Even as he celebrated the championship, Arjun's thoughts were elsewhere.
Cricket was a microcosm of systems, interactions, and outcomes. A small field could reflect a city. A match could reflect a market. Patterns repeated, behaviors predicted.
In the quiet streets of Guntur, Arjun began imagining larger moves. He imagined business networks, supply chains, communication lines. He imagined influence spreading silently, undetected, until he could manipulate it precisely. Cricket had taught him timing, patience, observation. Markets would teach him leverage, risk, and flow.
He began cataloging:
Traders and vendors he observed in Guntur markets, their habits and weaknesses
Timing of deliveries, demand cycles, price fluctuations
Local politics and social dynamics
Every evening, he returned home, scribbling notes, creating mental maps that only he could read.
Rao noticed, once, a notebook filled with diagrams—not cricket nets, not shot placements—but routes, timings, and sequences.
"Planning already?" Rao asked, raising an eyebrow.
Arjun smiled faintly. "It's all the same, sir. Predictable systems. Influence them before anyone notices. Cricket, markets, life—it's all patterns."
Rao didn't argue. He knew the Devil had begun to stretch beyond the pitch.
That night, as Arjun lay on his bed in Guntur, he envisioned the future:
State captaincy, national youth teams, under-19 World Cup
IPL franchises, leagues, networks, undiscovered markets
Communication lines, fiber, finance, logistics, hidden influence
He imagined controlling outcomes, shaping people's decisions, orchestrating systems without anyone realizing who pulled the strings.
For the first time, he whispered not to anyone but to himself:
The pitch is only the beginning. The world will follow.
The Devil had taken command.