MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Hiss hiss… Hiss hiss…

Two Hyper Beam Walls were rushing towards them, one consisting of only the upper half, while the other only the lower half. Dodging them was simple, all the players had to do was crouch and jump immediately afterwards.

In theory, it was simple. However, it proved to be a problem in practice.

Once the two walls had passed by, another large group of players had died…

Li Yi turned his head and did a headcount. He realized that not many players who were following him remained.

Making it through the light labyrinth was completely dependent on one’s own skill. Relying on others would not get them anywhere.

The Hyper Beam Walls varied greatly the further into the labyrinth the parties progressed. Some consisted of only the upper or lower halves, whereas others the left or right halves. The worst of them changed every second.

The correct path to escape the light labyrinth was always randomly generated. However, such labyrinths would use obvious features, such as color to indicate the correct path.

If players encountered too many black light walls throughout their journey, they would need to quickly change their path. Only death awaited them should they travel further down their current path.

The light walls came in many different colors, but the correct path would be the one with the greatest number of white light walls.

Li Yi was scouting up ahead. After walking about for three or so hours, he gradually realized that, once he ran into enough white Hyper Beam walls, the waypoint would move forward. Otherwise, the waypoint would remain in the same position.

After following the hints provided by the white Hyper Beam walls for another hour, the path forward slowly widened, and the number of Hyper Beams emitted by the walls of the labyrinth began to decrease. The danger of the trek was gradually decreasing.

Apart from Li Yi’s party, there were multiple others who had made it there as well. It seemed that all the passageways gradually converged into a single path.

The Million-men Party had finally gathered together, but after counting all the guild members present, not even ten thousand men remained…

The Hyper Beams had completely vanished, and the path forward was beginning to widen. Once they reached a plaza, they finally stopped.

The countdown timer for the light labyrinth had stopped, and all the players who had reached the plaza were rewarded. The rewards included EXP points, Reputation Value, Equipment Goodie Bags, and etcetera…

In truth, there was actually a secret boss within the light labyrinth and players were given the choice whether they wanted to fight it or not. However, it was not easy to locate as it would randomly spawn in any corner of the light labyrinth. Thus, encountering it was highly dependent on luck.

While Li Yi and his party had not encountered it, others had. However, since the first kill announcement did not appear, it meant that nobody had successfully killed the secret boss yet.

Back at the plaza, there were several thousand zombies dressed in tattered clothing wandering aimlessly. In the center of the plaza, stood a giant, blue zombie, named ‘The Warden, Frost Cell’.

The Warden, Frost Cell, was the fourth boss of Glory (including the secret boss). In order to proceed to the final boss, players were required to kill it.

Currently, all the players present in the plaza totaled less than ten thousand men. Furthermore, the dense population of zombies in the plaza gave everyone goosebumps. They couldn’t shake the feeling that it was impossible to beat these monsters.

Waiting for their dead party members to return was not an option, as it was practically impossible to do so. After all, they still needed to go through three lines of defense; the raymen, Cesha, and the light labyrinth. They would need to face these three each time they died.

Even if they were ignored, the journey to their current location would still take over 12 hours.

“F*ck this! How are we supposed to fight them?”

“I know right? This dungeon is crazy hard! We came with a million men, but now, they’re all f*cking dead!”

“I’m protesting against this dungeon! GM, I’m going to milk your grandmother’s tits!”

The players in the area were already cursing, and those who held grudges against other players took it as the perfect opportunity to thoroughly insult their adversaries.

“Wow, there’s a lot of survivors. Looks like I’ve really altered the game’s progress…”

Unlike the other players, Li Yi had thought differently about their current situation. He took in his surroundings and reflected on the situation mentally.

Though Li Yi was not very familiar with Glory’s layout, he knew that Glory was designed to be insanely hard. The difficulty was such that even confronting the final boss with over a hundred men was considered a miracle.

The death toll continued to grow the deeper players progressed into the dungeon. A million players were nothing but cannon fodder.

The Light and Dark Instances had placed significant emphasis on the importance of having the advantage in numbers. However, subsequent dungeon designs in King of Pantheon focused on a wider variety of playstyles. Skilled players could constantly challenge the dungeon clearing records, whereas weaker ones could only follow the crowd and hope to find their own piece of happiness.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have something to say.”

While the players were embroiled in their sea of obscenities, a short-haired teen walked out of the crowd with his Ceramic Quarterstaff held high.

He was a Natural Summoner, and he was a Human.

Nobody acknowledged him, and the players around him continued to spew insults. Only a few of them had actually stopped.

The short-haired teen’s expression darkened slightly, and he slammed his quarterstaff onto the ground. With a thunderous rumble… fire erupted from the ground, and a flame giant towering over 20 meters was summoned.

It was the highest level of Natural Summon Beasts available — the Hellfire Demon!

“Silence!”

The Hellfire Demon howled as it slammed its fist onto the ground.

The flames it spread were intense, and its aura was intimidating!

Though players were forbidden from PK-ing within the confines of Glory, the Hellfire Demon’s aura was too menacing, and it immediately garnered the attention of most players.

