The weekend sunlight seeped through the dorm window, spreading gold on the messy desk of Room 304. Aaryan sat cross-legged on his bed, laptop open in front of him, eyes sharp and intent. The gelatinous system panel floated invisibly before his eyes—snappy, utilitarian, and always alive with faint movement.
His day was already mapped out in pixel-perfect detail:
> **\[Daily Module – Active]**
> • Signal Processing Theory – 3 hrs
> • Simulated Lab Module – 2 hrs
> • Concept Drill: Data Encoding – 1 hr
> Target Efficiency Rating: ≥87%**
He rubbed his eyes and leaned back slightly, grumbling, "Alright. Let's get it."
The moment he placed his fingers on the keyboard, the AI nested inside his **system-rewarded ultracomputer-grade laptop** responded with seamless precision. Code appeared even before he could finish his thoughts. Graphs animated in real-time. Diagrams adjusted with gestures. This wasn't a machine—this was a co-pilot with no lag, no errors, and zero patience for distraction.
Somewhere in the background, Manish grumbled in his sleep. The rest of the dorm was still, but Aaryan's mind whirred like a turbine.
Three modules in. Two to go. He didn't feel time passing—until the headache struck like a silent wave crashing over his awareness. The system flashed in warning.
> **\[Alert: Neural Stress Detected]
> Cognitive Load Exceeding Safe Threshold**
> **Triggering Emergency Dispensation…**
> **Reward: Mental Recovery Potion – Tier I (Auto-Use)**
There was a small glowing vial on the panel. When it exploded into mist, cool clarity surged through his head, loosening the stress between his eyes.
> **\\[Status Update: Recovery Initiated]
> Forced Break: 6 Hours Minimum
> Optional Support: Guided Meditation Available
> System Efficiency Temporarily Suspended**
Aaryan blinked. "Six hours? Come on?"
No response was given, but the timer was already ticking.
He sighed and allowed his head to drop back onto the pillow. His laptop, which could model quantum core interactions in real-time, darkened and entered low-power mode automatically. Even the AI retreated, as if politely excusing itself to allow him to rest.
---
By the time he woke, the sun had dipped lower, and the campus hummed with the familiar weekday activity. The forced rest had paid off—his head was clearer than it had been in days.
He walked directly to the central library, laptop clutched under his arm, system HUD scrolling quietly before his eyes. The long wooden table by the window was half-claimed.
Seated across from him was **Ishika**, eyes squinted, nibbling on the cap of her pen as she glared at a simulation problem. Aaryan knew it: **multi-layered EM sensor drift analysis**.
"You didn't account for substrate heat dissipation," he suggested softly.
She blinked and raised her head. "Sorry?"
He waved lightly. "The signal drift? The layers in your simulation aren't simulating heat sink behavior properly. It's skewing the calibration."
She raised her screen, tweaked a parameter… and the mistake disappeared.
A grin pulled at the edge of her smile. "Alright, that was either luck or magic."
"Just something I came across last week," said Aaryan, already returning to his own project.
> **\[Mini-Task Complete: Help a Struggling Peer]
> Reward Earned: Insight Point ×1
> Used on: Electromagnetics Mastery]**
There was a soft beep. He didn't respond outwardly—but inwardly, he felt it with quiet contentment.
---
His room was illuminated late at night only by the light of his screen and the soft glow of ambient flicker from the system interface. The AI lingered on the periphery of his consciousness, calculating efficiency ratings, monitoring knowledge absorption, recalibrating pace.
Suddenly, a new transparent frame materialized in front of his eyes—**sleek and competitive**. It was a **ranking system**, radiating challenge.
> **\[Feature Unlocked: Competitive Scan Mode]**
> **Top Performers – Current Prediction Model:**
1. Jay Deshmukh
2. Ishika Mehra
3. Ankit Sharma
4. Kavya Iyer
5. Rehan Ghosh
6. Aaryan Verma
> **Your Rank: 6 / 138
> Current System Projection: 78.1%
> Estimated Climb Rate: +4.3% / 24 hrs**
Not bad. But not enough.
Then a final alert glowed in the middle of his field of vision:
> **\[Main Task Generated: Rank First in Upcoming Academic Assessment]**
> Time Remaining: 5 Days, 13 Hours
> **Reward:**
> – ₹10,00,000 (System Account Credit)
> – Learning Module Upgrade: Tier II
> **Note:** System Credit may be withdrawn any time to connected bank card. Real-world value verified.
It wasn't just fees—it was liberty. He could create his own hardware lab, write custom modules, even start prototyping what the world had not yet dreamed of.
He had already created a machine that outpaced university servers. Now, he required the one thing the system could not program for: **academic dominance**.
The countdown continued.
The competition had started