Arc 2: The Junior College
June 16, 2001. The Morning After.
The rooster in the neighbor's yard didn't get a chance to crow. The media vans beat it to the punch.
By 6:00 AM, the narrow mud road leading to Surya's ancestral home was choked with vehicles.
There were white Ambassadors with "PRESS" stickers, scooters carrying freelance photographers, and a massive OB Van from Udaya TV trying to navigate a turn meant for bullock carts.
Surya stood on the terrace of his newly renovated house, brushing his teeth with a neem twig (a habit he kept to ground himself). He looked down at the chaos.
"Sir!" Karthik's voice came from the courtyard below. The boy was wearing a fresh shirt, but he looked terrified. "There are people with cameras climbing the mango tree!"
Surya spat out the neem pulp and rinsed his mouth. "Let them climb. It's free advertising."
He walked down the stairs. "Karthik, remember the script. You didn't study at a 'Tuition Center'.
You studied at the 'Gurudeva Institute'. And we aren't just a coaching class. We are a College."
"But Sir," Karthik whispered, "We aren't a college. We don't have a license."
"Details," Surya straightened Karthik's collar. "In India, you build the temple first; the gods come later. Now, go smile."
Surya opened the main gate.
Flash. Flash. Flash.
It was blinding. Microphones were shoved into his face.
"Mr. Surya! Mr. Surya! Is it true you taught the Rank 2 student under a tree?"
"What is your secret method? Did you use illegal stimulants?"
"Is it true you rejected an offer from Brilliant Coaching?"
Surya raised a hand. The Principal's Authority (Level 2) radiated from him. It wasn't magical mind control, but it was a heavy, charismatic pressure that made the reporters instinctively shut up.
"My secret," Surya said, his voice calm and baritone, "is that I don't treat students like hard drives to be filled with data. I treat them like processors to be overclocked."
He placed a hand on Karthik's shoulder.
"Karthik was rejected by the top institutes. They called him slow. Today, he is the second fastest thinker in the state.
This proves one thing: The old system is broken."
A reporter from The Times of India—a sharp-eyed woman with bobbed hair—pushed to the front.
"Mr. Surya, that's a nice soundbite. But what now? You have four students. Will you continue running a tuition center from this... farmhouse?"
Surya looked at her. Her ID card read: Ananya Rao, Senior Correspondent.
[Target: Ananya Rao]
* Talent: Investigative Journalism (Rank A).
* Trait: Cynical / Truth-Seeker.
* Current Status: Skeptical.
Surya smiled at her. "No, Miss Rao. The tuition center died yesterday. Today, I am announcing the launch of Gurudeva Pre-University College."
The crowd murmured.
"Admissions open tomorrow," Surya lied effortlessly. "Science and Commerce streams. We focus on innovation, not memorization. And for the first batch... I am offering 100% scholarships to anyone who has been rejected by other colleges."
"But where is the college?" Ananya asked, looking at the small tiled house. "You can't fit a batch in there."
"Come back tomorrow morning," Surya challenged. "You'll see it."
10:00 PM. The Same Night.
The media had left. The students had gone home to celebrate with their families.
Surya stood alone in the dark, massive empty plot of land behind the house. It was 3.5 acres of unkempt grass and coconut trees.
"System," Surya said. "It's showtime."
He opened the Shop Interface.
[Item Selected: Building Blueprint - The PU College Block (Basic)]
* Description: A G+2 (Ground plus two floors) structure. Includes 6 Classrooms, 1 Staff Room, 1 Principal's Office, and basic restroom facilities.
* Cost: 1,000 KP.
* Material Requirement: The System will transmute local matter (soil/stones) for the shell. Finishing (paint/furniture) requires cash.
"Purchase," Surya commanded.
[Confirm Purchase? Balance will drop to 1,100 KP.]
"Confirm."
[Construction Mode: Divine Architect Level 1 Activated.]
The ground rumbled. It wasn't an earthquake; it was a reshaping.
Surya watched in awe as the earth groaned. Soil rose up like water, hardening into red bricks. The coconut trees that were in the way didn't break; their roots gently shifted, moving them to the perimeter to form a natural fence.
Stone from the ground fused to become concrete pillars.
It was silent, eerie, and majestic.
In ten minutes, a skeletal structure stood against the moonlight. It wasn't a finished building—it was rough concrete and brick, with holes for windows and no doors. But it was a building. A three-story L-shaped block that looked imposing.
"It needs plaster, paint, and windows," Surya noted. "But structurally, it's done."
He checked his cash. ₹60,000.
That wasn't enough to paint a single floor.
"I have the skeleton," Surya realized. "But I need flesh. I need money."
And more importantly, he needed the license. If he admitted students into this building without a permit, the government wouldn't just send a notice; they would arrest him for fraud.
"Tomorrow," Surya decided. "I visit the Dragon's Den. The PU Board Office."
June 17, 2001. The PU Board Office, Malleshwaram.
The Department of Pre-University Education was a dusty, bureaucratic fortress in Malleshwaram. It smelled of damp files and stagnation.
Surya walked in, wearing his best shirt. He carried a file containing his land deeds and a project report he had typed up the previous night.
He found the office marked "New College Affiliations - Section Officer."
