After some time, Abhimanyu left for Dehradun and reported to the headquarters, where he would undergo six months of training with the Air Force. Alongside Abhimanyu were Karishma and other highly potential young soldiers from across India, all selected for this training. Some young soldiers were sent to other departments for different types of training.
Abhimanyu had not seen or spoken to Vikrant for a long time. When he reached the camp, he was assigned to share a room with Vikrant.
Abhimanyu asked Vikrant, "Brother, have you been having strange dreams, like you're a bull?"
Vikrant smiled and said, "It seems you've also been having dreams, like you're some kind of serpent."
Abhimanyu asked, "Have you learned to control those powers?"
Vikrant suddenly transformed into a bull. Abhimanyu said, "I think there's some meaning to all this."
Vikrant replied, "I think so too, but we have no idea what it is for now. Why don't you show me your powers?"
Abhimanyu then transformed into a snake four times larger than Vikrant. He hissed at Vikrant and then shrank to the size of a worm, slithering over Vikrant's body before returning to his original size.
Abhimanyu transformed back into a human and said with a smile, "Pretty cool, right? I can also change my size."
Vikrant said, "I can do that too." He transformed into an ox and started to shrink but could only get as small as a mouse before returning to his normal form.
After their training, Abhimanyu and Vikrant practiced their powers in the forests, competing in mock battles. This routine continued for about six months until their training ended. All the young soldiers received a letter informing them that they would now undergo six months of practical Navy training in Kerala. Arrangements were made to send them there by military plane.
By now, everyone considered Abhimanyu their leader because he had defeated everyone in combat and was an excellent communicator and guide, forming strong bonds with all. Including Abhimanyu, there were 11 boys and 2 girls, all future Night Demon recruits. After a six-hour journey, they arrived on a ship standing in the water, 1.5 kilometers long.
Rooms were assigned, with two members per room. Throughout the six months of Navy training, Abhimanyu would often disappear from the Navy headquarters to supply bottles and had opened a branch in Kerala. Occasionally, he would visit Jasmine and supply hundreds of thousands of bottles, ensuring there was no shortage of Amritjal in the company.
Abhimanyu also sent many bottles to Mexico and Brazil, where he had contacts. He recruited several children whom Jasmine's flower group trained. The bottles greatly benefited them as well.
Meanwhile, the Demon Clan sent several demons to Earth to find out who killed their two generals. They learned a bit about the Black Demon but had no idea who he really was. Despite extensive investigations, they found no clues about the Black Demon. The Demon Lord decided they would not take any further action on Earth until they found out more about him.
On another front, Nagraj Samar sent several serpents to Earth to locate Abhimanyu, but they too failed to find him, Shrikant, or Hinisa, as they stayed hidden most of the time while managing Abhimanyu's company. Before this, Shrikant and Hinisa had visited Guru Maa, who told them that Nagraj would take a long time to return, and until then, their job was to protect Abhimanyu.
Shrikant and Hinisa knew Abhimanyu's strength, so they ensured that no one could discover his whereabouts.
After six months of Navy training, Abhimanyu became even more powerful. Now 19 years old, he and the others were to undergo another year of intelligence training, which included learning different languages, behaviors, and how to conduct missions internationally. This training was to be held at the Bangalore military headquarters.
Everyone reached Bangalore and started their training. During this time, Abhimanyu often went out to supply bottles to Jasmine. Jasmine couldn't understand where so much Amritjal was coming from, but she always gave Abhimanyu empty bottles, and he supplied her with hundreds of thousands of bottles filled with Amritjal.
This routine continued for a year. Now, a year later, Abhimanyu had officially become part of the Night Demons, as had the other members. At 20 years old, Abhimanyu and his fellow members were officially given the rank of lieutenant in the army, though Abhimanyu, already a captain, retained his captaincy. They were assigned different postings, but unofficially, they would report whenever a Night Demon mission arose. During such times, they could rest at headquarters and had the freedom to go out.
Before taking his posting, Abhimanyu went to Bihar.
