MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The twelve Round Table Knights attacked continuously within the white light, and the energy they emanated rippled wave after wave into the surroundings. Even Arthur, who was responsible for their summoning and was currently hiding far away, was struggling to gain a footing under the strong shockwaves.

“Holy Light Shield! Hand of Salvation!”

Arthur did not notice, but above the area where the knights were furiously slashing, Fire Ice was riding Heavenly Warhorse and was providing backup…

After twelve seconds, all twelve Knights of the Round Table had vanished along with the bright light. Li Yi however, was lying on the floor, he had seemingly stopped breathing…

The Twelve Knights of the Round Table’s slashes would increase in strength according to the user’s equipment. However, even without any equipment on, their base damage was already terrifying. With a base damage of 2,000, even a boss with 100,000 HP would have perished under the skill, much less Li Yi who only had 10,000 HP.

The corner of Arthur’s mouth twitched as he laughed in glee.

Although he had used his precious bottle of Divine Spring Water, he had also defeated someone as strong as Dark Wing. It was a worthy trade in his opinion.

Arthur Flashed before Li Yi’s corpse, and after inspecting it thoroughly, he could not find any amazing equipment. Feeling disappointed, he still laughed coldly as he waved his orange scepter and said, “Archer God of the Eastern Continent, remember, you are not the only one who qualified for the closed beta!”

‘Remember, you are not the only one who qualified for the closed beta!’

When Li Yi had heard this statement, it was as if a landmine had gone off in his head!

“Hehe, with only ten players chosen for the closed beta, I would say that you were fortunate. Certainly, I was fortunate as well. Alas, you couldn’t have been a match for me, and if memory serves, you only reached Level 70 right?

“And what of you?” Li Yi retorted.

“I’m better than you, I reached Level 90…”

As Arthur spoke those words, his face abruptly turned pale as he tried to raise his scepter. However, Li Yi was a step ahead, he had cast a Frost Trap under Arthur’s feet, freezing Arthur in place.

Li Yi stood up and quickly ran behind him. Li Yi drew his bow with all his might, and he released the Powered-up Arrow when it was fully charged, and followed up with an Elimination Arrow!

[Critical Hit! −3521]

[Critical Hit! −4321]

Two attacks from the rear and both of them were Critical Hits! Arthur could not believe his eyes as he fell onto the ground, infuriated.

Why did Dark Wing not die?

King of Pantheon had recently made a change, whereby players in soul form could only observe but not speak. Arthur suddenly stopped talking the moment he thought of this point.

Arthur had already known the answer subconsciously. Back then, he thought Li Yi was already dead. Thus, he was utterly unprepared…

“Ding!”

A purple light dropped out from Arthur’s body. Li Yi quickly ran over to pick it up, smiling at what he saw.

+11 epic-level accessory, Orlando’s Charity!

“You must be wondering why I’m not dead huh?”

Kneeling beside Arthur’s corpse, he gave a cold laugh.

“Tell me, how did you survive? Return my accessory at once!” Arthur was unwilling to release his soul and was desperately screaming at Li Yi. He had already forgotten that the dead could not freely communicate with the living; he could hear Li Yi’s voice but the same could not be said for him.

“Hahahaha, I’ll leave it for you to think.”

As Li Yi laughed heartily, he gave a mischievous wink to Fire Ice who was hiding in the sky.

For him to survive the Round Table Knight’s slashes, it was all thanks to Fire Ice. Had she not been there, Li Yi would have certainly have died.

During the knight’s slashes, Li Yi had activated Violent Bear’s Protection, Wind Shield’s Protection and had even drunk a bottle of Divine Essence, but it was futile. Even Fire Ice’s Holy Light Shield was broken instantly. Fortunately, she had also cast an epic-level skill called Hand of Salvation.

[Level 1 Hand of Salvation: Instantly recover 50% of target’s HP and provide ten seconds of Invincibility. This skill cannot be dispelled. When successfully cast, the effectiveness of all the user’s healing spells would be decreased by 90%. The effect lasts for two hours.]

A Light Priest who had cast Hand of Salvation would basically be deadweight in an Instance Dungeon. Thus, this skill was basically taboo for Light Priests, unless a situation arises where its use was absolutely necessary.

When Li Yi was being chased, Fire Ice had been stealthily protecting him from the sky.

Li Yi was fortunate as it had not even been three days since Fire Ice had learned the skill.

Li Yi summoned Blue-horned Griffin and took to the skies. It was not that he did not want to camp Arthur’s corpse, as he did not even use Soul Bind when he killed Arthur. He had intended to camp him a couple more times. Alas, although they wanted to, the situation before them did not permit it.

There were at least tens of thousands of Southern Continent players rushing over to their location. For them to spawn camp Arthur now was basically suicide.

“Thanks, Ice.”

Fire Ice smiled faintly at Li Yi as she blushed.

When Arthur had finally respawned, Li Yi and Fire Ice were already long gone and the tens of thousands of Southern Continent players had arrived as well.

“Why have you come only now? Pigs! All of you are a bunch of dumb pigs!” Arthur berated the players from the Southern Continent right in their faces and gave them a good scolding. Orlando’s Charity had been lost and it drove him nuts.

