MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The white flash receded, and Li Yi was now in Conquer’s shared map.

The Quest Pane displayed various statistics, such as Li Yi’s challenge duration, his current progress, his character’s status, and plenty others.

“Mogu! Mogu!” The mogu cat appeared before Li Yi and it extended its staff forward as if ushering Li Yi to collect his equipment.

Though the mogu cats have no wings, this mysterious race held the ability to fly. According to the game’s lore, the Air Dance Technique of Vagabonds was passed down by the mogu tribe.

Li Yi did not spare a second glance at it, and instead, he summoned Holy Light Warhorse and rushed full speed ahead.

“Mogu! Mogu!”

The mogu cat was starting to panic. It gripped its staff and pursued Li Yi closely.

When a player who won the rock-paper-scissors challenge refused to collect their equipment, the silly mogu cat would constantly follow the player. With that, the player would have an extra hand in battle. Of course, the pre-requisite for this to happen is that the player does not reclaim their equipment. Otherwise, the mogu cat would have flown off long ago.

The skies above were tinted crimson, a warning sign that danger loomed above. Li Yi spurred onwards with his top speed, and before long he encountered a dilapidated multi-story building. Numerous Kobolds walked in and out, and they constantly shrieked and howled, giving off a rowdy atmosphere.

“Blazing Fields!”

Li Yi raised his Orange Quality Bow up high and unleashed his special skill at the multi-story building.

All 100 points of Flame Energy was let loose, and the blazing flames devoured the building in mere moments. Hundreds of Kobolds were burned alive, and the building was reduced to ashes…

Tap…Tap…Tap….

A line of text appeared within the Quest Pane. [You have successfully crushed the Kobold Army. Dungeon progress is now at 1%. Time used: 10 seconds. Grade: SSS. Obtained additional rewards: STR Seed x2 (Permanently increases STR by 1).]

“Not bad, not bad.” Li Yi was pleased of Blazing Fields’ strength.

“Mogu! Mogu!” The angry mogu cat panted as it flew over. It once again attempted to return Li Yi’s equipment.

Li Yi continued to ignore it. He spurred his Holy Light Warhorse to action and continued going forward.

The Kobold camps were an opposing faction that could be found anywhere within Conquer. They were scattered everywhere, but if players stayed clear of their territory and did not attack them, they would not attack the players as well. Furthermore, whether players fought them was of little consequence as Conquer had many other tasks to increase the dungeon’s progress by 1%. If players were to complete all the tasks given, it was possible for them to reach 200% dungeon progress.

Players could have fun with any method they chose to progress, which was the basic premise for Conquer’s design.

Li Yi went quite a distance ahead and finally encountered other players.

Conquer’s dungeon design was slightly different from Glory’s. Back in Glory, players were not allowed to fight no matter what party or faction they belonged to. However, Conquer was not like that. Though players still could not PK one another, they could sabotage each other.

As an example, there was an energy tower in front of Li Yi and the other players. Destroying it would yield an abundant amount of EXP points, which was much greater than farming monsters. It was without a doubt, the best leveling spot currently.

Naturally, this great leveling spot was of little consequence to Li Yi as he had reached the level cap. However, for the players who had yet to reach the max level, it was a territory that should never be desecrated by others.

Two players had their eyes set on the same energy tower, and thus, conflict arose. However, since the system forbade them from PK-ing, they resorted to using underhanded ploys instead.

One such ploy was to lure in the nearby Kobold Armies when a player was attacking the tower to kill the player. Another ploy was to set the energy tower to overdrive, which would result in the death of any player who attacked it. Besides these two, there were also plenty of other tactics, and the list goes on and on…

Li Yi went around the low-level players vying for the energy tower and proceeded onward. Though destroying the energy tower would reward Li Yi with ‘attribute seeds’, fighting the low-level players for them was undoubtedly a waste of time.

“Mogu! Mogu!” The mogu cat was still trailing behind. It had yet to part ways.

After making it through the energy tower, Li Yi encountered a squad of raymen bosses.

You read that right, all of them were the rayman gatekeeper boss of Glory, Cesha!

However, there were some differences between them and Cesha within Glory. They were all clones.

The squad of raymen bosses stood separately. As long as players did not mess up, they would never clump up. Each boss acted independently and awaited the players’ challenge.

Not far from Li Yi, there were two players who were currently launching a pincer attack at a rayman boss.

Compared to the original Cesha within Glory, the cloned Ceshas in Conquer were much weaker. Since Conquer did not allow the formation of parties, it was only logical that their bosses were somewhat nerfed.

The two players were surrounding and attacking a rayman boss. Regardless of whether they had formed a party, the calculation of the boss’ HP reduction was tallied independently. That is to say, the HP damage by a player belonged to that player alone, and damage inflicted by other players belonged only to the other player, each calculation was done separately.

The calculations deviated from the norm, and while they fought, one of the players was beginning to grow frustrated. The reason being that her attacks were slow, and she could no longer catch up to the other player’s speed. If things carried on any longer, she would definitely lose.

Chii! Chii! Chii!

The black-clad female Thief ran into the territory of the other raymen bosses and lured three of them towards the other player. After tossing on her Death Cloak, she vanished by activating Stealth.

It was an obvious attempt at sabotage.

