MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

As night fell, the temporary arena set up in the Sea Island’s Trading Center had heated up once again. Hundreds of millions of players were pouring in through their nation’s teleportation doors and arriving directly on the scene.

One should not think of them as simply regular spectators. After all, if they truly wanted to enjoy the matches between the 12 experts, they could have easily done so by watching the videos of the matches once it was over. Their motivations for coming was partly to spectate, but primarily it was to draw prizes.

As decreed by Pantheon’s official forum, any players who were present in the ‘temporary arena’ during the tournament period were eligible to receive rewards. Furthermore, aside from the fixed rewards they would obtain, the players were able to participate in a jumbo lucky draw as well.

Player ‘Tall Mountain Flowing Water’ was struck by a ‘Gift Box from Heaven’ while watching the tournament. To his delight, he opened the gift and received a ‘Blood Bat’. (Purple Quality Flying Combat Mount)

On the other hand, player ‘Wang’er’ was struck by a ‘Gift Box from Heaven’ while watching the tournament as well. To his surprise, he had received 250 Gold Coins.

Meanwhile, player ‘Fengxi’ was also struck by a ‘Gift Box from Heaven’ while watching the tournament. However, he did not bother opening it and instead tossed it on the ground…

…

Under the players’ ear-splitting howls, the six players who managed to advance entered the stage.

“For our first match, we have the Invincible Continent’s Dark Wing facing off against the Ninth Continent’s Night Moon!”

Last time, Li Yi had been the last to fight; whereas this time, he was the first.

Aside from Night Moon, every other participant went under the stage, emptying out the arena.

Li Yi’s face was indifferent, whereas Night Moon had her brows all scrunched up.

It was not just her, every participant present dreaded facing Li Yi.

Throughout King of Pantheon’s two years of operation and after all Li Yi had done, he was undoubtedly the most famous person within the game. Whether it was claiming first kills, or PKs, or city sieges, Li Yi’s presence could be found. At present, even if all of Li Yi’s combat videos had been compressed into a single file, it would still be over 300 GBs.

“Clang!”

Whether or not Night Moon liked it, once the bronze bell rang, it signified the start of the battle.

“Thud! Thud!”

Li Yi fired two arrows while leaping backward. His backpedal firing had been honed to a high degree of proficiency. As such, melee combatants would find themselves acting passively if they did not take the initiative to attack.

Night Moon activated Sanguine Berserk, tinting her exterior with a crimson glow. She then brandished the two giant swords in hand and made a mad dash at Li Yi.

Her playstyle was extremely wild, and she did not bother dodging Li Yi’s arrows. She took them head on and sped forward at a rapid pace.

Violent Warriors have extremely high HP, and since Night Moon was sporting a full set of Tier 2 Equipment along with a special item called Blood Vapor Pearl, she had over 90,000 HP, which was only marginally lesser than that of a main tank warrior.

Even without using any skills, Li Yi was able to take out 2,000+ of Night Moon’s health with each arrow. However, she endured the hits and continued charging. Not long after, her excessively high HP pool was finally able to bring her in front of Li Yi.

After all, in order for Violent Warriors to reveal their true strength, they needed to bring their health below 50%, or… even lower.

The specialty of Violent Warriors was that their ATK increased as their HP decreased.

Although Li Yi was only using normal shots, he had activated his Orange Quality Bow’s special effect, Armor Strip.

Despite that, she did not suffer the same fate as Brother Windcloud Nine. All it took for Brother Windcloud Nine to be stark naked was firing dozens of arrows at him, but the same could not be said for Night Moon.

Armor Strip was not a completely invincible skill, otherwise, no one would bother wearing armor anymore. The method to countering Armor Strip was pretty simple, as plenty of equipment was imbued with special effects that nullified skills like Guard Break, Guard Shatter, and Armor Strip, such as Iron Wall, Impervious, Unbreakable, and Resist.

As long as players were prepared beforehand and had equipped themselves with Armor Strip-nullifying special equipment, Armor Strip would be effectively useless.

What purpose did the preparations before matches serve, and why did they need to carry out an analysis beforehand? It was not only to familiarize themselves with their opponents’ fighting style but to make the necessary preparations to counter their opponents’ signature moves.

It went without saying that Brother Windcloud Nine spent money like tap water. However, as for his equipment set, this was what Li Yi had to say about it, ‘If you hand me the same amount of money, I’ll create an equipment set hundreds of times better than the one you’re currently using.”

Despite being good at spending money, he had no clue how to select the best equipment for himself. All he knew was to blindly reinforce his equipment and embed gems in his equipment. Because of this point alone, it was clear that Tyrant Sword King the Fifth was much stronger than Brother Windcloud Nine.

“Overlord Arrow!”

“Hah!”

Li Yi suddenly stood still, and after channeling for 0.5 seconds, a golden Overlord Arrow was unleashed.

“Berserk Charge!”

Night Moon’s body morphed into a shadowy streak as she faced Overlord Arrow head-on while rushing forward.

“Thud!”

Overlord Arrow quickly pierced through Night Moon, and the Skill Interruption text popped out, unleashing shockwaves to its surroundings.

[−0!]

Gray text appeared above Night Moon’s head. Overlord Arrow’s dealt no damage to her!

‘Special skill: Fatal Counter!’

Li Yi’s eyelids shot open, and he activated Rocket Propellant to evade Night Moon’s vicious charge.

Night Moon ignored Li Yi’s normal arrows, but when it came to Overlord Arrow, she purposely activated Fatal Counter. As such, it was clear that her goal was to have Li Yi halve her HP by firing normal arrows so that she could temporarily increase her ATK.

[Fatal Counter: Upon the special skill’s activation, the user would enter an Invincible state for 40 seconds along with an increase in ATK by 30%. If the user is able to kill their target before the skill ends, the user would live with 1 HP left. Otherwise, the user will die.]

