MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The system maintenance meant that Sister Windcloud Nine had been kicked out of the game as well. She did not know to check the official site, so she called Li Yi in a panic.

“Will the game stay closed forever?”

“No, it’ll reopen in less than 24 hours.”

“But… But what if it doesn’t? What if it doesn’t?”

“Don’t worry. Just lie in bed now and take a nap. By the time you wake up, the game will be back online.”

“Oh, okay…”

Ten minutes later, Li Yi’s phone rang again.

“I-I… took a nap and woke up, but the game’s still down.”

“…

“How about this? Go to your husband and chant the incantation at him 10,000 times. If the server is still offline by the time you’re done, call me again. Alright?”

“Okay…”

Li Yi spent a long time convincing her before he finally calmed Sister Windcloud Nine down.

Looking at his phone, he saw several dozen missed calls, but Li Yi did not reply to each of them individually. Instead, he simply posted a message to the group, telling them to check the official site themselves.

Even if Li Yi knew what the updates after the maintenance were going to be, he could not tell them right now anyway. Regardless, they would know everything after 24 hours.

While the server was down, Li Yi went to the official site again and searched up Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut.

Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut was quite the celebrity in the game. She had started playing eight years ago and she stood out from day one. Be it the Huashan back then or the Fluttering Snow Alliance now, both flourished under her leadership. However, she was extremely low-key, never accepting any interviews. Her profile on the site was very simple as well, describing her as a famous player, a former member of the Huashan Guild, and currently, leader of the Fluttering Snow Alliance, aged 23, southern, married.

After spending a long time checking, he found that the information was exactly the same as what he saw last time, so Li Yi quickly lost interest in it.

Just as he was about to close the window, however, another name leaped to his attention.

[ In-game name: Bai Xiaoya. Real name: Bai Xiaoya ¹ . Aged: 20. A former member of the Huashan Guild, currently a member of the Fluttering Snow Alliance. Southern. Famous gaming reviewer. Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut’s best friend.]

Bai Xiaoya… White Little Grace?

So her name was a homophone.

Li Yi clicked on Bai Xiaoya’s name and the results made him burst out laughing.

Bai Xiaoya was famous for having a sharp tongue, so there was no way she could be well-liked. Any gossip or speculation about her was, without exception, negative. Some said she was a sugar baby to an old millionaire, others said she had been gang-raped by a dozen middle-aged uncles, while others said she loved nothing more than to go down on others…

There was not anything positive about Bai Xiaoya at all. It was all overwhelmingly negative.

“You should never be too pure white or graceful in life, y’know.”

Reading all that slander made Li Yi feel much better.

As he continued to surf the site, he came across Bai Xiaoya’s Divine Equipment Rankings. The Shieldsword was still at the top of the list, followed by the Exorcist’s Admonishing Quarterstaff, which had stayed in second.

“The Exorcist’s Admonishing Quarterstaff…”

Li Yi frowned slightly.

Be it in the present life or the past, this weapon had always claimed a spot on the Divine Equipment Rankings. That showed just how useful the weapon actually was.

For instance, Li Yi’s Wind Sword had long since dropped out of the Top 20 by the game’s later stages, and the other Divine Equipment had volatile showings as well, rising and falling at the touch of a hat. The Exorcist’s Admonishing Quarterstaff was the only one who never dropped out of the Top 10.

In the past life, there were many Summoners who used the Exorcist’s Admonishing Quarterstaff, but the most famous of them all was one of the Top 10 God Wars players, a Natural Summoner codenamed Mountain.

No one knew the Natural Summoner Mountain’s true name. If it were not for the God Wars, no one would even know his nickname, because he kept such a low profile. He did not join a guild, and he never ran any dungeons with others. He had been farming solo this whole time, and only one thing made him famous.

During the God Wars Ranking Tournament, he had killed Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut in an instant.

He took Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut’s rank and became second in the God Wars Rankings. At first, he had the chance to fight for first place, but he threw the battle for a mind-boggling reason—he said he simply liked the number ‘two’.

In his past life, Mountain the Natural Summoner was practically a god. Unfortunately, Shoot Until Daybreak had eliminated Li Yi with one arrow during the team stages, so Li Yi had lost his chance to fight Mountain.

Li Yi had seen Mountain once before, and at the time, the latter was holding the Exorcist’s Admonishing Quarterstaff.

That was why Li Yi suspected that the Exorcist’s Admonishing Quarterstaff on Bai Xiaoya’s list was Mountain’s.

The game being unavailable meant that there were several thousand times more posts on the Pantheon official forums than usual. However, not many posts could capture Li Yi’s interest, and he got bored after looking through a few, so he gave up on them.

Turning off his laptop. Li Yi took a shower and returned to his bedroom only to find that somewhere along the way, Fire Ice had stopped feigning sleep and left.

“Sigh…”

Feeling slightly disappointed, Li Yu set his alarm and lay in bed, falling asleep in a moment.

“What are you, dead? Wake up, pig! Wake uppp, the game’s on again.”

At twelve midnight, Jiaojiao shook Li Yi until he woke up.

Li Yi rubbed his eyes and looked at the time, perking up instantly. “I set the alarm, so why didn’t it ring?”

