MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

At the very top of Blade Peak stood a Human elder wearing a black robe. At first, he looked exceedingly plain, but right behind him lay a giant red dragon.

Its body was dozens of meters long. The dragon had both its wings tucked in, and it was lying silently behind the old man, sound asleep.

“There are fewer and fewer young people who dare to come to challenge me these days. Hehe, you’ve done well. I have a bit of medicine here that can recover your strength, you can have it.”

LI Yi reached out his arm and accepted it, prompting the system notification: [You obtained Advanced-Level Recovery Potion X3]

The elder looked into the distance and asked, “Young man, the scenery here is nice, is it not?”

Li Yi answered, “It is.”

“Your reason for coming up here, was it solely to challenge me?”

Li Yi did not answer.

The elder stroked his beard and chuckled. “Young man, do you know who I am?”

Li Yi feigned ignorance and shook his head.

The elder proudly said, “I’m a Special Merchant. I specialize in selling goods that are unobtainable in the market. However, I will not sell my goods to just anybody. If you want to buy something from me, you will have to first prove yourself to me.”

System Notification: [You have achieved 10 or more Hall of Fame records and received the recognition of this elder. Do you wish to accept the elder’s test?]

[Accept!]

“For you to be able to conquer Blade Peak, this proves that you surely aren’t just a nobody. Now, all you need to do is to answer three of my questions.”

“Please speak.”

“Question one, who am I?” The elder chuckled as he continued to gaze into the distance.

“If you do not know, you can head over to the Silver Moon Celestial Capital and seek out the White Elf Vagabond Jolina. That young lady, surely she still remembers my name?”

“You are the Dragon Rider, Lord Augustus,” Li Yi answered.

What a joke, he had already done this quest before in his past life.

The elder was stunned. He cautiously assessed Li Yi briefly before nodding in approval.

System Notification: [You answered the Dragon Rider Augustus’ first question and received a reward. You earned 300 points in Reputation Value in all Human major cities.]

“Question two, what is the name of this giant red dragon behind me?”

Without waiting for an answer, the elder offered a hint, “If you do not know, you can head over to Shadow Moon City and seek out the Dark Elf Thief Karen. That young lady, surely she remembers?”

Li Yi took a few steps back and answered, “The Red Dragon Queen, Iona.”

“Roar––”

The giant red dragon suddenly woke up and charged at Li Yi with a roar of anger.

An intense draconic aura blasted at Li Yi. Fortunately, Li Yi had already prepared himself for it, taking a few steps back and steadying his stance. Otherwise, he would end up like he did in his past life where he was knocked off the cliff.

“Baby, quiet down.” Augustus patted the red dragon’s head. Instantly the red dragon simmered down, once again closing her eyes and going back to sleep.

System Notification: [You answered the Dragon Rider Augustus’ second question and received a reward. You earned 300 points in Reputation Value in all Human major cities.]

“Question three, the Abyssal Canyon Crevice that separates the Western and Eastern Continent, how was it formed?”

“If you do not know, you can head over to the Blood Moon Village and seek out the Werewolf Archer Uravi. That young lady, surely she will remember this story?”

Li Yi answered, “During the Abyssal Wars, you personally created it.”

“Hahahahahaha…” Augustus started to laugh arrogantly.

This old fart did not have any other traits. Just based on the three questions he asked, you would realize how much of a narcissist he was.

In his past life, Li Yi had also completed this quest. If he did not know the answers, he had no choice but to run back and forth over and over again and complete all three trips. Just the traveling itself took him half a month, not including the time needed for him to climb up and down Blade Peak three whole times. One single mistake, and he would fall off the cliff to his death, forcing him to start from the bottom once more.

Knowing the answers beforehand gave him a huge advantage, there was now no need for him to run back and forth.

Augustus looked into the distance, mumbling to himself, “After so long, are all my Hall of Fame records still being talked about in this world?”

