MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Li Yi’s bulk purchase of fishing bait and his constant struggle to raise the penguins’ Affinity had all been an attempt to lure out this big fat penguin.

The moment he saw the big fat penguin coming onto the shore, he knew that his luck had finally taken a turn for the better.

Back in his past life, Li Yi had to feed the penguins for almost half a month in order to lure out the big fat penguin; whereas in this life, it had only taken him a couple of hours to achieve success.

A gold-colored name was emboldened on top of the fat penguin’s head, displaying, Penguin King.

The fat penguin lumbered forward and spat out a blue gemstone.

It was a Gem of Windstorms, a miscellaneous item that could be sold for 1,000 Gold Coins in the NPC shops.

The fat penguin’s gift was way more substantial than those of the Lil Penguins’. After all, its first gift was already a precious gemstone worth a thousand Gold Coins.

Li Yi did not accept the Gem of Windstorms. Instead, he continued fishing.

After giving Li Yi a few confused glances, it pushed the Gem of Windstorms to Li Yi’s feet with its beak.

Li Yi did not budge. He was wholly focused on his fishing, perplexing the fat penguin even further.

After ten or so minutes, and realizing that Li Yi was still fishing, the fat penguin finally opened its mouth. “Why won’t you accept the gemstone I gave you?”

Li Yi was not surprised at all by the fat penguin’s sudden ability to speak. After all, this was a necessary pre-requisite to trigger the Luo Lan Empire’s Hall of Fame Quest.

Li Yi replied, “I’m looking for the final survivor of the Luo Lan Empire…”

The keyword was ‘Luo Lan Empire’, and the object of reference was the fat penguin.

The fat penguin let out a terrified shout before diving back underwater.

Its fellow Lil Penguins were similarly terrified. One by one, they disappeared back underwater, and before long, there was not a single penguin left on the shore.

Li Yi chuckled and continued to fish.

99% of the quest’s prerequisites consisted of players visiting NPCs and receiving clues about the Luo Lan Empire’s final survivor. When players had finally assembled all the clues, they would be pointed towards the Northern Continent.

If players were to follow the normal quest process, for the final 1%, they would still need to visit plenty of NPCs, and from there, they would learn of the existence of the fat penguin. Then, they would need to fish for the penguins until they brought out the fat one.

Li Yi had cut out a great number of the prerequisites, as he had already completed this quest once in his past life. For this reason, he knew how to trigger and complete the quest.

The group of penguins did not leave. Not long after their escape, their little heads popped back out of the water and they sneakily peeked at Li Yi.

Another five minutes later, the fat penguin struggled his way back up. It lumbered towards Li Yi and sat down cross-legged opposite Li Yi in a human-like manner.

“It’s been way too long. I actually thought that the world had already forgotten me…”

The fat penguin gazed into the sky and let out a dejected sigh. It no longer looked like a penguin, instead, it acted more like a human.

The fat penguin cleared its throat, and stated, “My name’s Alenod…”

Ding!

The fat penguin’s name started to change from Penguin King to Alenod the Smart.

“Don’t look at me like that. You probably find me odd, but actually… when I turned into this form, I was even more surprised than you…”

“I’m actually a human, but those wretched demons used their shameless transformation spells to turn me into this form!” Alenod angrily flapped its tiny wings, but from the view of an outsider, this action gave the impression of acting cute instead of expressing anger…

“Before I morphed into this sorry form, I was called Alenod the Smart. Do you know why the demons retreated into Foreignland? Hahaha, it was all due to my schemes. Back then, I was with one of humanity’s four greatest heroes…”

Alenod ended his speech abruptly. He narrowed his eyes at Li Yi and asked, “Have you ever heard of the feats of humanity’s four great heroes?”

Li Yi shook his head.

Alenod angrily spat, “It’s only been a several thousand years and humanity has already forgotten the four great heroes responsible for driving the Demonic Tribe away?”

“How ungrateful, humanity’s four heroes sacrificed everything to protect the world, but to think that the humans have already forgotten their names…”

“How sad…”

Alenod was extremely agitated and was constantly lamenting about the four heroes.

Alenod glared at Li Yi and questioned, “Boy, why did you look for me? Where did you learn of the Luo Lan Empire?”

“A demon called Aragon told me the story of Luo Lan Empire.”

“A demon… named A…Aragon? Did you just say Aragon?”

Alenod leaped upwards, and he furiously flapped his little flippers. He seemed to be extremely moved.

Li Yi nodded.

Alenod bawled uncontrollably.

Sometime later, the fat penguin, who was bawling his eyes out earlier, was now emitting peals of laughter.

“Aragon’s still alive. He’s still alive… Yeah, it makes sense. How could humanity’s strongest hero die after all? Hahaha, if I survived, so how could he have died? Hahahahaha….”

After laughing for quite some time, Alenod began to tell Li Yi a forgotten tale from thousands of years ago.

Back when Augustus was still a teenager, there were four people known as Heroes within the Pantheon Continent.

The Paladin Cassius, the Archbishop Funa, the Martial Artist Wind Thunder, and the Blademaster Aragon.

Back when the Seven Demon Gods had disappeared after invading Mount Pantheon, the Demonic Tribe was at their weakest point. With Aragon leading humanity’s heroes, they launched an attack on the Demonic Tribe.

Under Aragon’s command, the Demonic Tribe suffered constant defeat. In the end, they were pushed back to a location now known as the Abyssal Rift. The Demonic Tribe was then forced to use their strongest defensive spell, Magical Net of Protection; and by doing so, they just barely survived.

While the Demonic Tribe was holing themselves up within the Magical Net of Protection, Aragon got to work. Since his leadership was essential for defeating the demons, Aragon was quickly elected the leader of all tribes, and soon after, he became the Lan Luo Empire’s first Emperor.

However, due to the presence of the Magical Net of Protection, the tribes of the Pantheon World were locked in a standstill with the Demonic Tribe for several years. It was not that Aragon did not want to vanquish the demons, but rather, the Magical Net of Protection proved to be too powerful. Even with the combined might of all four of humanity’s heroes, they were still unable to break it.

Then Alenod appeared. With Alenod’s help, the standstill between the demons and every other lifeform was finally broken.

After taking heed of Alenod’s suggestion and forcing the captured demons to transform him into a demon, Aragon managed to sneak into the Demonic Tribe’s headquarters and destroy the Magical Net of Protection.

Once Aragon succeeded and the net disappeared, Aragon’s army marched in unhindered. They launched an all-out assault and vanquished all the demons.

With the Demonic Tribe eradicated, every other lifeform celebrated the success. However, festivities were cut short when an enraging fact was leaked amongst the tribes.

Humanity’s hero, Aragon was, in fact, a demon!

The news spread like wildfire, and within a single night, everyone in the Pantheon Continent was made aware of this fact.

…