MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

It was a matter of time before the system made these adjustments. Li Yi had known that long in advance. The only difference between the previous life and this time was that it was slightly earlier this time around.

Li Yi still remembered that it was during the beginning of Pretty Good Mood’s heyday in the previous life that the system made the automatic changes. As a result, the corpse commander was silenced for a year before he slowly recovered his edge once more.

Pretty Good Mood’s gaming skills were average at best. His advantage lay in his control of the field. He knew when to press forward and when to retreat, so his party members rarely made mistakes. However, his own limited skills meant that he was often a corpse on the ground throughout the match, even as his soul commanded them to victory.

When the system notification announced the patch, many people were stupefied. Those whose classes had been buffed were naturally ecstatic, but those who had been nerfed could only sigh and swear.

“Dark Wing, I think they nerfed Archers.” Little Elf from the Magical Realm sighed.    ( NovelFull )

Li Yi tagged a finger at her. “Correction. It was the Archer class that got nerfed, not me.”

The five of them stood before a corridor and looked into the distance. There were about a dozen jackallings pacing back and forth ahead of them.

“We can’t dictate the system adjustments, so let’s stop harping on them. Right now, we only have one priority, and that is to claim the first kill of this dungeon!”

Among the Light and Darkness Instances, the first kills for all five Level 40 Small Instance Dungeons had already been claimed. As for the five Level 50 Small Instance Dungeons, Li Yi’s party was the only one to have achieved a first kill there. The remaining four dungeons stayed resolutely undefeated.

Li Yi checked the current status of the Man and Woman Instance Dungeon, and the results made him laugh. There were 167 parties attempting this dungeon at that very moment, but all of them were currently stuck at the first mini boss.

The Man and Woman Instance Dungeon only had three bosses in total. The first boss watched the entrance whereas the second and third bosses were both final gatekeepers, so there were really only two boss battles. However, the dungeon was still notoriously difficult. The system’s unofficial dungeon difficulty eating gave it seven stars, which just showed how ridiculous it was.

“Seven stars… The other three 5-man dungeons that had yet to be completed are all 8 stars. I didn’t know these last four Level 50 dungeons were all so hard.” Moonlight Ocean stuck out her tongue in surprise.

Li Yi gave a small smile as he rallied the four girls to fight the monsterlings together.

Compared to the previous two dungeons, the Archer class had a much larger advantage in this dungeon because they could use the Mislead exploit to kill the monsterlings one by one.

All of the monsterlings in the Man and Woman Instance Dungeon were Jackallings, usually gathered in groups of dozens. Jackallings tended to have less HP but extremely high ATK. If a dozen of them rushed at the players all at once, and the main tanks were not alert enough, it was not uncommon for the whole party to be wiped out.

Things became much easier with an Archer there, however. The Archer just had to Mislead and bug the monsterlings into approaching them one at a time.

Li Yi used Mislead on his Violent Bear King, shot an arrow at a jackalling, and then used Pseudocide. With that, he managed to lure one jackalling toward him.

The story behind the Man and Woman Instance Dungeon was a beautiful tragedy. Lawson, a Church of Holy Light Paladin, was hunting down Mel, a High Cleric from the Cursing Sect, all on his own. Just as the two of them were duking it out at the end of this corridor, the Jackalling Army rushed at them, and somehow the two of them ended up joining forces against their common enemy. They defeated the jackallings, but Mel was seriously injured in the battle. Lawson then pulled aside her veil and realized for the first time that she was a woman.

Eventually, Lawson and Mel fell in love, creating a union of light and darkness. They announced that they were leaving the two major factions, incurring the wrath of both the Church of Holy Light and the Cursing Sect. Both sides sent assassins after them, and in the end, the couple had no choice but to go to the King of Souls for refuge, sacrificing their souls in the process.

The backstory for this dungeon would be slowly revealed as players proceeded through the motions. The love between Lawson and Mel was as pure as could be, but since they were the only humans here in a dungeon full of jackallings, the players inevitably gave them the unenviable title of B*stard and the B*tch.

The jackallings in the Man and Woman Instance Dungeon were not on the same side as Lawson and Mel, but unless the players defeated the first boss, the Jackalling General, the door at the end of the corridor would stay shut, keeping the Jackalling Army locked out. If that were not the case, the B*statd and the B*tch would be dead before the players could even get to them.

The jackalling monsterlings in the Man and Woman Instance Dungeon were nothing much to shout about. With an Archer there to Mislead them, the party demolished them easily enough. The real challenge came from the boss battle.

After clearing about a dozen waves of jackalling monsterlings, Li Yi and the others finally caught a glimpse of the first boss, the Jackalling General with his greataxe.

Unlike the Jackalling Chief, the Jackalling General was average in size, just slightly larger than a jackalling monsterling. However, this one looked extremely strange. While other jackallings had one head, this one had two, one at the front and the other at the back. Both had long lolling tongues that constantly dripped with drool, proving a sight that was both disgusting and terrifying.

The Jackalling General did not have much health, its HP capping at 400,000.

“Is it very hard to beat?” said Little Elf from the Magical Realm in surprise.

“It’s not very hard, but relatively hard,” Li Yi corrected her.

“It has low HP, but you’re saying it’s still hard to beat. Oh, does it have an invincibility skill?” asked Xu Man.

Li Yi shook his head. “Nope, it doesn’t know any invincibility skills, and it only has that 400,000HP. Once we deplete that, it’s dead.”

Xu Man was confused. “If we total up our DPS, it’d be close to 20,000, right? If Big Sister Elf uses Miracle of Wind, we could cut down 400,000HP to zero in less than thirty seconds. How is that hard?”

