He propped his chin in his hand, striking the pose of The Thinker. One leg was bent, leaning against his arm, while the other stretched out in front of him. He sat slouched, staring at the several bodies sprawled out in front of him, lost in thought.
The view around him was supposed to be beautiful—a picturesque mountain scene, with clear water, lush trees, and a tranquil landscape that you'd never find in the hustle and bustle of modern industrial society. The morning fog rose gently in the forest, with strange, colorful flowers dotting the landscape. Dew glistened on the vibrant green leaves, and flashes of purple, pink, and red painted the scenery, all against a sky so blue it almost felt like a painting. It was breathtaking.
But that was all in his head.
In reality, he was dead now—his soul was in some kind of limbo. The world he saw around him was all gray. No color. No sound. No signs of life. Just a white sky, gray trees, and black ground.
So yeah, the beautiful scene? Pure imagination.
He sighed, switched to the other hand to prop up his chin, and went back to waiting for the others to wake up.
About an hour ago, when he regained consciousness, he realized he was in this completely unfamiliar place. He hadn't even started to process the overwhelming feelings of shock, fear, and despair from realizing he was dead, when suddenly, a line of red text appeared in front of him:
(You are dead. Would you like to resurrect at the graveyard? Yes/No.)
The shock, confusion, surprise, and all the other emotions he felt in that instant... It was probably impossible to describe them all in words. His trembling hand reached out to click the button.
And then—
His finger passed straight through it.
He immediately "Spartified." What the hell? He couldn't click it! Where was the mouse? Where was the cursor? Gone? Then what was he supposed to do…?
Calm down, calm down, he told himself, taking a deep breath.
Right! Maybe he couldn't click it—maybe he had to speak?
So he opened his mouth, puffed out his chest, s*ck*d in his stomach, and shrugged his shoulders, then tried to say—"Yes."
Nothing.
Ah, right. He was a soul now, so no voice.
Okay, but then how was he supposed to choose? Wait… where was the dialogue box?
He looked around. The dialogue box from earlier? Maybe it was just a hallucination.
No way! Had he selected it or not? Was there a time limit? But he hadn't been dazed for that long, had he? Come on, system, give him some answers already…
Even though his body was still in shock, his mind was boiling with frustration—if he even still had a brain.
Suddenly, another line of red text popped up. He snapped his attention to it:
(Resurrection angel graveyard not found. Please confirm if you are in World of Warcraft.)
What the hell?! System, you're messing with me! He wanted to scream but remembered he was in soul form and had no blood left to spit.
After all those emotional rollercoasters, if he still had a body, he'd probably have a heart attack by now.
So, when another red line appeared, he didn't even flinch. He just glanced at it calmly:
(New map resources detected, system upgrading automatically.)
Oh, sure. Keep dreaming. It was just some random World of Warcraft private server, and now it could "auto-upgrade"? What's next? A Cataclysm expansion?
Then, the scene rewound back to that night when everything had started...
Du Chen was curled up in his "doghouse"—which, in his case, was his cramped little room.
It was hot as hell. Even though it was only May, the temperature had already hit over 30°C, and it didn't really cool down much at night. The place he lived in was a narrow, old building packed with people, so the space was tiny. The hallway was a long, narrow tunnel, and the windows were small. Even with the door open, there was no real breeze to be felt. He was wearing an old, torn-up shirt, and some cheap beach shorts he bought for five bucks on sale at the supermarket, still sweating like a pig.
The only source of heat was the desktop computer in front of him. To save on electricity, he grabbed a big fan and started waving it frantically—though honestly, it wasn't doing much more than making him sweat even more.
"Fan harder, get cooler, right?" He thought, getting more and more annoyed, tossing the fan aside and slapping the keyboard in frustration. The keyboard jumped a couple of times, and a cloud of dust exploded out, choking him and causing him to cough for a while. He quickly ducked to the side, covering his nose and mouth with one hand while waving the other in front of his face to clear the air.
After waiting for a bit, Du Chen returned to his desk. He hesitated, but in the end, he logged out of the game, then uninstalled Neverwinter Online, which he had only downloaded a couple of days ago. Muttering to himself, he said, "Freaking game. It's all just mindless hacking, no real skills involved. It eats up your graphics card, hogs the CPU... It's like a freaking space heater! Maybe it's good for winter, but in this heat? Forget it. You have fun, game, I'm out."
With no game to play, Du Chen aimlessly surfed the web, reading some funny news, watching drama unfold on forums, then flipped through some books on QD. But soon enough, boredom crept back in.
He dug out a cigarette pack from his drawer, shook it a little, and found it was down to his last one. He clicked his tongue but lit it anyway, puffing away. After a while, the butt of the cigarette got too hot, and he flicked it into the trash can, which was piled high in the corner of his room.