Upon his return, everyone welcomed him enthusiastically. Abhimanyu learned that Lalita had left for Night Demon training, leaving only Vishakha and Praachi at home. Vishakha was now in 12th grade, and Praachi was in 11th.
Seeing Abhimanyu, Praachi hugged him and kissed his cheek, saying, "I missed you a lot, brother. How are you?"
Abhimanyu replied, "Absolutely fantastic. How is my little mouse?"
Praachi said, "First-class."
Abhimanyu then met Vishakha and touched the feet of the elders present, receiving their blessings.
Vikrant was with Abhimanyu, so he was warmly welcomed too. Both were treated with great hospitality. Karishma had also gone to be with her family.
Praachi asked Abhimanyu, "Brother, will you stay here now?"
Abhimanyu replied, "For now, my post is in Bangalore, so I have to go there, but I will come back after some time."
Praachi asked, "How long will you be here?"
Abhimanyu said, "One week."
Praachi smiled and said, "That will be fun!"
While eating, Abhimanyu remarked, "I heard that the punishments I used to get are now being given to you."
Praachi pouted and said, "If I had known this would happen, I would never have started martial arts training." She sulked.
Abhimanyu said, "Don't worry. I can make you powerful in seconds."
Praachi responded, "If you mean the Amritjal, I take it every day."
Abhimanyu smiled and said, "I have something better."
Praachi asked, "What could be better than Amritjal?"
Abhimanyu replied, "You'll find out soon."
A little while later, Praachi was in Abhimanyu's room. Abhimanyu touched her head with his finger, and a small light entered her head.
Praachi asked in surprise, "What technique is this?"
Abhimanyu explained, "It's a demon technique, but at an advanced level. It's a complete technique that shows you all the ways to defeat any enemy, no matter how powerful. It works every time, even if the enemy is hiding. This technique will always get to them."
Praachi asked, "And what is the other technique?"
Abhimanyu said, "It's the angel technique. It allows you to heal yourself and others, and to control all five elements of nature."
Praachi asked, "Where did you learn all these techniques?"
Abhimanyu smiled and said, "Just enjoy the benefits and don't worry about the details."
Praachi said, "I never understood why Grandfather used to punish you, but now I get it—it was training, and you helped keep peace in Bihar. By the way, our team is called the Black Demon, but who was the famous Black Demon?"
Abhimanyu asked, "Why do you want to know about him?"
Praachi said, "I feel like he was very ruthless, even if the people he killed deserved it. But such a death was not justified."
Abhimanyu explained, "He couldn't control himself."
Praachi asked, "What do you mean?"
Abhimanyu said, "He used a demon technique."
Praachi surmised, "It seems like he didn't know how to control the demon technique."
Abhimanyu nodded, "Yes, he could only summon it, but didn't know how to control it."
Praachi asked, "But you knew how to control it, right? Why didn't you help him?"
Abhimanyu revealed, "Because I was the Black Demon, and I didn't know how to control it back then. But later, I found a way to control it through meditation."
Praachi's eyes filled with tears, "You endured all this and still remained cheerful. How?"
Abhimanyu said, "Because if I didn't stay cheerful, the killing intent would have taken over."
Praachi hugged Abhimanyu and said, "Tomorrow we'll go out for some fun."
Abhimanyu agreed, "Alright, little mouse."
Abhimanyu then went to his room. As he entered, his eyes turned black.
Abhimanyu and Arjun's spirits had become one, and now he could control his eyes at will.
Abhimanyu declared, "Just a little more time, and the current Demon Lord and Nagraj Samar, your end will come by my hands."
Abhimanyu now possessed snake powers too, and he understood that he only had the power of the old serpent, not its spirit. This was why he wasn't fully versed in snake techniques, but he had learned to use his powers considerably well.
Abhimanyu then entered his ring and began practicing his snake powers.
The next day, when Abhimanyu emerged from the ring, he got ready to go out. Since Praachi and Vishakha didn't know many places, Abhimanyu decided to take them around.
