Rootlink was growing faster than Aarav had ever imagined.
Orders were doubling every month. A renowned herbal brand had placed a trial order for 2,000 units of Chhattisgarh's forest-sourced neem oil. Even an export inquiry had come in from Singapore for ethically sourced spices.
The little office above the tyre shop now had six desks, a whiteboard cluttered with timelines, and a pantry stocked with filter coffee. Priya had nicknamed the space "The Jungle," not because of chaos—but because it was wild, growing, and alive.
But in the middle of this upward curve… something unexpected happened.
The System glitched.
It was a Tuesday afternoon.
Aarav was reviewing logistics costs when a system notification blinked erratically.
!! System Alert: Data Desync in Forecast LayerProbability Index Fluctuation: UnstableSome future predictions may be temporarily inaccurate.
"What the—?"
He tapped through panels, trying to trace the source. The clean, confident metrics that had always guided him were jittering. Success predictions weren't loading. Recommendations were greyed out. He tried a manual refresh.
System partially offline. Calculations delayed. Please proceed using current context.
Aarav leaned back in his chair.
This was a first.
He had relied on the System for months. It had been his compass, his guide, his quiet confidence when everything else was loud and uncertain. Without it… he felt the weight of decisions return, heavier than before.
He looked at the team.
Ritu was busy testing the new vendor dashboard. Rakesh was on a call with a co-op lead in Assam. Priya was typing furiously in the support channel, replying in three languages at once.
Nobody else noticed the silence in Aarav's mind.
Because nobody else had the System.
That night, Aarav didn't sleep.
He sat on the roof of his house, watching Gurgaon's lights blur into the horizon, trying to make sense of something deeper than a software error.
What if the System never came back?
What if every step he took now was… blind?
And then he remembered something his father had said long ago, after Aarav had failed an engineering exam in college:
"Jo chalna seekh jaata hai, usse har raste ka dar nahi rehta."(He who learns how to walk need not fear which path comes next.)
Aarav took a deep breath.
He hadn't been carried by the System. He had learned to walk with it.
Now, he would learn to lead without it—at least for now.
The next morning, he gathered the team.
"Quick update," he said, casual but clear. "Our analytics module's down for a few days. So, until it's back, we're going to trust two things—data we already have, and our instincts."
Rakesh raised an eyebrow. "You mean… like guessing?"
Aarav smiled. "I mean judgment. We've seen the vendors. We know the products. And we know our customers. That's enough."
That week was messy.
One shipment to Jaipur was delayed due to rain and poor road conditions. A bulk order from a textile startup was misrouted. A few vendors demanded early payouts they weren't eligible for.
But the team responded—not with panic, but with purpose.
Ritu patched an order-tracking bug manually. Priya negotiated payouts with grace. Rakesh physically traveled to pacify a partner who was threatening to leave.
And Aarav?
He trusted them.
On Sunday evening, the System flickered back to life.
System Restored.Data Streams Recovered.Integrity Verified.
Notice:During System Downtime, your decisions resulted in:– Net User Growth: +8.2%– Vendor Retention: 96%– Order Fulfillment Accuracy: 91%Conclusion:You no longer need the System to succeed.You are now your own compass.
Aarav stared at the screen.
Then he quietly closed his laptop.
And smiled.
Success wasn't a straight line. It wasn't a clean dashboard or a perfect codebase.
It was Ritu's tired smile at 2 AM.Rakesh's scooter breaking down mid-delivery.Priya's annoyed "ugh" when WhatsApp glitched again.
It was this chaos, this rhythm, this imperfect harmony.
And it was real.
Aarav realized that day:The System had given him a gift—but the real magic was always inside him.
Now, even if the System vanished forever…
Rootlink would still rise