Orc Wars 2 : Lazarus

Chapter 153 - Inquiry Part Two

Nadine sat as still as she could. The inquiry was not going well. Why did the Disciplinary Board have to call Zen (Simtrixx Games Master), Damon (Simtrixx Creative) and Adam (Simtrixx Editing)? They could have just relied on her word and evidences couldn't they?

When the three first walked in, she was ecstatic. All worked directly under her and knew the circumstances. They knew why she did what she did. It was all for them and the company. It was all to buy time for Zen to complete and iron out all the wrinkles in the orc realm. Damon also needed time to complete the new maps, finish the algorithms for the numerous new NPCs, test their interactions and interface each part together.

But then something unthinkable happened. Zen betrayed her! The very first question Suri asked him and he had thrown her under the bus. Now she sat shaking in fury trying to control her emotions. How dare he?! She would have words with him later! She fumed silently as the questioning continued.

"Were there any other instances?" Suri asked Zen.

"Well, there was also the time when she instructed the attack on Lazarus' City."

More than a few eyebrows rose.

"Please explain."

"A team of twenty Orc Wars 'Helpers' were gathered for the mission. 'Helpers' are our Simtrixx personnel who create avatars and play in the game real time. They have shifts so that a few are always online to help Players, test any upgrade / updates and report bugs to be fixed."

"Anyways, this particular team was instructed to attack Lazarus' City. They were tasked to bring down the GateKeeper's City Shield which would in turn make the City vulnerable to open attacks. Destroying the Shield would also alert and lure the Player online via notifications. When Lazarus came on, we were supposed to spawn kill him until he levelled down at least two levels."

"His City was to be razed to the ground so that he would be delayed in crossing the portal to the Orc Realm. Crossing requires a minimum level of 80 and above. At the time, I believe he was already level 79."

"Why do you think she did that?"

Zen glanced nervously around.

"It was because the orc realm was not finished. We were still working the algorithms for NPCs, dungeons and maps there," replied Damon. He was not going to sit still while Zen took all the heat. "In fact several maps were incomplete at that time."

"Nadine's tactics were to delay Lazarus from crossing. It was to buy us time to complete the orc realm. Lazarus' sudden move to collect the Portal Orbs pushed Creative overtime. It would have been bad if he tried to cross and couldn't. It would have undermined the whole point of the Game and make us look bad. Players don't want to play incomplete games."

Nadine crossed her arms and relaxed a bit. There! Damon said it out loud. He had confirmed she was acting in good faith for the company.

"Yes, I believe the storyline was edited to lure Players to cross over to the orc realm after the first successful reality show. Fight the orcs there since not many were left in the original maps. Get a Lifestone and bring it back, something along those lines if I'm not mistaken," Suri commented.

Zen nodded his head.

"Destroying his City would also require Lazarus to waste precious time in rebuilding before crossing. He could not leave his own city vulnerable when he's away. Any attacks whilst he is gone would adversely affect him in the orc realm as the city shield is linked to him."

"What happened?"

"The plan backfired ... spectacularly." The Games Master couldn't help but smile at the memory. The shock at the turn of events and the extent of the GateKeeper's popularity and influence still astounded him. It had been an unbelievable and most memorable moment.