"Dad, I want to ask you for a favor."

One day, Hugo came to speak to his father.

The year was 2072, and Hugo was now 20 years old. For the past five years he had been living a life of bliss. He had no responsibilities, and all he did was workout, eat, sleep, at create.

Multiple times throughout those 5 years, Hugo's parents went to him, concerned. They were worried that he had lost motivation or didn't know what to do. But he constantly assured them that he was fine and that he was working towards something. With these words, he pacified them and ensured himself a life where he could let his mind wander freely, void of any worries.

That was until he was 18. It was around August that he was sitting in his room. Around him were dozens of papers, all of which had drawings, diagrams, blueprints, poems, art pieces, and more. They were all his, and they were the products of his ever-wandering mind. There was one peculiarity to these pieces though. If one looked closely, one would see that nearly 80% of the papers had something to do with the brain on them.

Whether it was a diagram of the spinal cord, a drawing of the hippocampus, or a blueprint for a machine that could read brain impulses. They were almost all in relation to the brain.

This reflected his greatest interest. Ever since he had entered his first master's program, Hugo had always been interested in the functions of the brain. And during the five years where he could study and research anything that he wanted, he found that his interest in the brain only grew. So he learned about anything that would further his understanding of the brain, and with the digital resources at his fingertips, he was able to progress his knowledge by leaps and bounds.

Slowly, he started honing in on certain things. He found problems that he wanted to know the answer to. He wanted to run experiments and tests. He wanted to start projects. Projects that would allow him to research more.

But he knew that some projects could only be carried out with capital, and that was something he didn't have. Plus, the projects he had in mind were huge. So huge that it would take tens of millions to kickstart it. He wasn't sure that his father would be able to lend that kind of money.

So he dialed it back a little. He narrowed the projects, focused on the first steps, and figured out how to make it happen. If he was going to pitch a project, he needed to have the details fleshed out, he needed to have a clear direction, and he needed the project to be able to make money.

Luckily, he had just the thing. He wanted to make a mind reader!

The ability to read the signals of the mind was a cutting edge concept. The technology out there was merely prototypical. It had no real application other than to study how to improve the technology itself. Something like that couldn't be commercialized. But he knew how to make it better. He was confident in his vast library of knowledge, so confident that he started mapping out all the details.

He used everything at his disposal. He used his software engineering abilities from the artificial intelligence masters program to make applications that could model and run the computations he needed. He used his knowledge of the brain, chemistry, and nanomaterials to figure out how to tap into the signals of the brain. And finally, he used all the research compiled over the years by companies who studied or built the technology to skip over many of the mistakes they made.

Once Hugo got into developing the technology, he never came out. To do what he did made him feel like he was finally compiling everything he knew and designing something worthwhile. It was pushing his intellectual ability to its max, and he loved the feeling of creating value.

This went on for two years, and during those two years, he worked on his ideas nonstop. That was until he felt that he had developed everything as far as it could go, and the only way for him to progress would be to bring it into existence.

This led him to his 20th year, and it was why he was standing in front of his father, asking him for a favor.

After setting up and starting a private meeting, Hugo went on to explain his idea. He already had the entire pitch prepared.

It was for a device. A device that could read the brain, capture inputs, and produce outputs. Simply, it was a computer that was controlled by the brain. The brain scanner was a helmet, and this helmet would be able to simultaneously read brain signals and send information directly to the user by stimulating the brain.

It was an insane concept, one that, while never having not been thought of before, had never actually been properly designed and conceptualized in a way that could be brought to life.

Hugo's father couldn't understand any of the science or engineering behind it, but he trusted his son's intellectual ability enough to know that this wasn't just a whimsical proposal. However, the thing he hesitated on was the cost. Hugo had obviously been able to calculate it, and just for the initial development and tests, the project would cost nearly 2 million dollars. And this was with Hugo doing everything by himself, no assistants or employees.

While Hugo's father could afford the cost, 2 million wasn't small for him. But he decided that, while there would be risk, it was also a chance. It was a chance for Hugo to display his smarts and ability. Maybe with this, he could either get investors or, should the project fail, he could put it on his resume and it could help him get a good job.

So the father gave the okay. He gave Hugo his business credit card which could be used to pay for those things that cost tens of thousands. Not only that, but he rented out a warehouse that could be used for Hugo's project.

With that, Hugo excitedly got to work. He first bought all the necessary machines he would need, and then he started placing orders on things that could only be manufactured by certain companies. Anything that would take a long time to get to him, he made sure to put in for first.

Like this, 6 months pass and Hugo is hard at work. His warehouse was transformed into a technological haven full of expensive items. And it was all centered around a single helmet. The helmet was able to perfectly fit any human head. But it could also fit any monkey head.

This is what was important. Hugo couldn't run his initial tests on people. The brain was an unbelievably delicate thing, and if he accidentally killed someone, things would take a turn for the worst. So he first planned to run tests on monkeys which he bought.

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Unfoutnately, the firsts tests didn't end well. At first he only bought one monkey, but after doing a series of several tests, he noticed that the monkey slowly started going stupid. After a week, the monkey had been turned mentally retarded. This was very surprising and very concerning. He wasn't concerned about the monkey, but the fact that things weren't going as planned. So he got back to brainstorming the issues.

Fast forward three years. By the time Hugo was 23, tens of thousands of tests had been run. Many monkeys had been hurt, but in return, Hugo had made huge strides in his work. In fact by this time, most of his tests were successful. The monkeys could interact with the programs he made almost perfectly, which meant he was displaying what was needed to be displayed and their intents were being picked up on with super high accuracy.

