Warcraft: When NPCs Have Player Panels

The sky over the monastery city cluster had been overcast and gray for more than half a month.

The heavy snow kept falling, completely covering the dilapidated shacks in the slums that had been moved to the outskirts of the city.

The cold wind was like a knife, stinging the faces of pedestrians, and their noses felt like they were on fire when they breathed in it.

At the entrance of the triangular shack, thirteen-year-old Toby huddled in a ball, his purple hands tightly clutching more than a dozen polished copper coins.

This is what he has earned by helping people clean up chimneys these past few days, doing everything he could.

He carefully counted them again and again, and after confirming that each copper coin was genuine, he clenched them tightly in his palm.

The five-year-old girl lay unconscious in the shack, motionless.

Toby was very thin; his bare arms were less than the thickness of an egg. Only the thin could squeeze into the chimney and clean the closets for the rich.

He wrapped the tattered burlap sack, its original color indistinguishable, tightly around himself, and stepped bare, swollen feet into the knee-deep snowdrifts outside. From inside the shack came the faint sound of Isolde coughing, which made him secretly anxious.

"Aesop, wait for your brother. I'll go buy some bread and be right back." Toby lowered his voice, stuffing the copper coin into his inner pocket and pressing it repeatedly. He took a deep breath, watched the snowflakes falling from the sky, and finally shuffled outside step by step.

In the shacks along the way, one could often see curled-up, frozen zombie corpses, left unattended. Toby dared not look any longer; if they couldn't buy food, he and Isolde would end up like that sooner or later.

A dozen minutes later, Toby arrived at the edge of the commercial district. The roads here were clean and tidy, and the snow had been pushed into the ditches. The aroma of wheat wafting from the bakery made him hungry. He clutched the copper coin and hurried forward.

"Mrs. Carl, could you give me two loaves of dark bread, half a piece of cheese, and a small jug of hot ale?" Toby's voice trembled as he looked up at the landlady, his hands cupping the coins, his posture humble and urgent. "Are these enough copper coins?"

Mrs. Carl glanced at him; she knew he was the chimney-cleaning boy from the neighborhood. She took the coins, counting them one by one, and shook her head at Toby's expectant gaze. "Not enough. Is this all the money you have?"

"Please have some compassion, Mrs. Carl. My sister is sick, and this is all the money I have." A gust of cold wind blew by, and Toby rubbed his hands together, huddling tightly in his tattered clothes, his face red from the cold. "I'll unclog your chimney for free when it gets clogged."

"Alright then," Mrs. Carl nodded, stuffing two freshly baked, still-smoking long loaves of dark bread into a paper bag. She added half a piece of cheese and a small bottle of steaming ale in a sleigh bottle.

Mrs. Carl pressed her round body against the lower edge of the window, stretched her arms outwards, and stuffed the paper bag into Toby's arms, instructing, "Son, hide it well, don't let anyone see you on the way."

Toby hugged the food tightly and nodded vigorously! He stuffed the food into his tattered linen and pressed it against his chest.

This would be enough for him and Isolde to eat for a very long time. He couldn't afford medicine or go to church, so he could only warm his sister's frozen body with ale.

Thinking this, he turned around and ran back, his arms bulging with the bundle.

Just as Toby left the commercial area and reached the slum tent cluster near the city wall, he was blocked by four shady-looking men.

"Hey, what are you hiding in your arms? Take it all out!" A scarred man stepped forward and reached out to tear at his clothes.

Toby trembled with fear and hugged the object even tighter: "There's nothing, nothing at all."

"Oh, let me see!" A tall, thin man kicked Toby in the leg, and as Toby fell, the bag he was carrying flew out of his arms. "Oh, what's this? Did you steal it?"

Toby stumbled and fell in the snow, shattering his beer can. Ignoring the pain, he struggled to get up, only to be kicked down again by the two men.

"Please, don't take it! Please! This is Aesop's life!" Toby frantically struggled to his feet, clutching the bag of food tightly, tears mingling with snowmelt and freezing into ice beads. "My sister is only five years old, she's starving to death, please, please..."

But pleading is worthless in the eyes of starving scum.

Scarface flew into a rage and slapped Toby across the face, sending him flying backward and crashing to the ground. Several men took turns punching and kicking him. Toby curled up in the snow, blood seeping from his mouth and nose, yet he still refused to let go.

Toby had only one thought in his mind...

Cannot lose...

Aesop is still waiting for him...

Just as Scarface raised his foot to kick him in the head, Toby suddenly sprang up and bit Scarface's hand hard.

"Ah—!" Scarface screamed as he pushed him away, then used all his strength to kick Toby in the chest.

"Pfft!" Toby spat out a mouthful of blood, his body slammed to the ground and he never got up again. The food in his hand rolled to Scarface's feet.

