only friend. (In truth, my parents hoped that I would be a little happier being together with Ah Wei)

From then on, my family tried their best to provide me with an environment a normal person would have and not make me feel like I was of a privileged cla.s.s. With that, my ident.i.ty has been meticulously hidden and dad had even used his connections to remove all records in every department. Right now, basically, a majority of people don’t even know that my dad has a child, let alone know who I am. The most obvious advantage of this is that the over hundreds of bodyguards who follow behind me have now dwindled down to a mere few who hide in the shadows and guard. I can now also attend normal school like everyone else. (During elementary school, I was taught by a teacher who was specially hired by Ah Wei’s family and Ah Wei was schooled together with me). It’s because of this strange childhood that made it difficult for me to befriend others, and it cultivated my antisocial nature!

Actually, there’s another reason as to why I’m largely hindered from getting friends, and that is my voice and appearance. In fact, I’m not ugly in the least; rather that that, I look very pretty. That’s right. It’s pretty. Basically, I would be able to get into the rankings within any beauty contest throughout the world.

However, the problem is that I, as a hot blooded male, have a completely unmanly body. Please note that I am not a pervert. From the medical perspective, I am wholly male. I have whatever I should have, and I don’t have whatever I should not have. Everything is completely regular, even my s.e.xuality. Yet! 99.99% of people are unable to guess my gender right without any prior knowledge. (Depression!) Every time a guest comes to visit, the first thing they say when they see me will be: President, daughter Ling looks so pretty!

Indeed, the first impression a large majority of people hold of me is that I am a fresh and pure absolute beauty. And for some unknown reason, my voice is the same sweet child’s voice as it had been before p.u.b.erty occurred, making it even harder for my gender to be recognised! Think about it. How am I supposed to befriend a group of guys who stare at me while drooling? Because of this appearance, I can’t even get any peace while going to school. Since young, the number of incidents that had occurred where I scared a group of guys due to emerging from the male toilet number are at least 200!

Therefore, for such a long while, the only guy the same age as me who could treat me as a guy was Ah Wei, my most loyal friend. (The main reason why he could resist my beauty was because he grew up with me. Such thoughts didn’t occur to him when we were young, so it’s already become a habit now that we’ve grown older. Ah Wei is also actually very lecherous. He complains about how it’ll be hard for him to pick a girlfriend in future since I’m so pretty, as he won’t be able to accept them if they look ordinary! But really, usually, he will have a reaction as long as it’s a girl!)

Today, Ah Wei and I are queuing and waiting to get a model of the newest Internet game . It’s the first issuing of the game today and the first ten thousand to get an account number will also get a special prize. The special prize is ’s special electronic virtual reality headgear, as well as a random hidden prize in-game. The headgear doesn’t really matter, since it’s already year 2062 and the market value for this sort of headgear is only three hundred RMB, so it isn’t all that precious. Rather than that, what was more attractive was the random hidden prize. In truth, this is the product of a collaboration between my dad’s company and the world’s largest conglomerate group, a commercial trade group the equivalent of the European Union and it is being represented by my mom’s China Company. However, dad said that I could not set myself up for special treatment, and that if I wanted an account number, then I had to queue for it myself, so here I am!

I forgot to introduce myself. I am Shen Lin, a person from New Nanjing. This New Nanjing requires a little explanation. In the year 2012, the large scale conflict between China and j.a.pan over sea boundaries escalated into war. In the midst of war, j.a.pan fired thirty seven giant atmosphere-fueled bullets at China. Luckily, thirty six of those were successfully intercepted by the s.p.a.ce-oriented interception system. (This system was the first successful ammunition business by the Dragon Fate Corporations, and that was when grandfather was still in control of the Dragon Fate Corporations). However, the last atmosphere-fueled bullet still fell in Nanjing, and the entire of Nanjing was s.h.i.+fted into flat land. The number of people who had died immediately surpa.s.sed the number of deaths that had occurred when j.a.pan had carried out the Nanjing Ma.s.sacre by four times, reaching an astronomical number of 1.35 million. In an attack of revenge, China threw a crust bomb at j.a.pan’s Honshu Island, sending one of j.a.pan’s four main islands sinking straight into the Pacific Ocean. (Currently, j.a.pan has three main islands left) The resulting tsunami had also spread severely to neighbouring countries, and so, China had to reimburse North and South Korea 520.2 trillion RMB. This New Nanjing was rebuilt on the ruins of the original Nanjing.

“Look, the doors are open!” Ah Wei jolted me awake from my reverie.

Squeezing forward with all their strength is really enough to make a person faint to death. The queue that originally had some semblance of order broke up in confusion the very moment the door was opened. I was practically swept off my feet and forcefully lifted into the sale hall by the stream of people. Upon entering the hall, the situation became even more chaotic. The hall that was originally not very large was now crammed with more than three thousand people, and at least ten thousand more were still outside, trying to get in. Ah Wei, who was originally standing behind me, had also been swept to some unknown place.

