"Why the hell are you still sleeping? Today's your first day of college. Leave early."
He has been awake since 25 mins but he was too lazy to leave the bed. Finally, after hearing his mom's voice, he knew that he will be late if he slept anymore. Not that he cared but he didn't want to get another scolding from her after getting one last night.
"Yes mom, I am awake now."
After getting ready, he came to the breakfast table. He didn't want to eat the sandwich in front of him but had no choice, so he sat silently. His mom came, bringing a glass of milk for him.
"Rohit, you are 16 years old now. You need to know that life these days isn't easy. You won't get a job easily if you don't study hard. Look at you, you threw away the chance to get into one of the IITs and now you have to make do with this University of Mumbai."
"Yes mom, I know. I will work hard these next four years."
"No, you don't know. You have disappointed your father..."
As soon as he heard those words, he left the table and stormed out of home with his college bag and his ipod. He knew that he had disappointed his father and that was why every night he and his parents have fought, them being too concerned about his future.
But that wasn't the truth. Rohit is smart. Smart enough to crack the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) entrance exam where only 7000-8000 students are selected out of 600,000 students on an average. He could even have easily topped the exam, but he purposely didn't do it because he didn't want to be called a nerd.
He had been bullied a lot in high school because of his smartness or because of his slim body and less than proportionate weight as opposed to his height of 171 centimeters. Yes, his photo would have been published on the first page in the newspaper if he had topped, but he had his own unique thinking.
His parents knew how smart he was and they couldn't believe the result that he couldn’t get in and perhaps that's why they scolded him every night for ruining his own life.
*
Black magicians used to be one of a kind. They were born with magic power inside of them. They could do almost anything. But the magic was limited by their physical strength and their willpower. To put simply, a strong man with more willpower is a more powerful magician than a physically weak man with no will power of his own.
They were just 'born' with power and not 'made'. When they casted magic, they didn't need to do incantations. Just thinking about what they wanted was more than enough to do it.
They could not stop time or bring huge natural disasters, but they were strong enough to defeat 10-20 men of the village by themselves. They used magic to slow their opponents, make themselves a little faster temporarily, blind their opponents momentarily, etc.
The era of black magicians started a long time ago when they suddenly started showing their powers in a country named Hastinapura ruled by king Dushyanta. When he heard the powers of so called magicians, the king summoned them as asked them to show their powers.
There were 17 black magicians and they were asked to fight 200 criminals in a death battle. The magicians won easily. The king noticed that they got surrounded by black aura when they casted their magic and hence named them Black Magicians.
Every battle has a reward. The magicians were given a choice as the reward of the battle. Either get beheaded or take 10 underlings each, teach them magic and live a royal life.
Magicians chose the latter and came up with a way to teach their underlings who weren't worn with black magician blood. Thus, wizards were born but they could only cast magic by doing incantations.
The wizards, later, grew powerful and they started ignoring the commands of black magicians and the king. The 170 wizards, conspired and killed the king and then put the blame on black magicians.
Thus, the 17 black magicians were executed for treason and the most powerful wizard was named as the king. Since then every black magician when discovered, was executed. Later, the wizards who went rogue were named as black magicians. Thus, the whole history of the black magicians was erased and their name was sullied.
Wizard Akrodha, who was amongst the first 170 wizards, was sent to kill a recently found young black magician. When he went there, he didn't kill the magician. Perhaps, he felt guilt because his master was executed in the conspiracy or perhaps he just couldn't kill a 13 year old child who had yet to see the world.
He told the child everything of the past, he told him never to use his black magic and try and search as many black magicians as he could to save them too. Akrodha then committed suicide.
*
The young black magician found 2 more black magicians in his lifetime. The two other, in turn, found 5 more. And as generations after generations passed, 139 black magicians now knew of the brutal past.
Now, these 139 black magicians don't have anyone to take revenge on. The wizards are all dead. There isn't any kingdom now. There are only countries. The fights have all but stopped since the second world war. There is peace and almost everyone desires that. Black magicians have remained hidden since forever. The name of the black magicians have been sullied but as per the people of the present, black magicians are nothing but rogue wizards.
The black magicians of this generation are all very powerful. Some of them are entrepreneurs, others head leading computer companies. Some are sportspersons, other are politicians. Some are just regular office workers, others are students studying in colleges. Some are housewives, others are maids. But no matter who they are, everyone of them is powerful.
