MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

[−9854]

The combo ended and a damage number close to 10,000 floated from the top of Li Yi’s head, nearly killing him.

Chain Arrow! Eliminate!

Taking advantage of the three seconds where Bloody Rose was immobilized, Li Yi launched his attack.

“Undying Body! Darkness Immunity Curse! Blood Immunity Curse!”

Jiaojiao played her part as well. She activated her 15 seconds of invincibility and her two curses, tanking Bloody Rose’s attacks.

Bloody Rose had more than 1,000,000HP in total and Jiaojiao could not break through her defense, so all Jiaojiao could do was distract her.

Li Yi’s three arrows took almost 10,000HP from her, and she was on the verge of death. However, she reacted quickly and drank an Advanced HP Potion, bringing her health back up again.

“Dark Binding!”

Seeing that Bloody Rose was trying to make a run for it, Jiaojiao used her crowd control skill. Bloody Rose used Dark Devour to dispel the effect and was about to run when Li Yi threw his Punishment Windstorm at her and stopped her in her tracks again.

Three arrows later, Bloody Rose fell to the ground, vengefully…

“Ding!”

Two white humanoid dolks fell from her body.

“Substitute Dolls!”

Li Yi’s eyes lit up and he picked them up.

The Substitute Dolls functioned like the Light and Dark Talismans. Upon using them, the player could resurrect on the spot with full health without suffering any consequences. Unlike the Light and Dark Talismans, however, the Substitute Dolls were not locked items, so there was a chance of dropping them when the player character died. If the player treated these as lifesavers, they would turn around to bite the player in the butt at the most crucial moments.

For example, Bloody Rose was feeling the pinch now. If the Substitute Dolls had not dropped, she could still resurrect, but with this, she had no choice but to stay on the ground obediently.

“We’ll take one each, they’re couple dolls.”

Li Yi gave Jiaojiao one Substitute Doll.

“This is a good thing to have, so I’ll take it.” Jiaojiao did not hesitate, accepting the doll and keeping it away.

That was the Cyclone Combo 16, which just went to show that Bloody Rose lived up to her reputation.

Looking at Bloody Rose’s body, Li Yi heaved a secret sigh of relief. If it were not for Jiaojiao’s Death’s Grasp, he would have died without a question.

She had planned to trick them by first resurrecting weakened and then resurrecting with full health using the Substitute Dolls. What a crafty woman indeed!

Bloody Rose’s corpse vanished from the ground. She may seem cuckoo when she talked, but she was incomparably canny. As soon as she knew she would not be able to win this time, she would rather lose some level and resurrect in the temple instead of staying here and getting tortured.

He could not locate her even with Divine Mirror, which meant that Bloody Rose had logged off.

Li Yi traded a Deep-red Seahorse to Jiaojiao, and the two of them went underwater together.

Once again, Li Yi went into Tidal Throne and killed the Vile King, the final boss. This time, however, he was not lucky. Although he received two pieces of gold equipment, the purple-colored helmet was still nowhere to be seen.

Its drop rates were way too low.

They left the dungeon, and Li Yi continued to help Jiaojiao grind levels.

Three hours went by, and Jiaojiao had long since made up for the EXP she had lost. To Li Yi’s surprise, though, she just did not level up.

“Jiaojiao, how much of your 2.5x EXP buff do you still have for this week?”

“About 5 hours. I guess.”

“Go and claim it.”

“I had a 2.5x EXP buff now, so I don’t hafta.”

“That’s not right. At the rate we’re killing monsters now, you should’ve levelled up a long time ago.”

“I… I… I…” Suddenly, Jiaojiao’as face turned red, and she looked at Li Yi slightly awkwardly.

“What’s the matter?”

“I…”

“Just spit it out. If you keep stammering like this, would you still be Jiaojiao?”

“Bloody Rose took the EXP Pearl.”

Li Yi was stunned speechless…

Jiaojiao turned away, too afraid to look at him.

