Prologue (Perfected)

' Efforts Never Betray '

A widely known, respected and repeatedly preached across the globe.

Some people regard This quote as a personal mantra to follow throughout their whole life, while others scoff at it as if it were a mere joke.

I mean, why would you put effort when you have a super- rich dad who provides you with all you need?

There were also those that live in luxury, simply because they lucky, like the ones who win a lottery. Unfair, I know. But what can we do about it.

How does ' efforts never betray you' apply here ?

Of course, aside from those examples, there are many cases in which the saying is proved to be correct.

For example, student life.

It is the perfect example of 'efforts never betray'. At least most of the time.

The more focus and time you give to your studies, the better your results. Of course, you have to understand the subject's lesson first.

But ....

What about me?

What have I got to say 'efforts never betray'?

It is just rubbish.

'Efforts never betray' I believed in such ridiculous notion. I made efforts in my works and studies, I got better results than others. But is that really all there is to it? Is this the golden pathway to success?

No, it separately isn't.

The one more key ingredient to success is 'talent'.

No matter how much effort you put in something, you would not easily be able to surpass the mountain known as 'talent'.

Look at cooking, for example. Many dishes are made with main ingredients ( salt, sugar, honey, jaggery etc). Many ingredients can be their replacement, but in the end they don't even close to their level.

No matter how much chefs try to replace them, they are not easy to replace even if they(chefs) try to get a replacement by researching and experimenting, day and night.

What's the kind of rubbish is that?

Get back to the topic. Why do I have a grudge against the qoute 'efforts never betray' ?

Simple. Because I was one those idiots that wholeheartedly believed in those words.

You see, my parents died when I was 12, after winning my district level chess competition. Some bastard (a relative of one of my competitors) got drunk and ran them over. I couldn't remember how many times I had cried myself to sleep because of that incident. But I investigated on that matter, and found the culprit (obviously with the help of police).

My parents didn't had siblings, and my grandparents, both maternal and paternal, had left the world long ago. I was orphaned.

Luckily, they had enough money in their bank account to last me until the school finished. Thus, I studied as if my life depended on it. I truthfully did.

I would spend hours upon hours on my studies on end, just so that, I could enroll at the most prestigious university out there, later find myself a job.

But wait a sec. How could I possibly afford to go to university? It usually costs a lot of money, didn't it?

A bank loan? Well, not possible. How and why would they lend a loan to an orphan with neither family nor assets? Well, I still tried to get one. But in the end, I got rejected by the government.

But there was still a way, scholarship.

If I managed to secure myself a scholarship, I could attend university without paying a single cent.

Luckily, University H, the only university near me, offered a scholarship program that perfectly suited my needs.

If I studied hard enough, and achieved an exceptionally high score, I could create a chance.

And so I studied.

Studied so hard that all the friends I made over the years became estranged. But I fine with it.

As long as I could attend university, I could make all the friends I want ….. Was what I thought at that time. But looking back at it now, I could only laugh at how naïve I was.

Thanks to all the effort I put in, I managed to get in the top 1 % in national exams, I was the topper or the 1st ranked student in that too. But in the end, the scholarship ..... The scholarship I so much wanted never came.

Funnily enough, I found out soon that the one who got the scholarship was actually lower ranked than me. He was ranked 34th.

How do I know? I have nigh photographic memory. But let me warn you, I suffer from migraine pain. But let's put that aside for now ...

Apparently, his father was a highly influential person and helped secure scholarship for him.

That scholarship should've been mine! All the sleepless nights and lonely days that I had spent had became worthless!

I remember screaming my heart out that day. Nothing happened, just my vocal cord got badly hurt and my voice became hoarse for a period of time .

What's even more frustrating was the the fact that the father of that child could totally afford to send his son to university without a scholarship.

Since you could afford it, why not give it to someone who actually needed it?

I wanted to apply to other universities for scholarships, but they were all outside of my city, and I couldn't afford to move out.

