Well, there wasn't much she could do. Sure, she could sulk, kick walls and stuff but that wasn't going to do much. Mei decided to open the Rusty Weapon Crate in her inventory to get her starter weapon.

  Mei decided to pick a sword, the most balanced choice. Shortswords were a little too short for her tastes and greatsword would take too long to swing.

  'Sword!'

  A sword covered in rust materialised in her hands.

  A weapon from a trash pile... Definitely one of the worst starting weapons Mei had ever seen. Even the handle was not spared from the rust. What if she herself got the tetanus debuff mid-battle? That would be a huge joke! Mei considered going back into the store to buy a better sword... NO! She definitely wasn't going to increase her debt further.

  If only she had toilet paper to wrap around the handle, an old trick she used for holding dirty objects... There didn't seem to be toilet paper available though.

  Wait, didn't she have rags? She could cut a small piece out with the sword to wrap around the handle! Mei took her rags back out from her inventory and cut a vaguely square shaped part off. She then cut long strips from the rags to make makeshift ropes and secured the cloth to the handle. And voila! A tetanus safe sword.

  "Huah! Ha! Ha! Ha!" she swung her blade randomly a few times while making random sounds.

  A few people had stopped to look at the strange sight. A well-dressed girl cutting rags to make a rusty blade tetanus-safe then swinging it while making weird noises was definitely something to raise an eyebrow at. Mei looked away, embarrassed. She hoped she wasn't blushing. The passersby were probably NPCs, but she still didn't like people to think of her as a weirdo.

  Trying not to look at the people around her, she opened her map and headed to the portal. Despite the woman tricking her, Mei didn't think Alice would lie about a great spot to earn gold. It was mutually beneficial for them both if she managed to repay the debt in a short time. There was also the fact that the forest was muddy everywhere after the rain, so Mei hoped that the Graylands wouldn't be muddy. She would hate to dirty her new outfit.

  It asked a question instead of displaying a list? Mei was a little surprised. She wasn't sure if it was sentient but decided to be polite anyway.

  'The Greylands, please!'

  A thousand gold? Mei smiled in a slightly deprecative manner. What was that compared to her debt?

  'That's fine.'

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Her vision faded into pure darkness much like when she first teleported from the character selection room into the forest. Exactly like that in fact. Then came the vague sensation of falling through the air before landing on solid ground. Yup, this was definitely the sensation of teleporting in Limitless, concluded Mei.

  She landed on a huge octogonal pad of sorts with a spell circle on it. Mei looked around and saw that she was in a plaza paved neatly with grey bricks. A town of sorts? Night had come, but the area was well lit by streetlights. There were dozens of people, maybe even hundreds milling around. She could hear the muffled sound that was made when many people talked at once permeated through the air.

  Mei summoned her map and walked towards the gates of the Greyland Town where the QuestStone was located. It was a perfectly round orb of stone on a pedestal covered in dust and grime. On the pedestal, a small golden label said 'Touch to activate'. She touched it.

  Requestor's Note

  No one has cleaned me in 5 days. Seriously, this is such an easy quest! What's wrong with you people?

  Rewards: 500G

  Rewards: 1000G per stalk

  Requestor's Note

  The shell of the Grey Crawler is an important ingredient in many potions. Playing your part in this quest will not only help you fill your pockets but also ensure that Potion Shops will always have stock.

  Reward: 100G per shell

  Requestor's Note

  I want you, yes, YOU to collect meat for me! Any meat will do. Any part that is made of flesh is considered meat, be it a heart, lung, piece muscle, ANYTHING! Soft and squishy's the stuff.

  (Cooked meat is unacceptable.)

  Reward: The QuestStone will determine the value of the meat before payment.

  The rewards were so low? Mei was shocked. How long would it take for her to save up to pay her debt at this rate?

  The first of them was to the clean the QuestStone. Mei nearly snorted in laughter when she first read it. Why did no one take it up? Maybe it was because the rewards weren't worth it with the better quests around at higher levels? Mei took that as a good sign.

  She took out her rags from her inventory and began to scrub it all over the pedestal. They were still slightly damp from the shower, which worked out well for her. Soon, the dust and some of the dirt was wiped off the QuestStone. She waited for a few seconds for the sweet ding of the quest notification to pop up.

  ....

  No?

  'Quest progress!'

  So little progress? Mei was appalled. No way that's 25%, right? It was already shiny enough to see her reflection in! She continued to scrub the orb vigorously for a few more minutes but nope, it stayed at 25%. Dammit! She could practically see her appearance already! What more did the QuestStone want? Mei put her hands to her knees and panted, a few droplets of her sweat hitting the ground.

  *ding!*

  Mei perked up in excitement. Finally the system had registed the quest-

  Mei was speechless.