MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

NPND!

Bosses that were impossible to beat unless the system nerfed them via a patch!

Back in his past life, Li Yi had never entered Glory before. However, he had heard multiple tales of the legendary Spider King, and they were all legends of NPND!

Only one fate awaited those who approached it, death. Back then, the major guilds from multiple continents had banded together, but even then, they failed to bring its HP below 90%. The situation persisted for a whole two months before Pantheon’s official forum finally acted due to the hopelessness of it. They nerfed Spider King’s HP and some of its abilities. They also patched out the human-faced spider monsters so that they disappeared automatically after every battle.

The first to be unsettled by the human-faced spiders on Spider King’s back was Amber Sword Heart.

‘The longer we drag this out, the harder it gets. We cannot afford to stall any longer.’

Amber Sword Heart led his men into Spider King’s territory, and once again, the protective light barrier was raised, blocking all external contact.

“Annihilate the Intruders! Prototype B7 initializing feasting protocol. Identifying target…Target confirmed…”

Spider King leaped into action, but its attacking method this time was different from the previous run. It no longer shot laser beams from its eyes and did not shoot any sticky spider silk. Instead, it slammed into a tank with frightening speed, seized the tank with its claws, and opened up its mouth to gouge down its prey.

Even the sturdy tanks were no match against Spider King’s jaws, and in a blink of an eye, an entire chunk of the tank was wolfed down. Despite that, Spider King did not stop, instead, it continued to chew and devour…

“Skkt Skktt—”

The human-shaped spiders moved quickly and shot sticky spider silk onto the tanks. Though their silk was not as wide as Spider King’s, they were not to be underestimated. They fired their silk at absurd speeds, and each silk could be stacked onto the previous ones. Within a few seconds, the tanks were immobilized.

Now that the tanks were unable to move, the players within the tanks were doomed. They could not escape, and they were forced to witness the spider silks envelope them bit by bit…

Kacha-Kacha-Kacha…

As long as Spider King continued to feast, its body size would continue to increase. Spider King wolfed down an entire tank within seconds, and soon after, its body size was doubled.

Those who managed to escape from the tanks suffered a cruel fate. The human-faced spider monsters did not let up and relentlessly shot their silk, leaving no room for a counter-attack by the humans, and very quickly, they were turned into cocoons…

“Annihilate the Intruders! Prototype B7 initializing feasting protocol. Identifying target… Target confirmed…”

Spider King skittered towards another tank to continue its feast.

Amber Sword Heart’s party suffered a fate worse than the previous one. They effectively made zero significant progress with Spider King, and were wiped out before they managed to take away 1% of its HP…

After its feast, Spider King’s size had increased by ten times, its height was now over 30 meters and its width was over 50 meters. It was crouching on the ground, and it looked extremely menacing.

The Light and Dark NPCs that had erected a magic barrier were long dead, and they were absolutely useless in the face of the Spider King’s strength. Then, the human-faced spider monsters surged forward and devoured the NPCs’ corpses completely.

Amber Sword Heart and his men were all dead, contributing another 1,000 human-faced spiders to Spider King…

White flashes of light could be seen as the Assembled Gods Guild used their Holy Light Amulet to revive.

Aside from the members from Amber Sword Heart’s Assembled Gods Guild, the other players who had participated in the battle were all dead…

The protective light barrier around them faded. Spider King’s size remained the same and there were more human-faced spiders now.

Flower Underpants could not resist himself from cursing. “What a beast! How on earth are we going to defeat it?!”

The boss’ strength had increased yet again, and it shattered the confidence of many players. In any case, only two parties that had any semblance of a chance against it remained.

They were none other than the forces led by Brother Windcloud Nine and Li Yi!

However, Ashy Sky and Amber Sword heart did not quit the dungeon after their failed attempts. Instead, they joined the two remaining parties respectively.

Those from Ashy Sky’s party joined Iron Alliance, whereas those following Amber Sword Heart joined Brother Wind Cloud Nine’s party.

Unlike Amber Sword Heart, Li Yi was in no rush, and neither was Brother Windcloud Nine. They were each stationed on opposing ends and were busy chatting with their members. It did not look like they were planning to attack.

“Brother, when are we going to strike?” Flower Underpants’ patience had worn thin, he could not see any hope of victory, and he had already determined within his heart that they could not win…

It was not only him who thought that way. Most of the players that were present were thinking the same thing.

Li Yi’s eyebrows were scrunched up and his fingers were moving about as if he was sketching something. His eyes were constantly glued to the clock and he was totally absorbed in his current task. As such, he did not hear Flower Underpants’ words.

He was actually coming up with a strategy. This was no act of desperation, after all, he had only read guides from the forum in his past life and had never seen any videos of Spider King in combat before. As such, he did not know much about his current enemy.

Only by witnessing with his own eyes could he plan the best method of attack.

Li Yi was not the only one though, as the situation at Brother Windcloud Nine’s end was also highly chaotic.

Brother Windcloud Nine, Windcloud Overlord, Amber Sword Heart, Yang Xingchen, and I Love Beast Beast were seated inside a tank and they were currently listening to Defiantly Tyrannical explain the strategy for the boss. He drew many images on the ground, but they were still puzzled by his explanation.

It was only natural though, as the strategy against Spider King was too complicated. Defiantly Tyrannical had never personally participated in the battle and all his knowledge was given to him by Defiant Feifei. As such, he was blindly copying what Defiant Feifei had told him and was explaining the intricate combat strategy in a textbook-like manner.

