bzzt.... bzzzzt... bzzzzzzzzztttt...

Mei woke up in shock. She quickly waved her hand randomly and shooed the unseen insect away.

She hated them. Stupid mosquitoes. If they wanted to bite her, why did they have to fly so close to her face and wake her up in the middle of the night with all the buzzing? Just bite a leg or something!

She shrugged off her blanket, reaching for her phone woozily. 3 AM... Mei put her blanket over her head as well and tried to sleep for what felt like an hour.

...

Of course. She couldn't sleep after that. Frustrated, she grabbed her VR head and put it on. Might as well not waste time if she couldn't sleep, right? She was greeted by a familiar message as her surrounding faded into darkness.

Booting...

Welcome back!

Mei appeared on the streets of Greyland Town, the place where she logged off. The sky was still cloudy and dark, as usual. Streetlights glowed gently, lighting up the place, while the taverns and shops had their windows dark. She did not see a single person walking around.

Great... everything was closed. Mei sighed. Was there really nothing to do?

After taking a few moments to enjoy the cool night air, she decided to pay that pesky QuestStone a visit. She still had a slight grudge at it after it scammed her.

It was then when a realisation struck her. She completely forgot to polish it! Mei felt extremely annoyed and contemplated just ignoring the quest. But after thinking about how Alzeth forked out his gold "kindly" in order to help her, she changed her mind. It wasn't like she had anything else to do... right?

She walked slowly towards the town gates where the town gates were located. Despite the lifeless atmosphere of the place, she was surprised to see a few people walking around as she neared the QuestStone. Probably people pulling all-nighters, doing quests.

She waited for her turn, then took out the polish, using her fingers to spread the polish messily all over the orb. Touching polish with her hands was probably a very bad idea, but she didn't really care as it was a game. Afterwards, she scrubbed it all over with rags to spread the stuff all over evenly and wipe off the excess. That was good enough, right? She ignored the constant -1 numbers sprouting off her hand like smoke from a chimney, tossing the remaining polish into her inventory.

[Polish The QuestStone]

(Lv1-100)

Quest By Relative Difficulty Quest Progress Maximum Questers QuestStone F 0% 1

Quest Complete!

Notes: Took you long enough. It wasn't very well done either.

Rewards: 500G

Ignoring the QuestStone's comment, she decided to do what she intended to do in the first place: scrolling through all the quests and seeing if there was anything interesting now that she was a higher level. Unfortunately, most of the quests either weren't worth the effort or way too difficult. Just as she was able to give up, one quest caught her eye.

[Potion Testing]

(Lv1-100)

Quest By Relative Difficulty Quest Progress Maximum Questers ? ? 0% 1

Requestor's Note

I'm an aspiring alchemist who needs people to test my potions. I'm in a bit of a hurry right now, so I can't just go back to my guild for proper testing. When you accept the quest, you will get a compass. The red end points towards my location so just follow it.

Rewards: 15,000G

15,000 gold?!

Mei was shocked. That was like... almost a tenth of her debt! The main issue was how suspicious the quest seemed, however. But after a bit of contemplation, she decided it didn't matter. It's not like she could actually die in a game, could she? She accepted the quest. Quest accepted! Optional Quest available.

[Delivery]

(Lv1-100)

Quest By Relative Difficulty Quest Progress Maximum Questers ? ? 0% 1

Requestor's Note

I'm the same alchemist testing the potions. Help me collect a package from the QuestStone.

Rewards: 5,000G

Mei accepted the quest. The orb glowed slightly for a moment, then spit out a compass and a wooden box with a lock built into it. She panicked, reaching out her hands to catch them from the air, only to realise the items were already floating in the air and in no danger of dropping. She felt slightly embarrassed.

Mei put the box into her inventory and took a closer look at the compass. It was simple and crude, a small disk of metal with a compass needle with one end painted red embedded on it. There wasn't even a layer of glass to protect it or any directional markings.

The needle pointed towards a direction that was outside town. That was definitely not suspicious. She took out a lantern Alzeth gave her and headed out of the gates.

As she walked in the darkness, her surrounding lit up by a dim lantern alone, she felt nervous. The eerie silence and the occasional howling wind didn't help either. It didn't feel half as scary when she was with her party.

After what felt like forever, she arrived before a strange little wooden hut that was surprisingly well made. The cosy lights shone out of the windows. Mei didn't expect reaching the suspicious alchemist would make her feel so much better. She knocked on the door gently.

What followed was the sound of something being knocked over followed by glass shattering.

"Gaaahh!" someone shouted.

Mei heard the sound of someone hurriedly rushing toward the door. She took a step back as she heard the doorknob being turned, narrowly avoiding getting slammed by the door.

She was greeted by a very tall figure who wore a cloak that hid his entire body. On his face was a blank white mask with only two eye holes carved out to him to see. The figure seemed to be on guard at first, then spotted her holding the compass and relaxed.

"Hello. I assume you have come to help me test my potions?" he asked in an oddly gentle tone.

"Yeah, hi..." Mei said, slightly nervous.

Of all things, she didn't expect someone like that! It didn't help that he was extremely tall, towering over her. He seemed to be around 2 metres tall?

"Come on right in."

Not waiting for her to sort her thoughts out, he took the compass from her hands and walked into the hut, beckoning for her to follow. He walked in an odd and unstable manner as if he were drunk.

There was only a single room inside the hut. In the centre of the room was a wooden table with two chairs on the opposite sides. On the wall to her left, she saw a long metal table pushed right up against the wall. There was a rack filled with many vials of strange coloured liquids and all kinds of weird equipment that somewhat reminded her of the chemistry labs in her school. But what caught her eye most was a strange metallic pad with the top glowing red hot. On the side of it was a shattered flask, with red liquid spilling all over the table.

"Don't worry about that. I'll clean it up later." said the man.

"Oh," said Mei.

The man sat on one side of the table. Naturally, Mei sat on the opposite side, facing him.

"I will keep things short so we need not waste time. Firstly, did you accept the package from the stone?" the gentle tone was now gone, now slightly stern.

"Uh... yes." Mei shrunk back slightly.

She took out the box from her inventory and gingerly handed it over.

"Good. Now drink this potion."

Mei was handed a murky green potion. She hesitated, smelling it first. It smelled somewhat herbal, which was not as bad as she thought it would be. Still, she didn't really want to drink it. But seeing the alchemist impatiently tapping the table with his fingers noisily, she quickly gulped it.

It tasted slightly bitter, making her grimace.

+100,000

[Buff: Regeneration II]

Mei was surprised by the fact it worked. Maybe the alchemist was actually not as bad as she thought he would be. The man took out a notepad and scribbled down something before wordlessly handing her another potion. The concoction was black and pulsing with random red stripes. It looked really bad, but after the previous potion, she didn't think the man could be that bad at making potions. She quickly chugged it without looking.

It tasted like she was drinking very angry liquid fire.

-20,000 HP

[Buff: Rage IV]

YOU DIED

Respawn timer: 4 mins 49 seconds