MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

“Time is money, friend!”

Among the many friends of Li Yi, Autumn Love was the one that was most suited for this sentence. This was her usual modus operandi as she never wasted any time. No matter how idle she was, she always found a way to earn some money for herself.

For example, what would Autumn Love do when the entire party was busy fighting the Boss together in a dungeon? She would use her Frost Arrow in combat while also using any spare seconds to brew some potions. She was a true manifestation of multitasking.

However, she might become too focused sometimes and thus be distracted from the fight. She would sometimes forget to run away or evade when she was required to, making mistakes so amateurish that any other ordinary player would never be able to understand.

Of course, as a Profit-Making Extraordinaire, Autumn Love was never content being idle even when she was lying dead on the ground. She would remotely control the gambling bets or find a few foolish people to invest in her. All in all, she found any chance she could to earn money.

There were no Auction Houses in the North Pole Continent. It was extremely uncommon for Black Autumn to be here.

“Brother Yi!”

Li Yi was just thinking about whether he should sneak off on his own, Autumn Love found him after she had finished clearing the Glacier Giant’s corpse.

After a short jog, Autumn Love stood before Li Yi in surprise.

“Brother Yi, why are you here?”

“I should be the one asking that question. Why are you here?”

Autumn Love was taken aback for a moment and smiled awkwardly. “I… Haha, I’m working to earn money, earn money.”

“You’re the one that killed these Glacier Giants, right? Haha, I knew it, who else would leave the corpse behind without even looting it? All of this is money! It must be someone with a lot of money, just like you.”

“If you like to loot corpses, then you can just stay behind me. However, I must be frank with you and tell you the ugly truth. I won’t form a party with you. You can follow me if you want, but don’t ever interrupt me.”

Li Yi took his bow and moved towards the outside of the basin.

The moment he saw Autumn Love, he knew that he would never be able to leave her behind. Judging from her greedy personality, she would not be known as Black Autumn if she did not follow him around.

“Thank you, Brother Yi.” Autumn Love’s eyes brightened but did not proceed to follow Li Yi. Instead, she stood unmoving for a while, seemingly having an internal battle with herself. Then, she went gone offline with a look of despair.

She truly did not follow him…

She did not follow him?

This was exceedingly strange…

Only one possibility remained – she was too exhausted to do anything anymore.

The Glacier Giants that were killed had just respawned when Li Yi left the basin. A new round of battle had commenced, and he was unaffected by Autumn Love going offline. He had forgotten this issue after successfully killing three Glacial Giants.

“Willing to buy Gold Quest Scrolls. Anyone who has them, just message me without any restraints, I’ll take however many you can provide. I don’t have any problems with money, so just come and give me a price!”

Brother Windcloud Nine’s rainbow-colored message had spammed the World Channel for ten days.

In the King of Pantheons, no item could immediately increase a player’s EXP. However, there was a very rare and valuable Gold Quest Scroll that would provide players with a monster-killing quest once it was used. After the player completes the quest, they would be rewarded with a generous amount of EXP.

In order to increase his Territory levels, Brother Windcloud Nine had been on a shopping frenzy for Gold Quest Scrolls recently. As a result of that, his Territory level had soared explosively to Level 13, just 5 levels short of Li Yi.

The higher one’s Territory level was, the higher the player’s attribute multiplier will be. After unlocking Level 13 of his Territory, Brother Windcloud Nine could cause damage equivalent to a Violent Warrior at a similar level.

If he were to maniacally buy the Gold Scrolls, Li Yi would probably increase his Territory levels at a much faster pace than Brother Windcloud Nine. However, he did not do so because he felt that relying on money to build himself would only be effective in the short run. Additionally, he would lose out on the joy he would experience in the game. Thus, he would just get a few Gold Scrolls occasionally and use them only when they were available to him. He would never intentionally offer to purchase the Scrolls at a higher price.

Along his way of clearing monsters, he quickly arrived in the depths of the basin again. However, he was less lucky this time around and failed to loot even one Ice Soul Bead.

He sat down to rest at an area near the Glacier Giant King. He only went back into action after the Glacier Giants respawned again.

While Li Yi was busy collecting the Ice Soul Beads, something of an average scale was happening in Shattered Frost City.

Hua Feihua, the Sky Vagabond dressed in a spotlessly white robe, was killed by Fengxi the black thief in front of the Auction House. Coincidentally, Scumbag Wang had witnessed the scene while he was walking past the area.

“Third brother, you…”

“Brother Scumbag, do you finally believe me now? He’s been killing me for a few months now. I’m on the brink of insanity.”

Scumbag Wang’s lips were shaking. “Third brother, you…”

Fengxi held his hand behind his back and tilted his head to look at the sky. He did not say anything.

“Brother Wang, kill him, avenge me. If you’re willing to help me this time around, I’ll give you everything you want.”

Hua Feihua’s tone was soft and sweet, laced with seduction.

Scumbag Wang swallowed audibly. His eyes were so fixated on Hua Feihua’s round and plump buttocks that he could not move his line of sight at all.

After a while, Scumbag Wang drew out a kitchen knife and pointed it at Fengxi.

“Third brother, why!”

“Do I need a reason to kill?” Fengxi uttered the same statement, his tone quiet and calm.

Scumbag Wang’s tone has changed. “Are you going to kill my woman too?”

Fengxi asked Hua Feihua, “Are you my second brother’s woman?”

