MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The second floor had no traps, so Li Yi and the others spent just over ten minutes to collect 100 Red Wraith Crystals.

The red-robed spirit appeared again and teleported the surviving party members to the third floor.

They had lost a total of five members in clearing the second floor of the Tower of Remorse.

If a player died inside Moss Tower, everything would be fine if they could find their body. If they could not, however, they could not resurrect using a Resurrection Spell and would have to rely on the Resurrection Pearls dropped by monsters. With that, they could only resurrect on specific floors.

On the third floor of the Tower of Remorse, Li Yi and the others encountered a desert map. To clear this floor, they had to achieve a monster hit combo of more than 500.

The desert map had many monsters that resembled marmots. They would poke their heads out of the sand and instantly zip back in. Getting a combo off of them definitely required a certain level of skill.

The party members did not attack. Instead, they huddled together and awaited their commander’s orders.

As long as they could continuously take down monsters within three seconds of each other, they could easily achieve a combo, be it as a party or solo.

“You, stand here. You, come here. You, stay right there and don’t move. Jiaojiao, come with me. Qian’er, head east.”

Li Yi delegated with an air of familiarity.

When all 20 members had taken their positions, Li Yi began to shoot the monsters nearby.

Everyone else had stopped, and he was the only one currently attacking.

Their combo figure increased gradually, and soon they had more than 50.

As long as they could kill a monster within 3 seconds, their combo figure would not drop. If they could not manage it, however, their attempt would end in failure.

As Li Yi wandered further and further away in his hunt, and the monsters around him decreased drastically, Qian’er and the other ranged attackers began to pitch in as well, keeping the combo up.

Li Yi took that opportunity to run quickly toward the areas where the monsters were most densely-packed together.

The members who had stayed put began to shoot the monsters around them as well, but when they were just about to run out, Li Yi picked up the slack again.

Li Yi barked, “Everyone, move 300 meters to the south!”

Their combo increased as Li Yi and his party members coordinated with each other, advancing in turns and maintaining the combo. Soon enough, their combo figure reached 567.

They had met the minimum requirements. If they stopped now, the red-robed spirit would appear and transport the party members to the fourth floor.

However, the party members showed no indication of stopping. They continued to kill monsters in tandem.

They wanted to see just how large a combo they could link.

When Li Yi ran forth again, something went wrong behind him, and no monsters died within the next three seconds. The combo was broken.

Their combo ended at 2,876!

Such a result was decent but not spectacular. Most parties could achieve it, and the holder of the current combo record was Big Boy’s team at 9,876 hits.

“That’s unfortunate. Sigh, the commander made it to position, but we couldn’t kill one more.”

“How tragic! We were so close. I actually thought we could break the record.”

“Don’t say it, you’ll just make me cry.”

The combo breaking was a source of regret for the entire party/

“Restrain your ego and prepare to greet death. You won’t be so lucky on the next floor, the next floor… Hahaha…”

The red-robed spirit appeared, pulling Li Yi and company into the teleportation door covered in black smoke.

They had passed the first three floors with ease, but the difficulty spiked on the fourth. The map was an ancient civilization’s factory, and to clear the stage, they had to escape before the factory exploded.

The sixty-minute countdown began…

As soon as Li Yi and the others opened their eyes, the factory’s self-destruct countdown started ticking.

“Bzzt bzzt bzzt bzzt…”

“Whirrrr whirrrr…”

The large machines in the factory were operating, gears crissing and crossing in a kaleidoscope of movement. If they wanted to escape from this place, they would have to run on the giant gears.

“Be careful of the timing. If you’re too fast, you’ll fall to your death. If you’re too slow, you’ll get crushed to death. Cooperation won’t work in this stage, you’ll have to rely on yourself.”

Li Yi introduced the gear stage briefly, and then he was the first to step onto a gear.

The Tower of Remorse’s gear stage was slightly different every time, and it changed in different ways every time as well. To pass this stage, players needed a great deal of skill and excellent reflexes to boot.

The first pressure point lay in the first five large interlocking gears. To clear them, one had to continuously crawl forth, only to stop for half a rotation on the third gear and wait for the next one to approach before jumping twice in quick succession, leaping right over the fifth gear. Only then could they safely land on the other side.

Although this was a very common challenge, countless players still died to it.

Li Yi, however, cleared it easily.

Jiaojiao was next. For Queen Jiao with her super long legs, this stage was a breeze. With a bound and a leap, she landed solidly on the other side, her movements even lighter than Li Yi’s had been.

Li Yi stood on the opposite side and yelled, “Chop-chop, don’t waste time!”

“Me first!”

Qian’er raised her hand and hugged her staff, running forth a few steps. She then used Flash to rush straight to the second gear. She had meant to leap twice in a row and make it across, but while she had the right idea, her movements could not really keep up.

She was just a little too slow on the jump, and her large fair leg was caught in the gears. Before she could even scream, her body was torn to pieces…

Thankfully, this was just a game, so there was not too much blood. Even so, Qian’er’s death still dealt a heavy blow to the remaining members’ confidence.

“That’s terrifying…”

“I-I d-don’t d-dare… I-I d-don’t…” The Dwarf Priestess wrung her little hands and retreated rapidly.

The Dwarf Priestess’ name was Jade Porcelain. She was a Level 182 Ninth Continent player, and her level was the lowest of everyone present.

The Dwarf Priestess was not the only one who did not have the guts for it. Every Dwarf player was on the verge of tears.

Dwarves were not tall to begin with, and they had naturally short legs. If leaping across the gears had a difficulty rating of A for the others, it was SSS for them.

Their legs were short, so they could not jump that far…”

“Hurry! Watch the clock!” Li Yi hurried them.

Time would not wait for them, so if no one could escape from the factory within 60 minutes, they would have failed the challenge. When that happened, everyone would be forcefully teleported out of the tower.

Regardless of whether they succeeded or failed, players were only allowed to challenge the Tower of Remorse once every ten days. If they succeeded here, they could continue, but if they failed, they would have wasted the dungeon cooldown.

It was not impossible for them to challenge it over and over again. They just had to bribe the red-robed spirit with 200,000 Gold Coins, and the Tower of Remorse would be open to them again.

As Li Yi hurried them on, three more stepped up to the challenge.

“Pffoosh—”

“Aaahhh….”

“Crunch crunch…”

One more died, stuck in the gears like Qian’er. One died because they jumped too early, and one more died because they jumped too late…

“Allow me!”

“I’ll follow behind you!”

Two others stepped forth.

After another series of attempts, only five people, including Li Yi and Jiaojiao, made it across the five large gears. The rest either died or gave up…

“Creak creak creak creak…”

Just ahead, sixteen gears of different sizes were interlocked, each with speeds and paths that were far more complicated the first five large gears…

…