An unlucky transmigration

Midsummer of year sixteen after the opening of the Dark Portal, Elwynn Forest, Stormwind City.

A magnificent, imposing city had risen from the ruins.

The stone buildings here, much like the flourishing Kingdom of Stormwind itself, grew taller by the day. As their beautiful homeland was rebuilt, the nobles of Stormwind City, great and small, who had fled to the northern continent during the Second War gradually began returning home, adding a little more life to this reborn city.

Yet, as the city's reconstruction neared completion, Stormwind City seemed somewhat unsettled of late. Discordant notes had arisen out of nowhere amid the nobles' laughter and merriment.

Under the glaring sun, Felix Walkpatin took off his work gloves, which had long since turned black, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Had he not still cared about his appearance, he would probably have already stripped off his blue work clothes and gone bare-chested alongside his fellow workers.

"Say, when are they going to pay us?" A stonemason put down his hammer and stretched, a hint of impatience in his voice.

"I don't know." Another worker beside him was still hard at work adding bricks to the stone wall before him. "But didn't Guildmaster Edwin VanCleef already tell us? He's spoken with Countess Katrana and His Majesty Wrynn, and the Council of Nobles will get the money to us soon."

"Soon? How soon is soon?" The first stonemason looked visibly indignant. "VanCleef said the same thing months ago! If you ask me, those nobles probably got together and pocketed our money!"

"How can you think that?" The second worker immediately put a stop to this propaganda against the Kingdom of Stormwind. "His Majesty Varian Wrynn would never let something like that happen!"

Felix sighed. He knew that, most unfortunately, the first worker had guessed right.

Yes, he was someone who had transmigrated, and he had been in this world for nearly a week.

Li Hua, a good-for-nothing college student who always liked to wait until the week before his finals to start previewing his new coursework, had merely logged into the live servers and made a trip to Undercity. Then, to his astonishment, he discovered-

There were living human NPCs everywhere here?

In a sense, the most terrifying thing about Tirisfal Glades was that it was actually sunny and warm here. Rows of poplars swayed, and children chased one another and played on the grass near the gates of Undercity.

It was like a nightmare. Everything had been horribly turned upside down.

There should have been no sunshine in Tirisfal Glades, no light, no lush green grass, and no children's laughter.

Tirisfal should have been a place where the sun never shone, the sky was forever dim, everything was blanketed in a devastating dark green, and trees and other plants were forever withered, because this was a hell on earth forged by the Scourge Plague.

Faced with this scene of brilliant sunshine and people living and working in peace, Li Hua felt utterly shaken.

Yet before he could even say "What the fuck," he felt excruciating pain without any warning. Then everything went black, and he arrived in this familiar yet unfamiliar world of Azeroth, becoming Felix Walkpatin.

The original Felix had also been an unfortunate soul. He had lost both parents during the war against the orcs and lived alone, with no mouths to feed but his own.

Transmigrating to the Kingdom of Stormwind should have been a stroke of luck. After all, it would later become the Alliance's capital, a city upon a hill, and Azeroth's undisputed beacon nation.

Transmigrating to Stratholme in year twenty after the opening of the Dark Portal and hearing two men and a woman arguing fiercely at the city gates first thing in the morning-that would have been a truly hellish start.

The Kingdom of Stormwind was a fine place to transmigrate to, but damn it, why did Felix have to be an unlucky stonemason?

Felix knew that within a few months, everyone in the Stonemasons' Guild who had no value as a political ally would be driven out of Stormwind City by the Council of Nobles and turn to banditry in Westfall.

Then, over the next few years, they would gradually degenerate into robbers and outlaws, ultimately falling to righteous Alliance adventurers and becoming medals of merit for millions of Highlords.

No, I have to get out of the Stonemasons' Guild, fast!

The next day, at the Cathedral of Light in Stormwind City.

"I'm sorry, child. Though the Holy Light blesses everyone equally, you cannot prove your devotion to the Holy Light, can you? So, I'm afraid you must undergo more trials before you can shoulder the great responsibility of serving the Holy Light."

The elderly priest bishop before Felix gave a kind, gentle smile. His snow-white beard hung naturally down to his chest, and together with his priestly robes gleaming with golden light, it made him look positively ethereal, removed from the mortal world.

His exquisitely crafted priest's staff and splendid silk robes all proclaimed the exalted status of this priest. Yet within the Cathedral of Light, there were countless priests whose status was higher than his.

"The Holy Light loves all people." Felix immediately pressed his palms together, his eyes almost closed. "The Holy Light guides my soul. It grants me strength, not only giving me the courage to face hardships, but also the power to better help others. I hope to devote my body and soul to the Holy Light and, under its guidance, face my true self and become a better person."

"Your Grace, I hope you will give me an opportunity to serve the Holy Light."

The bishop gently shook his head. He looked as though he was already about to be moved by Felix's sincere, well-intentioned lies. But just as Felix thought success was assured, the bishop spoke.

"I'm sorry, child, but this doesn't prove that your faith in the Holy Light surpasses that of ordinary people, does it? If we accepted you on that basis, it would be terribly unfair to everyone else."

This threw cold water on Felix's hopes. He was about to argue his case, but just then, he heard a series of smacks and slaps.

Looking toward the sound, Felix noticed several children who had already become apprentice priests playing and roughhousing freely here.

These children gave off a refreshing fragrance, clearly the effect of some unknown perfume. On their lightweight silk robes, gems, pendants, and gold thread formed an elaborate pattern that accentuated their noble bearing. Of course, more importantly-

Wealth.

By Felix's conservative estimate, even if the nobles of Stormwind City dutifully paid his wages on time, and even if he neither ate nor drank and worked diligently here for his entire life, he would still never be able to afford robes like those.