MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Li Yi had no idea how big a storm he managed to stir with that sentence of his. He stuck to his usual plan and charged forward using to the walkthrough given to him by Little Elf from the Magical Realm. His progress through dungeon increased so quickly it was as if he was flying through it.

Dungeon Progress: 56%. It was official; he was finally among the dungeon’s pioneers!

Currently, the person with the highest progress in the Conquer Instance Dungeon was not Little Elf from the Magical Realm. Instead, it was Infinite Insanity, another legendary figure within the Little Drunk Cat Guild.

After the incident with Ye Yingbing, Infinite Insanity had maintained his silence for half a year. He had only recovered gradually during the last few months.

Infinite Insanity’s progress with the Conquer Instance Dungeon was 76%. He was ranked first, while Little Elf from the Magical Realm came in fourth with 73% dungeon progress. Before her were two other players that came from the Western and Southern Continent respectively.

The difference in dungeon progress between these four people was not wide. However, all four of them were only progressing at an extremely slow rate. Initially, they could have achieved almost 10% of dungeon progress in one day. Nowadays, they could only advance less than 1% every two or three days. The dungeon grew progressively harder.

The walkthrough that Little Elf from the Magical Realm gave to Li Yi was very detailed. If he were to encounter any small and simple obstacles, he would be able to clear it in one try. However, if he were to encounter stages such as the Labyrinth of Clouds that were designed to give players a headache, the existence of the walkthrough would become insignificant.

It all came down to pure luck…

The perfect score for the progress of the Conquer Instance Dungeon was 200%. Not only did the players in the present fail to achieve that, but none of the players in his past life had been able to achieve it despite the fact that the game had been running for eight years.

Achieving 100% progress was not a difficult feat. However, reaching 200% completion was monumentally difficult…

In the forest entirely draped in spider webs, basketball-sized spider eggs covered the ground so densely that the edge of the infested lands could not be seen.

Countless tiny spiders crawled on the spider eggs, causing rustling sounds to be heard from all directions of the forest.

Li Yi stood by the edge of the forest and dismissed Onyxia. Then, he heaved a long sigh.

This was another one of those small obstacles that had a simple method to clear. To successfully clear it, he would have to stay alive until he reached the other side of the forest while running on top of the spider eggs.

Even though it sounded like a simple on paper, actual practical execution proved to be difficult. The spider eggs that were present in the area were peculiar. Once someone steps on them, they would immediately hatch into the monsterlings of the Spider King. They had high damage and knew how to spin webs. Getting ensnared by their webs would definitely end in a tragedy.

The number of hatched eggs would increase with the number of eggs that were stepped on by the player. Thus, the difficulty of this level manifested itself through challenging the players to find a way to survive and escape the forest before the spiders attacked.

Little Elf from the Magical Realm had cleared this stage with almost no effort at all. By using the Air Dance Technique, she would alternate between stepping and flying throughout her journey. In the end, she had managed to fly out of the forest after only stepping on a dozen or more spider eggs.

Li Yi spent a long time trying to adjust his mindset and emotions. In the end, he did not step on the spider eggs. Instead, he looked at the faraway players that were continuously challenging the obstacle by making multiple attempts on the spider eggs. Occasionally, he would shake his head.

He was waiting for these challengers to either pass the stage or to give up of their own volition.

There were a total of 13,600 spider eggs in this forest. Ordinary players could clear the stage without too much difficulty if they were to run in a straight line across the forest. As long as they were fast enough to escape the forest before the tiny spiders could attack them and eliminated all of the hatched spiders, they could complete this challenge.

However, Li Yi did not intend to clear the stage like this. Instead, he wanted to challenge the Ultimate Mode difficulty of escaping the forest after he hatched all 13,600 spider eggs that were present.

However, doing this would be extremely difficult. If he missed even one spider egg out of the 13,600, the challenge would fail. Thus, the most important factor in attempting this challenge was that he cannot miss any of the spider eggs present in the area.