It was all or nothing!

Night Moon had shown her trump card and was making a last-ditch effort.

“Violent Bear’s Protection!”

“God Mode!”

Li Yi fired two special skills back to back and flew around the arena. With his increased speed, he managed to leave Night Moon in the dust.

“Thud! Thud!’

When facing melee combatants, it was Li Yi’s combat style to avoid being close to his enemies. Unlike Warriors who had sky-high DEF and HP, Archers could be easily taken down, even if their HP was over 90,000.

Even if their HPs were the same, was it really fair to compare someone who had paper-thin DEF with someone with an iron-thick DEF?

“Breakneck Dash!”

Night Moon thundered, and her HP rapidly plummeted. Following that, gale force winds appeared under her feet, and she took massive strides forward. Her speed had now surpassed Li Yi’s.

The strongest SPD-enhancing move, Breakneck Dash!

Woosh…woosh…woosh…

With large steps, Night Moon finally managed to catch up to Li Yi. She then brought her two giant swords upwards, and with a spurt, she swiped at Li Yi’s waist.

[−22213]

The golden damage counter appeared above Li Yi. It was only a single slash, yet it had already taken out one-fourth of Li Yi’s HP.

Li Yi calmly leaped back and fired Evil Piercing Arrow at Night Moon. The Hunter Goddess then carried him several meters further, and gently placed him down, increasing his distance away from Night Moon once more.

Spurt!

[−0]

Evil Piercing Arrow had met its mark, but once again, the ‘ineffective’ text appeared above of Night Moon’s head.

The Archers’ Evil Piercing Arrow could indeed dispel enemy skills, but when it came to special skills, it was obviously not effective.

“You’ve lost!”

Night Moon frantically dashed forward, once again coming close to Li Yi.

Li Yi laid traps beneath him and took a few steps back.

Night Moon caught up. She ignored the traps and stepped forward, only for black smoke to billow from the explosion that she set off. With a thunderous boom, an area of 10 square yards was shrouded in black smoke.

The black smoke did not disperse quickly, and thus, Night Moon ran out of the area of the black smoke. After scanning her surroundings and giving several glances at each corner, she was still unable to determine Li Yi’s position.

Fatal Counter was about to end, and Night Moon’s heart was throbbing in desperation. She then raised her two giant swords and slashed energetically at the smoke…

Violent Warrior’s ultimate skill — Demonic Netherstrike!

Four blood pillars surrounded the black smoke, disappearing only after 15 seconds had gone by.

“Ka-thump—”

Like a balloon deflating, Night Moon’s HP quickly plunged, reaching zero.

She had erred in her judgment. Li Yi was not hiding in the black smoke. By the time Fatal Counter’s duration had ended, Night Moon had died by her own hand without Li Yi even lifting a single finger…

Black Fog Trap’s duration was 10 seconds, and it dealt no damage whatsoever. Its purpose was to temporarily rob the enemies’ sight while they were in the fog. However, due to the small area of the fog and its short duration, very few Archers were able to utilize this skill. As such, only those who had plenty of skill points to spare like Li Yi would devote points to it.

Li Yi canceled his Camouflage state and materialized into view. He was hiding behind Night Moon this whole time, and he witnessed Night Moon using Demonic Netherstrike into the black fog first-hand.

The first match had ended. Li Yi was victorious!

Down the stage, Jiaojiao wiped off a bead of cold sweat. She could see that Li Yi had barely managed to win. Had it not been for Night Moon’s erroneous decision, Li Yi could very well be taken down.

“No special skills. No special skills…”

Jiaojiao blamed Li Yi’s hard time on his lack of special equipment.

“Come come come! Place your bets! You’ll definitely earn a killing! The bettors will bet against the Dealer! I’m betting that Dark Wing will lose, the odds are 1 to 2!”

The king of underhanded deals, Autumn Love shouted in the World Channel until her voice had grown hoarse. She rarely spent money on advertisements, but this time, she threw all her thoughts to the wind and sent a few lines.

“The dealer is betting on Dark Wing losing? With odds of 1 to 2?”

“My god! Is the dealer crazy? How on earth can Dark Wing lose?”

“The dealer ain’t crazy. Can’t you see? Dark Wing has lost all his special equipment, and he almost lost to Night Moon just now. We really can’t tell what will happen in the next round.”

“Yeah, it’s really hard to tell.”

The audience erupted with debate, but most players still favored Li Yi and bet against Black Autumn.

Since Black Autumn was the dealer, and she bet that Li Yi would lose, the only logical option the public could choose was for Dark Wing to win, since she would need to pay the bettors double the amount they had bet if she lost.

Black Autumn was really going big this time…

“Go big or go home!”

Autumn Love was pretty adamant.

At that moment, the second round had begun.

Just like before, Night Moon used the same strategy. She continued charging at Li Yi without paying any heed to his attacks.

“Thud! Thud!”

The first few shots were just like last time. Though Li Yi was aware that she was only doing it to decrease her HP to below 50%, he was happy to oblige.

“Overlord Arrow!”

Night Moon did a barrel roll and dodged the shot.

“God Mode!”

“Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud…”

Dozens of Overlord Arrows hurtled towards Night Moon. If she still refused to activate Fatal Counter, there was no way she would dodge all of the arrows.

Li Yi was forcing her to use her special skill.

“Revival!”

“Ka-psh—”

[Revival (Special Skill): Once activated, the user’s HP is completely restored. Following that, the user’s HP will be constantly decreased. Furthermore, while the skill is active, the user can resist 99% of damage!]

Night Moon was indeed forced to activate a ‘special skill’, but it was not Fatal Counter. Instead, she had activated another imbalanced special skill!

…