MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks
chapter-1

Chapter 1: Top Player

18 May 2030, the God Wars that the players had been anticipating for three whole years finally began. On this day, a hundred top-ranked players from all over the world were about to engage in an intense battle in order to decide, once and for all, who was the true God-tier player in this game, King of Pantheon!

The players who could participate in these God Wars all had to pass many selections to reach this stage, resulting in a hundred players out of hundreds of millions. They only had one aim, and that was to defeat everyone so that they could win the generous prizes and two hundred million bucks bucks ¹ in cash.

For the prize in a game to reach two hundred million was not as impossible as it sounded. In the year 2030, an era where virtual online gaming had permeated the market, this was the reality!

Li Yi’s expression was dark as he slowly squeezed his way out of the crowd, walking toward the Moderator Stand.

He was in a very bad mood today, because his girlfriend was getting married tomorrow, but unfortunately, the bridegroom was not him. Nobody would feel good in that situation.

He was one of the 100 participants in the God Wars, but unlike the other participants, he did not have even one party member by his side.

All alone!

The 100 participants from all over the world quickly arrived at the scene, and when the Moderator raised the Holy Sword, yelling that the God Wars had begun, the fervor of the several million players on Mount Pantheon rose as well.

The first match, party Matchups!

King of Pantheon was not a single-player game. If you wanted to ascend “Mount Pantheon”, it was absolutely impossible without a good party. That was why, during the first match phase, participants were allowed to select any party members and coordinate with them.

When he heard the rules for the first match, Li Yi’s face practically turned green.

A party…

For a long, long time now, he had ceased to belong to any party, because in King of Pantheon, he was known as a terrible cheater loathed by all. How could such a person have his own party?

“Participants may select anyone they like, and you may enter the Battle Arena once you have five members!”

Of the 100 players participating in the God Wars, other than Li Yi as the sole exception, who would not have their own party? Within a dozen minutes or so, all 99 participants strode into the Battle Arena with their party members. They left Li Yi standing there all alone, motionless…

When all the participants had entered the Arena, Li Yi took a deep breath and walked up to the Moderator, asking, “Excuse me, could I join on my own? I… I can’t find any party members.”

“You can’t find any party members?”

The Moderator looked at Li Yi in surprise and then mused for some time before finally nodding.

“Sure.”

“Thank you!”

Li Yi’s face lit up with joy, and he walked briskly into the Battle Arena, as though afraid the Moderator would take back that decision…

In the first match, it was Li Yi on his own VS 20 people!

A mere 33 seconds later!

Li Yi was lying on the floor.

“You’re very strong, but unfortunately, King of Pantheon isn’t a single-player game!” said an Archer-Class player coldly, holding an orange bow and pointing at Li Yi’s head arrogantly.

Eliminated!

“That’s impossible!”

Li Yi roared loudly, pulling off his helmet and smashing it into the floor. He kicked the door open and ran out.

As though to match his feelings, thunder rumbled outside. Within a few moments, a torrential rain began to pour down.

Li Yi walked very slowly in the rain. He had long since been drenched from head to toe, but he was completely unaware of it.

No one replied to him. He stopped in the rain for a moment before he suddenly remembered something, and he immediately broke into a mad sprint.

In front of the small white building, Li Yi looked at the pretty girl in front of him. Just the thought that she would be wearing a wedding dress and marrying someone else tomorrow made his heart throb with pain.

“Qian’er, I wish you happiness…”

After a long time, Li Yi finally squeezed that one sentence out of his throat, before turning around and taking off into a run.

“Li Yi!” Qian’er called out to him, but Li Yi did not turn around. Instead, he ran even faster.

Qian’er buried her face in her hands and wept.

Li Yi stumbled through the rain. Along the way, he kept calling the people he knew.

“Yang’zi, I was wrong, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Who are you? Do I know you? You big cheater!”

“Jiaojiao, where are you? Come talk to me for a bit, I… I’m Li Yi.”

“Sure, wait for me. This day next year, I’ll definitely go out, you big cheater!”

Everyone ignored him. His friends had long since seen him for who he was.

Irredeemable!

Li Yi raged, roaring and yelling, sprinting in the rain.

“Was I wrong? Really wrong? Was I really f*cking wrong? I was wrong? I was wrong, so how about I change? I’ll change!”

Just as he stood in the middle of the road, a red racecar zoomed toward him and hit him squarely.

On the night of the 18th of May, the famous King of Pantheon player, Emperor of the Night perished in an accident at the young age of 26. According to deductions, the cause of the incident was very likely to be the fact that Emperor of the Night had lost in the God Wars and so decided to take his own life.

The following was Emperor of the Night’s obituary. Name: Li Yi. Class: Thief. One of the 100 participants in the King of Pantheon’ God Wars, he had entered the game the year after Pantheon began. Emperor of the Night was skilled in his game control and became famous for his eeriness…

Emperor of the Night was most notorious not for his game control, but for the total number of his Cheats. In his 7 years of playing the game, he had cheated at least several tens of thousands of players, resulting in an extremely terrible reputation. Rumor had it that when he was announced as a participant in the God Wars, the vote against him on the official website was as high as 99%.

Most of the people laughed, a very few sighed, and the ones who truly grieved for Li Yi were no more than a mere handful…

…

“My life sure was a failure…”

Li Yi gave a long, wistful sigh, and slowly opened his eyes.

“This is…”

Li Yi stared at the scene before him, stunned. His mouth opened wider and wider.

This was a classroom, and there were many students dressed in the same black-and-white school uniform he wore, all seated in place. Some had their heads buried in their books, others were having fun with their tablemates…

There were many multiple-choice questions written on the blackboard at the front of the classroom, making his eyes spin.

The scene he saw before him was a moment that had happened before, back when Li Yi was in his third year of university.

This was a scene from eight years ago!

‘Eight years ago? How did I go back eight years?’

Li Yi pinched his arm forcefully, and the jolt of pain that he felt made him grimace involuntarily.

‘I can feel pain, so this is not a dream. This… What is this? Didn’t I die in a car crash?

‘Could it be a reset?’

Inspiration flashed in Li Yi’s mind, and he stared blankly at the stack of students’ workbooks piled on top of the lecture podium. Suddenly, he remembered something and gave a loud yelp as he dashed toward the podium…

“Li Yi, what are you doing!”

Just as Li Yi dashed onto the podium, a young female teacher of about twenty-three or twenty-four walked into the classroom, holding some books and barking at him to stop.

Miss Zhang Yan…

Li Yi felt his eyes moisten and he nearly cried out.

That pretty fair face, the gold-rimmed glasses, that petite body… This young female teacher before him was the Chinese Language teacher who had once taught Li Yi.

“It’s, it’s nothing.”

As Li Yi said that, he moved until he was right in front of the blackboard. With his back turned against Zhang Yan, he grabbed the notebook on the very top of the podium.

There was nothing wrong with the notebook Li Yi held in his hand, but what worried him was the piece of paper slotted inside the book. There was a picture of a naked woman on it, as well as a line of small writing: My name is Zhang Yan. I have big boobs but no brain, go commando, and think about men every day.

This was Li Yi’s masterpiece.

“What are you holding in your hand? Give it to me!”

Zhang Yan pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose and stretched her hand out at him.

‘Damn, could it be that even after I reset once, I still can’t change anything?’

Li Yi clenched his teeth and took out the piece of paper slotted inside the notebook. Stuffing it into his mouth, he swallowed it in one go.