By the next morning, Vicky was running on four hours of sleep, one cup of watery canteen coffee, and an unhealthy amount of adrenaline. But it didn't matter. His mind was buzzing from the previous night. He couldn't pay attention in class at all. Every time the lecturer said "algorithm," his brain substituted it with compression module.
Kiran noticed."Bro… you okay?" he whispered. "You look like you saw the exam result sheet again."
Vicky blinked. "No, no. Just… stuff."
"Which stuff?"
"Tech stuff."
Kiran stared at him. "Say that again and I'm reporting you to the warden for suspicious activity."
Vicky snorted. "Shut up."
But even as he laughed, his fingers were itching to get back to the office. Every second in class felt like a prison sentence.
The moment the bell rang, he ran.
The Tech Park — Same Room, New Energy
He unlocked the office, stepped inside, and immediately—
Rani materialized near the whiteboard, arms folded, eyes razor-focused.
"You're late," she said. "I waited seven minutes."
"It's called college," he groaned, dropping his bag. "Humans need degrees."
"Degrees are inefficient."
"Tell that to my father."
She didn't reply. Probably calculating her way out of the discussion.
"Anyway," Vicky said, rubbing his palms together, "you said the engine's ready?"
Rani gave a small nod.
"I finished the first functional build at 10:42 a.m. Would you like to see it?"
Vicky's heart jumped into his throat.
"Yes. Absolutely. Show me."
She turned toward the large monitor, flicked her hand, and lines of code folded into a clean, simple interface:NovaCompress — Dev Build 0.14
There were only two buttons:Add FileCompress
Vicky gulped. "Okay… okay… let's test it."
He plugged in his pendrive and dropped a random 2-hour high-quality movie into the interface.
File size: 8.4 GB
His throat went dry.
Rani tapped her fingers lightly. "Initiating."
The "Compress" button glowed.
And then—
0% → 68% → 91% → 100%
Time elapsed: 4.8 seconds
New file size: 94.7 MB
Vicky's mouth literally fell open.
"I… what… how…?"
"Lossless," Rani said calmly. "Visual integrity preserved. Audio unmixed. Metadata retained. No corruption."
Vicky clicked the new file, expecting it to crash or flicker or behave like a cursed object.
Nope.
It played.Perfectly.Smooth.Crisp.Flawless.
"Oh my god," he whispered, stepping back. "Oh my god. This is real. This is actually real."
Rani tilted her head. "This is expected."
"This is insane," Vicky corrected, hands on his head. "People would murder each other for this tech!"
"They will pay," she replied. "Murder seems unnecessary."
"Rani… we're gonna be rich."
"Then you will no longer eat Maggi for dinner," she said flatly. "Acceptable outcome."
Vicky laughed. Loudly. Freely.For the first time in months, he felt like something in his life was moving forward at full speed.