The final preparations took two days.
Not because there was much to do — he had learned from the Limitless entry that overpreparing was its own kind of mistake. You could research a world endlessly and still miss the thing that mattered most until you were standing inside it. What preparation actually meant was knowing the shape of what you were entering clearly enough to move through it with purpose rather than confusion.
He spent the first day reviewing everything he knew about 7aum Arivu.
But not on his natural baseline.
He reached into the pocket space and withdrew a single tablet. He had 2000 of them. Perfectly synthesised. No side effects. There was no logical reason to spend hours struggling through research when he could absorb everything completely in a fraction of the time.
He swallowed it and waited.
The clarity arrived in its familiar layered way — cleaner than anything the original NZT had produced, each level of comprehension settling fully before the next opened.
He opened his laptop.
What followed was not reading in any ordinary sense. It was absorption — complete, structural, permanent. The film itself first, every scene analysed not just for plot but for the specific knowledge systems operating underneath it. Then the historical Bodhidharma — the real one, the sixth century monk-warrior-physician whose actual documented history was extraordinary enough without any cinematic embellishment.
Then the knowledge systems themselves.
Varma Kalai — the ancient pressure point martial art. Its documented relationship to the body's vital energy pathways. How it differed from every modern martial art he had studied — not just a fighting system but a complete understanding of the human body's vulnerabilities and strengths.
Nokku Varmam — the hypnotic technique Bodhidharma had taught to the Chinese. How Dong Lee had weaponised a fraction of it in the modern timeline. What the original unweaponised form was capable of in the hands of its creator.
Kalari — the ancient Indian martial foundation that predated everything he had learned from Oren.
The Seventh Sense — the highest level of human awareness documented in any tradition he could find. Not supernatural. Just the full activation of human potential beyond what ordinary life ever demanded.
Pranayama — the breathing techniques that increased prana. Their documented physiological effects. Why Shaolin monks had developed extraordinary physical capabilities that modern athletes couldn't replicate despite superior nutrition and training science. The answer was in the breath.
Dhyana — Bodhidharma's meditation system. Its relationship to Chan Buddhism, to Zen, to every major contemplative tradition that had followed from it. What it actually did to the human mind when practiced at the level Bodhidharma practiced it.
Ancient Siddha medicine — the healing knowledge that had allowed one man to cure a pandemic in sixth century China using nothing but plants and understanding.
Two hours and twenty minutes.
He closed the laptop.
Everything sitting solid in his memory. Not memorised. Understood.
'That's how you prepare', he thought.
By the end of the research session he had a clear picture.
The story moved across two timelines — ancient and modern. The ancient timeline followed Bodhidharma himself. The modern timeline followed Arvind — a circus performer carrying Bodhidharma's genetic memory dormant within him.
The villain — Dong Lee — noted and filed without particular concern.
'A problem for other people', he thought. 'If he gets in my way I'll deal with him and move on.'
He wrote his entry notes.
Key characters:— Bodhidharma. Ancient timeline. Primary target for interaction. The source of everything.— Arvind. Modern timeline. Main character.— Subha. Modern timeline. Geneticist.— Malathi and Nisha. Modern timeline. Subha's friends.— Dong Lee. Villain. Not a priority.
Entry point — ancient timeline. Before the modern story begins. Maximum time with Bodhidharma.
Goals:1. Varma Kalai — pressure point martial art. Direct from the source. 2. Nokku Varmam — hypnotism. 3. Kalari — ancient martial art foundation. 4. Shaolin physical conditioning. 5. Seventh Sense. 6. Ancient Siddha medicine and healing. 7. Pranayama — key to unlocking Energy stat. 8. Dhyana — meditation beyond NZT 9. Tamil — push to native level in modern timeline. 10. Experience and enjoy both worlds fully. 11. Points — both timelines.
He closed the notebook.
'Ready', he thought.
The second day was simpler.
He checked the pocket space.
[Equipment] → Modified NZT-48 x2000 → Cash $2,000,000
Both intact. The cash sitting quietly as emergency funds — accessible in any world that needed it, no urgency to convert it until the right moment presented itself.
He ate a proper meal — his mother had sent him back with enough home cooked food to last three days, packed in steel containers. He ate slowly, tasting it properly.
Then he sat at his desk.
Looked at his room one last time.
The same water stain on the ceiling. The same ancient ceiling fan. The same view from the window of the campus below.
'Different person sitting in it', he thought. 'Again.'
He checked his stats.
"Khushi."
"Yes, host."
"Show me my current stats."
[Host : Aditya]
[Species : Human]
[Gender : Male]
[Age : 22]
[Stats]
[Health : 12] (Normal person : 10)
[Energy : 0]
[Strength : 13] (Normal person : 10)
[Speed : 11] (Normal person : 10)
[Endurance : 14] (Normal person : 10)
[Intelligence : 14] (Normal person : 10)
[Attributes : 0]
[Skills : Driving (level 2), Swimming (level 2), Coding (level 4), Hacking (level 3), Krav Maga (level 3), Tamil (level 2), Telugu (level 2), Malayalam (level 2), Mandarin (level 2)]
[Equipment : Modified NZT-48 x2000,Cash $2,000,000]
[Points : 5780]
He looked at the numbers.
5780 points. Cost of entry — 5000. Remaining after entry — 780.
'Tight', he thought. 'But enough.'
