Negative Integers

By Akshit Jagam

2022

School had just started. All the kids were happy to return to school after a lockdown of 2 years. AND THERE WAS was a young INTERESTING BOY Vedansh , WHO WAS EQUALLY EXCITED to resume school and meet all his wonderful friends and teachers !!!!

Vedansh was around 12 years old during that time .

Even though his mother was a math teacher ,he disliked this interesting subject…

Around at age of 9 ,Vedansh failed in Maths test ,as he wasn’t prepared for exam, and as per the consequences ,when he showed the results to his mother, he was being admonished by his mother , which followed with full control on usage of mobiles and all other electronic gadgets , which she found the reason for distraction and for such poor result .

Even though this wasn’t the main reason for him disliking math.

He always thought math was just a waste of time .

‘Present Day’

Vedansh came to school, walking through the main entrance alone. No friends to talk , all alone.

The class went to the cafeteria for breakfast.

He was sitting idol, when someone came to him.

“Hi, I see you’re sitting alone, why don’t you come sit with us ?”

Vedansh was surprised to see someone caring for him.

“Oh, well let me introduce myself , I am Neil” said Neil smiling.

Vedansh introduced himself “Hi I am Vedansh”.

He took his plate and followed Neil, He introduced Vedansh to his friends

“This is Shanawaz” Shanawaz looked like a handsome boy but at the same time dumb in studies.

“This is Aditya” He was short heighted and looked like a naughty boy.

“The younger sister of the head girl, Amrita”

“Hi” said a tall heighted girl with one long pony.

“By the way this is Yayati” said Neil

“And well this Swara” She well was a topper.

Vedansh said “Hi guys, I am Vedansh”

“ Tell me you didn’t forget me” said a boy .

“Oh! I am so sorry man , this is Akshit”

Vedansh looked towards Akshit to find out the Akshit was looking at him giving a mischievous smile .

“Hi, Vedansh” said Akshit while handshaking with him.

Vedansh sat on the chair ,kept his plate on the table and started eating. While the others kept talking with each other.

His first day of school went pretty well. He made good friends except for that weird boy Akshit , that’s what he kept thinking , that why was Akshit so weirdly looking at him .

Later days, weeks, months passed by .

Everything was going well , his friends were very good. Neil was one of his best friends.

One day

Vedansh came to school with Neil. While talking, Aditya joined them and said “Bro, the chapters which are coming to our tests, are just so hard. Integers is just so hard”

“Wait, which test?” asked Vedansh confused.

“The Math test, don’t tell me you didn’t come prepared Vedansh” said Neil

“Oh No, No, No, No, I didn’t come prepared” said Vedansh scared.

“Uh-oh”

The test began , and Vedansh couldn’t answer most of the questions.

After the test, neither didn’t he want to talk to anyone nor sit with anyone.

Later, when they all went to their homes . Vedansh didn’t tell anyone about the test in his family .

He quietly went to sleep.

1

0-1

-23

23:23

2-5=(80

Random Numbers and equations flashed in front of his eyes.

He opened his eyes just to find out that he was laying on the ground.

He stood up and looked around him, the world looked weird.

In fact, it looked animated. Vedansh walked around and saw banners. Banners showing random numbers, telling about weapons. The confused boy walked around the place. He saw a small town down the road. He walked there, but he didn’t know that someone was secretly spying on him.

He entered the town and was shocked to see……

‘Numbers’ walking around in the town.

“Oh 13! It’s you”

Vedansh turned around and asked him” I am sorry but have we met before?”

“Oh my god! You don’t remember your own brother? I am 12” said the number 12.

“Hey everyone! 13 is back”

All the numbers came rushing towards them.

Everyone had happiness on their faces after seeing number 13 ie .(Vedansh)

Everyone was asking questions. But Vedansh was confused himself.

Someone held Vedansh’s hands and pulled him.

The rush was confused, everyone searched for number 13(Vedansh)

On the other side

The number who pulled Vedansh, was number 14.

Vedansh acted like he knew 14 because he didn’t want create anymore rush.

“Hi! 14, how are you mate?”

“Stop acting like you know me, Vedansh” said 14

“Wait, how do you know my name!” asked Vedansh curiously.

“I am Neil” said 14.

“What?”

