Chapter 17: The Expanding Horizon
The following week passed quickly.
From the outside, Anshul's life looked almost unchanged. He still lived in the same house in Pune with his parents and grandparents. Every morning the familiar sounds of the household filled the air—his grandmother watching the news, his mother preparing breakfast, and his father getting ready for work.
But inside Anshul's room, things were changing rapidly.
The small workspace beside his desk had slowly turned into something resembling a command center. Two computer monitors displayed financial charts, programming interfaces, and system reports.
At the center of everything was the AI assistant program he had been developing.
During the past few days, the system had improved significantly.
At first it had only been capable of gathering information from a few websites. Now it could monitor dozens of financial sources simultaneously and generate organized reports about market trends.
The program continuously scanned:
stock movements
technology investments
startup funding announcements
global economic news
All of this data was categorized automatically.
Anshul studied the latest report appearing on the screen.
Several financial patterns had been detected in the technology sector.
Without hesitation, he opened the trading platform connected to his account and placed a few small investments.
He still avoided large risks.
At this stage, the goal was simply to test the AI's prediction accuracy.
So far the results had been promising.
Three of the last five trades had already produced profits.
Anshul leaned back slightly in his chair.
"Not bad."
At that moment his phone vibrated on the desk.
He glanced at the screen.
Mom — Calling
Anshul answered.
"Hello?"
"Your university called again today," his mother said immediately.
Anshul sighed quietly.
"I know."
"They said you haven't attended lectures for almost two weeks."
"I've been busy."
"With what?"
"A business project."
His mother sounded unconvinced.
"You've been saying that for days."
"I'll explain everything soon."
There was a pause before she spoke again.
"Just don't ruin your future."
The call ended.
Anshul placed the phone down slowly.
The problem with university attendance was becoming harder to ignore.
But right now his priorities were different.
He opened the World Theater interface.
The familiar translucent screen appeared.
Traveler Level: 1
Current World: Origin World
Limitless — 34%
The progress bar had increased again.
That meant time in the Limitless world continued moving forward normally.
If the story followed the original timeline, Eddie Morra should already be gaining enormous influence in the financial world.
Soon he would attract political attention.
And eventually he would gain control of the pharmaceutical company connected to NZT.
That was the moment Anshul was waiting for.
Because the final version of NZT—one without side effects—would appear at that stage.
Until then, there was no need for interference.
Anshul closed the interface.
Just as he was about to return to his work, a notification appeared on his screen.
New message from Rohan
His first employee had already begun working on the AI project.
Anshul opened the message.
Rohan had uploaded several improvements to the machine learning model.
Anshul quickly reviewed the code.
Within a few minutes he understood the changes completely.
The improvement was small but useful.
He typed a reply.
"Good work. Continue optimizing the prediction model."
Rohan replied almost immediately.
"Thanks. This project is really interesting."
Anshul smiled slightly.
Recruiting talented but overlooked people had been the right decision.
Many skilled developers struggled to find opportunities simply because they lacked connections.
But for Anshul, those people were perfect.
They were motivated.
Loyal.
And willing to work hard.
Still, as he looked at the growing list of tasks in front of him, Anshul realized something.
Even with one employee, the workload remained enormous.
Building a large technology company required far more expertise.
Engineers.
Scientists.
Researchers.
Fortunately, the World Theater offered a unique solution.
There were countless worlds inside the system.
Worlds filled with incredibly talented individuals.
Scientists who lacked funding.
Researchers who were ignored by society.
Even brilliant minds who had been pushed into villainy by unfortunate circumstances.
Those people could become valuable allies.
Imagine recruiting someone like Sheldon Cooper from the world of
The Big Bang Theory.
A theoretical physicist with extraordinary intelligence.
Or other scientists from different worlds who simply needed resources to continue their research.
Of course, bringing them directly into his original world would be risky.
If they discovered that their own stories existed as movies or television shows here, it could create serious complications.
But there was another option.
Another world.
A safe world.
The world of
The Princess Diaries.
A peaceful modern society.
A small European kingdom called Genovia.
A perfect place to establish a research center away from unnecessary attention.
Anshul looked out the window.
The streets of Pune were busy as usual.
Cars moved slowly through traffic while pedestrians walked along the sidewalks.
To everyone else, the world looked completely ordinary.
But Anshul knew something they didn't.
Beyond this world existed countless others.
Worlds filled with knowledge, technology, and opportunity.
And one day soon—
He would begin bringing those worlds together.