In the early morning, deep within a forest, there was a peaceful lake and beside it there was a small wooden house where I had been sleeping. Now awake, I stepped out of my recently built home, started a fire, and set a pot of clean water on to make Coffee. Even though I didn't really need it, I love a morning cup. As the Coffee brewed, I gazed at the tranquil lake, its surface reflecting the stars still scattered across the sky. The sun hadn't risen yet, though it was nearly 6 a.m., and the two beautiful moons—one white, like Earth's, and the other bluish-gold—added to the breathtaking scenery before me. It was clear now: this was a fantasy world, and I wasn't dreaming anymore.

You guys are probably wondering what's going on and where exactly I am. Let me start from the beginning.

Hello, I'm Samir Chhimpa, a cybersecurity engineer from the vibrant state of Rajasthan, India. I have a passion for technology and the intricate web of codes that shape our digital world. Currently, I work as a security analyst for an American multinational technology company that specializes in internet-related products and services. My role involves ensuring our customers' data remains secure. The company has a branch in Mumbai, India, where I work, but sometimes I travel to the headquarters in California.

You can't exactly call this company a bad place to work or black, but when things get busy, they get really busy. The long hours can be demanding, but the salary is good, which is one of the main reasons I stay. So, it's kind of half black company.

I grew up in a loving family that has always supported my dreams. My father, a farmer, taught me the importance of integrity, while my mother—though a housewife and quite religious—has always encouraged me to follow my passions. My older brother is pursuing a PhD in physics, and his relentless dedication to knowledge inspires me daily. Our family name, "Chhimpa," is traditionally associated with printing and tailoring clothes, and my mother designs women's clothes in her free time.

I'm 25-year-old and about 5'10" with brown skin, have black hair that are 8 or 9 inches long. My beard is always trimmed, with a slightly larger Mustache giving it some balance. I'm not what you'd call extremely fit; there's a bit of fat on my stomach and cheeks, but I stay active enough to keep things in check. My face has sharp, defined features, and although I'm not the type to dwell on appearances, I think I have a pretty typical look that fits well with my formal clothes at work and my usual shorts and t-shirt at home.

Though I'm an introvert at heart, I somehow managed to have a few close friends who are the life of the party. They often drag me along to their gatherings, and I enjoy being part of their adventures. I even host parties for them sometimes, because as their best friend, I like to share in those moments—even if I'm not the most outgoing person in the room.

Cooking is another passion of mine. I have a sweet tooth and know how to whip up delicious vegetarian dishes that keep my friends coming back for more. My choice to stay vegetarian stems from my upbringing—my mother always told me it wasn't allowed in our religion to eat meat. Even though I'm not as religious as she is, I respect her beliefs and don't want to disappoint her. That said, two of my closest friends are meat lovers, and I don't mind. After all, being vegetarian is my personal choice.

In my free time, I dive into gaming and novels. Sometimes, I hack my games to finish them early, not just to win, but to experience the storyline fully. It's not about beating the game—it's about the journey, the twists, and uncovering the plot. In a world that can feel chaotic, I find peace in the pages of a good book, the thrill of a new game, and the comfort of cooking for friends.

When it comes to relationships, I haven't had much luck. I rarely interact with women outside of my mother, who calls me almost every day. Living in Mumbai is fine, but sometimes I feel lonely, especially when I don't have much going on. Maybe that's why people seek partners—for emotional support. But since I don't have anyone, I make do with new games, novels, or experimenting with new recipes.

Today: - February 9, 2024

I woke up at 6 am feeling a bit down because it's Valentine's week and I don't have a girlfriend. Well, maybe "jealous" is a better word, especially with all the couples around. There's this one couple in my office whose sweet gestures could give anyone a toothache, even those sitting far away from them. Anyway, since I was up, I did some exercises and took a hot shower, though Mumbai's cold is nothing compared to Rajasthan's.

For breakfast, I had toast with spicy Rajasthani garlic chutney and a hot and sweet Indian masala tea. I caught up on some news online; TV news these days hardly feels real. Then, I dove into a novel I've been following about a hero whose father was supposed to be king but was betrayed by his brother. Now the hero fights to reclaim his kingdom and free his people from his uncle's tyranny. I'm almost at the climax.

