At Lord OhZone's command, the wave of novices formed a vanguard, led by Karl the Noodle Master (as some were starting to call him) and surged boldly into the unknown.
Bows examined the video game map apprehensively, watching Karl's progress as he navigated the virtual terrain. She felt torn—was Karl a brilliant tactician or simply a lucky reckless daredevil? His unorthodox approach of winding through the encampment had Bows puzzled, but with no casualties and no battles ensuing, it was hard to argue against its effectiveness. If something was stupid, but effective, was it still stupid?
Completely counter to what everyone had expected -- the vanguard's mission felt almost too easy. All they had to do was spam the W key and make their way to the Great Gate. When they got there, however, they were met with a horde of enemies. Finally the group had met with some real resistance.
Frustration and confusion on their faces, Bows and Lord OhZone had watched the map intently as all but three large red dots—what must have been some kind of raid boss primer—had been effectively eliminated. Then to their surprise, those three remaining dots suddenly changed from menacing red to a friendly blue.
"It looks like everything is going as I expected." Lord OhZone muttered through his teeth. Bows knew that Lord OhZone's original plan had been for a large swath of the vanguard under Karl to be wiped out, which would make Karl's followers doubt his abilities and ultimately flock to Lord OhZone for leadership instead. It was a win/win since the alternative was that Karl actually did a good job and Lord OhZone came out looking like a competent guild leader who trusted his officers.
Lord OhZone received a message from Coop, "Something unusual is happening, that weird green blob is back and it keeps reviving the Circle mobs, I think it might be the raid boss. We need to call in everyone we can."
This was the true danger in Lord OhZone's tactics. Karl would have been blamed for not calling reinforcements ahead of time, but since Coop had come along, she had provided a shield. Her call for reinforcements, combined with Karl's leadership on their way there, had left Lord OhZone at a disadvantage. He needed to act fast to support his team, unless he wanted to be exposed as having set Karl up to fail. Unfortunately, his reserves were out of position and too far away.
Bows stood with confidence as she addressed Lord OhZone, ready to give him the information he was just now figuring out he needed. Sometimes it was fun to be the perfect follower rather than the stoic leader.
"I've mapped the team's path through the encampment," Bows declared, her voice strong and unwavering. "Sending it to you now."
With a couple quick taps on her user interface, Bows transmitted the layout of Karl's meandering path to the rest of the raid group. Even though they weren't too far from the entry gate, it would still take precious time to reach Karl and come to his aid.
Lord OhZone accepted the map and said with urgency, "Raid Wide Warning: The vanguard has reached the raid boss, it appears to be the great green beast that was attached to the Demonic Raccoon. We're following Karl's-"
"Noodle Master Karl!" someone shouted
"... We're following Noodle Master Karl's path to the Great Gate. Everyone be quick, but keep an eye out."
"Are we gonna do the chant?" asked one of the veteran players from last raid tier.
"The what?" asked new player who'd only just joined
"Yeah, we didn't get a chance on the first boss." another veteran chimed in.
"Steven, do the chant!" speakers throughout the clearing encouraged.
Lord OhZone was hesitant. He was not the same guild leader he was last expansion, he didn't act like Steven anymore.
"Come onnnn..." one of the players begged again.
Lord OhZone's gaze shifted to the gathered guildies, his expression solemn. After a few moments of silence, he bellowed out in a gruff voice.
"Who are we?!" He shouted with authority.
"Taco knights! WOOOOO!" they boomed back full of spirit.
"What do we do?!" He asked?
"Eat tacos and kick ass! YEAH!" The veterans roared back with conviction.
"What are we all out of?!" he demanded.
"Tacos!" They cried out in dismay.
"And ass?" He questioned, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
"We have plenty of ass!" they hollered back with energy.
"Yeah you do! Lets go kick some!" Lord OhZone shouted as the guild charged through the path, ready to take on whatever came their way.
Bows was shouting with the rest of them the second and third time the Taco Knights did the chant, when she heard a knock at her door in real life.
"Be right back, real life stuff." She told Lord OhZone.
"It's because of the chant, isn't it?" Lord OhZone asked.
"No, the chant was... fun." Bows said with an actual smile. She put it on so rarely it didn't fit quite right. Lord OhZone felt she was faking it for his sake.
"Officer Bows, Get that real life taken care off, see you in a few." Lord OhZone said, and refocused on leading his raid to the Great Gate.
Steele logged out of WNC as the player BowsGoBrrrr, and put her CEO persona back on. She had told her assistant she wasn't to be disturbed unless the company was losing money, yet here was Kylie, their PR rep, knocking away at her door.
Kylie, WNC's public relations representative, entered cautiously. "We have a problem." She spoke directly, wasting no time. “Players aren't just upset that their characters can't respawn for the day. Those who had their character die are displaying physical manifestations of the experience.” Kylie held up some papers as evidence; reports of people being injured in ways that mirrored how their character died in the game.
"Send out a press release asking players to please not re-enact the game in real life." Steele was confused. Why did Kylie act like this was her first day? She knew how to handle such situations.
Kylie paused hesitantly before continuing: "Reliable reports are stating that players are not doing this to themselves."
Steele's skin crawled. The implications were too dreadful to contemplate - if there was even a whisper that they were behind it, they'd be facing legal battles they may never survive financially. "What are you implying Kylie?" Steele asked bluntly.
"I'm not implying anything," Kylie replied hastily. Her words chilled Steele to the bone as she quickly downplayed her implication, carefully shielding herself from any legal repercussions.
Inglebert walked into the office without warning, adding insult to injury.
"You forgot to knock." Steele commented, boiling with rage.
"You forgot to knock," Steele spat out, boiling with rage. As if on cue a knock echoed through the room but Inglebert hadn't stirred his hands from his sides.
"I think it's time we had an honest conversation," Inglebert began in a low and menacing tone, almost daring Steele to make her move.