Second Chance: A Dark Tale of Urban India

After leaving school, Rohit drove back home in silence.

The road blurred past him as his mind remained elsewhere.

Aisha tried to speak to him once, twice, then a third time, but when she received no response, she quietly retreated into her phone, leaving him to his thoughts.

In his mind, Rohit was deeply disappointed with Akhil. He kept recalculating his plans, adjusting the variables around the boy.

Earlier, he had believed his resolve might bring about real change, but now he realized Akhil was still too amateur, too unreliable to factor into his larger schemes.

The harsh treatment he had given Akhil would undoubtedly leave a scar, yet Rohit felt no regret. It had been necessary. What remained now was the anticipation—whether Akhil would finally crawl out of his shell and abandon that toxic hellhole, or cling to it even after such a brutal reality check.

If Akhil chose the latter, Rohit had already decided to cut him off. In his opinion, a smart enemy was far better than nurturing a dumb friend.

Still, complications lingered. Making amends with Akhil’s mother, Kavita, would remain on hold without their friendship intact. His revenge against Kamalnath was also delayed, though Rohit quickly dismissed the concern. He had other cards to play.

If Mittal chose to believe Mrinal’s words and fell into the carefully crafted illusion, the two of them could be turned against Kamalnath naturally. That, however, would require patience.

One thing he noticed was that no one was tailing him anymore. Perhaps the plan was already in motion. Still, it was too soon to draw any conclusions.

Lost in these calculations, Rohit reached home. He had a quiet lunch and took a short nap to reset.

When evening arrived, he headed to his newly appointed dojo.

The atmosphere felt slightly awkward. His skills were far above the others, yet his rank was still low.

Rohit tried searching for Shweta, but she was nowhere to be found — neither in school she came nor at the dojo today.

Fortunately, Ashish’s presence smoothed things over.

The instructor guided him through stretching drills, heavy conditioning exercises, and shared extensive theoretical knowledge, demonstrating techniques through the other disciples for Rohit to observe.

At the end of the session, Rohit sparred with Ashish. He deliberately held back, performing at a believable mediocre level so as not to stand out. With that, the day at the dojo came to a close.

Upon returning home, Rohit found the house empty and suffocating once again. Arya hadn’t returned yet, and his cousins had gone out to check on Tanya’s condition.

He sat alone on his bed, feeling a deep sense of boredom. The days without Ragini carried no thrill anymore.

He tried video calling her, but for some reason, the network refused to connect.

With nothing better to do, he decided to glance through his schoolwork for the upcoming exams. A single look was enough to make him scoff. It was all too easy. Every topic felt intimately familiar, drawn from the knowledge of his previous life as well as his inherent predecessor’s memories.

Just then, his phone buzzed with a notification. Lisa’s voice immediately read out the message for him:

[Robin: Sir, below is the personal details file of all recruits attached, along with their report from today’s survellience.]

A faint, amused smile crossed Rohit’s lips. Finally, something worthwhile.

He sat down at his laptop, ready to dive into his real work—the surveillance reports.

The attachment contained the names and photos of all the recruits. What immediately caught his attention, however, was a separate file named "please_readme.txt."

Rohit opened it.

Robin had written a short but detailed note explaining his decisions. He had named the three teams after their respective captains, reasoning that since most recruits came from his own trusted friend circle—and had personally witnessed his role in rescuing Jyoti—they would be far more loyal. This personal connection, Robin believed, would reduce the chances of betrayal, as he could vouch for their character in this line of work.

Rohit raised an eyebrow, thoughtfully contemplating the message. Robin must have flaunted his sudden access to easy money while still managing college. It was hard to ignore his recent success. Still, the logic wasn’t bad. Rohit continued reading.

Robin had also decided to include a few girls in the teams. From his previous experience, he learned that reconnaissance missions often became significantly easier with a female operative present. Out of three teams of twelve members each, there were only two girls in total.

All three captains were male: Pratham, Kaushik, and Gautam.

That part felt interesting. Rohit already knew Kaushik and Pratham from earlier incidents, though Gautam was a new name. He decided to trust Robin’s judgment for now.

However, he couldn’t help but speculate when he checked the female members. One familiar name stood out—Jyoti, the girl he had rescued.

According to what he had heard, she was supposed to be Pratham’s girlfriend, yet she had been placed in Kaushik’s team.

Alok, on the other hand, had stayed loyal to Pratham’s group.

Rohit could understand Jyoti’s desire to repay the favor by joining, but the reasoning behind the team arrangement intrigued him.

The other girl, Sejal, had almost no information beyond her name and assignment to Gautam’s team.

