I’ll Give You a Good Disciple

He wore a beige robe with a matching beige hood, held a folding fan made of some unknown material, and had two ancient, strange rings on the index and middle fingers of his right hand.

He lifted his hood, revealing a gleaming, eye-catching bald head.

It stood out especially under the midday sun.

A bald head that handsome was a rare sight.

Combined with his almost celestial aura, this person was clearly the Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme, the head of Kamar-Taj, Earth’s protector, and Dormammu’s mortal enemy.

"Sorcerer Supreme."

Old Wang smiled faintly and cupped his fists in greeting. "Long time no see."

"Director Wang."

The Ancient One clearly was not a shut-in like Shenlong Shou Lao. She wandered around and peeked everywhere whenever she had nothing to do, so she was well-informed about the latest developments across the world—especially regarding this troublesome fellow before her.

How could she not keep an eye on him?

Otherwise, who knew when he would start using her name to swindle people again?

Old Wang looked at the Ancient One and frowned. "You were just in a fight?"

The Ancient One’s aura was somewhat unstable. Her heart was beating around eighty-four times per second, her blood flowed faster than an ordinary person’s, and there were still large traces of residual mana from spellcasting on her body.

All of it indicated that she had just gone through a battle.

Old Wang looked into the distance.

The spatial fluctuation he sensed had nothing to do with teleportation. Such a powerful disturbance was most likely the Mirror Dimension.

Whenever Kamar-Taj’s mages fought, the first thing they did was open the Mirror Dimension and drag both themselves and their enemies inside, preventing too much damage to the real world.

Of course, there was no need to do that against ordinary enemies.

The Ancient One’s spiritual power was far from ordinary, not much weaker than Aegwynn’s. A simple, brutal mental shockwave could wipe out 99.99% of people, including apprentice-level mages.

There were few enemies worthy of her serious attention.

Either invaders descending from other dimensions of the multiverse, such as Ghost Riders on Johnny’s level or powerful demons from Hell, or…

Old Wang suddenly had a flash of insight. "The Zealot, Kaecilius?"

The Ancient One was unsurprised that Old Wang had guessed it, as though she considered it perfectly normal. "While I was traveling in the depths of the universe, he led others in an attack on Kamar-Taj, killed the librarian, and stole a page from the Book of Cagliostro."

Old Wang understood immediately.

Kaecilius was far weaker than the Ancient One and had no way to directly perform a ritual to contact Dormammu, so he had ultimately chosen the Book of Cagliostro.

Kaecilius did have some skill. He was unquestionably Kamar-Taj’s second-in-command, or he could never have escaped right under the Ancient One’s nose.

Mages could open portals whenever they wished, and they had spells to conceal their tracks. At Kaecilius’s level, as long as he hid carefully, even the Ancient One would have difficulty tracking him down.

"Do you need my help?" Old Wang asked.

He did not understand magic, but he had Skye.

Facial recognition was not exactly some difficult cutting-edge technology. They could simply hack into surveillance systems around the world and compare the footage one by one. There might be a pleasant surprise waiting for them.

Even if Kaecilius hid every day and never came out, surely his Zealots could not all remain shut-ins forever. Mages had to eat too. Were they supposed to grow and sell their own food?

"Technology is ineffective, Director Wang."

The Ancient One saw through Old Wang’s thoughts at a glance. "Kamar-Taj’s mages all know illusion spells."

Illusions…

Old Wang really wanted to slap his forehead.

Fixed ways of thinking could kill people.

Although Kamar-Taj’s spell system was far inferior to World of Warcraft’s, if they could master teleportation and the Mirror Dimension, then mere illusion spells naturally amounted to nothing. Reality was indeed far more complicated than the movies.

"Sorcerer Supreme, there is something…"

Old Wang explained virtual technology, then asked, "Kamar-Taj’s mages have many enemies, and their casualty rate has always been high. Few live to die of old age. Ordinary apprentices in particular have little combat experience, so once they enter battle, it is very dangerous. So…"

The Ancient One listened with great interest until Old Wang had finished, then nodded slightly. "It is very similar to mages’ illusion spells. Technology truly has its own strengths; different paths lead to the same destination. Constructing a vast illusion out of nothing that ordinary people cannot distinguish is something only a Mystic Master can accomplish. Tell me, what do you want?"

