MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

“Attention all Iron Alliance members. Form Five-man parties and start running the Man and Woman Dungeon.”

Once Pretty Good Mood and the crew had gotten used to the environment of the party dungeon, they started advancing through the five-man dungeon.

At this point, a lot of the players’ GS still did not meet the party dungeon’s requirements. Although equipment could still be bought with money, it would still burn a hole through their resources. There were not many guilds who would dare to attempt it. It was an expensive high-risk investment with a low chance of getting returns. Who in the right mind would want to partake in that kind of unfavorable deal?

Members would have to upgrade their equipment themselves. Whoever reaches the requirements first shall earn a spot in the first party to raid the dungeon. This was the tactic that most guilds employed, including Little Drunk Cat.

The Light and Darkness Instances, aptly named the most disgusting dungeons by players, was not something to be scoffed at. The five-man dungeons were merely the tip of the iceberg. The actual absurdity comes from the bosses, especially the final fight at the end with the Demigod Lord of Souls. That battle was directly classified as Epic-Level, so what did that mean?

It meant that once players reached the final map, without even having to fight the Lord of Souls, they would already have attained a Pantheon Hall of Fame event. Of course, if they managed to clear the Lord of Souls, they would earn unimaginable rewards. Everyone would get a purple Gift Pack. Once they opened it, they were guaranteed a piece of purple equipment!

The Dark Song dungeon’s map was extremely small. It was literally just a single room. There were no mobs in the dungeon, only a single boss. Once players beat the boss, they would clear the dungeon.

Due to how easy the Dark Song dungeon looked, a lot of players locked-in on trying to get the first clear on this dungeon.

Li Yi took a look at the progression stats of the dungeon and instantly burst into laughter.

Currently, there were 5,980 parties attempting this dungeon.

Inside the Dark Song dungeon, the singular boss, Queen of Pain, wearing a black Cursing Sect uniform, was singing a tragic song.

The Queen of Pain was one of the Cursing Sect’s highest ranking disciples. In the hierarchy, she was even a rank above the Black and White bosses, seeing as she was the younger sister of the Cursing Sect Pope. She was one of the five most respected leaders in the Cursing Sect hierarchy.

Due to being separated from the other four other leaders, the Queen of Pain was captured by the Lord of Souls. Fearing the immense power of the Lord of Souls, she chose to submit to him.

“Feel my pain… AHAHAHAHAHAHA…”

The Queen of Pain let out a chilling laugh. At this point, she had already lost her soul, leaving behind only her body as a meat puppet. However, her powerful strength still remained. In order to seize what she was guarding, players had to first go through her.

“How’re we gonna do this?” Xu Man asked.

“It’s half luck and half skill. Mmhmm, we need to immediately dispel the AoE Fear spell and leave the Cursing Force alone. We can forcefully interrupt the Song of Pain. As for the Scream of Pain, we just have to dodge to either side.”

“It’s that simple?” Xu Man was shocked.

Li Yi shook his head, “It sounds simple on paper, but it’s quite difficult to execute.”

Li Yi clearly knew the strategies to fight her, but no matter what, he would not be able to explain it clearly. This was because though this strategy was not difficult, it was still very complex.

“You’ll understand what I mean when we fight it.”

The progression stats of the dungeon were available to every player. Xu Man was no idiot, although her skills were only considered average, she was still the leader of Platinum Hand. In terms of talent, she was as good as any other commander.

There were so many parties fighting this boss at once, yet the first kill still had not happened. What did this mean? This means that this boss is very overpowered, otherwise, she would have been killed long ago.

“Let’s start. Half of it is up to luck and the other half of is up to skill anyway.”

Li Yi pointed forward as the Violent Bear King charged up.

“Feel my pain… AHAHAHAHAHAHA…”

The Queen of Pain let out a Scream of Pain, attacking all the members of the party.

The Scream of Pain was a damage-over-time skill with a huge area-of-effect. The only way to dodge was to hide at the blind spot of its two sides.

