Infinitium

(Chaos, Day 9)

You Have reached Ascendent level 10 (Max, meaning all categorizations below Ascendant are also level 10). Divinity Points are required to Reach Divinity Level 1. Experience (XP) can be converted to Divinity Points (DP) at a conversion rate of 1,000,000 XP to 1 DP

Fundamental Ability Confluence detected. Chaos Converting to Divinity Points.

Wait, What? Adam thought as he roused from the nap he’d been taking. He checked the timer on his Personal Interface, 17 hours had passed. He must have been tired. He looked at his attributes which were now over 8 million each and his hit points which were over 35 trillion. Why the hell would he need that many hit points as an Ascendant being? If something level 1 to 10 was trying to hurt him it would only do 1/64 the damage they’d do normally and he would be doing 64 times the damage for the same attack. That was going to take the fun right out of the Cultivation for him. Though it would make it easier to try to save people. Of course, he wouldn’t need to worry about that if he couldn’t get out of this area, then he paused, he was in raw chaos. Whatever was, had been, or could exist within this medium. Adam smiled as he thought, Oh, those idiots.

Not wanting to invent the wheel all over again, Adam visualized the chamber he’d created in Chaos and teleported himself into it. Sure enough, he materialized in the structure he’d created by his Chaotic Nanites which until this point he wasn’t sure he could recreate, but he was in Chaos so they could most definitely exist here. Funny thing about his nanites. They’d all been programmed to self-replicate and repair him and Thor. Adam willed his resistances and Adaptation off as he touched his hands to a wall. Within a second his heads-up display and interface were back in place. That’s when he received a shock.

Current location Chaotic Nanite saturation 1% of ERROR, Controlled by Creator.

Adam ensured the quantum links were re-established, set them to replicate the chaos touching this structure to nanites, and started funneling the chaotic nanites into his personnel storage as they were created. It wasn’t a hard task as the chaos that had been funneling through him was used to creating more nanites. Once he had that underway he focused on what the prompt had said, 1% saturation?

A full percent of something that was supposedly infinite was now chaotic nanites? That was interesting. From his memory, he pulled the program he’d written long ago into place and searched through the now semi-intelligent program that had resided within the quantum-entangled structure that was the chaotic nanite swarm. That was when he noticed that someone had made subtle changes to the programming that was overseeing the nanites. Following the links back to their origin point he found a sub-atomic region that had a connection he couldn’t follow.

Adam sent an inquiry and realized that the other end of that connection led to his old Place of Power and his Personal Vault there. The hand-shaking protocols, security measures, and connection requirements were all familiar to him. He thought about using that connection then disregarded it. That location was outside of this cosmos, and he wasn’t supposed to remember that information. He might be able to feign ignorance about stumbling back into something he’d created and hacking his way back into the system. If he followed that link and bypassed the countermeasures he’d put in place, something that would take a quantum computer hundreds of years to do, he’d be declaring loud and clear, “I remember!”

Instead of hacking the connection he sent a request for a data dump and started reviewing the historical data of his nanites within this realm of Chaos. Adam reviewed the footage by absorbing the data dumb directly into his memory and allowing his mind to sort and prioritize the information as he reviewed it. Three messages grabbed his attention.

Timestamp 0: Order Replicate, Remain Dormant, Monitor.

Timestamp 1e.09 (…(06) 331 12:31:69) Localized Infiltration Detected, Local Nanites subjected to non-creator orders. No counter instructions, allow, monitor and record

Timestamp 1e.75 (…(72) 008 18:31:21) Creator located. Damage to Creator identified. Damage repaired. Updating.

The first message was obviously the moment the Change took place in this Cosmos. He had no idea if that was at the beginning of this Cosmos or at the moment he forced the change. Adam reviewed some more information and realized it was definitely around the time he punched Nox in the head. He had updates coming from both the nanites left in Chaos and the ones that had been left behind in that Universe. It seemed that he’d been leaking nanites as he transversed backward through time. Some had been left in every single Universe the Ancient Enemy had regurgitated. Nice to know there was a part of him just about everywhere.

