MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

It was common for players from opposing camps to kill one another.

Even players that were from the same camps would kill one another if they did not see eye to eye. However, there was always a plausible reason for the fights between players.

Defiantly Tyrannical was dismayed. He had never met Bloody Rose before, and right as he was leading his subordinates to tackle Barren Land, she appeared like a bolt of lightning. Without uttering a single word, she had instantly put him down.

Following that, Blood Rose had teamed-up with the Barren Land’s boss to put down his hundred or so subordinates.

“Do you know the error of your ways?”

Bloody Rose placed her foot on top of Defiantly Tyrannical’s body as she listed down his crimes.

“What goes around, comes around. How blasphemous of you to call yourself Defiant. (TN: Defiantly Tyrannical’s name in Chinese is 逆天霸道, which means going against the heavens and its meaning is incorporated into the ‘defiant’ part of his name) I’ll give you one chance to change your name; or else I’ll kill you every time we meet!” Bloody Rose brandished her dual blades.

After listening to Bloody Rose’s reasoning, he was dumbfounded. He would’ve died in a fit of rage if it were possible in his current state.

‘I’ll accept it if the reason you killed me was that we don’t see to eye. I’ll also accept if you intend to loot my equipment. I’ll even yield if you killed me for stealing your boss kill. However, killing me so many f*cking times just because I used the word Defiant in my name is preposterous…’

“1, 2, 3, CHARGE!”

Defiantly Tyrannical bellowed. Hundreds of his subordinates respawned together and charged towards Bloody Rose.

The rule where corpses were unable to speak was barely implemented before being abandoned.

The developers’ original intent was to imitate a real death, thus, silencing the corpses. However, the players have various means to communicate with one another. The simplest of which was to use an external voice chat program while gaming. In a way, it had voided the limitations of remaining a corpse.

In truth, the new rule did not even last a year before it was silently patched away by Pantheon’s official forum.

Defiantly Tyrannical had revived and immediately cast Soul Target, which prevented Bloody Rose from entering stealth-mode.

Bloody Rose’s reacted quickly. Once she saw that the tide of battle no longer favored her, she immediately summoned Fire Hawk and took to the skies.

Defiantly Tyrannical and his lot did not own any flying mounts. They could only curse at her as they watched her fly.

However, Bloody Rose had not left. Instead, she circled around in the air and threw smoke bombs as she dived downwards.

Boom!

White smoke billowed and the vision of hundred or so players had been obstructed. Utilizing the opportunity, Bloody Rose rushed to Defiantly Tyrannical’s side and stabbed her dual blades into his neck.

“I’ll give you another chance, will you change your name?”

“To h*ll with that! Just you wait until I get my hands on you, then…”

“Splurt—”

Bloody Rose slashed her blades before Defiantly Tyrannical had the opportunity to finish his sentence.

“The lenient way isn’t working. Take this then!”

Bloody Rose’s body shimmered and out of a sudden, there were eight bloody roses that charged within the smoke.

“Defiant’s underlings are probably just trash, so die!”

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—

Blood spewed in the air, and there were people repeatedly killed under Bloody Rose’s swordplay.

Defiantly Tyrannical and his men were really unfortunate…

“Zephyr, I need reinforcements here at Barren Land. I just f*cking met a ghost.” Defiantly Tyrannical issued his commands furiously.

“Brother Defiant, what happened?”

“I’m being spawn camped by an insane woman and I can’t get up!”

“Holy cow, I’m coming right now!”

Defiant Zephyr was Tyrannic Dynasty’s Chief Wizard and was a master of the rare ‘lightning element’. Not only was he strong, but he was also hot-blooded. When he heard Defiantly Tyrannical had been spawn camped, he flew into a rage and rushed towards the scene.

Li Yi had already arrived, but he did not interfere. Instead, he stood back in Camouflage and laughed at the sight.

“How irrational of you, I only asked for a name change. You could’ve agreed and we would’ve gone our separate ways. Why do you insist on yapping on and suffering?

Bloody Rose had subdued Defiantly Tyrannical once more and was in the middle of lecturing him sadistically.

“There is only one person I look up to throughout the Eastern Continent. Not only does he possess superb skill, but his name is also a melody to my ears. Unlike you, who calls himself defiant. How could you even hope to defy karma?”

“F*cking h*ll!”

“Sigh, your parents would probably be sad to know that their child had named himself in such a way. It is highly likely that your mother and your father would never see you in the same way again due to your name. I hope that I’ve made my point.”

“F*ck you, you crazy b*tch!”

Defiantly Tyrannical’s rage had reached the breaking point. He respawned at the temple and typed out a string of vulgarities to Bloody Rose and sent it to her.

He had played games for nearly 20 years and had encountered all types of people. However, an anomaly like Bloody Rose was a first.

Even heaps upon heaps of profanities were unable to alleviate Defiantly Tyrannical’s rage…

“Brothers, anyone who manages to kill her will be awarded 10,000 Gold Coins!” bellowed Defiantly Tyrannical.

“Time to get serious, f*ck yeah!”

“H*ck yeah, let’s kill her!”

Morale was rising as the reward had given birth to many brave souls. The hundred or so players from Tyrannical Dynasty were reinvigorated. They revived themselves and lunged towards Bloody Rose.

Bloody Rose’s high attack and HP stats coupled with her agility and the ability to escape by the flying mount had proved too much for the hundred or so players from Tyrannic Dynasty. None of them had managed to touch Bloody Rose and were engaged in a one-sided battle.

Players constantly fell and revived. They had witnessed the fearsome power of The World’s Best Thief.

Bloody Rose’s clones shimmered in and out of existence and were hard to keep track of. Even Li Yi, who was hiding at a corner was amazed by her prowess.

