MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Li Yi was not really going to pull out Ouyang Qian with the cable. He was just joking and teasing her. He took out Shrinking Scroll and ripped it open. Poof! The 24 heads shrunk.

Once Ouyang Qian broke free, she viciously glared at him, “D*mn you!”

Li Yi said nothing apart from chuckle.

Defeating two darkness creatures in one go was an outcome even Li Yi did not predict. It was a pleasant surprise but better, now they were only left with Mermaid Princess out of the 25 darkness creatures.

Brother Windcloud Nine examined Cerberus and smiled, “Well, let’s hope this dark queen’s a paper tiger. It’ll be smooth sailing if it is.”

Windcloud Killer asked, “Brother Nine, any changes on Cerberus?”

“No changes on attributes but it seems to have two wings on its back…”

“Wings?” Windcloud Killer jumped.

Chen Yang was stumped, “F*ck me, could your dog be flying soon?”

Brother Windcloud Nine enquired back, “Forget me, what about you? Any change on Ice Queen?”

Chen Yang was grinning, “There’s an additional single-attack skill. Nothing different on the attributes but damage… should be around the same value as Brother Yi’s Overlord Arrow.”

A high-damage single attack was what Ice Queen was lacking…

Chen Yang made the sign of a cross and silently prayed, “We must pull through the last darkness creature.”

Li Yi frowned and observed Mermaid Princess for a long time, unable to determine the right time for an attack.

The segment to beat darkness creatures was not mandatory. It was entirely up to the party leader whether they would battle them. They could just detour if they did not wish to engage in battle. This would not affect the end result.

Li Yi never told any members of the party about this secret. He chose to engage in battle for the sake of attribute enhancement.

Only, he did not account for the fact Mermaid Princess would be chosen instead of Onyxia. In his original thoughts, Black Dragon Princess should be the one making an appearance…

The opportunity to enhance attributes was scarce, presenting itself this time only. Moreover, only the party who defeated Hell-mode King of Souls would earn permanent attribute enhancements. The rest would only enjoy the enhancement while in the dungeon and the effect would disappear once they left.

Li Yi checked on the dungeon progress. Apart from his party, there were three other parties challenging Hell mode. The other two parties were progressing rather quickly, having taken down boss No. 1 and No. 2.

“Legendary Tribe, Fluttering Snow Alliance…”

The party with the highest progression was challenging Hero mode, defeating five bosses at this point.

Unending Unmatched sighed, “Guild Master, we’re way behind.”

Li Yi smiled and pointed at Mermaid Princess, “Our progress will spike once we take care of her.”

“Let’s do it!”

With only one darkness creature left, there was no need for Mislead to pull aggro. Unending Unmatched charged up and knocked onto Mermaid Princess.

Returning Shield! Thunder Strike!

Unending Unmatched struck her at least a dozen times, prompting Mermaid Princess to cover her wounds with her hands and howling out in pain without retaliating…

“Hahaha, she’s a paper tiger. Brothers, let’s do it!”

“Gank her!”

Regaining their spirits, the party yelled out and dashed forward.

Li Yi was let down by Mermaid Princess’ reaction, thinking she would have incomparable skills for replacing Onyxia. Who would have thought she would just take a beating.

Could she be like Heavenly Warhorse, an extra?

The party of 25 blasted Mermaid Princess for a minute, diminishing her HP by 10%. With a gentle hum, she started to lash the leather whip in her hand.

“Bp!”

The whip was not targeted at anyone, it was just an empty crack…

“Yamete…” ¹ Chen Yang moaned, prompting a roar of laughter from the rest.

“Continue with your attacks. Let’s just blast her!”

Although Mermaid Princess was not retaliating, her HP was quite high. Therefore, Brother Windcloud Nine suggested so in order to end the battle quickly.

Li Yi helplessly sighed, “Do it then!”

Mermaid Princess’ sad performance had him in low spirits.

“Bp!”

At another 10% decrease in HP, Mermaid Princess cracked her whip again.

“Bp! Bp! Bp!”

As her HP gradually reduced, the frequency of Mermaid Princess cracking her whip became faster.

“Hahaha, so this dark queen’s a masochist, whipping her lash when she’s hurt but refuses to hit us, hahaha…”

“I guess she must be shy in the presence of us hotties,” This was Chen Yang’s guess.

The 25 came up with all kinds of theories and discussed among themselves. In everyone’s mind, Mermaid Princess was dead meat…

…

“Lalalalala…”

When Mermaid Princess’ HP was reduced by half, she did not lash her whip, instead, she hummed a song.

Szh szh szh…

Szh szh szh…

All 25 party members lost HP and afflicted with seven abnormal statuses — Sleep, Muted, Petrify, Insanity, Stopped, Weakened, and Cursed.

