I was walking to the campus in the morning to attend my first lecture. It was a lovely day as spring had come. The greenery was soothing. The wind blew through the leaves creating a low whistle, the branches moved as if they were relaxing on some silent music.

I entered the building. It was quite lively in the morning. Students were all going to their respective classes. I could see some, probably first-year students like me, looking around in confusion. The sensation of coming to a new place and a new start was always the same. I quickly found my classroom. There were already many students that had come early. I looked around for an empty seat and found one in the middle row. I put down my bag and sat there, looking around at the room and the new faces.

“The new journey beings!” I thought to myself excitedly.

The class started after some time. An elderly professor came in, and everybody stood up and greeted him.

“Good morning everybody!” The professor put his book on the table and walked towards us. “Welcome to this college. As you all know the start of a new life, especially a college life is very exciting and I can understand that, you should enjoy it to your fullest but should not forget your objective…” We sat down as he started to tell us all about college life and what we should do and don’t. Even at his age he was cheerful and cracked a few jokes.

“Now that we are finished with some basic introduction let's start with our course. Programming basics.” He wrote the heading on the board. He then went on to explain the basics to us. It was very nice to hear the cheerful voice and learn from it. I picked up my pen and opened my book to write some notes, but then my attention went to something. When I looked down at my desk, I saw a faint light coming from below.

“Did someone’s smartphone drop?” I thought and looked below my desk.

But what I saw perplexed and shocked me at the same time! There was a weird orange luminous circle with some patterns under my feet. I was left open-mouthed.

“What is this? Some prank? Or am I just crazy?” I thought. Then I snapped back, blinking my eyes, I was too focused on the circle.

“Excuse me, professor,” I said in a polite voice.

The professor turned to me. “Yes, what is it you want to ask?”

“I am sorry but there is-” Before I can say anything a bright light engulfed me. I quickly closed my eyes and put my hands in front of them.

“What was that?” I thought. Slowly I felt that the strong light had gone away. I opened my eyes. The previous white tone had suddenly changed to orange.

What I saw confused me even more I was standing in a weird chamber lighted by fire torches. Around me, I could see some other people confused like me.

“What is this?” said a female voice.

“Where am I? Who are you?” said a male voice.

“What is happening? Is this some kind of prank? A reality show?” I thought. “I need to keep my calm. Making rash decisions isn’t right.” Then I saw some people in front of us. They were wearing traditional clothes. “What is this a drama?” I thought. The people were wearing a dhotar, chest plates and pagadi on their heads. They were holding spears in their hands. “It looks as if we were thrown into the era of the Maratha Empire.” My eyes went to the people behind them, two people dressed elegantly they seemed like king and queen, and another person beside them dressed normally. Everyone was wearing traditional attire.

“Calm down.” The person beside the two said. “We know you all are confused. So I will explain in detail what has happened and what we have called you for. All of you please stand up.”

All of us stood up. Everyone was suspicious of these people. I then noticed some strange people wearing black clothes surrounding us. I gulped. “Is this some cult?” I thought.

“Don’t tell me we have been summoned to another world just like it happens in comics!” came an excited voice from one of us. She was a girl almost my height, she seemed quite excited for all this, unlike the rest of us.

“I don’t know what is this ‘comic’ you are talking about, but yes you all have been summoned here through a ritual from your world.”

“And why is that?” I asked keeping my calm. There were two possibilities either this is some social experiment or this is real. So I needed to go with the flow and figure things out.

“Truth is our Kingdom of Purva is in conflict with the Kingdom of Uttara, our neighbouring kingdom. Full war has not been declared but it can be anytime. That is why we used a ritual to summon all eight of you, since you have travelled across worlds you must have gained some supernatural abilities, as per what we have been told.”

“Supernatural abilities?” All of us looked at each other.

Suddenly sometime appeared in front of my eyes. A blue floating screen? No… a hologram… I thought I was hallucinating again.

“Hey, can anyone see this in front of their eyes?” Someone said. So I was not the only one?

“Yes… I am able to.” Another replied. Apparently, each of us saw a hologram individually and others were not able to see yours.

The hologram had some text on it. “Welcome to this world!” Wow is this some kind of assistant AI? “This system will help you in your progress through your missions and quests in this world. For now open ‘Status window’”

“Status window?” I thought in my head and to my surprise another hologram appeared.

Name: Jatin

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Job: Spy

Stats: HP: 100,  STR:8,  DEF:5,  MP:3,  SPD:7,  INT:10

Primary Skills: Deception

Secondary Skills: -

“Is this some video game?” One of us said. Yeah, I also thought like that.

“I got a Healer job!” The girl that was excited at first said, her voice sounding cheerful.

“Job h, what was mine again.” I looked at my status window and was surprised. Now I have noticed the letters in front of my job. ‘Spy’. “What is this…”

The text in the hologram changed again. “Dear hero you have been assigned the [Spy] job. The Purva kingdom decided to summon eight heroes to save their kingdom, but unbeknownst to everyone Uttara kingdom had secretly messed with the ritual so that they can summon a spy who will work for them. Your job is to without letting anyone know your identity help Uttara conquer Purva. Good Luck!”

Hhhhhh??

Another Hologram appeared.

“New quest: Mix in with all other people without letting them know your job.

On completion: Random [Skill] will be given.

On failure: Death”

I am fucked.