Make Azeroth breathtaking

45. The King of Wa Passes Through the Door

The sun is setting in the west, and a fierce wind is blowing.

High King Anduin, clad in the royal armor of Stormwind, stood with his hands on his salamander at the entrance to the Dark Portal, which was shrouded in shimmering light, silently awaiting the arrival of those behind it. Beside him, King Genn of Gilneas, also dressed in his most formal ceremonial attire, accompanied his lord. Tyrande, in simple yet solemn priestly robes, led her sentinels to guard a short distance away. Even Velen had led his personal guard to this sorrowful wasteland. The royal guards of Stormwind stood in solemn formation, wielding ceremonial weapons, while among them… well, players in outlandish costumes hopped and skipped…

"Do we really not need to stop them, Your Majesty? Their actions are simply too..."

King Genn whispered to Anduin through the NPC-only communication channel as he watched a group of elves, blood elves, void elves, night children, trolls, Zandalari trolls, owlbows, and bears dancing around a bonfire in front of Tyrande's sentinel forces, dressed in bizarre or unbearably thin clothing.

"No need. They're not really from this world. Helping us is out of kindness, or rather, that's how it should be said?"

After watching for a while with a subtle look at several players driving those drilling cars like the one driven by the sorcerer Iggy, who were frantically racing through the crowd, showing off their skills and occasionally pulling a drifter along, Anduin shook his head slightly.

"I've heard that if our world is destroyed, their world will also be affected."

"They're merely an influence; we're doomed—Gene, have the tribes arrived yet?"

"We've arrived, but they've chosen to set up camp on another hilltop—of course, the players aren't affected."

"They didn't accept our invitation to attend the ceremony?"

“They say… they’re not sure how to deal with us right now, after all, we’ve been ‘fighting’ for decades before we ‘woke up’—fighting repeatedly in fragments of time—in fact, Your Majesty, I’m not sure either. I’m not even sure if I really exist, whether my thoughts are my own or forcibly imposed upon me?”

“It’s pointless, Gene. Even Jaina couldn’t figure this out—I, from another world, also told me that thinking about this kind of question does nothing but drive you crazy—there are always things in life that you can’t see through, and forcing yourself to see through them will only backfire.”

"...Where did you learn so much, Your Majesty?"

"For us, the Earth's network is not a closed environment; with a little effort, we can see quite a lot."

"Phew, I don't really want to see that stuff. A lot of the things in it that relate to us just make me feel... angry?"

Gene pondered for a few seconds and uttered an uncertain word.

"..."

Gene's answer made Anduin lower his head slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

—————————————— Divider line for the opening of the gate ————————————————

Move your wrists.

Jump in place.

Control the muscles.

He drew his gun.

Try to execute a series of tactical maneuvers.

After undergoing about five minutes of testing in the adaptation area at the entrance, Varian, now truly entering the world of Warcraft, stepped out of the Dark Portal wearing the High King's armor, which had been modified with power systems. High King Anduin immediately greeted him—although he had already met Varian in the puppet form, this was the first time they had met in person like this.

"welcome."

Staring at the person standing in front of him, the one who should have been his father, whom he could meet again in countless fragments of time but who had actually disappeared from his world, Anduin suddenly realized that he couldn't find the most suitable words to say to him.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, High King of the Alliance in World of Warcraft."

Varian extended his hand and shook hands with Anduin. After withdrawing his hand, Anduin hesitated for a few seconds before speaking.

“I have a feeling that I have seen you somewhere before, and fought alongside you—as the High King, not as Prince Anduin.”

"In a fragmented timeline, I fought alongside you, High King Anduin, where we joined forces to deal with Sylvanas's troubles. However, it seems you have more to worry about than just that?"

"Yes, just now, when I was talking to Gene, he said he should be angry about what the tribe had done—but the question he revealed wasn't that he wanted to go to war with the tribe, but rather that he 'should' be angry. And I also realized that after meeting you, I should be 'excited' or 'excited,' but I can only find these emotions in the data and 'simulate' them. I don't know if we, without real emotions, are truly souls, or just a string of data that can be altered at any time?"

