Paul took the box and turned it over, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"Blizzard? The guys who made Warcraft?" Paul frowned, his face a picture of skepticism. "Why'd they stop making RTS games and switch to an RPG? Listen, buddy, I can't stand those turn-based games where you have to think for half a minute before every move. They're practically a sleeping pill."
"You clearly didn't read the press reports," Jack said, snatching the box back from Paul and striding toward the checkout counter. "This is real-time combat! A pure action RPG. You just click the mouse to slash monsters—blood will fly with every hit! And look, the box clearly says it supports free online multiplayer!"
Paul pursed his lips and muttered, "GG is always a lie," but followed him anyway.
Half an hour later, in Jack's apartment.
The bulky CRT monitor emitted a faint, eerie glow. Inside the computer case, the CD drive spun with a high-pitched hum, sounding like a beast awakening from its slumber.
The installation was complete.
Jack couldn't wait any longer. He double-clicked the shortcut on the desktop.
No tedious opening cinematic, no complex backstory.
As the screen lit up, the dark, dilapidated village of Tristram appeared. A desolate, ethereal guitar strum echoed, instantly washing over him with a bone-chilling sense of isolation.
Jack quickly created a warrior, then without hesitation, clicked the entrance to the dungeon, which pulsed with a sinister glow.
Click.
The warrior on the screen raised his longsword, hacking down a skeleton that lunged at him.
Crack!
The crisp, satisfying sound of shattering bone erupted from the speakers. With a powerful impact, the skeleton collapsed into a pile of white bones.
Immediately after, a clink sounded as a few gold coins and a leather armor piece glowing with a mesmerizing blue light dropped to the ground.
Jack's eyes lit up, his pupils dilating.
He swiftly moved the mouse and clicked the loot.
With a sharp rustle of fabric, he opened his inventory and equipped the blue item of unknown stats.
He kept moving forward, deeper into the darkness.
The room soon fell silent, save for the rapid click-click-click of his mouse. The clicks grew faster and faster, eventually merging into a dense, rhythmic drumbeat.
Paul had been lounging on the sofa, flipping through a boring sports magazine. At some point, he'd been drawn in by the crisp sound of combat and had crept up silently behind Jack.
"Wait, this drop mechanic—" Paul stared at the screen, his eyes widening. "You just died and re-entered, but why is the map different now?"
"Procedurally generated," Jack replied without turning, his thumb and index finger gripping the mouse as he clicked furiously. "The mob spawns, the labyrinth layout, the gear stats—everything is randomized! The gameplay feels incredible. You don't have to waste any brainpower on some damn turn-based strategy. You see a monster, you click it, you smash it. That's it!"
As he spoke, Jack executed another flawless combo, tearing through a horde of shrieking Fallen.
Paul swallowed hard and gave Jack's shoulder a heavy slap. "Forget single-player for a second! Quit to the menu and try that online mode. The box makes Battle.net sound like some kind of miracle; I want to see if it's for real."
Jack took a deep breath, hit ESC, and exited single-player mode.
On the main menu, the option labeled "Battle.net" glowed with an irresistible allure.
Jack clicked it.
The modem beside the computer case immediately emitted a piercingly shrill dial-up tone.
Beep—boop—shhhhh
The sound ceased.
The screen flickered only for a moment.
Jack was instantly transported into an incredibly clean lobby interface.
No need to enter a long, complicated IP address. No tedious LAN protocol settings that made you want to smash your keyboard. Even the registration process had been drastically simplified.
To the right was the chat box; in the center, a dense list of game rooms.
Jack randomly clicked on a room named "GoDown."
Join successful.
The screen instantly refreshed, revealing the character models of two other players.
An archer holding a longbow, and a sorcerer clutching a staff.
"Hi," Jack typed rapidly.
"Hi. Follow me," the Sorcerer replied instantly, spinning in a circle on the spot.
Without another word, the three of them plunged into the gloomy dungeon.
Jack's Warrior took the lead, acting as the tank to absorb the monsters' attacks. The Sorcerer spammed fireballs from the rear, while the Archer provided precise long-range support.
Magical light and shadow wove through the darkness as monsters fell in waves. Gold coins and loot littered the ground, their luster enticingly bright.
Paul stood behind them, completely mesmerized.
"It's... not lagging at all?!" Paul pointed at the screen, his voice jumping an octave in disbelief. "Your crappy dial-up connection usually disconnects three times just playing a text-based MUD. And here you are, with three players casting spells all over the screen and fighting monsters in sync, yet there's not a single frame of visible lag?!"
"How should I know what kind of alien black magic Blizzard is using?" Jack grinned wildly as he picked up a yellow magical sword. "Who cares? Battle.net is the real deal! This is fucking awesome!"
Meanwhile.
Irvine, California. Blizzard Entertainment Headquarters.
It was half past eleven at night, and the darkness had already settled in.
Yet the entire office area was brightly lit, with not a single person having clocked out. The air was thick with the heavy scent of coffee and sweat.
Mike Morhaime stood like a statue outside the glass wall of the server room, clutching a cup of black coffee that had long since gone cold. Inside, the server indicator lights were blinking frantically, resembling a green sea of stars.
David Brevik sat at a computer, constantly switching between various consoles.
"What's the online player count?" Mike's voice was a bit hoarse, his knuckles white from gripping the paper cup.
"It's broken five thousand!" David stared intently at the steep upward curve of the data on the screen. "And it's still rising! Rising very fast! It's already past midnight on the East Coast, and players from the West Coast are starting to flood in. The number of concurrent requests is increasing exponentially!"
Mike tightened his grip on the paper cup, nearly spilling the coffee.
This was the first day Battle.net went live.
They had bet the company's entire future on this unprecedented free online matchmaking platform. If the servers crashed, Blizzard's reputation would be completely ruined.
"Report on server load!" Mike turned to the technical team, who were standing ready on the other side.
"CPU usage is at forty percent, performing well!"
"Memory redundancy is sufficient, no overflows!"
"Average network latency is around 150 milliseconds, with a packet loss rate below three percent! It's incredibly stable—unbelievably so!"
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