MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

‘Why am I afraid of him? This is a non-combat zone. As long as I don’t agree to it, he can’t even touch me. What am I afraid of?’

As Windcloud Nine Sister recalled the effects of Protection Mode within sanctuary areas, her fear had faded in an instant.

During the Fishing Grand Prix, the official forums had a countless number of female players that expressed their dissatisfaction with the games system within sanctuary areas. All of them had similar complaints, which was revolved around being sexually harassed throughout the entirety of the Fishing Grand Prix. It was one thing to be groped, but there were also some players with wicked intents who started kicking female players in their groins too.

Due to the volume of protests by the female players, the developers had responded by updating their rules and implemented Protection Mode to circumvent this.

Protection Mode would take effect automatically. Unless the two parties were friends, they would not be able to hold any form of physical contact with one another, without prior mutual agreement. Of course, if it were intentional PKs outside sanctuary areas, physical attacks and spells would still work as usual, since bodily contact could not be prevented in those cases.

Word of mouth had claimed that the main reason the developers had rolled out Protection Mode so soon was largely thanks to Scumbag Wang’s “efforts”.

“Do you have a Traveler’s Backpack?” Windcloud Nine Sister steeled her nerves as she walked up to Li Yi.

“Traveler’s Backpack?”

Li Yi looked at Windcloud Nine Sister, prompting her to retreat a few steps in fear.

“Mmhmm, Traveler’s Backpack.”

Li Yi frowned.

The Traveler’s Backpack was definitely a casual’s player’s equipment. It did not have any level requirements and the backpack could hold various Casual Player Tools. Of course, all of these benefits were merely the icing on the cake, the most important benefit was that once the player collected three Traveler’s Items, they could change to the Traveler class to travel the entire world of Pantheon.

Traveler’s Backpack, Traveler’s Short Sword, and Traveler’s Felt Hat. These were the three tools needed to change to the Pure Lifestyle Class—Traveler.

After changing class to Traveler, the player would neither be able to use any of their original class skills nor gain experience from fighting monsters. They would still be able to be killed by monsters in the wild, but regardless of what camp a player was from, the player would always see a green name above the Travelers’ head, indicating a Friendly status. Any player who kills Travelers would then receive a Sin Value penalty ten times harsher than usual.

On the other hand, if a player wanted to revert their class after changing into a Traveler, they would have to wait 90 days in real time before being able to do so.

This was an extremely hefty price to pay!

The Casual Player Three-Piece Set was not dropped by any monsters, they needed to be crafted by the players themselves.

The Traveler’s Backpack was an Advanced-Level Tailoring creation, the Traveler’s Short Sword was an Advanced-Level Ironsmithing creation, and the Traveler’s Felt Hat was an Advanced-Level Leatherworking creation.

After pondering for a bit, Li Yi said, “I don’t have a Traveler’s Backpack, but are you fine with a Traveler’s Short Sword?”

“That’s fine, I’ll take any of the Traveler’s Three-Piece Set.” Windcloud Nine Sister hurriedly nodded.

“OK, wait for me a bit after you clear your stall.”

Li Yi casually sent her a friend request, causing Windcloud Nine Sister’s body to instantly tense up.

“Click accept, otherwise how am I going to find you when I get back? Don’t worry, I won’t try anything funny.”

“I’ll wait for you here… but I won’t add you as a friend.” Windcloud Nine Sister shook her head repeatedly. She had no choice, if she added him as a friend, their relationship would become Friendly, causing the Protection Mode to turn off.

“Alright, wait for me. I’ll take at most 2 hours, I’ll definitely be back.”

Li Yi waved the Return City Stone and his body disappeared.

Windcloud Nine Sister let out a long sigh before sending Pink Girl a message, “Pink, Pink, I saw Dark Wing again.”

Pink Girl replied in shock, “Are you OK?”

“I’m fine, I’m at the Sea Island’s Trading Center helping you sell your Potion Formula. Hehe, PK isn’t allowed here, so he can’t even touch me.”

“Whew, you gave me a fright.” Pink Girl breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh right, Dark Wing wants to trade a Traveler’s Short Sword for the Potion Formula, are we gonna trade it to him?”