Without the ability to fight back, the 25 scrambled about until they died of running, of fatigue, and of blood loss. All party members were wiped out after over half an hour of torture.

Resurrection in Soul Gate dungeon’s Hell mode was different from Normal mode. Players were allowed to resurrect on the spot in battles under Normal mode but Hell mode only permitted when players were in non-battle mode. In other words, it would take a TPK for the party to revive collectively, rather than reviving at will.

The half-an-hour torture was enough to leave them at the brink of collapse. The moment all members stood up, they stared at one another, not knowing how to react.

Mermaid Princess was not a psycho, but a super psycho…

Wu Old Wolf shook his head, “The seven abnormal statuses just keep piling on, I can’t Dispel quick enough.”

“There’s no use using skills. As long as her singing doesn’t stop, these abnormal statuses would keep coming.”

“Can her singing be disrupted?”

“Idiot, we never stopped hitting her.”

Everyone fell silent…

Unending Unmatched asked Li Yi, “Guild Master, how do we play this?”

Li Yi gave it a thought, “Let’s try one more time. Fatty, unleash Ice Queen to fight. The others, retreat out the dungeon for now.”

With Li Yi and Chen Yang staying back, the rest quit the dungeon.

Chen Yang summoned Ice Queen and ordered her to attack.

At the end of a battle, Mermaid Princess’ HP would automatically recover. After restarting this battle, her HP was at 100%.

Ice Queen raised her hands over her hand and started chanting loudly for about 15 seconds before releasing a huge ice ball.

“Polar Ice — Eliminate!”

“Wham!”

The ice ball whacked onto Mermaid Princess, dealing a terrifying -162,221 damage. Chen Yang was not lying when he said Ice Queen was now in possession of a single-attack magic. Its damage was quite admirable.

Mermaid Princess gently snorted but did not fight back. Instead, she held on to her whip and gave Ice Queen a cold stare.

Just as Ice Queen was catching her breath, she unleashed an Ice Spear.

Li Yi went to the back of Mermaid Princess and went into Camouflage.

Although Ice Queen was launching attacks, the battle was going slowly with Chen Yang alone. Nevertheless, as Mermaid Princess did not fight back, he could do as he pleased.

Fatty endured a long boring twenty minutes before he managed to cut Mermaid Princess’ HP down to 50%.

“Lalalalala…”

A sorrowful melodious harmony was heard, spurring a dizzy spell on Chen Yang and Ice Queen into Sleep, Muted, Insanity… all seven statuses.

Tst tst tst —

“God Mode!”

Li Yi was not spared as his Camouflage was useless against Mermaid Princess’ voice. With his Camouflage state canceled, he dispersed Dark Devour and immediately launched God Mode.

God Mode included a Heart of a Clear Mirror state which could heighten his chance to resist against abnormal statuses by 50%.

At first, Li Yi was in a better state than Fatty, having only been affected by three statuses, Insanity, Muted, Weakened, but as time went by, all seven statuses affected him.

He barely took Mermaid Princess’ HP down by 5% with Overlord Arrow before his body lost control.

Suffering all seven statuses, he found himself running around like a headless chicken as his HP gradually dropped…

If one was hit with Sleep, the person would fall asleep and lose the ability to use any skills. If one was hit with Muted, mana skills were inaccessible. If one was hit with Insanity, DEF would weaken but ATK goes up while losing HP by the second…

There was nothing one could do once all seven abnormal statuses were cast on a person…

Mermaid Princess did not have any ATK but her melodious voice was her most powerful attack.

Li Yi and Chen Yang went down one after another, officially putting an end to the second experiment.

“Brother Yi, do we continue?”

“No.”

Li Yi shook his head and ordered the party members back into the dungeon.

After a long while, Li Yi announced, “As far as I can tell, there’s no solution if you’re hit with abnormal statuses…”

“Then what do we do?”

Hearing Li Yi’s words, everyone became anxious.

With another hour wasted, Fluttering Snow Alliance has cleared boss No. 3 and was tackling boss No. 4. Legendary Tribe, on the other hand, was still with boss No. 3 but they would soon clear that stage.

Brother Windcloud Nine was frustrated, “F*ck, I wouldn’t be afraid if her ATK was fierce.”

Li Yi’s brows were tied up in a knot.

He could forgo Mermaid Princess and go straight to the other bosses in order to catch up with the other two parties, but so what? If they took King of Souls’ first kill without eliminating the last darkness creature, the attribute enhancement effect would be lost once they left the dungeon.

There was only one chance and once missed, there would not be another one…

Hothead Unending Unmatched could not stop himself from asking, after seeing Li Yi remaining silent, “Guild Master, what do we do?”

Li Yi lifted his head and with a steadfast gaze, he said, “Let’s try one more time!”

…