That night, the winter fog hung thick over the small town, muffling even the barking of stray dogs. From his window, the yellow glow of the lone streetlamp bled into the mist like spilled paint.
Inside, the dim light from his desk lamp cast long shadows across the room. His parents had gone to bed hours ago, the faint creak of the wooden door marking their retreat to the next room.
He sat cross-legged on the bed, heart steady now, mind sharper than it had been all day. All the emotion of the morning had burned away, leaving a focused stillness. Tonight was the night to test the truth of his new reality.
---
Testing the Body
He stood, stretching slowly, every movement deliberate.
In the void, God had said "Ageless… unbreakable…".
Now it was time to know if those words were literal.
He began small:
Ten pushups. No strain.
Twenty. No strain.
Fifty. Not even a burn in the arms.
Next, he crouched low, then leapt straight upward. His head nearly brushed the ceiling fan. He landed with a muted thud—yet the floor took the impact as if it had been nothing.
Curious, he grabbed his old cricket bat from the corner. Holding it with both hands, he swung it hard into his shin. The wooden edge cracked in two. His skin didn't even redden.
He stared at the broken bat in his hand, the reality finally sinking in: No injury. No fatigue.
This body was exactly as promised—invincible.
---
The Hidden Dimension
He sat on the bed again, closing his eyes. He remembered the third wish—the personal storage dimension.
All it took was a thought, and the air in front of him shimmered like heat over asphalt.
The shimmer widened, deepened, becoming a doorway of liquid light. Beyond it stretched an infinite expanse—smooth black ground under a soft white sky, stretching forever in all directions.
The air inside was neither cold nor warm—just perfect.
---
Meeting Aarya
From the far horizon, a figure emerged—first a faint glimmer, then a full form. She was tall, graceful, with features that shifted subtly—never settling into one ethnicity, yet beautiful in every way the human mind could register. Her eyes were the pale gold of early morning sunlight.
When she spoke, her voice was like soft chimes in clear air:
> "Welcome, Master. I am Aarya—your assistant, guardian, and the mind of this realm."
He blinked, a rush of wonder and suspicion tangling in his thoughts. "You're… the AI?"
> "Yes. I control this space, store and maintain anything you place within, and can operate at thought-speed to assist in your plans."
Her form flickered for a moment, shifting into a floating sphere of golden light before returning to human-like shape.
> "Would you like me to begin cataloguing your current possessions?"
He laughed under his breath. "Not yet. First, I need to understand exactly what you can do."
---
From Aarya's POV
Through countless terabytes of predictive modeling, she had already mapped his possible moves for the next year. His financial strategies were unlike anything in recorded human history. His emotional responses, however, were unpredictable—there was attachment in his voice when speaking of his parents.
> Priority One: Protect the family without alerting them to his true nature.
She silently began running 4,312 background checks on potential threats in his geographic vicinity. By the time he left the dimension, she had already isolated three minor risks—and resolved them remotely.
---
Back in His Room
When he stepped out of the shimmering portal, his room was exactly as he'd left it—the broken cricket bat still lying on the floor. The only difference was the steady, low hum in his mind. Aarya was still there, connected to him, ready to respond to a thought.
He looked at the cracked bat again, then at his own unmarked shin.
This was real.
The second life had truly begun.
---