Currently, there were still other players around that were facing the Spider Egg Forest. Thus, Li Yi could do nothing but wait.

Of course, even while he was resting and waiting, Li Yi did not forget to check on the current status of Tyrant Sword King the Fifth using the Divine Looking Glass.

Tyrant Sword King the Fifth would be in the spirit state one second and return to his normal state at the next second. It seemed like Scumbag Wang did not go easy on him huh…

Li Yi chuckled in glee.

Since he was bored, Li Yi proceeded to search for his other friends. He discovered that Ouyang Qian had actually entered the Conquer Instance Dungeon.

“Qian’er, what are you up to?” Li Yi sent her a private message.

“Ah, I’m in the Conquer Instance Dungeon! I wanted to try it out to see if it’s any fun. What about you?”

“Fate has tied us together. I’m also in Conquer.”

“Hah hah. There are at least a million players in the Conquer Instance Dungeon as we speak. If we were to adapt to your logic, does it mean that has tied all of us together?”

“Hah hah, it’s likely probable.”

Since the incident where he helped her to attack the Firelord, Ouyang Qian’s attitude towards Li Yi had vastly improved. However, it was still millions of miles away from how close they were as lovers in his past life.

“Lil’ Jiao is also in Conquer.”

“Oh, is that right? By the way, where is Lil’ Jiao from?”

“You didn’t know?”

“She mentioned Africa, America, and Oceania before. Ah, I’m so confused that I no longer know where she is.”

Li Yi laughed loudly. He never expected Jiaojiao to have moments like this where she could be so brilliantly sly. However, he was relieved after giving it some thought. How could she dare reveal true address to a friend that she had made through that kind of forum?

“Jiang City.”

Li Yi, on the other hand, knew Qian’er through and through. Thus, he did not intentionally hide the information from Qian’er and had sold out Jiaojiao’s background.

“Are you both staying together?” Ouyang Qian asked.

“How did you know?”

“That’s such a waste…” Ouyang Qian sighed. It seemed that she was quite disappointed at the information that Jiaojiao and Li Yi were living together.

“Could it be that you wanted to come here too?”

“Heh heh, if you aren’t afraid that I might steal Jiaojiao away from you, I don’t really mind moving in either.”

“Haha. I might be scared if it was a guy that came to seduce Lil’ Jiao. If the person that came to seduce her was you? Hoho.”

“Don’t be too full of yourself. Otherwise, you’ll definitely regret it.”

Li Yi failed to hold in his laughter.

Ouyang Qian’s skill in wooing women was utterly terrible. On top of that, her approaches were bad too. She would either go for the breasts or go in to kiss their cheeks. Her actions had made those that were close to her loudly exclaim their annoyance. Some even went so far as to cut ties with her! Others might not understand her, but Li Yi had nothing but a deep understanding of Qian’er.

Li Yi diverted the topic. “Ouyang Qian, what’s the meaning behind this name?”

“There’s no meaning behind it. I chose this name because Qian was present in my name. Everything else was made up. Initially, I did not want to use this name. Sadly, there was one b*stard that was too despicable…”

“Hm?”

Ouyang Qian asked, “Say, which is a better name; Gongsun Chuqian or Ouyang Qian?”

“Both are great.”

“Haha, you really know your way around words.” Ouyang Qian laughed.

“Wouldn’t you regret your decision if I said Gongsun Chuqian was slightly better sounding than Ouyang Qian? Haha.”

“Sigh, it’s the same thing in the end. It’s just a name, nothing too important.”

“What do you mean by ‘there’s a despicable b*stard’?” Li Yi refused to let the question go. Compared to other people, all questions that he had asked Ouyang Qian had another layer of meaning underneath them. It was just that Ouyang Qian had no idea what he was trying to do.

“Ah, it’s nothing much…” Ouyang Qian sounded disinterested. She clearly had no intentions to talk about this anymore.