Seeing that the area in front which sold account numbers had already started its sale, I could only violently squeeze towards the window. The security were doing their best to maintain order, but it seemed to be of no avail. “Save me!” I heard a very weak cry for help, and the voice seemed to be coming from under my feet. With much difficulty, I looked down and seemed to see someone being stepped on by others until she couldn’t stand up. If this were to continue, the person being trampled on would definitely be stampeded to death. With all my might, I pushed apart the dense crowd of people around me. Using my shoulders to block and prevent them from closing in again, I reached my hand out to pull the person up.

I froze on the spot, the person whom I had saved turned out to actually be someone who was so beautiful, it seemed like she was a G.o.ddess who was left stranded to wander about in this mortal world, her beauty had completely surpa.s.sed mine. Until today, I had not many people who were like her, so normally, there were no women who would dare to walk with me — After all, n.o.body would want to play a supporting role! However, she was currently covered all over with footprints and looked extremely haggardly, yet even this fact could not conceal her beauty.

“Thanks, sister!” Although her voice was very sweet, it felt as if someone had splashed a bucket of ice water on me, yet another one recognised my gender wrongly!

“It’s no trouble, at times like these, it’s better to pull you up then watch you get trampled to death, after all! Do you need me to send you to the hall?” The moment these words left my mouth, I instantly regretted it. If I really had to send her out, it would be guaranteed that I won’t have the ability to squeeze my way back in again to be one of the first ten thousand to get an account number. Besides, this game was being distributed across the world simultaneously, so even if New Nanjing was where ’s distribution company, China Company’s general headquarters, was located, handing out three to five hundred was already considered pretty good.

“No! I want to get an account number!” The girl’s words made me release the breath I had been holding in relief

“Alright, follow me closely!”

As we started to continue pressing on towards the window, I spared no effort in pus.h.i.+ng a path open. Nearly half-dead, I finally swam to the window. That’s right, I swam indeed, because I absolutely did not have any time to spare to walk over with my two feet. “I want an account number!” I rushed at the saleslady and shouted loudly.

“I want an account number too!” The girl had reached the window ledge as well.

The saleslady quickly handed two headgears over, “Account numbers are on the headgear, you can refer to the manual regarding anything you’re unclear on.”

There was no other way but to squeeze through the crowd to reach the exit. We managed to reach the door with great difficulty. Looking at the dense ma.s.s of people, I didn’t dare to think about how I had managed to squeeze in just now. Gasps of breath came from behind me, and as I looked back, I saw that it was that girl.

“Thank you! I’m called Lijia, Lin Lijia. Was it not for sister’s help today, let alone getting the account number, I might even have lost life!” She extended her head in a large gesture.

Holding her small, tender, dirt black, (Turns out it was white) hand, I gave up trying to explain. In any case, the chances of us meeting again were negligible. “It’s nothing! Since we’ve both received out account numbers, then I’ll remember your account number and whisper you in-game.”

“Sure!” Lijia copied the account number from her headgear and pa.s.sed it to me. “Then I’ll be leaving first, contact me when you’re free!”

“Okay!” Seeing her move further and further away, I turned back and looked at the crowd. Figuring it was probably impossible to find Ah Wei, I could only choose to return to the dorm.

I finally reached the dorms, but Ah Wei wasn’t back yet. Taking out the light breakfast I had brought back on the way, I began eating while looking through the manual, since the game only starts at eight, officially.

The manual was very thin, and it only had a total of seventeen pages. As it turns out, these first ten thousand account numbers are related to the headgear. In reality, the account number isn’t anything special, what was crucial was this headgear instead. When this headgear first launches the game, the account number used by it will be recognised by the system as a prize awardee, and it will carry out the random prize lottery. Of course, every account number can only accept one reward chance, so even if you have two headgears, but only one account number, it would be useless to log in with both headgears. The system will only acknowledge the first reward, and the second one will be ignored. The manual also mentions that each person can only use one account. The first time a person enters the game, the headgear will automatically scan the user’s brainwaves as well as irises and bind it. Once the binding is complete, the headgear will definitely not be able to be used by anyone else. This point thoroughly negates the possibility of power leveling as well as account theft. Besides, everyone’s ident.i.ty will also be bound to the account number. A person who has used an account number before will no longer be able to apply for a second account number. The other explanations have been omitted as they only explain how to look for system NPCs regarding inquiries in-game.

Just when I put down the manual, I saw that Ah Wei had returned. “How was it?”

Ah Wei’s face was filled with dismay, “Don’t talk about it. I got crowded out the moment I rushed up, and I couldn’t get to touch even a corner of it! You got it!” Ah Wei saw my headgear. “But it doesn’t really matter, since I’m not a professional gamer. It’s doesn’t matter even if my account number is ordinary.”

“It’s fine. I’ll bring you after I’ve leveled, and you’ll definitely rise faster than anyone else.” I consoled

“That’s great! When the time comes, you better not go back on your words!”

Finis.h.i.+ng my lunch early, I took a replenis.h.i.+ng nap to prepare for the all-nighter. At seven, I climbed out of bed, ate dinner and started waiting for the game to start officially. After an arduously long wait, (Though really, it wasn’t even half an hour) eight o’clock finally arrived!