The innate skill of the human senses was useless against Bloody Rose’s stealth. Only ‘Heart of a clear Mirror’ was able to track the nine red dots jumping around the minimap.

‘How sly of her. To think that she would hide her actual body at a corner while relying on her clones to kill the others.’

He waited for the players from Tyrannic Dynasty to be wiped out before using Beast Soul’s Possession to turn into Lightning Leopard, and stealthily approached Bloody Rose’s true body.

Once Thousand Shadow Kill had reached Level 20, it could create eight clones. Including the true body, there were nine indistinguishable presences when the skill was active.

All of them were as real as they were fake. The player was able to implant her souls into each clone, which enabled her to control them freely.

The method to identify the real body was quite simple, as the clones would not be hurt when attacked whereas the actual body would.

Li Yi carefully aimed at the unmoving real body. He launched a few arrows, killing the actual body.

Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!

White smoke was released and all eight of Bloody Rose’s clones had vanished.

Bloody Rose was dead…

Bloody Rose did not anticipate that her actual body would be attacked and had suffered the consequences of remaining stationary.

Defiantly Tyrannical let out a boisterous laugh, “Good work, hahaha, which brother was it? Come here and claim your reward!”

“Camp her! Don’t let her get up!” Numerous players had risen from the dead.

Defiantly Tyrannical ran over, but before he was able to witness Bloody Rose’s corpse, two fire arrows came barreling towards him from thin air. They landed dead-on the back of his head and were critical hits, instantly killing Defiantly Tyrannical.

“F*cckk, Bloody Rose has an accomplice!” Defiantly Tyrannical cried out frustratingly on the floor.

“Tyrannical, I’m here! Where’s the person that backstabbed you?”

Defiant Zephyr had arrived at the scene and had brought along five hundred men.

Reinforcements had finally arrived, but Bloody Rose and her accomplice were nowhere to be seen.

Defiantly Tyrannical was fuming, “Go and find them! Return to the Western Continent if you’re unable to find them. That b*tch must die!”

“Big Brother, I have an idea.” A young chap named Defiant Mountain Gun had devised a scheme.

“Speak!”

“Let’s add her as our friend, and if she’s brave enough to accept, we’ll be able to approach her. When that time comes, we’ll lunge at her, shred her clothes and g*ng-b*ng her!” Defiant Mountain Gun violently raised his fist.

Defiantly Tyrannical gave him a thorough scolding, “I’ll g*ng-b*ng you instead. Don’t play the game if you can’t take the heat! What a sorry excuse of a person!”

[System notification: Guild Master Defiantly Tyrannical has kicked Defiant Mountain Gun from the guild.]

“Big brother, it was only an idea. The final decision still rests on your shoulders, so why did you kick me out?” Defiant Mountain Gun was displeased.

“Scram! I don’t need scum like you in my guild!”

“Krakoom!”

A bucket-thick red thunder came down from above, striking Defiant Mountain Gun’s head and dealing a fearsome damage of [−10,755].

Defiant Mountain Gun was sprawled on the ground, with wisps of smoke surging from his body. He did not even get a chance to complain.

Defiant Zephyr lowered his staff and spat some words before Defiant Mountain Gun’s body. “I’ll drown the clowns and beat the scums till their down. I’ll personally obliterate those who defy our boss’ words of wisdom.

“Continue searching! I don’t care if you have to dig three feet deep to look for her!” Defiantly Tyrannical roared.

Six hundred of them spread out to look for her, scouring Barren Land like a vacuum…

Far away, Barren Lord was sitting pointlessly on the floor. It was as if he was thinking, “Why have the pathetic ants that normally came rushing to their deaths suddenly stopped coming?

…

Bloody Rose did not revive on the spot. Instead, she opted to respawn at the temple. Li Yi had already anticipated it and immediately chased after her.

Bloody Rose rode out of the temple using Fire Hawk, and Li Yi was giving chase with his Horned Griffin.

“Dark Wing, what goes around, comes around. I’ll repay the humiliation today to you someday, and it’ll be a hundredfold!”

Bloody Rose shouted as she ran.

Li Yi didn’t bother to reply. Instead, he devoted all his energy to the chase.

His original plan was to kill Defiantly Tyrannical, but after seeing Bloody Rose, he cast away that idea.

Defiantly Tyrannical was a Curse Priest. Although he had leveled up, he was still under level 100, which basically made him trash and killing him mattered little. However, Bloody Rose was different. The consequences were severe if he let the b*tch live.

Tcchhhhhhhh….

While giving chase, Li Yi drew his bowstring and took careful aim. He had fully charged Powered-up Arrow.

The increased range from Heart of an Archer coupled with the orange bow had allowed him to firmly lock onto Bloody Rose. However, he was riding on a non-combat mount. If he attacked while on it, the mount would disappear without a doubt. Thus, he had only one real chance at shooting her.

This time, he used a special arrow which contained the divine soul of the Hunter Goddess Carulla at the arrowhead.

‘Carulla’s Arrow!’

The appearance of the arrow was similar to Carulla, and as he nocked the arrow, he could feel the vibrations of the arrow reverberating through his hand.

“Go! Powered-up Arrow!”

Carulla’s Arrow launched from the bow and barreled towards Bloody Rose…

Bloody Rose tugged the reins of her mount, forcing Fire Hawk to dive downwards in order to avoid Carulla’s Arrow. However, the arrow corrected its course based on her actions. When she descended, it descended; when she rose, it rose; when she went left, it went left; when she went right; it went right. It pursued her endlessly and was like a bone-seeping poison.

Pew—

Bloody Rose was hit in the back of her head, dealing [−10,654] damage.

[Guard Broken! Critical Hit! Crippling Strike!]

She died in one hit!

…