Rohan Ahuja Chapter 1 – The Desert of Light The year was 2150, and the Thar Desert no longer resembled the barren expanse it had once been. Instead of endless dunes stretching into emptiness, the horizon was now filled with colossal spires of glass and steel that glowed with the fire of captured sunlight. These towers, some rising taller than the skyscrapers of Mumbai and Dubai combined, shimmered with a brilliance that made the desert itself look aflame. At dawn, when the sun broke across the horizon, the towers lit up in sequence, each one reflecting and amplifying light until…
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Debdeep Banerjee 1 The bell rang like a verdict, harsh and metallic, echoing across the sterile halls of Vidya Central Institute-93. Pratik Sen remained seated, hunched over a tablet that had just blinked red, displaying the same damning notification he had seen every day since he was old enough to read: “Rank: 1000000 – Terminal Track.” Around him, the classroom buzzed with muted chatter as other students filed out, their faces glowing with quiet pride or sullen resignation, depending on where their numbers fell. Rank was everything here. From seat placements to lunch portions, from air-conditioned exam halls to future…