Chen closed the door and relayed to Wayne what Andomath and Saidan Dathrohan had told him that day.
Yesterday, Marshal Windsor had appeared at the gates of Stormwind under the escort of a small SI:7 squad.
But facing his former commanding officer, the Royal Guard—
A Blood Elf female rogue with yellow eyes, a Night Elf male Druid with green eyes, and a man... who looked exactly like King Varian, yet called himself "Lo'Gosh" — a human Warrior.
And he told everyone present that he was the true King of Stormwind.
At that moment, Saidan Dathrohan — who had "heard the news" but was in fact already prepared — arrived on the scene.
Windsor made his way into the throne room. The moment Katrana saw him, she immediately cried out for the guards to seize him, charging everyone present with high treason and condemning them all to death.
But Windsor didn't waste a single word on her. He simply began reading the Dragon Tongue from the stone tablets aloud.
Under the power of the incantation, Katrana instantly revealed her true form — a massive Black Dragon.
Though many of those present had mentally prepared themselves, the truth still sent a shock through the room.
They could even see a scar running along her long neck — unmistakably the one Wayne had left.
Unbelievable, yet undeniable.
The one responsible for every strange event that had plagued Stormwind was now fully exposed before them all.
Up to this point, events had still followed the original timeline. And Onyxia, true to form, immediately raised her claws and swept them toward Windsor —
— but Saidan countered with Holy Shield, while Andomath instantly cast Ice Block, sealing himself inside a shell of ice that could withstand any blow.
At Windsor's side, the old veteran Maqubride raised his shield and threw up Shield Wall, throwing himself fully into protecting his comrades.
Onyxia's claw crashed against solid barrier. She then moved to unleash her signature move — Deep Breath — to incinerate everyone in the room at once. At that moment, Lady Valeera Sanguinar, concealed on the rafters overhead, kept her promise to Wayne and unleashed a ferocious arrow storm upon Onyxia's head. Bolvar, who had pulled the young Prince safely to one side, raised sword and shield and joined the fight.
These two elite combatants' interference cut off Onyxia's half-gathered energy completely.
Onyxia was powerful, and the Black Dragonspawn she had infiltrated into the palace — disguised as Royal Guards — all revealed their true forms and joined the battle. But against this well-prepared, high-caliber lineup, the dragonspawn were cut down one by one. Wounded, Onyxia beat her wings and fled Stormwind, flying west toward the sea.
As for the matter of two King Varians — one bold and fierce but hot-tempered and reckless, the other indecisive yet composed and graceful — no one had any idea what to do.
But in the chaos that followed, everyone suddenly realized: Prince Anduin was gone.
A sentry outside the city walls reported that he had seen the fleeing Black Dragon's front claws — and clutched within them was Anduin.
Both Kings gave the order to mobilize without a word of debate. And Lo'Gosh, before returning to Stormwind, had already visited Theramore, where he had met with Lady Jaina Proudmoore and her personal advisor — a female Mage who appeared young and beautiful, yet carried the wisdom of someone who had lived for centuries.
This Mage told Lo'Gosh that during her time in seclusion in Dustwallow Marsh, she had tracked down the Black Dragon's lair — located to the south of the Marsh.
And so Stormwind's naval fleet sailed in full force toward Theramore. The two Kings set aside their mutual denial for the time being, both swearing to bring their son home.
Mathias Shaw, Andomath, Shanda, Maqubride, and the others were of course called upon to join the campaign. Valeera departed with her two sons back to Dalaran. Stormwind was left temporarily in the hands of Lord Bolvar.
As for Chromie — who had failed to stop Wayne that day — she left not long after the events concluded, without saying where she was going. She only asked Chen to pass word to Wayne that she would think carefully on the things she had heard in that inner world.
Hearing all this, Wayne felt at ease. He had never expected to be drawn into such a pivotal event in quite this way. And with the strength of the kingdom's forces and the caliber of those warriors, defeating Onyxia and rescuing Anduin would be no great feat.
Wayne glanced at the food on the table and suddenly realized he was starving. He got up, took a look — and discovered it was a bowl of tofu pudding. Savory style.
In an Azeroth that had not yet discovered Pandaria, this was something that simply did not exist.
There was really only one candidate. Wayne looked at Chen and asked: "You made this?"
Chen nodded. "Yep. You've been lying in bed and could only have liquids, and plain porridge and water gets old pretty fast, so I made some tofu. Figured it might help you recover faster."
Wayne tipped the whole bowl into his mouth in one go. He thought to himself: so this is how I ended up eating Chen's tofu.
Beside him, Tess started in immediately: "Hurry up and finish eating, then go brush your teeth and take a bath. You smell awful. How are we supposed to run a business with a boss who smells like that? People are going to start calling this the Stinky Internet Café."
Wayne sat there with savory, fragrant tofu pudding in his mouth while Tess told him he stank — and just like that, an idea ignited in his mind.