The poor Warrior was unable to endure the constant attacks of four raymen bosses. Under the bombardment of their light beams, the Warrior quickly perished…

“F*ck you! There’re so many monsters here, so why compete against me, you b*stard?!”

The Warrior flung a series of expletives as he crumpled onto the ground.

“I purposely steal from the wicked!” The black-clad Thief retorted coldly with her feet planted into the Warrior’s head.

At that instant, the black-clad Thief had spotted Li Yi. She waved her blood-red short sword and issued a bold threat.

“What’re you looking at? Walk away if you don’t want to die.”

“There are so many monsters here. I think it’s fine if we kill one each, right?”

The black-clad Thief snorted, “Would you share your wife with others if she was here?”

‘This woman’s pretty foul-mouthed…’

Li Yi flinched.

At that instant, Li Yi noticed the crimson short sword she was holding, and he snapped to attention.

Since he was a Thief in his past life, he was well-versed with the equipment of Thieves.

That short sword was clearly one of the pairs of the Vampire Queen’s Devouring Short Swords!

It was a weapon that was famed for its Stats-reducing capabilities!

The reason Li Yi was called Emperor of the Night in his past life was due to him owning the main hand version of the Vampire Queen’s Devouring Short Swords. The one he had allowed him to Drain HP, whereas the off-hand sword allowed players to reduce the attributes of their targets. When used in conjunction, they were able to unleash a powerful special skill as well.

‘Who’s this woman?’

Li Yi had taken an interest in her. The fact that she could obtain one of the Vampire Queen’s Short Swords had proven that she was no noob.

Back then, Li Yi was unclear of the drop spots for the Vampire Short Swords, but he was sure now. They dropped at one of the Seven Secret Places, the Dwelling of the Undead.

‘Has this woman been to the Dwelling of the Undead before?’

“You still aren’t leaving? Are you waiting for my temper to flare? 1! 2! 3! F*ck it!”

Seeing Li Yi rooted to the spot like a dummy made the aggressive lass’ temper flare. She attracted five of the raymen bosses and directed them towards Li Yi.

“Mogu! Mogu!”

The mogu cat waved its staff and cast a Magic Shield on Li Yi. Before it managed to return Li Yi’s equipment, the mogu cat had a responsibility to protect its ‘naked’ victim.

Crash!

Li Yi dived onto the ground. He used Pseudocide!

“Hahahaha! What a dumb Archer, don’t blame me for your death since you brought it upon yourself.”

The black-clad Thief laughed with glee and lured the raymen bosses to step over Li Yi’s ‘corpse’.

Though Pseudocide was an Ultimate Move, its effects would immediately dispel upon contact with monsters.

The five raymen bosses stepped over Li Yi’s corpse one after another, but to the black-clad Thief’s surprise, Li Yi’s ‘corpse’ did not rise. Instead, it ‘remained’ in the Pseudocide state.

The black-clad Thief cried out angrily. “Are you kidding me?”

“Hsst…Hsst…Hsst…Hsst…Hsst…”

At that moment, the five raymen bosses suddenly turned their heads around and attacked Li Yi, who was still in Pseudocide mode.

“Hahaha.” The black-clad Thief laughed delightedly.

Li Yi’s Pseudocide had been canceled and he had stood up. However, the black-clad Thief’s celebration was cut short when Li Yi activated his Rocket Propellant and blazed forward, followed by the immediate disappearance of his body.

He had Camouflaged himself!

Another successful escape!

Now that the five raymen bosses had lost their target, they aimed their sights at the black-clad Thief.

“You dare to trick me? Too naïve!”

The black-clad Thief scolded loudly. She flung over her Death Cloak and entered Stealth once again.

“Aooooohh—”

Not even a second had passed since the black-clad Thief had entered Stealth when a petite shadow came charging into her. It Charged squarely into her, and with a firm swipe from its talons, it managed to bring her out of her ‘Stealth’ state.

Hsst…Hsst…Hsst…

The five raymen bosses attacked in sync, killing the petite shadow on the spot. The black-clad Thief fared no better as after a while of running and a few chugs of potions, she was still ‘toyed’ to death by the raymen.

The petite shadow lying on the ground was none other than Li Yi’s abnormal pet, Explosive Ape!

The neutral primate that was neither friend nor foe attacked anyone as it wished. Whether the system allowed PKs among players was of little relevance to it. After all, it already attacked its own master, so why would the limitations set by others matter?

Li Yi walked out from his ‘Camouflaged’ state and approached the black-clad Thief. He looked at her with a mischievous glint in his eyes. At that instant, the black-clad Thief broke into a series of vulgarities, stunning Li Yi.

“F*ck your father! F*ck your entire family!” The black-clad Thief who was lying on the ground constantly hurled curses at Li Yi.

“…”

‘This woman’s… pretty vicious…’

Li Yi gulped.

“F*ck your father! Would you even dare to tell me your name!?” The black-clad girl was pretty vicious when it came to cursing.

It was at that moment that Li Yi finally understood what ‘ there exists a sky beyond ours, and men beyond men ¹ ‘ meant. Compared to this aggressive lass before him, Queen Jiaojiao was an ideal polite girl…

A wave of gratitude washed over Li Yi’s heart as he observed the cursing black-clad Thief in front of him, which was, ‘Thank god Jiaojiao’s case isn’t that serious. Otherwise, I’ll beat some sense into her mouth…’