Chapter 34: Sabotage in the Shadows
June 5, 2009 — 5:00 PM — University Grounds, South Delhi
The heat shimmered off the concrete like waves.
Students swarmed the open courtyard, their laughter mixing with the blaring speakers.
Today was Rickshaw Rush: Open Cup #1.
The first official Fruit Ninja tournament, tied directly to recruitment for bigger races.
> Over 300 students had gathered.
Dozens of phones buzzed.
Fruit slices exploded into neon showers across cracked screens.
Shiva moved through the crowd, clipboard in hand, sharp-eyed.
Farhan handled the game booths.
Riya managed the prize counters.
Manoj ran registration.
Everything ticking like clockwork.
Or so it seemed.
---
5:30 PM — First Sign of Trouble
"Bro, my game's crashing!" a boy shouted.
"Mine too!" another girl yelled from across the lawn.
Shiva sprinted over.
One by one, the phones glitched:
Fruits moving weirdly.
Controls lagging.
Then full app crashes.
Panic spread.
Players cursed.
Crowds murmured.
A few phones even flashed an ominous error message:
> CORRUPTED FILE. DELETE IMMEDIATELY.
Shiva's stomach dropped.
He grabbed a device and plugged into his laptop.
Lines of alien code spilled onto the debug screen.
A worm.
A tiny, malicious script inserted into the APK file.
> Someone had sabotaged Fruit Ninja.
And they had done it perfectly — enough to destabilize the tournament, make Shiva look like a fool, but not obvious enough to leave fingerprints.
---
6:00 PM — Crisis Management Mode
Shiva's mind kicked into overdrive.
He grabbed Farhan and Manoj.
"Listen. Switch to offline play mode."
They nodded.
"No online scores today. Only local points. Fast prizes. Loud celebrations."
Confuse the crowd.
Keep the energy UP.
Hide the technical collapse happening behind the scenes.
Within 10 minutes:
New rules were announced.
Staff screamed encouragement.
Winners got t-shirts, caps, free movie tickets.
The event limped through.
Barely.
But it didn't collapse.
And by sunset, while Shiva packed cables with trembling hands, students still laughed and shared Bluetooth APKs — the ones Shiva re-uploaded manually from a clean backup.
A close escape.
But Shiva knew:
> "Next time, they'll hit harder."
---
7:00 PM — The Message
Back at the rooftop office, as the team collapsed into chairs, a courier arrived.
A simple white envelope.
No name.
No logo.
Just one thing inside:
> A black playing card.
The Joker.
And one sentence handwritten underneath:
"Playtime's over, little prince."
Shiva turned it over.
On the back — a simple stylized logo drawn in red ink:
> GameNode.
---
8:00 PM — War Council
Inside the hot room, tension crackled like electricity.
Riya slammed a fist on the table.
"They're trying to destroy us!"
Farhan swore under his breath.
Manoj suggested police complaints.
Shiva listened silently.
Then stood up.
Pulled down a battered whiteboard.
And drew three circles:
1. Fruit Ninja Virus — Mass attention grabber.
2. Rickshaw Rush Society — Core loyalists, street energy.
3. The Next Step — ???
He tapped the third circle.
"We can't just react," he said, voice low.
"We need to EVOLVE."
"How?" Riya asked.
Shiva smiled grimly.
> "We build something bigger than any single game.
A real company.
A real fortress.
An Indian gaming empire."
The room went silent.
The words hung there, electric, impossible — and yet somehow inevitable.
Shiva's mind raced faster than ever.
> "No more running from GameNode."
"No more hiding in cyber cafés."
"It's time to plant a flag so high they can't ignore it."
> "A real Indian Gaming Company."
---
Later That Night — Alone on the Rooftop
The city sprawled below him, endless and messy and alive.
Shiva tapped furiously on his notepad.
> PROJECT FIRESTORM:
Legal entity registration.
Offices — cheap coworking spaces.
Real website.
Real online app portal — host multiple games.
First real employees: loyal, fast, unbreakable.
Fruit Ninja upgraded and protected.
New games — Indian themes, crazy ideas.
Not just a gaming society anymore.
A Startup.
A weapon GameNode couldn't sabotage with cheap tricks.
He wrote one final line across the bottom of the page:
> "Dream bigger than they can sabotage."
Then he closed the notebook.
Looked up at the endless stars.
And whispered:
> "War is coming."
> "And this time, I'm ready."
---
[End of Chapter 34]