Were mages all this straightforward? Khadgar and Jaina were not like this… Old Wang grumbled inwardly, but he did not beat around the bush.

"Azeroth Social Network Company will send people to Kamar-Taj to help you build an enormous server and provide training. After that, you can construct virtual worlds yourselves. Mages possess spiritual power far beyond ordinary people, so virtual technology will be easier for you to use than for anyone else. As for the payment…"

Old Wang had originally wanted to ask if she could give him another divine artifact. That axe would be nice, the Cloak of Levitation would barely do, and the Eye of Agamotto would naturally be best.

But in the end, his skin was still too thin, so he changed his condition. "I hope you can help me teach someone. In this world, only you are qualified and capable of teaching her."

"Who?"

Old Wang smiled. "I haven’t decided yet."

The Ancient One’s state of mind, cultivated over several centuries, nearly shattered. She truly wanted to whip this shameless bastard to death.

Why were you making demands when you had not even decided yet?

Owing favors was not the Ancient One’s habit, but since it was Director Wang asking, she had to show him some respect.

She had recently looked into the future several hundred billion more times and discovered that there was a 99% chance she would die within the next few years. By then, although an unprecedented genius would inherit the Eye of Agamotto, that person would still be too young and unqualified to succeed as Sorcerer Supreme.

At most, he could only become the guardian of the New York Sanctum.

When the time came, she would need the fellow before her to help look after him.

"I agree."

The Ancient One nodded, then reminded him, "My time is limited. You had better send her over soon."

Old Wang chuckled.

Ancient One, why were you so eager to die? Was Eternal God’s charm really that great, or could Earth’s dazzling world simply not keep you?

He nodded. "I will."

Neither of them liked pointless chatter.

Once they had said what needed to be said, they opened portals at the same time. One returned to Kamar-Taj to deal with the aftermath of Kaecilius’s attack, while the other returned to the Virtual Laboratory and began developing Warcraft.

Skye handled programming and post-production, while Old Wang was responsible for "imagining," extracting memories, building the setting, and configuring parameters.

Men and women working together never got tired.

After all, Warcraft was not World of Warcraft. It only had some heroes, units, buildings, and a large number of standalone maps, so it was not particularly difficult.

In less than a month, the two had completed the basic build, including single-player mode, multiplayer mode, and an online platform.

Single-player mode also included campaigns tied to the setting and storyline.

Warcraft was mainly intended to build hype for World of Warcraft, establish a complete world setting, and cover several important early storylines, such as the First and Second Orc Wars, as well as Frozen Throne.

Since he had nothing else to do during this period, Old Wang completed every version in one go, including Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and Warcraft III: Frozen Throne.

He also developed more than a hundred role-playing games and tower defense games based on the Warcraft platform, including Dota, Dynasty Warriors, Chenghai 3C, Way of the Immortals, and Campus Cultivation Record.

He had wasted his college years two lifetimes ago on these games, but now that he thought about it, he did not regret it.

Whose youth had not been absurd?

Well, some people really did not have absurd youths. Could you believe an eleven-year-old boy discussing life with a stock market guru?

Comparisons between people could scare people to death.

The internal testing results were good.

Elektra in particular was addicted to the games. Her favorite heroes were unexpectedly Templar Assassin, Phantom Assassin, and Lina.

Stick preferred Pandaren Brewmaster, while Daredevil’s favorite was unsurprisingly the anti-mage Illidan.

Ghost Rider Robbie was very interested in Nightmare Knight, while Winter Soldier unexpectedly did not like the frost-based Death Knight Arthas and chose Silencer instead…

Old Wang truly could not understand it.

Everything was ready.

Under the magic of money, the virtual experience centers were completed a month ahead of schedule and opened simultaneously in major cities around the world.