“Scram! All of you scram!”

“Calm down Arthur, what just happened?” A red-haired warrior approached Arthur. He was King Arthur’s Dynasty’s chief violent warrior, Gai’er.

“Get away from me, you pig!”

Arthur pushed Gai’er away and glared at him with murderous red eyes.

When was the last time that Arthur, The Champion of the World Cyber Games, Champion of WCG’s Brawling Competition, The Most Famous Gamer, suffered such indignation?

“DARK—WING!” Arthur let out a vehement roar.

…

Li Yi could not hear Arthur’s roar. Naturally, he would not have returned even if he had heard it. The opponent had numbers. Sure, he could solo Arthur, but it was not possible to defeat so many.

That is unless he learned — Overlord Arrow!

As Li Yi was fiddling around with the epic-level accessory, Orlando’s Charity, a huge portion of the doubt in his heart had been resolved.

Back in his past life, Li Yi had always wondered, although Arthur had gotten a lot of money from his wealthy girlfriend, did he even come close to Brother Windcloud Nine’s wealth? After all the trouble Brother Windcloud Nine went through, he had only ended up as a Castellan, not even coming close to being the king’s aide…

What about gameplay mechanics then? There were at least ten God-tier Southern Continent players that were above Arthur in skill, but why did they not become king instead of Arthur?

Li Yi had never understood it in the past, he had always thought that Arthur had amazing skills, being able to learn the game faster than others. That is until he heard what Arthur said, instantly comprehending the situation.

There were indeed geniuses in this world, but no matter how brilliant they were, they still had to go through a learning phase. Arthur however, did not go through that phase, his performance was already stunning since the beginning. Like Li Yi, who was the Eastern Continent’s King of First Kills, Arthur was undoubtedly Southern Continent’s King of First Kills!

‘So he was a closed beta player, no wonder…’

Li Yi understood, he had finally figured it out.

The reason why the Light and Dark Instances have been claimed so quickly, was because the lucky players who had played the closed beta were just like him! They had already beaten the Instance Dungeons before!

If Arthur was not lying, it would mean that there were a total of ten players who had participated in the game’s closed beta. There was also the closed beta’s level qualifications to take note of. If Arthur ended at Level 90, then what about the others? Was there anyone who completed it at the maximum level?

Li Yi’s eyebrows furrowed.

Before King of Pantheon had officially launched, there were numerous rumors that had been spread. One of the rumors stated that the game had been in closed beta for ten years, but this was the only rumor that had never been verified. Another thing to note was that who qualified for the closed beta. This was a popular topic of discussion as players would try to guess it every day. However, there were only a few that knew the truth.

Indeed, Arthur was already a famous gaming expert before he had played King of Pantheon. It was only logical that Pantheon’s official forum would invite such experts to test out the closed beta, and by continuing this train of thought, did it mean that the other nine players who participated in the closed beta were of similar caliber to Arthur?

It was definitely possible!

Understanding yourself and the enemy was the key to winning hundreds of battles. Every time Li Yi lost, he would recall the battle’s progress in detail and learn from his mistakes, ensuring that he would not make the same mistake in the future.

Had it not been for Fire Ice, he would definitely have lost and the sole reason for his defeat would be underestimating his opponent…

Indeed, the attributes of Arthur’s equipment were revealed with a single glance, but Li Yi had neglected to check his inventory that held the rare and precious bottle of — Divine Spring Water!

The Divine Spring Water Potion could only be refined by a Grandmaster-level Apothecary Master and its failure rate was as high as 60%. The materials required were also scarce. It should be known that Li Yi had been training in apothecary since the server’s launch, which was a year ago to rush his apothecary level to Advanced. Although he was nearing the Master-level, he still had a ways to go before reaching the Grandmaster-level.

Where did Arthur obtain the Divine Spring Water Potion from? Did he refine it himself?

‘No way, definitely no way!”

Li Yi did not waste a single moment and had spent countless amounts of money to reach the Advanced-level. Even if Arthur was more knowledgeable than him, he would only be Master-level at most, it was impossible for him to reach Grandmaster-level.

Throughout the Pantheon Continent, there were only a few Grandmaster-level Apothercarists!

Thinking back on Arthur’s pained expression after drinking the Divine Spring Water, Li Yi finally understood. The potion must have been a reward for a certain rare quest, otherwise, he would not have looked like his father had died if he could refine this item by himself.

“Guild Master, are we still going to the dungeon?”

Fire Ice’s words snapped Li Yi back to reality.

“Yeah, why not? However, now’s not the time.”

“So where are we headed to then?”

“We’re Tramping!” ¹

“WHAT??” Fire Ice’s face flushed red.

“Guild Master, I…I….I…I…” Fire Ice was wriggling and her face was as red as an apple. Her voice got lower and lower, eventually becoming inaudible.

“Let’s get going. First, we’ll head to Dragonbone Waste’s teleportation point and I’ll explain in detail in Shattered Frost City. Erm, we won’t need Lil Man and the others for this, the both of us would suffice.”

“Guild Master…” whispered Fire Ice.

“What is it?”

“A-Are we doing it tonight? Fire Ice was so embarrassed that she dared not lift her face.