MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Out of King of Pantheon’s Seven Secret Places, the most mysterious was Mount Pantheon.

According to legend, it was the home of the Pantheon and held countless treasures. Legend also tells that the power to control the world was contained there…

Before the opening of the Wings of the Sky pre-expansion event, players were unable to enter Mount Pantheon, they were not even able to see it. They only learned bits of information about Mount Pantheon from the continent’s NPCs.

With the release of Wings of the Sky, Mount Pantheon appeared opposite Sky Island, in the far Eastern Continent side of the sky.

However, the mysterious Mount Pantheon remained invisible to players that were not within Mount Pantheon’s range. Once players got close, it would appear.

Currently, due to the pending release of the Pantheon Mystery expansion pack, players could only travel to the foot of Mount Pantheon. They were still not allowed on Mount Pantheon.

Mount Pantheon extended endlessly much like the Sea Island’s Trading Center did. This new Sea Island’s Trading Center was a super-sized safe zone that could accommodate players from three continents.

The God Wars Competition was set to be held here!

High above the clouds, surrounded by greenery and enveloped in mist, it all added to the mystique.

Dozens of NPCs were at the foot of Mount Pantheon, with the majority of them being involved in the God Wars Competition. They were not real gods but rather demigods, sent by the gods to take care of everything. They could be said to be messengers of gods.

Currently, Li Yi was standing amongst these demigods, smiling while accepting new quests.

The true colors of the Pantheon were not revealed until the release of Pantheon Mystery. At the moment, players still did not know who the mastermind behind the Winged Ones attack on the continent was. It was the gods high up on Mount Pantheon.

He recalled in the past life that when players learned about the Pantheon’s true colors, the Pantheon Mystery expansion pack was released. When that happened, the players no longer faced monsters, instead, the gods were their enemies!

The final boss in King of Pantheon was none other than the omnipotent Ruler of Gods.

To participate in the God Wars Competition, one must first register with God Messenger Jewelfina at the foot of Mount Pantheon before taking part in the Open Colosseum to amass points and rise in the ranks.

The Open Colosseum was different from the regular Arena. In the early phase of the God Wars Competition, players fought against NPCs. Only by taking out all the NPCs, could they earn the right to enter the God Wars Competition’s World List.

Li Yi was not able to start the Open Colosseum after registering because the System had a rule; the Open Colosseum would only start after 5 million players had signed up.

Once word about the release of Mount Pantheon got out, countless players from everywhere came surging in from the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Continents…

The God Wars Competition Arena was a safe zone. Here, there was no need to worry about attacks from Winged Ones or getting stabbed in the back by enemies. Players from different camps were able to trade freely here and enjoy Gods’ Protection.

The scenery on Mount Pantheon was breathtaking and as players poured in, the area at the foot of the mountain began to enlarge.

Limitless space, limitless extension, unlimited capacity.

“Sale for Grade 9 Cat’s Eye Pebble. Attention to Engineers, a chance you shouldn’t be missing!”

“Level 200 Purple Quality equipment for sale. Only tradeable with Gold Coins. Only for genuine requests!”

“Selling a spotted pet dog, an adorable helper. You won’t want anything else once you have it!”

The players had adapted quickly to their new surroundings, and in a mere two hours, millions of players occupied the platform at the foot of Mount Pantheon. Many quick-thinking players had started to set up stalls and run businesses.

“Come one, come all, the more you bet, the more you’ll gain. Ultra-high odds enough for a memorable experience. Bets are on football qualifiers, China against Brazil… Brazil yields 7 goals, come one, come all! Place your bets place your bets!”

Even Autumn Love was here. The girl was no longer into betting on in-game events. Instead, she focused on the football qualifying matches and used in-game currency to bet on real-life games.

With the region beyond Mount Pantheon growing increasingly more chaotic, who would say no to an absolute safe zone? When players realized they could lock their Return City Stone coordinates here, its popularity skyrocketed.

It was known that upon starting the game, a player would be rewarded with a Return City Stone. When they were tired from farming monsters, a gentle rub would bring them back to a major city.

There were pitfalls to the Return City Stone, however. One was its lengthy cooldown period and the second was its single location lock. In other words, it could not be locked to multiple locations.

In King of Pantheon, the Return City Point at the base of Mount Pantheon was unique. Locking to this point with the Return City Stone was not within the single location restriction. In other words, locking to this point would not cancel the location locked before it, enabling the freedom to teleport between two places.

In this sort of simulated virtual game, traveling was perhaps the most boring task to players. It took half an hour to farm monsters in the wild and another half an hour to return to the city. In a day, not much EXP could be earned as most of the time was spent on the road.

