The bright-eyed Asian man sat quietly at his corner table. Nothing betrayed how nervous and anxious he actually was. Outwardly, he seemed collected and calm. Since it was after 'office hours', he was casually dressed in an open collared shirt and slacks.

It was his usual table when he came to this establishment. The space was strategically positioned so that it was partially hidden by the restaurant's décor yet had the best view of the whole room. It was perfect and would provide enough privacy for tonight's meeting.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly when he spotted his three guests. They actually came, he thought jubilantly. Stop, be calm, control yourself. They may be here but they have not yet heard nor agreed to his proposal.

Zen, GameMaster of the Orc Wars project smiled and waved his three guests over to his table.

"Welcome, Adam (Head of Editing), Damon (Head of Creative Team) and ...umm?"

"This is Kyra, Creative Team Nine," Damon introduced his staff. The young girl blinked nervously, amazed that she was included in this dinner. She was just an ordinary team member. Why wasn't her immediate supervisor here? Kyra wondered why Damon would want her along and not Team Leader Lori.

"Is she the one?"

"Yes."

Zen nodded and gave a small satisfied smile. "Please, sit."

"Thank you, Mr.Zen. I am honoured to be here."

Zen signalled the waiter to take their orders.

"Please, order whatever you like. It's on me."

Adam laughed good-naturedly. "A little bribery, eh, Zen?"

"You could call it that," the GameMaster smiled. "I would prefer you eat first before I tell you what I have in mind. You may not be able to enjoy your dinner with a clear conscience otherwise."

"This is not like you Zen. What's up?" Adam folded his arms and sat back in his chair after they had ordered. "Tell us while the food is being prepared. I don't like surprises."

"Me too. We have had enough of that with unannounced changes in the Game." Damon was referring to their Director, Nadine's abrupt changes in Orc Wars. With every change, they had to redo maps, characters, NPC script and storyline. Timelines and schedules were messed up. It was incredible how a simple order from her part could create such havoc.

The butterfly effect, like ripples in a pond, though Zen randomly. There was a slow but definite unrest amongst the Simtrixx employees, especially in Creative and Editing since they were the most affected. The growing tension and resentment was fast reaching the breaking point. If the Director did not stop meddling ingame, there would be a very messy and public protest soon.

Creative was upset because Nadine's sudden changes especially to the Player 'Lazarus' health condition had unintentionally speeded up the players' push to the orc realm. They had scrambled for weeks to complete it in time, at least the urgent parts. Damon shuddered, they had barely made it. Creative had managed to complete the main areas, the rest was left to be perfected and touched up later. Despite that, the gatekeepers had to be allowed through. Nadine's meddling had made the Assassin crazed and desperate for a cure. Lazarus had pushed to acquire the portal orbs and level up according to the requirements. Simtrixx had no reason to disallow the Gatekeeper entrance.

Even now, his teams were scrambling with the new maps in the orc realm. Lazarus had split his team into two, making things worse for them. Team Six had worked on the Overlord's Stronghold whilst Team Seven had laboured round the clock on Sharak's cave home and that was after they dealt with the initial mountain, orc village and Imperial warriors' camp. Surrounding scenery including alien flora and fauna was left to Team Eight, NPCs to Teams Nine and Ten.

Team Eleven's constant headaches had exploded to full blown migraines trying to keep up with the storyline. A special team had been put together to focus on the Bello. Who knows when the insane Assassin would figure out their plot? Amazingly, the other Gatekeepers were all aiding him, pushing his progress forward at an incredible pace. Why the hell would the others help him? This had never happened in gaming history before. There was no rest. It had been pure hell ever since Lazarus crossed over.

Editing had also suffered. They had to rehash the three Gatekeeper's exploits in the human realm to keep the momentum in the game alive. The new exciting footage in the orc realm was not allowed to be posted by the Director for reasons unknown. Marketing was pissed because of this unreasonable limitation. All they had were old footage of the three Gatekeepers. To make up for the sudden lack, they had to actually stalk Kirana, Isis and any other Players linked to the Gatekeepers. They had also kept tabs on new rising Players. Luckily, there were four promising aggressive players.

