Starting from Zero

Book 2, Chapter 4

NPC Friend

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

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

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

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

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

I shook my head clear. This is a game, 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 me. "A rare guest indeed! It has been such a long time since the last time someone 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 me out of the alleyway. The street outside is now full of people. I mean ghosts. It looks like a real busy city now.

"This is where the dead gather, but not where they rest. You saw the name 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 me." The old man flew towards something, 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 me 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 immediately gathered around me. I spammed 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 some dark creatures coming this way. I already saw several cerberuses and devils!

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

"Yeah!"

"Welcome!"

"Weeeelcoooomeee."

Damn! These creatures got some hospitality! That's not how I remembered 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 came to me. "Hello! I'm Clark, a blacksmith running the weapon shop around here. Come do business with me if you need any equipment!"

"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 daytime!"

"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."

Someone high and slim wearing black robe walked behind me. Woah this guy is tall! I'm 170 centimeters, 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 meters high. None of the buildings around it stands above 100 meter so the tower really stands out.

There is a diamond shaped frame 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 awesome! 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 me the King Chemist!"

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

"Why not? Let me tell you. My meds 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 come!"

It's not long before I'm surrounded by all kinds of NPCs, mostly shop owners, and they all offered 20% off for me 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 came 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 me 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 moment."

"Well I can't just do that! Let me 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, come with me!"