Chapter 0: Prolouge

Now, one and all, who have taken the time out of their busy schedule to read this, I want you to properly think about the next question I am going to ask you.

'What are you in the pecking order of your ecosystem?'

Did not understand?

Let me elaborate.

We all have a place somewhere, which although cannot be called our home, we go on a regular basis. For the students, it's their school, cram school, college, university, or something similar. For the adults, it is their office or the place where they work at. Even for those who are gamers, let's say your 'environment' is the world of your game.

Now, our home is our habitat. As you know, in a habitat with only your family members or maybe friends, it's easy to come out on top of the order here which, thinking about logistically, makes most of us winners, right? There's this advantage of ours in this habitat that it's not a world of devouring each other, rather, for most, it would be a matter of peaceful co-existence and no discrimination. People would support you if you fall down in life or make a grave mistake or maybe even wish to die. This whole ecosystem functions on the policy of 'forgive and forget.'

It is rare, but there's a variant of the same habitat mentioned above. Here, there's a thin sheet of glass preventing the black mass of devouring instincts, expectations, and pressure from mixing into the white mass which is the tranquil daily life of the person. This glass sheet represents achievements. From time to time, expectations are allowed to leak out and mingle with the tranquil life. It is allowed, mind you. Here, effort means nothing. You are good till you achieve enough to sate the thirst of the small mass of expectations and you may even be praised or given gifts. Basically, you are at the top until then. But the moment you achieve something, which is even slightly below the expectations and the black mass remains mixed in the white one, somehow, the glass sheet starts to loosen. Now, expectations start leaking out more, and even if perform the same as before, their thirst is not sated. And this results in their period of downfall. They get forcefully dragged down from the top and it continues till you reach the bottom. Nobody wants anything to do anymore and your existence has no value to anyone. Why does it happen, you ask? Nobody knows. It's like a world law, which functions normally.

These two habitats are two sides of the same coin. Many people even hate the idea of these habitats. It's because of the factor of 'luck'. In fact, everything that I spoke of till now, and in the things, I will speak is because of luck.

What is luck, you may wonder. Many people believe luck is something that is not in our control and is all left to fate. And they may be right. No, most probably, they are right. But I view luck differently. Suppose, you are walking down a road and you see a tree ahead. You pay it no mind and continue walking. But as you pass the tree, a bird defecates on top of your head. You look down and see many droppings already on the ground. Most people would call it bad luck. Is it really true though? If you had noticed the droppings under the tree, maybe you would have taken a path around the tree. That, my friend, would you still call it good 'luck' or is it not 'luck' at all? I will leave that to your own understanding.

Now, there's another place which I mentioned before, which some people would like to refer to as a second habitat which is the place you go to regularly but isn't your home. Here, everything about your home standing is nulled and it's like you start a new life the moment you step inside. The standings here are probably the most important thing in the world. I would say, it takes about three days until a hierarchy is established and about a week until you come to know of it. Here, the top spot is determined by many things. You don't just get a position like your home. There's your looks, connections, grades, physical capabilities, diligence, and many more. And the ones at the top here get privileges like no other. For example, in an educational institute, if you are at the top, you may be allowed to score points with the teacher and get extra marks, and the ones at the bottom may have their grades purposefully brought down out of scorn. In an office, if you are at the top, you may get invited out to drinking parties with your boss and have many chances to curry the favor of the boss and get the chance to be promoted real soon and at the same time, if you are at the bottom, you may have to work overtime and still get demoted. I could give more examples, but you get the gist of it by now, don't you? Everything in this system is determined by ranks in this vicious pecking order.

Now, I believe I have explained enough.

Let me ask you again, 'What are you in the pecking order of your ecosystem?

All these things I told you, you might be wondering if this, in any way, is related to my story. The answer is yes and no. The concept of ranks is definitely applied but not fully and not all of the time.