Shaun A. K.

The sky is a skybox. The rules are code. And a ragpicker from Dharavi just found the admin panel.

Aryan is twenty-one and pulls dead circuit boards out of Mumbai's e-waste graveyard to survive. Then he digs up an obsidian Slate that fuses to his arm and shows him the truth: the city is a simulation, and he can edit it.

He can mute every sound in a room. Flip a lock from shut to open. Rig a Matka draw. But every script has a resource cost, and Aryan pays it in his own flesh.

From the gutters to a Juhu penthouse, through gangsters, crooked cops and a minister's gala, Aryan rewrites his way to the top. A scarred inspector is closing in. The faceless Regents who run the system are sending their Cleaners. And the more Aryan edits the world, the less of him is left.

A fast, brutal, one-sitting cyberpunk thriller for fans of The Matrix and Sacred Games.