There is Something Wrong with This Game

The next day.

A girl with short blue hair wearing a sophisticated but commonly seen ceremonial clothing can be seen walking on the street of Nerkia City. The identity of this girl, of course she was none other than our beloved Archwitch, Hecate!

"It has been some time since my last visit in this city."

Based on Hecate's memories, the last time she visited this Trading City was about a month ago. Her gaze wandered as she recalled her last visit. A lot has changed since then, the city has become busier and livelier than ever.

The Trade City, Nerkia.

An independent City not belonged to any nation that always stands on neutral standpoint, not leaning on any side during the conflict of any nations. The location of the city was also very strategic, because this city borders the four major nations and is also the only city that accepts all incoming teleportation from all sides.

It was said that this city was backed up by some powerful Native figures. Because of this, the city can maintain its neutral policy, unaffected by the pressures from other nations. Which in turn, turned the city into the current state as the center of commerce.

Of course that was just the official statement. As for the truth, nobody knows.

'Grim should have more knowledge than I do on this matter.'

Hecate shook her head, trying to dispel the unnecessary thought. In any case, politics was not her forte, and Hecate wasn't foolish enough to mix in this muddy water.

Rather than thinking about difficult things, it would be better to just enjoy the scenery of this crowded city.

"This city is always so lively... Mister, ten of these please!"

"Ai yo~! The total is

5, little lady!"

As she wandered the streets, Hecate stopped at one of the food stalls, and bought some freshly cooked sausage.

Hecate received the food with excitement. Then, she took out a single 

Gold coin and give it to the stall owner.

"Thank you, mister. Here is the payment, you can keep the change."

"Ooh! Thank you, little lady! You are so generous!"

"You're welcome."

From the currency value, 1 

Gold coin equals to 100

Silver coins. Which meant Hecate has given him a tip of

95.

Having given the tip, the stall owner became happy and praised Hecate. Meanwhile, Hecate just nodded without even caring about a little money. What she cared currently was just the small window in front of her. 

Earning karma points wasn't really hard. All she had to do was just do some good deeds and be kind to the Natives.

"Delicious..."

Hecate closed the window as she savored the sausages.

As for what meat the sausages were made from, it certainly wasn't beef or pork. However, the texture, smell, and taste was better than any meat she had ever tasted in the real world.

♠♠♠

Yesterday, right after she finished upgrading her equipment, Hecate immediately sent a temporary leave notice to the guild. Of course, she also told her reason that she had a quest to personally deliver Dalmagna's letter to the Gemmerio Empire.

Moving between nations in this game, was not that simple like in the real world.

There were no cars, bullet trains, or airplanes.

The only way of transportation available for Hecate was carriages, which were driven by horses, or the expensive but instantaneous Teleportation Gate.

But, even teleportation had its own regulation set by each nation's Mage Association.

Players and Natives weren't permitted to use the Teleportation Gate to open a portal to cross the nation. The same also applied with the teleportation items, like the Town Scrolls. Only the citizen acknowledged by the nation in which the town was located can use the scroll.

This meant that even if Hecate obtained any Town Scrolls from the Gemmerio Empire, she must not use them. Or else, her teleportation could be redirected to the jail directly.

Any illegal teleportation will be intercepted by the Mage Association from the other side!

It was said this regulation was created to prevent direct military invasion of other nation. Wouldn't it be disastrous if suddenly an enemy army appeared within the city and massacred the citizens?

And lastly, each country's Save-Crystal has a different wavelength.

This meant Hecate could not retrieve the items she had stored in the Rosenheim Kingdom from any of the Gemmerio Kingdom's Save-Crystals, and vice versa. This was also the main reason why Merchants have to bring wagons or carriages to carry their goods.

Long story short, Hecate could only teleport to this city, then proceed from there on foot, without taking any of her stored items. 

♠♠♠

Hecate continued her strolling as she ate the remaining sausages.

At this moment, she turned on the Treasure Sensor skill and walked over to one of the stalls that sells a bunch of Mysterious Boxes. Immediately, a sparkling world reflected in Hecate's eyes.

"Mister, I want this, this, this, and this!"

"Oh, you have a good eyes, missy! My boxes were of high quality and freshly obtained!"

Immediately, she selected over 20 Mysterious Boxes, which caused the uncle merchant's attention.

Opening a Mysterious Box is like gambling. There was no way of knowing what was in the box unless they opened it at the Mage Association. People who opened them sometimes got expensive rare items, but this was a rare case. In normal cases, it would be great even if they could get their hands on a decent item.

Even so, these boxes sell well, especially for a gambler addict who dreams of getting rare items and then selling them for a high price.

Yazuya, the merchant who makes his fortune from selling the boxes from many channels. He quickly packed all of the boxes Hecate pointed out. And as he moves his hands, Yazuya didn't forget to advertise his goods, just like a salesperson would.

It was not everyday Yazuya got a loli customer who was so rich and has a high gambling tendency.

"Missy, how about this too? Look at this shine, the item inside this box must be a rarity!"

"No, thank you, these were enough. How much is this?"

"Twenty five boxes is

100,000."

