MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The Auction House of the Celestial Capital was filled with players, both within and without. It was so crowded that it was hard to move around.

Gossiping was commonplace here, and with a rumor of 5,000,000 Gold Coins being scammed being spread around, it was sure to cause a stir with the bystanders.

All this began with Deathcharger. Bird in the Warehouse was reluctant to use it, and as such, he decided to sell it at the Auction House for 3,000,000 Gold Coins.

Unlike equipment, mounts were regularly traded, and it was something that Iron Alliance had always permitted.

Bird in the Warehouse had auctioned his mount for seven days, and though there were many that inquired for its price, there were none who could afford it.

The reason was simple. After the initial frenzy in the game’s early phase, most of the prices of items have gone through a readjustment. A Tier 1 Equipment Set only cost a few hundred Gold Coins now and a Gold Quality Mount cost less than a thousand. Although Deathcharger’s stats were useful, once the user’s level increased, it became nothing noteworthy.

Furthermore, Gold Quality was only one tier below Purple Quality, and aside from those like Brother Windcloud Nine, very few would actually consider buying Deathcharger.

As the saying went, he had a price, but there was no market for it. There were plenty that came to bargain, but none of them could actually afford it.

The system collected a service fee of 50 Gold Coins for auctioning items that were priced over a million Gold Coins. Since Bird in the Warehouse was only a regular player, he was not as rich as Li Yi, he was at the end of his rope after auctioning it for a few days.

So, he decided to decrease his price. Initially it was reduced from 3,000,000 to 2,000,000, and later, it was further reduced from 2,000,000 to 1,500,000. Alas, the situation remained unchanged as there were only those who came to bargain.

The situation continued until today, whereby Bird in the Warehouse received an anonymous message. The anonymous person offered 5,000,000 Gold Coins right off the bat in exchange for Deathcharger.

From the tone of the message, it seemed that the anonymous person was unaware of the decrease in price to 1,500,000 Gold Coins. Due to this, Bird in the Warehouse’s greed was aroused, and he immediately agreed to the trade.

Following that, the person told Bird in the Warehouse that he was a Southern Continent player and sent him a payment mail that was attached with 5,000,000 Gold Coins. Once Bird in the Warehouse placed Deathcharger into the mail, it was a done deal.

Using payment mail to carry out trades was commonplace. Since the mail clearly stated its attachment of 5,000,000 Gold Coins, there was no possibility of a scam. However, just as Bird in the Warehouse was going to place Deathcharger into the mail, someone tapped his shoulders.

“Yo, Old Li!”

Bird in the Warehouse spun his head around, and the guy who tapped him was surprised. He quickly offered his hand to apologize. “I am sorry, sorry I am, as I’ve mistaken you for someone else.”

Ding! Ding!

Bird in the Warehouse returned his attention to the mail. He noticed that the person had sent another mail that urged him to finish the trade. Without giving it a second thought, he attached Deathcharger onto the mail, and with that, he sealed his fate…

The person had actually sent over two mails at the same time, but he canceled the initial mail that offered 5,000,000 Gold Coins, leaving only a fake image overlapping the real offer.

Just like that, Bird in the Warehouse had missed out on his 5,000,000 Gold Coins, and had received only a meager sum of 500 Gold Coins…

[Congratulations, your trade is successful!]

The sound of a system notification rang out, but Bird in the Warehouse was bewildered.

‘I’ve been scammed, my 5,000,000 had turned into 500 Gold Coins…’

His greed had cost him big time. He was impatient in his trade, and now, he had lost the will to live.

He filed a complaint to the official forum, only to receive a reply that stated that anonymous trades were unprotected by the system and that it was the first major rule of the game…

Since he had no idea who scammed him, Bird in the Warehouse had no target to vent his rage at.

Bird in the Warehouse tried to hold back his rage, but it was futile. In the end, he spent every single Gold Coin he had on him and screamed out his message in the World Channel. “%$$##%^**&*&*!”

His foul words were too vicious, and as such, they were censored.