By 8:30 am, it was time to prepare for the office. I checked my fridge and found potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and some peas. I decided to make pea & potato curry with roti.

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Pea and Potato Curry recipe: -

In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium flame. (Using less oil will help keep the dish healthy. But using normal amount which is 2 and half tablespoon can enhance the flavour)

Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and let them splutter. Next, add the chopped onions and sauté until they turn translucent. Then, add the homemade ginger-garlic paste and sauté for another minute.

Add the chopped tomatoes, turmeric, coriander powder, red chili powder, chopped green chili, and salt to taste. Cook until the tomatoes soften and the oil separates slightly from the mixture.

Now, add the peeled, bite-sized potatoes and mix well to ensure they are coated with the masala. Sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Add the peas and mix them well with the potatoes.

Pour in about 1/2 cup of water, cover the pan, and cook on low heat for about 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are cooked through.

(Optional) You can add 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala at the end and cook for one more minute to enhance the flavour.

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After making lunch, I packed it in a thermal tiffin box and poured some lassi into a bottle. I always keep ghee (Indian homemade clarified butter) hidden in a secret spot at the office—it's my little stash. Thankfully, my half black company has two refrigerators and a oven for employees, so we can keep our food cool or heat it up later. Once I packed everything, I got dressed: a white shirt, blue pants, and my classic brown boots, topping it off with my favourite watch that belonged to my grandfather. Since the office is close by, I ride my bicycle—it's good for my health and saves on gas. I do have a car and a bike, but I like using my bicycle sometimes.

When I reached the office, the first thing I saw was that annoyingly sweet couple feeding each other chocolate. I walked past them, pretending to be invisible, and made my way to my desk. Even my two colleagues, with whom I talk a little, had the same frustrated

look on their faces as I did after seeing that display. We got straight to work, which, on a normal day, mostly involves bug fixing. Lunchtime was at 12:30 p.m., and I finally got to enjoy my delicious meal, along with a refreshing glass of cold lassi. It felt like a blessing.

Work typically ends at 5:30 p.m., after which I head home. After resting for a bit, I usually go for an evening walk in the park, listening to music. Then I come back, do some exercise, make dinner, and spend the rest of the night gaming and reading novels until late. It's a routine with different food every day, but the structure's the same.

But today, the time is currently 2 a.m., and I've just left the office. The reason? My idiotic, clown of a boss, who seems to do nothing most of the time, was celebrating his promotion by drinking in the office. And in his drunken state, he managed to spill almost an entire bottle of rum on the computer that stores all of our programmed AI software—the one that handles customer data and server files. As soon as the rum hit the system, work across the whole of India came to a grinding halt. Within five minutes, we got a call from the headquarters.

My boss's face turned pale, like he'd just been hit with the worst news of his life. Normally, I try to stay positive and avoid insulting people, but that son of a cheap bastard, that asshole, came over to me and my two colleagues with a grin on his face and said, "Can you three handle this and get it working tonight?" We honestly wanted to beat him to a pulp and crush his balls with a bat, but we kept our cool. Now it's 2 a.m., and we've finally finished. We ordered food online, though calling it "food" would be generous—it was just pasta and coffee. I had to drink a lot of coffee tonight, even though I normally avoid it, but I didn't have much of a choice, today.

I was too tired to ride my bicycle home, so I hopped into a rickshaw outside the office and made my way back to my flat. I couldn't stop thinking about how much I missed home and my friends. The one good thing was that tomorrow was a day off, and the next day was Sunday—so at least I'd get a full weekend to recover.

Since I had way too much caffeine in my system and wasn't feeling sleepy, I decided to crack open a beer. But first, I took a hot bath, washing off the stress of the day, and ordered some food online. I didn't have the energy to cook anything. After finishing my bath, the food arrived: paneer tikka, masala papad, pakoras, and spicy chili potatoes—my mouth watered just looking at it. I cut some cucumber, onions, and tomatoes for a simple salad, then grabbed my chilled beer from the freezer. There's nothing like a cold beer where part of it is slightly frozen inside the bottle—it's perfection.

