Muthukrishnan Iyer sat on the worn iron bench just a few meters away from the IITH Tower, eyes fixed on the horizon, but his mind a thousand miles ahead. The Tower behind him, built from rugged red brick and angular steel, cast a long morning shadow. Its base was engraved with the words: Inventing and Innovating for Humanity.
That motto had always sounded ambitious—idealistic, even. But now it felt like a promise. A challenge.
The Futureverse System had been quiet since the blueprint appeared in his vision the night before. No more glowing overlays or whispered prompts. Just that one groundbreaking schematic: Gen I Nanomaterial Synthesis.
Muthu's fingers tapped lightly on the side of his laptop. His screen glowed with code, simulations, and rough sketches, but for now, his mind was elsewhere—still trying to process what had changed in the past twenty-four hours. Or more accurately, what had awakened.
He wasn't hallucinating. He was sure of that now. The way the System had responded to his thoughts, how the blueprint aligned perfectly with theoretical gaps he'd been struggling with for months—it was real. It had to be.
A voice cut through the silence.
"Muthu! I swear you live on this bench now."
He turned to see Megha, one of the few people on campus who could catch him off guard. She had a tangle of earphones in one hand and a stainless steel coffee tumbler in the other.
"Didn't see you at breakfast again. You okay?"
"Yeah," Muthu replied with a half-smile. "Just... had a breakthrough."
She sat beside him, eyebrows raised. "Breakthrough? Like your supercapacitor project? Or the quantum-dot thing?"
"Bigger."
"You always say that," she teased. "Until you vanish into a lab for a week and emerge with bloodshot eyes and a fried circuit board."
Muthu grinned. She wasn't wrong.
"This time's different, Megha."
She studied him. "You look different. Exhausted, yeah—but also... intense."
He said nothing. What could he say? That an AI system from some unknown source had embedded itself in his brain and given him access to blueprints years ahead of existing technology?
Not yet.
That afternoon, Muthu walked into the Materials Science and Engineering Lab, badge in hand. The scanner beeped green. He sighed in relief. His access still worked. Being a final-year B.Tech student with a research project under an open lab allocation gave him some leeway.
Inside, the lab was quiet—just the hum of equipment, filtered light through frosted windows, and the faint whirr of air conditioning. It was his sanctuary.
The project he'd been building for the last two nights was no ordinary experiment. It was a DIY plasma-based nanomaterial synthesizer, hacked together using spare 3D printer parts, some scavenged microwave components, and tools borrowed from multiple departments.
The System blueprint had guided every detail. It even corrected his equations in real time.
He initialized the sequence.
Gas flowed. Electrodes buzzed. A tiny blue-white spark erupted in the chamber.
For a terrifying moment, he thought it might explode.
Then—stability.
A thin black sheet began forming on the substrate layer.
Flexible, jet black, gleaming faintly in the lab lights.
Muthu lifted it with tweezers once it cooled. He connected it to the analyzer.
Carbon lattice density: 89%
Electrical Conductivity: 1200 S/cm
Tensile Strength: 85 MPa
Better than anything he'd ever seen in class or in research papers.
SYSTEM NOTICE:Synthesis SuccessfulInsight Gained: Modular Application Potential UnlockedSystem Stability: +5%
His heart pounded.
By night, Muthu was back in his room. His roommates were out prepping for campus placements. He'd quietly opted out. His mind was no longer on a conventional job.
On his desk were sketches for SuryaCell—a low-cost, high-density energy storage unit using the Gen I material. Printable. Flexible. Scalable.
In his old notebook—the analog one he trusted most—he began listing every component he would need to prototype it.
His budget? Practically zero.
The lab gave him access, yes, but supplies had limits.
That night, he made a decision.
He would create a shell startup.
Something small. Invisible, for now. Just enough to stake claim and slowly bring in resources. He spent the entire night setting up Vyaana Innovations, an entity registered under a friend's name with minimal documentation. He uploaded a provisional abstract of SuryaCell onto an open-source innovation platform under a pseudonym.
SYSTEM RESPONSE:Milestone Achieved: Independent Innovation Pathway InitiatedUnlock: Clean Energy Tech Module — Thermovoltaic Converter Series
Muthu's eyes widened as the next blueprint unfolded like a flower across his vision.
Setbacks followed.
His second synthesis attempt overloaded the lab socket.
The circuit board melted. A capacitor exploded.
No one was injured, but it cost him three nights of work.
He sat on the floor beside the burned board, head in his hands.
"Am I even ready for this?" he muttered.
SYSTEM PROMPT:Confidence Deviation Detected. Realigning Protocol. Recommendation: Controlled Iteration Testing.
He forced himself to his feet. Cleaned up. Repaired. Learned.
By week's end, his second prototype was functional.
In the mess, things were changing.
People noticed his absences, his exhaustion.
Ravi from Mechanical joked, "Oi Muthu, you starting a company or going into hibernation?"
Sameer added, "Word is he's building a death ray."
Even Priya chimed in, mock-serious: "Just remember us when you're famous."
Muthu played along, but the fire inside was real.
The only one who seemed genuinely concerned was Megha.
She waited for him one evening outside the lab.
"You're obsessed," she said.
"You sound like my mom."
"I'm serious. You can't do everything alone."
"I'm not. Not really."
She crossed her arms. "You trust me, don't you?"
He looked at her. "Yes. But what I'm doing… it's too early to share."
She didn't argue. Just sat beside him, like she always did, near the IITH Tower.
Soon, Muthu had his pitch deck—clean, basic, no jargon. Just one slide on the problem, one on the solution, and one on the vision.
He emailed it to three independent investors he found online.
Two didn't respond.
The third? A Zoom call was scheduled.
Aparna Rao, a sharp-eyed investor in her thirties, stared at him through the screen.
"You're young."
"And determined."
"What's your background?"
"B.Tech, IITH. Materials. Electrical focus. But this isn't about degrees. It's about what I've built."
"Which is?"
"A printable, flexible energy storage device that costs one-tenth of conventional lithium cells."
She leaned in.
"Why hasn't anyone else done it?"
"Because they're still solving equations. I've solved the manufacturing."
"What do you want?"
"An NDA. Then, ₹2 lakhs for initial fabrication and testing."
Aparna paused.
"You've got guts, Muthu. I'll think about it."
Not a yes. But not a no either.
Back near the IITH Tower, Muthu sat again on that bench, sipping chai from a paper cup.
His eyes were bloodshot, but his mind buzzed with blueprints, plans, and dreams.
Megha appeared quietly beside him.
"Still at it?" she asked.
"Always," he said.
"Well, I did some digging. You know the startup incubator at T-Hub? They have a pre-seed grant. Might be worth applying."
"You'd help with that?"
"Only if you admit you need help."
He smiled.
"I need help."
They both laughed.
As the evening sky turned amber, Muthu looked at the tower once more.
From a quiet student bench at IITH, the future was taking root.
Not in some distant land.
But here.
In India.
By his hands.
And the System?
It pulsed again in his vision.
Waiting.
Ready for the next leap.