MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

As the online game for the era, King of Pantheon had long since reached a stage where one did not need to use their limbs to play the game. It could be played with nothing more than one’s brain.

There were specially-abled players in reality who were no different from other players in the game. The ones without arms had arms, the ones without legs had legs, and their limbs felt just like they would in real life.

(Let me just digress a little here and call BS on those online game novels where the main character gains all sorts of superpowers and attributes as soon as they enter the game for some crazy reason or another. I seriously hate those. I mean, OP powers are fine, but as an online game, no matter how you look at it, everyone should at least start on equal footing, right?)

It did not matter what one’s real body was like. Once they entered the Pantheon world, everyone began at the same starting point. That was why the number of Pantheon players never dropped and increased consistently instead.

Almost nobody knew that the generous and loyal man among man, Brother Windcloud Nine, was actually disabled in real life.

He did not lack a limb; it was his brain that was his challenge. Three years ago, just as he walked out of the school gate on his way to marry Sister Windcloud Nine, a car accident left him brain-dead, never again to wake…

“That day, I had planned to bring Sister Nine out to buy wedding rings. Just as I stepped out of the door ¹ , however, a blue racecar came speeding toward us. I pushed Sister Nine away and took the full brunt of the hit, losing consciousness…

“While I was unconscious, that silly girl stayed by my side. Two years ago, when Pantheon began its open beta, Sister Nine borrowed money from Pink Girl to buy a Nourishment Chamber and a headset controller. Don’t look at me like that. I was unconscious then, and all the money my family gave me went into keeping me alive. At the time, I truly… didn’t have a dollar to my name.

“Sister Nine kept me in the Nourishment Chamber for a month, and a miracle happened. My brainwaves connected to the game, and I woke up in the world of the game. Back then, Sister Nine hugged me and cried her eyes out.

“I didn’t use to be called Brother Windcloud Nine. I changed my name with Sister Nine after receiving money from my family.

“I woke up in the game, and my mind was perfectly clear. Through the game, I received enough money from my family to last a lifetime. But I’ll never wake up again, so what’s the point of all that money? I gave half of it to Sister Nine, and put the rest of it into the game…

“At first, I’d thought that even I can’t wake up in real life, dating in the game would be pretty nice as well. I was pretty happy about it too. But after a while, I started to get a little frustrated. After all, a game is still just a game. No matter how real it is, it’s still not reality. I keep thinking, if we continue on like this, would I be wasting Sister Nine’s life?

“I scolded her, yelled her, insulted her, and how’d that end up? Sigh, you guys saw it. The girl’s just naturally patient. No matter what you do to her, she just never gets angry.

“I hesitated for a bit, but in the end I gave in. I thought, this isn’t too bad, at least we can see each other every day. But then the unexpected struck, sigh. About half a year ago, I suddenly fell unconscious again, as in my brain ceased all activity. After that, I was away from the game for about a dozen days, not because I didn’t want to log in, but because I couldn’t. It was cuz my brain had completely stopped working, and I was completely unconscious…

“When I woke up in-game again, Sister Nine hugged me and cried for a long time again. At first, she refused to tell me, but when I threatened that I’d never log on again, she finally told me that the problem lay with my body in real life. Its condition had worsened, and the doctor said that I could only last two more years at the most before my brain… dies completely!

“Sister Nine is a good girl, and I’ve exhausted her over this past period of time. I don’t know if I’ll be able to log on again next time, so I have a favor to ask of you guys… take care of her for me!”

Just as Brother Windcloud Nine was telling Li Yi the truth, Sister Windcloud Nine logged on. She had been standing guard by Brother Windcloud Nine’s bedside lately, and the moment she saw him log on, she instantly followed suit.

Brother Windcloud Nine laughed heartily. “I’ll go look for Sister Nine now, here’s to hoping we’ll meet again.

“The scroll is useless to me now, you can have it back.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s useful or not. Just keep it, I never take something I’ve given away.”

“Haha, in that case, thanks.”

Brother Windcloud Nine left, and not long later, 30 million Gold Coins mysteriously appeared in Li Yi’s account…

It went without saying that this was Brother Nine’s doing!

Li Yi chuckled, withdrew the 30 million Gold Coins, and mailed every single coin back to Brother Windcloud Nine.

He would never accept money that was not his.

Li Yi stood on the Sea Island’s Trading Center for a long while before he finally left, slowly.

He finally understood why Windcloud Sister Nine was willing to do something like that for three pieces of equipment. The silly girl was just constantly worried that Brother Windcloud Nine would suddenly log off, and then she would never see him again.

As soon as Li Yi returned to the Invincible Continent’s Celestial Capital, he received a private message from Windcloud Sister Nine. By then, Brother Nine had already logged off…

“Just now… Just now… Just now…”

Sister Windcloud Nine repeated “just now” for a long while, her voice weary and unable to complete the sentence.

“Just now, Brother Nine met me.”

Windcloud Sister Nine was slightly nervous. “W-what did he talk to you about?”

The clogs in Li Yi’s mind turned, and he said with a smile, “He said he went on a business trip.”

“Ohh…” Sister Windcloud Nine sounded slightly dejected.

Li Yi asked her in return, “What did you think he told me?”

“N-nothing. I have something to do, so I’ll log off now. Bye-bye.”

Sister Windcloud Nine logged off in a hurry.