“Yes, I am Neil, your best friend” said 14( Neil )

“Neill! Finally , a human being” shouted Vedansh in excitement. ”But you are also not in the form of a human being, and why is everyone a number”

“Yeah, it’s because we are in a mathematical world” said Neil.

“What ?!!” Vedansh’s reaction had confusion and shock.

“Me and You are in a mathematical world”

Vedansh had his mouth like his jaw dropped on the floor after hearing the news.

“I need wa-wat-water, I can’t handle this news” said Vedansh.

“I can absolutely see that but just calm down” said Neil calmly.

“CALM DOWN!!!?” shouted Vedansh.

“You are telling me to CALM DOWN, in this situation!”

“You’re allergic to peanut right? So just imagine a world full of peanuts and you enter that world, that’s the same with me”

“I understand, but you aren’t allergic to math” said Neil trying calm Vedansh .

Vedansh in anger just punched himself on his head whispering to himself “Why am I with this dumb guys?”

“How can I escape this place?” asked Vedansh excitedly.

“The thing is no one has the answer to it” said Neil worried.

“ARE YOU KIDDDING MEEEE!” shouted Vedansh.

Suddenly the ground shivered. Vedansh(13) and Neil(14) walked out the cave they were in.

There was a huge crowd in front of the main entrance of the town.

“I would love if you all agreed the request alliance between the two types of integers” spoke a number while everyone was listening to him.

“Oh no” whispered Neil.

“We don’t want to form an alliance between the two types of integers” said Neil(14)

“Oh, hi 14, nice to see you again,” said the number.

Apparently, the number was 1 and had a minus beside it.

Vedansh(13) was confused to see it.

“We don’t need your alliance,” said Neil

The crowd turned towards 14(Neil) in anger.

“Look who is speaking, a number who didn’t even care to protect his town”

Neil’s face quickly turned sad; he went blank. It looked like he was thinking something, something very personal. He looked up, took something out of his pocket which looked like a plus symbol and threw it towards the number. The number bent down and dodged it.

“Attack !!!!” shouted the number.

The crowd panicked and started running away from the entrance.

Vedansh looked towards the entrance and was shocked to see a whole…

ARMY of numbers with – beside them.

One of them threw a minus symbol and it hit a number, the number fell on the ground and disappeared.

Vedansh was shocked to see it, the ‘negative’ numbers then started running towards the town and numbers.

“Follow me,” said Neil.

Vedansh also started running and followed Neil.

They both ran towards a small hut but the hut was made of metal.

Neil entered the hut and told Vedansh to come and hide in the hut.

He took out some symbols like Plus+ and Multiply while just looked at him thinking what these symbols were.

Because he never saw anyone using symbols as weapons.

Neil came out of the hut and fought with the ‘negative’ numbers.

He punched numbers with the plus symbol and threw the multiply and it worked like a boomerang, it went threw all the negative numbers and came back to Neil. Vedansh notice when either Neil punched the numbers with plus symbol or when the multiply sign went through the numbers, the numbers would first turn into 0 and then they would vanish.

Neil after defeating those numbers look in front and saw more numbers.

He told Vedansh to follow him. Vedansh agreed to him after seeing him fight like a monster.

They left the hut but someone threw a rock at Vedansh’s leg and he was not able to walk. He felt dizzy and fell on the ground unconscious and closed his eyes.

Vedansh opened his eyes and stood up with a jerk. As if he was dreaming and woke up.

“Vedansh, come on get ready for school” said his mom walking in his room.

‘It was a dream? No it can’t be I felt everything, the numbers surrounding and Neil or 14 grabbing my hand’ thought Vedansh.

“Yes mom, getting ready,” said Vedansh.

He stood up and fell on the ground, his legs were paining.

“Mom, my legs are paining” said Vedansh panicking.

His mom turned around and grabbed him and asked “Are you okay?”

“My legs, they are paining” said Vedansh scared.

He then quickly remembered that in his dream someone threw a rock at his legs.

But it can’t be real, it was just a dream, it might be some other reason

Vedansh tried to ignore the pain and went to school.

Vedansh came to his class just to find out that his Math teacher was showing the results.

He quietly sat down on his seat.

The teacher gave him his sheet and looked at him with disappointment.

Vedansh turned around and looked at his answer sheet.

The thing what he could only see was a big:

F

Vedansh was scared that if his mom would know about his result, well he would not have any friends.

