5th August 2022
On a sweltering summer afternoon, a 17-year-old lay in bed, scrolling through social media with dull, vacant eyes. Kabir's mind was heavy with anxiety about his future, and he sought refuge in Instagram reels — anything to drown out the thoughts he wasn't ready to confront. He had just received his JEE (Joint Entrance Exam) results and felt no surprise at the 88 percentile staring back at him.
One might argue that wasn't terrible, considering the millions who sat the exam alongside him. And in a sense, it wasn't — largely because he had managed to copy several answers by sneaking glances at a student who scored 98 percentile. His second attempt had been far worse: a humbling 38 percentile.
Now he faced the unglamorous task of selecting a third-tier college for his Computer Science degree. It wasn't the future he had envisioned, but it was the hand he'd dealt himself. He had chosen engineering simply because his elder brother had — and because, like most young men his age, Kabir wanted wealth. He wanted to live the life he had always dreamed of.
'Will I always be mediocre?' Kabir thought.
'Will I even find a job in this overcrowded country?' he wondered listlessly.
DING.
[CHECK-IN SYSTEM HAS ARRIVED]
'Hmm?'
Kabir blinked and found himself staring blankly at a floating screen suspended in the air before him.
He shook his head — left, right, up, down. The screen remained. Heart hammering, Kabir shot upright as the reality of his situation began to sink in.
'Have my dreams actually come true?'
He reached out to touch it. His hand passed straight through.
"It's real!! YESSS!!" he exclaimed.
Despite how impossible it all seemed, he desperately wanted it to be real. Instinctively, he imagined clicking on the screen — and it responded. The display shifted to reveal his status and the system's details.
[ Name: Kabir Walia
Age: 17
Height: 5'7"
Intelligence: 110 (IQ)
Charisma: 6/10
Net Worth: ₹50 ($0.60)
Health: 91/100 {Myopia, Acne, Stress} ]
[Daily Check-In: 10x Net Worth in cash or a Mystery Box
Weekly Check-In: 50x Net Worth in cash or a Mystery Box
Monthly Check-In: 100x Net Worth in assets or a Mystery Box
Yearly Check-In: 1000x Net Worth in assets or cash or a Mystery Box ]
[DAILY CHECK-IN IS READY!!]
The system had laid bare his current reality — including his net worth of ₹50, which happened to be the exact amount sitting in his pocket.
"My IQ is only 110?" Kabir muttered.
He had never been a genius, but he had consistently ranked among the top students in high school. His problem had never been intelligence — it was discipline. Still, seeing 110 staring back at him, barely nudging above average, left him mildly deflated. The health stats, however, held no surprises; he had long since made peace with his myopia and persistent acne.
"Why does this system have a limiter when the Chinese version didn't?" he grumbled.
"Does the system's wealth count toward my net worth?" he pondered.
"I suppose I'll have my answer tomorrow," he said. "But first — let's see what the daily check-in brings."
He imagined clicking on it. A glowing box materialized on the screen, hovering for a moment before slowly opening.
[Congratulations! You have received ₹500 ($6).]
"Send it to my account," Kabir said instinctively.
The moment the words left his mouth, ₹500 appeared in his bank account. He pulled up the bank's website with trembling fingers and confirmed it — his balance had increased by exactly ₹500.
A wave of pure, uninhibited joy washed over him. In an instant, the stress and despair that had quietly suffocated him for the past three years simply dissolved. For the first time in what felt like forever, Kabir felt genuinely optimistic. He could almost see his future reshaping itself before him — one filled with adventure, luxury, and possibility. He would travel the world, experience things he had only read about, and — most importantly — spare his parents from a lifetime of quiet, grinding monotony.
Knock! Knock!
The sound jolted him out of his reverie. It was nearly 5 p.m. — his father must be home from work.
Kabir hurried to the door and opened it to find a middle-aged man stepping inside, visibly worn from the day. Without a word, Kabir reached for his father's tiffin box and went to fetch him a glass of water. His father, Satyam Walia, was a Probationary Officer at the State Bank of India — 52 years old, his hair now streaked with grey, the years beginning to show in quiet but undeniable ways.
As Satyam drank the water, he studied his son with quiet concern.
'Is he still not over the exam results? If he hasn't chosen a college by tomorrow, I'll just have to send him to the one my colleague recommended. At least that will give him a direction.' Satyam thought.
"Have you decided which college you'll be attending?" Satyam asked.
"Yes — the one Bhai went to," Kabir replied.
"Good. Talk to your brother about it and get the admission form filled out as soon as possible," Satyam said. "And you had better start studying from now. Your last results were far from encouraging. I hope this time you actually stay on top of your work."
(Note: The JEE, or Joint Entrance Examination, is a highly competitive national exam for students in India who wish to pursue engineering at premier institutions such as the IITs. Roughly one million students appear for it each year, yet only a few thousand secure seats at the top colleges.)