Starting from Zero

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"Are you Charon?" Mom quickly pulled Rose to the side. "No worries dear, I\'m Sairin\'s mother and your future mother-in-law. I\'m not going to do anything harsh. I\'m pretty open-minded you know. The only thing I need you to do is to take good care of my Sairin. Got it?"

"Hey mom!" I pulled Rose back. "Is that supposed to be an introduction?"

My father came too. "Hello, I\'m Sairin\'s father. You may already know what our family looks like. Now I\'m going to reveal something to you that may make you feel uncomfortable. This may sound embarrassing for our first meeting but still, I hope you can remember it."

"Dad! Stop scaring her!"

He just hinted me to keep silent. "Sairin is my only child. In other words, the only inheritor of my business. Both Dragon Fate and Zhong Hua Company will fall under his name sooner or later. We have a reserved emergency asset too, 10% share of the EU Countertrade Association. No one else knows about this. The true value of these assets of my family, and what you can do with them, are beyond the comprehension of any ordinary men. Let me tell you this: they will allow us to manipulate an entire country or even a region. And of course, any sane being will more or less get attracted by such a fortune. There will be all kinds of individuals that will try to usurp what we have. If you truly wish to stay with Sairin, you will have to be prepared to withstand what will come with your decision."

Rose looked at my father and didn\'t say anything. She slightly nodded her head, then nuzzled into my arms, refusing to get out.

"Son, you also need to know this: Once you two get married, your life will change and you will never be able to return to where you were. You will be center of the spotlight soon, anything you do will probably be revealed to the public by some reporters."

"I understand!" I stopped my mother from adding anything further. "I know what will happen. But I also know I can\'t leave Rose."

"Then we have nothing more to say. I can arrange your wedding. Before you two are officially married, make sure you don\'t fall out of the lines."

"What lines?" Rose asked, with the look of innocence.

"It\'s, well... that, action." Father tried to explain what he meant without actually mentioning that word. But Rose won\'t understand, so he turned to me. "You know what I\'m talking about right?"

I nodded, blushing. Father added: "If you two really want it, do it in the game. You two are always together anyway."

"Wait, you can do that in [Zero]?" I\'m surprised.

"You can. Anything that may happen in real life, can be reproduced inside the game."

I thought about it. Well doing that business in the game can be a good idea. The problem is I\'m not sure if my own body will have any reaction outside. It\'ll be really embarrassing if I...mess up my bed.

So I asked my father (whispering): "Um, will my body actually, ahem, if I...try it in the game?"

Father laughed. "Don\'t worry! No one would play our game if we can\'t even solve that problem. Did your body dance around when you\'re killing monsters?"

"I think not."

"That\'s it. To put it simple, our helmets are brain wave interceptors. Human movements and reactions are controlled by neural signals, the helmet will halt these signals and forward them to the game instead, while keeping the signals from reaching other parts of your body. In short, you body \'disconnects\' with your brain once you\'re in the game. Anything apart from those necessary to keep you alive, like breathing and heart beat, will be jammed. Other sensations like hunger, are also forwarded by the helmet to your brain. Or you will not feel a thing until you\'re starved to death."

"That sounds good!" I snickered.

Mother dragged father away. It seems she can\'t take it anymore. "Now don\'t you spoil our son already, you old pervert. And you, Rose is such a good girl, don\'t you do anything beyond the border! Alright it\'s late now. To your beds!"

Rose didn\'t understand what we were talking about in the whole process. She knew it\'s something to do with her, but just couldn\'t make it out.

Not surprisingly, mother asked us to sleep in separate rooms. But that\'s no problem. Rose, you\'re mine anyway! Hahahaha!

"Ow!" Someone knocked hard on my head.

"Sleep already. Why are you laughing like an idiot?"

Oh come on mom.

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It took some effort to get into sleep, which didn\'t last long. Crap. One night, and now I got panda eyes.

"Son! We\'ll leave now. You take Rose to the college." Mother showed up in front of my bedroom.

"Got it!"

When they\'ve left, I entered Rose\'s room. She still asleep. The large blanket is in the form of a tent. She covered her entire body so I can\'t see her face.

I carefully flipped it open.

"Umff--" I pinched my nose. That was close! I felt blood coming out of my nose! I never noticed that Rose got such a slim figure. Looks like that wizard armor I bought her was a terrible choice.

I can see through those half-transparent silk pajamas she\'s wearing. She looks like an angel with all the sunlight! She must have modified her looks towards the opposite end when creating her character.