At that point, having exhausted all my family's saving, I was dirt poor.

I could barely feed myself through part - time jobs. How could I possibly study in another city where the rent was levels beyond my compatibly small budget?

And thus left with no choice, I left my studies and continued attending part –time jobs.

I was slowly sank into depression. But soon enough, I found an escape route in yoga, chess and web novels.

With more part time job doers coming frequently to ask for jobs, I was fired from them.

Fortunately, I found myself a new hobby. Writing web novels. At first, I took it as a hobby to pass time, but later, as more and more people started reading my novel, a fire that had long been extinguished inside of me, prompting me to continue writing.

 And I succeeded.

My first novel was a hit, and money started coming in.

…

Master Detective

Description : Jess, a normal boy from a normal city, hopes of one day becoming a master detective and embarks on a tough but fun-filled journey to fight against all odds and fulfill his dreams.

Rating : 4.3 ( 456 reviews)

Views : 5.2 M Word Count : 1.23 M

...

Sure it was your typical story of Hero vs Mafia King, but what could I say? As long as I liked it, and it made money, it'll do,right?

At least that's what I thought, at first. But as time progressed and my second, and third novel came out, I found myself slowly and slowly losing interest.

It was not because I hated writing. No, it was simply because of what I was made to write. Because I was catering to my readers, I slowly started straying from what I liked writing.

I started writing thinks I did not like. It was stuff like this that made my passion for writing decrease.

So, I stopped writing. It was a tough decision but I made it. I was left with only one choice to survive with. I was ready to re – enter Chess Championships.

I secured a job at Prime Plane Library. Well, it was all thanks to my vast knowledge. And thus, I became a librarian. I played in Nationals twice. Won twice.

I played in International Championship. Well, and with 30 to 60 moves, I won that too. I thought the standards of Chess Championships have fallen down.

I received cash prize of about 2 million dollars ( 15 crore rupees approximately). I was filthy rich, at that time. I went to Japan. With 250 million yen. I had that much currency. I started a book publishing company, ReBooks(Read Books).

It was a success. I was the sole-owner of the company, in a way. In 2 years, after the company reached new heights, I found that some shareholders, without my permission, have fraudulently sold 25 percent shares of the company to a big company.

I filed a case, against that company. We fought in the court. After Judgement day, I was quickly ousted from my own company.

I wasn't a hot headed person. I took a job in the Kunlun Library. This time as a manager and a librarian. I took advantage of my free time and enriched my knowledge.

From mastering basics of multiple languages to mastering all the basic subjects, I went all out. I made only some friends. One of which happened to be, a webnovel writer.

He was a fat man. To say brazenly, very fat. But I didn't cared about that. His story was just same as mine ,but a lot negative and depressing. I helped him lose half his weight, or he would have died because of obesity.

I have read his whole novel, I can tell from my many interactions with him, that he was frustrated from catering to fans and annoyed to death by writing what he didn't liked to. I helped him many a times, but as a good friend of his, did that secretly.

While I had turned 35+, I heard the news that my former company ReBooks (ReadBooks) had became a very popular company.

I was pleased with the success of my company, even though I was not a part of it anymore. Sigh! Past is past. It can't be changed by anyone.

Days passed, seasons changed. I aged, but my life remained the same with my 18 hours job as a librarian. I was quite satisfied.

Until one day, an executive from The Company came. He insisted me to go with him , to solve a crisis at The Company. I refused.

I wasn't going to get dragged in that thing again. He pleaded till no end. I finally agreed. I helped The Company to solve that legal crisis.

After that when I was about to leave, someone knocked at the window of my car. I opened the car window. He was Carls Zeiss. The CEO of ReBooks. Or should I say the former assistant of mine, to be precise.

I knew what he was going to do next, but I still asked." Any problems Mr Carls Zeiss?" He answered " Yes, only one left." He took out a double barrel shotgun. And before I knew, my head was literally blown into pieces.