The procedure took six hours. When Ethan woke, his skull ached like a struck gong. The doctor smiled, holding a sleek tablet. “How do you feel?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he thought: Dim the lights. The room obeyed, bathing itself in a soft, amber glow.

“Your neural interface is working perfectly,” the doctor said, tapping on the tablet. “You’re the first human capable of directly interacting with technology through thought alone.”

Ethan didn’t respond. His mind was already buzzing, testing. He muted the hum of the air conditioner, locked and unlocked the door, and pinged a coffee machine down the hall to brew a fresh cup. The raw power was intoxicating.

Over the following weeks, his fame grew. Corporate executives vied for partnerships, and governments whispered offers behind closed doors. With a glance, Ethan could control drones, bypass firewalls, and even silence someone’s pacemaker.

But what truly unnerved him was how it bled into his personal life.

One evening, his girlfriend, Maya, sighed heavily across the dinner table. “You’re distant, Ethan. Always... somewhere else.”

He hadn’t meant to, but while she spoke, he’d scanned her phone, reading texts she hadn’t sent him. He knew about her doubts before she voiced them. He even knew she’d thought about leaving.

“You don’t trust me anymore,” she said.

He didn’t reply, only stared at her as his mind opened her email drafts. She was right. Trust wasn’t necessary when you could see everything.

The breaking point came when she found her car wouldn’t start one morning. Ethan stood in the doorway, watching her struggle with the ignition. She turned to him, her face pale. “Did you...?”

He didn’t need to answer. She knew.

That night, she left, her final words ringing in his mind: “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

The next day, Ethan sat in a park, disconnected. He’d turned off every device within a mile radius, retreating into silence. He could still feel the weight of the network, though—the pull of power at the edge of his consciousness.

But what was the point of all this control if it cost him the people who mattered?

A drone buzzed overhead, breaking his thoughts. Without thinking, he reached out and grounded it. The silence returned.

For the first time, Ethan didn’t feel powerful. He felt alone.