3 years ago, all of these 139 black magicians decided that they wanted to clear their name and make the world know that some powerful magicians existed in reality and not just gutless fake wizards who use tricks to fool people.
They now had nothing against the wizards but still they wanted to make the world know that black magicians are good. Perhaps because of the power given to them, they couldn't do evil deeds. Thinking of well being of everyone was natural to them. Hence, in that meeting, they decided to let the world know. But not by declaring themselves in front of media or doing superhuman activities. They all decided to leave the world a wonderful gift. They wanted fame initially in a way by letting the world know of their existence, but then they all were happy to simply leave their mark.
*
Rohit reached the college and after finding his class number and roll number from the board in the lounge, he started walking towards the class. The class was on 3rd floor and as soon as he entered the class, he saw Rupesh. His legs stopped. He couldn't move his legs even though he wanted to. Rupesh noticed the person-turned-statue standing in the doorway.
"Look who is here, the worm. Hahaha, what the fuck are you doing here worm, eh? With your brains, I thought you would have gone to IITs or something. Well, this is good. I am gonna enjoy the future four years now."
Rohit didn't say anything. Even if he had wanted, the words wouldn't have come out. He had made a bad decision. Now he wanted to leave the classroom and drop a year and take the IIT entrance exam against next year. He wouldn't be able to handle Rupesh for the next four years. Rupesh was the big bully who was always behind his back. Then he heard something that hurt him even more.
"Hehehe, stop it Rupesh. You shouldn't say that to someone who is frozen at the doorway in fear of you."
This came from the girl who was sitting next to Rupesh and was holding his hands. From the look of it, they were a couple and the first lecture has not even begun. Perhaps, this was the girl about whom Rohit had heard in the high school.
It should have been natural for people to hate Rupesh after they saw him insult someone on the first day but college life was different. People hang out with those people more who are bullies and sound cool even if they fail at half of the subjects.
What hurt Rohit more was that this girl sitting next to Rupesh was unbelievably beautiful. With perfect curves and straight hair, her tight sleeveless yellow dress added more beauty to the already beautiful body of hers.
'Why does even she have to insult me?'
Rupesh noticed that Rohit was eyeing Sneha and so he got up, went to Rohit, hit him on his head. Not a punch, but a slap. That showed his superiority somehow.
"What the fuck are you looking at? Go and sit at the back worm."
What surprised Rohit was that no one came to his help. Even on the first day of the college, no one tried to stop the handsome-guy-with-perfect-body Rupesh from bullying the slimmer-than the-average-slim-guy Rohit. Rohit quietly started walking towards the back and took a seat on the last bench.
From the corner of her eye, Dishita, who was sitting on the bench adjacent to Rohit, saw a single tear roll down from Rohit's left eye.
After the college, Rohit ran as fast and as far away as he could from the college. He boarded the train to his home city. But it was only 5:30pm. He alighted at an intermediate station and went to roam the city. He didn't want to go home early. He was still embarrassed and pissed. He kept walking goallessly.
*
FutureGadgets CEO was sitting in his amphitheatre like room on the speaker's desk. More than hundred people in front of him were staring at the monitors in front of them respectively. Then, from the door, one person entered. He addressed the CEO.
"Sir, 50,330,769 units have been distributed. Only one unit has to find its way to a suitable person."
"Who is monitoring the situation?"
"Mr. 87"
"That bastard sure takes his time. Hope he brings a special one. How many of his units have been distributed?"
"None. He gave all his units to other members and only took one. He said that he will bring the unit to the most interesting person in the world and left.”
"Are you sure he wasn't making an excuse to pass his time by getting more drunk instead of distributing the units?"
"....."
"Anyway, you go and sit at your place. He will text me when he will be done."
The CEO, Mr. Johnson, then spoke in the microphone.
"I want everyone to be ready to begin at a moment's notice. Is the database properly done? Is the website ready? Is the ranking system ready? Is the website secure enough? Is... "
The phone in his pocket vibrated. He pulled it out to see that a text message has been received. He opened the message.
It's done. I believe I was the last, but its done. Let’s enjoy from now on. I'll be there within a week. Also, start it, start the website too but if possible, broadcast only after 3 hours.
Immediately after receiving the message, Johnson's eyes lit up.
"Start it now! First the website. Then Mr. 56 should broadcast the message worldwide by jamming every single frequency of every single device. It will start today. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time we made the world happy. We 139 people, won't be known personally but the world will surely be happy."
