Leave Party.
Leave Guild.
Hearthstone.
Three clicks in a row. Gabryell watched his character reappear at the Stonefire Tavern in Ironforge, feeling completely numb.
"Damn, Ogabs quit the guild."
"What an idiot. Just because we told him he'd be last in line for Shadowflame and Tear, he rage-quit."
"That bastard. Took a full set of T1 and then left. Let's corpse-camp him in Ironforge."
"We already did him a favor by bringing him to Blackwing Lair. Talk about ungrateful."
Gabryell stayed in voice chat, listening to the nonstop trash talk with a faint, cold smile.
He had joined the guild four months ago. As one of its earliest members, he had attended every single raid since the guild's first event—the only Mage with perfect attendance.
Gabryell's guild, Iron Vanguard on WoW Classic, used a DKP system to distribute loot.
With perfect attendance, Gabryell ranked first in DKP among all casters. But because he wasn't part of the guild leadership's inner circle and had no clique backing him, every time a top-tier item dropped, they found one excuse after another to block him from bidding.
It happened with Ring of Spell Power, Choker of the Fire Lord, Talisman of Ephemeral Power, and Azuresong Mageblade. Despite leading all casters in both DPS and DKP, he got none of them. The guild leaders always found some excuse to give the items to their friends instead.
Four months of Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair had earned Gabryell nothing but leftover Tier 1 pieces—gear the guild's inner circle temporarily passed on so they could save DKP. As for Tier 2, he only had the helm so far. The legs hadn't dropped for him.
Blackwing had just opened in WoW Classic. After months of bottling up his frustration, Gabryell finally snapped tonight after the guild cleared the raid.
Tonight's Blackwing had been incredibly lucky: three Mage T2 pieces, Staff of the Shadow Flame, and Neltharion's Tear all dropped.
It should have been a mage's dream night.
"You've got full T1 already. Don't break your 8-piece—let the others grab T2 first."
"You got Dominance two lockouts ago. Pass on Shadowflame. Next caster drop is yours..."
"You want to stack spell power, right? When MQG drops, just dump all your DKP on it. I'll give Tear to someone else first so their DPS goes up. You taking it last shouldn't be a problem, right??"
The raid leader spoke earnestly, trying to persuade Gabryell not to bid.
The way he framed it, if Gabryell insisted on spending DKP, he'd be hurting team harmony and the guild's long-term progress. Meanwhile, the raid leader presented his own loot decisions as sacrifices made for the good of the team.
Gabryell sneered.
The raid leader was clearly prioritizing his friends and their little clique. After all, offending one person was far easier than offending an entire group.
Gabryell didn't bother arguing.
Given the guild's structure, arguing would only get him permanently benched. Once that happened, he'd never see another raid again.
So he chose a more extreme solution.
Three clicks in a row—leave party, leave guild, hearthstone.
He put as much distance as possible between himself and that garbage guild.
Gabryell cleared his addon data. In the raid of six Mages and two Warlocks, his DPS ranked first among all casters and second overall—only behind the Thunderfury Rogue who killed Vaelastrasz the Corrupt.
"From now on, I'm only running GDKP."
Gabryell opened his bags.
In the bottom corner sat 41,000 gold—everything he'd saved over six months of playing WoW Classic. Aside from potions and flasks, he barely spent anything.
Forty thousand gold was enough for him to buy a full Mage T2 set in a GDKP run, along with Shadowflame and Tear.
Why keep putting up with a DKP guild?
"Idiot."
"Trash."
"Took a Tier 1 set and ran? Just wait until we corpse-camp you in Ironforge."
He closed his bags.
His whisper window was completely flooded—every message an insult. The worst offenders were the raid leader's friends, including the two Mages with notoriously terrible DPS who had been given priority on Shadowflame and Tear.
Gabryell blocked them one by one.
A few minutes later, those shameless idiots switched to their alts and kept spamming insults. Left with no choice, Gabryell reported them all.
He logged out of the game, shut down his computer, and glanced at the time on his phone.
11:30 PM.
Forget it. Time to sleep.
Gabryell lay down and pushed the whole mess out of his mind. Before long, he fell asleep.
"Gabryell, wake up! World of Warcraft's open beta starts today!"
"Hurry up! If we're late, we won't even get into the servers!"
"If you don't get up now, all the good character names will be taken!"
Gabryell had no idea how long he had slept when someone shook him awake. Urgent voices rang in his ears.
World of Warcraft open beta? What the hell?
He had been playing WoW Classic for over four months and had never heard of any open beta. Was Blizzard opening testing for Patch 9.0 on the retail servers ahead of schedule?
Gabryell opened his eyes.
The blurry figures in front of him instantly jolted him awake.
THUNK!
He jumped up too quickly and slammed his head into the top bunk.
"Carlos, Igor, Hugo—what are you doing at my house?"
Gabryell stared at them in shock, forgetting even the pain in his head. He clearly remembered going to sleep—yet when he woke up, his three college roommates were standing by his bed.
"My house?"
Carlos, the dorm leader, reached out and touched Gabryell's forehead.
"No fever."
Hugo looked at Gabryell's stunned expression and said, "He's probably still half asleep. The guy even forgot today's the World of Warcraft open beta."
Hugo nodded.
"Yeah, yeah. Maybe he had some kind of weird dream last night and doesn't even know if he's in the dorm or at home."
Listening to them talk, Gabryell suddenly felt a headache coming on.
An unbelievable possibility flashed through his mind.
Gabryell jumped out of bed, ignoring the confused looks from his roommates as he looked around the room.
The dorm.
He really was in the dorm.
"Holy crap… no way. This is Room 301?"
He knew this place far too well. It was Dorm 301, where he had lived throughout college.
Even after thirteen years, he would never forget it.
"Of course it's 301. Where else would it be? Don't tell me you're hoping to move into the girls' dorm."
Hugo, who loved roasting people, gave him a disdainful look.
Gabryell's heart started pounding wildly.
As someone who had read countless web novels, if this wasn't a dream, a prank, or The Truman Show, there was only one possible explanation.
He had been reborn.
Back to his college years.
"Carlos… what's today's date?"
Gabryell stared intently at Carlos, the most reliable person in the dorm.
Carlos shifted uncomfortably under that stare.
"April 26, 2004."
April 26, 2004.
Gabryell's breathing sped up.
"You mean… the WoW open beta starts today?"
Carlos nodded.
"Yeah. The servers just opened. Everyone's rushing to create characters."
Memories of WoW's early days flooded back into Gabryell's mind.
In this world, Blizzard had launched a global open beta on April 26, 2004, drawing players from all over the world into Azeroth months before the official release.
Gabryell grabbed Carlos by the arm in excitement.
"Which company runs the WoW servers here?"
Carlos shook his hand off.
"Blizzard, obviously."
Blizzard.
Of course. Blizzard Entertainment both developed and operated the North American servers.
"Hahahaha—"
Gabryell walked to the window, pushed it open, and burst out laughing.
I'm back.
I'm really back.
Carlos, Igor, and Hugo looked at each other.
Their expressions were identical.
Apparently, Gabryell had finally lost his mind.