'Don't waste any', he reminded himself. 'Every point counts in this world.'
He put the phone down.
He reached into the pocket space and withdrew a single tablet of modified NZT.
No side effects. No cascade. Clean synthesis. There was absolutely no reason not to use every advantage available to him. He was about to enter an ancient world where the primary language was a form of Tamil that predated anything he had studied. Where the knowledge systems were entirely outside anything his modern education had prepared him for. Where the person he needed to learn from was one of the most extraordinary human beings who had ever existed in any timeline real or fictional.
'Walking in at natural baseline would be stupid', he thought simply.
He swallowed the tablet.
Waited.
The familiar expansion came — cleaner than the original had ever felt. No brittle edge. No forced quality. Just clarity arriving in layers, each one settling fully before the next.
His Tamil sharpened immediately — the level two foundation restructuring itself, ancient grammatical forms becoming navigable, vocabulary gaps filling from context and pattern recognition.
'That's better', he thought.
He picked up his phone.
"Khushi."
"Yes, host."
"Initiate transport. 7aum Arivu. Ancient timeline. Entry point — Bodhidharma's era."
"Replying host. Transport world selected. 7aum Arivu — Tier 1 high energy world. Points required — 5000. Current points — 5780. Points remaining after transport — 780."
"Dual timeline access available within this world. Timeline shift cost — 100 points per shift. Subsequent entry and return transport — 500 points each."
"Confirmed", he said.
"Preparation for transport."
"Locking time and scene."
"Transportation begins in 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."
The room distorted.
And disappeared.
He arrived standing.
That was the first difference from the Limitless entry. No dizziness. No need to grab something for support. He simply appeared — feet on ground, balance intact, present.
'The training', he thought. 'The body knows how to land now.'
He stood still for a moment and took in his surroundings.
Forest. Dense, ancient, the kind of forest that existed before roads or cities had any claim on the landscape. Enormous trees whose canopy blocked most of the sky, filtering the light into something green and diffused. The air was different — thicker, richer, carrying smells he had no modern reference for. Earth and leaves and something medicinal underneath, like the forest itself was made of things that healed.
Somewhere nearby water was moving. A river or a large stream — close enough to hear clearly.
He looked down at himself.
Modern clothes. His own clothes — the same ones he had been wearing in his dorm room. Jeans. A t-shirt. Shoes that had no business existing in ancient South India.
'Of course', he thought. 'The system transports the host. Not a costume department.'
He looked around quickly. Dense forest in every direction. No one visible yet.
His phone was in his hand — the only item he carried physically. Everything else was safely in the pocket space. Invisible. Accessible whenever he needed it.
'First problem', he thought. 'The clothes.'
'Walking into an ancient Pallava kingdom in jeans is not the entrance I planned', he thought. 'Need to solve this before anyone sees me.'
The NZT was fully active. His senses were sharper than ordinary — the forest revealing itself in layers of detail that his natural baseline would have missed. The medicinal smell he had noticed was coming from specific plants he could now identify from his research — herbs used in Siddha medicine, some rare even in this era. The sound of the water was cleaner here than anything he had heard in his modern world.
He was still thinking through the clothing problem when he heard a sound.
Not loud. Not dramatic. Just the specific quality of something moving through the forest with complete deliberate control — every footfall placed exactly, no sound wasted, no energy spent without purpose.
He turned toward it.
And saw him.
Bodhidharma emerged from between two enormous trees at the edge of a clearing perhaps thirty metres away.
He was exactly as the film had shown him — a man in his prime, tall and lean with a warrior's build, his bearing carrying the unmistakable quality of royalty without needing to announce it. Dark complexioned, sharp featured, his hair pulled back. He wore the simple clothing of someone who had already begun moving away from the trappings of his royal life despite still being within its reach. Not the white bearded ancient sage of popular imagination — something far more present and immediate than that. A man who looked like he could break you and heal you with equal precision and had probably done both.
He stopped at the edge of the clearing.
Looked directly at Aditya.
The distance between them was thirty metres. The forest was dim. And yet the quality of that gaze reached across both without any difficulty — sharp, present, completely without aggression and completely without warmth. Simply — aware.
His eyes dropped briefly to Aditya's clothing.
Something moved across his face. Not confusion exactly. More like the careful assessment of someone filing an anomaly without yet deciding what to do with it.
Neither of them moved for a long moment.
Then Bodhidharma spoke. In Tamil — ancient, formal.
"Who are you and why are you here?"
Aditya took a breath.
The NZT was pulling ancient Tamil constructions from the foundation he had built — vocabulary and grammar that his level two baseline alone would never have accessed.
"I have come to learn", he said.
A pause.
Bodhidharma's eyes moved to his clothing again briefly. Then back to his face.
"From where have you come?"
Aditya looked at him steadily.
'No honest answer I can give', he thought. 'No dishonest answer worth giving.'
"From very far away", he said.
Bodhidharma held his gaze for one more moment.
Then he turned and walked back into the forest.
He did not look back.
But he walked slowly enough that following was clearly an option.
Aditya stood for a half second.
Glanced down at his jeans one more time.
'Figure out the clothes later', he thought.
He followed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guys i have created my patreon and uploaded 5 Additional chapter in it join it for fresh new updates and help me write my stories
https://www.patreon.com/c/Cranksyst_101
Patreon name: Cranksyst_101