Second Chance: A Dark Tale of Urban India
Chapter 158: Office Of Girls
The car stopped in front of Shastri IT Park.
The lady guard, Meenakshi, called out, "Sir, we’ve reached. From here you’ll need to go on foot."
Rohit nodded and looked outside the window. A sprawling compound stretched before him, dominated by the massive entrance of the IT park.
Earlier, he had been made to sit beside the driver. Despite the feminine name, there was nothing feminine or delicate about Meenakshi. She looked less like a female guard and more like some distant Indian cousin of the lady Hulk.
That was exactly why Rohit had buried himself in his mobile the entire ride, taking updates about the gaming company and its ongoing projects.
Thanks to that distraction, he still hadn’t asked Arya the questions that had been circling in his mind ever since they left their father’s office.
Stepping out of the car, Rohit took another look at the IT park. The compound was enormous, filled with top-class buildings rising nearly fifteen storeys high.
Everything about the place felt isolated from the outside world, as if the buzzing traffic and chaotic noise of the city had been sealed away behind invisible walls.
What worried him, however, was the long line of employees still waiting for verification to enter.
Sheetal and Arya stepped out from the backseat as well.
Arya adjusted her hair with a slight arrogance in her posture. "Follow me. The protocols become easier."
They bypassed the long queue of employees waiting for security checks and walked through the VIP lane. The guard saluted sharply and let them pass without a word.
Rohit kept his expression neutral.
’Definitely a VIP culture.’
They headed straight toward the third building.
Inside the third building, the ground floor was bright and modern.
A large directory board was fixed to the wall beside it, listing floor numbers and company names. Rohit casually glanced at the ID cards of the employees nearby and noticed that most belonged to different companies mentioned on the board.
His eyes soon landed on their destination.
Eighth Floor — Nagraja Technologies.
They entered the lift, but just before the doors could close, a young man rushed forward and blocked them.
"Please wait... my colleagues are coming."
Arya frowned at him but said nothing, immediately averting her gaze as if merely looking at him annoyed her.
Rohit glanced at the visitor card hanging from the man’s neck.
Suvendu.
Within moments, five more boys arrived, all roughly around the same age.
Sheetal asked simply, "Interview?"
Suvendu nodded quickly. "Yes... eighth floor. Nagraja Technologies. Game testing."
Arya gave them a brief glance before leaning against the lift wall, folding her arms and staring at the ceiling in visible irritation.
With six extra people entering, the lift became uncomfortably crowded.
Still, despite the cramped space, everyone subconsciously maintained whatever distance they could from Arya. Her aura alone was enough to keep people cautious.
Unfortunately, Rohit received no such privilege.
He was forced deeper into the crowd. Sheetal stood directly in facing him with her gaze down. In the cramped space, his chest occasionally brushed against the soft curves of her body. His gaze drifted over her figure for a brief moment, openly checking her out.
’8/10.. not bad.’
Then he felt a gaze. It was Arya starting at him.
Not a glance. A stare. The specific kind that communicated clearly and without words that she had seen exactly what he was doing and had formed an opinion about it.
Rohit stepped back the half inch the space allowed and redirected his attention to the rising indicator above the doors.
Only then did Arya finally look away.
’Was that glare for me... or for her?’
The thought left him mildly puzzled.
Soon, the lift doors opened on the eighth floor.
The receptionist instantly stood up. "Welcome, ma’a—"
Arya cut her off coldly.
"Cancel the appointment. There won’t be any interview today."
The receptionist blinked in confusion. "But ma’am—"
Arya ignored her completely and walked straight inside.
Suvendu looked alarmed. "What’s the meaning of this?"
Rohit, however, paid him no attention and followed behind Sheetal instead.
"What happened? Why did she cancel it?"
Sheetal gave an awkward smile while continuing toward Arya’s cabin.
"Sir... you’ll understand if you just look around."
Rohit did exactly that.
Rows of cubicles filled the massive floor. Large gaming consoles and high-end systems displayed ongoing action games, animated combat sequences flashing across multiple screens.
But nobody was paying attention to the games.
Every single employee was staring at him.
