MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

Sitting by the Maelstrom City moat, fishing, Pink Girl was humming a tune, completely immersed in her own world.

Her trip to the Eastern Continent had failed. To her, her heartbreak had completely overshadowed her pain. After being spawn camped by Scumbag Wang and company for more than an entire day, she had been killed so much that her heart had completely shattered.

Dreams were beautiful, yet, reality was cruel. She had finally woken up from her dreams.

“Be careful of Dark Wing! Warning, Tier-One Warning!”

“Dark Wing at the Northwest Post, be careful! Be careful!”

“Splash!”

Looking at all the screaming and warnings in the Continent Channel, Pink Girl dropped her fishing rod into the water as she was startled.

Her immediate thought was to contact Windcloud Nine Sister. However, she just realized that Windcloud Nine Sister was not online. That name was greyed out in her friends list.

Pink Girl was still concerned. She decided to go offline and call Windcloud Nine Sister’s cellphone.

“Nine Sister, Nine Sister, don’t come online, Dark Wing is back!”

“Relax, I’m now on vacation. I won’t be coming on for at least seven more days. He won’t be able to kill me if I’m not online hehehe! Thanks anyway!”

Pink Girl felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off of her chest. Jumping into the water, she retrieved her fishing rod and got back to fishing.

…

Li Yi did not head straight to the Celestial Capital. He made numerous detours, carefully avoiding the NPC Guardposts one after another as he slowly flew towards his destination.

At this point, the majority of players still did not have flying mounts, but NPC Guardposts still could not be avoided. No matter if a player was moving in the air or on land, as long as an NPC soldier sees the player, they would definitely start attacking.

Li Yi’s Horned Griffin was merely a non-combat flying mount. All the NPC soldiers on patrol all had combat flying mounts with over 200% speed.

If they started their pursuit, it would escalate into a dangerous situation. This was a fact that Li Yi fully understood. If this were any other player, they would have been screwed.

Players could still avoid being detected by flying at high altitudes, but Pantheon had a Hurricane Zone setting in the game. The higher a player flies, the stronger the winds. If a player was riding on legendary mounts like dragons or phoenixes, even they could barely move through the winds. That feat was completely unthinkable for Li Yi’s puny Horned Griffin. Once he enters the Hurricane Zone, the mount would be forcefully dismissed.

Li Yi carefully navigated through the skies. He had originally planned on reaching the Celestial Capital in three hours, but he was met with an unexpected accident, delaying his plans even further.

A loud dragon’s roar came from above him. A giant red proto-dragon whelp haughtily passed by Li Yi. Hearing the roar, the Horned Griffin let out a startled growl as it started moving erratically, uncontrollably. It almost just flung its own master off…

“Lil’ Red, don’t scare them.”

A sweet mesmerizing voice rang out from the back of the red proto-dragon whelp. When Li Yi managed to make out who the dragon rider was, he was pleasantly surprised.

The dragon rider was a female. On the upper half of her body, she was wearing a tiny leopard-print shirt, barely covering her well-endowed chest. On the lower half of her body, she was wearing a leopard-print micro-skirt, short enough to show everything under the skirt in all its glory. A pair of fair and long legs were hanging in the air as she rode on the dragon, it was a bewitching sight to behold.

On her back, she was carrying a weird-looking full-black longbow with two skulls on both ends. The name on top of her head revealed her identity as Sun-Shooter • Yuria.

‘A rare NPC!’

Li Yi’s first reaction was to chase after her.

Yuria was an Overworld NPC. Under normal circumstances, her name would be yellow, signifying a neutral relationship. Hence, she would not attack anyone unprovoked.

Luckily, the red proto-dragon whelp had not started accelerating yet, allowing for Li Yi to catch up to Yuria.

“Young hero from the Eastern Continent, is there a reason you are following me?” Yuria asked while laughing.

The Horned Griffin’s speed was not high, it could barely keep up with the red proto-dragon whelp’s lowest speed. Even then, if this ‘race’ continued on, the Horned Griffin would eventually be left in the dust.

Li Yi immediately gave the purple INT ring dropped from Shoot Until Daybreak to Yuria.

As Yuria accepted the ring, her body suddenly trembled, “This… This is the ring that Andrew gave me!”

The red proto-dragon whelp immediately stopped. Still flapping its wings, it hovered in the air.

System Notification: [You presented Andrew’s Ring and received Yuria’s thanks. Her Affinity towards you has increased by 30000 points!]

As a victory fanfare played, the name above Yuria’s head also started to change. It changed from yellow to dark green, signifying that the Affinity level had been increased to Intimate.

“Young Hero, can you please tell me, where did you manage to find this ring?” Yuria looked extremely emotional.

Li Yi’s hypothesis was right, this purple INT ring was the key to initiating a new questline!

Maintaining a straight face, Li Yi was ecstatic. He shook his head as he did not know where Shoot Until Daybreak managed to find this ring. Nothing can change the fact that he had no idea where the ring came from, there was no point in lying. However, if he tried lying to an NPC and get exposed, their Affinity would decrease.

Yuria took a deep breath and said, “Sigh, it’s been 300 years. With your current age, how could you possibly know? Sorry, I was too excited.”

If Shoot Until Daybreak could see Li Yi and Yuria talking right now, he would most likely get an aneurysm out of rage. He had spent his days wandering around the three continents over and over, trying to find Yuria to give her the ring. Yet, it has been nearly an entire month with no red dragon in sight…

“Young hero, this ring is extremely important to me, can you… Can you give this ring to me?” Yuria tried asking.