The infiltration message was much more interesting. It seemed that someone that worked for the Syndicate had figured out there was something technological that was smaller than a subatomic particle and had sent a blind request for an update. The nanites, ever on the lookout for their creator responded and interacted with the request. Soon after the surveillance and targeting functions of the nanites had been ‘hacked’ which wasn’t exactly true. The nanites were intelligent enough to ignore the requests but decided to allow them so they could continue to look for their creator. The nanites had not spread from the universes they were in or out of Chaos until the entities that were using them decided that they were going to start traveling between Universes. As Adam reviewed the information he watched as the chaotic nanites spread throughout all levels of the Cosmos.

As Adam watched he considered something, why hadn’t the nanites recognized him as their creator when he first appeared on Earth? Obviously, they’d been aware of him. He divided his awareness and reviewed the nanite’s response to his appearance.

Timestamp 1e.75 (…(72) 001 00:00:01) Possible Creator Sighting. Quantum signature 95.79% to Creator. Maintain Current configuration.

Then he compared it to the Timestamp for when he touched the wall in Chaos.

Timestamp 1e.75 (…(72) 008 18:31:19) Possible Creator located in ERROR.

Biological Quantum signature 95.79% match to Creator

Previous Biological Quantum signature variance in this quantum state never greater than 10%

High Probability Quantum Signature of Creator has been altered.

Infiltrate, exam, handshake, compare.

Verified Creator has been altered. All handshaking protocols, passwords, and embedded data and code are known to possible Creator. Redesignating as Creator.

Repairing mental links and quantum channels. Successful

The creator is back online.

` So the nanites didn’t recognize him, probably because of his fundamental changes. They hadn’t shown initiative until a biological entity entered Chaos and interacted with them. That also meant they wouldn’t recognize any of his alternates that might exist throughout the cosmos because none of them would remember the coding he’d embedded in them or be able to reach them in Chaos. Adam thought about it for a second then created a very complex set of physical actions that he would need to take in a specific sequence that would automatically allow any nanites that were created by him to recognize him as their creator, repair his link, and give him access. If he’d had that during the last change. he’d have been set from the start. he made it a 512-point sequence. He also set the creation of a room with a portal generator and portal machinery to be created within Chaos once an individual was recognized as the creator. Now, no matter what happened to him, he’d have his ability to move around instantaneously back in about 60 seconds.

Adam went back to reviewing the history of the Cosmos his nanites existed in. His nanites recorded the creation of the Syndicate and the Cultivations that took place. While the souls were not annihilated the deaths of countless sentients could be laid at the feet of the Syndicate. He watched as the programs that were written utilized requested information from his nanites allowing for observation, monitoring, and targeting within any Universe they were introduced to. Ultimately though no one in the Syndicate had control of his nanites. The nanites had just been neutral and helpful to whoever talked to them while they searched for their creator. He thought about how ironic it was that what had happened was very similar to the plot of Star Trek the Motion Picture.

Next, he thought about how many Nanites were floating around in Chaos. 1% saturation huh? He thought about recreating his portal network. he could do that within the Universe but checked the current status of the Milky Way and realized that with Magic in play, a lot had changed. A major change, the Lexi had been wiped out roughly 500 years ago. It looked like the Syndicate had recognized the danger they represented and just obliterated them. They’d even had magic; it didn’t matter when minor Divines and monster summoning became involved. Ten entrances to the Labyrinth had opened across the planet. The ambient magic had been saturated and the monsters had made their way out onto the planet and destroyed it.

Adam thought about what he could do and what he needed for a few more moments and then had an idea. He could create a Dyson Sphere. He thought up the plans for a Dyson Sphere, the outside protected from chaos by the chaotic nanites. The inside would contain a star exactly like the sun with rotating slits that would allow for a day-night cycle. He would be able to house countless portal devices in the crust of the structure and the inside could act as a lifeboat if it was ever needed. Also, in the vastness of Chaos, he was sure a small Dyson sphere here wouldn’t draw too much attention. Also, it would most likely exist forever no matter what happened to the Universes that came and went.

The main reason he wanted to create this structure was to recreate his portal network. Which would allow him to instantly travel to any point he’d been or any point his nanites were as well as do the same for a huge number of people. The energy that his nanites had access to in this realm of chaos was effectively unlimited. He gave the order and the construction of the Dyson Sphere began. Even with as many nanites as there were, it would still take a couple of hours to draw in and convert all the chaotic nanites and energy into the structures he needed.

