MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The sneak attack was perfect and ruthless. Fernando the Siren only had 30 million HP. He did not see it coming and was slain in one hit.

One hit kill!

After 20 seconds, his Water Clone gradually shrank and disappeared.

Li Yi guided Freya out of the secret path.

“Halt, Freya!” The Mermaid Queen cried.

Ding!

[Congratulations! You have completed ‘Stopping the Siren’s Ambition’. This event has been recorded in the Hall of Fame.]

[Your relationship with the Naga has officially broken down and you will remain an enemy forever.]

Since they were now outside the Merland, the quest was now complete. Fernando being resurrected would not change anything.

Li Yi completely ignored the Mermaid Queen’s curses. He rubbed a Return City Stone as soon as he could.

Fernando the Siren could be resurrected ad infinitum. If one stayed around waiting for him to return, things would not be pretty.

“La-la-la-la… La-la-la…”

The Mermaid Queen would not let him escape so easily. She gently hummed the Sea God’s Song to stop him from returning to the city.

His Territory light barrier appeared and stopped her voice from affecting him. As a Territory Master, he was immune to negative statuses, this included the Song.

“Enough, Freya!”

The Queen was irritated, her body swayed, and she lurched towards Freya, grabbing her arm.

Li Yi smiled and ignored her, rubbing the Return City Stone until the channeling was complete. Then, he vanished.

Freya was caught by the Queen while Li Yi returned to the Celestial Capital of the Invincible Continent.

Li Yi was not worried since the Mermaid Princess’ summoning stone was in his backpack. If he wanted to call her, he could do so at any time.

Thus, he placed the matter aside and ran to the Auction House to collect his dues.

The Queen catching Freya was part of the plot. If she was recalled, the narrative would be disrupted. Li Yi could not guarantee what would happen next if that were to happen. Since it was better to be safe than sorry, it was sensible to allow the story to run its course.

The other reason Li Yi did not summon Freya was the idea that if Freya continued to stay and be harangued by the Queen, it might upgrade her further. For instance, adding an extra special skill or something similar.

The best pieces of equipment that he put on auction two days ago were sold out. There was nothing left, all of them had become Gold Coins.

Li Yi contacted Autumn Love to buy some trash Holy equipment from Dong Dong. However, the latter’s hunt had not gone smoothly. He had only managed to scavenge a dozen pieces of Holy equipment.

“Call me if you have more.”

“You got it.”

Li Yi was disappointed as he measured his pathetic Holy attribute value. This time he did not hesitate to buy 100 Holy Crystals in the Auction House above market price. He was ready to upgrade his equipment once more.

The Merland affair had been solved. He was now eager to complete ‘Glory to the Luo Lan Empire’, but with his current Holy attribute value, it was unlikely he would be able to defeat the Seventh Demon God.

One should not even think about challenging the demon without a sufficient Holy attribute value.

Li Yi returned to the Little Drunk Cat Guild and handed the God Crystals he obtained from the decomposition of the Megasnake Bow over to Snickersnee.

There was a total of 380 God Crystals. Li Yi kept 100 and gave the rest to Snickersnee.

Li Yi tossed the Wind Sword to Snickersnee. “Help me modify it into a shield, a quarterstaff, and a staff. You’re free to do whatever you want with the remaining materials.”

With 60 God Crystals one was guaranteed to forge a piece of Orange-colored equipment, and 280 of them, one could forge 5.

Snickersnee held the Wind Sword in one hand and the God Crystals in another and gave a reserved nod.

…

In the Deathwing Dungeon, the party led by Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut was still fighting hard.

Countless deaths, countless times, they had been fighting for more than a month…

Deathwing remained unyielding. As an Ancient-level Boss, it was a force to be reckoned with. Nobody, thus far, could withstand its Shattered Void.

Not Li Yi, not Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut, not even The Mountain.

The early part of the Dungeon was a piece of cake for the Fluttering Snow Alliance, but things went south every single time they reached the point where Shattered Void was cast. The entire party would be wiped out, and they would try again.

This eventually settled into a monotonous routine and had been going on for more than a month.

Their numbers had been steadily decreasing since the beginning. This was normal. Despite their unity, they could not bear the constant defeat for so long, and everyone knew the reason for their failure. Their skills were not to be blamed. Their current level of equipment was simply not enough to face the Ancient-level Deathwing.