Following that, Bird in the Warehouse went to the entrance of the Auction House and began cursing. He started off from the scammer and cursed until the 18th generation of the scammer’s ancestors. Even the scammer’s grandmother was roped in and he could feel his sanity crumbling as he cursed.

In truth, Bird in the Warehouse could only blame his own carelessness for allowing something like this to happen. He had no right to blame others, especially when he was an underling of Flower Underpants in the Dream Guild, and not Little Drunk Cat.

Bird in the Warehouse cursed for a long time. Aside from working himself up, he had no other ideas. All of a sudden, the idea to ask for help occurred to him, and thus, he went to look for his boss.

Unfortunately, Flower Underpants was confused, he could not make heads nor tails of the situation. As such, Bird in the Warehouse looked for Pretty Good Mood instead, and Pretty Good Mood called Li Yi over…

This was not a task that could be handled by one person. The only way to handle it is by gathering many people to brainstorm a plan.

After listening to Bird in the Warehouse’s plight, Li Yi was speechless for quite some time. He had done this mail switcheroo plenty of times in his past life, and there were countless other players who knew of this scamming tactic as well. Furthermore, the scammer was anonymous, and due to this, finding the scammer was nigh impossible.

Li Yi asked, “By the way, you said that there was someone who tapped your shoulders. Do you still remember how he looked?”

Bird in the Warehouse paused in thought, and answered, “I remembered that he had big eyes, and his smile was hard to look at.”

Being interrupted while trading was definitely not a coincidence. It was an obvious ploy to divert his attention and to further increase the chance of the scam’s success.

Bird in the Warehouse sobbed, “I only wanted to sell some stuff and earn some coin to make life easier, but now, I’m literally penniless.”

Flower Underpants was angry as well. “You deserve it. I told you to sell it to me, but you declined. Are you satisfied now that you’ve gotten scammed?”

1,500,000 Gold Coins. Had Bird in the Warehouse offered him that price, he would’ve taken it without an ounce of hesitation.

Bird in the Warehouse choked up. “Boss, it’s too late for it now. I’m so damn regretful that I could die right now. Forget about 1,500,000 Gold Coins, I would even offer it to you for 500,000 right now…”

Li Yi had personally gone through all the stages of grief after being scammed…

“Pui! 500,000 Gold Coins? Do you not know of my personality by now? If I wanted to milk you, I would’ve done it ages ago. Alas, you were too closed-minded and refused to believe me. Now, look at what happened!”

Li Yi gave a word of advice. “Enough, Brother Flower. You should restrain yourself, after all, he’s p*ssed as well.”

“Let’s split up to look for some leads. Don’t worry if you can’t find any, as it’s a longshot anyway. If it comes to that, all you can do is to be careful next time.”

Li Yi’s words were the truth. The internet was nothing like reality, and without knowing the scammer’s face and name, they would have a hard time searching for him.

“Sigh, take your time to discuss it, bosses. I’m going to log out and dunk down some beer to ease my heart….” Bird in the Warehouse logged out, depressed.

“Big eyes and an ugly smile. Could it be him?”

Based on the clues given by Bird in the Warehouse, Li Yi suddenly thought of someone.

He took out Divine Looking Glass and keyed in the two words, ‘It’s Me’, and clicked ‘confirm’.

A red glow flickered, and a 3D model of a certain player appeared on the Divine Looking Glass.

[It’s Me (Male)]

[Camp joined: Western Continent]

[Guild Joined: None]

[Level: 23]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Traveler]

[HP: 678]

[STR: 5]

[WIL: 2]

[AGI: …]

[Location of target: Invincible Continent, Celestial Capital, nearby the Auction House. Coordinates: 1521135: 1324567.]

…

‘Could it really be this punk?’ Li Yi gasped.

Back in his previous life, there were two most notorious scammers in King of Pantheon. The first was Dark Wing, that scammed nearly everyone, and the other was somebody called It’s Me. His scams were much more vicious than Li Yi’s and he scammed anyone regardless of their age or gender.

