MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

[−98655445]

Qian’er put her full strength into one blow, taking more than a hundred million HP from Golden Hand and reducing what little health it had left to nothing.

Golden Hand held its arms around its chest and curled up on the ground. A dozen seconds later, it began to glow with a golden light.

“Everyone, stop!”

Players must never attack Golden Hand while it was enveloped in Resurrection Light, or else it would retaliate madly. Right now, all they could do was run and try to avoid its attacks as much as possible.

“Ahhh lalalala…”

“Brrr—”

Golden Hand glided to the target it had the most aggro with, Qian’er. Qian’er used Flash to escape, but Golden Hand followed her closely, its movements almost as fast as Flash. With that, it stuck to her until it finally managed to kill her.

“Ahhh lalalala…”

Golden Hand turned to its second-biggest target next, chasing after Jiaojiao.

The tower was very cramped, and Golden Hand moved extremely quickly, so the best way to avoid its attacks during this segment was to reduce one’s own aggro.

However, both Mislead and Shift Blame did not work on Golden Hand’s aggro, so their control of the aggro became the key to winning this battle.

Li Yi kept his aggro in third place, right behind Jiaojiao.

Even though Jiaojiao could use Drain, she did not last long either, falling instantly to Golden Hand’s attacks.

Golden Hand attacked with explosive power all at once. It would first stall around for a bit, but when it stopped moving, it would deal a ton of damage at once. This affected Jiaojiao directly, rendering her Mortal Strike ineffective.

After all, how could she heal if she died with one shot?

“Ahhh lalalala…”

A shadow glided out of Golden Hand and chased Li Yi…

“Water Clone!”

Li Yi’s body swayed, and another figure identical to him appeared out of nowhere, blocking Golden Hand.

The clone did not attack because Golden Hand was still shining. Li Yi was just using it to pull Golden Hand.

Golden Hand attacked Li Yi’s clone with a flurry of strikes, and when the damage was registered, there was a splash, water going everywhere, while the clone began to fade in color.

“Ahhh lalalala…”

The water exploded, and the clone fell to pieces.

By then, Li Yi had already retreated to a corner more than twenty meters away from Golden Hand.

“Whooosh—”

The gold-colored light around Golden Hand began to flicker, brighter at times and dimmer at others. It looked extremely unstable.

Li Yi drew his bow and aimed at Golden Hand.

“Stinger— Era Arrow!”

Just as the gold light around Golden Hand retreated back into its body, Li Yi grabbed the opportunity and used his strongest attack.

“Pfft!”

The Stinger Arrow hit Golden Hand in the chest, followed by a flash of golden light everywhere. With that, Golden Hand turned back into a figure made completely of golden light.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh —”

Several hundred damage figures appeared at once, and Golden Hand’s HP fell to zero in an instant.

“Ahhh lalalala…”

Golden Hand sang for one last time, and then the light around its body vanished. With its arms wrapped around its chest, it became a lifeless stone statue.

[Congratulations, you’ve passed the tenth floor of the Tower of Remorse!]

[There is already an existing record for the current floor. You did not make it into the World Rankings.]

There was a pleasant notification jingle, and golden light swirled around Li Yi’s body. They earned EXP every ten floors, so their victory over Golden Hand allowed him to level up again.

He was now at Level 199!

He was one level away from the maximum.

“Kekkekke, I never thought that you puny creatures could defeat the servant of god. Looks like I underestimated you guys.”

The red-robed spirit appeared again, and three black teleportation doors appeared behind it.

Just then, several members of the party ran toward the red-robed demon. Every ten levels, they would receive some EXP, and when the red-robed spirit appeared, players even stood a small chance of earning an additional reward if they just talked to it.

Li Yi barked a command, “Everyone, stay away from the red-robed warden. Resurrecting the others is our priority!”

The players who had run toward the red-robed spirit obediently ran back, and the Priests began resurrecting the dead.

It was only once every party member who had died in the previous floors had been revived that Li Yi stepped forth to speak to the red-robed spirit alone.

Players who had died during the previous floors could now talk to the red-robed spirit and earn a resurrection with a Resurrection Pearl.

Li Yi used up every Resurrection Pearl the party had collected and raised the number of survivors to twenty-one.

Only four party members remained dead.

“Do you wanna play a game? Kekkekkekke, this is a game of life and death. If you win, I’ll give you a little reward. If you lose, I’ll take away your soul.”

Li Yi nodded, agreeing to the game.

A six-faced die appeared before the red-robed spirit. The rules were simple: the one who rolled the bigger number won.

“Do you want to go first, or shall I?” the red-robed spirit asked Li Yi.

“I’ll do it!”

Li Yi stretched out his hand to grab the rolling die. He blew a breath at his palm and then tossed the die into the air…

“Rattle rattle…”

The die spun quickly and eventually stopped at 3.

“Crap, that number’s a little low.”

“This is depressing, we lost the prize.”

“More like embarrassing. Commander’s gonna die.”

