MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

This time, Black Autumn had suffered great losses.

Although Li Yi and Lonely Semi City did not loot her equipment, she had carried too many equipment and materials on her when she died. A dropped material can be picked up again, but a dropped equipment will lose Durability even if it was recovered afterward.

Autumn Love counted with her fingers for a very long time, and afterwards, she wept.

The total equipment repair fee was around 800 Gold Coins…

“Boohoo, my loss is too great this time. I was just going to get a stall and sell these things at the Sea Island when you called me here.” Autumn Love’s weeping sounded incredibly wretched and tragic.

“Oh, please. You have at least one hundred million in assets, and that’s my conservative guess! You own the biggest betting platform in the King of Pantheon; you even started a private auction house! 800 Gold Coins is barely a drop in the ocean for you, does this loss really warrant this reaction?”

Autumn Love sobbed, “What’s wrong with me being rich? My money did not fall down from the sky. I worked very hard to earn them all! If it wasn’t for your request this time, I would never have come here and suffered this misfortune, right? It is your responsibility to compensate for my loss.”

Li Yi ignored her.

This woman was heading into a blind chestful of money. ¹ 800 Gold Coins was not too much money, but Li Yi will clearly analyze the situation at hand. He would never compensate someone as rich as Autumn Love.

Frankly, Autumn Love’s hair probably weights more than his entire being due to her riches. Li Yi clearly understood that.

Autumn Love continued to grumble for a long time before following the two men in the passage, picking up the materials carefully once more.

“Hmph, if both of you refuse to compensate me, I’ll go and mitigate my losses by myself.”

With another blink of an eye, 16 hours have passed. Li Yi and Lonely Semi City barely paused their work. Their grinding has allowed Li Yi to increase his EXP by 21 slots and was 5 slots away from leveling up.

Lonely Semi City was not far away too. This man was still as energetic as before, his demeanor showed no exhaustion whatsoever. Li Yi was so impressed by him that he could throw himself at Lonely’s feet in admiration.

At the same time, Jiaojiao was already awake and had come online with Pretty Good Mood and the Hua Feihua siblings. With the team finally together, they resumed their grind in the dark passageway.

It was a weekend, which meant that the Guild EXP Buff was refreshed. They could collect the weekly 30-hour 2.5x EXP Buff again.

“Lonely, open the door. We’ll go back to get the EXP Buff.”

Once the clock strikes 12, Pretty Good Mood immediately started to hasten toward Lonely Semi City excitedly.

Lonely Semi City asked, “What level is your Little Drunk Cat Guild?”

Pretty Good Mood quickly replied, “Level 9.5, going to Level 10 very soon.”

Lonely Semi City’s eyes shone brightly at those words. “Can I join the guild?”

“Of course you can. Hahaha, welcome,” Li Yi laughed.

Lonely Semi City has his own guild, but his guild level was too low. The weekly EXP Buff only lasts for 12 hours, and it was not a 2.5x Buff but a 2x Buff.

In the previous life, this guy was a lone wolf that was only interested in leveling himself up. In this life, his direction in the game was changed due to the unexpected meeting with Li Yi.

Lonely Semi City immediately dismissed his guild. Li Yi added him into the Little Drunk Cat Guild, and directly promoted him to become a Guild Elite.

Lonely Semi City was still so energetic despite days without sleep. If he still did not qualify for Guild Elite, who else would have the audacity to proclaim so?

“Don’t collect the EXP Buff yet. Mood, go and call the guild so we could level it up directly to Level 10.”

Pretty Good Mood exclaimed, “Our guild could level up already?”

Li Yi chuckled, “Of course. We have already prepared the required 10 billion materials. The Little Drunk Cat Guild can immediately reach Level 10 once we have spent 50 million guild capital and 5 million Gold Coins.”

The steady rise of the level of the Little Drunk Cat Guild was all thanks to the contribution of one person.