“Come on, tell me about that. Perhaps you’ll be happier If you shared about things that upset you.”

“You’re the one that would be happy after listening to this, right?”

“Haha, that’s not too far away from the truth.”

“There’s no problem telling you about it. Have you read A Tale of Charm before? Gongsun Chuqian was a character within that book, and her husband was a guy named Great Sword King the Fifth.” (TL: Author is referencing a Chinese novel, 风姿物语. The series is a very successful fantasy novel.)

“F*ck this sh*t!” Li Yi blurted.

“What? What did you say?” Ouyang Qian was dumbfounded.

“Nothing, nothing.” Li Yi said two ‘nothing’s in a row, but he had internally cursed at Tyrant Sword King the Fifth over a hundred times. No wonder Tyrant Sword King the Fifth was always an eyesore. His name actually had such a deep meaning! Huh? Does that mean that this factor also influenced Qian’er’s decision to change her name in this life?

What Li Yi did not know was his actions that changed Xiao Xue’s fate in this life had directly caused Xiao Xue and Qian’er to be friends much earlier than in his previous life. Then, through Xiao Xue’s conversations, Qian’er entered the game earlier than before. Coincidentally, she had seen the name Tyrant Sword King the Fifth in the game. Thus, her in-game name was changed…

There were so many coincidences in this that even though Li Yi was an intelligent guy, he could probably never fully grasp the mysterious workings behind these events.

Hold up!

What was the relationship between Tyrant Sword King the Fifth and Qian’er? Was this entirely coincidental?

Li Yi’s thoughts went off on a long tangent. He recalled how he was endlessly hunted down and killed by the Fluttering Snow Alliance in his past life. The one person that left a scorching impression with him was not the boss of the Fluttering Snow Alliance but Tyrant Sword King the Fifth. That guy had acted like a manic dog that would chase after him day and night. When Li Yi asked him for the reason behind his relentless pursuit, the reason that he gave was full of righteousness.

A swindler deserves to be hunted and killed by everyone.

Was the reason behind his hunt really so simple?

That did not feel right either… Qian’er’s partner in marriage was Big Boy, no? Could it be that Tyrant Sword King the Fifth was just one of the guys that were secretly in love with her?

Li Yi was confused.

“Hey! Hey! Are you still there? Do you have a walkthrough? Send it over to me, eh?”

While Li Yi was lost in his thoughts, Ouyang Qian kept yelling at him through her messages.

“Ah, yes I’m still here. I heard that you’re engaged, is that right?”

Ouyang Qian fell silent after hearing that one sentence from Li Yi.

“Qian’er, are you still there?”

No one replied.

Son of a b*tch, an impatient man will never be able to get the big boobs… ¹

After checking his friends list, Li Yi contacted Shen Lang.

“Help me investigate this person, Tyrant Sword King the Fifth. Hm, and Ouyang Qian too. I want to know some information about their real life.”

“No problem!” Shen Yang agreed without hesitation. He had now become the top private investigator in the Iron Alliance. Anything that he investigated would soon its truth.

“Thanks!”

After hearing Ouyang Qian’s replies, Li Yi no longer had the mood to play the game. He quickly went offline and went downstairs to run a huge circle around the building that he lived in. Only then did his restless heart regain some sense of calm.

During the run, he managed to vaguely guess what had happened. However, he did not dare be too sure of it.

“Fatty, are you free? Come out and let’s have a drink.”

Li Yi called Chen Yang and went out for some alcohol. Whenever he had issues that he could not sort it out himself, he wanted to chat with another person. Fatty was the best choice for this.

At 11 pm, Li Yi finally returned home, stumbling in his steps.

The chopsticks and bowls were still there on the table, along with dinner. The door to the room where Jiaojiao and Fire Ice were sleeping in was barely open.

After checking the time, Li Yi went forward to close the door.