Morning arrived, and with it, Shaurya's routine began once more.
At least, that's what he liked to tell himself.
In truth, his schedule had been a complete mess these past few days. Between sleepless nights and the pressure of the new project, his life had turned into a blur of half-finished meals and half-written codes.
He sat at his desk, eyes heavy, staring at the tiny silver band around his wrist — the tracker. Every citizen had one since the age of thirteen. The Union said it was to monitor sync efficiency, but everyone knew it did more than that. It watched. It followed. It knew where you were, every second of the day.
Shaurya leaned back in his chair, muttering,
"...And that's exactly why they suspected me."
He remembered that first time he'd entered the Domain — the mysterious space where time moved slower. When he'd come out, his tracker had stopped working, just like any other electronic device inside. He hadn't noticed it at first; the thing had sat dead on his wrist for days. Only later did he realize the damage.
And that single detail had made him suspicious in the Union's eyes.
A tracker that suddenly went offline without permission — it screamed tampering.
Shaurya sighed, rubbing his temples.
"When your life depends on a piece of metal, you learn to smile at paranoia," he said quietly.
He had asked for a replacement, claiming his sync rate was zero and that some malfunction had appeared. The Union, ever efficient, handed him a prototype — the Beta Tracker, the next-generation model.
A gift, wrapped in surveillance.
But for the Domain... it was worth it.
Time inside ran slower — eight hours of work done in three. It was a literal cheat code, a dream for someone like him. The only problem? Using it meant removing the tracker again, and that would alert the Union instantly.
And unlike before, this time they might not just spy on him. They might act.
That's why he'd spent the past month researching, testing, and building. His desk was littered with parts — copper wires, circuits, and handwritten notes full of equations. He smiled faintly, brushing the dust off a small device the size of a coin.
"This," he whispered, "should fool even their system."
The Beta Tracker wasn't like the old one. It didn't just transmit coordinates; it read the body. It scanned the user's biological energy, converted it into digital waves, and sent those to the Union's servers — creating a simulattion, moving version of the person in their virtual map.
Clever. But not clever enough.
Shaurya had created something that could emit those same readings — a mimic device, feeding false data to the Union's network while his real self was elsewhere. In the Domain.
He held the tiny invention in his hand, smirking.
"Let's see if you can keep up with me now."
With new determination, that evening Shaurya went to the lab where a carrier hover truck was standing, and men with several robots were unloading the materials.
Lucas stood there, instructing them about which rooms to place the materials in.
Then Lucas's focus shifted to Shaurya. He waved his hand and called him over to check the setup inside the lab.
They both took a tour through the lab and noticed some new faces helping with the placement orders.
"Alright, everyone, before we start" Lucas came forward "I'd like to officially introduce our project's field head." He gestured to Shaurya, who stood quietly beside him, his presence calm. "This is Shaurya, our team leader for the Aresium Synchronization Project. You'll be reporting your daily research logs and analysis results directly to him
Then a man came forward and extended his hand.
"I'm Jonathan Jinx from the Harivarṣa region," he said.
Both Lucas and Shaurya looked at each other, sharing the same question in their minds —
"Wonder why his last name has to be Jinx."
Their worries about the name were justified by the sheer power this project held.
Failure could mean death, and success could mean a new advancement for all of humanity.
This experiment, in the past eighteen years since the element was discovered on Mars, had already taken hundreds of lives. Even a tiny mistake could make it corrode and explode so violently that everything around it would simply evaporate.
Setting aside their worries, they asked about the rest of the team.
Jinx called everyone over for introductions, and soon many people in lab coats gathered around.
Jinx slowly introduced them one by one.
"First, this is Mrs. Ishara Nav — our data wrangler. She'll make schedules, present papers, and work as support."
"Second, this is Dr. Kalan Veyr — our Shard Decoder. In the past, he decoded many other shards and is guaranteed to be fun to work with."
"These are Prof. Akiko Sato, our Temporal Dynamics expert, and Samuel Okoye, our Systems Integrator and Field Engineer. And lastly, this is Dr. Neva Hexen, specializing in Materials and Composites."
With introductions done, Shaurya went to the changing room to put on his lab outfit for the system setup work.
After some time, he returned wearing a special suit and mask, along with a few high-tech advanced devices.
The others arrived behind him, equipped with the same suits and tools.
Shaurya opened a box. Inside it lay a small sample of element, glowing faintly, suspended within a glass dome. A device beneath it managed to keep the element floating in mid-air without touching anything.
As Ishara came forward, she placed small chips on the glass dome. Her sensors began collecting data, which soon appeared on the large monitor screens. She checked the readings, nodded, and said,
"It's okay now."
Then Shaurya stepped forward, carefully lifting the glass dome and placing it on the bot that connected it with other devices. With some adjustments some new readings appeared on the monitors.
"Looks like the main problem settlement is done. We can move to the main experiments tomorrow," Shaurya said.
They all then moved toward another box. Opening it revealed a stone engraved with an unknown language, glowing a deep emerald green.
Dr. Kalan brought a special light — made specifically for shards — near it. The green hue faded to yellow, then slowly turned blue.
Dr. Kalan Veyr, the Shard Decoder, said,
"Looks like this will take time."
Mrs. Ishara replied,
"I've got some work for tomorrow, so I'll be late too."
Shaurya picked up some papers and began reading through them.
Lucas came forward and said,
"Okay, looks like the setup job is now complete. Well then, I'll be heading home."
Everyone agreed, and Shaurya went inside his lounge, taking off his suit and removing his mask. He was sweating — not from the heat, but from the memories and thoughts that the element had brought to his mind.
Staying calm, he headed out. Outside the lab, Lucas was waiting for him.
Lucas waved his hand and said,
"It's quite thrilling, right? This is my first time being this close to a Aresium."
Listening, Shaurya replied,
"But we're working with Aresium. It's not normal for any of those seniors to volunteer for this type of experiment."
Lucas nodded.
"But those others from Harivarṣa are quite good too. They were doing extra work just on their first day. And they have kinda unique names too like you know jinx, but do you know in our native language hexen means witch"
Shaurya with a wondering face replied "I wonder what might happens next with Jinx and Hexen now"
While they were going walking Lucas spotted Akiko far walking with some paper "Looks like some of them are even studying at home, taking so many papers with them. But still... nothing compares to you."
He said the last part with genuine amazement.
Shaurya stood there with a handbag full of papers and small gadgets, not understanding his point at first.
"Wait, are you going to read all these in one night? They're for future work. Don't you think that's kinda unnecessary?" Lucas asked, his face bewildered.
Shaurya replied,
"It's for the future, and it's better to be thoroughly prepared. You should know that."
"But it's amazing for someone to read that many in one night alone," Lucas said in disbelief.
Shaurya smiled faintly.
"I might not be able to memorize all of them in one night... but half, I guess."
Lucas stood silently, stunned.
In his mind, he thought,
So this is the 0-sync monster of Bhārata-varṣa. He truly lives up to his name — the born genetic masterpiece.
To be continued............