“If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve rolled that. Commander, it’s fine if we lose, but if you’re dead, how could we possibly continue fighting?”

If the party member who threw the die lost, the red-robed spirit would take out their soul. The only way to resurrect then was to use a Resurrect Pearl ten floors from now.

“Kekkekkekke, you don’t seem to be very lucky. In that case… your soul’s mine.”

The red-robed spirit flicked its wrist and the die began to spin in mid-air.

“Rattle rattle…”

The die stopped, but the results gave the despairing party members a surprise. The red-robed spirit had somehow thrown a 2!

It was three points versus two. Li Yi had won!

“Hahahahaha, that’s bad*ss!

“Commander, you’re my hero.”

“You can get a prize without dying? That’s amazing!”

“That’s strong, super crazy strong. I came across this stage a few times now, and the highest I’ve seen was when a commander threw a 6 but still lost…”

“It’s my first time seeing someone win with three points.”

Li Yi’s victory meant that the players who had been sighing regretfully immediately changed their tack and started praising him instead.

Li Yi only smiled at that.

He had gone first and controlled how he threw that so he could get 3 points. Everything had gone according to Li Yi’s plan. To win the red-robed spirit, it was better to score an average number than the higher ones.

If he had gotten too high a number, even if he kept throwing 6, the red-robed spirit would also match him with a 6, as though on steroids. It could keep throwing 6s even after the player’s luck ran out, in which case the player would have lost without a doubt.

Only an average score would have a 50% chance of winning. Going first increased his chances by another 10%, so only a small part of Li Yi’s win was attributed to luck. The rest was all experience.

Of course, Li Yi’s experience here only worked once, namely when playing against the red-robed spirit on the tenth floor.

“Kekkekkekke, don’t get too full of yourself. This is just the beginning. A small stroke of luck doesn’t mean that everything will be smooth sailing for here on out…”

The red-robed spirit waved its hand and removed two of the teleportation door behind it, leaving only one left. With that, it vanished.

The final remaining teleportation door did not lead to the next floor but to a special reward stage.

Li Yi waved to the people behind him. “Alright, everyone, let’s go.”

The party members cheered and ran into the teleportation door.

The reward stage was not dangerous and prioritized rewarding players rather than killing them. Looking for treasures in the reward stage was probably the most satisfying part of the Tower of Remorse.

Li Yi and the others entered the reward stage, one after the other.

“F*ck me, no way…”

“The heck? What’s this?”

As soon as they entered the reward stage, many were stunned.

Before them was a complicated network of interlocking gears, utterly hypnotic to look at. This reward stage was actually a gear-type segment…

Unlike the regular gear stage, players would never die in this reward stage, even if they fell from a gear or was torn to pieces. At most, they would be forced out of the stage and unable to claim their reward.

The only problem was that unskilled players would probably be sent out before they even looted one treasure chest. That was why the party members were swearing.

“Wahahahaha, I’m showin’ off.”

Jiaojiao kept away her greatsword and waved her fist at Li Yi excitedly. She specialized in these special jumping-type stages.

“Clack clack clack clack clack…”

Above the gears, there was a single Silver Coin suspended every half a meter. Just like in Super Mario, anyone who wanted a coin would have to keep jumping…

“I give up.”

“I quit too. Getting crushed hurts.”

“I’ll just watch you guys do it.”

“Sigh, we f*cking came in here for nothing.”

The gear stage was just too ridiculous, so more than ten players gave up before they even started.

It did not matter even if they did give it a try because they were absolutely certain they could not do it. Although dying here did not really count as a death, their equipment durability would still decrease as with an actual death. Repair fees were by no means cheap.

Many players gave up on the spot, but quite a few refused to give in and rose to the occasion too. The first segment involved jumping over six consecutive gears in all directions.

“Pfft pfft—”

“Ahhh…”

Four people tried and they all ended the same way. Not a single one passed, and everyone earned a one-way ticket out of the reward stage.

“Lil Yi’zi, you wanna do it or shall I?” Jiaojiao winked at Li Yi.

Li Yi held his arm out for Jiaojiao. “Be my guest!”

Leaping forward was not Li Yi’s strongest suit. Even he was not absolutely confident he could pass such a ridiculous level.

Jiaojiao stood in front of the gears and observed them for a while before she suddenly jumped onto a gear and kept on jumping.

“Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle!”

As Jiaojiao leaped, she somehow managed to take every single Silver Coin suspended in midair. By the time she arrived safely on the other side, there was not a single coin left above the six gears.

It was a 100% perfect pass!

“Jiaojiao’s amazing…” Qian’er could only look on in envy at Jiaojiao’s jumping skills.

Li Yi chuckled. “Qianqian, why don’t you give it a try?”

Qian’er had a terrible sense of balance, so she basically failed every single jumping challenge she had ever tried.

Qian’er glared at Li Yi angrily. “Die!”

“Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle!”

In the distance, Jiaojiao had progressed even further with her long legs. She harvested every Silver Coin along the way, advancing at record speed…

…