“The f*ck? Who’s this kid? I’m also a Natural Summoner and I’m at Level 100, but I don’t have the Hellfire Demon yet.”

The short-haired teen snickered, “Greetings everyone, the name’s Faded Cloud Breeze from the Fluttering Snow Alliance from the Southern Continent. I have something I want to discuss with all of you.”

His voice was not loud, but after the fright that Hellfire Demon gave them, all the players were dead silent. Currently, every single player present was listening intently to his words.

Li Yi knew who the short-haired teen was. He was originally the Guild Master of Fluttering Snow Alliance’s Eastern Division, the Natural Summoner, Faded Cloud Breeze.

Had it not been for Li Yi, he might still be the Guild Master of the Fluttering Snow Alliance’s Eastern Division. Obviously, he no longer held that role.

The short-haired teen lifted his Ceramic Quarterstaff up high and yelled, “Cooperate!”

“I’m sure that all of you have already noticed the difficult task ahead of us. Relying solely on our own strength is obviously not going help us to defeat this boss. Thus, I’m hoping that everyone can sincerely offer their assistance so that we might bring down this boss.”

“Cooperate? How? Is the Fluttering Snow Alliance going to be the vanguard?” Someone shouted out.

“Yeah, if the Fluttering Snow Alliance is willing to be the vanguard, we’re okay with it.”

“We of White Gate are willing to follow…”

“The Blood Wolf Pack will follow you as well…”

Everyone chimed in with their opinions.

Faded Cloud Breeze gave a faint smile and lifted up his quarterstaff to demand silence. Once the ruckus had finally died down, he slowly nodded his head and answered, “The Fluttering Snow Alliance accepts these conditions.”

His words had silenced the surrounding players.

No one knew Frost Cell’s strength. Simply put, the players desperately needed a party who willing to go first.

Faded Cloud Breeze nodded his head in satisfaction. “Let me first explain my plan. First, I’m going to sacrifice a small portion of my men to learn Frost Cell’s abilities. Our cooperation will officially begin once everyone has the gist of its abilities. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s do it, I’m in favor of your plan.”

“Same here.”

“No problem. You can send out your men now.”

Instantly, there were words of agreement from the surrounding players.

Faded Cloud Breeze held up his hand, and the crowd fell silent yet again. He then directed a smile at Li Yi and asked, “What do you think, Guild Master Dark Wing?”

Li Yi nodded with a smile. “My party has no qualms with it!”

Though he had no clue what Faded Cloud Breeze true intentions were, he had stated that he would sacrifice some of his men to test the waters. Due to this, Li Yi did not object.

Getting to this location was no easy task, and nobody wanted to die at this point.

Faded Cloud Breeze executed his strategy. He sent out a 200-man squad, and they rushed over to attack the zombies in the plaza.

As most of the players had guessed, the wandering zombies would attack en masse should they get attacked. However, the speed with which they charged towards the 200 men squad was still awe-inspiring.

“What the f*ck? What are these zombies made of? How on earth are they faster than the raymen?”

They were fast. The zombies who had originally wandered sluggishly in the plaza had become creatures that were faster than the raymen once the battle began.

The 200-men squad had been completely surrounded. Tens of thousands of zombies flailed their limbs about, clawing at the squad.

[−1, −1, −1, −1, −1, −1!]

It was then that the players realized that these brutish-looking zombies were surprisingly weak. No matter how they bit or scratched, they only dealt 1 damage.

“Erect Fire Walls! Use Blizzard or Wind Swipe…” Faded Cloud Breeze called out.

The 200-man squad burst into action. They summoned Fire Walls underneath them and burned the zombies to a crisp. The HP of the zombies fell rapidly.

After a while, thousands of zombies had fallen.

None of the members from the 200-man party had died, and they had easily cleared off the zombies.

“They’re as weak as paper.”

“So, they’re trash, huh. Damn, they almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Hahahaha, me too.”

“D*mmit. I would’ve gone ahead if I knew that they were like this.”

The players were celebrating. No one had thought these scary-looking zombies would be so weak.

Faded Cloud Breeze raised his quarterstaff and shouted, “Onwards! Your target is Frost Cell! Main Tanks, go!”

Five main tanks charged towards Frost Cell, and one of the Paladins hurled his shield, accurately hitting Frost Cell on the head.

“Uaahhh— Who dares to interrupt my rest?”

Frost Cell’s eyes shot open. Like its exterior, its eyes were icy blue. However, the shade of his body was much darker. When his eyes opened, it felt as if an icy wind had been released.

Frost Cell walked sluggishly towards the Paladin who threw his shield. It was moving slower than a snail’s pace.

“Hahaha. So, it wasn’t just the mobs that were trash. Even the boss is a gigantic piece of garbage!”

The observing players burst into laughter. They all assumed that Frost Cell posed no threat as it was moving so slowly.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The laughter had yet to subside when suddenly, all 200 party members were frozen solid. A moment later, they burst into pieces.

Their corpses had been smashed to smithereens, and all 200 of them were dead. They had been wiped out with a single skill…

“What. The. F*ck…”

The observing players were dumbfounded.