Wayne and Tess watched as the crowd outside grew more agitated.
The Grand Marshal was clearly losing his patience from signing so many autographs; being a superstar could be a burden sometimes.
As soon as he saw Wayne appear, he immediately pointed at him and shouted to the crowd, "There he is! He's the owner of the net cafe! He's the one who taught the Pandaren Master those boxing techniques!"
Like hounds spotting their prey, the group of warriors swarmed forward!
"Boss! I want to learn boxing!"
"Boss! I heard the registration fee is 5 gold. Is there a group discount?"
"Boss, can you really take on ten people at once?"
"Move aside, don't push! I'm a trainer—I should learn first so I can teach you all later!"
Tess quickly hid behind Wayne, while Wayne was forced back step by step by the encroaching crowd.
He thought to himself, Fists of Fury is a Monk skill. It'll be a miracle if you warriors can actually learn it...
He pointed to the wooden sign by the door and yelled, "Fair prices for all, no cheating! Endorsed by the Grand Marshal and the Pandaren Master! If you want to play, get in line at the door!"
Hearing this, the crowd scurried back to the entrance to form an orderly queue.
The Grand Marshal managed to shoo away the surrounding warriors with a few words like "Go train hard."
Dughan, while directing his guards to escort the Grand Marshal away and maintaining order, watched the crowd clutching handfuls of gold coins, fighting for a spot in line. He couldn't help but sigh with emotion...
To think that back then, he thought Wayne was wasting his life by not properly inheriting his uncle's blacksmith shop. Who would have guessed that the kid was now well on his way to becoming the richest man in Stormwind?
"Why do they get to go in first?!"
"Exactly! Get in line!"
"Just because she's a beauty she gets in first? I'm a beauty too!"
Wayne held up his hands. "They've been members for a long time. Members have their own queue. If you want to become a member, pay up quickly—there are only four spots left!"
Faced with such "scarcity marketing" and having seen the Grand Marshal of the Alliance "standing at the station" as an endorsement, the crowd—despite not seeing the legendary Pandaren Master—dived into the line to pay, lured by the temptation of the "Meteor Punch."
And so, Wayne registered the names and arranged seating while Tess handled the money and bookkeeping. The two were kept incredibly busy.
The warriors and trainers hadn't expected the net cafe's fees to be so high. After paying the 5-gold membership fee, many only had enough left for an hour or two of play. Even more people hadn't brought enough money at all; they simply gave up on the queue and crowded around the windows to watch.
But a small house only had so many windows, and they weren't enough for such a large audience.
Wayne returned to the cellar, hauled out a single screen, and hung it inside a window facing the door. The screen faced outward, broadcasting the third episode of Saint Seiya, which one of the new warrior players was currently watching.
On the screen, Cygnus Hyoga was battling Hydra Ichi in the Galaxian Wars.
Faced with Ichi's continuous venomous fang attacks, Hyoga didn't even bother to dodge. He practically stood there, letting his opponent strike him.
Although Ichi's fangs pierced Hyoga's Cloth several times, they were instantly frozen into icy shards by the intense cold aura.
Onlooker A: "I heard... the duel between the Grand Marshal and the Pandaren Master last night was exactly like this."
Onlooker B: "Like what? The Pandaren Master can use frost attacks too?"
Onlooker C: "Oh, don't you know? I heard that the Pandaren Master stood perfectly still and let the Grand Marshal hit him, but the Grand Marshal's punches just bounced off his body."
Onlooker D: "Is the Grand Marshal that..." he looked left and right, "...weak?"
Onlooker A: "He's strong enough to take on a hundred of us, but the Pandaren Master is just on another level."
Onlooker B: "My god, I see. So the owner of this net cafe can actually teach the Pandaren Master boxing?"
Onlooker C: "Exactly. Don't let his youth fool you; he's a hidden master! That's why he single-handedly drove off dozens of Gnolls, including Hogger, and the Regent immediately knighted him."
The story on the screen was exciting, but the "stories" being told in the crowd were even more vivid.
The climax came at the end of the episode. After "teasing" and "trash-talking" Ichi, Hyoga stopped posing. He condensed a white, cold Cosmo and unleashed the "Diamond Dust," instantly shattering Ichi's Hydra Cloth into powder and successfully advancing to the next round.
As the punch landed and Hyoga claimed victory, the crowd watching the "live broadcast" outside erupted in gasps and cheers. Many began debating whether this punch or the "Meteor Punch" that supposedly defeated the Grand Marshal was stronger.
Inside the net cafe, four seats were booked for the day by Amy and other veteran players, while the other four rotated constantly among the new players in line. Almost everyone complained that there were too few seats, while those who had to stop after an hour or two because they ran out of money left reluctantly. Even after stepping out, they refused to leave, staying by the door to watch the screen for a while longer.
As the sun began to set and the light dimmed, three figures stabled their mounts and looked toward the crowd at the net cafe, which had decreased by nearly half.
It was Cantrebree and two teleporting mages.
She had heard rumors about the Goldshire Net Cafe before, but in her eyes, the bizarre tales were just fabricated hearsay. Even though she later heard that leaders of the Wizard's Sanctuary like Archmage Andromath and Northshire Marshal McBride had become regulars, she insisted they were just fake gimmicks used by the shop to attract business.
But now, as she looked around...
"Lyria! Jyssetta! Zaldimar! You really did sneak away from the guild to come here!"
"And Stormwind guards Quinn and Hammet..."
Seeing so many familiar faces in the swarming crowd, she realized the situation was even worse than the "worst-case scenario" she had anticipated.
"How is it possible... the scamming ability of this little shop is this strong? Even expert-level trainers and famous figures like Captain Melis from the Warrior's Guild were tricked into this?!"
She didn't make a sound but approached the crowd from behind. At that moment, the crowd erupted in another round of cheers.
On the screen, Seiya was fighting the "Black Pegasus." The two were trading blows with "Pegasus Meteor Punch" and "Black Meteor Punch." It was one of the few fights in the first arc of Saint Seiya with very little dialogue.
Since the broadcast had started from the third episode, the crowd had only seen the original Pegasus Meteor Punch when Seiya fought Dragon Shiryu. In that episode, Shiryu's shield was too strong, blocking all the Meteor Punches. Instead, Shiryu's "Rozan Rising Dragon Force"—which could make a waterfall flow backward—seemed much more powerful to everyone.
In this episode, however, Seiya used a single Meteor Punch to instantly kill the Black Pegasus, though he was also hit by the Black Meteor Punch, becoming heavily poisoned and falling off a cliff.
The people who had been watching for a while were already discussing whether it was feasible for a warrior's physical attacks to carry poison attribute damage. Cantrebree, who had only just arrived and seen this segment, could only think about getting closer to get a better look at that exchange of Meteor Punches.
"Who's the boss? I want to watch this! I have money!"
She asked loudly without even thinking; a swift and decisive manner was her usual style.
As for the promise she made to General Jetharys this morning... it had long been tossed to the back of her mind.
To her surprise, everyone else turned to look at her at once. With unified dissatisfaction, they barked out two words in unison:
"GET! IN! LINE!"