Rohit simply shrugged.

As long as they did their jobs effectively, their personal lives were none of his concern. For now, all of them were temporary assets.

He would eventually pick the best performers and bring them into his personal core team. The rest would remain on the lower rungs of the ladder.

Since no mandatory targets had been assigned yet, Pratham and Kaushik’s teams had chosen to focus on locating Hari Kaka’s residence.

Gautam’s team, meanwhile, had taken on the task of identifying the old man by investigating Sheetal’s uncle’s house.

According to the reports, all three teams had successfully obtained the house addresses through Aadhaar card details and social media probing.

Pratham’s team had posed as delivery agents at Rohit’s house to gather information. Upon learning that Hari Kaka was on holiday in his native village, they had already extracted the village address and headed there.

Kaushik’s team had taken a more direct approach—they rented a house near Hari Kaka’s actual residence and were now keeping watch in rotating shifts.

The most impressive strategy came from Gautam’s team. In addition to renting a room nearby, they had independently hired two private agencies to assist. The initiative showed they were willing to go the extra mile. Rohit nodded in approval. "Okay... this one is worth noting."

He reviewed Gautam’s assigned team again. All new faces, new names, and perhaps more raw potential.

It was only the first day, so there wasn’t much substantial progress yet. Satisfied for now, Rohit moved on.

He then decided to check on his earlier projects.

He started with the alternate Raven account.

It was flooded with pending messages from the compromised accounts. Numerous politicians, bankers, and influential businessmen were desperately pleading, offering to do anything to appease him. A few naïve ones had even tried boasting about their connections and issuing threats.

Since he still lacked a proper system to handle the flood of money efficiently, Rohit left the Raven account matter pending for now.

The earlier scam had proven far more fruitful than expected. It had given him direct access to 163 out of the 190 male students in his grade.

These weren’t ordinary contacts — they were anchor points to the scions of rich households and powerful families.

Connections that could prove useful in ways he hadn’t even planned yet. Of course, the youngest minors who hadn’t yet hit puberty would be spared.

’Better to expand the farming operation to the entire school rather than limiting it to my class only,’ he thought.

"Lisa," he commanded, "send the same Kashmiri girl photo and video scam to all other grades up to Class Ten. Leave no exceptions. Also add every teacher and staff member currently present in the school."

Lisa’s voice chimed back promptly.

[Commencing....]

[Clone deployment initiated. Mail sent to targeted devices.]

Within moments, the virus-linked files were dispatched across the school. As the operation ran in the background, Rohit remembered his pending task — he needed to meet the dean soon.

It was time to drain that bastard of all the illegal wealth he had accumulated over the years. In Rohit’s eyes, all unaccounted money rightfully belonged to him.

The best way to do it was to strip the dean of his land leasing rights by snatching the houses allocated to real people right under his nose.

Once the other investors realized what was happening, they would swarm around him, pressuring him into desperate actions.

That would make him vulnerable to Rohit’s traps. Perhaps he could even use this opportunity to get closer to the dean’s wife, Divyani. A connection to the DCP, sounded incredibly useful.

He also recalled his promise to Raju about settling the housing matter for the slum dwellers. It was the perfect opportunity.

Opening an NGO would allow him to showcase legitimate work on the surface while quietly laundering his black money through charity — with almost no accountability.

It took him barely five minutes to describe the required details to Lisa.

The website and its pages were generated in seconds. Rohit then purchased a simple domain and named the NGO United Effort — clean, respectable, and unassuming.

He quickly texted Robin with the website link attached:

[Below is the link attached. Send it to Raju. He will know what needs to be done.]

Just then, his eyes fell on another notification from Akhil that Lisa had chosen not to read out earlier. Curious, Rohit opened it.

The messages were a series of anxious, emotional texts sent across different times of the day. It was clear the boy had grown a spine.

[Akhil: Sorry, bro. I doubted you. But you were right.]

[Akhil: After you left, I tried to empathize with her like an idiot.She tried seducing me and even incited me against you. She’s a real bitch — taking all the dick without hesitation and then plotting behind your back.]

[Akhil: I was a fool earlier, but now it’s clear. She can fall to any low level. Honestly, I can’t handle all this. I’ve decided to stay out of it. But you stay safe, bro.]

[Akhil: Bro, she’s irritating me. I’ve blocked her. For good.]

Rohit chuckled darkly as he scrolled past the final message.

The boy had finally shed his weak skin and accepted the raw, unfiltered truth of the world. The puppet strings had been permanently severed.

Just then, his phone rang. It was a direct call from the same bitch — Karishma.

Rohit couldn’t help but frown. ’Now what does she want?’