Unfortunately, the loli did not fall into temptation to buy more boxes. She immediately paid the goods and left. Even so, Yazuya was not so disappointed. He already got a big profit from this big purchase.

However, Yazuya didn't know. That loli just now has a very powerful skill called Treasure Sensor and she has taken all the good boxes, leaving only the box with the trash item in it. Until the next batch of boxes, his stall will only have 0% winner and he undoubtedly will gather a lot of curses from the gamblers.

Hecate had set the skill configuration beforehand to limit detection to certain types of items, which were:

• • EXP Shards and EXP Crystals. (Individual selection)
  • Soul Essences. (Type selection)
  • Items and materials with rating 7★ and more. (Rating selection)
  • Materials, or items that made of materials worth more than

    10,000. (Material selection)

Of course, when the skill was active, the glitter also appears at many goods in the stalls that sells the item normally. However, their price was quite high and she felt it was not worth to spend so many 

Gold coins.

Hecate sweeps all the stalls that sells the boxes and she ended up collecting over a several hundred of them. It could be said that after today, rumors that the God of Misfortune had visited the Trade City would spread on the forums.

♠♠♠

One hour later.

"Okay, this should be all of them."

After Hecate "visited" all the stalls that selling the boxes, she headed to the Adventurer's Guild.

As for why Hecate did not immediately go to the Mage Association to open the boxes, that was because the weight of the unopened boxes has uniformly light. But, if she opened them all, the total weight of the items would definitely be more than what she could carry.

Hecate did not want to open the boxes and then forced to left them in the storage later!

When she arrived at the Adventurer's Guild, she immediately walked to the quest board and searched any escort quest that headed to the Empire. She planned to ride together with the client's group as an escort to save the effort of walking. Any city will do, because later on, she can just use the Teleportation Gate to directly go to the capital.

And fortunately, there was a few of them.

Hecate choose the escort quest with the most closest destination and took the quest plate from the board. She bought the plate to the receptionist to register the quest.

"Receptionist, I'll take this quest."

"Okay, let me see your Adventurer's Badge... Hecate - Rank C... Escort quest to Calmen Town."

The receptionist, Tiffany, who was a woman in her 20s, couldn't help but be surprised.

In the Adventurer's Guild, there are seven ranks which were in order of F, E, D, C, B, A, and S. People who registered and became an Adventurer will start their rank from F, and gradually upgrade their rank to accept more difficult quests.

This little girl that looked like a cute doll, unexpectedly has reached rank C that normally, take tens of years for Native to reach. However, Tiffany soon realized that this little girl was not a Native, but an existence called Player who started appearing since 2 years ago.

A terrifying existence from another world that gained the protection of the Goddess Norn from death!

'This girl is also a Player. Even a little girl is so powerful.'

But, even so, the girl did not cause the receptionist to be vigilant. Because she knows from her experience, even if the Players were immortal, but more than half were not high leveled and still afraid of death.

Players with rank C and below mostly belong to this type.

• • Since you can't die, why are you so afraid of dying?

When they were asked why, they only said about "desshupena" and complained that "the desshupena is too harsh". Nobody could understand what is this "desshupena" that they frequently said.

But, the only thing that was clear, it must be something terrifying for the Players!

From Tiffany's point of view, only Players ranked B and above should be treated cautiously. They had already proven their strength if they could raise their rank to B in the short time.

And for the rank A and above, they are more monsters than the real monsters. This kind of player at least has killed one or more disaster-level monsters. In this case, the guild directly promoted this kind of player to rank A regardless of their quest points, and if it was a solo kill, rank S. At this point, the rank will also serve as a mark.

Adventurers who were ranked A and S were treated as treasure, as well as potential danger. Their whereabouts and activities have to be reported regularly to the Adventurer's Guild main branch. 

Strong and immortal!

Tiffany couldn't imagine what would happen if these Players were to cause trouble.

But fortunately, most of them were still civilized. This is thanks to the Great Laws established by the Goddess Norn. Those who do bad things and have negative karma will become public enemies. Quite a number of players even volunteered to hunt this kind of scum.

Apparently, Players who get negative karma have their "desshupena" multiplied.

Tiffany can only thanked the Goddess Norn for her protection.

However, she just didn't know, that some players were just didn't bother to do Adventurer's Guild quest nor they care about their Adventurer rank.

"Okay, this quest is authorized. For the details, please speak with the client by yourself."

"I understand. Where is the person I should meet?

"His name is Georg. Right now, he should've waiting at the North Gate."

As soon as Tiffany said the word, a quest window appeared in front of Hecate.

After confirming the quest, Hecate closes the window.

Apparently, the client is about to leave for his destination. Fortunately, there was still plenty of time before the appointed time. Otherwise, she could only be left behind and the quest would be failed.

"Then, I should hurry. Thank you."

"Good luck and be safe."

Hecate said her goodbye to the receptionist and left the building.

1. Karma  -1 to -100 ⇒ Death penalty ×2
2. Karma  -101 to -500 ⇒ Death penalty ×3
3. Karma  -501 to -1000 ⇒ Death penalty ×4
4. Multiplier increased every -500 karma.