The Pathak household was buzzing with the news of the government's new policy, but Ashutosh was focused on the blueprint. In his mind's eye, the System displayed a complex 3D render of a semi-automatic bagging machine. It was elegant, using gravity-fed hoppers and a simple heat-sealer—tech that was common in the 2020s but revolutionary for a small business in 1979 Varanasi.
'If I give him the digital file, I'm dead,' Ashutosh mused. 'But if I "draw" it while playing...'
He grabbed a stack of blank ledger papers from his father's desk and a handful of Nataraj pencils. He sat in the sun-drenched courtyard, right where his Nana and Dada were sitting for their morning tea and bickering session.
"Look at the boy," Nana Janardhan remarked, sipping his tea. "Most kids draw cows and mountains. Ashu has been drawing circles and squares for an hour."
"He's a Pathak," Dada retorted. "He's probably calculating the area of the warehouse."
Ashutosh ignored them, his hand moving with unnatural precision thanks to his Eidetic Memory. He wasn't drawing a machine; he was drawing "toys." He drew a big funnel, a sliding plate, and a candle-like heating element. He added labels in his shaky, five-year-old handwriting: 'Spice goes here,''Plastic slides here,''Hot bar presses here.'
He made sure to smudge the lead and leave a few "accidental" crayon marks to keep the disguise perfect.
"Papa!" Ashutosh called out as Raghunath walked past, looking stressed about the costs of hiring more labor. "Look! I made a toy for the factory! It's a slide for the masalas!"
Raghunath stopped, smiling tiredly. He took the paper, expecting a doodle. But as his eyes traced the "slide," his breath hitched. He wasn't a mechanical engineer, but he had spent twenty years running a grinding unit. He knew how gravity and heat worked.
"Wait..." Raghunath sat down on the stone bench. "Ashu, why did you put a spring here, on this plate?"
"Because if the plate stays open, the masala falls on the floor, Papa," Ashutosh said, tilting his head with feigned innocence. "The spring pushes it back. Like my jack-in-the-box toy!"
Raghunath's hands started to shake. He looked at the drawing of the heat-sealer. "And this... this hot bar?"
"Maa uses the hot iron to press the clothes," Ashutosh chirped. "If we iron the plastic bags, they stick together! Then the masala stays fresh!"
The two grandfathers leaned in. Nana Janardhan, the former Chief Justice, peered through his spectacles. He had seen thousands of patent disputes in his career. His eyes widened.
"Raghunath," Nana said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "This isn't a toy. This is a schematic for a vertical form-fill-seal machine. It's simplified, but the logic... it's flawless."
"It's impossible," Raghunath breathed. "Ashu, where did you see this?"
"In my head, Papa! I saw a big machine in a dream again. It was making a khat-khat-khat sound and spitting out red packets!" Ashutosh jumped up and down, acting the part of an excited child. "Can we build it? Then we can be the biggest in the world!"
Raghunath looked at his son, then at his own father. The "Hesitant" trait was warring with the "Visionary" trait.
"We can't build this," Raghunath said. "We don't have the parts."
"Actually," a voice spoke from the doorway. It was Ansh, the eight-year-old with the SS-Rank Tech Potential. He had been watching from the shadows. He walked over and pointed to a specific part of Ashutosh's drawing. "Papa, we can use the motor from the old pump in the basement for this. And the heating coil can come from a room heater. I can help you build the frame."
The courtyard went silent.
Ashutosh smiled inwardly. 'Yes! The brothers are stepping up!'
[DING! Sibling Synergy Detected!]
[Ansh Pathak's "Tech Innovation" Talent has been triggered by Host's suggestion.]
[Reward: 200 Skill Points]
"Fine," Raghunath said, his voice suddenly thick with emotion. He scooped Ashutosh up into a hug. "We will try. If my five-year-old can dream it, and my eight-year-old can build it, I would be a coward not to try."
Savitri came out, wiping her hands on her saree. "Enough with the machines! Ashu, it's time for school. Your uniform is ready. You've missed three days already."
Ashutosh's face fell. The "Scholar's Debut" quest was live. He had to go from being a secret engineer to a kindergarten student.
"Maa, do I have to go?" he asked, trying to look pathetic. "The teacher only teaches us poems about rain."
"Yes, you have to go," she laughed, kissing his forehead. "You can be a genius after you finish your tiffin."
As Ashutosh sat in the rickshaw later that morning, sandwiched between his brothers.
As the rickshaw moved through the narrow streets of Varanasi, he didn't just see a crowded alley. He saw "frames." He saw how the light hit the Ganges in the distance. He saw the "acting" of the street vendors.
He was only five, but he was already starting to see the world through a lens.
'School,' he thought, looking at the gates of St. Mary's Convent. 'Let's get this over with quickly. I have an empire to run.'
System Status Update
Available Points: 200
Market Analysis: Lv 1
Business Negotiation: Lv 1
Director's Vision: Lv 0
Public Speaking: Lv 0