This skill was not that hard to dodge. The five party members spread out, all of them successfully dodging the attack.

The Queen of Pain immediately followed up on her attack with a Sonic Wave. Visible Sonic Waves started spreading from the Queen of Pain’s mouth. This skill also dealt damage-over-time, but it could not be dodged. It lasted for 20 seconds.

The damage was ticking at 200 HP per second even with the effects of the Light and Dark Talismans. Without it, the damage tick would increase to 310 HP per second.

With the two healers continuously replenishing the party’s health, the party did not feel pressured at all. The Xu sisters charged up and started attacking the Queen of Pain from the rear, whilst Li Yi swapped to Flame Arrows, which had the highest damage output, and started firing as they ran.

“Who can understand my pain? Who can understand it? AHAHAHAHA…”

As the Queen of Pain was starting to take a beating, she shrieked loudly as she covered her face with her hands.

“Stop!” Li Yi immediately shouted.

“Bam!”

The Queen of Pain had a new buff, “Person in Pain”. Now, whenever she received damage, her own damage would increase by 10%. This buff could be stacked up to 100 times.

If players did not stop at this point, the Queen of Pain would become increasingly OP with every hit. After just five hits, it was basically a guaranteed TPK.

“Dark Wing! Do you wish to humiliate me?”

The Queen of Pain pointed her finger at Li Yi, causing his body to shake uncontrollably. His body was suddenly enveloped with a black light as it moved involuntarily towards the Queen of Pain.

“Quick, hit me!” Li Yi shouted.

The was the masochistic Queen of Pain’s targeted CC skill. Players who were targeted will completely lose control and start moving over to attack her. Thus, the other party members had to break the black light enveloping the targeted player before they reach the Queen of Pain to dispel the CC.

The four girls immediately started directing their attacks towards Li Yi. It was at that point where the Queen of Pain decided to use her Sonic Waves once more.

The five players’ HP dropped non-stop. It was not a problem for Li Yi with his huge health pool, but the four girls did not fare so well. They had to take some time out to replenish their HP.

When there were only a mere two meters left between Li Yi and the Queen of Pain, the black light on his body was finally dispelled.

“Little Elf from the Magical Realm! Do you wish to humiliate me?”

“Fire Ice! Do you wish to humiliate me?”

“Bam! Bam!”

Two rays of black light immediately enveloped the two girls. It was even more OP this time, she managed to target two players at once.

“Taste my pain, ahahahaHAHAHA…”

A near-lethal Sonic Wave rang out once more.

“Violent Bear’s Protection!”

Li Yi summoned the Violent Bear’s Protection and started to focus his attacks on the two girls, rapidly shooting at them.

This strategy was only viable due to his absurdly high DPS. If it were up to average players, they would definitely be wiped after this phase.

Right as the two girls were only one meter away from the Queen of Pain, the black light was finally dispelled.

“No one understands me, so I’ve decided to abandon even myself. The useless Evil God refused all my desperate pleas. I AM THE QUEEN OF PAIN! I am the most tragic person in this world!”

The Queen of Pain’s body floated up, hovering in the air as she targeted the players below.

“Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!”

All five players in the party were hit. They were chained down of by a chain of darkness, locking them in place.

“Listen, to this Song of Pain I’m singing…”

A tragic song flowed out of the Queen of Pain’s mouth, causing all five party members to receive 500+ damage per second. Stripped of their ability to move or counter, they could only sit helplessly and look on as their HP continuously dropped. When all players’ HP were at 1, the Queen of Pain finally let out a sigh, before dropping to the ground panting.

“Allow me ten seconds to rest, I shall definitely finish all of you off!”

“HEAL!” Li Yi roared loudly.

Little Elf from the Magical Realm and Fire Ice unleashed their full-party heals, replenishing everyone’s HP as much as possible. Right before the ten seconds ended, they managed to replenish everybody’s HP to half.

