Warcraft: When NPCs Have Player Panels

It has been a year since the latest version of the open-world role-playing action game World of Warcraft was released globally.

A year ago, strangers speaking various accents suddenly appeared out of nowhere and landed in the vast world of Azeroth.

Like the Scourge, they quickly conquered the entire planet Azeroth in a short period of time and became the masters of this world.

They are free in appearance, clothing, and even gender. They like to wear all sorts of strange and unusual clothes, and then at the transmogrifiers in the main city, they are transmogrified into various revealing outfits, or even naked.

Perhaps the Pantheon created Azeroth, or perhaps it was Elune. To the Azerothians, these foreigners who traveled here all possessed power comparable to that of gods, but this power was misused, which greatly disgusted the Azerothians.

Just like right now.

William watched as a stranger dressed in brightly colored clothes, belonging to the undead race, hopped and skipped toward him. Using a small, glowing wooden staff, the stranger gestured as if preparing to attack, just like any other stranger he'd encountered before.

He instinctively raised his oak shield, roared, and charged forward.

"The holy light will ultimately purify everything!"

As usual, the male undead with an X painted on his face spun around, dodged William by circling the big tree, and ran towards the Scarlet Monastery behind him.

"Ugh, these mobs are so annoying. They don't drop anything, and they always drag us into battle."

The blood elf woman traveling with him, clad in leather armor, raised her hand and shot William dead as he charged forward with an arrow.

"Alright, enough nonsense. Tonight I'll take you through the Scarlet Monastery's three gates. Be careful not to draw aggro. Dying will cost you experience points." The beautifully dressed female blood elf stranger put away her bow and arrow, her voice a deep, resonant baritone.

William lying on the ground was nothing new to him.

He had killed countless strangers, so he knew that the gender of a stranger could not be judged by the eyes.

As an overwhelming darkness descended upon him, William closed his eyes.

One minute later, the body gradually disappeared from the spot.

Five minutes later, William respawned in the same spot and resumed his patrol mission.

William once saw a paladin dressed like a knight of judgment who led a group of heroes to storm Naxxramas, the Scourge fortress above the Eastern Plaguelands. He personally killed the corrupted highlord Mograine and retrieved the corrupted Ashbringer from his grasp.

This newly appointed high lord would come from time to time to inspect the defenses of Scarlet Monastery.

Judging by the time, it should be about time.

William straightened his tattered, crimson-stained leather armor and tried to stand tall, so that he wouldn't lose face for the Scarlet Crusade when he met the Highlord.

"Ah! It was the young woman who, with a single kick, defeated the evil wizard Kel'Thuzad, the great hero!"

"Are you here to save the world? To purify everything?"

"Let us bow down to the Ashbringer!"

William shouted three sentences in a row and knelt down on one knee before the two strangers walking towards him.

Holy crap!

Upon seeing the high lord's female companion, a leather-armored thief completely covered up couldn't help but complain to the smug T2 paladin, "Could you please change your awful name?!"

"Relax, I think it's fine." A pleasant female voice came from the mouth of the paladin, who was dressed as a strong man. Behind the paladin was the exaggeratedly designed artifact of the Scarlet Crusade, Ashbringer.

After saying this, the two women started playfully fighting in front of William, mentioning the Scarlet Crusade in their conversation.

"To be honest, the Scarlet Crusade is really pathetic. Even in this version, with an open world, they still haven't been redeemed."

"People say we're prejudiced and cruel... Ha, maybe they're right," William sighed, trying to strike up a conversation with them. He knew that strangers always liked to hear stories of the past that only the locals knew.

Like many skilled strangers, the lord ignored him and instead dragged away his female companion. The two swaggered onto their golden warhorses.

William was frustrated, though it was normal. Strangers loved to hear stories, but since they didn't ask him, he couldn't continue.

"How about I kill him?" The leather-armored thief seemed eager to try, her eyes, hidden behind her red mask, constantly sizing him up and down.

"Not much. He'll drop five copper coins or his tattered leather armor. Keep it for him; he'll be patrolling the camp near Brill later and buying cherries from the wandering merchants there."

"Wow! Is this game really that overpowered now? The NPCs are being boosted by AI to this extent?"

"Not only that, sometimes when I followed him, I would see him buy a cherry for 5 copper coins. Keep in mind that we only use 1 copper coin."

"I never thought an NPC would lie to another NPC. He's such a pitiful NPC..."

The two strangers chatted for a while, then rode away from the area.

William watched their departing figures as they walked away from the monastery, then continued his patrol between Brier's camp and the monastery.

Tirisfal Glades, once the site of the capital city of Lordaeron, is now a terrifying forest littered with ruins and permeated with the aura of the undead. Countless dangers lurk in the shadows, perpetually gloomy, dark, and devoid of sunlight. Although the world has been remade, with all models and maps significantly upgraded, this forest has not improved; in fact, it has become even more terrifying.

Strangers from Brill or the former royal city of Lordaeron often liked to knock on his door a few times on their way to the monastery.

But this time, no strangers bothered him on the road.

He made it to the crossroads outside Brill's camp and found the traveling merchant who was also there.

However, he happened to have guests.

"Fresh cherries, one copper coin each!" the shopkeeper shouted enthusiastically, selling cherries to the undead strangers bouncing around him.

"Buy a few more cherries, lest you run out of food and get surrounded and killed by distemper dogs."