A long line of people waited outside. Most were visibly wealthy—men with gold rings and silk shirts. They were politicians or businessmen trying to open colleges to launder money.
Surya waited for three hours. Finally, his turn came.
The Section Officer, Mr. Gowda (a different Gowda again—it's a common name), sat behind a mountain of files. He didn't look up.
"Name?"
"Surya Gowda. Gurudeva Trust."
"File."
Surya handed it over. The officer flipped through it lazily. He paused at the financial statement.
"Bank balance... twenty thousand rupees?" The officer looked up, laughing. "Is this a joke? To start a college in Bangalore, you need a corpus fund of at least 25 Lakhs. Do you have a Fixed Deposit?"
"I have land worth Crores," Surya argued. "And I have the academic record. My student secured State Rank 2."
"Rank 2 doesn't buy benches," the officer sneered. He tossed the file back. "Rejected. Come back when you have money. Or..."
He rubbed his thumb and index finger together—the universal sign for a bribe. "If you have 'special considerations', maybe we can overlook the corpus fund. Five lakhs."
Surya clenched his fist. He had 1,100 KP. He could use a mental skill to force the man.
No, Surya thought. If I use mind control on a government official, it leaves a trace. And if he snaps out of it later, he will make my life hell.
He needed a legal loophole. Or a connection.
"I don't have five lakhs," Surya said. "But I have the press. They are very interested in my story right now. If I tell them the government is blocking the teacher of the State Topper because he won't pay a bribe..."
The officer stopped chewing his paan. His eyes narrowed.
"Are you threatening me, boy?"
"I am stating facts," Surya leaned in. "I am news right now. You are a bureaucrat. Who do you think the Minister will sacrifice to save his image?"
It was a gamble. A bluff.
The officer glared at him. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Suddenly, the phone on the officer's desk rang. It was a red phone—the direct line.
The officer picked it up. "Hello? Yes? ... Yes, Sir. He is here. What? ... But Sir, the rules... Yes. Yes, I understand. Immediately."
The officer turned pale. He hung up the phone with trembling hands.
He looked at Surya with a mix of fear and confusion.
"Your application is... provisionally approved," the officer stammered. "The Minister's office just called. They want the paperwork fast-tracked."
Surya blinked. The Minister? I don't know the Minister.
"Here," the officer stamped the file aggressively. "Take it. Pay the processing fee of ₹500 at the counter. Next!"
Surya walked out, bewildered. He had prepared for a war, but someone had airstruck the enemy before he could fire a shot.
Who helped him?
As he stepped out into the sunlight of Malleshwaram, his Nokia 3310 (which he had bought second-hand the previous day) buzzed.
Unknown Number.
"Hello?"
"Congratulations on your provisional license, Principal Surya."
The voice was smooth, cultured, and female.
"Who is this?"
"Consider it a scholarship," the voice laughed softly. "I saw your interview. You have potential. But potential needs protection."
"I asked who you are."
"My name is Lakshmi. I represent... an interested party. We will be watching your college rise. Don't disappoint us."
Click.
Surya stared at the phone.
[System Notification]
[New Faction Encountered: The Silent Patrons.]
[Relationship: Neutral / Watchful.]
[Note: High-Level Aura Detected on call.]
Surya pocketed the phone. He didn't like owing favors to ghosts. But right now, he had a license.
He hailed an auto. "Bannerghatta. Fast."
He had a building to paint and students to recruit. The mystery of Lakshmi could wait.
The Next Morning. June 18.
The admissions began.
Surya sat at a plastic table in front of the skeletal building.
He had draped a large banner over the unfinished brickwork: "PHASE 1 UNDER CONSTRUCTION - CLASSES BEGIN AUGUST 1st."
A queue had formed. Not huge, maybe fifty parents. They were the lower-middle class—auto drivers, garment workers, vegetable vendors.
People who couldn't afford the big colleges but had seen the news about the "Rickshaw Driver's Son" getting Rank 2.
"Fees?" a worried mother asked.
"Five thousand per year," Surya said. (The market rate was 15k). "Payable in monthly installments."
The mother cried with relief.
By evening, Surya had admitted 40 students.
40 x ₹1,000 (First Installment) = ₹40,000.
It wasn't much. But it was cash flow.
"We need teachers," Karthik said, sitting next to him, helping with the forms. "Sir, you can't teach 40 students alone. Physics, Chemistry, Math, Biology, English, Kannada..."
"I know," Surya sighed. "I need a staff. But good teachers cost money. And bad teachers are useless."
He opened the System Shop.
[Item: Teacher Recruitment Token]
* Effect: Locates a 'Diamond in the Rough' teacher within a 10km radius. Someone with hidden teaching talent who is currently unemployed or undervalued.
* Cost: 500 KP.
Surya had 1,100 KP.
"I need a Biology teacher first," Surya decided.
"Medical students bring the most prestige."
"System, use Teacher Recruitment Token. Focus: Biology."
[Token Consumed.]
[Scanning Bangalore South...]
[Target Located.]
[Name: Dr. Rao (Disgraced).]
[Location: A Bar in J.P. Nagar.]
Surya raised an eyebrow. "A drunk doctor? Sounds like my kind of staff."
"Karthik," Surya stood up. "Close the counter. I'm going headhunting."