Muthukrishnan Iyer sat on the grass near the IITH Tower, the setting sun casting a warm golden glow across the IIT Hyderabad campus. Around him, the grey buildings stood tall and sharp against the dusky sky, their minimalist, modern design glowing softly in the fading light. The Tower—made of brick and steel—rose solemnly behind him, bearing the engraved words: "Inventing and Innovating for Humanity." His friends lounged nearby, sipping cold drinks, lost in conversations about life after graduation. But Muthu's mind was elsewhere—quiet, intense, filled with questions only the future could answer.
"Ravi, you always knew you'd go abroad," Megha said, kicking off her sandals as she sat cross-legged. "What's it feel like? Finally getting out of here?"
Ravi pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Honestly? A relief. I've spent the last four years prepping for that fintech job in Singapore. Clean offices, intelligent colleagues, big salary—what more could I ask for?"
"Spoken like a true capitalist," Sameer said, chuckling. His voice carried that same easy charm that had made him the unofficial class rep since second year. "I'm going back to Ahmedabad. Dad's handing me more responsibility at the logistics company. It's time."
"Sameer bhai, you were born in a spreadsheet," Priya said, laughing. "I'm jumping into a start-up in Bangalore. Healthtech. We're building wearable monitors that run diagnostics in real-time. No guarantee we'll survive a year, but I want to be in the trenches."
"And you, Megha?" Muthu finally asked, pulling himself back to the conversation.
"Cracked IIM-B. Going to specialize in public policy and sustainability. I want to work on rural tech eventually, but I figured... maybe I need to learn the rules before I break them."
Everyone looked at Muthukrishnan.
He hated this part.
"And you, genius?" Ravi grinned. "Any company lucky enough to get you?"
Muthu shrugged. "Didn't sit for placements."
A pause. Even after four years, this part of Muthukrishnan's personality puzzled his friends. Brilliant, driven, obsessed with new technologies—but uninterested in job security or corporate ladders.
"You planning on freelancing?" Sameer asked.
"Something like that," Krish said, vague on purpose. In truth, he didn't know.
He didn't know what path to take, only that nothing conventional called to him.
Muthukrishnan had always been different—not in a showy way, but in how he saw the world. Growing up in a small town in Tamil Nadu, his father had worked as a schoolteacher, and so had his mother. He had grown up reading newspapers every morning, discussing policy decisions, watching headlines about foreign firms, tech monopolies, and India's constant struggle for technological independence.
He remembered the stories his grandfather used to tell—about India's fight for sovereignty, about building a self-reliant nation with its own hands.
It left a mark.
A deep one.
As the group dispersed later that evening, promising to meet again at the farewell party, Muthukrishnan walked alone back to his hostel. The air was cool and dry, the stars already visible in the clear sky. Inside his room, he dumped his backpack by the desk and slumped onto his chair.
His eyes drifted toward the stack of notebooks filled with his own tech designs—crazy ideas about scalable solar nanogrids, modular AI-driven manufacturing units, and one peculiar concept he'd been tinkering with for months: quantum-integrated microcontrollers for hyper-efficient computation.
Everyone thought he was wasting time. He had no funding, no lab, no backing. Just vision. And vision didn't pay rent.
He reached to switch on his lamp.
The bulb flickered, then died.
But something else blinked to life.
Not on the desk.
In his vision.
[SYSTEM BOOTING…]
He stumbled backward, falling off his chair.
[USER DETECTED: MUTHUKRISHNAN IYER][WELCOME TO THE FUTUREVERSE SYSTEM][MODE: PASSIVE INTEGRATION][NO OBJECTIVES PROVIDED]This system is tied to your research and personal innovation. Advancements will unlock new technologies, knowledge modules, and enhanced capabilities. Develop freely. Progress depends on your curiosity.
Muthukrishnan stared, wide-eyed.
A holographic interface hovered before him. Not through a screen. Not through goggles. In his actual vision. As if reality had been layered with augmented overlays.
He reached out instinctively, and to his amazement, the interface responded.
The screen shifted, showing a small icon:
[Unlocked Tech – Nanomaterial Synthesis Blueprint: Gen I]
With a mere thought, he opened the file.
A surge of information coursed through his mind—schematics, molecular diagrams, material properties, applications.
He gasped.
This... this was beyond anything in the public domain.
It wasn't alien tech, per se. But it was as if someone had skipped five generations ahead and distilled the essence for immediate use.
Then came another notification:
[Research Progression Enabled]Further knowledge in material science will enhance the blueprint and unlock Gen II.Note: Ethical usage monitored. System is neutral. You shape its purpose.
For a long moment, Muthukrishnan sat frozen. Heart pounding.
Was this a dream?
Was he hallucinating?
But every test he ran—basic physics, interface responsiveness, data analysis—confirmed the same conclusion.
It was real.
And it was his.
The next morning, Muthukrishnan skipped breakfast and locked himself in his room. He went through the blueprint again, now cross-referencing it with publicly available academic papers. The system didn't give him finished products. It gave him the foundation, and he had to build on it.
By evening, he was sketching a prototype—a small, lab-ready chamber for the synthesis of carbon-based nanomaterials using a novel ion-plasma process. He simulated it using the open-source software on his laptop, feeding in parameters the system confirmed but never directly revealed.
It was like having a professor in his head—one that only rewarded learning, not memorization.
By nightfall, he had his first breakthrough.
A compound structure with unprecedented strength-to-weight ratio and electrical conductivity.
Exactly what his modular microcontroller design had needed.
Muthukrishnan looked out of his window, toward the IITH Tower, now dimly lit in the night.
He wasn't thinking about wealth.
Not fame.
His mind was burning with a different kind of purpose.
India had always lagged in the global tech race—not because of lack of talent, but because of systemic barriers, foreign monopolies, and an over-dependence on imported knowledge.
Muthukrishnan Iyer had just been handed a key.
Not to escape.
But to build.
To empower.
To reclaim.
He clenched his fist.
Whatever this system was, he would use it. He would dive deeper into every field it offered—electronics, quantum computing, materials, energy, biotech.
He would build a company. Not one focused on profit, but on sovereignty.
He would counter the foreign giants who'd grown fat on Indian markets while keeping the nation dependent on their technologies.
This wasn't just personal.
It was national.
And the world didn't know it yet—but a war was coming.
Not of guns and missiles.
But of innovation, influence, and control.
Muthukrishnan Iyer had just taken his first step.
And India would never be the same again.