Beautiful women filled almost every cubicle, many openly frozen mid-work as they looked toward him like he was some alien species that had wandered into the building. A few even had their jaws slightly open, as though Rohit had accidentally entered not a gaming company, but their private changing room.
And then it finally hit him.
There were no men.
Not one.
Rohit slowed his steps, scanning the entire floor again carefully just to make sure.
Still nothing.
No male employees.
He looked toward Sheetal.
"Since when?"
Sheetal stopped outside Arya’s cabin and replied softly, "You’re probably the first man to step on this floor in over a year, sir."
Rohit let out a low breath.
"So she really hates men that much," he muttered.
A dark little smile tugged at his lips.
’Good. As long as I’m the exception.’
***
After ten minutes, Arya called a quick meeting in her private conference room. All ten major team leads were present.
She introduced Rohit not as her brother, but simply as "someone who will be solving problems" and the only acknowledgment of their connection being their shared surname.
As the meeting progressed, Rohit studied the numbers carefully.
Fifty-seven games in total. Seventeen of them launched under Arya’s leadership. Most of the portfolio consisted of safe, legacy titles — puzzle games, strategy, simulations, and casual sports titles like chess and ludo.
Under her, the company had also pushed a few small 2D action games, like Escape the Snake and Shoot the Hanging Bird but nothing groundbreaking.
What stood out most was the glaring absence of Role-Playing Games.
No large-scale single-player RPGs. No ambitious multiplayer ones. The company’s biggest success remained Bahubali — a single turn-based strategy title that carried most of the load, resembling a slower, Indian version of Clash of Clans.
Even more surprising was that a huge chunk of their stable revenue still came from third-party testing contracts for bigger studios like Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, and Disney.
Rohit waited until the presentation settled before speaking.
"Why no RPG titles?" he asked. "We have one major game carrying the whole catalogue. I’d expect at least one or two more in that weight class. Role playing games especially."
Arya gave an irritated huff.
"You think server costs are cheap? RPGs don’t survive unless they’re multiplayer. Once players finish the missions, retention drops immediately."
Rohit casually raised a brow.
"Then rent the servers. There are plenty of outside services."
One of the team leaders, a woman with a pink hairband and a name tag reading Geeta, answered before Arya could.
"Arya ma’am doesn’t like relying on outside services. The company has its own dedicated servers."
That finally surprised Rohit.
"Seriously? You people own your own servers?"
Sheetal nodded.
"Yes. Fully maintained in-house. The left wing of the seventh floor is entirely dedicated to server infrastructure."
Arya leaned slightly forward.
"And that’s exactly why I brought you here. The model you proposed earlier... if you can review it properly, there are a few complications."
The room immediately fell silent.
Several team leaders exchanged shocked looks.
One woman with a notably fuller figure and an unusually sweet voice, Avantika, gasped openly.
"That model was suggested by him? But he’s so young..."
Rohit immediately raised both hands defensively.
"Wait... wait. Before anyone gets too impressed — what I built was Python-side. Algorithm and logic layer. If you need someone going into C or Java at the server level, that’s not me."
The lie came out smoothly.
Arya frowned instantly.
"What? You never mentioned that dependency before."
Rohit shrugged lazily.
"Big sis... don’t forget I’m only eighteen. I don’t know those languages properly. What I helped with was mainly process-related. If you have experts who can translate the logic into those systems, then maybe it can work."
Arya turned toward her team.
"Is there a translation path? Python logic to server-level implementation?"
One of the team leaders, a round-faced woman wearing long silver earrings, nodded thoughtfully. Her name tag read Vani.
"It’s not simple but it’s possible. Python is high level... the logic is readable, the translation is just labor. The right person could do it."
She paused. "It actually makes more sense now. When I first saw the model I couldn’t figure out how someone had built the whole thing independently. If it’s only the algorithmic layer that makes more sense."
Sheetal quietly leaned closer to Arya and whispered,
"You mentioned your brother had memory loss almost a week ago. Did he really learn all this in such limited time and still come up with that solution? His problem-solving skills must be insane."
Arya froze slightly.