First, Abhimanyu took them to a gaming zone where they could play games. The owner of the gaming zone was Abhimanyu's friend, Riyansh.
Riyansh welcomed Abhimanyu, saying, "How are you, Abhimanyu? It's been a long time since I last saw you!"
Abhimanyu asked, "How's business?"
Riyansh replied, "It's going great, but the best thing going on is VR. Almost everyone plays it now. Since I installed these machines, they've never been idle. Although, the setup cost is quite high. By the way, you were the first to try it, weren't you? Would you like to try it again? Maybe people still remember Black Demon."
Abhimanyu had learned that New Reality now had over 5 billion users, and the number was still growing. It had become an international company, with branches in various developed regions. Abhimanyu had invested heavily in it, alongside many billionaires, and now they were reaping multiplied returns. Abhimanyu's bank account still had trillions of bucks.
Abhimanyu said, "Alright, let's see and try it out."
Military headquarters also had some VR sets for training purposes.
New Reality's VR sets had become globally popular, and many meetings, overseas meetings, video calling, and meetups were now possible through it. Nowadays, news anchoring and live shows were also conducted in VR, though they could still be viewed on a phone screen. However, the VR sets made the experience much more real. Additionally, the Battlefield game had been added to New Reality, and Agrasen Lions got the chance to launch it first. But Abhimanyu and Samarth had left Agrasen Lions, and their places were taken by Jin Gyong and another girl. Now, after two years of not playing, people had forgotten about Black Demon.
Abhimanyu said, "But there isn't a single set available here."
Riyansh responded, "I have a personal VR set. I just got the updated version last week. It's smoother and the graphics are much more realistic."
Abhimanyu, Praachi, and Vishakha followed Riyansh to his private cabin.
There, a New Reality VR set was placed, labeled as version 2.0.
Abhimanyu then put on the helmet and started New Reality.
Before him were many options and games. It now looked entirely like a computer, significantly better than before. It also had a body monitoring system and the capability to install multiple CCTVs, which could alert the user if someone entered the room. It was highly secured as Saily herself had designed its firewalls, which even Dark Lord's team couldn't breach. Additionally, Dark Lord had embedded several tracking systems and features to track any hacking or attack attempts.
Abhimanyu selected the Battlefield option.
The system scanned his retina and brain signals, and New Reality prompted him to create a new ID.
Abhimanyu chose another option labeled "Old User" and entered his ID and password.
His old PC version ID appeared.
Battlefield had an option to sync the PC ID with the VR ID.
After entering his ID and password, Abhimanyu's data from the PC ID began to load. It took about two minutes to sync, and Abhimanyu found himself standing in the Battlefield lobby with a gun in his hand. Above his head, a screen displayed his body's monitoring outside the VR.
Abhimanyu waved and said hello, looking outside.
He saw a scroll bar with more options, including Emergency Exit, Screen Recording, and Go Live. For the Go Live option, he had to enter his stream ID, which he did.
Abhimanyu went live, and notifications were sent to all his loyal fans.
Abhimanyu selected a match, receiving numerous team requests from his friends, but he rejected them all.
Abhimanyu landed at a location.
Without turning, he saw the stream window, and when he moved, the screens moved with him, a cool feature. New Reality now seemed much more real as when he moved his hand, it moved only in the virtual world.
Abhimanyu thought to himself, "So a person just lies there lifelessly outside. Now I understand why they added the Emergency Exit option and so many security features."
Abhimanyu thought, "I've worked so much for them, yet they never told me about these new features."
Saily said, "I knew about them. You could have just asked me, and I was the one who did the work, not you."
Abhimanyu asked, "You knew about them?"
Saily replied, "It seems you are forgetting my Virtual Reality capabilities. If I want, I can send you into the virtual world without a VR set, and Battlefield is just a small thing."
Running towards the guns, Abhimanyu saw many options for guns and ammo. Selecting them, the gun on the ground automatically came to his hand. He noticed his feet were passing through the ammo on the ground, so he selected the ammo options as well.
