Chapter 244 The Failed Test

Chapter 244 The Failed Test
Everyone was stunned after hearing Thorin’s test conditions. “What? What?” Everyone started murmuring.

“But how can we know the code is working if we don’t execute it, if we don’t test it?” asked Niralith.

“That’s the test, Ms Moonfang,” smiled Thorin. “So, who’s getting in first?” Everyone gulped; no one raised their hands, no one even moved. “No one?” asked Thorin, smirking with pride.

“Wait! Where is Maeve?” asked Aria.

“Um… our plagiarism project is creating trouble. The client keeps changing terms and conditions. Instead of building the programme, Maeve has to keep coaxing him to keep the terms and conditions manageable. The client wants even a quote from a popular book to be highlighted as plagiarism, but that is absurd. So, Maeve went to have another meeting with him, trying to make him understand that plagiarism does not work that way,” explained Vella.

“She is again absent??” yelled Thorin in anger. Everyone immediately backed away from him in fear.

“No, no, she is not absent. She came to the office, punched her name, gave her attendance and then went to the meeting,” Vella immediately tried to make Thorin understand.

“But you said everyone would be here today for the tests! Were you lying, Ms Morwen?” chided Thorin.

“No, no, sir! I was not lying. As Vella said, she came, but our clients are important too. We cannot put a project on hold for a test. The moment she comes back, I assure you, I will bring her before you,” assured Thessia.

“So you mean the clients are more important, not me, not my test, not my future projects?” Thorin was getting angrier.

“I don’t mean that, sir. But we cannot put all our projects on hold for future projects. The current projects are paying us; they are giving us profits. Do you want us to put a hold on the current project just to give importance to future projects?” asked Thessia.

“Don’t make them hate you! You are dumping your anger on someone who doesn’t deserve it. Calm down! Why are you letting your jealousy for Maeve impact you this much?” Corvin sent his thoughts to Thorin.

Thorin stood straight, glanced at Corvin and cleared his throat. “Fine! Fine! Bring her to me when she comes back. Now let’s start the test. You! get in!” ordered Thorin and pointed at a man standing next to Thessia. He gulped in fear but walked behind Thorin.

“Wish me luck!” the man murmured before walking away. Immediately, everyone wished him good luck, and the door closed.

Thorin gave the instructions to the man and let him ask as many questions as he wanted, and then showed his source code to the man. He even showed the man his character so that he could feel like he knew what he was going to work with.

The man exhaled loudly, cracked his knuckles and for a few minutes kept reading the code Thorin had already written. The applicant had to continue the code and make the character walk. The candidate wrote the next line of the code, erased it, wrote it again, and the cycle continued. He spent almost half an hour on one line of code. Hours passed. The people standing outside, waiting, were now sitting on the floor, bored out of their minds.

Thorin sat in his seat with Vespera and Corvin sitting on the couch inside the room. Everyone was sighing loudly as they had nothing to do and all looked bored.

“I… I think I am done!” said the applicant, hesitantly.

“Are you sure? Do you want to recheck your work? Remember, the moment you execute the code, you cannot go back. And if my character does not walk, you fail. So, I ask this again, are you sure?” asked Thorin and stood up from his seat.

“I… I…” the delivery manager was sweating from every orifice even though the AC was on full blast. “Um… can I have a few more minutes?”

“You can take as long as you want!” smiled Thorin and sat back in his seat. The delivery manager kept staring at every character he had typed, every comma, every full stop, every slash, every backslash, every command and after making sure that his work was fine, he sighed slowly.

“Okay, I think I am ready now,” said the delivery manager.

“Then go to the next phase!” said Thorin and slowly stood up from his chair.

“Okay, okay!” said the delivery manager and ran the code through the compiler. It took a few more minutes, and the screen flashed the character standing in a green field. When the delivery manager gave the command to walk, the character didn’t even move an inch. It stayed put. The delivery manager lowered his head in defeat.

“You failed!” smiled Thorin.

“I am sorry, sir!” said the delivery manager and stood up, looking tired and gloomy. He almost took three hours, but he failed. He walked out, and no one needed to ask him the results. His face showed everything.

“Who’s next?” asked Thorin and opened the door. Everyone wanted to ask the first candidate what he saw, what he did, but Thorin didn’t give anyone that chance. “You! Walk back to your station and do not tell anyone what you did inside or what you saw inside. If I see you clueing anyone in, I will fire you! warned Thorin.

“What???” The man was shocked. Not only him, but everyone sitting and standing outside Thorin’s cabin was shocked.

“Am I clear?” asked Thorin.

“Yes, sir!” replied the man and walked to the lift area to go back to his floor.

“You! You are next!” ordered Thorin, and a woman stood up. He again instructed her on everything and let her ask as many questions as possible. This woman took four hours, but she too failed. The time was flying by, and the end of the day was approaching. Three applicants had already tried the test, but all had failed. No one could make the character move. Thorin, too, was getting disappointed. The Veyantara office was known for its IT, yet no one could solve a simple problem.

“No one?” asked Vespera.

“None! Not till now! And we are near the end of the day,” sighed Thorin. He walked out and looked dejected. But his mind made him look around to look for an unfamiliar face. That unfamiliar face would be Maeve’s. But no one was there. That made him a little angry.

“No one passed today. We will continue the test tomorrow. And where the hell is she? She is not here yet?” snapped Thorin.

“Um… she called… we had to send a few members of her team to the client's office. They are working together, trying to make him understand what a plagiarism programme looks like, so we had to send a few samples from our archives. She will be here tomorrow, I assure you!” explained Thessia.

Thorin gritted his teeth and waved everyone to scatter.