How could anyone have understood when he himself was clueless about what he had said?

“‘Run, stop, attack.’ What kind of strategy is this?” After hearing Defiantly Tyrannical’s explanation, his mind had turned into goop.

“I’m confused as well.” I Love Beast Beast shook his head violently.

The others were no better, they were all confused.

“I’ve already told you everything I could. We’re at a point where I could no longer hide anything. Fellow leaders, I’ll leave the planning of the official strategy to you guys.” Defiantly Tyrannical gently massaged his aching head. Explaining such a long and complex strategy had left him exhausted.

Brother Windcloud Nine shook his head. “I’m not suited for this. You want me to spend money? Sure, but you can forget it if you want me to use my brain.”

“There’s still thirty minutes before we reach the next hour, and if we can’t come up with a strategy by then, we’ll need to wait for another hour.”

Yang Xingchen cheered, “Come on now, let’s put our heads together.”

…

Back in the control room within a tank, Li Yi was still drawing. Spider King’s combat strategy was highly complicated and entering the battle without a clear plan would undoubtedly bring about their annihilation. In order to clear it, they would need to enter with a solid plan.

Before its nerf, Spider King was considered as THE unbeatable boss. However, as the level of players increased, more and more strategies had been discovered. In the second year of Glory’s release, a female Southern Continent player wrote down her own lists of strategy that detailed various methods of defeating Spider King. She even mentioned that by following her guide, one might even defeat the pre-nerf Spider King!

Naturally, it was only a possibility as nobody could encounter the pre-nerf Spider King anymore…

Many players had originally thought that the female player was joking, but when they actually followed the strategies written in the guide, they realized that its difficulty took a steep plunge. So much so that even low-level players with average equipment could defeat it.

Looking up guides in the forum was one of Li Yi’s favorite pastimes, both in his past life and present. However, the reason he was interested in that particular guide was not that he wanted to clear Glory, but instead due to the guide’s author.

She was the Southern Continent’s Fire God, Gongsun Chuqian!

Li Yi’s girlfriend in his previous life, Lin Qian, was no frail, fragile player within King of Pantheon. Quite the opposite actually, as she was an extremely amazing God-tier player!

Back in his past life, Lin Qian’s name was listed within the 100 God-tier Player List. She chose a Wizard class, and she walked the fire path. She was the idol of many aspiring Fire Wizards and was known to be the epitome of Fire Wizards.

It was back when Li Yi had first met Lin Qian. He was extremely curious about her, and as such, he accidentally stumbled upon her Glory Dungeon Guide. It was a memorable experience and he could not have forgotten it even if he wanted to.

Alas, due to his notoriety in his past life, he could not compose a team to tackle Glory…

In this life though, he made sure to participate in Glory’s release. The reason being that he wanted to test out Qian’er’s combat guide, and whether it could truly bring down a pre-nerf Spider King just as she stated.

There were no absolutes in life, and unless he tried it out himself, he would never obtain an answer.

As to Qian’er’s combat skills, Li Yi was highly impressed by it. The reason being that in his playthrough as a Thief in his past life, he could not defeat her. He remembered being pulverized into a pulp back when they first met, and it was for this reason that they got to know one another…

While recalling the contents of the combat guide, he made slight adjustments to them. It was natural after all, as Qian’er was no God. Her guide was based on a nerfed Spider King, which was considered as trash compared to what he was currently up against.

Half an hour had come and gone. Li Yi made no moves, but Brother Windcloud Nine could no longer hold back.

Brother Windcloud Nine rode on top of his cerberus pup and led his army to charge into the enemy territory.

His entire army consisted of around ten thousand players, and they did not bring their tanks. The tactic they employed did not include tanks, and instead relied on their raw strength!

The battle began at 20:00 sharp!

“Annihilate the intruders, Protect Lord Yuge…”

Spider King mobilized once more, and it shot forth laser beams from its eyes that swept through the battlefield.

The laser beam dealt over 300,000 damage, basically killing anything it touched.

The army rapidly spread out onto both sides, instantly dodging the laser beam. Following that, Brother Windcloud Nine slapped Cerberus’ head, unleashing a wave of Hellfire that seared the entire area.

“Shield of Earth!” Amber Sword Heart activated his team-wide damage reduction skill.

“Blizzard! Icy Howl! Fiery Hell!”

The Wizards were spurred into action and they constantly cast powerful spells. Their target was not Spider King, but instead the dense population of human-faced spiders hiding behind it.

They needed to clear the small monsters first in order to have any chance of winning.

The way Spider King was designed was pretty interesting. Normally it would be in ‘Auto-attack’ mode, but whenever the time approached a brand-new hour, it would switch to Counter-attack mode. If players were to attack then, it would not switch back to its original mode.

It was implicitly understood from the name itself that it would no longer attack of its own volition.

‘Laser beams! Laser beams… Aside from its laser beams, Spider King will not use any other attacks at the moment!’

The dense population of human-faced spiders poured forward, whereas several hundreds of Fire Wizards erected walls of fire. The party was situated in the middle of the flames, and due to this, the spider silks were nullified. The human-faced spiders were constantly being killed and all was good…

“The f*ck?! Brothers, this isn’t good, they know the strategy!”

Flower Underpants was hopping anxiously, he was so nervous that his square face had changed colors.

‘If Brother Windcloud Nine manages to succeed, Li Yi’s Orange Quality Bow is as good as gone…’