( NovelFull )    Fire Ice chipped in, “Yeah, and I can cast Holy Light Shield for you guys too. That’s 8 seconds of invincibility.”

“I know all that, but…” Li Yi sighed helplessly and pointed at the Jackalling General, “Let’s just give it a try. I still think there’s a hundred percent chance we’ll get wiped out.”

“Tsk, you’re talking like you fought this before. Don’t forget, I’m the Platinum Hand leader. When it comes to searching up strategies, I’m not inferior to you.”

Xu Man harrumphed in contempt and continued, “The Jackalling General is a Violent Warrior by class, with high ATK and low HP. You wanna beat it? Easy, just make sure it doesn’t get close to you.”

“You got that from the official site?”

“Of course.”

Li Yi walked up to Xu Man and rubbed her head hard. “Here, I’ll rub your head so you’ll forget about that. It’s a mean trick, yanno.”

“Don’t rub my head, I’m not a kid!”

“Your fault for singing a kids’ song just now.”

Li Yi humphed. The way to defeat the Jackalling General was very complicated and could not be explained with words alone. They had to die a couple of times first to gain the necessary experience.

“Let’s go. Little Elf, don’t use Miracle of Wind yet. We’ll save that for when you girls are ready.”

Xu Man and Moonlight Ocean snuck toward the Jackalling General in Stealth Mode and attacked it in unison.

[−1234]

[−1345]

[−3212]

The sisters dealt decent damage. After they landed a few hits, they immediately retreated and had the Violent Bear King tank the monster instead.

“Which b*stard dares to attack me? Do you have a death wish?”

The Jackalling General was infuriated. It swung its greataxe at the Violent Bear King, but there were two other muffled thumps, and ten yards away, Xu Man and Moonlight Ocean fell to the ground at the same time, dead.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Just then, Li Yi’s arrows reached it as well, taking more than 5,000HP with just two shots. The Jackalling General howled and used Sweep at the Violent Bear King, dealing more than 5,000HP with one blow. The Violent Bear King could not withstand that at all, and within three strikes, it was down for the count.

“Jackalling–Charge!”

Armed with its greataxe, the Jackalling General lunged at Li Yi, as fast as lightning. Li Yi was ready for it, however, and he summoned his Mutated Small Wild Boar to block with Solid Ice.

The Jackalling General’s greataxe swept down at the Mutated Small Wild Boar…

“Get closer to it!”

Li Yi shouted and rushed up to the boss, swinging his Hurricane Sword hard.

[−3000]

[−3000]

More than 10 yards away, Fire Ice and Little Elf from the Magical Realm somehow got hit. A beautiful [−3000] damage number appeared above their heads, and they were killed instantly.

The Jackalling General used Sweep at Li Yi with its ax. Li Yi immediately leaped backward and shot off a few arrows in mid-air.

“Jackalling–Charge!”

The space in the corridor was limited to begin with, and there were no obstacles in the way either. Li Yi could not dodge the attack even if he wanted to, and he took the blow head-on as soon as he landed.

“Dark Devour!”

Li Yi dispelled the Disorient effect and continued to run. That ridiculously over-powered Jackalling General used Charge one more time, keeping him in place once more.

“F*ck, that thing has infinite Charges!” Little Elf from the Magical Realm, who was lying on the floor, could not help but swear. However, she had forgotten that she could no longer be heard when speaking as a soul…

“Survival Instinct!”

Li Yi used the only Archer skill that could dispel crowd control effects to escape from the Jackalling General’s Charge, but it was completely useless. He had barely gotten a few steps away before the Jackalling General charged again.

That was another 3 seconds of Disorientation…

“Die!”

The Jackalling General raised its greataxe above its hand and used Sweep, taking more than 2,000HP from Li Yi.

Li Yi forcefully tanked two more hits with his high HP before the Disorient effect wore off. He then activated the newly-installed Rocket Propellers on his new shoes and sent himself 20 meters away…

“Pseudocide! Camouflage!”

He used his two escape skills consecutively. The Jackalling General froze for a moment before keeping away its greataxe and running back to its initial position.

Li Yi had successfully broken away from battle!

He wiped the sweat from his brow and said to the four corpses, “Corpse run, little sisters.”

The four girls’ souls left and returned in no time. They sat on the floor, drinking water in a daze.

“What was that? I have no idea how I died.”

“Same, how did I die?”

“Could it be Cleave? Can Cleave reach so far?”

The four girls were completely bamboozled.

“Hurry up and explain it.” When she saw that Li Yi was not reacting, Xu Man grew anxious.

“The Jackalling General has crazy OP ATK. If you try to attack it with force, thinking that it has less HP, you’d best come back when you’re Level 100. At least then you’ll be able to overpower it directly. But we’re not at that level yet, so if we wanna beat it, we need to remember one rule.”

“Say it!”

“Take its ax, for example. When it uses Sweep at the target in front of it, we have to get closer to it in order to avoid taking damage. Its Sweep is extremely OP, with a damage range of 40 cards, but when its ax comes down, we need to distance ourselves from it. When it uses its Infinite Charge, someone else has to immediately draw its aggro so it is constantly Charging, but we must never let it actually attack any of us.”

“If the ax sweeps sideways, stick close. If the ax swings downward, stay away. If it’s Charging, stop and have someone else hit it.” Xu Man summarized everything and nodded.

“Got it.” The other three girls nodded as well.

“What do you mean, got it? The Jackalling General’s ATK is not to be trifled with. Even my pet can only take three hits from it. If we can’t pull it, it doesn’t matter how brilliant our strategy is. We just won’t be able to fight it.”

“Then what do we do?” The four girls were utterly at their wits’ end.

Li Yi took a deep breath and pointed at the Jackalling General. “Positioning.”

…