“Yes, of course we should. But, hmm hmm, we can’t let him off so easily after everything he’s done. We need to band together and slaughter (TLN: In China and Southeast Asian countries, the Chinese merchants often use the word for “slaughter”, 宰, when talking about price negotiating. 宰价 which literally means “Slaughter Price” is used to describe negotiating a price that is more profitable to yourself.) him a bit.” Pink Girl said fiercely.

“Slaughter? How would we do that? I don’t know how.” Windcloud Nine Sister was a bit confused.

“Wait for me, I’ll be there in a bit!” Pink Girl replied immediately.

…

“That chick looks so familiar, where have I seen her before?”

Li Yi rode his Crimson Tiger King over to his guild’s Smelting House. On the way, he started thinking hard.

“Clank! Clank! Clank!”

“Clank! Clank! Clank!”

Ever since Snickersnee entered the Little Drunk Cats guild, the Smelting House was filled with the sound of the striking iron day in and day out. Walking into the Smelting House, Li Yi was shocked.

Dozens of topless burly players were wielding huge hammers, repeatedly striking on fine iron. This was their daily homework, one hundred strikes per day.

Snickersnee was one of them. The purple hammer he was wielding gave off a commanding aura, the impact of every strike sent shockwaves rippling through the room. Looking at a Master-Level Ironsmith in action, all the apprentices looked on with so much admiration that their eyes started gleaming.

When Snickersnee saw Li Yi, he let out a hearty laugh and walked over.

“G’day, Guild Master!”

The dozens of topless burly apprentices also roared out in unison when they saw Li Yi.

Li Yi laughed out loud, saying, “You guys can continue on with your work.”

Snickersnee was on a whole other level of obsessed. His perseverance made even Li Yi who had been reborn feel ashamed.

Li Yi’s Apothecarist was just a bit away from reaching Master-Level. However, this man Snickersnee standing in front of him had officially become a Master-Level Ironsmith three days ago. This degree of obsession and passion gave others a chill.

He struck on iron tens of thousands of times daily, regardless of weather. If he was not the strongest Lifestyle Class player, who was?

“Could you make me a Traveler’s Short Sword?”

Snickersnee paused momentarily before grinning, “I’ve learned it a long time ago.”

Li Yi smiled lightly as he set a pile of materials in front of him, “Make me two sets please.”

A Traveler’s Short Sword could only be crafted by an Advanced-Level Ironsmith. It was similar to how Potion Formulas work, if a player wanted to craft a Traveler’s Short Sword, they needed to first get their hands on a Traveler’s Short Sword Blueprint.

It was quite an unpopular item as it was rather difficult to make, but Li Yi was sure that if there were anyone that would know how to craft it, Snickersnee would be his man. He was the wielder of the Dwarf King’s Holy Forgery Hammer after all.

With the Dwarf King’s Holy Forgery Hammer, the wielder could initiate a series of Epic-Level Class Quests. In this series of quests, the player would get dozens of various blueprints, and one of them was the Traveler’s Short Sword Blueprint.

“That’s too easy.”

Snickersnee walked up to the anvil with the materials and raised the Dwarf King’s Holy Forgery Hammer before striking down with loud clanks.

After 5 minutes, two brand new Traveler’s Short Swords appeared in Snickersnee’s hands. Their qualities were both gold!

Travelers could not use any class skills, the only weapon they could equip was the Traveler’s Short Sword. Of course, the quality had nothing to do with the changing of class, but it does help out the player more in emergencies.

Li Yi received the Traveler’s Short Swords and checked its attributes. He suddenly gasped in shock.

[Traveler’s Short Sword(Gold quality)]

[Damage: 50-100]

[Special Effect: Increases movement speed by 30%.]

[Special Effect: Reduces damage taken by 10%.]

…

[Traveler’s Short Sword(Gold quality)]

[Damage: 55-120]

[Special Effect: Increases movement speed by 5%.]

[Special Effect: Reduces damage taken by 20%.]

[Special Skill: Transforms the target into a sheep causing it to wander around incapacitated for 20 seconds. This effect is an equivalent to a Wizard’s Polymorph spell. The effect is canceled if the target receives damage. Special Skill cooldown: 20 minutes.]

…

“Legendary item!” Li Yi gave out a sincere praise

“What Legendary item? Lemme see.” One Big Bun walked over and looked at the two short swords Li Yi was holding, his eyes sparkling.

Li Yi immediately put away the Short Swords and thanked Snickersnee, before hastily rushing off.