“After my song… Have you started to feel the fear course through your veins? Let your darkest fears flow through you and tremble before me! MUAHAHAHAHAHA…”

With the Queen of Pain’s loud laugh, a skull appeared on top of the five’s heads. They had lost control of their bodies, running around uncontrollably.

‘It was the AoE Fear spell!’

“Curse —— Group Dispel!”

Fire Ice immediately used her group dispel skill to dispel the Fear on the party.

“Taste my pain, ahahahaHAHAHA…”

Another near-lethal Sonic Wave rang out.

The Queen of Pain’s attack rate was extremely high. She did not give players any chance to catch their breath. One wave after the other, despite using up all their MP replenishing skills, Fire Ice and Little Elf from the Magical Realm still ran out of MP. Even as that happened, the Queen of Pain still had a whopping 3,000,000 HP left.

The Queen of Pain let out an ear-piercing scream, and the four girls dropped dead at the same time, leaving Li Yi as the lone survivor. He wanted to use Camouflage to escape the battle, but he was unfortunately targeted by the Queen of Pain. He involuntarily waltzed up to the Queen of Pain and started attacking her. With the Queen of Pain’s next counterattack, he was inst-killed…

It was a team wipe…

“This boss is disgusting.”

“I… I’m starting to feel sick of her already.”

This failure was not due to any mistakes, but rather due insufficient healing resources. They were stalled to their deaths.

“If this was the result of having two healers. How would this even be remotely possible with a single healer?”

“That’s why I said it was half luck, half skill.”

“It’s impossible, there was literally no victory in sight.” Little Elf from the Magical Realm frowned.

Listening to this line, Li Yi immediately chuckled.

In his past life, this lady was the Mega Healer who managed to solo the Dark Song dungeon. Although, granted that she was already Level 75 at that time.

“Let’s try again after drinking some potions. It’ll take some pressure off the healers at least.”

After the five got their rest and chugged a bottle of Divine Essence each, they went back into the battle with 20 extra points of Light and Dark Resistances.

Combining it with the Light and Dark Talismans, their Light and Dark Resistances were at 40 points. This caused the Queen of Pain’s Sonic Wave damage tick to be reduced to 100 HP per second, largely relieving the pressure on the healers.

The Queen of Pain’s moves were not complex, they were just the same moves repeating over and over again. The problem was that all of those moves had high damage and were thrown at the players at a rapid rate. She kept holding the initiative, stringing the players to her whims. That was the whole reason Little Elf from the Magical Realm was getting increasingly tired of her antics.

With the reduced cost of MP skills, the MP supply lasted much longer. However, as the Queen of Pain’s HP reduced to 2,000,000, an annoying new skill was unleashed.

“The vows of pain shan’t be forgotten. Carve it into your hearts, the curse of death…”

The Queen of Pain waved her hands and the five players were instantly inflicted with the debuff called “Cursing Vows”.

[Cursing Vows: You have gone berserk due to the effects of the Cursing Vows. ATK has been increased, DEF has been decreased. The effects of healing have been reduced by half…]

The pressure on the healers was even higher now…

The Queen of Pain’s attacks came one after another. Due to the reduced HP, her body also started to turn red. This was a sign that she was getting enraged, causing her ATK to slowly increase with every hit.

Fire Ice’s MP was all used up. Little Elf from the Magical Realm’s MP was also all used up. With no healers replenishing their health, the Xu sisters were the first to fall to the Queen of Pain’s scream…

When the Queen of Pain’s HP fell to 1,000,000, Li Yi was the last man standing in the entire party.

Just now, right as he ran out of HP, he used the Violent Bear’s Protection and fully restored his HP. However, the situation at hand was not optimistic. He could still survive the Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave attacks, but he feared one last skill.

It was the Queen of Pain’s targeting skill!

Murphy’s Law holds true to the end. When Li Yi managed to singlehandedly reduce the Queen of Pain’s HP to 400,000, she activated her targeting skill…

“Dark Wing! Do you wish to humiliate me?”

Li Yi’s body started shaking, as he uncontrollably walked towards the Queen of Pain…

…