System Notification: [You have completed Augustus’ test. You can now buy certain special items from him.]

“Young man, what do you need?”

Augustus displayed his item catalog to Li Yi.

Black Dragon Skin, Blue Dragon Eyes, Diamond Star Tears, Firelord’s Bile…

A whole bunch of rare and weird items was displayed right in front of Li Yi. Li Yi’s expression did not change. He immediately jumped to the last page, and with the price of 1 Gold Coin for 1 unit, he bought all 100 Universal keys.

The products Augustus was selling will refresh every 15 days (in real time). He had no use for the other items as of yet. The sole reason Li Yi came here was to buy out all 100 Universal Keys.

After buying the Universal Keys, Li Yi left the peak. Augustus will give the player a lot of quests, however, he did not have enough Hall of Fame records currently required to accept those quests. At this point in time, Augustus completely looked down on him…

…

Li Yi handed over 80 Universal Keys and a world map of the East Pantheon Continent filled with red markers over to Chen Yang.

“I’ll now give you a difficult quest. Every red marker on the map symbolizes the approximate location of a treasure chest. You should use Ice Toad King to look for them in their respective locations. Open the treasure chests as soon as you find them. If they’re locked, then use the Universal Keys. I just want all the formulae and the Archer Skill Tomes, you can have everything else you find.”

“Even if it’s a little troublesome, it’s no sweat. Leave it to me!” Chen Yang proudly beat his chest.

Li Yi smiled, “Alright, go. Be careful when you jump, as long as you don’t die too many times, you’ll definitely get a profit.”

Although he was now under the Red Name Weak Status, just running around opening treasure chest should still not be a problem. However, the reason he sent Fatty to do this was that; one, he had other things to attend to, and two, it was time he let Fatty get some benefits.

During this period of time, Chen Yang was largely responsible for the Little Drunk Cats guild’s explosive growth. He played on his alt account without a single complaint, teaching newbies, which kept him busy all day long. On the other hand, Li Yi had it easy, he just had to sit at the top without needing to oversee anything. If it was not for Chen Yang and Fire Ice, the guild could never have grown at this rate.

Chen Yang rode off on his Unicorn Goat (Dwarf Class Mount) and headed off all over the world in search of treasure.

Li Yi also did not idle around. He spent the entire day completely looking through all the recordings of various guilds doing the Death of a King Instance Dungeon raid.

The four Kings at the start of the Death of a King Instance Dungeon had already been beaten. The only enemy that remained was the Dwarf King Vladimir.

Li Yi hit up Pretty Good Mood and started discussing it with him. Pretty Good Mood explained the battle strategy he had in mind to Li Yi.

“We need to be aggressive during the first phase, try to survive during the second wave, and as for the third wave, there’s still no available records of it as of yet, so I… I have no idea how to do it.”

-, Secretly, Li Yi could even be said to be too familiar with Vladimir’s four phases. When he carefully explained all of the skills used in each of the four phases, Pretty Good Mood started biting at his fingertips, and started formulating a whole new strategy from scratch.

“This won’t work, this definitely won’t work. Try again.”

“Mm, it’s starting to take shape, but it’s still not there yet. Continue!”

As for the best method of tackling it, Li Yi was obviously familiar with it, but if he wanted to spur Pretty Good Mood’s growth, he needed to let him learn it himself. The only thing he could do was to give him information regarding the bosses.

“This Instance Dungeon costs large amounts of resources. We of Little Drunk Cat Guild do not have unlimited capital. If we get wiped a few more times, even if you eventually find out the correct method, it’ll be too late.”

“I’ll get it done next time!” Pretty Good Mood said with bloodshot eyes. Ever since he failed the last time, he had gone through countless sleepless nights.

Leaving Pretty Good Mood to calm himself down and continue on researching, Li Yi took the opportunity to go run a few quests.

To Li Yi, the Red Name Weak Status was nothing much. As long as he did not lose the EXP he gained, he did not mind it at the slightest.