One Big Bun scratched his head in confusion, “Why does Guild Master always run off whenever he sees me?”

Crackle, bam! Bam!

“Oh my f*ck, it hit my foot…”

As One Big Bun walked in, the Smelting Room instantly went into chaos. All the apprentices kept away all the equipment they had crafted at their fastest speeds. In the midst of this frenzy, a lot of them accidentally injured themselves. Luckily, this was just a game. If it was real life, at least half of them would have needed to be hospitalized.

“What’s going on here?” One Big Bun helplessly shrugged, as he affectionally put his arm over Snickersnee’s shoulders, “Yo Snicker, did you manage to make any Legendary items lately?”

Snickersnee’s head shook mechanically, his Dwarf King’s Holy Forgery Hammer had already been hidden the first moment One Big Bun walked in.

“Recently, my Decomposition Skill went up again. I learned that not only can I decompose equipment, I can also decompose certain iron objects.”

One Big Bun stretched his arms out as he walked up to the anvil. With a loud roar, a red light glowed from both his hands. The red light danced around the anvil for a few moments then the sturdy and heavy anvil instantly dissolved, turning into a bunch of Iron Ore materials scattered on the floor.

Snickersnee was completely stunned.

Crackle crackle… Bing Bang! Bang!

All of the apprentices in the Smelting House, including their master Snickersnee, made their move upon seeing what had transpired. Grabbing a heavy anvil each in their hands, they made their escape from the Smelting House in a frenzy…

…

When Li Yi returned to the Sea Island’s Trading Center, without even checking his own signboard, he went straight to make the trade with Windcloud Nine Sister.

“Sorry, we’ll only trade with you for a Traveler’s Short Sword and an additional 5,000,000 Gold Coins.”

Pink Girl who was wearing all pink stood in front of the signboard and said to Li Yi with a cheeky grin. On the other hand, Windcloud Nine Sister was hiding behind her pulling on her sleeve, looking like a frightened little deer.

Just as Li Yi wanted to pull out the Traveler’s Short Swords, he suddenly said in disdain as he heard Pink Girl’s words, “Isn’t that a bit unethical?”

Pink Girl spat out in reply, “I’m just a little girl, not some manly man. I’ll bow down to money, not ethics.”

Li Yi turned around and started walking away. An Advanced-Level Fury Potion Formula was no doubt extremely rare. A trade with a Traveler’s Short Sword was a fair trade, but to add another 5,000,000 to that deal was outright daylight robbery.

When the asking price was that high, Li Yi had completely lost interest.

“Wait wait, hey, hey, don’t go. We can still negotiate!” Seeing that her extortion towards Li Yi wasn’t fruitful and that he had begun to leave, Pink Girl and Windcloud Nine Sister got anxious.

“Negotiate? I already had a deal with your friend over there. Since the previous deal is out of the picture, sorry, I don’t have time to negotiate with you people.”

“2,500,000!” Pink Girl shouted.

Li Yi turned back once more without a reply.

“250,000!” Pink Girl steeled her resolve, outright taking out a zero.

“25 Gold Coins!” Windcloud Nine Sister also got anxious.

“We don’t need the money anymore!” Seeing Li Yi walking further and further away, the two girls shouted in unison.

“Now, was that so hard?” Li Yi turned back, facepalming in his mind.

It was just a trade for a single piece of equipment, but it somehow turned into something akin to the likes of a bargain session at a shady clothing store…

Pink Girl pouted, “Do you know how hard was it for me to get my hands on this formula? I only got it after spending three whole months doing daily quests. What a stingy guy you are.”

Li Yi ignored her as he clicked on the Trading Pane and placed the Traveler’s Short Sword in it. When Windcloud Nne Sister saw it, she also placed in the Fury Potion Formula. After the two confirmed, the trade was successfully completed.

“Le… Le… Le… Legen… Le…” Windcloud Nine Sister was frantically shaking Pink Girl, stuttering on the first syllable of her words for a long time.

“Legendary Item!” Pink Girl looked at the attributes of the Traveler’s Short Sword before letting out a shout of shock. Hurriedly covering her mouth, she nervously looked over at Li Yi. Her look saying that she was afraid that Li Yi would regret his decision.

“That’s not a Legendary item, THIS is a Legendary Item.”

Li Yi said as he pulled out the Traveler’s Short Sword with the Special Skill. Holding it out, he displayed its attributes to the two girls.