Starting from Zero Chapter Book 2 - 4 – NPC Friend

Book 2, Chapter 4

NPC Friend

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I woke up from my sleep at exactly 0 o'clock midnight. I ate sothing, done business in the toilet, then got online.

I appeared in the sa alley after a white flash. Weird. Why is it so noisy around here?

I looked around, and oh you must be kidding ! Guess what I'm looking at!

"Ghost!!!" A gentle-looking old man with complete white hair is ahead of . But his body is transparent, and he has no legs. There is sothing like cloud under his waist part.

"Oh? How did you get here kiddo?" The old man, I an old ghost, floated toward .

I shook my head clear. This is a ga, and ghosts are totally ordinary here. With that in mind I'm no longer scared.

"I lost my way. I arrived in the morning but saw nothing here so I logged off. And now I just got on."

The old man stopped in front of . "A rare guest indeed! It has been such a long ti since the last ti soone alive visited us!"

The old man seems kind, I'm even more relieved. "Why is no one coming?"

"Sigh..." The old man told, "You see, I'm dead, you should have already known what is this place by now right?"

"This is where the souls of the dead rest?" I tried.

"Not true, but near!" The old man dragged out of the alleyway. The street outside is now full of people. I an ghosts. It looks like a real busy city now.

"This is where the dead gather, but not where they rest. You saw the na at the city gate, no?"

"The Lost City!"

"Yes. This is the place for those souls who refuse to rest in peace for various reasons. We've all lost souls!" The old man looks really sad.

I comforted, "Cheer up, it doesn't seem like a bad place!"

The old man changed his expression. "Sigh. Let's forget these sad things. Now follow ." The old man flew towards sothing, I followed.

While his age is enough to be my grandpa but man he flies fast! I rushed all the way and almost got a side stitch.

The old man stopped at a large plaza. He flew onto a platform and called there. When I climbed onto the platform, he shouted: "Everyone gather around! We got a live friend here!"

Crap, he's over-passionate!

What makes it worse is that all kinds of demons and ghosts imdiately gathered around . I spamd several Identify and WOW, there are level 130 dead soul, level 200 phantom, level 320 evil spirit, level 210 death knight, level 150 undead fighter, level 350 necromancer...All kinds of monsters, this is a freaking monster paradise! Besides I saw so dark creatures coming this way. I already saw several cerberuses and devils!

The old man shouted: "As you can see, beside is a living friend. We haven't welcod any living ones for a long ti, let's celebrate!"

"Yeah!"

"Welco!"

"Weeeelcooooee."

Damn! These creatures got so hospitality! That's not how I rembered about monsters!

Looking at all those dancing monsters down there, I don't know what to do!

Just when I'm dumbfounded, a giant-looking warrior with black armor ca to . "Hello! I'm Clark, a blacksmith running the weapon shop around here. Co do business with if you need any equipnt!"

"But aren't the stores here closed? I ran around the city in the morning and no one is open for business."

"Heh heh heh heh." The warrior laughed with roughness. "Of course no one is here in the daylight! This is the Lost City, there are no one other than the guards between 8 and 18 in dayti!"

"Ow why didn't I think about that. You guys can't touch the sunlight right?"

"We can. It's just that we hate sunlight. Look at the tower over there."

Soone high and slim wearing black robe walked behind . Woah this guy is tall! I'm 170 centiters, a middlebrow, and I barely reached his shoulders!

I looked at the direction he pointed out. There is indeed a tall tower. It's a square tower similar to an obelisk. It's not black colored but it looks really dark. From a vague estimate the tower is at least 300 ters high. None of the buildings around it stands above 100 ter so the tower really stands out.

There is a diamond shaped fra at the tip of the tower, and a red eye pupil inside it, it feels...really overwhelming. The pupil is now a vertical line, I suppose it is closed now. I don't want to know what will happen when that eye opens.

"That's the Dark Tower of the Lost City, and the Eye of Underworld. The eye will open when this city is under attack, or is attacking a nearby city. Once the eye opens, the dark creatures in the city will no longer follow the day and night routine. And, all dark creatures will get a 50% bonus to their Attack and Defense."

"Really? That's aweso! You're unbeatable!"

The robed man let out an evil chuckle. "Not exactly unbeatable. But quite powerful indeed. I haven't introduced myself. I run the Chemist Shop in the city, you can call the King Chemist!"

"The dead ones need dicine?" This system is so weird. Every race will need to use dicine?

"Why not? Let tell you. My ds are specially made and can't be acquired anywhere else within the whole continent. They are effective AND cheap! 20% off for you if you co!"

It's not long before I'm surrounded by all kinds of NPCs, mostly shop owners, and they all offered 20% off for to visit their place. I can't do anything else but to start visiting the stores one after one.

I first got dragged into Clark's weapon shop. We reached his shop just past several streets. I ca here before in the morning, of course it was closed.

"How about it? Nice place huh?" Clark boasted.

I looked around. The weapon shop is big, with wooden walls and floor. Several NPCs are buying and selling stuff at the counter. It feels quite like a big store.

"Nice! Your shop is pretty cool!"

Clark's smile got bigger. "So what about you? Anything you want to buy?"

"Absolutely! I broke my weapon yesterday, and none of the stuff on is usable so I need a really good one!"

Clark saw my expression and said: "Oh don't worry, you can just leave an IOU if you don't get the money at the mont."

"Well I can't just do that! Let see." I dropped everything in my inventory out. "You take these. I got another 3 gold. I'll owe you a debt if this is not enough. I promise I'll return the money."

Clark checked over my stuff and said: "These should be around 13 gold, that's 16 in total. Here, co with !"