MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Li Yi returned home, and though Xie Qin had requested him to stay for dinner, he could not bring himself to do so.

It was just too awkward…

Once he reached home, he prepared a bowl of instant noodles and after scrolling through a few webpages, he logged into the game.

He was once again enveloped in darkness, as he had appeared at the end of the ice cave.

Akna’s skeleton was still there and no harm had been done. He was still in the clear.

Waiting was the most arduous. Even grinding monsters non-stop was a better alternative than waiting. Li Yi sidled up to Akna, and after a while, he began to feel restless.

To pass the time, Li Yi opened up the Quest Pane and clicked on the ‘Traveler’s Tale’ quest.

Traveler’s Tale had already been released a few months ago, and Li Yi had long since accepted it. He never had the time to complete it, but since he was currently bored out of his mind, the quest suddenly came to his mind.

Completing Traveler’s Tale would yield decent rewards, and in Li Yi’s view, he could care less about the EXP. The things he valued most were the equipment and Special Tools.

Traveler’s Tale provided three types of rewards, namely experience, equipment, and tools. After completing the quest, players could pick one out of the three rewards.

The three question marks on the Quest Pane of Traveler’s Tale had turned grey long ago. Each question mark symbolized a player, whereas the gray color indicated that they were offline.

Li Yi refreshed the pane, and the 3 question marks instantly lit up.

Li Yi clicked a random question mark and sent a message. “Want to do the quest?”

“Bug off!” The question mark quickly replied.

Li Yi was annoyed…

The core gameplay of Traveler’s Tale was its interaction with other players. Players could select a question mark and send them a message to do the quest. If they agreed, both of them will be paired up, and they could proceed with the quest. If the other party declined, then the player would need to ask another question mark.

Li Yi chose another question mark and asked, “Want to do the quest?”

A long time later, the question mark replied, “???”

“Traveler’s Tale, want to do it?” Li Yi swallowed down his irritation and sent his reply.

“I’ve never done it before. I’ve got no clue.”

“It’s very simple…”

“I’m stupid, so I’m afraid that I can’t learn it.”

“Okay, I’ll look for someone else then.”

“Okay…”

The second question mark had also failed. Thus, Li Yi was forced to select the third one. Since Traveler’s Tale only allowed players to refresh the question marks once, if the third question mark declined, he would need to wait for a whole day to retry.

“Want to do it?”

“Yes!” The other party gave a quick reply.

“Nice!”

Li Yi sent over a ‘Link Quest’ request, and then, no response.

After ten or so minutes had gone by, Li Yi lost his patience. He messaged the question mark again, “So are we doing this or not?”

After what felt like half a day, the other party replied, “My husband’s back. I’m going to call it off, let’s try again on another day.”

“&*@&(!&(@#*$&(&!” Li Yi was at a loss for words. ‘It’s only a Traveler’s Quest, it’s no biggie. So why on earth are they giving so many excuses! ARGHH…’

Ding!

Just as Li Yi had started grieving, a question mark popped out from the Notification Pane. He opened it up, and it was actually a message from the second question mark. “I’ve just checked it out. The quest gives an amazing amount of experience for completing it, I want in.”

Li Yi dejectedly said, “Give it up if you don’t know how to do the quest. It’s troublesome.”

“It’s alright, I can learn. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely learn it properly,” said the other party enthusiastically.

“Fine.”

Li Yi sent over a ‘Link Quest’ request.

He was out of options. Out of the three question marks, the first one was nasty, the third one was afraid of her husband, and as such, he was left with the second one.

“Ding!”

[Traveler’s Tale has been activated…]

The bell of the System Notification rang out, and Li Yi was transported to a Mirror Map.

Before him was a magnificent mountain and sakura trees were scattered about. There was also a winding river surrounding the mountain range. Combined with the fragrance of flowers and the chirping of the birds, the view felt like paradise.

He was in a map that was solely reserved for Traveler’s Tale, and only both the players that had accepted the quest could enter it.

“Cr*p! I forgot to inform her about our rendezvous point. D*mn…” Li Yi suddenly thought.

Once he entered the exclusive map, Li Yi had transformed. He was no longer a human, and instead, he was a little frog that could not speak. All he could do was croak…

Li Yi attempted to send some messages to the question mark, but all he received was a System Notification, that told him that all acts of cheating are prohibited during the quest’s duration.

“Ribbit, Ribbit!”

Li Yi called out as he hopped forward. Li Yi had relied on the quest to level up in his past life. Due to this, he was well versed with the quest’s flow.

Li Yi hopped uphill and before long, he encountered a male NPC that was resting on the ground.

The male NPC’s name was ‘Flying Bird’. He carried a greatsword on his back, and though he wore no armor, it was evident that his class was Warrior.

“Little Frog, I’ve heard your croaking all day. Are you not tired?” Flying Bird directed the question to Li Yi.

“Scr*w you! Scr*w you! Scr*w you! Ribbit ribbit ribbit!” Li Yi cursed as he croaked, it was the quest’s procedure after all.

“I used to be an invincible Warrior, but all that changed when I took an arrow in the knee…”

Flying Bird sighed softly. He then extended his hand to pull up Li Yi and gave a hearty laugh. “Your journey must be tiresome. Let me assist you in your journey, no thank-yous are necessary.”

Flying Bird hurled Li Yi viciously, sending him into the far-off stream…

“Scr*w you! Scr*w you! Ribbbbbbiiiittttt….”

