MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Li Yi arrived at the North Pole Continent and randomly found a flock of penguins. After he sat by the shore for a while, he saw the fat penguin, Alenod, clamber up from the water.

Before his identity was revealed, Alenod would remain as the North Pole Continent’s King Penguin. Every penguin in the North Pole Continent fell under his rule, so once a player had built a good relationship with him, it was quite easy to find him.

Alenod sat beside Li Yi and sighed softly. “If I’m not mistaken, Aragon must have rejected my Potion of Revealment.”

Li Yi nodded.

“There’s no need to give it to me. Since Aragon doesn’t need it, I don’t need it either.”

Alenod suddenly roared in anger, “Why? Why would the Emperor of the Continent be content to stay as a demon? Why?

“He can change back, so why won’t he?”

Li Yi replied, “Perhaps he got used to it.”

“But he’s clearly human, so how could he be used to being a demon? I… I don’t get it. There must be some other secret behind this…”

Alenod pressed his two little wings behind his back and ran two circles around Li Yi before he said solemnly, “Could you do one more thing for me?”

“Ding!”

There was a clear ring, and Li Yi immediately accepted the quest.

[Quest Title: Search for the Emperor’s Sword]

[Quest Contents: Search for an Emperor’s Sword and give it to Alenod.]

[Quest Difficulty: Rank D]

[Time Limit: Unlimited]

[Quest Tip: It seems like Aragon currently possesses said sword…]

[Quest Reward: ???]

…

Li Yi pulled out the Emperor’s Sword and gave it to Alenod.

“Ding!”

Upon completing the quest, Li Yi obtained 1,000,000 EXP. At the same time, his Affinity with both Aragon and Alenod increased by 500 points each.

“This is… This is…”

Alenod stared at the Emperor’s Sword in Li Yi’s hands and was shocked speechless.

“This is Aragon’s sword, his most prized weapon. It’s… the sword he loves as much as his life!”

Li Yi replied honestly, “Aragon gave it to me.”

“That’s impossible! No way! This sword had clearly been lost since the days of the Ancient God Wars!” Alenod was adamant, and he did not in any way believe Li Yi’s claim.

“Aragon prizes this sword as much as his life. How could he possibly give it to another so easily? I was thinking of finding the sword and returning it to him in order to reignite his fighting spirit. But now…”

Alenod held his head in agony and screamed at the sky.

Alenod’s full title was ‘Alenod the Smart’, which clearly showed that he was fairly intelligent. It was true– his IQ was much higher than that of normal NPCs.

“I don’t believe it… Sooob… I don’t believe it, sob… Aragon, O Great Aragon, why do you do this?”

The fat penguin wept with his arms over his face.

After a long while, the fat penguin raised its head and fell flat onto the ground.

“I would like to request your help with one more matter.”

“Ding!”

Li Yi immediately accepted the quest.

[Quest Title: Search for the Truth]

[Quest Contents: Return to Karan City, disguise yourself carefully, and gather any and all rumors regarding Aragon.]

[Quest Difficulty: Rank A]

[Time Limit: Unlimited]

[Quest Tip: The upper-class demons in Karan City seem to know something, but be careful when asking. It wouldn’t do for your identity to be revealed.]

[Quest Reward: ???]

…

“This is a small token of my appreciation. Please accept it!”

The fat penguin offered Li Yi an Orange Quality Treasure Map.

It was a Legendary Treasure Map! What a prize!

Li Yi’s eyes lit up and he accepted it in an instant.

When he did this quest in the previous life, the fat penguin did not give him anything at all, only asking him to ‘search for the truth’. It looked like this first attempt at the quest came with many added benefits.

“Please take good care of this sword!”

The fat penguin looked at the Emperor’s Sword in Li Yi’s hands longingly for a good while before he finally shook his head and leaped into the water.

Li Yi looked at the treasure spot marked on the Orange Quality Map, and his face instantly broke into a smile.

The coordinates placed it on the North Pole Continent, so it was just along the way.

Li Yi summoned the Black Dragon Princess with a wave of his hand and flew toward the coordinates on the map…

…

“I’m buying Mysterious Scrolls at the highest price on the market, will pay by mail!”

“Calling for all Mysterious Scrolls, I’ll take as many as you have! I got the money, just gimme the goods!”

“Buying Mysterious Scrolls, buying Mysterious Scrolls, buying Mysterious Scrolls…”

The World Channel was a hive of activity. Now that the Mysterious Scroll’s function had been revealed, countless people immediately fought over every last one.

Why was Dark Wing so OP? Well, it was clearly because his equipment tallied up to so many Holy Points. And why did he have so many Holy Points? Well, it was clearly because he had secretly hoarded up countless Mysterious Scrolls.

Now, the players were sure that Li Yi had used Mysterious Scrolls to increase the Holy Points on his equipment. Suddenly, every player only wished to surpass him…

That was why they aimed for the Mysterious Scrolls!

Of the billions of King of Pantheon players, only a handful were truly rolling in money. The only difference was that many of them kept a low profile, so they were completely unknown to most.

Of course, there were a few extremely high profile ones, including Brother Windcloud Nine and Tyrant Sword King the Fifth. These two were definitely the most well-known of the wealthy players, and they never held back when buying or tossing equipment.

This time, they had outdone even themselves…

Brother Windcloud Nine was slightly better because he had a few Mysterious Scrolls left in hand, but Tyrant Sword King the Fifth had no such thing. When he heard that Li Yi had managed to insta-kill Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut twice because of those scrolls, he was immediately fired up enough to go on a shopping spree.

“Money isn’t a problem, the problem is whether you have Mysterious Scrolls or not. I’ll take as many as you have at twice the market price, and there’s no limit! I’ll take everything!”

