MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

“We won.”

Looking at the corpses riddled across the floor, Bai Xiaoya played with the flute in her hand, feeling extremely pleased.

Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut said, “Yes, but at a terrible cost.”

On the surface, it was true that the Invincible Continent had lost, but in truth, the Fluttering Snow Alliance paid a heavy toll for the battle as well. Casting two Forbidden Curses had cost them about 100 million Gold Coins, and the Iron Ballistae and catapults that had been destroyed cost quite the pretty penny too.

In this war, the Invincible Continent had lost their men, but the Fluttering Snow Alliance had lost a fortune…

Bai Xiaoya stopped spinning her flute and sighed softly, shaking her head helplessly.

…

The Invincible Continent’s National Channel was in an uproar. Countless people were cursing, pinning their failure entirely on the country’s authorities. Some people even demanded that Jiaojiao abdicate and hand over her position to another.

Jiaojiao grimaced. “Now I know what you meant.”

If they won, the people would take it for granted. If they lost, however, all the burden fell right on their shoulders.

“They never considered it may be because of their own abilities. If they win, they’ll think it’s cuz they’re all that, but if they lose, they’ll push the blame onto someone else. In other words, they’ll only ever accept victory, and they’ll never accept failure.”

“Should we still fight back?”

“Of course, but not now. Losing the occasional battle isn’t too bad. At the very least, it’ll show them just where they’re lacking. Wait and see, this matter isn’t over yet. It’ll last for at least another three to five days.”

As it turned out, Li Yi’s predictions were absolutely spot-on. The players who had been wiped out simply could not accept their defeat, and in no time at all, they banded together again and gathered at the Abyssal Canyon Crevice once more, preparing for the counterattack.

They thought that their earlier loss was due to their carelessness. They believed that if they just went in prepared, they would definitely be able to get back at the opponent. The Invincible Continent had several tens of millions of players, but while not every single one joined in the battle, it was still relatively easy for them to find a couple of players who could use Forbidden Curses. Soon enough, they had identified the players who could use Forbidden Curses, and then they set out to buy the materials as a group. Once everything was ready, the Invincible Continent Army set out for the Fluttering Snow Continent confidently.

This attack had nothing to do with the Iron Alliance. Instead, Defiantly Tyrannical was at the helm. He was always planning his revival, so how could he let this rare opportunity pass?

Outside the Fluttering Snow City, the two armies faced off yet again, but that was where the similarities ended. To everyone’s surprise, the Fluttering Snow Continent did not use Forbidden Curses again this time. Instead, they just let their troops in for the kill. Without the Gravitational Spell Circle, there were players on the ground and in the sky. The few Invincible Continent players who could use Forbidden Curses had their spell circles destroyed as soon as they were made.

Materials worth tens of millions were destroyed just like that. Wherever the Fluttering Snow Alliance went, they left bodies in their wake…

By the time Defiantly Tyrannical led this group of ‘warriors’ back home, the National Channel was in even more disarray. They still did not think it was their fault and continued to place the blame on the officials.

“We started a raid group, so why didn’t you support us?”

“F*ck, you just sat back and watched us fight. What are you officials for, anyway?”

“Officials who don’t do anything don’t deserve a place in office. The monarch is useless, so get off the throne already!”

The National Channel was filled with angry voices.

“You’ve gone mad, don’t f*cking drag others down with you! It was your battle, you decided on it yourselves and blatantly disobeyed orders! So you lost, you failed? Well, you deserved it! Don’t go and f*cking blame others for it, you’ve got sh*t for brains, but don’t think others stink the same!”

Confused Fox was gentle by nature, but he could not help but shout back on the National Channel this time.

“Confused Fox, what the f*ck can you do? And you call yourself an official? Well, I call bull! sh*t!”?

“Who the f*ck do you think you are? Our country’s the way it is because we got too many trash officials like you.”

As the first official to stand out, Confused Fox instantly became the target of public ire. All the fingers in the National Channel pointed straight at him, as though their counterattack failed simply because of Confused Fox’s ineptitude…

“They’re beyond reason…” Confused Fox was lost for words.

“Stay if y’all want, and scram if y’all please! So you’re saying that this country sucks? Go ahead and defect to the other side! Just run along to whatever county you like. Y’all are in such a mess after one f*cking defeat? People like you will stay trash, it doesn’t matter where you go.” Another official, Flower Underpants, finally blew his top…

No one liked to lose, and everyone had a temper. The ones who lost were venting their range with all sorts of profanities, but Flower Underpants and the rest had every right to lose their temper as well. During the first counter, they had died even more times than the ones swearing their heads off right now, and suffered even heavier losses. In fact, they were even more frustrated than the others.

“If you have to blame someone, blame yourselves for being weaker than the enemy. Don’t f*cking push all the blame onto someone else. You’re a player, but well, so am I! I’m playing for my own enjoyment, not to wipe your *sses. You’re blaming me? Hmph, I blame you too! You were the ones who disobeyed orders and didn’t listen to commands. You’re the reason why we’ve come to this. I only have three words for you: you deserve it!”