After pacing around the tiny room like a caged animal, Du Chen sat back down at his desk, rubbed his stubbly chin, and opened a quiet group chat on QQ. Staring at the empty interface, he shouted:
"Bored. Anyone up for playing WOW nostalgic private server 1.12? No expansions before level 60. Anyone coming?"
It didn't take long before several lines of colorful text popped up.
"Boss, you're here!"
"I wanted to come, but my girlfriend's making me play Swordsman with her. Sorry, can't make it."
"Count me in."
"I'm busy playing Tian 2 with my girlfriend too. (Cool guy emoji)"
"There are actually this many lurkers here..."
"Look who's talking! You're one too!"
...
Du Chen stared at the chat for a while, then started typing furiously, sending more clouds of dust from his keyboard.
"You bunch of people with no sense of responsibility! Bullying me because I have no one to hang with, huh? (Sharpening knife emoji)"
"Hey, no swearing! There are kids in the group, you know! (Twisting emoji)"
"I think I'm the youngest in here. I'm in my third year of college!"
"Ah, time flies. Remember when we were raiding Burning Crusade? You were just a 15-year-old fresh-faced boy back then, now you're all grown up..."
"Sounds like you're the old one, uncle. I'm still young and full of energy!"
...
Du Chen's forehead veins popped out, and he started typing harder. Of course, more dust flew up and choked him again.
"No more off-topic stuff! Is anyone actually coming? If we get five people, I'll start the raid! Come on, I'll even open the external network if you want."
The group continued to veer off course, and he was losing his patience. He finally screamed, "PM me if you're coming!" and closed the group chat. The world was finally quiet.
In the end, aside from Little Yue, who was still in college, and a violent mage MM called "Tongxinfen," they were still short two people. Du Chen thought for a moment, then scrolled through his long list of QQ friends, finally clicking on an avatar that was a little dim.
Soon, the avatar lit up.
"Guess you've been lurking and blocking the group again. Wanna join a WOW nostalgic private server 1.12? We need two more."
"Huh? How'd you know I've been thinking about playing Warcraft lately?"
"Honestly, I have no idea, but Neverwinter Online was such a pain in the neck. I figured, why not go back to the classic WOW before the expansions?"
"Yeah, the early game was really well made. After all, it was the result of hundreds of people's work—world-building, story, skill balance... It was the peak that no one could surpass..."
"True, but too bad all those developers are gone now."
"Last time I was talking to Sangtian, she said: 'No matter how good your mom makes something, if it gets handed over to your stepmom, she'll ruin it.'"
"I knew you'd say some long-winded philosophical stuff. One question—are you coming or not? We need two more for the raid."
"Wait, we're missing two? I'll ask her... not sure if her lazy butt will be willing to get moving though."
Half an hour later, the five of them gathered in front of the bank in Ironforge.
"I'm doing MT." A gnome mage MM with the name "Tongxinfen" above her head was still struggling.
"Denied. If you're doing MT, what am I supposed to do?" The dwarf warrior named Daben started dancing in place.
"Add some bags, boss." The tall elf druid, with Sangtian above his head, stood motionless, occasionally jumping up and down.
"I want in too..." This was the human warlock God's Covenant, a silly third-year college kid.
"I gave each of you admin rights. If you need something, just add it yourself!" Daben the dwarf warrior started running around wildly.
"Too lazy to type commands."
"I don't know the commands or the code..."
"You guys are animals!" The dwarf warrior stopped running, then started dutifully adding bags, skills, talent points, and levels to everyone...
The red-haired, elegant human priest, Canghai, who was silently standing still, was busy swapping between fancy robes, enjoying herself.
"You again... What's with the outfit-changing? You're a grown man!" Sangtian the druid walked over to Canghai and made a roaring gesture. "Give me some nice ones too!"
"Hey, hey, don't give us the top-tier gear, we're just doing T0 runs for the three major raids. If we're too geared up, it'll be too easy." Daben, still ordering around, didn't forget to remind everyone.
"Got it. Can't I just add some cool gear for myself to show off?"
"Such a show-off... By the way, are you guys gonna learn any professions?"
"My priest's sticking with tailoring and enchanting."
"Same old for me—herbalism and alchemy," said Sangtian, the druid.
"Hmm, I think I'll go with engineering..."
"Perfect, you can mine with me. The warrior should pick up blacksmithing. Tongxinfen, what about you?"
"I'll just go with enchanting. You guys can do gathering, that's for the lazy ones. Let me show you the power of a real DPS."
Daben suddenly went silent for a while. A few moments later, he chuckled, and a message box popped up in front of the other four.
Not long after, when the five of them stood together in front of the gate to the Stratholme dungeon, each of them had the guild name "World of Warcraft Tour Group" above their heads.