The EXP Pearl was something that Li Yi had lent to her to help her level up. Now that she had dropped it to someone else, she felt guilty inside…

“Sorry, Perverted Wing. I lost it the first time she killed me, and that’s why I got so angry that I kept resurrecting and trying to fight her.”

“It’s fine. If you dropped it, just let it be.” Li Yi shook his head.

“Aren’t you angry?”

“Why should I be angry?”

It was perfectly normal to lose equipment when getting PK’ed in the wild. Li Yi had gotten over these matters even in his previous life…

Without the EXP Pearl, Jiaojiao’s leveling speed took an obvious dive. It did not matter if one monsterling gave 10% less EXP than usual, but if there was a total of several thousand monsters, she would lose out on an astronomical amount of EXP.

“Come to my house for lunch, treat it as my compensation…” Jiaojiao bit her fingertip, probably because she wanted to make up for the loss.

“Instead of that, how about tonight…”

Li Yi was over the moon. Just as he was about to say, “You can make it up to me tonight, instead,” when a sound came from his house door.

“Knock! Knock! Knock!”

The knocking was very loud. Li Yi took off his Glasses-Type Controller and stared for a moment before he yelled, “The door’s not locked, come on in.”

Aside from Jiapjiao, Li Yi’s house rarely saw guests. In fact, he did not have a single guest who would knock the door vehemently rather than press the bell.

‘Who could this be? Could it be they’re asking for my water bill?

‘That can’t be right, I paid my water bill for almost ten years in advance last time…’

The door was shoved open and four young men who looked like hooligans entered, nodding politely at Li Yi.

“Who are you looking for?” Li Yi stood up and frowned.

The four young men had mean expressins and dressed strangely, their bodies covered with dragon and phoenix tattoos. They clearly were not a good crowd. Li Yi’s eyes darted around as he was prepared to lunge for a gun.

The blonde kid in the middle nodded at Li Yi politely and introduced himself. “Brother Yi, I’m Lil Meng, one of Brother Yang’s followers.”

“Lil Meng?”

Li Yi knew that Chen Yang had a bunch of underlings, but he did not really know their names.

“Bring ’em in!”

Before Li Yi could make head or tails of this, Lil Meng made a gesture at the door and two young men dragged in a fat middle-aged man whose face had been beaten black and blue.

“Not my face, not my face! I’m begging you, please don’t hit my face! I’ve a meeting tomorrow, so please, brothers…”

The middle-aged fatty’s voice was very familiar, but Li Yi still could not place him.

Lil Meng pointed at the middle-aged fatty. “Brother Yi, this fatty hired us to teach you a lesson, so we brought him here.”

“Teach me a lesson?”

Li Yi paused and then approached the middle-aged fatty, staring at him for a long time before he finally recognized him.

“Li Zhongtian!”

“Y-y-y-yes, please spare me, Brother Yi.” Li Zhongtian’s face was completely swollen, and he begged Li Yi for mercy. There was no trace of his cockiness from that day.

Lil Meng pointed at Li Zhongtian and said, “This fatty found us through Old Scar and offered us 20,000 bucks to break someone’s leg. At first we didn’t know who he meant, but then he led us here and I asked. That’s when we found out that you, Brother Yi, was the person whose leg he wanted to break.”

One of Lil Meng’s underlings smacked Li Zhongtian’s mouth forcefully.

“Now this here’s a mean mothaf*cka, he told us to really put our backs into the beating. Said we just had to keep you within an inch of your life, and if you refused to submit, he even said we could kill you and he’d clean up the mess.”

“That sunnovab*tch, how dare he try to hurt Brother Yang’s big bro. He has a death wish.”

Lil Meng’s five lackeys took turns landing in blows, beating Li Zhongtian until he wailed out.

“Don’t beat him yet, lemme ask him some questions.” Li Yi waved his hand and finally stopped Lil Meng’s underlings.

Looking into Li Zhongtian’s fat face, Li Yi instantly understood what was happening.

