When Gabryell saw the name "Madhouse," his brows furrowed. The other three had never heard of the guild, but as a reincarnator, if he didn't know it, he might as well delete his character and quit the game.
It had been the number one guild on Tichondrius during Vanilla. The player who opened the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj on that server was their main tank.
But its greatest achievement wasn't opening the gates—it was becoming the first guild on Tichondrius to fully clear Naxxramas. Across all servers during Vanilla, the guild had easily ranked among the top three.
"How could it be Madhouse?"
Gabryell wasn't surprised it had formed so early; the group already had quite a few beta players.
What puzzled him was something else entirely. The guild had long been one of the old guard in the MMO scene, and they followed a strict creed—"Honor is my life."
Humility, integrity, compassion, justice, bravery, sacrifice, honor, and nobility were the principles they claimed to live by. Threatening another guild over recruitment didn't exactly fit that image.
"Gabryell… is this serious?"
Seeing his expression darken, Carlos asked, "Should we log in and head over there together?"
Gabryell shook his head. "No need. I'll handle it myself in Goldshire. You guys go eat first—just bring me something back."
"You sure you don't want us there?"
Carlos still sounded uneasy. "We're almost level 14. If things turn into a fight, they won't stand a chance against us."
Gabryell remained calm. "There won't be a fight."
Carlos frowned. "Why not?"
Gabryell explained, "World of Warcraft works differently from other games. Players are split into two factions—the Alliance and the Horde. Except in a few specific areas, players from the same faction can't attack each other."
Carlos finally understood. "So they can't PK David and the others?"
Gabryell nodded. "Right. David and the others didn't play the beta, so they got spooked. If PvP were actually possible, those guys would've attacked them already. Why bother with something as clumsy as threatening people through whispers?"
He also didn't believe the guild would cross the line by asking Horde players to come all the way over just to kill David's group. If they really did something like that, they'd basically be betraying the Alliance—and every Alliance player on the server would turn on them.
Once they understood that same-faction PvP wasn't possible, Carlos and the others finally relaxed.
"Then we'll head to the cafeteria and grab something to eat," Carlos said. "We'll bring you something back."
Gabryell guided his mage out of the inn and toward the flight master. "Go ahead."
He mounted a gryphon and flew to Stormwind, then took the road south toward Goldshire.
Goldshire was packed and incredibly lively. The small town was overflowing with players, and the chat channel kept scrolling with lines of white text. At that moment, nearly half the server seemed to be gathered in Goldshire, while the rest were still grinding in the starting zones.
"David, invite me."
He sent him a whisper.
A moment later, the party invite popped up.
He accepted and joined the group.
"You're finally here. The Madhouse guys are in the inn right now—there are more than twenty of them."
David immediately started venting. Although Fearless already had forty or fifty members, most of them were casual players who preferred to solo.
Madhouse, on the other hand, was an old-school MMO guild. They had been around since the late '90s and had made a name for themselves back in the early days of games like Ultima Online and Tibia.
David didn't dare make decisions on his own or call the Fearless members in Goldshire to help. He was worried it might trigger a large-scale clash with them.
Since he hadn't played the beta, his mindset was still shaped by the MMOs he'd played before. In those games, when two guilds clashed, it usually escalated straight into a full-scale guild war.
Gabryell felt it was necessary to clear things up.
"World of Warcraft works differently from other MMOs. Except in certain areas—like Stranglethorn Vale or the Gordok Arena in Dire Maul—players from the same faction can't force PvP on each other."
To demonstrate, he sent David a duel request.
David accepted.
A moment later, the duel was over.
Gabryell had beaten him easily.
"Same-faction players can duel by planting a flag," he explained. "But the loser doesn't die."
"In the future, try not to duel out in the open. A nearby mob—or even a passing Horde player—could finish you off."
Gabryell had seen this kind of trick before. In some games, players would arrange a duel, then have a hidden enemy faction player jump in at the last second to steal the kill.
It was a cheap move—but it happened more often than people liked to admit.
David listened and cursed.
"Damn, so they can't PK us? That means they were just bluffing?"
Gabryell nodded. "Exactly. They must've played the beta. That's why they tried this trick to scare new players. Most people would back down after getting threatened like that."
Susie snorted. "Then they picked the wrong targets. We're not scared. If PvP were actually possible, we wouldn't back down from them."
SevenDays scoffed. "They're lucky same-faction PvP isn't a thing. Otherwise we'd kill every Madhouse player we ran into."
"Yeah," someone added. "If we could PvP them, we'd wipe the floor with them."
DontPanicHealz chuckled. "With a name like that, it's a waste not rolling Shadow Priest."
Gabryell had come to Goldshire to deal with the situation. After David and the others finished venting, he spoke again.
"Let's head to the inn. Fearless doesn't start trouble, but that doesn't mean we're afraid of it. If they try anything underhanded, we'll deal with it."
With that, he led the group toward the Lion's Pride Inn.
The inn was packed with players. The innkeeper was almost completely buried in the crowd of characters clustered around her. Fortunately she was just an NPC—if this were real life, she'd probably have been trampled already.
"They're not here?"
David looked around, confused.
"That can't be right. I clearly saw their people come into the inn. Where did they go? Did they log out?"
"Second floor," Gabryell said.
They headed upstairs.
Sure enough, in a room on the right side of the second floor, they found the Madhouse group gathered together. The players were packed so tightly it was hard to count, but there were roughly twenty-seven or twenty-eight of them.
This was just their group in Goldshire. Gabryell was certain there were more elsewhere—they were simply spread across different areas and hadn't all joined the guild yet.
"Huh… the ones who whispered us earlier aren't here."
David moved his cursor over each character, checking their names one by one, but couldn't find the players who had sent the threatening whispers.
David and the others didn't notice anything unusual.
Gabryell did.
His gaze was fixed on one particular character.
Level 10 Human Rogue.
Name: Dreamshade.
"I didn't expect him to be here already… and already level 10."
David and the others didn't recognize the rogue.
But Gabryell certainly did.
Dreamshade was the guild master and raid leader of Madhouse's World of Warcraft division. Under his leadership, the guild would eventually become the first on Tichondrius to fully clear Naxxramas.
He was a legendary rogue on that server. In his previous life, Gabryell had admired him greatly. He never expected that after being reborn, they would meet like this.
Gabryell guided his mage forward.
At the same time, Dreamshade seemed to notice him and stepped toward him as well.
"Are you the guild master of Fearless?"
Dreamshade spoke first.
"I'm the guild master of Madhouse—Dreamshade."
Courtesy before conflict.
Since the other side had revealed his identity first, Gabryell saw no reason to hide his own.
"Ogabs. Guild master of Fearless."
The two characters stopped a few steps apart, facing each other.
If the surrounding crowd disappeared, the scene would look like two warriors standing in an arena, each representing the honor of their guild.