"Ugh, my backpack is too small. This NPC sells 6-slot bags for 5 gold each, and I don't have any. Do any of you have any? Oh well, I'm going to grind monsters and sell the junk to buy a bag, and maybe gain some experience too."

William slowly walked over and stood in front of the crowd of strangers, staring intently at the busy boss.

For every copper coin the shopkeeper took, he gave out a cherry. For some reason, he remembered that he always bought a cherry for five copper coins. He also thought about what the foreign lord and his companion had said earlier.

"An NPC who got scammed by another NPC..."

William knew that the NPCs the strangers were referring to were them.

"This isn't fair!"

William started shouting at his boss, while the strangers around them watched the spectacle with excited leaps and bounds. Then they slowly disappeared into the woods, going about their own business.

William only snapped out of his reverie when the dim Tirisfal Glades grew darker and the streetlights began to illuminate the dark forest.

Holding the money bag containing the twenty-odd silver coins that his boss had given him as compensation, he suddenly felt lost.

Throughout the year, he always followed a fixed route, patrolling the territory between Scarlet Monastery and Brill. If he could reach the merchants in Brill, he would buy a cherry with his money, and then return to the Scarlet Monastery's military camp to sleep when he had no money left.

The next day, repeat today's actions: patrol and buy some cherries. Or, get killed on the spot by strangers attacking you on the road, then respawn and continue living your life as before.

From the time he became conscious, he did this day after day, patrolling and wandering in the woods, living an unchanging life.

But today is different.

He now had a money bag containing twenty silver coins in his hand.

What can you do with this money?

Have a big meal and drinks at a hotel near the monastery, and enjoy a delicious glass of rum.

Or perhaps...

William gazed at the distant mountains in the dark forest... a world he had never seen before.

Should we take them with us and venture out into the world beyond the mountains?

After standing there for a long time, William turned and left. He deviated from the route he had never taken since he became conscious. He came to the east bank of Clearwater Lake, where he first stood on the shore, then chose a small, high slope to quietly look at the scenery he had never seen before.

The sky was forever shrouded in an ominous dark green, reflecting a cold, grayish-blue color onto the lake, devoid of life. Along the shore were withered trees with purplish-black bark, their broken branches leaning precariously in the water, swollen and blackened from being soaked. Occasionally, rotten branches and leaves floated on the surface, slowly swirling in the breeze.

"Is this Cheshui Lake?"

William never imagined that the vast lake beside the forest he patrolled would be like this.

Night fell completely, and the dim moon hung in the sky, casting a green glow on the woods. A gentle breeze caressed William, bringing him a sense of relaxation and comfort he had never felt before. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but the feeling was wonderful.

"Hey! There's an NPC admiring the scenery?!"

An unsettling sound came from behind William, causing his heart to skip a beat for no apparent reason. This unprecedented tension and palpitation made him instinctively turn and run towards the monastery.

He is a stranger in a foreign land.

They...they're going to kill me!

"Holy crap, why did you run away? You shouldn't have come to fight me!"

"Don't run!"

William ran with a pounding heart, not daring to look back at the strangers behind him. For in the past year, he had died countless times at the hands of these strangers.

Now that death is about to come again, he is somewhat fascinated by all of this, which he has never really looked at carefully before.

A chill suddenly gathered behind me, the air seemed to freeze, and a deathly oppressive feeling started from my spine and spread to the back of my head.

"charge!"

The stranger behind him shouted loudly, his body streaking towards William in a blinding silver light. He was forced to stop, instinctively raising the oak shield in his left hand.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The impacts occurred several times on the oak shield, but William did not feel any physical harm.

"Huh? Such a high block?"

The stranger leaped high into the air, his greatsword slashing down fiercely, grazing William's body. The crimson light on the blade made William instinctively hold his breath, reflecting on his terrified face.

"Holy crap! How come Heroic Strike missed again?"

Fear had never gripped William so deeply, and when it reached its peak, he could no longer hold back.

"Remnants of the calamity, die!" William roared, his body trembling, as he breathed heavily. He raised his oak shield horizontally and slammed it into the forehead of the stranger's spirit. The latter staggered back two steps, his tattered helmet shattering instantly.

William didn't really know how to fight, but he had died too many times. This was a method he had seen foreigners use. In desperation, he used it instinctively.

But this meant nothing to the stranger, who was protected by the gods. The latter only took a few steps back before trying to charge forward again.

With his shield held high before his chest, William shoved the still-unsteady stranger to the ground. Under the latter's incredulous gaze, he bent down and plunged the broken blade into his rotting chest.

"Damn... I got killed by a level 1 monster..."

The stranger had lost his life, and William was still panting, his trembling hands unable to steady themselves.

He knew it was no use; this stranger was protected by the gods, and his soul would be resurrected here under their protection.

Once he resurrects, he'll definitely seek revenge. Strangers are all vengeful; he once saw a stranger get bitten to death by a plague hound because he was standing still and AFK. But after he resurrected, he spent the entire afternoon killing plague hounds around him.

They stripped the skin and meat off completely, and then they even had the nerve to cook and barbecue right there on the spot...

So, there's no way to hide now.

In order to avoid being killed and to be able to breathe freely and observe nature, William had to do everything in his power to ensure that this stranger would never dare to lay a hand on him again.

Just as William was about to find a place to hide, he noticed a pale blue flame rising from the body of the dead stranger.

It pounced on William, setting his entire body ablaze with golden light that illuminated the dark forest.