Splash! Li Yi had dropped into the stream.

In order to complete Traveler’s Tale, he would need to be thrown by Flying Bird into the small stream. Otherwise, the following events would not unfold no matter what he tried.

Li Yi swam with all his might within the stream, without a moment’s pause. He was swimming upstream, and after a dozen or so minutes, he finally surfaced his head.

There was a beautiful female White Elf called ‘Swimming Fish’ on a green rock at the riverbank. She positioned her slender legs in a Y-shape and splashed in the stream while singing.

Li Yi scooped up a mouthful of stream water and swam to Swimming Fish. Then he shot out a jet of water at her.

“Spuuurrrttt—”

The jet of water landed squarely on Swimming Fish’s face, giving her a shock. Soon after, she noticed Li Yi.

“What a cute little frog.”

Swimming Fish grabbed onto Li Yi and caressed him on her hand in a cat-toying manner.

‘What a pain in the *ss…”

Li Yi was silent for quite some time.

“Little frog, what do you think my soul mate looks like?”

“Ribbit! Ribbit! Ribbit!”

A dumb look hung on Swimming Fish’s face. “I want him to be big, strong, handsome, and I hope that he’s the prince of a royal family. Ah, I hope he becomes the future king…”

Li Yi did not bother to reply. Instead, he patiently waited.

“Sigh…”

Swimming Fish let out a sigh, but when she saw Li Yi, she immediately perked up.

“I am a mighty Wizard. I am very powerful, but my family refrains me from meeting any man, just so I could become the next successor.”

Swimming Fish placed Li Yi onto the ground and produced a magic wand in her hand. After wobbling her head and chanting some incantations, she pointed her wand onto Li Yi.

A stream of stars struck Li Yi, and with a poof, he was back in his human form.

He was big, strong, handsome, and was wearing a crown. He looked a lot like a prince of a royal family…

“Ribbit…” Li Yi heaved a long sigh. He had finally completed the first step.

Swimming Fish gave her orders to Li Yi. “You will henceforth be named…. Frog Prince!”

“Ribbit!”

Although Li Yi was now ‘Frog Prince’, he still could not speak. Every word he uttered was ‘ribbit ribbit’.

Li Yi’s current look was that of Swimming Fish’s ideal Frog Prince. He was nothing like his original look and it was all a part of Traveler’s Tale’s quest flow.

“My magic has its limits. Your transformation can at most last for only two hours. As such, you need to treasure this time, you hear?”

“Ribbit.” Li Yi nodded his head.

“Good boy,” praised Swimming Fish.

Li Yi strolled over to Swimming Fish. He grabbed onto her legs and tossed her into the stream.

He then turned heels and ran.

“Wretched Frog! I hate you!” Swimming Fish stood up from the stream, drenched, and scolded Li Yi.

Li Yi had no time to waste, as his transformation was limited. Furthermore, his partner in the quest was a newbie, and as such, he would fail the mission if he did not act fast.

Li Yi made a furious dash along the side of the stream until he saw a bunch of swans playing in the water.

Several hundred snow-white swans were swimming on the stream, leaving Li Yi cross-eyed.

The female player that comprised the second half of Traveler’s Tale was within the group of swans.

Li Yi opened his mouth and yelled, “Ribbit ribbit ribbit!!”

The swans were frightened. Some turned to fly away, and some swam further away. All of them were on the move, except for the single swan that stood rooted to the spot and stared idly at Li Yi.

“Found you.”

Li Yi ran forward, scooped up the dumbfounded swan, and turned around to return.

“Hon Honk Honk?” The swan within his hand let out a panicked cry.

“Ribbit Ribbit Ribbit!”

Li Yi gave the swan’s buttocks a few good slaps, eliciting more swan’s cries.

Within Traveler’s Tale, one of the players is always a male, and the other is always a female. This was the specialty of Traveler’s Tale, and it always consisted of a male and female. There was no way that two males or two females will end up together.

Due to this, Traveler’s Tale was known by another name, called, ‘Screwing up the relationship between male and females.’

During the quest’s duration, both parties are unable to communicate. This was one of the major difficulties within Traveler’s Tale, but to experienced players, it was still manageable.

Li Yi brought the swan to the final NPC. On top of the NPC’s head was the name, ‘Evil Sorcerer’, which was the main antagonist of the map.

Li Yi placed the swan onto the ground, and pointed towards Evil Sorcerer, beckoning her to go there.

“Honk honk?”

“Ribbit Ribbit!” Li Yi acted out his intentions as he spoke. After an arduous effort, he finally made the silly swan understand his intentions.

“Honk!” Silly Swan nodded its head vigorously and flapped its wings as she ran over to Evil Witch.

Silly Swan ran over to Evil Sorcerer and used her beak to viciously peck at the sorcerer. Li Yi watched with cold sweat, as he realized the dumb swan had misunderstood his intentions, thinking that he ordered her to attack…

“Curses! Princess Swimming Fish likes the Warrior, Flying Bird. I cannot allow this to happen. I must think of something to break them apart.”

Evil Sorcerer clenched his staff, and at that instant, Silly Swan came barreling over to peck him.

“Hmm, I’ll need to make Princess Swimming Fish misunderstand. Hahaha, this opportunity is just too perfect.”

Evil Sorcerer began his chant and pointed his staff at the dumb swan.

“Poof!”

Silly Swan had turned into a pristine White Elf beauty.