With the addition of the EXP Pearl, even if he did not farm monsters and only ran quests, Li Yi’s daily EXP gain was still comparable to others. Moreover, just running quests to level up also had its benefits. Not only did it allow you to gain Reputation Value rapidly, but he could also clear out some of the troublesome quests that he had planned to do but did not have the time for.

In Shattered Frost City, there were three Special-type NPCs who were not affected by the Reputation Values of the major cities––the indifferent Taka, the raging Kelly, and the sorrowful Timmy.

Li Yi had already finished all of Taka’s quests, while Kelly’s quests required the player to reach Level 60 so it was still too early to accept them. However, as for Timmy’s quests, he might as well take this opportunity to finish them.

“All of you ordinary people will never understand the feelings of sorrowful Timmy. Don’t look at me, go away! All of you, go away!”

When the player walked past the Shattered Frost City South Gate, they would often hear the small boy Timmy rambling like this. However, when the player tried to make conversation with the boy, he would just ignore them.

In order to accept a quest from him, the requirement was simple. All you had to do is to kill a few people, making yourself Weak, just like Li Yi’s current status.

Ordinary people would never understand Timmy, only Weak Red Name players can make him open his heart to them.

As Li Yi and Timmy finished speaking, Timmy buried his face in his hands and started sobbing on his knees.

“I’m a monster… Timmy’s a monster. I’m too freakish, blood red claws, no…”

“I can see it, your body is also stained with cruel blood. You and I are the same, can you do me a favor?”

System Notification: [Do you help the small boy Timmy?]

[Yes!]

The small boy Timmy stood up and assessed Li Yi carefully, before revealing a look of suspicion.

“I don’t quite believe you, you need to do some stuff to prove yourself.”

“I want you to kill a few Hypocrites!”

System Notification: [Do you accept Timmy’s conditions?]

[Accept!]

[Accepted PVP Quest: Kill several Level 20 and above players (Regular Status) within the time limit of 1 hour until Timmy is satisfied.]

‘There aren’t any hints about how many people I need to kill. In other words, it’s completely random…’

Only players with Red Name Weak Status could accept the quest and this quest even has a time limit. If one did not complete it within one hour, one could not retry it again for the day.

Timmy reminded, “Give me a heads up when you’re ready.”

Li Yi opened the Guild Channel and sent out a message, “Anyone looking to die? Anyone looking to die? Now seeking players Level 20 and above who want to die! Die once and get 100 Gold Coins; die five times and get an additional gold-colored equipment! If you want to die, please contact…”

“Beep…”

The Guild Channel suddenly descended into complete and utter chaos.

“Guild Leader, I want to die, I want to die, add me to the party, quick…”

“Guild Leader, screw dying once, I’m willing to die 100 times! Add me add me.”

“My time has come. Don’t any of you motherf*ckers dare to steal my spot. Today is my day to die!”

Li Yi wiped off his sweat, flustered, adding in one more line, “It’s to help me finish a quest. How about this, if you’re currently in the Shattered Frost City, type 1.”

After a few seconds, the Guild Channel was flooded with rows and rows of 1s. Some were long, some were short, but all with different colors. It looked strangely majestic.

Li Yi did not even bother looking at the names, he randomly picked three people who typed 1 and added them into his party. With his current status, he would not be able to kill so many anyway, so even three was quite a big number.

He had attempted this quest in his past life. Unfortunately, under the Red Name Weak Status, he could not manage to kill anyone and he did not have anyone who would voluntarily die for him…

As the three lucky winners assembled, he carefully looked at their names, almost laughing out loud.

This is a miraculous coincidence.

At the very front was a White Elf Priest named It’s Free Down There, the one behind him was the Orc Warrior, Once in a Lifetime, and lastly, the Human Paladin, Sometimes It Gets Sad.

These names sound normal, but when read together…

It’s Free Down There, Once in a Lifetime, Sometimes It Gets Sad….