MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The ‘large fish’ under the water pulled Li Yi and simply would not stop. Thankfully, the quality of the fishing line in King of Pantheon was guaranteed, having achieved the ISO 9001 standard. There was absolutely no chance of it snapping. So long as Li Yi did not let go, the ‘large fish’ underwater would definitely not be able to escape.

“Bam!”

Li Yi gave it a hard yank and the ‘large fish’ flew out of the water. The rainbow-lettered notification appeared immediately.

[Player Dark Wing has successfully reached the grand finals and entered the Ultimate Water World. The current number of places left in the finals: 10/10.]

He managed to overtake them!

There was a flash of white light, and Li Yi found himself standing in the Ultimate Water World map.

A little palm-sized golden carp was struggling desperately on the hook. This was the ‘large fish’ that allowed Li Yi to overtake everyone else.

When Li Yi saw the rankings, he was in for another shock.

He was originally in 15th place with a total score of 932. However, after he reeled in this little goldfish, his score abruptly shot up by 1,000 points to reach a total of 1,932 points. He was suddenly and firmly in first place.

He was currently 800 points ahead of Snickersnee and Windcloud Temptation!

‘1000 points for one fish… What kind of strange fish is this?’

Li Yi grabbed the little goldfish and checked it, but the result surprised him even further. For some reason, he could not see the little goldfish’s information. The display was just full of ‘???’ question marks.

When he put the little goldfish into his Backpack, it showed up extremely differently as well. The other fishes were simply displayed as a fish head icon with a number appended to it, but when he put the little goldfish in, the display still showed it as a lively little goldfish, flailing around with plenty of energy.

‘What a strange fish!’

All his eight years of playing experience from the past life could not help. He had zero knowledge of this strange fish, having never even heard of it before.

‘Whatever, I’ll investigate it carefully once I get out of here.’

Now that he was 800 points ahead of the person in second place, Li Yi was quite pleased. The Ultimate Water World was an extremely small map. There was a platform in the center, surrounded by water. The ten finalists just had to stand on this platform and continue fishing.

When Li Yi showed up, Snickersnee smiled and nodded. The other eight glared at him with eyes that threatened to spew fire.

‘Dumb luck!’

The eight of them cursed inwardly.

Envy was a part of human nature. It was no surprise that all of them wanted dumb luck like Li Yi’s.

Windcloud Temptation was the first one to begin, hooking up a blue Ice River Penguin (Purely Decorative Pet). Her score immediately jumped up by more than 200.

Snickersnee was not to be left behind either, reeling in an extra-large fish, the Black Tiger Shark. He obtained 180 points from that, reducing the gap between him and Windcloud Temptation once more.

Of the 10 finalists, other than Li Yi whose technique was not quite up to par, the remaining nine were all the top fishers in the game.

Li Yi did not feel pressured at all, because he had already achieved his goal. It was fine as long as he could enter the Ultimate Water World.

This was the most intense stage of the Fishing Grand Prix. The red system notification that Li Yi had been waiting for finally appeared.

[Player Heartless Fish has opened a Tattered Treasure Bag and obtained a bottle of Holy Blessing Water.]

‘There it is!’

Li Yi immediately opened up all the Tattered Treasure Bags he had collected up until now.

There were more than 160 Tattered Treasure Bags in total, and Li Yi obtained 25 bottles of Holy Blessing Water from them.

[Holy Blessing Water: If you fish after drinking the Holy Blessing Water, the chances of you hooking a rare item will increase by 1%. Effects last for 5 minutes, with no cooldown time. Note: If the player is wearing equipment with the same effects as the Holy Blessing Water, the rare item drop rate will multiply, reaching 4%.]

The Holy Blessing Water could only be obtained from the Treasure Bags when the Fishing Grand Prix was about to end. The 1% rare item drop rate made the impossible possible.

Li Yu also had the fishing hat with similar effects. Now that its effect was superimposed with that of the Holy Blessing Water, the rates were a terrifying 4%.

There was a world of difference between 1% and 4%.

[Congratulations! You’ve obtained a Wish Stone. Your fishing score has increased by 50 points.]

[Congratulations! You’ve obtained a Wish Stone. Your fishing score has increased by 50 points.]

The 4% rare item drop rate meant that Li Yi would catch something every time he cast the line, and he would obtain a Wish Stone every other time. He was so excited that he nearly yelled out loud.

When the Holy Blessing Water was available through the Tattered Treasure Bag, the special item, Wish Stones, also appeared at the same time. However, while the Holy Blessing Water was available in all three maps, the Wish Stones could only be obtained by fishing in the Ultimate Water World. If the fisherman’s rare item drop rate was 4%, that person would reach the highest probability of obtaining Wish Stones.

Li Yi’s main motive for joining the Fishing Grand Prix was not that purple-colored fishing rod. He was aiming for these sparkling Wish Stones in his hands.

At the Fishing Grand Prix every year, the Tattered Treasure Bags would have an additional special item. The special item for the first Fishing Grand Prix, for example, was the Wish Stone. By the second year, the Wish Stones would vanish, and the special item would become the Refined Soul Stone. By the third year, the Refined Soul Stones would vanish and be replaced by Forbidden Magic Scrolls. For the eight years that the Fishing Grand Prix had run for, never once did they repeat the prizes.

The Wish Stones were only available in the first year, so how could Li Yi not participate?

[Wish Stone: Increases the chances of successful equipment reinforcement by 25% (fixed). If four Wish Stones are used, the chances will reach 100%.]