Jiaojiao picked up the clock and shook it before she remembered. “A few days ago, I was sleeping but this thing just wouldn’t shut up, so I smacked it with a hand chop and it went mute.”

“…”

Li Yi put on his headset and entered the game with Jiaojiao.

“When we get in there, stay put. I’ll check out the situation first.”

“Roger that.”

Li Yi opened his eyes and found that he was now standing in the Invincible Continent.

The system maintenance had pulled him all the way back from the Fluttering Snow Continent’s Celestial Capital.

It was not just him, either. Every player who had been overseas when they logged off had all been pulled back to their own country, without exception. At the same time, the system was spamming the World Channel with bright red notifications.

[Danger! Danger! This is a once-in-a-millennia threat! The Abyssal Devil has broken free from its seal and opened the Foreignland Gate, descending upon the Pantheon World once more. Heroes, pick up your weapons! Fight!”

The Demon World Gate was open, and the Foreignland had been connected. The Abyssal Devil Army was approaching!

With just one glance, Li Yi knew what was happening.

The new version, Demonic Invasion, was live!

Holy Equipment officially took the stage, a new Foreignland map, the land of demons, was open, and the level cap was raised to Level 100. There were new equipment and new skills to boot!

Li Yi teleported to the Abyssal Canyon Crevice and saw that it had already been conquered by a horde of demons.

The Abyssal Canyon Crevice was where the three continents met, but there had always been a legendary Foreignland Gate here. In the times of the ancient god-demon wars, the Three Human Heroes had worked together with the gods to forcefully seal the Foreignland Gate.

However, as time passed, the Abyssal Devils had finally and suddenly broken free of the seal, descending upon this world once more.

“Jiaojiao, come to the Abyssal Canyon Crevice right now. My coordinates are…”

Li Yi sent Jiaojiao a message before turning toward the rapidly-approaching Demonic Army. He then retreated a hundred meters away before standing in wait.

There were many other players other than Li Yi at the Abyssal Canyon Crevice, but they did not know just how powerful the Demonic Army was. They assumed that these black creatures were just like the black dragon troops that liked to raid their cities, so they charged in blindly and were eaten until nothing was left.

Now that the level cap had been revised, dying once meant a huge loss. If they dropped any equipment, it would be even worse.

Just then, Jiaojiao arrived on the scene and immediately raised her brows when she saw the swathes of Demonic Army. She swung her Greatsword and was about to charge in when Li Yi saw and caught her in time, pulling her back.

“Anyone who goes in now will die, silly!”

Jiaojiao was disbelieving. “Are these black demons really that strong?”

“If you don’t believe me, give it a try.”

The Demonic Army approached them a step at a time, and Li Yi pulled Jiaojiao back in constant retreat.

“Whatchu doing?”

Li Yi glared at her. “I’m doing you. Just come with me and save your breath.”

The Demonic Army was a black mass that surged upward, numbering at least a hundred million strong. While Li Yi pulled Jiaojiao back, countless clueless players roared and rushed in. Without exception, they were devoured down to the last scrap.

“See that? If you let those things get close to you, you’ll definitely die without a corpse to bury. They’ll even eat all your equipment clean off.”

Jiaojiao shuddered and instinctively gripped Li Yi tighter.

“Then why are we retreating? Should I issue a King’s order?”

“Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—”

Before Li Yi could reply, several enormous ethereal blades descended from the sky and shot straight for the Demonic Army.

One of the Three Human Heroes, Augustus, was flying in mid-air and proceeded to slowly land near the Demonic Army.

“Argh-a-gurgle gurgle gurgle-raar…”

The Demon Soldiers who saw Augustus immediately went berserk, rushing at him with fangs and claws bared.

“Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—”

There was the constant hum of blades slicing through the air, and countless ethereal swords crashed back and forth within his Territory. The Demon Soldiers that players were helpless against vanished into puffs of black smoke one after the other, before dissipating completely…

Several seconds later, not one soldier was left from the horde of a hundred million. He had killed every last one.

Augustus pulled back his Territory and looked into the distance with a solemn expression, shaking his head.

“Let’s go!”

Li Yi dragged Jiaojiao along, running toward him.

Augustus turned around to look at Li Yi, saying, “The Demonic Invasion this time has far surpassed my expectations. With my power alone, I will only be able to hold them off for now, but I can’t seal the Foreignland Gate completely…

“Young man, will you help me?”

Li Yi nodded.

“Go to Silvermoon City, find the Elf Queen, and give her this token.”

“Ding!”

Augustus handed Li Yi a flute.

[Accepted the Elven Flute quest.]

[Quest type: One and only. Quest difficulty: Rank E.]

This was the one and only quest of its kind!

Miss Jiao stood there, stunned, for a long time, and only recovered when Li Yi teleported away.

“Hey, old man, you got any more quests? Gimme one!”

Augustus looked into the distance. “Miss, please step back. Here they come again…”

In the distance, the Demonic Army horde was surging forth once more…

“Lil Yi’zi, I hate youuuu….”

Jiaojiao elongated her last vowel as she ran back as quickly as her legs could carry her…

The Demonic Army was back, and she did not have Augustus’ powers, so she was dead if she did not run.

When the demons approached, Augustus released his Territory once more.

“Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—”

…