He sat alone in the cafeteria. Neil and his friends joined him and told him that it was just a test, next time try to do better.

Later they had a free period in which they all sat down together and were talking about each other.

Vedansh told them about the dream, and that how he hurt his leg.

Everyone laughed after listening to the dream except for Neil.

He also laughed but it looked like he was hiding something.

After the period, in lunch. Neil called Vedansh to the washroom.

“What happened Neil? You called me to talk something important,” said Vedansh.

“Yeah, you dreamt about a math world, right?” asked Neil.

“Yes”

“Well uh, I don’t know how to say this but uh, the wo- the world” Neil was scared to continue further.

“The world what??” asked Vedansh.

“The world is real,” said Neil.

Vedansh stood there in complete shock.

“Everything you saw, you heard, you felt and were told was all real” said Neil

“Ever-everything I saw, I heard , I felt were all real?” asked Vedansh.

Later that day when Vedansh’s mother saw the test paper.

Vedansh was scolded badly, he was scolded and scolded and scolded continuously that night.

Vedansh laid on his bed and closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes and saw himself laying on a bed but the room was different .

He knew exactly where he was…

The Mathematical World

He saw 14(Neil) sitting beside him.

“Vedansh, you’re up, I wanted to explain you about this world” said Neil.

The Big Bang created many universes and dimensions.

One of them is the math dimension, in this world several years ago.

WHEN NUMBERS EVOLUTED AND BECAME SMARTER, THEY STARTED CREATED TOWNS AND CITIES.

MOSTLY THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS AND NUMBERS WAS SAME BUT, later the numbers started experimenting on different things and someone came up with inventions called

‘weapons’

He told everyone about the idea of weapons for safety, and everyone liked the idea of the weapons.

They started creating weapons like plus, multiply, minus, divide etc.

But one day a number used the weapons and killed a number.

The number was later punished for the sins he had done and later was sentenced for being a lab rat for the rest of his life.

The numbers started becoming smarter and more intelligent than their previous versions.

As the number was a lab rat one of their experiments

Went wrong and the number started transforming into something stronger than the normal numbers.

It formed a minus symbol beside him, the number attacked the other numbers and destroyed the city.

Everyone in that city was injured.

Soon the number started transforming other numbers like him.

He soon created his own army and started attacking other cities.

NO one could defeat him except for one warrior, he stood up and fought the number.

But they both weren’t seen after the gruesome battle.

“Who was the warrior” asked Vedansh.

“People say it was 0” said Neil proudly.

“And who was the bad number” asked Vedansh.

“No one knows him, people have a theory that it was 0 himself but, in the form of, bad version which was Negative”

The form of numbers which attacked the cities was Negative, people call them

‘The Negative integers’

And yes, they are the same type of numbers which attacked us yesterday

Vedansh stood up and asked Neil “How do the weapons work and what happened to the minus and divide symbol”

Plus, and multiply are used by positive numbers like us.

However, this world’s math is not 100% accurate math.

Plus: Increases the value of the number

Multiply: Is used as a boomerang and increases the value of the number

Minus and divide sign are used by the negative numbers like them

Minus: used as a sword and decreases the value of number to 0 creating it to die as no one can be 0

Divide: used as a bow and decreases the value of number.

There some additional symbols also

Like the Ratio

Ratio: used by Negative number

There was a knock on the door, 14(Neil) stood up and opened the door.

There were visitors, “Good morning 13, I hope you had a good sleep” said 24 (one of the visitors)

“Yes, after yesterday’s battle, you’d have been definitely tired” said 32

“Well, we have meeting today, at the town fountain” said 31.

“We’ll have a discussion on the battle which is coming”

“The battle between us and the negative” said 24.

“Okay”

The three of them left the room.

13 and 14 left the room. (Vedansh and Neil)

They both walked outside just to find out that the whole town was burnt down by the negatives.

The whole town was full of mourning, crying in front of the graves of their friends and family.

While Vedansh looked around, Neil went to the mayor of the town.

The mayor was 5, the oldest of the numbers is declared as the upcoming mayor.

“Why did the negatives leave our town and not destroy everything?” asked Neil.

“They do this to every town, so that first they do a surprise attack while asking for alliance and then when the town is full of sorrow, they attack the town and destroy it and if any survivor left they add them to their army” said 5 the mayor.

