MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

This was just the fourth floor, but the gear stage was already ridiculously difficult. At the end of the three mini-stages, the only surviving players from the party were Li Yi and Jiaojiao.

Li Yi could get through because he had experience from his previous life. Jiaojiao could pass purely because of her natural talent.

Li Yi and Jiaojiao stood on the gear. They did not even have the time to rest anymore. All they could do was rely on their sharp senses to push forward.

The gear stage had a main route to clear the stage, but there were also many hidden treasure paths. However, the treasure was hidden behind much more difficult routes, and Li Yi knew that it would be tough for him, so he just pressed forward and gave up on all the treasure chests.

Jiaojiao was different, however. She used the same skills she had capitalized on to pass the trampoline dungeon back then, and she did not give up on any treasure chest she saw. She looted it all.

Half an hour later, Li Yi and Jiaojiao ran out of the factory at the same time, clearing the gear stage.

“The Death God seemed to have fallen asleep…”

The red-robed spirit appeared and opened a teleportation door to the fifth floor in front of them.

“The treasure chests only had gems, like rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. They don’t have any Attributes, though. I think they’re tools.”

Jiaojiao was telling Li Yi about the contents of the treasure chests she had looted.

“When we leave the tower, the gems can be traded for EXP. Tons of it.”

The fifth floor was a tundra map. It was a path covered with ice, and if players walked just a little faster down it, they would slip immediately.

The way to clear this stage was even more straightforward. They just had to traverse the icy path and find the door to the sixth floor.

“It’s so slippery, and we gotta jump too? Lil Yi’zi, I don’t think I can do this one…”

Jiaojiao walked on the icy path that was only one foot wide. She did not even dare to lift her foot and could only shuffle down the path.

Underneath the icy path, there was a forest of spiky icicles. A fall would spell certain death.

“Give it a try.”

Li Yi took a deep breath and stepped onto the icy path.

Just like Jiaojiao, he had barely taken a few steps forth before he became too scared to lift his foot.

It was just too slippery. The moment they lifted their foot, it felt as though they were going to lose their balance.

The two of them shuffled about a dozen steps forward and reached the end of the icy path. If they wanted to advance, they would have to jump to another icy path, and this one was one meter away.

“We gotta jump. You go first.”

Jiaojiao shuffled a few steps back.

“Yeah, yeah… If you say so.”

Li Yi stepped forth, but the icy path was just too narrow. It was only one meter wide, so when the two of them tried to trade places, tragedy struck in no time.

“Ah-aaaaah…”

Jiaojiao’s foot slipped, and as she was falling, she instinctively grabbed Li Yi’s arm. Seeing as Jiaojiao was falling, how could Li Yi possibly shake her off, only to survive alone?

He had no choice but to let her pull him as they fell off the icy path together.

[Dark Wing’s party has completed the fourth floor of the Tower of Remorse. Their record did not reach the World Rankings.]

“Taa-taa-taa-taa!”

A line of bright red words appeared in the Party Channel. Li Yi’s party had failed…

“Four floors…”

Li Yi hugged Jiaojiao tightly as they were skewered on the icicles. Although they had died a long time ago, this result was still pretty hard for them to swallow, so they did not release their souls.

“Waaa, Lil Yi’zi, why do we suck so bad?” Jiaojiao wailed angrily.

Players were only allowed to challenge the Tower of Remorse once every ten days. Now that Li Yi’s party had been completely wiped out, the dungeon was now in cooldown for them.

They could not attempt it anymore for now, unless they paid 200,000 Gold Coins to bribe the red-robed spirit.

“We were just too unlucky.”

Li Yi released his soul and resurrected in the temple outside the Temple of Remorse.

Jiaojiao resurrected beside him too, but unlike Li Yi, Jiaojiao’s body was surrounded by a halo of golden light. She had leveled up.

Li Yi rubbed Jiaojiao’s little head. “Those gems were useful, after all. That’s quite a bit of EXP.

“Pack up, we’re going home.”

Li Yi gave the Party Channel a shout and disbanded the party.

“The Continent’s Best Archer God…”

“Yikes. I thought I’d found an ally powerful enough to support us past a few more floors.”

“Hahaha, even a god-tiered player ain’t that different from us. I knew it, sometimes you gotta see these things with your own eyes. Rumors aren’t always true.”

They had only reached the fourth floor, and that was quite disappointing to many members.

That was what happened when one played with a casual party. If the dungeon went well for them, they would have praised Li Yi to high heavens. Failure, however, would lead to widespread dissatisfaction and possibly insults. In the worst-case scenario, players would launch straight into PK.

“A-add m-me, p-please…”

Of all the random players in Li Yi’s party, the Dwarf Priestess was the only one who bore no resentment. When Li Yi disbanded the party, she sent him a friend request.

Li Yi clicked [Accept] and added with a chuckle, “Added.”

“Tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-thank you…” The Dwarf Priestess was so excited that she could barely utter her thanks. The girl had some sharp gaming skills, but her mouth was clearly less agile. The stuttering was pretty serious.