Such a huge advancement and success had never been seen before, and it was all done with a single helmet and an army of computers. Hugo had long since developed an AI whose very purpose was to work alongside the programs he built, correcting errors and ensuring the safety of the monkeys. If he didn't have that AI, this process would've taken many more years of hard work as well as a whole team of people.

But it didn't. Hugo was able to develop everything by himself. And now, he was finally confident with testing this on humans.

For this, Hugo didn't go through any official channels. Getting this technology safety certified wouldn't happen as quickly as he wanted, and he didn't want to wait a long time before getting trials underway. So he used an underhanded route. An illegal route. But it was a quick route. He hired people off the street.

The lure of money could get people to do many things, one of which included doing sketchy tests involving your brain. But for these people with no hope to be super smart and barely any money to get by, participating in a cool scientific experiment for 1500 dollars seemed worth it.

Like this, Hugo was able to quickly get human trials underway. And while there were some issues that caused migraines or hallucinatory effects, he was glad to see that nothing too drastic happened that couldn't be quickly fixed.

Everything involving these people were, of course, kept hidden from his parents. Nobody would condone this type of testing, let alone his family. But it was easy to evade their eyes. They never came by his warehouse anyway.

Fast forward 2 years. Hugo is 25, and in his warehouse was a stranger who had been a frequent guest in his trials. He was sitting in the testing chair, and in his vision was an interface. The interface was an entire operating system, and with it you could do anything a normal operating system would do including surf the web, run programs, even play games.

After nearly 8 hours of doing tests, the subject took off the helmet and looked at Hugo. On Hugo's face was a wide smile as he stared at one of the many screens in front of him.

"It works."

He had done it. Hugo had created an operating system that ran off the input from the brain. It was mainly an augmented reality system, but he even had a virtual reality program. Either way, he had built a device and created software that would bring massive changes to the world.

Even the person in the chair could tell that this man and this technology was extraordinary. It was why he kept coming back despite the risk and occasional headache. In fact, after a bit of searching, he found out that the man was Hugo, the child prodigy who had disappeared 10 years before.

After that day, Hugo proceeded to do even more tests. He brought in more people, ran more programs, pushed the limits of the technology. He created more helmets, some the same, but some different. He tried different designs, schematics, all with the technology that he knew worked. It was this innovation that was necessary to try and bring a product like this to market.

Hugo knew that even one of his helmets would be very expensive, something normal people couldn't buy. If he wanted to maintain independence from huge companies that might try to take his technology, he needed to be able to make his own money.

So he continued working. For 2 more years he continued to experiment with the material design of the helmet, constantly finding ways to bring its costs down. Not only that, but he was designing machines that would be able to mass-produce the pieces of his helmet. He wanted to design and map out a system that would take care of all the production processes from start to finish.

And after those two years, when he was 27 years old, he finally managed to design his way to a sub-2000 dollar cost. However, the money needed to reach that point wasn't small, and he had already overdrawn on the promised 2 million offered by his father. By this point though, he wasn't worried about that. If things went the way he thought they would, he would soon be making more money than his dad.

Unfortunately, before he could make money he would have to spend it, and to get his company off the ground, he was going to need another sizeable sum. For this, he pitched the product to his father, something that took a lot of convincing as his father was very hesitant to use the device. But when he finally did, he was shocked. He was also incomparably excited.

He could see the potential. It wasn't hard to. Even people off the street could. That's how amazing it was. A helmet like this would turn dozens of industries upside down. It would revolutionize the entertainment industry, and if Hugo could keep the secret behind the tech under wraps, nobody would be able to come in and compete with him.

Hugo had also thought of this of course. He was very possessive over his tech and already had many safeguards. Some included wiping the software should the helmet be tampered with. There were key mechanical components that had never been built before, and only he knew how to build them and utilize them properly. Dozens of different things would be able to keep the secret... well secret.

So knowing this and trusting his son's ability, Hugo's father actually took it upon himself to help kickstart the business. Hugo wasn't deep in the business world like he was, and he was confident that he could utilize many connections and pull millions from investors. In fact, he couldn't see how this could go wrong in any way.

And he was right in all his assumptions. After only 6 months, Hugo's father had made deals with several people who held considerable influence. In fact, through them, Hugo's tech was able to get patented and the helmets were able to pass safety trials. Nobody even asked about how Hugo was able to do the things he did. This was partly because the tech was so great, but also because they had heard about the boy genius from a dozen years ago. The fact that he was coming back into the world with such a world toppling piece of equipment actually excited them more than anything. They all wanted a piece of the pie, and nobody wanted to get in the way.

Everyone who was let in on the details knew that this kid, once he got out there with his tech, couldn't be stopped. He would rise to become a force on the level of the biggest companies in the world. The potential to become a billionaire wasn't impossible should he play his cards right.

From then on, Hugo and his father were constantly working out the business details. With all the preparations Hugo had done, his father was able to have an extremely easy time planning out the manufacturing, employees, distribution, and more. However, there was one small problem they encountered.

Hugo's tech could be used for many things, that much was obvious, but it wasn't anything like a phone. This was a helmet that would have to be hooked up to a computer. In a sense, it was a PC accessory. So if people wanted to get utility out of it, they would need something to do on it. But not just anything. Something very specific. Something unique to this piece of hardware. Only when they had an exclusive use could they ensure absolute independence from any companies that may want to try and take advantage of him.

When he thought about this, Hugo suddenly had a spark of inspiration. He hadn't really thought this far ahead. He had only been trying to get the stuff to work. But now, he needed more than just an operating system. He needed a never before seen program.

Despite this problem though, neither Hugo nor his dad decided to halt their plans. Doing so would require Hugo to spend lots of time developing yet another program for the helmet. While it wouldn't take a lot of money, it would take a lot of time, and they didn't want to wait. They wanted to start making money which would allow them to expand operations. And they did just that.