An Upgraded Soul

Ding! Click!

The cinnamon coloured teak door unlocked as Aditya input the password. Aditya breathed in a bit of fragrance of Sandalwood as he stepped into his residence. A Giant elephant sculpture made of sandalwood was placed in the living room, it was gifted by Charita a few days back. He removed his canvas shoes as he hummed a song. He was feeling a little breezy today as his 'avatar' i.e. 'Ishaan' started moving in the right direction, according to his objectives, with no unpredicted complications.

If someone thought that all the money that Aditya had spent was his own earnings then they would be mistaken. Aditya had actually loaned the required money from Taarini. Though Taarini did not mind giving this money to Aditya for free, Aditya insisted that he would pay interest and return this money when he started earning. He did not speak about his plans and Taarini did not ask. After many days of been together with her when she trained him, they both had an understanding of each other's mentalities. So, if Aditya did not reveal, she would not ask as she knew what Aditya's current objective was.

Taarini provided 'Black Money' (unaccounted money that is concealed from the tax administrator) on his request as Aditya did not want this money to be tracked by government agencies. In a country like India where there is a significant share of the economy which is 'informal' and 'unorganised', it was pretty easy for Aditya to both create a new identity and spend money which could not be traced back to him.

If there was anything that Aditya felt a little challenging, it would be getting his 'avatar' a Unique Identification card from the government. This required Tya to modify his fingerprints as well as the unique pattern of blood vessels in his retina. Otherwise, even with this kind of disguise, he would have been caught in the end.

He laid down a list of parameters that his home had to satisfy before purchasing them and searched for it. He wanted to buy luxury apartments as it would guarantee his privacy. He wanted each floor to contain only two flats so that he could buy the whole floor, a flat for each of his identity. It would also guarantee that irrelevant people are not present near him pay attention to his life.

Otherwise, neighbours are the best 'spy' candidates here in India as usually 'good' neighbours like to have strong social interactions. As if exchanging gifts on festivals or sweets on joyous occasions was not enough, some would even try to maintain daily contact by bringing food or coming over to watch cricket together, or for just plain gossip. One such candidate was enough to know that something was wrong with him. Aditya did not want to take risks as he wanted to strictly separate the identities of Ishaan and Aditya.

Aditya had already planned that, in the future, he would buy two villas connected by a water body like a lake or a stream so that he and his avatar did not have to be neighbours. He thought of constructing two independent buildings connected by a tunnel but that would be dangerous if anyone's house was checked in the future. A water body was better as he would be able to commute using it. But currently, he had to compromise with two flats accessible to each other by jumping a distance of five meters from one balcony to another.

Some might think that Aditya was been paranoid but this was a habit he was willing to form when he thought that his opponents were something that even his government did not dare to provoke. Aditya did not know that not only his country, even other more powerful countries were feeling helpless right now. Harry would not discuss these issues with him as these came under national secrets.

Aditya had already hacked into the building's electronic surveillance system so that the video of the common area of the floor would play in a loop. He had even taken some videos while wearing different attires so that the security would not notice the difference. He programmed it in such a way that this loop would start playing whenever he was at home. The normal surveillance would take over when housekeepers come to clean both the flats and refill the groceries.

So most of the time, Aditya would just go from one flat to another through the common area as it was secure and he would use the balcony in case of an emergency. He was planning on morphing some surveillance videos to show both Aditya and Ishaan conversing and been friendly with each other to further establish different identities. But he was waiting for Tya to take time to write that software.

The significant discovery that Aditya made in the past month was that Tya was an anomaly when it came to 'Utilization' skills. As long as Aditya made sure that Tya was able to thoroughly understand a particular branch of knowledge, there was no one who could rival Tya in applying the knowledge in the most efficient way to get the best results. So, as long as, Aditya provided all the knowledge based on programming knowledge, Tya could apply this information to write any software within the limits of that language.

But if there was anything that made Aditya dumbfounded, it was that Tya literally had no vision. By vision, Aditya meant that Tya had no motivation or a goal towards which he actively pursued. If he had to name anything that Tya d.e.s.i.r.ed or craved for, it would be knowledge, any kind of knowledge. He was curiosity personified. He was genuinely curious about everything but was not interested in applying the knowledge as he did not feel the need to.

Aditya could not blame him as when you observe Tya, you would discover that he was the most contented being out there. he did not have any worries. he did not think about deep questions like, 'who he was', 'why was he like this', 'what had happened to him in the past', 'how did he end up been bonded to Aditya', 'what would happen to him in the future', 'Should he do something to prevent a potential future danger'.

He did not pay any attention to these questions which in Aditya's opinion were pretty 'vital'. This was also why Aditya had mixed feelings when he heard Tya say that both of them were inseparably bonded to each other. Tya did not have any goals or obligations that he needed to fulfil. He was pretty simple in his perspective of life with little demands which were inconsequential like lollipops and children songs.