When a piece of equipment is reinforced with 4 Wish Stones, there was no chance of failure regardless of what level of reinforcement the equipment was at. It was 100% guaranteed to work! Of course, since the highest limit for equipment reinforcement was +16, even Wish Stones would not be able to force something up to +17…

Wish Stones were even more expensive than purple-colored equipment, and the drop rates for Wish Stones were extremely low. It was practically something all players wanted but could not have, because they could not even be bought with money. Take that Immovable King ¹ , Brother Windcloud Nine from the Windcloud family for example. He collected Wish Stones for seven years, but his equipment only reached +13 at the most. The reason behind that was that Wish Stones were extremely hard to collect. Their drop rates from regular dungeons were practically zero. If he had not obtained a few from some events earlier on, the legend of the Immovable King probably would not exist at all.

Right now, any player who was fishing in the Ultimate Water World stood a chance of hooking a Wish Stone upon drinking the Holy Blessing Water. The only difference between Li Yi and the rest of them was that his Wish Stone drop rates were several times higher.

Li Yi had long since informed Snickersnee to open the Treasure Bags and drink the Holy Water at the first opportunity. Of the 10 finalists, he was first whereas Snickersnee was second.

Their fishing scores kept climbing. When Li Yi’s total score reached 5000+, the countdown timer for the Ultimate Water World began.

He could only stay here for another 120 minutes. Right now, Li Yi still had an insurmountable lead over the others. Snickersnee and Windcloud Temptation were neck and neck, taking turns in second and third place. As for the remaining 7, their scores were quite far behind.

Of course, anything could happen during the Fishing Grand Prix. For example, Li Yi hooked that little goldfish and immediately shot to first place. As for the 7 who had lower scores, they could do that as well if they had Li Yi’s luck.

The only problem was the chances of that were really, really small…

As the time passed by, Li Yi got lucky again and hooked a rare Stone Octopus. His score went up by 300 points, giving him a 1000+ lead over the others.

The situation now meant that as long as Li Yi maintained his form, the others would not be able to surpass him even if they got another little goldfish.

The victory was in his hands. Of course, that was not what got him the most excited. He was still most exhilarated about the steadily growing number of Wish Stones in his Backpack.

The bolded red-lettered system notification appeared again, and a lucky player obtained a piece of purple-colored epic equipment from a Tattered Treasure Bag, creating another uproar among the Pantheon players.

The epic equipment caught the attention of countless people, but they did not know that the 10 finalists who managed to get into the Ultimate Water World were the ones truly deserving of envy.

All sorts of strange, valuable, and wonderful fish bit the bait. Even putting aside the other rewards, these rare fish alone could be sold for several million Gold Coins.

The Tattered Treasure Bags were still spawning, but unlike before, Li Yi and Snickersnee opened each one as soon as they drew it out of the water.

As soon as the Fishing Grand Prix ended, all the Tattered Treasure Bags would disappear automatically, taking the Holy Blessing Water inside with them. If they continued to hoard the bags now, they would end up devastated once the competition ended.

[You have hooked a Crystal Scale Fish. Your Backpack is full and cannot hold more items…]

[You have hooked an Emperor Ray. Your Backpack is full and cannot hold more items…]

After fishing for seven to eight hours, Li Yi’s Backpack was long since full to the brim. The others were more or less in the same position, and they all had to reluctantly throw away some of the less valuable fish in order to continue collecting points.

Li Yi threw away all of the medium-rarity fish like the Tigerskin Fish, only keeping the large and rare fish, as well as that little goldfish that was nothing but question marks.

The little goldfish was still flailing about in his Backpack, but regardless of what it did, Li Yi had already decided that he would sooner release all the other fish than let this one go.

How could a fish that instantly added 1000 points to his count possibly be trash? Even if he had to release every other fish, he must retain this one.

Two hours passed in an instant, and Li Yi maintained his 1000-point lead, successfully becoming the champion of the Fishing Grand Prix. Snickersnee was second and Windcloud Temptation third.

In the final stages, Windcloud Temptation had originally been ahead of Snickersnee by 50 points. If she had just reeled in one more fish, she would have solidly been in second place. However, thanks to Li Yi’s secret private message, Windcloud Temptation had been distracted.

“The red mole on your left breast is so tempting.”

It was precisely such a random line that gave Windcloud Temptation a huge jolt, causing her to forget to reel in her rod. On the other hand, Snickersnee took this opportunity to act without hesitation and successfully overtook her.

Of course, Li Yi did not reveal his name when he PM’ed her and instead used the cover of a stranger. Even if Windcloud Temptation was shocked, she would not have suspected it was him.

Windcloud Temptation ventured back, “Who are you?”

Li Yi ignored her completely.

He had achieved his goal, so there was no need to tease her any longer.

‘That’s called tit for tat. Your Windcloud family was the one who played dirty first by hogging the boats.”

Li Yi harrumphed in his heart.

The Fishing Grand Prix was over, and every player who had a fishing score of more than 200 obtained a fishing achievement. The 10 finalists also got an additional Hall of Fame incident to their name.

Li Yi, who came in first, obtained a purple-colored fishing rod, Mithea’s Fishing Rod, and a purple treasure bag.

Snickersnee received a golden fishing rod and a golden treasure bag. Windcloud Temptation received a green fishing rod and a green treasure bag. The remaining seven received a blue rod and blue treasure bag each.

[You will be sent out of this map after 10 seconds. The 10-second countdown will hereby begin: 10, 9, 8… 1!]

A white light enveloped the 10 finalists, and by the time the white light faded, Li Yi was the only one left on the scene…

“What’s this?” Li Yi was stunned.