*
After walking for a while, Rohit got hungry. He saw a fast food shop nearby. He went there and ordered a snack. While he was eating, he saw a roadside book stall opposite to him. After finishing the snack, he went to the stall and started going through some fictions. He had read many fictions. He was searching for a book that would atleast last a day. His speed is around 1 page a minute and so he wanted a book that should be at least 600 pages. He didn't care if it was boring or unknown.
'Anything so as I won't be reminded of Rupesh and that idiot, hot girlfriend of his.'
Then he saw it. A book that seemed almost as old as himself, sitting in a corner. From the thickness of it, it seemed that it would have 700-800 pages. He picked it up and saw the name.
THE SPHERE
He turned to see the back cover text of the book.
Everyone should have a chance to alter his destiny. We all want that, Don't we? We all desire that, don't we?
Go into an adventure like never before. Compare yourself with 50 million other readers of this book. Discuss your thoughts with them. And decide the ending that you want yourself.
This simple text intrigued Rohit.
'Decide ending yourself? What the hell?'
He opened the book and saw some text but thought that he would start from the beginning. Besides the author dared to lie about selling 50 million copies. Surely, it would have been on news if this would have sold 50 million copies. He checked the author's name. It was blank. He was baffled. Still he decided to give it a go.
'Who cares? At least I wouldn't think of that idiot,hot girl.'
By this time, he had totally forgotten about Rupesh. Perhaps because he had been used to him but somehow he couldn't remove that hot girl from his mind. Not because she had laughed at him and insulted him in front of whole class by doing so, but because she was beautiful and hot enough to torment his mind.
'I should at least get to know her name somehow. Well, I have a right to know the name of the girl that insults me. Not because she is hot or anything.'
He asked the book vendor, "How much?"
"200 rupees. 150 deposit and 50 rent."
"No I don't wanna rent it, I wanna buy it."
"500 rupees."
He took out his wallet. He had only 350 rupees with him.
"Well, I have only 350 so I will rent it."
"Give me 350 and you can have it."
'The benefit of buying from a roadside book vendor.'
He handed him the money and kept the book in his bag. As if he became happy, he started walking towards the train station to go home.
*
The beggar has been sitting at the same place since 2 years. He had made 150 rupees once, in a day. Yes, it was the auspicious day of Diwali but he was happy.
Even though he is a multi-millionaire, he didn't care about begging. He wanted to see this. Ever since he had known that he had the power of magic, he was uncomfortable. He made money by using his power to purchase the shares that would be profitable.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He was happy at first, but after a while he got bored. Then he helped people but he was afraid of revealing his identity. So he couldn't do that properly either.
Then one day, he was approached by a gentlemen. The gentlemen had told him everything about the past of his magic and somehow he knew that the gentlemen was right. He could feel that perhaps because of his power but yes, there wasn't any doubt about it. He got to know from the gentlemen that he was a black magician.
He chose to distribute only one unit so as to get as much free time as he wanted. But he also wanted to see who would take his unit, as he had promised that he would choose someone interesting.
But he didn't think that it would turn out like this. He was begging opposite to the roadside bookstall. He used his magic to know about this little boy who chose the book. He saw a flashback type video in front of him.
'Why the hell did it have to be a weakling? And that too someone who was bullied on the first day of the college as well as his entire life? Gutless boy. I had told the leader to send the game out in a computer game dvd but no, he had to hide it in this stupid book. Damn! There goes my one and only unit in the hand of a weakling. Shit! Well..'
He took out his iPhone-5 cell phone and typed something. People started giving him a look after seeing a beggar with an iPhone-5 but as usual, he didn't care. In the recipient column, he searched Mr. Johnson and tapped ok.
*
Rohit reached home around 7pm. After spending some time on facebook and checking his mail, Rohit went for another walk. After 30 mins, he returned home and after an hour or so, his mom set the dinner on the dining table and called him to eat.
He washed his face, hands and sat down on the table. His father saw him and nodded. His father was watching CNN when it happened. The TV's background turned black and in white, countdown started.
5..
4..
3..
2..
1..
This broadcast is being simultaneously broadcasted throughout the world over TV, radio, and one will even hear this if one is talking on phone. This is so designed that the language would be the language of the channel you are watching and on phone it would be in the language in which you were just conversing. This is one time broadcast and very important. We don't mind even if you record this.
