Chapter 1: Two Lives
March 18, 2000
San Francisco
Rain tapped gently against the window of a small bedroom on the second floor of a quiet suburban house.
Inside the room, a sixteen-year-old boy sat in front of a bulky desktop computer. The monitor was large and curved, the kind common in the late 1990s, and the beige CPU hummed quietly under the desk.
The internet modem screeched as it connected.
Beeeeep… krrrshhhh… piiiiing…
The familiar sound filled the room.
Anshul Raj Giri leaned back in his chair and waited for the webpage to load. The connection was slow—painfully slow compared to what he remembered from his previous life—but patience had become one of his greatest strengths.
Because the mind inside his head did not belong to an ordinary sixteen-year-old.
He had lived once before.
And now he was living again.
---
Anshul stared at the numbers slowly appearing on the screen.
NASDAQ Composite
8,950.32
The technology boom was still roaring.
Every week new internet companies appeared. Investors were pouring money into startups faster than anyone could track them.
Most people believed the internet was the future.
They were right.
But they were also wrong.
Because Anshul knew something they didn't.
The crash was coming.
In a few months the dot-com bubble would burst and wipe out billions of dollars in market value.
Companies would collapse.
Investors would panic.
Fortunes would disappear overnight.
And that chaos would create the greatest opportunity of the decade.
Anshul glanced at the small notebook beside the keyboard.
Several company names were written on the page.
Amazon
Apple
Intel
Microsoft
Strong companies.
Companies that would survive the crash.
Companies that would dominate the future.
---
A knock came from the door.
"Ryan!"
That was his mother.
Aiko Giri.
She always used his American name when calling from downstairs.
"Dinner is ready!"
"Coming!"
He closed the browser window and stood up.
The house smelled faintly of miso soup and grilled fish as he walked down the stairs.
His father sat at the dining table reading the evening newspaper.
Rajesh Giri.
Corporate lawyer.
Originally from India, but now perfectly comfortable living in the United States.
Rajesh lowered the newspaper slightly.
"You were watching the markets again."
Anshul nodded.
His father smiled faintly.
"Most teenagers spend their time playing games."
"Markets are more interesting."
"That's debatable."
Aiko placed plates on the table.
"Ryan has always been different."
That was true.
Anshul had been different ever since the day his memories returned.
Six years old.
That was when it happened.
At first the memories came like dreams—flashes of a world filled with smartphones, streaming platforms, and technologies that did not yet exist.
Then the memories became clearer.
He had lived in the future.
And somehow, he had been given a second life in the past.
---
After dinner, Anshul stepped outside.
The rain had stopped, leaving the street quiet and shining under the streetlights.
Next door, the front door opened.
A girl stepped out onto the porch.
Mia Thermopolis.
Her curly hair was slightly messy as usual, and she carried a small soccer ball under her arm.
She noticed him immediately.
"Ryan!"
He walked over to the fence between their yards.
"You're practicing again?"
"I'm trying to get better."
"That sounds dangerous."
She kicked the ball lightly toward him.
He caught it easily.
"You're mean," Mia said.
"I'm honest."
She leaned against the fence.
"You're still coming to school tomorrow, right?"
"That's usually how school works."
"I mean the debate club meeting."
"Maybe."
"You always say maybe."
"That keeps my options open."
Mia rolled her eyes.
"You're impossible."
He smiled slightly.
They had known each other almost their entire lives.
Neighbors.
Friends.
Something a little more than friends.
But neither of them talked about that openly.
Not yet.
---
After Mia went back inside, Anshul returned to his room.
The computer screen glowed in the darkness as the market charts loaded again.
Outside his window the quiet neighborhood slept peacefully.
But the world beyond that neighborhood was changing.
The technology boom.
The dot-com crash.
The rise of companies that would reshape the world.
He had seen it all once before.
This time…
He intended to control it.
And tomorrow, the real game would begin.