This guy was probably still hung up over what happened last time, so he went looking for some hooligans to prank Li Yi. What he did not know was that every gangster in the area was Chen Yang’s underling…

Li Zhongtian was openly crying. “Brother Yi, I was too shortsighted to see the truth. This whole thing is my fault, please forgive me just this once. I’ll never do this again, I swear.”

Li Yi guessed right. After Li Zhongtian went home that day, he had been constantly plotting his revenge. In his mind, only the Lan family was worthy of his respect. He could not be bothered with Li Yi at all.

As soon as he got back to the police station, Li Zhongtian was told that he had been suspended by the higher-ups, on the direct orders of the City Bureau Chief, Zhang Feng.

Zhang Feng was extremely frustrated, and his mind immediately went to Li Yi. He quickly called Deputy Section Chief Lan for help, and Deputy Section Chief Lan told him that as long as the marriage plans went through, it was only a matter of time before his position was restored and he was transferred to the county department.

Li Zhongtian felt a boost of confidence, and he immediately started making the preparations. Calling on his subordinates was out of the question now, so he looked for the gangsters. To his frustration, however, the Nanning gangsters ignored him. No one came no matter how much money he offered.

That was why he had no other choice but to find the local hooligans like Lil Meng through a person called Old Scar.

If he had known that Lil Meng’s boss was best friends with the person whose leg he wanted to break, he would not have tried this in a million years.

At first, he had it all planned out. Once Lil Meng and the others broke Li Yi’s leg, he would show up and threaten Li Yi, making Li Yi break up with Jiaojiao on his own accord. What Li Zhongtian did not expect was for Lil Meng to turn on him as soon as the latter heard that their target was Li Yi. They beat Li Zhongtian up just downstairs from Li Yi’s house.

“You could’ve gone for f*cking anybody else, but you just had to ask us to beat up our boss big bro! If this gets into our boss’ ears, how could I still live it down in this area?”

Lil Meng and the others had punched Li Zhongtian all the way here to Li Yi’s house to apologize.

“Cut off a leg or poke half a dozen holes in him? Brother Yi, just say the word and consider it done.

“Fsst!”

Lil Meng whisked out a dagger and Li Zhongtian’s legs began to shake.

It was only when Li Yi shook his head that Lil Meng put down the dagger.

“Brother Yi, you wouldn’t hurt me, right? I’m Jiaojiao’s father, so for her sake, you can’t beat me up.”

“Who said I was gonna beat you up?”

Li Yi was so angry that he laughed. He wanted to give Jiaojiao a call at first, but he thought twice of it and never made the call.

“I don’t care who you are, but you better remember this. Never bother me, Jiaojiao, or her mother again, or else there won’t be a next time.”

“I promise, I promise…” Li Zhongtian just kept nodding.

Li Yi was exasperated. “Look at you. You probably don’t mean a word you say.

“Last time, you mentioned that Deputy Section Chief Lan was your backup, right?”

“What? I don’t have any backup, I’ve even been suspended.” Li Zhongtian’s smile was very forced.

Li Yi gave him a long look through narrowed eyes and shook his head in the end. Waving his hand, he said, “Go, but remember what I said. There won’t be a next time.”

“Thankj you, Brother Yi…”

Li Zhongtian was overjoyed. He had thrown away every lastd ounce of his dignity in order to leave this place as soon as he could. That much was obvious from the way he called Li Yi Brother.

Li Zhongtian hobbled away, and Li Yi beckoned Lil Meng and the others over for a talk. They chatted for about a dozen minutes before Li Yi let them go.

These hooligans did not know their limits. If he had just let them leave, they would definitely lay it hard on Li Zhongtian the next time they met him on the streets.

No matter what, Li Zhongtian was still Jiaojiao’s father, so Li Yi gave him another chance.

Li Yi took out that name card and called the number on it.

“Hello, is this Chief Zhang Feng? I’m Li Yi…”

…

When Li Zhongtian returned to Nanning overnight, he received the news as soon as he reached home. On Zhang Feng’s direct orders, his position had been restored!