He finished the tofu and was about to head out to wash up, when Amy came in through the door and made him sit back down on the bed.
Amy gently lifted his eyelids with her fingers and carefully examined his pupils. She waved her fingers in front of his eyes to test whether his gaze could track movement, then asked him a series of questions — things like whether he remembered what had happened before he lost consciousness. Wayne went along with it in a muddled sort of way, then couldn't figure out what she was doing and asked her.
She explained that her father, Marlin, had read somewhere that certain types of magic — those that drained the mind and spirit — could cause serious, sometimes irreversible damage to a caster's sanity if overused.
In plain terms: you could end up a complete idiot.
Wayne inwardly rolled his eyes. Your old man's the complete idiot.
He washed up, changed his clothes, made a round of the internet café floor upstairs, and then went straight down to the basement kitchen.
He retrieved the large quantity of tofu Chen had left over and began modifying it.
This particular food — which required multiple steps including brine treatment, soaking, coagulation, and heating — was almost always made in large batches to avoid having to repeat the whole process the next time.
Once he finished preparing the tofu, he gathered several bottles and jars, then went into the server room and spent 20 gold to have the vending machine unlock a particular item for him.
He took the item back to the kitchen, locked the kitchen door behind him, and got to work on his special recipe.
As time went on, the others gradually started exchanging glances and whispering.
"What's Miller doing?"
"Exactly — how come he goes straight to the kitchen the moment he wakes up? None of us have ever seen him so much as pick up a spatula before."
"Marlin was saying earlier that he might have taken some kind of injury to the brain. He was babbling nonsense while he was unconscious. You don't think he's... gone simple?"
"Maybe not simple. Maybe he's lost his mind. They always say there's only a thin line between genius and madness."
"That's terrifying. If he's gone mad, what happens to the café?"
Around five in the afternoon, as dinnertime approached, everyone in the main hall was still immersed in their respective game worlds — but strange, hard-to-describe expressions had crept across nearly every face.
Their eyes were covered by the headsets, sure — but their noses were not. They could smell the scents of their in-game environments just as easily as they could smell the real world around them.
"Do you... smell something...?" The same question seemed to surface from multiple corners of the room at once.
"Hmm... yeah, kind of..." Those who were asked felt relieved — so it wasn't just them.
At first, everyone assumed someone must have eaten something bad, or had an upset stomach, and was letting loose a chain of silent killers in the main hall, leaving a persistent stench drifting through the café — and it seemed to be getting worse.
But when nearly everyone could no longer keep from asking out loud, even Tess, Li Li, and Raymond behind the front desk started trying to track down the source.
Raymond : "You don't think someone got so into their game they... you know... went in their pants?"
Li li: "That can't be right. Who's that oblivious? Doesn't know when they need the bathroom?"
Raymond : "But this is really bad... even the bathroom doesn't smell like this..."
Li li: "Maybe a cat or dog wandered in?"
Tess: "Impossible. The three of us have been sitting at the door the whole time. Besides, cats and dogs don't open doors themselves."
Raymond : "Should I go ask the boss?"
Li li: "Oh right — where is Miller?"
Tess: "In the kitchen. Don't know what he's messing with down there."
Li li: "The kitchen? What's he doing in the kitchen?"
The question caught Tess off guard too. In all the time she'd known Wayne, the only cooking that had ever happened was him making her learn to cook. She had never once seen Wayne actually set foot in a kitchen.
At that moment, both of them involuntarily recalled everything Marlin had said.
Tess panicked, tapping her temple: "He's not seriously..."
Li li grabbed her arm and they hurried toward the basement kitchen, leaving Raymond to mind the front.
They weren't prepared for what hit them.
The moment they reached the bottom of the stairs, both of them nearly retched on the spot.
If you knew what was down here, you'd call it a kitchen. If you didn't, you'd swear it was an outhouse.
Li li: "Why does it smell so bad?!"
Tess reached for the kitchen door and found it locked. She pounded on it hard: "Boss! Are you in there?!"
From inside came the sound of fire and something frying in oil, along with Wayne's voice floating out through the door: "Yeah, I'm here. What is it?"
Tess: "What are you doing in there?! Why does it smell like that?!"
Wayne: "You wouldn't understand. Go back upstairs, I'll be done in a bit."
Tess and Li li stood there — pinching their noses, fighting down the urge to vomit, trading a look of mutual disbelief at what they were seeing and smelling — neither of them able to wrap their heads around it. The Stinky Internet Café had become a reality.
At that point Chen arrived too. Li Li immediately turned to him: "Uncle, what is Miller doing?"
Chen looked baffled as well, though he clearly had a stronger constitution — he merely furrowed his brow rather than gagging.
"I don't know either. From the sound of it, he's frying something. But this smell... truly... unforgettable..."
Li li glanced at Chen, held back for a moment, then couldn't help herself: "Uncle... why do I feel like he's... deep-frying poop..."