Losing was certain, how could they continue?

Knowing full well that it was impossible to defeat, their leader did not even bother to explain the reason behind her perseverance, so why were they fighting?

Their morale was decreasing as they fought, and day by day more players left for their own reasons. Their numbers had dropped to such an extent that there were only a hundred left.

Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut had mentioned from the beginning that it was not mandatory for anyone to attempt this. Anybody could come and leave at will. As such, people came and went on a regular basis. It was fortunate that her party still had at least fifty members.

That being said, it was compulsory for some to stay.

The Mountain and Milky Way Star, these two had been here for more than a month. Their levels had dropped more than 30 times. It was as if they were putting their lives on the line.

“My princess, how much longer will this take? I can’t afford to die anymore.”

Once again, the team was wiped out. The Mountain lay on the ground, surrounded by the holy lights of a Resurrection Spell, but he refused to get up.

“If you can’t fight, just leave,” Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut responded, straight-faced.

The Mountain stood up and grinned. “Bah, I take back what I said.” he shook his head.

After three consecutive deaths, the majority of their equipment was red (durability approaching rock bottom), and some members who knew engineering released robots to help with the repairs.

While The Mountain felt frustrated, Milky Way Star felt even worse. Though he and The Mountain were good pals, that did not mean he was friends Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut. He did this solely for The Mountain’s sake and had died so many times as a result.

“Star, you can go at any time, this battle is not yours.”

“It’s okay, brother,” Milky Way Star replied reluctantly.

He had intended to leave after a fortnight but did not want to upset anybody. Before he knew it, more than a month had passed. Since he had already been dying for so long, he thought, a few more days would not make a difference.

“On your mark, we’ll go in five minutes,” Bai Xiaoya instructed.

The battle recommenced, and the Fluttering Snow Alliance encircled Deathwing.

Meandering and zigzagging could reduce the mortality rate, something the Alliance had learnt after repeatedly died en masse for more than a month.

“Dragnet!”

A huge glittering net was thrown towards Deathwing, restricting the movement of its claws.

The special skill of the leader’s profession was formidable. Although it could not completely restrain Deathwing, it would be bound for a little while without a problem.

The Mountain summoned the Swamp King and moved it under Deathwing, causing the latter to take damage continuously.

Milky Way Star unleashed Platinum Star, hitting, and running at breakneck speed around the dragon’s head.

Nothing was changed. Everyone knew that they would be eventually wiped out.

No one could resist the Void.

This time was no exception. It went smooth in the beginning, only a dozen had fallen, but Shattered Void gave the party no reason to not suspect that they would croak instantly.

At the center of a white barrier was The Mountain. They could hear the constant sound of glass shattering. His Territory barrier would merely slow down the inevitable.

“Missy, quick now, I can’t hold out much longer unless your ample lips happen to touch any part of my face,” The Mountain roared.

Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut narrowed her brows. She charged into Deathwing like an arrow fired from a crossbow, piercing through a part of its body which was not covered by the Divine Metal. Her whole body disappeared.

She was a goner.

Whack!

The Mountain’s body was quadrisected with his Orange Quarterstaff still in his arms. His limbs fell on the ground, and the barrier dissipated.

Without the protection of the barrier, everything fell to pieces, and all of them fell to the ground in the blink of an eye. None of them survived.

“Here we go again…”

“I’m used to it already…”

“Let’s do a corpse run and get on with it.”

As usual, the team did a corpse run. However, they were surprised to find that their souls could not be released.

“What in the world has happened? Why can’t I release—”

“Me too, what went wrong?”

“Did it glitch?”

“This isn’t right, unless someone isn’t dead yet.”

Only when the battle was over would the players be allowed to release their souls. If not, they were not allowed to leave, and could only spectate the rest of the battle whilst laying lifeless on the ground.

There was an abrupt cry.

“The Guild Master is alive!”

The party panel showed that Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut ‘s HP was fluctuating, but never dropped below 50%.

Drilling into the belly of Deathwing… she survived!

“Golly gosh, this is unthinkable!” The Mountain was flabbergasted.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A tremor was accompanied by some loud noise, coming right from the abdomen of Deathwing. The impact felt significant, almost theatrical. It was Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut’s Fist of the Raging Overlord!