While the Dyson Sphere was being created he realized something, even before he got his nanites back he hadn’t eaten except when someone else was and he hadn’t used the bathroom in 9 days. he hadn’t had to. Utilizing the nanites now saturating his body he discovered that he hadn’t needed to go to the bathroom because everything that could be considered waste was converted to one type of magic or another. He could eat whatever he wanted, and it was broken down as part of his ability Confluence.

Next, he reviewed his trip through the space he’d been transported through and was given quite a shock. As his nanites expanded through Chaos they came to understand that Chaos surrounded everything as it did before except that there was now a membrane that diffused the chaos and prevented it from ever directly entering a Universe by accident. Gateways and spells could still draw chaos into a Universe but the accident that happened on Primore could never happen again as the membrane to each Universe was then surrounded by a host of parallel higher and lower dimensions that helped filter travelers. The parallel dimensions were unique to each Universe but travel between the Universes could now be accomplished through what was being referred to as Astral space. Another change was that instead of each Universe having its own heavens and hells there was just one of each and they were both attached to the Astral Plane.

The nanites had spread throughout every Universe and had connected to the Astral Plane and then on into every dimension that it was connected to. Like Chaos, the Astral Plane was just as vast. Like Chaos, his nanites were everywhere. He wondered if every Universe in Chaos had to touch Astral Space or if like Chaos there were multiple astral spaces within the chaos with multiple universes within those astral spaces, all separated from each other. He did a query and found that only one Astral barrier had been discovered thus far. With only 1% of the area of Chaos converted though, that left a lot of room for exploration.

Adam reviewed more data. He wanted to know if the nanites had expanded out of chaos across gaps of nothing, and what he found shocked him to the core. The nanites had reached an edge of Chaos and found a barrier of sorts. Along that barrier over hundreds of millions of years, various areas of Chaos within the Cosmos rubbed close together and formed breakthroughs. When that happened if the nanites were in the area they would help hold open the hole and spread into the new region of chaos until the hole widened so far as not to be indistinguishable from the original region of chaos. A good analogy would be like a single-cell organism coming upon another then combining and becoming one bigger organism. There would be a flood of material as the chaos merged then the astral as even more universes were explored by the nanites.

Adam opened his map function and zoomed out. As far as he could tell even as this area of Chaos absorbed another area of chaos there was no way to tell. Each was still surrounded by the barrier of nothing and the three-dimensional map showed that it was still stacked. he wondered if given enough time the cosmos would become one giant area of chaos with one huge Astral plane containing all the universes that existed throughout the cosmos. Not that there would really be much difference between the current configuration and that one.

While Adam waited for the Dyson Sphere to be completed, he reviewed what the nanites witnessed in his Universe from the point of his arrival forward. He watched as his alternate self was targeted and placed 1,000 miles above the sun.

Well, that definitely looked like it hurt.

He also watched as the Administrator reviewed his arrival and called for the early start of the Cultivation. Then he watched the start of the Cultivation and the ruckus his bet and move to save the women and children had made. He had thought the shocks were over at that point until he learned that the male voice that had been talking to the female on the edge of the astral had been Apolyn, now a deity. Hold up, how the hell had he become a deity? If the timelines were comparable, even with a time differential that shouldn’t have been possible. He called up the nanites that were part of him and reviewed their history. What he found pissed him right off. Apolyn had found a way to cheat the system, again. That dirtbag! Though he had to admit, that dirtbag’s resourcefulness was astounding.

Apoyln had found out about the Syndicate during one of his Guild meetings and traveled through the Dungeon and the Labyrinth to another Universe where the Syndicate was housed. He’d worked for a couple of years as a low-level tech, setting up and installing the Magic Sinks on planets to be Cultivated. Then he’d changed his appearance and traveled back in time 20,000 years to again work for the Syndicate helping to install the Magic Sinks on planets that would be cultivated while he was working for the Syndicate from his own time. This time however he created a spell, much like the old one, that siphoned XP off souls as they were drawn into the soul trap. He’d worked for the Syndicate for over 1,000, years installing Magic Sinks on a new planet every 3 months adding his spell to them. Thus far he’d stolen the 55 billion XP needed to attain Divine Level 1 and had accepted the path of Divinity. Wait, what?

Adam reviewed his prompts and found that one of his old settings was still active. he’d auto declined the offer to become a Divine though he was earning Divinity Points. He wondered how that was going to work out. