𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚕

Untitled Part 28

Shagun apologizes to Anokhi for everything and leaves to study abroad. Shaurya and the boys present at Ultra tech. In spite of a blip organized by the higher-ups at Arora tech, they win the bid and celebrate with a vegetarian food dinner.

We left off last episode with Reema and Ahir running into each other at the restroom. Reema is flustered and reminds Ahir that they don't know each other. Ahir helpfully points out, as a friendly stranger, that Reema is about to enter the men's restroom.

While Anokhi is waiting for Reema outside, Shagun happens to be walking by and approaches her. Shagun says she will be leaving to study abroad tomorrow, and then she apologizes for causing trouble for Anokhi and Shaurya.
Shagun admits that she is a bit envious of Anokhi, not because she's dating Shaurya, but because she has true friends like Reema. Anokhi gives her some advice : be sincerely good to your friends, and they will in turn be good to you.

They wish each other well before Shagun heads off.

Anokhi and Reema arrive at Arora Tech. Reema goes to pick up her salary, and Anokhi sits down in the lobby to wait. She picks up a magazine and recognizes the man on the cover as the person she previously saw Vineet with. The man is GM Jagtap, the head of game development at Arora Tech.

Anokhi immediately calls Shaurya. Unfortunately, the Pro Marketers team is getting ready for their big presentation and everyone has turned off their phones.
Shaurya informs the team that for the sake of fairness, their demo will need to run on Ultra Company's external server.
The bros joke around; they're all nervous, but at least they're collected than Vineet, who bailed on the presentation because of an upset stomach.

Hmmm, fishy.

Finally, it's time. The two candidate teams meet in the lobby, and the major players are formally introduced. We all know Pro Marketers, of course. On Arora Tech's side, Anmol is introduced as the project lead. And from Ultra Company, we have GM Pratap, who will be heavily biased towards Arora Tech, and GM Arpan, who is unaffiliated but knows a good proposal when he sees one.

Everyone takes their seats in the conference room, where we also meet CEO Shyaam. Each team will get exactly half an hour before Mr. Shyaam has to hop on a plane to New York.
Arora Tech is up first. Anmol says that he is an active player in the original Beautiful Ghost Story game, and in his experience, the interpersonal relationships between players is the most important and compelling aspect of the game.
Thus, Arora Tech's proposal builds upon interpersonal relationships by introducing additional game modes based on love, family, group missions, and so on. GM Pratap comments to CEO Shyaam that Arora Tech's idea is very innovative.

Next, it's Pro Marketers's turn. GM Jagtap pulls out his phone under the table and fiddles with it ominously. Shaurya barely utters one introductory sentence before GM Pratap starts to question their qualifications: "How many engineers do you have? Aren't you all a scrappy team?"

Chill dude.

They continue to stall until GM Jagtap gets a text that "everything is going as planned." Nakul tries to log in to the server but is locked out, and the men sitting on Arora Tech's side of the table start to snark about it. CEO Shyaam asks his people to look into their server, and it turns out the their server shut down unexpectedly. It will take 45 minutes to reboot, which is way too long since CEO Shyaam has a flight to catch.
Furthermore, they can't put off the decision until after he returns from his trip because of other schedule conflicts.

Some of the Ultra Company board members suggest making a decision now, without having seen Pro Marketers's presentation. At this point, Shaurya tells Nakul to connect to the mirror server.
Mirror server? Arora Tech's side is stunned. Shaurya assures CEO Shyaam that the server configuration is identical to Ultra Company's server and provides login credentials for the staff to verify.

He smoothly spins the situation into an example of Pro Marketers's preparedness for all sorts of unexpected complications.
The presentation gives each team member a chance to shine : Nakul explains Pro Marketers's new and improved multi-threaded game engine, Laddoo introduces advanced NPCs (non-playable characters) whose behavior is complex and varied, and Squirrel talks about how weather in the game will mimic real-life weather conditions.

GM Pratap incredulously asks whether users will need to upgrade their equipment to support such complex changes? To answer the question, Shaurya cues a stress test demo of tens of thousands of players completing the River Beast Flooding mission at once.

It runs amazingly smoothly on Pro Marketers's new game engine, and everyone in the room is impressed.
Shaurya wraps up the presentation with a speech about Pro Marketers's mission and philosophy. Some people look down on video games as a waste of time; in fact, they are just as a valuable as books, movies, and museums. Beyond entertainment, they are a powerful medium for teaching and sharing Indian culture.

CEO Shyaam says approvingly that Pro Marketers's philosophy is in line with Ultra Company's. GM Pratap continues to staunchly support Arora Tech, while GM Arpan argues for Pro Marketers.
CEO Shyaam asks the candidate teams to step outside the conference room while they discuss further. A few moments later, CEO Shyaam comes out with the verdict.
Pro Marketers wins the project!

He shakes Shaurya's hand and makes plans to discuss the contract after he returns for New York. He also thanks Anmol's team, and then in a low voice apologizes to Shaurya, presumably for the server blip.
Anmol coolly accepts his defeat to Shaurya.

Downstairs, Anmol gives his team a mature pep talk, admitting that Pro Marketers's proposal was better this time but they should continue to work hard.

After sending his lackeys home to rest, he overhears GM Jagtap on the phone, talking about how the evil plan was foiled by Shaurya's preparedness. Anmol is extremely shocked and angry.

Anokhi joins Pro Marketers for a celebratory dinner. Everyone is in high spirits, and talk turns to Nakul's apartments.
Apparently, his parents bought him two residences in the city to share with his future wife. (Shaurya: "But why two?" Laddoo: "TWO WIVES?")
Nakul quickly changes the subject and says that he has an empty room up for grabs, free of charge. All of the guys, especially Laddoo and Squirrel, volunteer eagerly to take it. Cut to close-up of DS mulling over this news.

Shaurya and Anokhi leave the dinner table to refill the wine decanter, and they take the chance to discuss Vineet. Shaurya reveals that he resigned, and Anokhi asks if he really betrayed the team? Shaurya is only slightly surprised that his wifey knows this.

In a flashback, we see Vineet confessing to Shaurya that he has been working for Arora Tech. His good friend was sued by Arora Tech and consequently Vineet was blackmailed into helping Arora Tech. No one else in the company knows this truth.

The next day, Nakul awakes at 3:30pm to insistent knocks on his door. It's DS with his hands full of groceries and a bribe.