### Chapter 1: The End
**Delhi, India – February 14, 2035**
It was raining. Not the soft, poetic kind that invites nostalgia, but a harsh, relentless downpour that made the roads glisten like oil-slicked mirrors. Streetlights flickered against the gloom, casting fractured shadows on the slick black asphalt of Delhi's Ring Road. Shiva's hands gripped the steering wheel of his autonomous car, overriding the AI system manually for the first time in years.
He didn't trust the system tonight. He didn't trust anyone.
The hard drive lay in the passenger seat, sealed in a shock-proof case. Its contents: two decades' worth of data—everything from scientific blueprints to military-grade encryption codes, from economic models to the personal secrets of the most powerful people on Earth. It was the result of a life's work, not just his own, but the legacy of hundreds of minds. And Shiva had just stolen it.
Behind him, two black sedans sliced through the traffic like hounds on the scent of blood. He didn't need to look back. He could feel them. Every scientist in his department had been silenced. Every file erased. Every trace of the Project wiped clean.
Except this drive.
The car's voice assistant chirped. "Multiple vehicles approaching at high speed. Suggest evasive action."
"Override: manual control," Shiva muttered.
"Manual override already active."
He swerved onto a flyover ramp, tires squealing as the rain hammered the windshield. Delhi blurred around him—glass towers, rusting overpasses, neon ads for quantum crypto wallets and mind-enhancement drugs. In his rear-view mirror, headlights loomed.
He had minutes. Maybe less.
He thought of his parents. Of Prisha. Of the younger version of himself who once believed in changing the world without burning it down.
A sound—sharp and close. Gunfire. The back window exploded in a burst of crystal. He ducked instinctively. A bullet whizzed past his ear and lodged in the dashboard. He pushed the accelerator to the floor.
But it was too late.
A jolt. Metal crumpling. The world spinning.
The car flipped. Once. Twice. Three times.
Then darkness.
---
When Shiva opened his eyes, there was silence. No more gunfire. No sirens. No rain.
Just the faint hum of fluorescent lights.
He sat up with a start, heart pounding. He was not in the car. Not in a hospital. Not in any place he recognized. The room was small, plain—cream-colored walls, a cheap ceiling fan, posters of cricketers and Bollywood stars. A calendar on the wall read: **February 15, 2009.**
He stumbled toward the mirror.
A teenager stared back. Thin frame. Messy hair. Acne. The same face from old photos—his face. But younger. Much younger.
Eighteen years old.
"What the hell...?"
Memories flooded in—childhood, high school, college entrance exams. He knew them all, remembered them vividly. But also...
Also calculus papers he hadn't written yet, tech inventions that didn't exist yet, global political shifts that hadn't happened yet. And the hard drive. He remembered the hard drive, but it was gone. Or... was it still in his mind?
No. Not just remembered.
**He knew. Everything.**
Not just future events, but knowledge. Pure, structured, compressed knowledge. Schematics, algorithms, formulas, market data, news articles from years ahead—an infinite library inside his brain.
Shiva collapsed onto the bed.
This wasn't reincarnation.
It was **reset.**
And he had been given the ultimate cheat code.
The question wasn't "Why?" or even "How?"
It was: **What now?**
---
Outside his room, someone banged on the door.
"Shiva! Wake up, beta! You'll miss your coaching class!"
His mother's voice. Alive. Warm. Familiar.
He stared at the door, then back at the mirror.
A slow smile curled on his lips.
"Not this time," he whispered. "This time, I'm going to win it all."
And with that, the boy who knew everything got out of bed, ready to change the world.
---
**[End of Chapter 1]**