Tyrant Sword King the Fifth spammed the World Channel every minute or so, having gone nearly insane in his bid to increase his Holy Points.

That was the wealthy for you. Every time they splashed money, it felt like a tsunami…

However, even if Tyrant Sword King the Fifth offered an extravagant price for those Mysterious Scrolls, he still did not manage to buy many. The reason for this was simple: they simply did not drop that often, and everyone needed one, so the demand had far outweighed the supply. Who would sell them then?

The Fluttering Snow Alliance’s three Vice Alliance Leaders, several thousand elites, and even the Leader, Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut herself, were all scouring the market for Mysterious Scrolls. However, they were not the only ones. Several tens of thousands of guilds from over the three major camps were all buying as many Scrolls as they could…

As for the Holy Crystal that went along with the Mysterious Scroll, the popularity of the Mysterious Scrolls meant that it enjoyed a slight increase in price as well. This did not last for long, however, and the prices soon dropped again.

This was because there were plenty of Holy Crystals to go around, and the Auction House had some in stock at any one time. If one did not sell it, another would. So it was only natural that the prices stayed stagnant.

…

At the Foreignland Entrance Map, several million upper-class demons from Karan City were still wandering around. The players were in for a rough time, because anyone who dared to enter would definitely be surrounded.

These Karan City demons were truly no different than locusts. If they ever spotted a human nearby, every demon in the vicinity would swarm at the player and kill them completely…

That was when the players who could not make it in began to consider cooperating with one another…

Soon enough, an army of a million players took shape, and the first to lead the charge was Amber Sword Heart from the Assembled Gods Guild.

However, even Amber Sword Heart with his Titan’s Grip could not stop Karan City’s Demonic Army. As soon as he rushed in, he lasted for a mere 12 seconds before he was taken down…

An army of a million players surged in, and while a couple of demons did die, the rest of the players ended up getting wiped out…

When the players were charging in for the third time, Li Yi arrived at the Foreignland Entrance, took one look inside, and wisely chose to return to his own country.

The Karan City demons were rioting, and considering the players’ current abilities, victory would come with nothing less than a hefty price.

They just had to wait for 24 hours, and then the Demonic Army would retreat on their own. Trying to use force against them now was not worth it.

Li Yi went to the Auction House and bought 200 Holy Crystals. Returning to his house in Shattered Frost City, he prepared to test out the power of his Level 6 Attribute Infusion.

Li Yi took off his Commander’s Helmet and infused it. A gust of black smoke rose from his hands and within an instant, the Commander’s Helmet had attained Holy +64.

Level 6 Attribute Infusion meant that, at the very least, his first six Infusion attempts were 100% guaranteed to succeed!

Now, Li Yi no longer had to fret over it. All he had to do was take out any random piece of equipment, and he could easily add 64 Holy points to it.

Having completed the test, Li Yi took off every piece of equipment he was wearing and infused them each in turn.

Each piece of equipment had a minimum of Holy +64, and once that was done, Li Yi moved on to infusing the Orange Quality Bow.

[You have failed to infuse your weapon with a new attribute. The Holy Crystal vanishes…]

[Your weapon has lost its Holy attribute…]

…

The first infusion resulted in another failure.

Li Yi was unfazed, however, and he easily raised the Orange Quality Bow to Holy +64 again before he attempted to raise the cap again.

[You have failed to infuse your weapon with a new attribute. The Holy Crystal vanishes…]

[Your weapon has lost its Holy attribute…]

It failed again…

‘Well, f*ck me!’

Li Yi cursed inwardly and continued to level it up.

He had nothing to fear anymore. After all, the first six times were guaranteed to succeed, so even if his luck was absolutely rotten, he could still guarantee Holy +64 at the very least.

He failed, over and over again. The Level 5 Attribute Infusion meant that the first six tries were guaranteed, but that did not increase the subsequent chances of success.

It was only when the 200 Holy Crystals Li Yi had bought were running out that the Orange Quality Bow finally reached Holy +128.

Well, at least that was one success…

If he did not have the Level 6 Attribute Infusion, powering the Orange Quality Bow up to Holy +128 would require several tens or even hundreds of millions in Gold Coins, and even then it was not guaranteed…

Now that he was done with the Orange Quality Bow, Li Yi moved on to the other pieces of equipment. By the time he ran out of Holy Crystals, his total Holy Point tally had reached a terrifying 812 points!

“Jiaojiao, what are you doing?”

“Trying to raid the Foreignland. Gaah, this pisses me off.”

“Call it off for now and go to the Auction House. Buy some Holy Crystals and then come to my house. I’ve got a surprise for you.”

Since Li Yi was done with his equipment, he then contacted Jiaojiao so that he could help her level up her equipment as well.

…

At the same time…

At Tyrant Sword King the Fifth’s villa, in the Fluttering Snow Continent’s Celestial Capital.

Tyrant Sword King the Fifth’s expression was cold. Over a thousand Holy Infusion Scrolls were laid out before him, all bought at exorbitant prices.

Tyrant Sword King the Fifth placed the Holy Crystal next to his weapon and picked up a Holy Infusion Scroll. He began the infusion process…

[Congratulations, you have successfully infused your weapon. It is now Holy +2!]

[You have failed to infuse your weapon with a new attribute. The Holy Crystal vanishes…]

[Congratulations, you have successfully infused your weapon. It is now Holy +2!]

[You have failed to infuse your weapon with a new attribute. The Holy Crystal vanishes…]

Half an hour later, the thousand-odd Holy Infusion Scrolls were gone, but Tyrant Sword King the Fifth’s weapon was still only at Holy +2.

…