Chen: "Hahaha! How could anyone do that?!" But the moment he opened his mouth to laugh, a fresh wave of stench flooded in, and even Chen couldn't stop himself from letting out an involuntary "Urgh—" and hastily swallowing hard to keep his stomach from staging a full rebellion.
Then the door opened.
Wayne emerged — one hand holding a plate piled high with golden-yellow cubes that had clearly just been pulled fresh from a frying pan, the other hand holding a dish with two thick sauces in it, one dark reddish-brown and one fiery red — and said to the three of them with great satisfaction: "A masterpiece! Mission accomplished!"
But the moment the door swung open, every last bit of stench that had been building up in that kitchen all afternoon came flooding out like a tidal wave. Even Chen couldn't take it — he bolted up the stairs.
The guests on the main floor quickly got a fresh hit of it too. Quite a few of those near the staircase simply paused their games and fled through the front door to breathe fresh air and escape the smell.
Wayne walked into the main hall carrying his plates: "Come, come, come! A taste sensation unlike anything in this world! Free to try right now, limited time only — starting tomorrow there will be a charge!"
Marlin: "Holy Light above... this smell reminds me of the plague that rotted Lordaeron..."
Arator: "I would never have guessed Miller had... this particular... unusual hobby..."
The golden, crispy-looking cubes themselves didn't look threatening. But the unforgettable, completely food-incompatible smell made everyone back away instinctively.
Wayne seemed to have anticipated this reaction. He walked to the lounge area, set the plates down, picked up one of the cubes, dipped it in both sauces — the fiery red and the dark reddish-brown — and popped it in his mouth. He bit down, revealing the white interior: "Look at it! Fragrant and spicy. Peak perfection."
Even witnessing him eat it himself, nobody dared approach.
Raymond : "So... that stuff turns from brown to white after you fry it...?"
Tess: "Can you please stop talking, you absolute dingus... I'm already about to throw up and you're making it worse..."
Amy looked genuinely worried: "Miller... something's wrong with him. He wouldn't really..."
Miller: "This young man is clearly badly hurt. We need to consult Andomath, or perhaps seek out the Archbishop of Light — perhaps with his formidable Holy power, he could fully heal... urgh..."
It was Chen, with his sharper senses, who finally noticed the key detail. The stench was coming from the kitchen — but the golden cubes on the plate clearly had no foul smell about them at all. In fact, there was a rich, fragrant aroma of deep-frying.
"Miller... is this... tofu?"
Wayne nodded. "Come try one. Just one bite, and I guarantee you won't be able to stop."
Li li grabbed Chen's arm with a look that said plainly: if you go eat that, I'm disowning you as my uncle. But Chen gently pried her hand loose and walked over anyway. He picked up one cube, dipped it in both sauces, held it up and examined it from every angle, smelled it carefully — then finally took a small bite.
"Mm... it's a bit hot..."
"But the sharp smell has mostly faded after frying..."
He looked at the white tofu filling inside the golden crust, and his suspicion was confirmed: "This IS tofu! This is a tofu dish!"
He proceeded to eat the whole thing.
The sweet savoriness of the dark sauce, the fiery heat of the red sauce, the rich fragrance of the crispy fried exterior — all of it layered together with the soft, yielding tofu center, within which lingered a faint, strangely compelling pungency born from a curious fermentation process — one that somehow provoked not revulsion but fascination. The combination produced a reaction that was nothing short of miraculous.
One word: incredible.
Chen felt as though his entire body had been set alight by that freshly fried golden tofu — as if a volcano had erupted somewhere inside him. The only words he wanted to say were: "Delicious!"
Raymond still wasn't buying it: "Even if it is tofu, it's tofu that came out of a cesspit..."
The people nearby were whispering among themselves: "Pandaren really are different from humans... so they eat that kind of thing..."
Chen picked up a piece in his right hand, crossed the room in one stride, tapped the underside of Raymond's chin with his left hand — and Remon's mouth fell open helplessly. Chen's right hand popped the tofu in. His left hand came back up, and the mouth snapped shut again.
"Eat it and you'll understand!" Chen said, grinning broadly at Raymond as he stepped back — the whole sequence executed with the fluid grace of a martial technique.
Two tears rolled down Raymond's face from the corners of his eyes. He felt as though something precious had been taken from him. He thought: I have lived my whole life, and now in front of everyone, someone has force-fed me poop...
But after a few chews, his expression transformed completely. His eyes went wide — as wide as they could go — as though he could not believe what was happening inside his own mouth.
He swallowed.
Then he walked over to the plate and picked up another piece on his own.
Marlin: "This is bad. The madness appears to be transmissible person-to-person!"
A series of images flashed through the old Mage's mind — scenes of the plague ravaging Stratholme, a horror beyond all description.
He began backing toward the door: "I must report this to Stormwind at once. Wayne has clearly been afflicted by something evil, and he is spreading a biological agent in this establishment!"