Hua Feihua kept her mouth shut. Even though she had numerous boyfriends, but she was still a person with taste. She would never set her eyes on someone as ‘high quality’ as Scumbag Wang.

Scumbag Wang turned to point his kitchen knife at Hua Feihua. “Hua Hua, are you my woman?”

Hua Feihua hesitated for a moment before answering, “Yes…”

She had given it all just to make Scumbag Wang avenge her.

“Second brother, second sister-in-law, this is all my fault. I’m sorry. This is my mistake.”

Suddenly, Fengxi knelt on the ground and gave a few kowtows to Hua Feihua’s dead body on the ground. Then, he left.

Scumbag Wang was stunned, and so was Hua Feihua.

Hua Feihua stammered, “He, h-he… What does he mean by that?”

“My third brother has admitted his mistake to us, which means that he will no longer kill you in the future. Don’t bother yourself with it, his intelligence is so high that you would never be able to fathom his thoughts. Who’s a Priest here? Come and save my wife.”

Scumbag Wang yelled on the top of his lungs. A Priest appeared from within the Audition House and resurrected Hua Feihua.

“Brother Wang’er, you’re my good friend and good brother. However, don’t call me your wife, I’ll be angry at you.”

Scumbag Wang became agitated. “Didn’t you just say that you’re my woman? Why would you change your words immediately after you’re alive?”

“I’m a woman, but I’m not yours. Brother Wang’er, we’re good friends, right?”

Scumbag Wang raised the kitchen knife in his hands. “Good friends your *ss, b*tch! You dare to lie to me!”

……

Outside the Shattered Frost City, Fengxi the black thief stood by the moat and sighed while gazing at the river.

“Second brother, this is the best that your brother can do for you. The rest will be up to you now…”

…

White snow floated down from the skies in dance at the North Pole Continent. There, Li Yi sat cross-legged on the snowy ground, resting.

After killing Glacier Giants for an entire day, he had only acquired nine Ice Soul Beads. He was dissatisfied with the result. If he did not manage to get 100 Ice Soul Beads, he could no longer execute his plan.

According to the current drop rate, he would be required to stay here for at least ten more days.

However, wasting ten days for just 100 Ice Soul Beads was a terrible trade-off…

While Li Yi was resting, Autumn Love came online again. Before she went to Li Yi’s side, she made sure to clear out all of the corpses of the Glacier Giants surrounding her. Then, she smiled and flattered Li Yi.

“Brother Yi, your attack power is amazing! I can’t even kill one Glacier Giant by myself, and you can kill dozens of these Glacier Giants with just one arrow! You’re amazing, you’re magnificent!”

“Brother Yi, how long do you plan to farm here? Don’t worry, I won’t form a party with you, I’ll just trail behind you and clear the corpses. Hehehe…”

Li Yi turned to look at Autumn Love and found the girl had huge dark circles around her eyes. It was obvious that she had not had a good, restful sleep.

“Didn’t you take a rest when you went offline just now?”

“I’ve rested! Hah, hah. I’ve slept well, really well.”

“Yeah right, slept well? Did you obtain those two black circles through a good night’s sleep? That’s rare.”

Initially, Autumn Love was still trying to force a huge smile on her face. However, she looked dejected and sorrowful soon after that.

Autumn Love sighed and sat beside Li Yi. “I’ll be honest with you, I’m bankrupt.”

Li Yi arched his eyebrows. “You’re broke almost all year round, so that’s not uncommon.”

“This time, I’m really bankrupt.”

“I was tricked by someone, and I’m in crippling debt now. I can’t even take 10,000 Gold Coins out now.”

“Really?”

Li Yi studied Autumn Love closely. He realized that her expression was full of despair, and she lacked the hint of slyness that was present on her face before this. She genuinely looked like she was a person in bankruptcy.

Autumn Love stood. “There’s no need for me to lie to you. You can check my status and look at the words on the Attribute Panel. You’ll understand my predicament then…”

Li Yi took a look at Autumn Love’s status and was immediately astonished.

Right beside Autumn Love’s name on the Attribute Panel, one red word was stark against the background – Shameless.

Li Yi could not hold his laughter. “Hahahaha…”

In the King of Pantheons, there are many negative titles aside from buffing titles. Shameless was one of them, and the effect of this negative title was that it prohibits the title owner from entering any transactions.

In his past life, Li Yi also had a negative title called Vile Rascal. The negative effect was that he would be required to pay 5 times the tax for all his purchases. Additionally, when he traded or talked with any other players, the Vile Rascal title would automatically be displayed so that other players were warned and could avoid being scammed by him.

In other words, Li Yi’s scammer life was successful only in the initial stages. After he had received the Vile Rascal title later in the game, his life had taken an entirely tragic turn.

This unremovable negative title was basically a huge neon sign that said, ‘I’m a scammer, please don’t trade with me. Otherwise, you will be scammed.’

Before he had received the Vile Rascal title, Li Yi had scammed many. Once he had received the title, he could not even scam a beginner.

Back then, the problem that plagued Li Yi’s mind every day was how to remove the Vile Rascal title. However, when he saw the Shameless title that Autumn Love had on her, he could not stop his laughter.

With the Shameless title, she could not trade with anyone nor could she use any NPC shops. This title was even more twisted than the Vile Rascal title. If he was being offensively frank, he would say that an account would become obsolete once it obtained this title…

Autumn Love suddenly cried. “I’m not shameless. It was the system that tricked me…”