Damon shook his head, "You know, if Nadine didn't mess with Lazarus, he might still be in the human realm waiting on Isis for a miracle. He would actually have had more time and so would we."

"She should have just left him alone and let us do our job."

Zen chuckled. "Nadine thought she could control Lazarus, stall him to give us, I mean you," he looked pointedly at Damon, "more time to get the orc realm together. Unfortunately, that plan back fired badly. All she did was speed things up."

"Indeed. The stupid idea for our twenty players to attack his City all but helped him level up to be eligible for the Crossing."

"I'm still amazed at the support he got. The crazy number of normal players showing up to attack our players ... that was brilliant."

"What I want to know is, how the hell did he manage that?"

Kyra had kept quiet listening to her bosses talk. It almost seemed like they had forgotten her presence when Zen zeroed in on her.

"So Kyra, Creative Team Nine. What do you think of the circumstances?"

Kyra froze in her chair. Relax, the GamesMaster was known to be a good guy, a perfectionist but fair. Everyone liked him. He was a known nerd who genuinely loved the Game and his job. Zen praised those who did their job well and admonished those who deserved it in private. He never raised his voice unless in excitement over the game. When he was angry, he would clam up, go somewhere else to cool off before addressing the issue.

"Well," she hedged arranging her thoughts. Better be honest, Just because Zen was asking for her point of view didn't mean that he would actually act on it. He was the GamesMaster after all and he would take other things she was not privy to into consideration. He only wanted a candid opinion.

"I think the Director should have let things be. The poisoning of the Gatekeeper Lazarus was a product of Gameplay in Season One. Ethically, we shouldn't be messing up any players' game. The life of the avatar should depend wholly on his game now ... shouldn't it?" She looked uncertainly at the three pairs of eyes assessing her.

"Since the company did mess with him, do you think we should fix it? Maybe compensate him a little for Simtrixx's unwelcomed input?"

"Now, now, Zen... what are you up to? You can't ask her that," Damon came to Kyra's rescue.

"But I can and I will," Zen said quietly. "In fact I want to ask all of you the same."

"Zen, you are on dangerous ground. You know we cannot simply change things on our own."

"Exactly, Damon, Adam." Zen leaned forward, "So, what I am about to propose, I'm only going to say once. If you oppose it, please do me a favour and pretend this dinner never happened, okay? After all, if you get caught, you can be dismissed from the company."

Adam wiggled his eyebrows intrigued. Damon pursed his lips and finally smiled. Kyra relaxed taking her cue from her immediate supervisor.

"As you know, Team One to Five takes care of the human realm. Teams Six to Twelve are still working out the kinks in the orc realm. It's more like learning on the job since the whole atmosphere and setting is different. We make adjustments every day."

Damon paused in his narration to take a sip of water.

"Team Nine and Ten," Damon continued naming the team Kyra was attached to, "is in charge of some NPCs in the Orc Realm. Their job is to ensure the NPCs assigned to them keeps in character, their supposed back story, their attire, their speech, their standard dialog when they interact with Players en cetera. You also have to adjust their 'knowledge' and upgrade them according to daily developments in the Game."

"What I want to do is to help Lazarus a little. He is running out of time."

"How?"

"Well, that's where Kyra comes in."

"Me?" the young girl blurted startled. "but I'm only in charge of several NPCs, mostly supporting characters. The main ones like the Overlord, Prince Kalthu, Mallarg, the Witch and the monster are controlled by others in Team Nine and Ten. They have more prominent NPCs in their portfolio."

"Tell me, which NPCs are in your portfolio?" Zen asked Kyra casually. The girl had fallen silent listening to her immediate supervisor.

"Well, not many Mr.Zen. I have only a few females on my list." Kyra started ticking off her NPCs as she named them, "There are three female orcs in the orc village, about five random creatures in the main town and scattered in new maps Teams Six and Seven are working on. I also have four servants in the Stronghold proper, the orc princess and her personal maid. Some of the NPCs are still being developed."

"And one more I believe? Everyone is assigned fifteen NPCs," Zen encouraged her to continue speaking.

