The next day, 8:00 a.m.
Gabryell and the other three logged in right on time.
They were on time.
Blizzard's servers were not.
The login screen still would not connect, as if some intern had tripped over the server rack and no one at Blizzard had noticed.
"Are you kidding me?" Igor snapped. "Didn't they say maintenance was eight hours? Why are the servers still down?"
The update was supposedly finished, but the game still could not be reached. He was already one failed login away from cursing out the entire company.
Hugo complained, "The servers lag on a normal day, and now they can't even get it up when it matters?"
Carlos was much more direct.
"Blizzard, you clowns!"
"Calm down," Gabryell said. "Take a breath. Grab a Mountain Dew or something."
He had already expected this. If Blizzard's servers actually opened on time, that would have been the real miracle. Even future servers, more than a decade later, still crashed from time to time. Expecting 2004 servers to behave perfectly was asking too much.
"I told you not to rush back," he said. "Blizzard isn't getting this done in exactly eight hours."
Back at the cafeteria, Gabryell had wanted to keep eating, but his three impatient roommates had dragged him back to the dorm, insisting they had to be online the second the servers opened.
"Not eight hours?" Carlos's eyes widened. "How long, then?"
"Could be ten. Could be more."
Never overestimate Blizzard's server stability. If the servers came back after only ten hours of maintenance, that would already be worth praising.
"I'm taking a nap," Gabryell said. "Wake me when the servers are up."
He lay down immediately. There was plenty of time for a second round of sleep.
As expected, he slept for three hours.
It was not until around eleven in the morning that Blizzard finally dragged the servers back from the dead, and players could log in normally.
"Finally!" Carlos looked like he had aged ten years. "That was actual torture."
Gabryell was the most comfortable one in the room. He stretched lazily and sat up.
"See? I told you there was no rush. I know Blizzard too well."
Carlos glared at him. "The guild has been flaming Blizzard for three hours, and you, the guild leader, slept through the whole thing."
Gabryell sat down at his computer, but he did not enter the game right away. Instead, he logged into Fearless Corp's trading platform.
"Add game time first, then log in."
Igor and Hugo had already rushed into the game, only to get stopped by the subscription prompt.
"Buy it through our own platform," Gabryell said. "No reason to give someone else the cut."
He quickly bought prepaid World of Warcraft game time codes through the platform. Each one was slightly cheaper than buying directly at full price.
The process was fully automated. Once the purchase went through, the platform sent the code straight to the user's account page, where it could be redeemed on Blizzard's official site.
Fearless Corp was not eating the discount themselves. They had already partnered with Blizzard as a distributor, which let them get prepaid game time stock at a lower price.
Low margin, high volume.
Game time codes were only a side product on the trading platform. The real profit came from player-to-player transactions.
The platform's daily transaction volume was rising sharply. If it kept developing at this pace, it would not be long before they could open trading channels for other games and grow into a major online game marketplace, something on the level of IGE.
After adding game time, the four of them finally entered the game.
"Looks the same," Hugo said after loading into Ironforge. "I thought launch would feel more dramatic."
Gabryell said, "It's a version update, not a whole new game. What were you expecting, a new Ironforge?"
Only much later, as World of Warcraft kept expanding, would the graphics gradually change. By the time he was reborn, Retail WoW had taken on a style many old players could not get used to. Plenty of veterans would rather stay in Classic than move to Retail.
"Why are there so few people?" Hugo looked around. "Did everyone quit?"
There were only a dozen or so players in Ironforge. The city felt strangely empty.
If no one played, what was the point?
Gabryell said, "A lot of players probably haven't figured out their subscription yet. Once they do, Ironforge will fill back up."
"WoW is way too fun for everyone to quit," Carlos said. "Give it half an hour. Blizzard's trash servers will have queues again."
"Then let's hurry," Hugo said. "I don't want to fight half the server for quest mobs."
Everyone was level 45 now, and no one had a level advantage anymore. If they did not start moving immediately, the next wave of players would flood into the same zones and fight over every mob. By then, a single quest could easily take an hour.
"You guys go straight to Tanaris," Gabryell said. "Turn in the quests you saved, then keep questing there until you run out. After that, go to Feralas. Once Feralas dries up, go to Un'Goro Crater, then the Western and Eastern Plaguelands."
Right now, they had to stay ahead of the leveling army.
"Where are Un'Goro and the Plaguelands?"
Gabryell and the others had already been to Feralas on the way back from Maraudon, opening the flight paths at Feathermoon Stronghold and Thousand Needles along the way.
"Un'Goro is west of Tanaris," Gabryell said. "For the Plaguelands, go through the Alterac Mountains."
The route he gave them could take them from level 45 all the way to 60 through questing. Once Carlos and the others reached 58, they could start important chains like the Onyxia attunement and use those to push the rest of the way.
"Why isn't Luna online yet?" Hugo asked, already anxious.
Lunatori was clearly the only thing on his mind.
Lunatori came online.
Hugo instantly perked up. "Quick, invite Luna."
Gabryell invited her to the party.
"I was adding game time," Lunatori said after joining. "That's why I'm a little late."
"Not late at all," Hugo said immediately. "We just got in too."
His talent for sucking up was getting stronger by the day. Apparently, being a suck-up was not a class limited to broke losers.
DesertWanderer came online.
Seeing him log in, Gabryell immediately sent an invite.
"Desert, quest with Carlos and the others."
"Got it."
Gabryell remembered they did not have a Mage with them, so he conjured a large amount of food and water, then traded some to each person.
"This should last half a day. If you run out, come to Gadgetzan and I'll bring more."
He would be AoE farming in the Zul'Farrak graveyard, and his Hearthstone was set to Gadgetzan, so delivering food and water would be convenient.
"No time to waste. Go, go, go."
Gabryell left the party and used his Hearthstone on the spot, heading straight to Gadgetzan. By then, the number of players in Ironforge was already starting to climb.
The other five, whose Hearthstones were still set to Ironforge, flew to Menethil Harbor, took the boat to Theramore Isle, then flew to Gadgetzan.
Gabryell arrived in Gadgetzan and headed straight for Zul'Farrak to continue his treasure hunt.
As he ran, he opened his friends list.
Not many people were online.
Dreamshade still had not logged in, which did not fit his usual leveling-maniac style.
Danielly and Smooch were missing too. They probably had morning classes and could not log in yet.
"Coldhands actually got on early."
Gabryell sent him a whisper.
"You brat, hurry up and level in the Zul'Farrak graveyard."
Coldhands was surprised.
"I'm already 45. Does ZF graveyard still give XP?"
"It does," Gabryell replied. "You can farm it all the way to 52."
Solo farming the Zul'Farrak graveyard to level 52 was still more efficient than fighting crowds for outdoor quests. After that, Coldhands could skip Un'Goro and Feralas and go straight to the Western Plaguelands, avoiding the main leveling wave again.
"I'm coming right now."
Coldhands was already a qualified ZF graveyard driver. Three runs an hour was easy for him. At this point, aside from Gabryell, he was probably the richest player in the game: a hidden tycoon.
Gabryell had another reason for sending him there.
He wanted Coldhands to reach level 60 as soon as possible. Once that happened, Gabryell could borrow his account and run double-Mage Stratholme, boosting Carlos and the others directly toward 60.