Abhimanyu said, "It's good they didn't make the gaming aspect more real, or else it wouldn't feel like a game."
A soldier enemy appeared, and Abhimanyu immediately shot him.
Abhimanyu said, "Wow, the sound effects are very real too."
Running like a soldier, Abhimanyu observed that in New Reality, character movements depended entirely on the player's actions.
After defeating many enemies, Abhimanyu started moving like a normal person.
All the fans watching Abhimanyu's stream got very excited to see Black Demon return and started interacting with him.
One person said, "Welcome back, Black Demon."
Abhimanyu replied, "Thank you, but I won't be able to stay on a regular basis, so please forgive me for that."
A girl commented, "You made me wait for so long! Where did you disappear for the past two years?"
Abhimanyu said, "Let's just say I was working on bettering myself."
A person sent a super chat, saying, "Show us you taking down four people simultaneously without reloading."
Smiling, Abhimanyu replied, "Alright."
In front of Abhimanyu was a squad hiding in different buildings. He could hear everyone's voices, and as soon as someone appeared, he shot them. He then jumped from the window into another building.
All the fans commented, "Wow, jumping like that in New Reality is very difficult, and very few can do it."
One person commented, "He's a pro player; it's as if he can perform actions in real life too."
Just then, someone started firing at Abhimanyu from another room. Abhimanyu sensed the bullets, dodged them, slid to the window, and shot the player through it. He then jumped out of the window, shot and knocked out an opponent mid-air, and felt another player behind him. Dodging all the bullets while running, he dove left mid-air and shot the enemy in the head, wiping out the entire squad. He then landed on both feet.
In this new Battlefield feature, bullet damage had been increased, especially if they hit vital areas, making health bars decrease significantly, and a single headshot could knock or kill instantly.
Seeing Abhimanyu's dive, all the fans went wild, saying Black Demon is a real-life player too. Some fans even commented that maybe Abhimanyu had spent the last two years preparing to become a pro player in New Reality, and this myth quickly went viral.
All the fans now wanted to know if Abhimanyu had been preparing to play VR.
Abhimanyu said, "I wasn't preparing for VR, but yes, I had already trained in martial arts, so this is quite easy."
Abhimanyu then got busy playing the game, showing off his expert moves and wiping out many players.
He exited the Battlefield, but the stream was still on.
The Arena option was visible on Abhimanyu's screen.
Many people commented, saying that martial artists usually play Arena to improve their skills and asked if Abhimanyu would like to try it.
Following the fans' request, Abhimanyu started Arena.
There was only one option, Arena, but it had various matches and a random option.
Abhimanyu's profile inventory had a lot of items, but he didn't open it.
He selected the Arena Random option and clicked play.
Now, an opponent stood before Abhimanyu.
The Arena had reset the story mode and leveling system, now basing upgrades on fighting capability and winnings.
The man before Abhimanyu suddenly ran towards him to punch, but Abhimanyu knocked him out with a side kick.
Abhimanyu realized that his kick had actually knocked the man out.
He thought, "So they've added vital points in this game too."
All the fans were shocked to see Abhimanyu knock out the opponent like a pro player.
Messages appeared before Abhimanyu:
**Level up +1**
**Current level: 2**
Abhimanyu clicked for the next match.
A new player approached Abhimanyu, this time holding a bat.
Abhimanyu understood that weapons were also involved.
He thought, "I don't have any weapons, but I probably don't need them for now."
The opponent tried to hit Abhimanyu with the bat, but Abhimanyu kicked him, sending him flying and disappearing mid-air, prompting the next match option.
Another message appeared:
**Level up +1**
**Current level: 3**
Abhimanyu asked his fans, "Guys, isn't there a faster option to level up?"
Many people started commenting on the stream, suggesting he play the unranked option.
Abhimanyu returned to the Arena lobby and selected the unranked version.
He entered a random match.
This time, his opponent seemed to be a real martial artist, wearing a martial artist's outfit.