"Ha, so you're worried about this? Scholars from both our side and Earth have studied this issue, and some theories have been released, but in fact, you really don't need to consider it..."

Varian slammed his hand on Anduin's shoulder, the force almost making him stagger. Then, he smoothly turned his hand into a hug, barely managing to place it on the back of High King Anduin.

"Do you remember? The last words your father said to you in this world."

"My father instructed me to do what a king should do."

"You are now the High King of the Alliance—and perhaps even the ruler of Azeroth. All beings living in this Azeroth, whether players, reborn, awakened, or warriors still wandering in the fragments of time, have their hopes placed upon your crown—to lead them to destroy the Legion, Anduin—no matter what, you wear this crown."

"I understand."

Although Anduin's expression and tone remained unchanged, Varian sensed the growing resolve in the High King of the Alliance standing beside him.

"Good that you understand! Many times, when facing a formidable enemy, there's really no need to think about so many unnecessary things!"

Varian raised his hand and slapped Anduin's back hard again, making him sway once more.

"Come on, let me see your camp. I have some things to arrange there—and by the way, bring a few more adventurers with you. They need to test these things out!"

46. ​​The Spirits Entering the Game

————————————Europe, Switzerland, a high-end sanatorium——————————————

"Mr. M, let me explain again. Due to insufficient development time for this technology, and the fact that it utilizes some theoretical knowledge that Earth has not yet mastered, the risks of its use are unpredictable. We cannot guarantee whether the system will operate according to our wishes after you connect to it. The worst outcome is death."

In a private ward of a sanatorium, a man who looked to be in his early twenties, with his hands gently resting on his wheelchair seat and his legs, which were covered by a blanket and whose atrophied shape was clearly visible, struggled to lift his head with the help of assistive devices, so that his gaze could meet that of the technician standing in front of his wheelchair. His expression was resolute.

"I've long since stopped wanting to go on like this. I've thought about ending my life many times—but I don't want to see my parents grieve, so I'm trying my best to have the courage to live. However, my courage is nearing its limit, and maybe one day I won't be able to take it anymore..."

"So..."

After confirming the young man's wishes again, the technicians in white coats handed a large stack of documents to his tearful parents standing beside him. The man's parents leaned close to their son, whose body was mostly immobile and who even needed a machine to help him breathe, and whispered a few words to him. Then they picked up the documents, walked to the table, and began to sign them line by line. They signed very slowly and carefully, as if the pen in their hands was something more important than a pen.

Finally, with the last stroke of the pen, all the documents were signed. After carefully arranging the documents, the man's father carried these seemingly heavy documents to the person in charge, handed them to the person in charge, and whispered something.

"Doctor, please, tell me, you can succeed."

“We can’t guarantee it, sir, but we will do our best.”

The person in charge carefully checked the signatures one last time, then took the documents to the young man in the wheelchair and read them aloud. After seeing the man nod with the help of the mechanical device, the person in charge instructed the assistant to push the man out of the ward, then turned around and began to comfort the man's parents.

"Can...."

The man's mother sobbed softly, wanting to say something but unable to utter a word. Since her son, a bright and athletic young man, had been reduced to a wheelchair-bound figure, needing assistance even to breathe and eat, she hadn't slept a wink. Although they had used all their resources to provide their child with the world's best medical care, her reason repeatedly told her that this was merely delaying the inevitable.

"Believe in miracles, madam. Enough miracles have already happened since Azeroth awoke as a digital world teeming with artificial intelligence."

—————————————World of Warcraft dividing line————————————————

warmth.

Unlike the warmth of air conditioning in a hospital ward.

Since his illness progressed to the point where he could hardly move, M had never left the ward his parents had arranged for him. Similarly, he had almost completely cut himself off from the changes in the weather. Whether it was windy, rainy, or snowy, he was cut off from nature. But now, he could truly feel it—the temperature around him had changed, and his skin was in contact with a new environment!

"Forehead...."

