Delhi was colder than he imagined. It was draped in a cool, comfortable climate, with a light chill in the air that hinted at the tail end of winter. Aric had visited this place many times, and every time he visited, the only thought that used to come to his mind was pollution and not what the country was supposed to represent.
Crowded streets, people moving like ants in a hive, old buildings, dirty surroundings, and, of course, people he personally never liked for some reason. Maybe it was racism in his heart, or maybe it was the vibe, but at the end of the day, he never liked the city.
But today, it was not his headache nor his work-related to work. Eric didn't get down from the jet, nor did his entourage. A car was waiting for him on the landing strip to take him to a new hotel where all the expenses were paid for the next 10 days. Though Aric didn't ask for it, his entourage made sure that he would be given these amenities.
As he was traveling to the hotel, he looked outside and couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and joy. Though he had received better amenities at Echorysia, he felt like a foreigner there, more so because he hardly saw any humans around. But here, he was among the same species as himself.
As he was thinking, he reached a 5-star hotel, and once he walked through and introduced himself, a white foreigner approached him from the side.
"Hello, are you Aric More?" the man asked. Aric nodded, and then the man asked to see some ID, which Aric produced. He could already see the badge of AmEx. He knew why he was here.
"Sorry for being a bit rude since it's a bit unconventional. We have never dealt with a client so young and that too from India. My name is Timothy Burns. I am from Wells Fargo. Can we talk somewhere in private?" Timothy asked. Aric nodded, and they were taken to Aric's suite.
It was there Timothy handed him the documents and his account details in the bank. Since they didn't have much info on Aric, they needed to personally verify since Aric was a minor to begin with, and it was a huge amount of money. Timothy gave Aric a full rundown of how he could operate his card and how he could also transfer money.
Aric was happy with all the facilities being provided. Being spoiled using mobile to pay in his previous life and also in Echorysia, it was a huge downgrade, but then it was better than carrying coins to pay in the other world.
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It took an hour to sign and understand how he would be able to access the things now that he was entitled to.
"Now that the formalities are over, here is my number. You can call me if you face any problems, be it financial or other things. We provide all the services at the right price, both national and international. I have noticed that you don't have a passport, so I would recommend you to get one, and if you trust us, you can ask for our services for getting you a passport and also for your family," Timothy said at the end.
"Thank you. I will consider it." Aric didn't accept any service from them at the moment. Timothy, with his bright and cheerful smile, left the suite, and Aric was finally left alone.
"Mira, check if there are any cameras or recordings," Aric asked. There were a couple of seconds of silence before Mira replied that no recordings had been found. Aric felt relieved. In the next moment, he vanished from his place.
He returned to the room after a few seconds, but this time he was holding a semi-transparent panel with solid rounded edges on the corners.
"Is that the new technology that you have been speaking about that you have access to? Wait, let me check.... This is so fast and better. Aric, don't take this away from me. Please," Mira showed up as a hologram projection on the watch and acted all cute.
Aric had given her a pretty woman's body, so it was not hard to act cute.
"Fine. But you won't get access to it always," Aric said. He could always hide the transparent pad in the magical world.
"That is fine," Mira accepted the deal without any complaints. Aric switched the pad on, and the screen lit up like Christmas. He had been wanting to work on a computing machine for ages and now finally got one.
But now he was different. He had so much knowledge in his head that he could use it like a wand, and the magic would be done instantly. All that he needed was a good network connection, which sadly he didn't have access to.
But he could do with the one he had. The 3G had been recently tried in India, or at least he had read the papers. It didn't take much time to find a connection and hack into it. Well, hacking wasn't the exact word here. He just found a 3G network caught by the transparent pad, which showed up in available networks, and used his fingers to type some commands, and voila, he found the vulnerabilities.
Exploiting them was easier. Now using the same technology, he soon made a small software that would erase any information pertaining to him on the Internet, now and in the future. Mira was the one doing it, but he still did it to see if the knowledge in his mind was real or not.
It was real. And then he fiddled around with the network, and it wasn't hard to access some of the core servers of Google by exploiting the vulnerabilities. Seeing the power that he now had in his fingertips made him giddy.
The interstellar world was really a mine, a mine with endless possibilities.