Steemit Challenge S26-w3 : The Boss's Challenge

Dear Steemians,

I welcome you to the Third Week of Season 26 of the Steemit Challenge- 25th to August 31st, 2025!

It's an opportunity for fiction writers, to use their imagination but remember I want you to create a fiction full of facts which provide your readers a true sensation yet take them into the world of fantasy.

Let's see how you create a story based on the prompt provided below:

Theme of the week :

Image source edited

The Boss's Challenge

 

The General Manager of MyBudget emailed all his project managers and engineers. "I want everyone in the meeting room immediately after lunch. We have a project in hand!"

Project manager John looked at another manager, Timothy. "I thought we were already working on a crucial project!"

Timothy smiled and looked back at John. "Hmm, I am feeling like there is definitely something urgent!"

At 3pm, everyone was in the meeting room.

Timothy looked calm, but John was expecting something complicated coming up!

When everyone was seated, the boss cleared his throat and said, "Guys, we have a new project in hand. We have to prepare a program for a car rental agency with an exclusive algorithm that makes their app calculate a few extra features."

Then he addressed John and Timothy, "You two, I have selected you two! Make a team of engineers and start working immediately. You have six weeks to complete the job. Give me the names of the team engineers before you leave office. Now get going."

"Any special features?". John asked casually!

The boss looked at him and said, "Our client needs rental rates based on real-time demand. So you have to keep an eye on peak and off-commuting hours and also include promotional offers without affecting revenue but keeping the fares competitive. Give me a primary idea along with the list of engineers. I will give you rest of the detail when you're done with your team.

Everyone present in the meeting room looked at each other and dispersed.

Dear contestants, from here on, you'll enter into the minds of the project managers and tell me how they did it.

Points to build your story around:

A great starting scenario
What do you think two project managers did?
Plans
The execution
The conversation
End of the story with a result

Let's us see how your imagination works for you?

Please note:

*A well-crafted fiction story provides an engaging plot, including how you unfold it, what actions your characters took, and how they interacted with each other.

*The actions from start to finish are all part of a good fiction story. You have to weave and twist the plot in this prompt in a way that moves the story forward and keeps your readers interested by introducing complications and suspense.

*We will see what conversations your characters are having about the App as you have to make your story meaningful through all these choices, and your marks will be based on all these facts.

*Please read all the points of this prompt carefully.

Note:

-No greetings, etc. but come to the story straight away!

You should remember to make your story relatable, engaging, and thought-provoking, but don't miss out on experimenting with fantasy, fiction, and mystery in your story. Focusing on relatable themes, facts and how you handle the project will resonate with your readers.

-Make your story stand out with an original concept, unexpected plot twists, or memorable characters. I expect participants to venture into the world of imagination and create breathtaking stories, but don't forget the facts.

Contest Rules

Article Title: The Boss's Challenge

*Your post must be on your blog only and not in any community.

*Paste the post link of your post in the comment section of this post, and don't forget to vote and resteem this post.

*If two or more participants score equal points we shall decide the winner based on post's quality, and team's internal decision and that will be final.

*Do not post before or after the stipulated time: Monday, 25th August 2025 at 00:00 UTC and ends on Sunday, 31st August 2025, at 23:59 UTC.

*Your post must be at least 500 words and a maximum of 800 words (Prompt not included in word count).

*Your post must be free from plagiarism and AI, which will reflect in your points or even disqualify you from this contest.

*Share your post on any social media platform of your choice and share the link in comment section of your post.

***All Steemians acceptable barring the ones currently on power down.

Images:

*Use no more than one or two copyright-free images with proper sourcing for instance from pixabay, Pexels, etc. besides a thumbnail (AI based images accepted with source)

Post only on your Blog.

*Participants can write in any language supported by Google Translate, or Deepl translator but must not deviate significantly from the given story prompt.
*Participants must not use the official contest thumbnail or images.
*Tags: #fiction-s26wk3 #yourcountry #club if any and other suitable tags like #steemexclusive.
*Use # burnsteem tag only if you set null as beneficiary @25%.
*Invite three friends to participate in this contest. For instance, @suboohi, @mohammadfaisal and @kouba01

Timeline:

This contest starts on Monday, 25th August 2025 at 00:01 UTC and ends on Sunday, 31st August 2025, at 23:59 UTC. Posts submitted before or after will not be considered.

CHECK UTC TIME NOW

Rewards:

SC01 upvotes will reward the top 6 participants based on our recommendation every week but expect votes from SC02 randomly on outstanding contributions.

Points

Hello @, thank you so much for taking part in Week of the Steemit Challenge - Season 26! We truly appreciate the time and creativity you put into your entry. Your assessment, including feedback and scores based on our evaluation criteria, is provided below.

I will choose the top 6 stories based on a points system. If there is a tie, I will decide the winner based on overall story quality and a few points I will reveal in the result post.

Criteria	Marks	Remarks
Story start to finish	0/5
Originality & Uniqueness	0/3
Presentation	0/1
My observation	0/1
Total	0/10
Feedback	---
By	@

*Story start to finish: It will show how well the participant understood the finer points of the prompt and build the story based on the prompt provided.

*Originality & Uniqueness : The web is full of related stories, so you copied the idea, reworded it, and that's your story. No, that's not going to work. I will read every line carefully and see how you developed your story.

*Presentation : I will see to it that how Steemians presented the story and the markdown and image settings.

*My Observation : That's where I will tell you what was unique or what I liked in your story. This could be a crucial point that will make a difference on your result.
I will check AI Content :

Let me make it clear that even if you use ChatGPT or any other similar tools I will pick it up and your points will reflect the result. I know other methods that clearly indicate use of AI and rewording so be careful.

*I will check for plagiarism.

*Be careful, be original. I know how to detect the original from duplicate or stolen text.

Important Reminder:

1- Post on your blog only and not in any community. I do not want to trespass other communities.
2- There will be no compromise on 500-800 Words limit which is a test of your writing ability within limitations and a mandatory condition. it means you must stay within that exact word count range to demonstrate you can write concisely and effectively under constraints no matter what anyone comments against this condition.

I look forward to your creativity and wish you best of luck.

NOTE: @waqarahmadshah will assist me in evaluation on retainer basis whom I will keep beneficiary in Result Posts.

Cc, @steemitblog