Lin Yu's Death Wish

Sylvanas's face alternated between pale and flushed, as though she was struggling over whether to believe Lin Yu.

"Actually, you don't need to agonize over whether to believe me. It's such a simple matter. Why worry about it?"

Seeing her hesitation, Lin Yu said, "Just find a way to completely sever a few high elves' connection to the Sunwell, then see what happens. Wouldn't that settle it?"

"You're right!" For once, Sylvanas agreed with Lin Yu. She wanted to sever her own connection to the Sunwell first and see whether she experienced the terrifying symptoms of Arcane Addiction he had described.

Lin Yu smiled. "Whatever you do, don't use yourself as a test subject. As far as I know, the rangers were the healthiest after losing the Sunwell, and you happen to be a ranger. You'd be better off finding people from several different professions, or some civilians. You'll need more samples to get an accurate picture."

Sylvanas felt as though Lin Yu could read her mind. He had seen straight through everything she was thinking. She stared at him in surprise, as though seeing him for the first time.

Lin Yu shook his head with a smile. "Don't look at me like that, or I'll think you've fallen in love with me!"

He stroked his face and said with shameless vanity, "I am pretty handsome, actually!"

Sylvanas rolled her eyes and gave him a thoroughly scornful look.

"Ahem!" Lin Yu felt a little embarrassed. He feigned a couple of coughs, then said sheepishly, "What I'm trying to tell you is that testing only yourself won't help. All high elves have some degree of Arcane Addiction, but some are more dependent than others. Different individuals will produce different results."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Sylvanas suddenly asked.

"Why?" Lin Yu tilted his head and thought for quite a while before saying, "Maybe because I like you. Maybe because I'm happy. Maybe because I want to change a few things. Honestly, even I don't really know why."

When he finished, he laughed at himself, then laughed without a care in the world.

I'm actually saying all this to an NPC. Do I really think I can change the tragic history Blizzard gave the high elves? Can history change because of a few words from me? I'm being far too naive! For a moment, he felt positively innocent.

"You like me?" Sylvanas asked.

"Yeah. Is that not allowed?" Lin Yu asked in surprise. "You're Azeroth's number-one lady! The Red Dragon Queen Tarecgosa, the Green Dragon Queen Ysera, the Black Dragon Princess Onyxia-they've got nothing on you! Never mind that annoying Granny Tyrande and that little brat Jaina. They aren't even worthy of carrying your shoes."

"You... why do you start fooling around after barely two sentences? Can't you speak seriously?" Sylvanas was exasperated. She thought Lin Yu was flirting with her. And she wasn't wrong; he really was flirting with her.

Lin Yu froze, then said in all seriousness, "How am I fooling around? I'm being as serious as I possibly can. You have no idea how amazing you are. I think you're the strongest, most beautiful, most talented woman in Azeroth. Not one of the best-the best. You don't know how many people would fight for you. Is it so strange that I'm one of them?"

This time, Lin Yu wasn't spouting nonsense with a straight face. Didn't practically all the Horde players online shout about fighting for their queen? How many shouted about fighting for the Horde? Her reputation as Azeroth's number-one lady and queen of popularity wasn't just hot air!

Even if this was a dream and the NPCs were more intelligent, their personalities should still be more or less the same as in the original game.

Sylvanas's mouth formed an O, and her face flushed crimson. No one had ever said anything so overt to her face. Most men she met were afraid of her, and only a handful could exchange more than a few words with her.

Her adjutant, Lor'themar Theron, for instance, was always perfectly proper. At most, he might make a harmless joke or two. Who had ever been this direct?

"I'm telling you the absolute truth. I swear!" Lin Yu said solemnly.

"You..." Sylvanas was embarrassed-truly embarrassed this time. Without looking back, she hurried away.

Her thoughts were in a tangle, and her heart pounded. As though fleeing from something, she rushed back to her own command tent. That bastard! That idiot! How can he say such romantic things with such a serious face? Sylvanas thought resentfully.

Lin Yu fell asleep on the bed in his tent, thoroughly satisfied. After getting a taste of the queen's charms, he could finally enjoy a good night's sleep. Before drifting off, he decided that when he got home from work tomorrow, he absolutely had to log onto his Hunter character and visit her in the palace in Undercity.