Fire Ice…

Purchasing the materials required to level up the guild, raising the popularity for the guild, leading the guild to finish quests for Reputation and Worship… Fire Ice was the only person that had led the guild to complete the long list of Guild Quests.

Initially, the Little Drunk Cat Guild has the lowest level among other major guilds. Now, it was ahead of other guilds by three levels!

A Level 10 Guild allows its members to collect a weekly 15-hour EXP Buff. Yes, the Buff duration did not increase in comparison to a Level 9 Guild, in fact, the duration has decreased by 15 hours. However, the quality of the EXP Buff has improved.

5.5x EXP Buff!

When compared with that 30-hour 2.5x EXP Buff, this 15-hour 5.5x Buff was way more overpowered. With this Buff activated during grinding, leveling would definitely be quicker than ever. The increased efficiency meant lesser time for each level, which would make the entire leveling experience greatly satisfying.

“Ice is so amazing…”

Even Pretty Good Mood sighed in amazement after checking the guild’s resources.

These resources in the guild could only be accumulated through grinding Guild Quests. Additionally, the guild capital was also differentiated from the Gold Coins available for general use. Guild capital could only be gained through Guild Quests too.

Even Autumn Love was moved. “How astounding! Our guild, Reigning the World, was just a Level 5 guild, and Night Moon was so exhausted afterward that she was barely a functioning human.”

“Go, return to the guild. I estimate that we will need at most three hours for our guild to reach Level 10.”

Lonely Semi City opened the Portal to Celestial City. The members of the team went in one after another.

“Brother Dark Wing, I want to join the Little Drunk Cat Guild too.” Holding her flute, Hua Feihua was a picture of coquettish temptation.

“We have enough members now.” Li Yi refused her request directly. He knew Miss Hua too well. Rumor has it that wherever she goes, she will cause troubles with her flirtations with the people around her. When she was in the Savage Tribe, her relationship with some of her subordinates was not of the best to say the least…

On top of that, Li Yi himself would never allow Hua Feihua to join the guild. His relations with Milk Dipper Solitary forbade him to do so.

Hua Feiwu growled in anger, “Sister, just join my Century Flower Guild! Our Guild is almost Level 5 already. If you join us, I’ll give you the position as our Guild Master.”

“I’m not interested,” Hua Feihua sighed in despair.

This time, the Hua Feihua siblings did not go back to the city. Instead, they quit the party and went on their way to complete their quest.

Li Yi finally heaved a sigh of relief.

Now, only Li Yi, Lonely Semi City, and Autumn Love were left in the party.

Lonely Semi City did not return because he could just open a portal whenever he wanted. To him, time was worth only the levels he could achieve. Wasting three hours on this was not worth it.

Li Yi and Autumn Love went together to the depths of the Wailing Grotto to scout around, leaving Lonely Semi City alone in the passage to continue his grind.

“The quest that I have accepted is a C-rank Hall of Fame Quest, which is to find the lost red treasure chest of the Church of Holy Light.”

While they were on the way, Autumn Love explained her quest to Li Yi.

Soon, they arrived before Terrence the Dragon-Slaying Warrior.

Li Yi realized that the gold sword that was in Terrence’s hands were no more. Now, his clothes were covered in bigger holes than before, and he looked worse and more pitiable in the tragic, tattered wreck.

Terrence mumbled to himself, “Even gold weapons could not withstand the flames of the Wicked Flaming Dragons…”

Autumn Love shook her head. “This NPC is so weird. No matter what I said, he would just ignore me.”

Li Yi smiled but did not offer any explanation. Internally, he was debating whether he should take out the Frost Equipment Set now.

Even the gold weapon melted under the flames. Would the trashy Frost Equipment Set even be of use?

Li Yi did not even have a shred of confidence.

“Let’s go. I’ll help you locate the treasure chest first.”