“But we know what’s coming right?” asked Neil.

“Yes, we do know and that is the reason I have held this meeting” said 5.

“To warn everyone”

Vedansh walked around the town and found out the temple in which they worshipped 0 because they believed 0 was their god and a great warrior, was destroyed.

“May our god be with us” said 43.

Vedansh walked around the town while wondering why did they completely destroy the temple maybe because they are destroyers.

Suddenly, the main town bell rang.

It was time for the meeting.

All the numbers gathered near the fountain.

“We have called this meeting to talk upon the attack of the negatives. Although we all have lost our loved ones, we will have to prepare for the next attack,” said the mayor.

The crowd starting talking amongst themselves, discussing upon the topic, some of them were shocked, some of them were scared and sad and some of them were angry and were ready for the battle.

“We don’t have any other choice but just to fight for ourselves against these creatures, only way to survive is to prepare and fight!” said Neil.

The crowd stood up and all shouted “ We will fight for our loved ones and town!!!!”

The mayor and Neil smiled together.

Later that night

When the town went for sleep, Vedansh and Neil discussed how they would wake up in real life.

That would be the only time for creating a strategy.

Vedansh closed his eyes just to find out that he would wake up in real life.

He opened his eyes and saw himself in a room, he stretched his arms wide and looked around the room, but neither did the room look like his real life room nor the mathematical world town’s room, then where was he?

“Good morning big guy” someone said.

Vedansh turned around and saw…

-1

The leader of the negatives sitting beside him on a chair.

Vedansh got shocked and fell from the bed and found out that he was still in the math world.

And the worst part was that the leader of the negatives : -1 , was sitting beside him that meant that he was in the town of the negatives.

“I hope you had a good sleep” said -1

“What do you need?” asked Vedansh.

“Your town”

“Why do you want to fight and destroy? Why not just become normal by taking the antidote,” said Vedansh.

“Antidote? Bruhm, let me guess you were told the story of experiment where a number’s experiment goes wrong right?” asked -1

“Yes, that is the story,” said Vedansh

Let me tell you the original one

There was family, they had twins, both the twins looked similar to each other except for one twin.

One of the twins had a minus sign beside him.

The number society saw the twins and because one of them was normal and the other was a little weird, they abandoned the number.

The society didn’t give importance to the number, even though the normal number didn’t have any value still they’d talk to him and give him some job.

The number which was having a minus sign, was always left alone. So one day that number left the town, he expected that someone would come running after him but no one came.

That day he realized that no one cared about him, he slowly found more people like him were there and he started gathering them and created him own army. He then started attacking on other towns and cities but his twin brother stood up against him and fought him.

Even though people thought that the normal warrior who fought our warrior was right. The truth is our warrior.

“Why do you think the negative warrior did the right thing?” asked Vedansh.

“He fought the people who discriminated us and other types of number” said -1.

That made sense because the numbers did actually discriminate them and discrimination is wrong.

“Well, enough story time let’s go to the jail, shall we?” said -1.

Vedansh stood up, -1 called more negative numbers and told them to take Vedansh and his friend Neil to the jail.

They handcuffed him and Neil.

“You lied to me” said Vedansh while walking.

“I didn’t lie anything,” said Neil

“Oh really? -1 told me everything, the real story how the positives discriminated them and now they’re taking revenge”

“Well, ok you got the real story but they aren’t doing the right thing are they, huh?” asked Neil.

‘Well, they did the right thing!” said Vedansh.

“Right Thing? Taking revenge is not the right thing is it, they could have just talked about it and try to solve the problem” said Neil.

“But even if they would talk about it nothing would be solved,” said Vedansh.

“The thing is Vedansh, revenge is not the only option, they could have just lived separately, didn’t Mahatma Gandhi give us Independence without violence” said Neil.

“You’re right,” said Vedansh.

“I know discrimination is wrong but they could have not fight for it”

They both were locked up in a prison.

On the other hand

In the town everyone was trying to figure out where 13 and 14 were.

“13 and 14, they are kidnapped by the negatives” said 37.

“How do you know” asked 5 the mayor.

“I found this letter in their room which says ‘we have your 13 and 14, well I hope you care for them unlike when you didn’t care when our god left your town and you didn’t care, come take your 13 and 14 and help us to enlarge our army, yours Negative Integers’

“We have to save them” said 5.

