After I got back to my senses, I noticed the bck cube I saw inside the box was gone, and in its pce now there was now a small SD card. After that, I rushed home.

  I still haven’t touched the SD card. But it is eating at me. Sometimes, I think of putting it in my mobile phone, but I am poor as it is and can’t afford to lose my mobile. Then, I remembered that I had a tablet that I don’t use anymore. But that was somewhere I didn’t know.

  After finding the tablet, I put the SD card inside. Then the tablet, which was working fine, suddenly froze — the screen went dark. Now, in my mind, I am thankful that I didn’t put it inside my mobile, while also disappointed that that was just a device like the rubber ducky.

  Suddenly, text started to fsh like you see in a hacking movie. After some time, those texts changed to a progress bar, the heading saying “Accumuting Information”. I patiently waited for some time before realizing that the progress was taking a lot of time, so I went to sleep, putting the tablet on charge. Don’t want the task to be interrupted.

  After getting up in the morning, the first thing I did was check the tab. And after that, I was extremely surprised. My old tablet, which had a lot of cracks, was completely repaired like a completely new device. When I clicked the power button, it turned on with a completely new starting animation. I am certain that this is not from the company. The SD card has installed a completely new operating system into the tablet. (My initial thought)

  “CUI,” it said in glowing script — Cultivation User Interface. I felt a strange pressure in the air. This wasn’t just a boot logo. It felt… alive.

  After that, the text appeared, “Cultivation User Interface”.

  When the tablet finally started, there were many options, but one had a yellow dot next to it. I could feel it, as if it was asking me to press that.

  So I did. The option said Talismans and led to another screen, where a readme file popped up.

  “Talisman is the art of simple formations. A talisman is a paper with a rune engraved on it. In the presence of ENA, the rune activates and performs the expected task.

  To create a talisman, one needs a special kind of ink that is ENA sensitive. To create that ink, you should mix 50 grams of powdered ginger and 100 ml of honey. To make the ink more visible, one can add some ink to it. This makes it easier for new people.”

  Below the readme file, there was a folder called the newbie kit. There was a video called the ‘ENA Battery Talisman Creating Guide’.

  That video taught how to draw the runes on paper. Those runes were like complex geometric shapes, hard on sight but easy to draw with equipment. The video also taught the ENA accumution formation, which I am supposed to draw on paper and wrap the talismans in it. And to activate the formation, that video told me to take the tablet near the paper and tap the volume up button five times consecutively, which will emit a bit of ENA activating the formation, and leave the formation until the fade light that signifies the formation is active sts. The video also told me to stick one ENA battery talisman to the back of the tablet to go to the next step.

  After seeing all that, it made my belief waver, but not enough to stop. That morning, I went to the market and bought precisely 50 grams of ginger and 100 ml of honey. Then, I put the ginger into the dehydrator and powdered it. Then I took a gss and mixed the honey and powdered ginger. It gave a very light grey color. To make it more visible, I added some ink from my pen.

  Then, started my trial and error of making the talisman. I faced the first hurdle in the form of equipment. ‘How am I going to draw with an ink?’ After some brainstorming, I found just the thing I need: A fountain pen. So, went and borrowed one from my grandfather’s collection. The next hurdle was the precision. So, I used a pencil to first outline, then used the fountain pen to draw over it.

  Though I was skeptical of all this, but still made five of those talismans and the formation on a paper.

  When I was satisfied with the result. I took the paper and wrapped the five talismans. Then came the moment of truth, though I was almost convinced this was just some prank, but what happened next made me question reality itself.

  Author’s note:

  Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts — even a short comment helps me improve