Prologue

The professor opened his eyes as the welding process finally reached its end and his eyes widen insight into the outcome. For years, Dr Nickilopus Van Hugh has been in a crisis to create something mind-blowing. With the assist of his assistant; Henry Johannes Grant, the fifty-year-old scientist had created his year-decade-long project, 'The Mind Speller'!'

It was just a normal-looking helmet, made of beautifully waxed aluminium and high-quality metals mixed into its core to envelop its motherboard. The nucleus of it all, a programmed motherboard set to display a person's thoughts into something solid for a specific period. The usage length is based on its users' capability to imagine and the perplexity is all based on its users' brain cells that could manipulate into an image in their mind.

Dr Nickilopus gingerly held the device as carefully as a newborn child. His assistant sat beside him, watching in awe as he slowly enveloped his messy grey hair and his fingers proceeded to press its vacation button.

Like God itself, he felt like the All-Mighty. The first thing that came into his mind was a cup of coffee and it formed right before their eyes. His sweaty and plump hands gripped the solid mug glass handle and lifted it to his lips to taste it. His tongue was met with the amazing tingles of caffeine he knew after years of drinking. But with his mindset to joy and ecstasy, he lost focus of his imagining and the coffee vanished from his hands. He sighed in disappointment before catching sight of excitement in his assistants' eyes.

"Doc! You did it! You finally did it," he cried in amazement while standing up to hug his father figure. "I'm so proud of you! Just wait for the American Government to discover this! Your name would be wiped clean! You'll be famous! You'll be the world's number one again!" He caught sight of Dr Nickilopus' dropping shoulders and frowned, "What's wrong?"

"That's just the reason why I can't tell them," he said, catching the younger boy off guard. "Once they find out, they would be forcing me again and again and I would be put under their control once more. Right now, I just want to savour this moment and keep it locked up with the rest…"

Henry stared at his senior in complete horror before gasping, "Are you kidding me? This is your moment of fame! MY moment of fame! Can't you see this is a ticket to a better life? And you're just going to stuff it into that dusty old store to rust away?" He returned his gaze to the old geezers' expression and asked once more, "Is that what you want? You could get so much more with this! Imagine what we can do with this!"

Terror and fear struck Dr Nickilopus and his glare sharpened at his junior. "What did you just say, Henry? What do you plan to do with my experiment?"

"Well it's no use telling you old man," he huffed while making a grab for the machine, only for it to be pulled out of reach. "Give it, Doc."

Dr Nickilopus held it away steadily and kept his grip firm as he replied, "I can't let you do anything bad with this, Henry. You will forget about this whole thing and help me with something more sophisticated."

The elder man didn't expect him to pull out a gun from his pocket and he gasped at the sight of his assistant pulling the trigger slowly. "I've been waiting for this one thing for thirty years, Nick. I'm not waiting any longer."

Before the older man could respond, he pulled the trigger without hesitation, letting the bullet hit the old man's shoulder. The shock and pain hit him hard due to his old age and he lay collapsed on the floor, holding his bleeding shoulder while his vision blurred rapidly. He could barely make out Henry's face as he said, "You should've seen this coming, Doc. If the government couldn't get their hands on this, I would."

The pain soon seeped into his head and made his consciousness flutter away while his ears heard the door close. He knew at once something was going to happen to the world. That project was something he wanted to make after a precious' life left him and now that same contraption for joy would be soon used for destruction. That was all he could think before falling into the darkness.