“Sigh~”

Li Yi still had things to say, but Sister Windcloud Nine’s DP had already turned gray.

“Ding!”

Not long after Sister Windcloud Nine logged off, Li Yi received a message from the person he was most unwilling to see right now.

It was Milk Dipper Solitary!

“Hallo, my friend.”

This punk had recently gone on vacation with Pink Girl, so he had been away from the game for quite a while.

After he greeted Li Yi, Milk Dipper Solitary’s tone became very solemn. “There’s something very important I have to tell you. It’s about Brother Windcloud Nine.”

When he heard that, Li Yi nearly blew his top. He had been calling Milk Dipper Solitary over and over lately, but the kid never once picked up. Now, after Brother Windcloud Nine spilled the beans himself, Milk Dipper Solitary had come to join the party.

It was too little, too late!

Li Yi feigned ignorance, saying in surprise, “Oh? What happened to Brother Nine?”

“Brother Nine is comatose, and hear me out, his condition isn’t looking good. He probably won’t last more than a few months…”

Milk Dipper Solitary explained everything from the beginning, and it was quite similar to what Brother Windcloud Nine’s version of things. However, he added at the end, “Pink Girl knows everything about Sister Nine, but actually, I’ve known about Brother Nine since half a year ago.”

“Screw off!”

“Hey, I’m telling you the truth out of the goodness of my heart. You can’t treat me like that.”

“Screw off!”

“You’re not being very eloquent. I guess I’ll go look for my Sister Pink Girl, and we’ll indulge in some poetry together, hmph-hmph…”

After Li Yi roasted him for a while, Milk Dipper Solitary logged off.

“Attention, Not Gray Wolf is at the Abyssal Canyon Crevice! Attention! Wolf, wolf!”

“Attention, Not Gray Wolf is at the Abyssal Canyon Crevice! Attention! Wolf, wolf!”

The messages that abruptly appeared on the National Channel lifted Li Yi’s spirits slightly.

Li Yi used Camouflage and then Teleport to fly straight to the Abyssal Canyon Crevice.

Not Gray Wolf was here, so the Abyssal Canyon Crevice was practically crawling with his Undead Summons. There had to be at least a thousand of them.

“Hahahaha, Invincible Continent b*stards, do y’all know how strong I am now?”

Not Gray Wolf wore black robes and held a Skull Staff, looking around at the corpses of the Invincible Continent players on the floor and acting insufferably cocky.

More than twenty Invincible Continent Wizards dashed at him on their mounts and attacked him fiercely with many types of magic, taking Not Gray Wolf down immediately.

As the leader fell, the thousands of Undead creatures fell at the same time. Not long later, however, Not Gray Wolf suddenly stood up, resurrecting with full health and full mana. The Undead that had collapsed rose back to their feet, wailing as they pounced at the crowd.

Not Gray Wolf swung his Skull Staff and summoned a few hundred new Undead.

An Undead Summoner could not summon more than hundreds of Undead at once, but since Not Gray Wolf recently resurrected, the Undead he had summoned earlier did not count. In other words, every time he resurrected, he could summon a new batch of Undead.

“Hahaha, little brats, now you know how strong your Grandpa Wolf is!”

Not Gray Wolf laughed heartily. His attitude was getting a bit much; it felt as though his nose was three feet long.

His Territory Skill, Undead Form, allowed him to resurrect endlessly. With this ability, Not Gray Wolf was like a cockroach that could not be killed.

Several hundred bursts of magic crashed toward him, and Not Gray Wolf fell to the ground, as did every Undead present. However, soon enough, Not Gray Wolf resurrected with full health, and all of the Undead stood up once again.

Every time he resurrected, Not Gray Wolf would obtain a temporary attribute boost. In other words, as he resurrected infinitely, his attributes kept increasing as well.

The more they killed him, the harder he became to kill, and the more OP he became…

Confused Fox had arrived even sooner than Li Yi had, but he did not last very long before Not Gray Wolf ground him to death.

Confused Fox was extremely frustrated because he realized that the Holy Word Spell, which was effective against Undead, was useless against Not Gray Wolf. After all, no matter how many times he killed Not Gray Wolf with Holy Word, he would just resurrect with full health.

It really was true— they were nothing in the face of Territory Power!

Confused Fox lay on the ground, feeling frustrated. How could he feel happy? He was just killed by a piece of trash that he had nothing but contempt for.

“Powered-up Arrow!”

“Tch-psh-bish-tst-pst-brrrr—”

Li Yi attacked.

“Smack!”

Not Gray Wolf took an arrow to the head, and after an explosion of red damage figures, [−231345], he fell to the ground.

It was another one-hit kill!

Li Yi stepped forth quickly, but unfortunately, he had teleported too far away. By the time he ran over, Not Gray Wolf had already resurrected with full HP and had crawled up from the ground.

“Haha, Dark Wing, you can’t kill me either. Grandpa Wolf is done playing with y’all today.”

Not Gray Wolf turned around and leaped into the Abyssal Canyon Crevice…

He could not die now, so he did not have to worry about falling to his death.

So he ran away. When the wimp saw Li Yi, his first reaction was not to fight but to leave a threat and then run with his tail between his legs.

Looking into the bottomless Abyssal Canyon Crevice, Li Yi shook his head. “What a waste. It was so close.”

…

(We’ll address Brother Nine’s matter very soon…)