“I think this is the moment for us to take our revenge and save our friends 13 and 14, are you all ready!!!”

“Yes!!” shouted all the numbers.

The numbers prepared their weapons and left the town for their upcoming gruesome battle.

In the prison

“How do we get out of here” wondered Neil.

“There’s got to be some way how we can escape this prison”

“Who do you think the god of negatives is?” asked Vedansh.

“Are you serious, here I am trying to figure out a way to escape this prison and you are trying to figure out these guys’ god” said Neil.

On the other hand

The Positive numbers had entered the territory of the negatives.

5 the mayor took out a siren and said:

“Good evening, folks, I hope you all had your lunch and snacks because you aren’t going to sadly have your dinner”

All the negatives came out of their shelters, -1 walked out of the prison and saw the army of positives.

“Army, prepare for battle!!” ordered -1.

“Sorry but you aren’t getting time to prepare ATTACK!!!!” ordered 5.

The numbers threw torches with fire towards the house and ran to the town.

The houses started to burn, one of the torches landed on a tank which was filled with petrol causing a huge blast and setting everything on fire. -1 fell on the ground

The battle begun; everyone was fighting each other.

In the prison

“What was that noise?” asked Vedansh.

Vedansh and Neil looked out through the window. They were very happy to see the army of positive numbers there to save them.

23 sneaked into the prison and opened the cell in which Neil and Vedansh were.

“Thank you so much 23” said Vedansh and hugged him.

The three of them escaped the prison.

Neil saw how everyone was fighting.

“We need weapons to fight,” said Neil.

“Here you go” said 23 while giving them their symbols of plus and multiply.

Vedansh took a shield from the weapon room of the negatives.

Many numbers died in the war.

-1 woke up and stood up, he saw 5 was destroying the temple.

While 13(Vedansh) was fighting he saw this and looked at the temple, he saw a statue

-0

He was confused because 0 is neither positive nor negative.

But he could see how offended -1 got when 5 destroyed the temple.

-1 took a minus and ran towards 5 he jumped and shouted “Dieeeeeee!”

He stabbed 5 with minus “How dare you”

“You!” someone shouted.

-1 turned around and saw 13 (Vedansh)

“You brought your people here, right?” asked -1

“Yes, I did”

“And if you’re expecting me to stop them, then the answer is no!”

-1 gave him a mischievous smile.

“Great, well then pay for it” said -1 and started walking towards him.

“Well, I’m ready to pay for it”

Numbers like 23,53,17 came to fight -1 but failed.

-1 walked through the fire like it wasn’t burning him.

The number walked through the fire with a minus symbol in his hand.

“This is for killing numbers” said Vedansh and threw the multiply sign towards -1.

-1 stood still while the multiply symbol flew from just in front of his face, he grabbed the symbol and broke it into pieces.

“Now my turn” said -1 and punched 13.

He took out his minus sign and tried to stab Vedansh, that’s when Vedansh took out his shield and defended himself.

13 took out his plus sign and tried punch -1 with it but he moved his head and dodged the sign.

13 and -1 fought each other, at the end 13 stabbed -1 with the plus symbol, -1 fell on the ground.

“You…how did you defeat me?” asked -1 while he was suffering to breath.

“Skills” said 13.

-1 giggled.

“You could have chosen some other option instead of destruction and violence,” said Vedansh.

“You’re right” said -1.

Neil walked to Vedansh and said “You did it man, you did it”

“I guess this is the end,” said Neil.

Vedansh opened his eyes and woke up in his real-life room.

He walked to the balcony and saw him mother standing.

“Good morning mom,” said Vedansh.

“Good morning”

There was silence for a minute or so when,

“I am sorry Vedansh, for how I shouted on you yesterday, I shouted cause I was not able to find my real Vedansh. You get distracted with other stuff, have all the fun you want to have but when it comes to study just focus on studies because I know my is not dumb, focus on your studies”

“Yes, mom I will definitely focus from now,” said Vedansh.

The mother and son didn’t have a conversation like this for so long but this conversation made them understand each other and after that Vedansh became a topper in the class.

Well this is how the story ends but a mystery remains a mystery.

What was the story of 0?

Who was the god of negatives?

But let’s not get on this topic.

Let’s save the best for last.

By Akshit Jagam