Li Yi began to vent too. He was no saint, he had a temper just like everyone else. This whole incident started from that one hunt, but what was that in the grander scale of things? At most, they should just counterattack on their own. It was all because these guys were too cocky, they kept assuming the enemies were harmless sheep. That was why they thought they would use this chance to gather up their forces and slaughter them.

Unfortunately, they completely underestimated the Fluttering Snow Alliance. It had been a while since the Fluttering Snow Alliance made their name in the game, too, and the delay in the revision of the level cap meant that the difference between players was shrinking. The Invincible Continent’s earlier advantage was all but gone, so such a reckless assault would only ever end in failure.

Li Yi tried to stop them before, but no one listened to him then, not even people like Jiaojiao and Confused Fox. Well, there they have it. They lost horribly, and then all the pests jumped out of the woodwork to pin the blame on the officials. Was it any wonder that he flew off the handle?

In the midst of such chaos, staying silent may divert the flames from oneself, but the way Li Yi saw it, he had to get this off his chest or it would just suffocate him forever.

Once Li Yi spoke out, the National Channel exploded even further, but some people did stop scolding and start reflecting. The truth of the matter was not complicated at all; in fact, it was nearly black and white. The only thing was that some people were still in denial.

In the end, the officials’ statement garnered more support than objections due to a very simple reason. The Iron Alliance was united as one, and the troublemakers were merely Defiantly Tyrannical and a few casuals. When it came to a battle of factions, the Iron Alliance had several times more members than their opponents, so there was no way they could lose.

Of course, as a result of this event, there were inevitably some defectors. Many players were deeply convinced that the country was hopeless and the officials were useless. In a fit of rage, they chose to defect.

Within a mere three days, there were more than fifty thousand defectors. Naturally, all of them headed toward the Fluttering Sow Continent.

It was not just the Invincible Continent, either. There were many defectors even from the Ninth Continent who believed that the future was brighter on the Fluttering Snow Continent. That was why they chose to leave the country.

Of course, the Fluttering Snow Alliance’s policies aided the move as well. Bai Xioaya had declared that any defector, no matter who, would have half of their defection costs sponsored by the Fluttering Snow Alliance.

Li Yi ignored this completely. To him, it was none of his business if they defected or not. It did not affect him at all.

He needed sworn brothers who would never abandon him, not fence-sitter who could not bear to lose even once. If they could defect after just one loss, what about in the future? Li Yi would much rather such unstable personalities leave.

The past few days, Confused Fox and the others had been constantly asking Li Yi when they were going to fight back.

“Soon enough.”

Li Yi’s reply was very simple.

…

In the Dark Paladin Dungeon, Unending Unmatched was fighting Tyrone the Bloodseeker all alone.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

Faced with Tyrone’s fearsome attacks, Unending Unmatched did not dodge or retreat, tanking them with his Shieldsword instead.

There was a magnificent flash of his blade, and a damage figure worth [−314366] appeared above Tyrone’s head.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

Unending Unmatched held his Shieldsword flat in front of him, blocking Tyrone’s attacks perfectly.

He was the only one in the Dark Paladin Dungeon, and this was his 276th time challenging Tyrone solo. All those attempts, one after the other, were all so he could defeat Tyrone alone.

“Swish-swish-swish—”

The gleam of that magnificent blade never stopped glowing, and even the powerful Bloodseeker Tyrone could not withstand Unending Unmatched’s flurry of slashes, stepping back despite himself.

Tyrone used Mortal Strike, but Unending Unmatched lifted his Shieldsword and blocked all the damage inflicted.

“Curse you, curse you, you insignificant ants with powers only in numbers!”

Tyrone grew furious, raising his Rune Greatsword up high and releasing countless clouds of black gas to summon the Undead Army.

Unending Unmatched was a right bundle of nerves. This was the key moment, and whether or not he could kill Tyrone depended solely on his ability to survive this next phase.

There was another gleam of light, and Unending Unmatched swung his Shieldsword. He swung left, right, and straight ahead, until he finally forced Tyrone into that narrow corner before he had the chance to summon all of his Undead.

They did it!

Tyrone’s body was in there now, and Unending Unmatched immediately pressed down on him. This way, no matter how many ghouls there were, no more than three could hit him at any time.

There were a few more flashes of light, and Tyrone moaned as the HP above his head dropped drastically.

The Shieldsword in his hands allowed Unending Unmatched to completely negate the Sap effect from Mortal Strike, which meant that Tyrone’s attacks were useless against him. On the other hand, his attacks were more than enough to kill Tyrone.

“Pfft-pfft-pfft-pfft…”

He slashed for several minutes before he finally took Tyrone’s HP down to zero.

“Cursed humans…”

“Ba-thunk!”

Tyrone lay on the floor.

“Ding!”

[Congratulations on defeating the Bloodseeker Paladin, Tyrone, and unlocking your Fury Bar!]

Mission complete!

Unending Unmatched heaved a long sigh of relief and caressed the Shieldsword, smiling.

…