Who are we? What's our reason behind this? You won't get the answer to that. FBI, CIA, other agencies can try and find us but we are sure you won't be able to, so enjoy instead of wasting your time. We really wanted to give the people of earth something, so we worked hard over the years and brought you this. Don't worry, just enjoy this gift from us.[/td][/tr]
With the voice, there was also text on the TV screen in front of Rohit.
[tr][td]We have worked very hard to bring you our creation. Now, mind this. We were limited with our resources so only about 50,330,770 of you will get to enjoy this. But that's equivalent to 1/14th of the world population. So, a lot of you will be enjoying. And yes, by 'enjoying' we seriously mean enjoyment and this is not some alien attack. We are also humans. Let us start explaining by what this broadcast is about.
There are 50+ million books by the name of 'The Sphere' that has been distributed globally. Some of you might have heard that this is some secret to the first virtual reality game at some forums but that's not it. You enter 'The Sphere' when you open the book, i.e., you go in a different world just like virtual games are supposed to work. Also, no one will be able to open the book of someone else. The book can't be destroyed.
This is just like a normal game but you will be able to feel everything like you do in real life. Everyone can try and become the winner. However, the winner is determined by not only rankings but also other factors. Try to conquer the sphere.That is all we can say at the moment. You will know yourself what to do to win the game but play it to enjoy it when the time comes. This is like your second life.
There are various quests, you can hunt to raise your level, fight amongst each other, form alliances, create your kingdom, choose profession, and many other things. There are non-users as well. Well, we predict that the game would take at least 7-10 years to get conquered. Also, with this game, we have opened about millions of jobs in real world if you can be quick enough to figure out how to do it. One hour in real life equals 3 hours in game.
There is a ranking system at our website. The website allows you to transfer the items and game money with respect to real money. It's auction based. So rich people have higher chances of moving forward but poor people have the chance to become rich in real life.
None of the money comes to us, its totally free. If you die in the game, you will be resurrected at the last resurrection point. There is penalty for each death and also time before resurrection will depend on how you died.
Check the website http://www.**********.com for more information. Also, all of you have been given an account of CityBank and your account has a balance of 10,000$. This account can only be used online and its real money. You can spend all your money drinking alcohol but using it to get stronger would be a good idea.
CityBank folks, an anonymous deposit of total sum has been done in the bank's main account so as to not make the people wonder where this money came from in CityBank's hand. We will keep updating the website at regular intervals.
By the way, the game was started around 2 hrs 30 mins ago and as of now, more than 2 million people have started playing and 19 of them have already reached level 7. Update : 1 player just reached level 8. Check the website. Hurry up and start. Make sure that you lay down somewhere before entering the game because you fall asleep immediately in the real world.
HAPPY SPHERE-ing!!!
The broadcast came to an end and the TV screen came back to CNN. The news reporter was shocked and didn't know that she was still on broadcast. Rohit glanced at his dad and then left the table to visit the website. Not because everyone else in the world at this time was doing it but because he purchased 'The Sphere' just hours ago.
'2 hours 30 mins? Does that mean I was the last buyer?'
Rohit went to the website on his computer. His dad came to see what this fuss was about and he was standing behind Rohit. As expected, the website was there. Homepage had various different tabs and it opened in Ranking's tab directly. The first rank was someone name 'Linxx' at level 8. Second ranked was a player named 'King Mmorpg' at level 7 also. The next 27 names were all at level 7.
There were various more tabs like profile, account, comments, videos, tutorial. Rohit clicked on tutorial. It showed various commands and gave certain instructions and it was also written that the same can be accessed from the game. Rohit’s dad was eyeing him. It said that to register you have to have to touch the book and say the command "Register your-game-name."
"Why are you checking tutorial?"
"Hmm, because... "
Rohit went and opened his bag. From his bag he took out a book.
THE SPHERE
His dad and mom who just came in, were surprised. They wanted to throw the book away but kept quiet. The book seemed old. Rohit touched the book.
'Well, I don't know squat about games and I suck in real life so...'
"Register Worm"
His dad was shocked by the choice of name that his son made but what shocked him more was the change that happened in the book. The book became new. Like it had just been taken out from the publishing factory. A USB Port appeared at one side of the book. The author name which wasn't there initially, now appeared - Rohit Rana.
He couldn't believe what he just saw. Neither could his mom or dad. His dad especially wanted to see something.