“Thank you Brother Dark Wings, I knew you were a good person. Hehe, how about this. If you could help me find the quest item, I’ll give you a 1 Gold Coin discount off your debt.”

“…”

The passageways in the depths of the Wailing Grotto became more complicated. Without Terrence leading the way, Li Yi had to set up a Magical Road Sign every few steps they took to avoid getting lost.

As the two went deeper and deeper, the passages became hotter and hotter. The initially rare Fire Elementals encounters became more frequent. They became fiercer one after another, and clearing them off had consumed much of Li Yi and Autumn Love’s time.

Rumble! Rumble!

When Li Yi and Autumn Love walked into a passage where lava was visible, the entire Earth seemed to shudder. Li Yi’s vision blurred for a moment as if he was inside an elevator. When he recovered, Autumn Love who was behind him all this while had disappeared.

“I’m at 3512588:51212. Where are you?” Autumn Love sent him a voice call.

“3512588:51213. I’m here too, why can’t I see you?”

Both of them exclaimed in confusion.

“Take a step back!” Li Yi said after some thoughts.

Rumble! Rumble!

After two loud noises, Li Yi and Autumn Love finally saw each other after they had gotten out of the lava passage.

“What an eerie place.”

Li Yi hummed in agreement. “It looks very similar to the Paracosm.”

The Paracosm is a mysterious map in Mount Pantheon. A step forward will lead to a sea of fire, a step backward and you will end up in the vast ocean. Every step taken will be accompanied by change. The Paracosm was thus crowned as the most difficult Labyrinth Map of all.

Autumn Love looked at Li Yi and asked with a ghost of a smile, “Brother Dark Wings, what is the Paracosm?”

“The ten levels of the Paracosm consists of the Bull Demon King, the Ancient Crimson Lunar Devil… Cough, I went off topic, we’re not in a private server now. I’m just kidding. ² Let’s go. Remember to retreat while following the road you’ve taken whenever you face danger. Don’t run about without guidance. I wouldn’t be able to find your body if you were to die here.”

Autumn Love’s entire body shivered at that. She did not have the courage to take a step further.

“If that’s the case, I… I don’t want to go anymore. I’m afraid that I might… I might drop my items.”

“I heard that the depths of the Wailing Grottos housed a great number of treasure chests that could be open directly without a key…” Li Yi’s tone was one of a great tempter.

Before Autumn Love could react, Li Yi stepped forward to walk into the lava passage.

The lava beneath the passage was boiling, and it would occasionally splatter onto the passage. To stay on the safe side, Li Yi kept all of his droppable equipment into the Space Pearl. He equipped himself with only the undroppable orange bow and the Ring of Windstorms that has a Fire Emblem engraved on it. Then, he walked forward with confident strides.

“Brother Dark Wings, if my equipment were dropped after my death, would you compensate my losses?” Autumn Love sent a voice call.

“Never.”

“Aw, don’t be so stingy. My equipment isn’t anything of worth, 10000 Gold Coins would be more than enough. Hehe, why don’t you agree to compensate half of that?”

“I won’t even give you a single cent.”

“I’m getting angry now…”

” As long as you don’t give birth to my child, no one would really bother. ³ ”

“You’re being a ruffian!”

Li Yi continued walked as he spoke. The passage beneath his feet started to show cracks, revealing the boiling lava below. In front of him were closely arranged, tiny stepping stones that lined the way forward.

Li Yi drank a bottle of Fire Resistance Potion before jumping onto the first stepping stone.

The stone wobbled under his feet. Li Yi let out a silent ‘Oh, no’ before he quickly took another leap. He activated his special flying skill to reach the second stepping stone.

Plop!

The first stepping stone collapsed into the lava and disappeared…

Li Yi wiped off his sweat and raised his head to take a look. He quickly let out an exclamation of surprise, “Oh?”

A big red treasure chest sat quietly in an unremarkable corner just behind the fifth stepping stone.

“Missy Autumn, I just saw your big red treasure chest!”