Within the list of ‘Top 100 Most Hated Characters in Pantheon’, Li Yi was ranked at second place and It’s Me was at fourth place. This was not to say that his scams were inferior to Li Yi’s but instead meant that he was extremely low profile. He was rarely identified as his scams were always made in the dark. It was only when Reigning the World’s Guild Master, Night Moon had lost her Shimmering Star-shatter Blade to him, that he was finally exposed to the public.

Li Yi’s scams were done for revenge. His goal was simple, and that was to cause the other person as much misery as he had felt. However, It’s Me was another story altogether. The b*stard only scammed for the sake of money, and he felt no sympathy whatsoever…

‘I’ll scam wherever I go, the greatest scammer is me!’

He remembered back in his past life, Arthur was very arrogant. He declared that he would not be scammed by the likes of Dark Wing and It’s Me. Alas, his words did not hold for long as he was scammed by both of them later on.

Li Yi was the first to scam him, and It’s Me followed soon after. The period between their scams was shorter than a month, and from this event, it was evident how masterful they were in their art of deceit.

All the signs had led Li Yi to believe that it was the mega scammer, It’s Me that tapped and scammed Bird in the Warehouse, and he was right.

“Brother Dark Wing, what’s up?” Flower Underpants could not suppress his question as he observed Li Yi’s look of concentration.

“Nothing much.” Li Yi shook his head. Before he had ascertained the truth, there was no point in voicing his thoughts, as it would make matters more complicated.

“F*ck! Someone scammed me of my Purple Protective Bangle!”

A pained wail echoed out from the Auction House. Someone else had been scammed.

“A Level 70 Protective Bangle? F*ck man, that item can save lives man, it’s priceless! How did you get scammed?”

“Via the mail, man. I clearly saw 5,000,000 Gold Coins written within the mail. But when I traded it, I only received 50 Gold Coins. F*ck this sh*t, I-I…” The player that got scammed was extremely agitated.

“Why weren’t you more cautious. There was a Thief called Bird in the Warehouse that was scammed in a similar fashion just now.”

“I-I was laughing at him just now, but I never thought…” The scammed player cried his eyes dry.

‘The most malicious players within the game are scammers. They effortlessly steal the items that players worked their blood and sweat for…’

Li Yi walked out of the Auction House and very quickly located It’s Me.

He was clothed in black, had big eyes, and there was an urge to punch him whenever he smiled. Compared to Scumbag Wang, Scumbag Wang would have been a hunk.

“Brother Dark Wing, long time no see!”

Just as Li Yi was observing It’s Me privately, Hua Feihua came running over in a dramatic manner. She seemed to be enraptured, and her expression was more blissful than when greeting her father.

“Erm, long time no see.” Li Yi politely replied.

Hua Feihua took a few steps forward and gave a charming smile. “Brother Dark Wing, I’m really thankful for your help last time.”

“Um, don’t sweat it.”

Players were giving Li Yi stares from all directions and were engaged in fierce discussion.

Dark Wing was a renowned celebrity in the Invincible Continent. It was an honor to speak to him, and Hua Feihua was well aware of that. Being the attention-loving whore that she was, she enjoyed doing stuff like this.

While Li Yi was being ‘disturbed’ by Hua Feihua, the big liar, It’s Me had blended into the crowd, and left silently.

Hua Feihua was still buttering Li Yi up though. “Brother Dark Wing, when’s the next time you’ll bring me to a dungeon?”

“I’m not free, go look for Wang’er, I’m sure he’ll be pleased to bring you to the dungeon.”

Li Yi walked away, and Hua Feihua’s face contorted into an ugly expression.

“Sister Feihua, it’s been a while!”

At that moment, Scumbag Wang came riding down on a black donkey. Once he saw Hua Feihua, his eyes lit up. His gaze landed squarely on her plump buttocks, and the gulping of his saliva was audible.

“Leave me alone!” Hua Feihua mercilessly rejected him.

Crash!

Scumbag Wang leaped off his black donkey and rolled on the floor… ¹