Free MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious by Emile van Veen Page A

was enough. He’d been thinking that for at least forty minutes, but he knew better than to say anything about it. Pharad was the leader, and they wouldn’t stop before he was completely satisfied.
    “We do it one more time,” said Pharad. They were standing in the woods outside the gate at the backside of Raynewood Retreat. “Last time was almost perfect. Now we do it one more time to make sure that nobody will forget what he has to do.”
    “I think we’ll have to clear the building again first,” said Gilead, who stood next to Drimm.
    Pharad turned around and peered at the structure of Raynewood Retreat that loomed over them. The entrance to the building was over a kind of terrace-like bridge, and Drimm could see that a Cenarion Defender had appeared in the doorway and was looking out at the back garden. That meant that there would be others inside the building as well. Gilead was right. The lower floors had to be cleared first. Again.
    “Yes,” said Pharad, and he pointed at Gilead. “You do it, but be quick about it.”
    Without another word, Gilead took a few steps forward and raised his gun. The shot boomed through the forest and Drimm could see that the Cenarion Defender was critically hit. He went down immediately. Gilead went inside and they could hear him shooting. The sounds diminished, then vanished altogether as he moved deeper into the building and went up the stairs. It was no easy task that Gilead had been given. His assignment was to leave an exact number of enemies alive in the building and kill the rest.
    Pharad turned back to the little group. “Okay, we wait until Gilead has finished, then we do it one more time.” He made a rude gesture to one of them. “And you, Jakky, will not try to loot again. You leave the bodies where they are and just try to control yourself. Besides, what do you expect to find? Some epic item dropping here?”
    “Yes, Commander,” Jakky said, and Drimm wished he could see the expression on his face. Drimm himself had suppressed the urge to search the bodies they left behind because he knew how much Pharad hated their greed.
    Shortly after that, Gilead returned. “It’s ready, we can start,” he said.
    “Okay, let’s take up the positions. If we get it right again, this was the last rehearsal.”
    Immediately everybody moved into position. Drimm had the farthest to go. He moved all the way around the building and halfway down the path that led to the road. He scanned left and right. Nobody in sight.
    “Team X in position. All clear,” he reported in.
    “Acknowledged, X. Everyone is now ready and in position. Wait for my sign to commence.”
    After that followed maybe twenty seconds of silence. Drimm kept looking left and right. The road remained empty.
    “Go, go, go!”
    Raynewood Retreat was built along a rarely travelled road in the Nightsong Woods, which covered most of the province of Ashenvale. The retreat was separated from Splintertree Post, the nearest village, by the Falfarren River and some steep hills. From the road Raynewood Retreat was nothing more than some dim building on a hill. What was happening up there couldn’t be seen from the road, as the entrance was in the back garden.
    Drimm had an important job, because he was to ensure that nobody would know what was happening. He was to raise the alarm if anyone was actually approaching, or maybe even to prevent that from happening.
    In his mind Drimm saw the carefully rehearsed plan enfolding. Team Y was approaching the main entrance from the left, Team Z came running in from the right. At the same time, Team Q had taken up position at the back entrance to cut off any possible intruders.
    Y and Z entered the building. Team Z immediately went for the stairs, while team Y secured the ground floor. After doing that, one of Y guarded the door. The other member covered the stairs.
    The two people from Team Z, Pharad being one of them, secured the first floor, silently and swiftly killing the two