So, Aditya took up the role of providing the goals for Tya, more like requests with the added incentive of lollipops and kid songs. If he wanted Tya to write a video editing software, all he had to do was give him some reference along with his expectations and Tya, would give out the main code like it was nothing. Aditya had noticed that this code did not even need the normal procedures of testing and debugging as it would always be perfect.

The time-consuming part was to physically type the code in the laptop. When Aditya had discovered this ability, the first thing that he instinctively asked was, 'Tya, could you design a super fast car if I get you the engine references and other car models?' the autophile in Aditya emerged with huge expectations.

After a series of counter questions from Tya, Aditya discovered a mildly disappointing truth. Tya did not understand the elements in the periodic table and how they function. He could not comprehend the properties of things like metals, alloys, physical and chemical properties. Of course, he could remember them if Aditya provided the books but he did not truly grasp them.

Just like in the past, Tya could produce 3D models of things in his world but could not reproduce their properties. He could create a library full of books but the books were not made of paper as Tya was not able to comprehend wooden pulp. He could create a 3D model of a car or a gun, but they would not be made up of metal or gunpowder as he couldn't figure out their complete properties.

For example, a hydrogen atom had many properties and characteristics. Two atoms of hydrogen combine with an atom of oxygen to form water but two hydrogen atoms with two oxygen atoms form hydrogen peroxide. The characteristics of water and hydrogen peroxide are very different and they would interact with other chemicals in unique ways.

So, even to this day, no one could confidently say that the element 'Hydrogen' as being completely studied. There are many unknown secrets yet to be found out about these elements and the way they interact with each other to form this universe of which humans knowledge is pitiful. So, only when Tya knows everything about Hydrogen, it could recreate hydrogen in the quantum realm, it could also apply this knowledge successfully to create new materials consisting of Hydrogen.

if in the future, Tya was able to comprehend oxygen also, then Tya would automatically give out all kinds of possible interactions between hydrogen and oxygen. Aditya was currently brainstorming various methods through which he could let Tya experience these elements. Though, it seemed impossible, if he was successful, he could not even imagine the miracles that Tya could create.

Computer programming was different, it was just a method of translating human language, commands and requirements into a language that a machine (computer, mobile) understands. So, for Tya it was easily comprehensible, hence the outstanding results. But designing physical things like electronic hardware or automobile engines required Tya to comprehend things like chemical laws and physical laws which was widely different in the quantum realm. So, Tya had a pretty hard time perceiving it.

Aditya currently requested Tya to create an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) which could be easily used through a mobile phone like an operating system. Tya was not sure whether he was able to create an obedient, sentient program which could learn and think for itself as it bordered on things like human consciousness.

Aditya suggested that Tya should study his soul particle as it should have something in it which causes the possibility of forming a human consciousness. Artificial Intelligence was after all an attempt at creating a human-like intelligence. Without this soul particle, there was no life, no consciousness, no intellect or emotion, Aditya hoped that Tya would succeed if he took the soul particle as reference.

Aditya had already created a mobile app by himself which he had his associates load into their mobiles which could modify the messaging application a little to create a separate secure channel for communicating between themselves which was difficult to be intercepted by others because of the complicated process of encryption. He was conducting trials for future purposes.

Aditya had used more than 10 algorithms to code into this app, he had spent quite some time in Tya's realm for this application. He was sure that Tya would have made this one in a matter of minutes but Aditya did not want to rely on Tya for everything as he also wanted to get accustomed to programming. If he had no time and was in urgency, it would be different.

His current task as 'Ishaan' apart from making a name and money for himself, was to write a mobile operating system for himself and his people. He did not have the idea of making it public. He had decided that he would do this with Tya's cooperation to make it quicker and more efficient.

Aditya opened a case of 'Seascape' strawberries from California that Jagvi had gifted him last week. Her elder brother worked in Silicon Valley and had sent these to her. He used a drinking straw to remove the middle part of the berry and popped the remaining part into his mouth as he grabbed a towel and went into his restroom. It was time to 'change'.

As Aditya looked at 'Ishaan's' perfect physique in the mirror, even he couldn't help but feel envious. Wasn't this the dream body, he always wanted? But Aditya's physique was too lean. But a shocking thing about his transformation back to Aditya was that his strength and other attributes did not change even though he turned lean.

When asked about it, Tya said that strength was not necessarily related to large muscles and that it was a crude way of gaining strength to which Aditya grumbled 'crude but s.e.xy'. He did not insist too much as Aditya had already been accustomed to his thin physique. It was fine as long as his strength, speed and other parameters did not change.

After Aditya took a quick bath, he wore a sweatshirt as well as a pair of track pants as he left his flat. After conversing a little with the security guards, Aditya jogged towards the nearby bus stand and caught a bus going towards the city outskirts. He had to leave the city through a bus as only in the outskirts with zero surveillance could he transform into a new person without any apprehension of been recognized. This transformation was superficial, without any net change in physique or weight, and so did not require a long duration of time or any special conditions.

If 'Ishaan' was the light side or the 'soft' aspect of Aditya's avatar then 'Rudra' was the 'other' side of the coin.