After the party was disbanded, Li Yi sent the girls home, while he headed for the Defiant Continent with Teleport.

On the north-west side of the Defiant Continent, there was a vast desert. There was a players’ major city at the very center of the desert.

This city had not been there from the start. Instead, it had been built by tens of thousands of players over many years.

This was a major city that the players had built from scratch. That was why it was not affected by the national system, and existed completely independently.

Without sufficient funds, it was basically impossible to build a major city of one’s own. Even with the money, it still required a great deal of time and manpower to complete this project.

This major city had a very striking name, Savage City. It was practically loaded, with all sorts of supplies piling up in the Inventory. To put it bluntly, it was several times richer than the Celestial Capital’s Treasury that was currently under the Defiant Clan’s control.

“Welcome, the Continent’s Best Archer God.”

When Li Yi arrived at the Castellan’s residence, the fat and fair Chen Yang greeted him with a grin, his arms wrapped around two Orc women’s barrel-shaped waists.

This major city was funded by the leader of the Savage Tribe Guild, Milk Dipper Solitary. Li Yi had not participated in the construction process at all, but when the major city was completed, he pitched in as well. He had Fire Ice move 90% of the Celestial City Treasury’s contents over here, and then he sent the Savage Tribe to steal it back. With that, he could smuggle away all the supplies for himself…

Defiantly Tyrannical may be the King now, but for now, he was nothing but a puppet King. His Treasury was empty, and the country’s Prosperity Value kept dropping. If he could not create some results and soon, the National Level would fall as a penalty by the system.

‘I can give you the throne, but I won’t give you the supplies. The Iron Alliance hauled our butts to gather this over the years, so how could we let you take it all for free?’

The Iron Alliance had disbanded, and most of the elites had defected to the Ninth Continent. However, a select few elites, such as Chen Yang, Snickersnee, One Big Bun, and Shen Lang, had not defected. Instead, they joined the Savage Tribe.

Milk Dipper Solitary barely logged on even once in months these days, so the Savage City had been abandoned for a while now. One year ago, Li Yi had given the role of Castellan to Chen Yang.

There was not even a single NPC inside Savage City. Before Chen Yang officially took over, this had been an empty city.

A while ago, Chen Yang had been too busy with real-life matters, and so he did not log on for some time. Even when he did log on, he would only play for a short while. When Li Yi gave away the throne, Fatty had not been around. Now that Jiaojiao had abdicated, Fatty was back. He had finally settled his real-life problems, and now he could dedicate more time to the game.

“Sob! Why didn’t you save the throne for me? I wanna be King…”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?!”

The Iron Alliance had disbanded, while Confused Fox and Flower Underpants had run to the Ninth Continent. Chen Yang was devastated but also exasperated.

Thankfully, the Orc girls who liked him still liked him, and Brother Windcloud Nine had even sent Chen Yang a sincere invitation, promising him any position of Castellan or official as he liked.

Chen Yang had declined. He had finally settled his matters, and now he wanted to let loose and play? In that case, everyone had a dream, and his current dream was to take down Defiantly Tyrannical so he could claim the throne as his own.

Li Yi had not intended to get involved in the continent’s conflicts anymore, but Fatty was back, so how could he not help?

Disbanding the Iron Alliance and having those who did not want to defect join the Savage Tribe instead had all been Li Yi’s plan, but he had never considered jumping right back into the Throne Wars.

Savage City was an independent force, but it still had its fair share of restrictions. The Return City Stone still worked for them, but they could not use the other cities’ teleportation doors anymore. If they bought items from NPC shops, they had to pay an extra 5% in taxes.

At the same time, if Defiantly Tyrannical sent an army to raid this place, Savage City would become a players’ major city under national control as soon as the walls were breached.

Shen Lang investigated the enemy and found out that Defiantly Tyrannical was about to attack Savage City too. That was why Li Yi was here.

“That punk Defiantly Tyrannical found out that our men are here now. Brother Yi, think we can defend this city?”

“What do you think?”

Li Yi chatted with Fatty as they walked toward the Castellan’s residence.

“It’ll be tough. Defiantly Tyrannical has the power of the entire country. I’ll lose for sure. See, I’m not scared of the morons from the Three Major Guild Alliance, but I am scared of the King’s Order.”

“Then just take back the throne before they attack.”

“Take it back? How?” Fatty’s eyes widened. He spent every day plotting his Throne Wat, but the more he thought about it, the more dejected he became.

The Three Major Guild Alliance had several dozen million members, whereas the Savage Tribe had a few dozen thousand. The distance was overwhelming.

Li Yi chuckled. “Why so surprised? If I gave him the throne, I’d naturally have my means to get it back, and I’d do it without losing a cent, too.”

“Sweethearts, leave us for now.”

Chen Yang patted the two Orc girls’ round butts and asked them to leave.

“How, Brother Yi?”

“You really wanna be King?”

“Yeah, of course!”

Li Yi said confidently, “Okay, I’ll give you the throne in five days!”

…