“No.”

Li Yi’s answer surprised Yuria, but she started smiling.

“Of course, I will trade something of equal worth to you as compensation.”

“Deal!” Li Yi’s answer was just as immediate as his earlier answer.

Yuria was a very strange NPC. In Li Yi’s past life, he did not do any quests related to her, but he did read a lot of horror stories from the official forums of countless Archers falling into her “trap”. This NPC was someone who truly means whatever she says. When she said “give”, it actually meant “give” quite literally. If a player said accepted her request, she would just take the ring and leave, never offering any sign of thanks.

In other words, when interacting with her, one had to be a petty bastard in order not to be taken advantage of.

“Take your pick.”

Yuria showed an inventory panel to Li Yi. She was the same as Augustus, she was a merchant. No matter if the player had done her quest or not, her shop was still open to everyone.

From top to bottom, there were 30 items in total, completely overwhelming Li Yi.

The first item was a Beginner-level Voodoo Arrow (10 Silver per set). The second was the Beginner-level Voodoo Arrow Crafting Skill Guidebook (1 Gold). The more he looked the more stunned he got. She also sold the Intermediate-level Voodoo Arrow Crafting Skill Guidebook (10 Gold, Adoration Affinity required to purchase) and even a red proto-dragon whelp (100,000 Gold, Worship Affinity required to purchase).

‘What an absurd NPC merchant. Not only is she selling a lot of legendary Archer items, she even has the ultra-rare dragon-type combat flying mount up for sale…

‘100,000 Gold for a single dragon egg isn’t that expensive, but what kind of quest do I need to do to increase her Affinity to Worship?’

Li Yi helplessly pointed at the Voodoo Arrow and the Voodoo Arrow Crafting Guidebook as he asked, “Can I only pick these two types?”

Other than these two, everything else on the list was greyed out, indicating that they could not be purchased.

The price was not expensive, so naturally, Li Yi would not let this opportunity slip. He bought up 10,000 Voodoo Arrows and a Voodoo Arrow Crafting Guidebook.

“Of course not…” Yuria smiled, opening up the second page of her shop catalog.

It was another 30 items, but this time, there were no Affinity requirements on any of them, so everything could be purchased. Furthermore, out of these 30 items, all of them were rare skill tomes for Archers!

“Pick whichever two that you like.”

“Can I choose an extra one?”

“Sorry, you can only pick two at most.”

The list left Li Yi completely amazed. Starting from top to bottom, Li Yi carefully checked through every single one of the skill tome’s names.

In preparation for his duel with Arthur last time, Li Yi had put all his extra skill points into the Trap path, activating the seal and learning the Keep Going If Alive skill. Now, he only had one skill point left for him to use.

“Do you not have Overlord Arrow?” After looking through all 30 skills, he was mildly disappointed,

“Sorry, this shop does not sell Overlord Arrow.” Yuria’s customer service was unexpectedly nice.

Li Yi could not help it. He had no choice but to pick the two skill tomes most useful to him at the time, namely Beast Soul’s Possession and Explosion Trap.

These two skills were considered epic skills, they were extremely hard to come by under normal circumstances. Although he was a little bit sad that he did not get Overlord Arrow, for him to get these two skill tomes in exchange for just the purple ring, it was already a big haul.

With a clap of his hands, Li Yi learned Beast Soul’s Possession. He kept away Explosion Trap for now, saving it for when he had more skill points.

“Young Hero, thank you for your patronage.” Yuria started packing up her store. With one loud roar, the red proto-dragon whelp started flying off.

“Ehh, do you not have any continuation quests to issue?” Li Yi was a bit unsatisfied.

Yuria ignored him, not even bothering to look his way as the red proto-dragon whelp started accelerating. Soon, it completely disappeared into the distance…

“This quest must have a continuation, but how do I initiate it?”

After thinking for a long time, Li Yi still had no clue.

“Brother Dark Wing, are you here yet?” Suddenly, Autumn Love sent a message to him.

“I’ll be there soon, as I said, I’ll definitely be there by three hours!”

“Then hurry up, I’ve been waiting for forever.”

After Li Yi sent his reply, he started hurrying towards his destination.

“Roar——”

An earth-shattering dragon roar suddenly rang out ahead, followed by a loud boom, causing shockwaves to ripple through the air.

‘This is… the red proto-dragon whelp’s roar?’

Li Yi was slightly startled as he hurried towards the source of the sound.

‘The only NPC who rode the red proto-dragon whelp was Yuria, so why would it make this kind of sound? Did the purple ring’s continuation quest initiate by “waiting” for a little bit?

‘Damn, what the f*ck!’

In the middle of the sky, Yuria was wielding her black skeleton bow, coldly staring at the figure in black riding a flying skeleton dragon.

“Give me back my ring, you scum!” The figure in black roared with a hoarse voice. Her entire body was covered by her black outfit, but based on her voice, she was obviously a female.

Unlike Yuria’s initial Neutral Affinity with the players, this lady in black riding the skeleton flying dragon in front of them had a scarlet red name, signifying that she had a Hostile Affinity towards the players. Her name was the God Devourer • Akna!

This was another rare NPC. However, she was different from Yuria, she was a World Boss. An Epic Level-100 World Boss that players could kill for treasure!

“Quit dreaming!”

Yuria spat out coldly as she aimed her skeleton longbow at Akna.