With tasty food in front of me and a cold beer in hand, I started to enjoy myself, putting on some music. After a while, I switched to some classic tunes and started reading my novel. I finally finished it— the hero defeated his uncle, avenged his father, and claimed the kingdom. It was now 4 a.m. and having 7 beer bottles on the table, I wasn't sleepy yet, I didn't have anything else to do. So, I decided to find and play a game on my computer. I started browsing different sites, searching for something new to play.

As I was searching for a new game, I stumbled upon a suspicious site called "classicaksongema.onion." The description boldly stated, "Play this game if you want to die." I couldn't remember exactly when I started searching for games on the dark web, but maybe it was out of habit. I'd become so used to exploring the dark web for obscure games, and maybe a bit of curiosity fueled it this time too.

I started browsing the site and found a game was made in 1984 for a classic keypad mobile phone. It was an offline game about a hero leading an army to defeat demons. The goal was to defeat seven demon generals, known as Asuras, and finally take down the Demon King himself, who had received a boon from a god. I found the concept quite normal maybe it was rare in 80's time, though I couldn't quite wrap my head around how a god would grant a demon such power. Intrigued, I decided to download the game.

For a keypad mobile game, it was surprisingly large—28 MB, which is way bigger than what you'd expect for a game made for a device with a typical 32 MB capacity. With no clue how to play it on my computer, I downloaded a keypad mobile emulator to give it a shot. The game's graphics weren't anything impressive, as expected from an old mobile game, but for something so vintage, it wasn't all that bad. The character designs reminded me of early video game graphics, giving me that nostalgic feel.

Of course, as always, I couldn't resist the urge to hack it. I wanted my character to be overpowered from the very beginning, so I unzipped the game files and began poring over the class files, searching for the character stats and skill system. While hacking it, I felt a tiny bit guiltyfor the game's creator but then it wasn't like I was going to sell hacked versions, though. I'm not a saint, so don't expect too much from me. I was just looking for a little fun.

The hack took longer than I expected. This game was more difficult to crack than other similar games, and I could tell the creator had put in real effort to make it challenging for old-school hackers. It almost felt impossible for a hacker from that era to break it open. Whoever designed it had coded the game in seven or eight different languages, which was insane, I even had to use a translator to get through some parts.

Eventually, I finished the hack, making my character insanely overpowered. Now it was time to play. The game started with a character creation screen, and I was surprised to see the option to choose between different races: Human, Beast tribe (the Monkey

Tribe looked really strong), Vaman (Dwarves),elf, Devas, and Asuras. Naturally, I chose Human. The game defaulted my class to Warrior, which came with its own set of skills and powers that you unlock as you level up—but since I had hacked it, I didn't need to worry about that. I already had all the abilities I needed.

When it came to customizing my character's body, I decided to model him after myself.

• Name: Samir Chhimpa

• Age: 25

• Height: 5'10"

• Hair colour: Black (though you could choose just about any colour—I'm sure there were all kinds of wild-coloured characters in the game)

• Physique: Well-built (much more muscular than I am in real life)

• Eye colour: I chose the option to "Change any time," which was the last one on the list

Then, it asked me to select a world. There were six different options:

1. Medieval Era

2. Advanced 25th Century World

3. Apocalypse World

4. Galactic Passage Era

5. Superhero World

6. A World of Only Demons

After a little thought, I chose the first option, "Medieval Era." A confirmation screen popped up with a chilling message:

"You will start in a dense forest. Be prepared to die, as it's too hard for you. Start?"

The challenge immediately triggered something in my sleep-deprived, coffee-fueled, and slightly drunken mind. "Too hard for me? Yeah, right!" With a grin, I hit Yes.

As soon as I hit the "Yes" button, the screen flickered. For a moment, I thought my computer had crashed—typical dark web nonsense. But then, everything went black. I leaned in, trying to figure out what was happening, but there was nothing I could except restarting the system, I grabbed my watch look at time it was 4.40pm and about to press restart button of my CPU when suddenly, my screen glowed, flooding my room with an eerie light.

A deep, rumbling voice echoed from the speakers, vibrating through the air: "Welcome, Traveler. Your jourrr… crack crack crack." And then I heard some voice which sounded like someone was in pain Before I could react, my vision blurred, and a sharp chill shot down my spine. I blinked hard, but something was wrong. My hands—where were they? I couldn't feel the keyboard anymore. I couldn't feel… anything.