Only now did she realize how absurd her own expectations had become.
She had completely forgotten about Rohit’s memory loss. Expecting him to independently manage an entire server-side infrastructure was unrealistic.
And yet...
Even with that limitation, the fact that he had learned enough code in handful of days.. and to suggest such a model was already impressive.
Arya slowly began chewing her nail while thinking.
Did this mean she would finally have to hire the dedicated server team she had been postponing for months?
After a long pause, she looked directly at Rohit.
"So if we bring in specialists for those languages... can you coordinate the architecture and settle the server issue?"
Rohit leaned comfortably against his chair.
"Absolutely. But first, I’ll need access to your servers so I can study the base model properly. Of course, I’ll still need guidance in areas I don’t fully understand, but wherever Python is involved, I should be able to manage things well enough."
Arya immediately looked toward her team.
"Can that be arranged?"
Vani’s expression shifted immediately. "Ma’am, the staging environment has all our major builds. Everything under active development and maintenance is deployed there."
Rohit pressed immediately.
"Hey, it’s staging, not production. What’s there to worry about? If something goes wrong, you can always roll back."
Several team members exchanged glances.
Arya, meanwhile, silently calculated the risks.
The model Rohit had proposed was genuinely more advanced than what they currently used. Even if she hired experienced developers later, his base architecture could still become the foundation for a much stronger system.
And honestly...
Getting free help from her own brother sounded significantly cheaper.
Finally, she turned toward Sheetal.
"Do it. Give him full access to the staging environment. I want it completed today."
Internally, Rohit felt satisfied.
This was exactly what he wanted.
Still, he didn’t want to appear too eager, so he deliberately complained instead.
"Hey... I’ll also need a separate cabin. I’m not working out in the open while everyone stares at me like I’m some zoo attraction."
A wave of giggles spread across the room.
Even Arya smirked slightly.
"Fine. We’ll arrange it."
Then she turned toward the rest of the team.
"Okay, everyone. I have a client meeting, so I’ll be unavailable for the next hour or two. In my absence, coordinate through Sheetal."
Rohit lazily raised one hand.
"And what about our party? You do remember we have plans tonight."
The atmosphere instantly changed.
Several women in the room raised their heads at once, curiosity practically visible on their faces.
Arya looked visibly annoyed that he had brought it up publicly and damaged her workaholic image.
"That’s a family outing," she clarified coldly. "And yes, we’ll leave together. Now focus on work."
With that, she walked out of the conference room.
The moment the door closed, a subtle sense of understanding spread through the team.
Apparently, many of them had already started imagining wild things regarding their lady boss and the man who called her big sis. Thanks to her reply it was clear, that this guy is her real brother.
And now that Arya was gone, every single gaze in the room shifted toward Rohit — the only man on the entire floor.
One girl finally stood up, gathering courage. "Sir... can we take a selfie with you?"
Sheetal smiled knowingly. "They just want proof that a man actually entered this floor."
Rohit leaned back in his chair with a lazy smirk. "Sure. Bring everyone who’s interested."
Within seconds, a small crowd gathered around him. Phones came out. Girls whispered and giggled while taking photos. A few even fixed their hair before stepping closer.
Among them, one girl wearing glasses slowly approached while carrying a small tiffin box. Rohit recognized her as the lead designer who had once proposed a MOBA-style game idea and gotten rejected for it.
She stopped beside him shyly. Her id card was flipped down.
"Sir... if you don’t mind."
Rohit looked down. Inside was pastry. He picked up a small piece and tasted it.
"Sweet," he commented casually. "What’s your name?"
The girl lowered her eyes slightly.
"It’s Shristi."
Rohit raised a brow with a faint smile.
"Cute. I’ll remember it."
Her ears visibly turned red.
That only encouraged the others further.
Soon, more girls started returning to their desks and bags, bringing snacks, chocolates, and small treats over to him.
"Hey, hey... one at a time," Rohit laughed. "No need to rush."
Surrounded by the unexpected warmth and attention, a light, giddy feeling settled in his chest. For the first time in a while, he felt truly relaxed.
’Looks like I’m going to have a lot of fun in this place.’