"See if your account has 10,000$."
Rohit registered himself at the website. He just needed to enter his game name.
'Game name is unique.'
The website's layout changed a little but the account tab could now be seen. He clicked on the tab. There was a account number, and the balance was 10,000$. His dad was baffled.
"What the hell? Try and send me a dollar at my local bank account."
Rohit clicked on Intra-Transfer, selected the bank name, and then the entered the account number that his dad gave. Within 2 minutes, his dad got a text on his cell.
55 rupees(1$) has been credited in your account.
His dad, surprised, asked him to check his account at CityBank website but it was truly there with the name Rohit Rana. His dad asked his account number and asked Rohit to go back to the game website and check the balance again.
Rohit, now angry, didn't say anything and went to check the balance. The balance now showed 14,999$. His dad had just transferred 5,000$ into his account.
"That's my three months pay I just transferred. I always scold you but I haven't seen you play any game until now. Its not a lot but... Anyway, play it and to learn faster, you will need money to do that. That's all I can give and I won't give you a single rupee more. So, enjoy but at the same time, promise me that you will top your college these next 4 years."
Rohit knew that his father has just transferred a huge sum of money into his account. He also knew that his father wanted him to seriously play, since all Rohit had done in his life was study, study, study. But, still 5,000$ is a huge amount. Rohit swore that he would never use those 5,000$. He became teary eyed. His father saw that and smiled.
"First, finish your dinner and then you can go play."
"Yes."
*
10:00 pm
All over the world, police personnels, special government units started meeting and discussing on 'The Sphere'. Surely, the news channel were treating this as "BREAKING NEWS" content. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Verge were overflowing with news about this. Some were saying that they have a book and the rest were jealous.
More and more players were entering the game. In an hour, around 44 million players had entered the game as if they knew that it was gonna start today. The Sphere's website was flooded with comments.
Hackers were trying to do what they could but they were ultimately redirected to their own IP. This has never happened before and they were all surprised.
The Sphere was unbreachable.
*
10:15 pm
Rohit went to the website again and checked the instructions/
'Better to know as much as I can.'
He saw that the game was MMORPG and searched about MMORPG online. He got to know about quests and that non-users give them.
'So, I will have to talk to the non-users. I wonder how I can identify them.'
Then he saw on the website that all non-users can easily be identified in the game. He saw that he would need to clear the dungeons in order to hunt monsters that, in turn, increases level. The higher the level, the stronger the character and greater difficulty quests can be obtained. The greater the difficulty, the more the reward.
He read about Intelligence, Strength, Agility and other stats and what they do. He saw that stats improvement is most important along with items but even though everyone knows it, all players focus on leveling up and then increase stats with the bonus points that are given after leveling up. As increasing stats otherwise is problematic and difficult and level increment also increases health and mana side by side.
'I will definitely focus more on stats than levels.'
He read the instructions, saw the general map of "The Sphere" and decided to start at Kuru Kingdom.
It was now 1 am. He decided to go in the game but had a last look at instruction and saw something that shocked him.
Good physical abilities in real life lead to faster reaction times in game and help in developing the character faster. People with martial arts or fighting experience will find it easy to go through battles.
Too depressed to read further, Rohit began thinking.
'Shall I train my body and then start? No. I will train in game, it will be 3 times faster.'
Doing what he does best, he started using his developed mind even before entering the game. He checked the rankings. Almost 7 hours have passed since the launch, so that's like 21 game hours. He checked the rankings again. Linxx was still first at level 15. 2nd ranked was now at level 13.
'That bastard. He is alone at level 15 out of 50 million+ people and second is at level 13. Doesn't the bastard wanna sleep?'
He went down the rankings, he was surprised to see that 100th ranked was only at level 8.
'There are some gamers who don't know what limit is, eh?'
Then he went down to the very bottom.
He saw his name. Worm. Ranked 50,330,770. That didn't surprise him. What surprised him was the level of the player ranked just above him. The level was 2. He figured that there would at least be 5 million people who wouldn't have started playing but to his surprise everyone had started. He was the only person whose level was 0.
'Shit! Physical fitness is needed to develop fast and I'm last already? I sure am a worm. Well, just need to pass 50,330,769 people to rank 1st. Hehehehe.'
He turned off the computer, cleared his bed and went to lay down.
'Here we go...'
"Enter The Sphere."
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