It was both an additional teleportation spot, which was helpful to players, and an absolute safe zone. Obviously, it became an extremely popular location.

Within half a day, the players had made this place the new Sea Island’s Trading Center.

The originally lively Sea Island’s Trading Center had become quite desolate and dreary. Although there were still many who refused to move as old habits die hard, they would surely follow the trend, given time, and relocate to Mount Pantheon.

The 5 million registration quota was quickly achieved and within an hour, the number of registrants had surpassed thirty million.

The God Wars Competition!

Just the mention of it sent a rush of blood to people’s heads.

The Open Colosseum officially commenced, and the venue was the left hillside of Mount Pantheon, where a divine glow enveloped the area.

Players who had not signed up to participate were not allowed inside while players who had signed up, paid a fee and spoken with Jewelfina could freely enter the arena to fight.

Humans were naturally drawn to new things. Thus, at least 5 million players chose to join the arena to battle monsters and amass points.

Li Yi was not here. He had teleported away when the players arrived in droves.

He accepted three quests from the NPCs at the foot of Mount Pantheon, they were Mount Sky Island, Magical Winged One’s Egg, and Winged One’s Excrement.

There were dozens of God Messenger NPCs beneath Mount Pantheon who distributed quests daily. There were one hundred different types of quests and if one were to fumble one’s way without understanding the description, it could be very time-consuming.

LI Yi had completed all one hundred types of quests in his past life so he knew which quests should be done and which quests should not be done.

At present, the few quests related to Sky Island’s Winged Ones must be done in order to sail smoothly through the Open Colosseum.

In fact, when the players were on their way to Mount Pantheon, they accepted quests from these God Messenger NPCs. However, they could only feel their way around due to their unfamiliarity with the quests. There was a substantial number of players who accepted quests related to the Winged Ones, but they did not know how to access Sky Island.

Beneath Mount Pantheon, many players held Random Teleportation Scroll and began their random trips around the world. Their thoughts were simple. They were hoping to use the Random Teleportation Scroll to end up on Sky Island.

Only, when they made it to their destination, they would lift their heads to find Sky Island suspended above their heads and a large group of Bird People with white wings charging at them…

The Random Teleportation Scrolls were limited to transporting players to locations on the ground, locations in the sky could not be accessed…

To get to Sky Island, one had to be rather creative.

“Squawk squawk, faster. Vanquish this damned mammoth cluster for our food in the winter.”

“Squawk squawk squawk!”

Close to Sky Island, Li Yi was hiding in a thick growth of grass, secretly observing his surroundings.

A flock of Bird People with white wings held longbows and were attacking a group of over 100 Level 80 mammoths. The Bird People finished off the entire group in mere seconds.

It was then that a few emaciated-looking Winged Ones with gray wings and hideous appearance flew down to move the carcasses of the mammoths.

“Squawk squawk squawk, Eda, ignore those lowly soldiers. Let’s go over there to look for new food.”

The Winged Ones with pure white wings cawed and flew away, leaving behind the few weak Winged Ones with gray wings to transport the mammoth carcasses.

“Beast Soul’s Possession — Lightning Leopard!”

The moment the White Winged Ones left the scene, Li Yi took the opportunity to transform into a leopard to hurry towards the weak Winged Ones using Stealth.

“Pseudocide!”

“Thump!”

Li Yi sprinted towards the mammoth carcasses and quietly dispelled the transformation before collapsing to the ground using Pseudocide.

Two emaciated Winged Ones with gray wings flew over and encircled Li Yi’s corpse. Thus, began their conversation.

“Squawk squawk?”

“Squawk squawk!”

“Squawk squawk squawk?”

“Squawk squawk!”

The two emaciated Winged Ones had a long exchange before coming to an agreement. one of the emaciated Winged One lowered its body while the other grabbed Li Yi and placed him on its back.

“Squawk squawk squawk squawk!”

“Squawk squawk!”

The emaciated Winged One carrying Li Yi took flight and laboriously flew towards Sky Island.

Disguising as a corpse to sneak one’s way into Sky Island was one of the most mainstream methods developed by players in his past life.

Bird People with white wings had a high IQ so pretending to be corpse would not fool them. This method of trickery only worked against the fragile Winged Ones.

Throughout the entire process, they must not be noticed by a white-winged Bird Person or the disguise mission would fail.

Shortly after the emaciated Winged One that was carrying Li Yi arrived on Sky Island, Li Yi quietly vaulted off its back.

The emaciated Winged One had not noticed and walked forward with heavy footsteps. About twenty seconds later, a shocked caw came out of its mouth.

“Squawk?”

…