"Oh yes, Thalasis the Holy Seer, she is my favourite. She is absolutely unique and beautiful for her species. I was so excited when the Gatekeepers were allowed audience in the Stronghold ..." her eyes widened startled in sudden comprehension. Thalasis had contact with the Gatekeepers.

"Wait a minute! Zen, are you seriously thinking what I think you are thinking?" Damon asked incredulously. He was not stupid. Adam had also sat up straight at the implications hinted by Zen.

"What you are proposing is unethical. You know we cannot interfere directly with gameplay. Our job is only to keep the NPCs in character in accordance to the approved storyline. Dialog, responses and reactions are discussed beforehand on possible scenarios. We are not supposed to change anything without approval from the authorities."

"Nadine did. Technically, the Director should be dismissed," Zen deadpanned to his stunned audience. "Please, hear me out. I'm not going to ask for drastic deviations. Just nudges to guide the Players in the right direction. Nadine's direct interference sped up everything. Things might have played out differently if she didn't overstep her authority. I only want to offset the damage she has done, put things right, you know?"

"Two wrongs don't make a right, GameMaster."

"I know that. It just rankles me how she is undermining the Game." Zen sighed in frustration, than added quietly, "If anything goes wrong, I'll take the fall."

"After this, I plan to come clean. I will inform Head office and bring them up to date on the situation ... I will call for a formal meeting on the Director's actions and my own." Zen sighed. "I will take whatever punishment they find suitable to give me."

All three sat in silence for a while. To think that their upright GameMaster was asking this of them was incredible. Adam smirked, he must be really pissed at Nadine to risk his beloved job and position like this.

Damon frowned. He had harboured a sense of dissatisfaction ever since the Director first advanced the Assassin's poison. She had even increased the unnecessary frequency and intensity of the symptoms. It was to stall him in his off tangent quest, to remind him that he was working for them, she said.

Personally, he did not like the Director's unethical meddling. In his opinion, the Gaming experience should be played by the Player however the Player wanted. The choices he made were supposed to be based on his experience in the Game and how adventurous he was, not pushed by forced circumstances. The Creative Team Head thought Nadine was just a sadist who was angry at Lazarus because he wasn't playing as directed.

Yes, he had to admit that the five virtual Players were getting paid a lot for their time but Nadine's unethical actions still did not sit well with many within the company who knew what she had done.

"I don't mind doing it," Kyra stated shyly breaking the silence.

Kyra was on the Gatekeepers side. She always had been and wanted to help ease the GameMaster's conscience. Mr.Zen was right. They were the only ones who could give Lazarus and his team a little help. Not too much, only enough to balance out Nadine's interference.

"Really?" Zen asked, hope blossoming in his chest. If they agreed ... Lazarus might just be able to make it and return the Game to what it should be. Maybe, they would have a chance to restore the Game's integrity.

"But only a little ... you know, to even things out," she said tentatively. "I don't want to spoil the Game like Nadine. I want it to be fair."

"Ah, I see where you are coming from, Kyra." Damon turned abruptly to his immediate boss. "O'kay, Zen. For what it's worth, I'm in, but I will allow only slight deviations. Nothing drastic or obvious. There must be no changes in storyline or characters."

"I understand. Thank you Damon, Kyra."

Adam sighed. "Me too I guess. I'm in. You guys will never get away with this if I don't edit and censor the footage from Nadine."

At that moment, Zen wanted to jump up and hug his colleagues. The GameMaster had not really expected them to agree but he had to try. His conscience had been bugging him since he first observed Nadine's blatant violation of the approved operational procedures. It had gotten worse when those who tried to raise the issue or tried to confront her were terminated or transferred to a different department that had little input to Orc Wars.

It had become so bad that he could not ignore her detrimental actions anymore. She was damaging the Game's integrity and marring its whole gaming concept. Interfering with a Player was supposedly strictly not allowed. They already had control over every aspect of the Game. Zen had ignored the first time but now his conscience did not allow him to sit back and do nothing, as it was, he had delayed long enough. His brown eyes shone bright with hope and a wide smile graced his face. Finally, with the help of these three, he could do something.

"Thank you all. Here is what I propose ..." he stated as the others leaned forward to hear their GameMaster's plan.