I feel faint looking at her exposed pink corsage. Did mother do this on purpose? I think this is the same set-up my mother wore when she was trying to "seduce" my dad. I\'m still a functional male being on the biological level. Now I\'m trying very hard to control myself! Oh well. It will happen some time or other. Here\'s my chance, I\'ll just make her...mine!

I nearly tore my pajamas off. Any normal guy would become a predator under such a circumstance. But before I can make my move--

"Ziri... Help me, I don\'t want to go to Japan!" A drop of tear slid down from her cheek. And I instantly suppressed my primal urge. My desire disappeared as fast as it came.

I gently wiped her tears off, kissed her on the forehead and ran back to my room to get dressed.

What I didn\'t know is that Rose opened her eyes when I left.

"Good, he still have conscience! They really saw me like some innocent girl? My granny was right. Tears beat all men, especially a man in love." Her naughty expression turned soft. "Don\'t worry Ziri, I will be yours. Just, give me some time to prepare."

She touched where she was kissed, smiling.

Oh the other hand, I\'m still in my own room cursing myself. What kind of beast am I?? Did I actually plan to do that?

I woke up Rose (who is pretending to be asleep), we decided to take a tour around the shopping center. Neither of us really care about our college courses. Rose has already finished hers thanks to her extraordinary memory, while I just came here to get my papers. What they taught doesn\'t matter.

For some reason Rose decided to hold my hand and then snuggle into my side along the way. It\'s really a pity that all we received from the passers-by are weird looks as if they just saw some lesbians. One of the young men even complained loudly: "Such beautiful girls. What a pity."

Rose made it even worse by intentionally shouting out loud :"Honey! Where are we going to play today?"

This caused the complaining young man to bump head-on into a lamp post. That must hurt a lot, cause it sounded like someone just knocked at an ancient bell.

Mother\'s mansion is not far from the downtowns ("this is convenient!"). We soon reached our destination. She stopped for a moment in front of Sky Crown building, then dragged me away.

"You\'re not going in? This is the most luxurious place for shopping in the city you know. Don\'t women like to buy clothes?"

Rose just smiled. "You know how my family looked like. If not for the tuition-free offer I got, they would never allow me to go to college. Even that woman won\'t dare to shop at such a place."

I looked at Rose straight in the eyes. "Listen Rose, remember, you are not that poor girl anymore. Anything you will need from now on is what will make you feel happy, don\'t worry about anything else. Now follow me, I was planning to dress you like the top lady in the world!"

Rose complied after some minor protests. No female being is able to resist the urge to shop for free. She\'s not an exception.

But the moment I read the shopping tour guide at the entrance, I felt like going mad. Stores for men\'s clothes end at second floor, while those for women attires start off from 3rd floor, all the way to the 30th!

The situation changed faster than I expected--now Rose is the one leading. We first entered an ordinary store. Rose is already admiring everything she sees but none of the models met my standard. I just asked her to go straight to the 20th floor. That\'s where the good stuff will be.

I managed to push Rose through all the displays, all of which would attract her for quite a while. Start from the 20th floor there will only be special-grade shops which only sell famous brands or customizing services. Of course Rose never saw something like these with her own eyes.

I pushed her into a place called "The Snow Specialties". I don\'t know much about women\'s dress but I remember my mother likes to wear this brand. What she likes must be the right choices.

A guide quickly noticed us. "Welcome! What do you need today, ladies?"

Oh crap. Not another one! Forget it. I don\'t want to explain anymore.

Rose picked up a random dress and checked the price tag. She just gasped when seeing those zeros on it.

"Um, Sairin?"

I know what she\'s going to ask. "My girlfriend here wants something pretty, from evening dress to casuals, everything she may need. I don\'t know how to pick, could you help her?"

The guide lady looked at us in surprise, obviously because of that "girlfriend" part. But she soon recovered and took Rose away to try things on. A rich customer is always welcomed.

Rose is overjoyed while trying different outfits that would only appear in her wildest dreams. She also tried to put on different personas to go with them--a cute little child, a gorgeous madam, the most seductive woman... Even the other workers and customers in the store stopped what they are doing and stared at her.

We stayed for almost an hour, after which Rose has picked out a small pile of clothes. I noticed the guide lady is frowning. She must be worrying that we are just trying things out without actually buying them.

I picked another standard gentlewomen wear, asked Rose to put it on and tossed what Rose didn\'t want over to the guide. "Take this away. And, pack up everything we have tried, except the one she\'s wearing. Send them to this address."

I gave her my ID card (which is bound to my bank account). The frown on her face instantly turned upside down. Actually that smile looks as if its going to split her head. Of course, she\'s gonna receive one hell of a bonus today.

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Don\'t worry, there won\'t be such chapters very often in the future. This is not one of those harem novels anyway.