Scarface picked up the food and said viciously, "You little bastard, you dare to bite me!" He raised his foot again and kicked Toby in the head.

Just then, a piercing whistle cut through the wind and snow.

A squad of fully armed Crusader soldiers rushed over, wielding their heraldic shields and smashing them at the scum. The men didn't even dare to resist or speak, leaving themselves to the Crusader soldiers' mercy.

"Sir, we didn't steal it." Scarface clearly didn't know what had happened and assumed the boy on the ground had been caught stealing. "It was this kid who stole it!"

The soldiers ignored them and simply pressed them down, forcing them to kneel in a nearby snow pit.

Once the soldiers had the situation under control, William pushed through the crowd. He saw Toby lying motionless in the snow, knelt down, and carefully picked up the thin child.

Name: Toby

Faction: Humans of Lordaeron

Race: human

Rating: 1

Identity: Commoner (Commoners do not have detailed attributes)

Specialties: Cleaning chimney ash (skilled), begging, theft (level 1)

Status: Near death, bleeding, hypothermia.

Health: 1/10 (This person is beyond saving.)

The attribute box that flashed before his eyes made William frown subconsciously. He took out a healing potion from his body and stuffed it into his mouth.

However, the potion containing life energy continued to leak from Toby's mouth, and there was no sign of his blood volume recovering.

Toby's body was as cold as a stone, his breath faint and seemingly about to vanish. He slowly opened his eyes and saw William. A sudden light ignited in his cloudy eyes—he recognized the sheriff who often distributed bread to children in the slums and helped the elderly repair their shacks.

"Brother William... Brother William..." Toby coughed up blood with every word, his hands gripping William's sleeve tightly. "Please... go see... Aesop... my sister..."

"She's at the very back... leaning against the city wall... starving to death... please... help her..." His voice was barely audible, and it was clear he wouldn't survive. But even so, he couldn't bear to leave his sister there.

The pleading look in the child's eyes filled William with a deep sense of depression. He nodded emphatically, "Your name is Toby, right? Don't worry, I will."

Hearing this, a satisfied smile finally appeared on Toby's face. His hand slowly loosened, his eyes completely glazed over, and his breathing stopped. His thin, wiry body stiffened little by little in William's arms.

...

William had become numb, but Toby, the child who died in his arms, ignited a fire in his heart that he couldn't extinguish.

He suppressed his anger and ordered himself to find Toby's sister, but he couldn't leave his body there. He had the soldiers take it to a nearby church and bury it there.

Then, following the direction pointed out by the children, William walked towards the innermost part of the slum.

He quickly found the dilapidated shack. The triangular shack was right next to the rock wall of the city wall. There was no sound inside, and a strong smell of mildew mixed with a faint deathly aura wafted out.

He felt a sudden tightness in his chest and quickly squatted down to check.

Inside, on the haystack, five-year-old Isolde was curled up in a ball. She was covered with a linen sheet folded into three layers, her face was deathly pale, her eyes were tightly closed, and she had stopped breathing.

Her hands were icy cold and remained outstretched, as if she was still hoping for the food her brother would bring back.

At that moment, William felt as if his heart had been pierced, as if someone was repeatedly stabbing it with an awl.

He broke down.

His tears fell like raindrops, pattering onto the snow. Snot mingled with his tears, streaming down his face.

He wiped away a tear, carefully reached out, and tremblingly picked her up. The little girl's body was as light as a feather; it had long since stiffened and no longer trembled from the cold.

William held her in his arms, standing in the swirling snow, his anger churning within him.

Two children who depend on each other for survival!

He just wanted his sister to live!

Why suffer like this?!

Holy Light! Is this what you wanted to see?

Elune, is this what you blessed me with and showed me?!

He carried Isolde out of the shack and strode through the swirling snow to the four scoundrels.

"Hold them down!"

William carefully placed the little girl's body on the snow beside him, as if to show her how he was avenging them.

"No, no, no! My lord! I don't deserve to die!!"

"Spare us, sir! We'll never do it again!"

"Thud!" With a swift movement, William cleaved off the head of the scarred man in the lead.

"Go and speak to the Holy Light, next!"

"I was wrong, sir! I was so wrong, sir..."

"puff!"

William wiped the blood splattered on his face and gave a cold laugh.

"How could you be wrong? Isn't this just how the world is?"

"So, the world is the one that's wrong!"

The furious William didn't notice that the taskbar on the control panel in his eyes had been quietly updated.

Main Quest: A Crossroads of Fate

[Mission Description: Perhaps the strangers in this land instilled too many things you shouldn't have known, or perhaps you're simply a kind person by nature. You're tired of this world, tired of this endless oppression. You decide to make a change, but this change will inevitably affect the future. When everything settles down, standing at the end and looking back at your past self, I hope you won't regret your decision today.]

[Mission Reward: As you wish.]