At seven the next morning, Lin Yu woke up right on schedule-and promptly lost his mind. He hadn't woken up on his own Simmons mattress, but on the hard wooden bed in the military tent. Everything around him was exactly as it had been in yesterday's dream. He reached up, grabbed one of his long, pointed ears, and gave it a hard tug.

"Owww..." A resounding howl rang through the camp, drawing a group of ranger recruits to his tent.

"That fucking hurts!" Tears streamed down Lin Yu's face, partly from the pain and partly because he couldn't return to reality.

I like playing World of Warcraft, but that doesn't mean I want to become one of its NPCs! This world is full of fighting and killing. It isn't safe at all! It's only good for playing in. How am I supposed to live here?

Lin Yu regretted it. He regretted ever playing World of Warcraft, and he regretted choosing a Blood Elf even more. Wouldn't life have been much more peaceful as a Night Elf?

The thought of the Arcane Addiction awaiting the Blood Elves made him tremble uncontrollably. He had seen people suffering from drug withdrawal, and he was terrified.

He had never trusted his own willpower. He had tried to quit smoking several times and failed every time. He didn't think he could withstand Arcane Addiction, which sounded even worse than drug addiction.

"A dream. This has to be a dream. I must be dreaming!" Lin Yu scurried aimlessly back and forth inside the tent, muttering in panic, "I have to wake up. I have to go back!"

Suddenly, he stopped, his eyes fixed on a saber resting on a weapon rack.

If sleeping won't wake me up, and pain won't wake me up, will dying do it? He picked up the saber and held it against his neck several times, but couldn't bring himself to do it. Then he tried pointing it at his heart, but didn't dare push hard. Finally, he sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, his head hanging in defeat.

He didn't have the courage to kill himself. Honestly, he now thought anyone who dared commit suicide was a warrior. Lu Xun had said that true warriors dared to face the bleakness of life head-on. People who killed themselves killed even that last bleak life of theirs. That made them fiercer than warriors.

Lin Yu was no warrior, nor was he some fearless man even fiercer than a warrior. He might kill himself without hesitation in a game, but now he truly didn't dare

do anything so brutal to himself. Finally, he gritted his teeth, picked up the saber, and walked out of the tent.

The recruits under his command had long since gathered outside his tent. The tremendous commotion inside their captain's tent had caught their attention, but since they didn't know what was happening, none of them dared enter uninvited.

Now they watched their handsome, dashing, charming, wise, and mighty captain emerge from his tent with disheveled clothes, a saber in hand, and his head hanging low. They were all baffled.

Delighted to see so many people, Lin Yu grabbed one of them, shoved the saber into his hands, and said, "Kill me."

"What?" The recruit thought he had misheard.

"You heard me. Kill me! That's an order!" Lin Yu said solemnly.

The terrified recruit dropped the saber on the ground and stood there trembling, not daring to say a word.

Lin Yu glared at him in frustration, then pulled over another recruit. "He doesn't dare. You do it!" He picked up the saber and tried to shove it into the recruit's hands.

That recruit burst into tears and refused to take it, no matter what.

"What are you crying for? I'm the one who's going to die, not you! What are you afraid of?" Lin Yu snapped bitterly.

Instead, the recruit cried even harder. He desperately hid his hands behind his back and sobbed, "Captain, I can't do it! Ask someone else!"

"Coward! If you don't even dare kill me, how are you going to kill enemies in battle? How are you going to become a veteran? How are you going to take down a big boss?" Lin Yu looked utterly disappointed in him. His gaze wandered as he searched for another candidate.

All the recruits suddenly backed away in unison, widening the circle around him, afraid they would be grabbed next.

"You..." Lin Yu was too furious to speak. Is it really this hard even to die? I refuse to believe it!

"Everyone, return to your quarters immediately! Get fully armed and assemble here at once!" he shouted.

That was a perfectly normal military order, nothing like the terrifying demands from before. The recruits scattered and raced back as though they had been granted a reprieve. Before long, they had assembled again in full gear.

"Face that big tree and form two staggered ranks!" Lin Yu shouted.

The recruits obeyed.

"Take out your bows and aim at the bull's-eye drawn on the tree," Lin Yu ordered.

He had drawn that bull's-eye at the height of his own heart while the recruits were back in their quarters.

Amid a harsh chorus of bowstrings being drawn, the recruits deftly followed his order.

Lin Yu walked over and stood against the tree, his back to the bull's-eye and his face toward the recruits. "Loose!" he roared.