Vikram's jaws were clenched, and the blood inside him erupted in anger. He turned and saw Raymond walking all wide in pride and that sight was unbearable for him.

He had planned hard really hard.

He had arranged for some questionable pictures of some of the GCG council members and had forced them to make these last-minute changes in the game rules to favor him. He was so hell-bent on crushing Raymond's dream and his identity that in an inside deal he had purchased another company - 'Compton Ltd' and provided them with all the information so that they can rule over the contest.

But everything went into the drain.

All the money that he had invested, all the hours that he spent. He couldn't understand how Raymond was able to foil his ironclad, fail-proof plan.

But he himself was also a man of wit who always had a plan B ready as a backup. He was not ready to cave in. Not so fast.

After calming his nerves, he called up Peter again,

"Patch me through to the Compton tech lead".

"Ok Mr.Vikram".

"Mr. Mitiyoushi, Mr.Vikram is on the line with you".

"I had sent you a couple of character designs to integrate into the first round of the game right?"

"Yes, Mr. Vikram".

"I want that first round of your game to be shown now".

"But Mr. Vikram, our original first round is way better with better characters and guild design than the ones you gave. The new one isn't that perfect right now. There might be some glitches as it hasn't been thoroughly tested. But our previous design is well tested and verified".

"I don't care about that, just make sure the new design takes part in the first level of the contest here. You have 20 mins to make everything ready".

Vikram said and disconnected the call.

His voice was fiercely commanding. Everything was getting on his nerves now.

Peter heard the entire conversation in the background and he felt like it was a bad move on Vikram's part because they had invested millions in buying Compton and Vikram was risking his own company's performance with this move.

So he called up Vikram.

"Sir, I think we should rethink using their character design. It will disqualify both the teams. It will be a huge loss for us if our company is disqualified. Plus this will affect our image as well when news will come out that we are the parent company of Compton. This will, in turn, affect the brand value of Abacus".

"I do not care about that right now. Does it look like I am bothered about this contest anymore?", yelled Vikram.

"If that's what it takes to disqualify Delphie then I am on it and you need to make sure that it happens", saying that Vikram went back to the arena.

He was bothered and it was clear from his desperate actions.

A couple of minutes later another announcement was made.

"The competition will get stiffer now. You all have to display the first round of your game and judges will gauge everything about this round starting from the grid, character, user-friendliness, and optimality. So please select player vs system mode and be ready to give a demo in 10, 9,.....

Raymond sat all calm in his booth as he had full confidence in Simon and his abilities for presenting a perfect demo. He looked at Simon and said,

"Just play it as you do in the office. No pressure".

Simon nodded and then looked at Kirk. Even he was ready and they went to Live again.

Simon's complete attention was channeled into the game and he played really well with his adept hands against the system. His guild control was perfect today and he amassed 690 points in the first round and then they submitted their demo.

A satisfactory smile spread on Raymond's face as the max that they had scored in the trial rounds was 683 in the demo runs in office. It was clear that Simon had given his all today.

Next, the GCG council body was busy analyzing and preparing the ranking based on the demo videos submitted by the four companies which were fighting against each other.

Now it was the time for Vikram to gloat over.

So he came down from the arena and went to Delphie booth because he wanted to see the reaction on Raymond's face when they would be disqualified.

"How did it go?"

Kirk looked at Simon and then looking up at Vikram he said,

"This guy aced it today. Better than office trial runs".

"Looks like I have invested my money in the right company", Vikram said half heartedly.

"Well don't worry Mr. Vikram, I told you earlier that I will give my best shot here. So that's what we are doing right now".

Vikram turned to look at Akira, but she was unfazed with any of the talks and was busy checking something on her system so he didn't disturb her. But little did he know that she was analyzing the complete video of the first round by Compton frame by frame and she was taking note of all the characters that they had copied.

And then the announcement began,

"Time for the scores people".

"In the fourth rank, we have Compton Ltd, which the judges have scored 67/100".

"In the third rank, we have MetaFile, which the judges have scored 73/100".

"In the second rank, we have Delphi, which the judges have scored 87/100".

"And in the first rank, we have Gamma Corp, which the judges have scored 88.5/100".

"It's a tight race right now and anything can happen because the next round that we have is massive and it will make sure that only best will win".

Vikram couldn't understand what just happened.

Both Delphie and Compton were supposed to be eliminated. But how did this happen? Why they were still eligible?

There was a huge uproar in Delphie booth because even though they were in the second place the margin was less. There was still a good chance for them to snatch the trophy.

Then Vikram turned towards Raymond and said,

"Second place is good. But why second place? Can I see the demo? I want to see what went wrong?"

"Sure thing !!!", Raymond said all nonchalantly but he knew that Vikram was clearly disturbed.

Simon switched on the demo again for Vikram to see,

He scanned every frame but he couldn't find any of the characters that were shown by Akira to him and that surprise was clearly written on his face.

He turned towards Akira and asked,

"Are your designs not being used in here?"

"Which designs?", Akira asked deliberately.

"The ones you showed me at lunchtime the other day".

"Oh, those were the rejected ones. I just showed you to give a sample demo of my work. I wanted you to see my work and appreciate me. You see the fiery female here on the screen with red hair, that was designed completely by me. But I couldn't show you this one as it is against the company's information sharing policies you see".

Vikram stood there in silence, starting at the screen, unable to understand if his girl had played him.