In such a warm environment, he involuntarily let out a soft moan, and then his whole being froze as if struck by lightning—because, in the terminal stage of his illness, he should have had difficulty speaking!

"Success!"

Overjoyed, M began to try to find the feeling in his hands—but things didn't go quite as smoothly. Having not been out of his wheelchair for years, he had somewhat forgotten how to stand up!

"Come on, give me your hand."

Just as M was feeling somewhat lost and confused, two hands grabbed his and helped him up from the darkness. When the world turned into light, M couldn't help but squint to see clearly where he was.

This was a large hall, decorated everywhere with pale gold crystals floating in the air. Runes, seemingly twisted variations of program statements, flickered around these crystals, and upon closer inspection, one could see indistinct human figures within them. Dozens of beautiful, but clearly not human, staff members dressed in robe-like garments moved about the hall, occasionally shooting beams of light from their hands towards the crystals. Further away, there was a row of chairs where some humans were resting.

"you are?"

After looking around, M finally recognized the person who had led him out of the darkness—a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, with short blond hair and gentle, deep blue eyes. He was wearing a simple robe with gold thread embellishments that subtly exuded an air of grandeur, and a comfortable golden aura emanated from him.

"Welcome to World of Warcraft, Mr. M. Thank you for your sacrifices for this world. If you are not comfortable with the current situation, you can adjust your companion module to the default. In this way, Azeroth will guide your actions to a certain extent."

"No, this is good... I haven't felt the sensation of walking in a long time."

After glancing briefly at the description of the default mode in his module, M chose to refuse and stumbled as he started walking. At first, he could barely maintain his balance, but guided by the power of Anduin's Holy Light, he gradually gained control of his body.

"call--"

After falling several times, M was finally able to stand up while holding onto a pillar, which brought a happy smile to his face—his dream of standing up on his own two feet had truly come true!

"Hey, M! You're participating in this project too?"

Just as M was trying to shake his feet to get used to it, a sound reached his ears.

"You are...Z? You...you're not?"

"After all, I didn't know if this project would kill me, so I left a will first—but it seems that the success rate is 100% so far—I didn't expect you to actually be an athlete, I thought you were just bragging before!"

The human man named Z, leaning on a cane, slowly walked up to M, looked M up and down, and then clicked his tongue in amazement.

"I used to love playing ball! If it weren't for this illness... By the way, what exactly is this project all about?"

"...You signed it without even reading it?"

"I agreed to this project as soon as I saw it, saying it would allow me to experience a normal life in the virtual world. I didn't think too much about it at all. As for the consequences of failure? You know I'm already considering euthanasia. Death isn't scary at all."

"Okay, we're in a game called World of Warcraft right now. It's a network space that connects the data of electronic devices all over the world, creating something like a digital world. You know that, right?"

nod.

"This project not only helps us become normal people, but it also lets us experience the romance of men."

"Transform into a Kamen Rider? Become the human form of Ultraman? Pilot a Gundam? Or obtain a Stand?"

Hearing Z say something that sounded very familiar to him, M couldn't help but tease him, and Z's expression instantly turned strange.

"You can experience all of these... You know, this project is essentially to address the current lack of mid-range combat power in Azeroth. It's stuff brought in from another Azeroth, and it's... something that can really get you fired up!"

————————————Strange dividing line——————————————————

"The first batch of one hundred people has all succeeded."

Inside the massive base at the entrance to the Dark Portal, Tannis leaned back in her chair, exhaled, and relaxed lazily.

"Can this project be considered a success?"

Exhausted, Iggy slumped onto the table next to Tannis, his body still burning out.

"Not yet. The next step is to confirm whether the 'body' we forged from our world using Titan technology is a real 'body' to Sargeras, and not something that can be interfered with—hopefully Varian and the others can bring good news."

"Theoretically, it should be fine, but then again, this project is truly insane—I had no idea that people on Earth were researching how to project the consciousness of living people into World of Warcraft! Considering that Azeroth has only been around for a little over a month since we first came into contact with it, and its expansion has continued, how did they manage to master so many parameters in just one month—no, more likely half a month?"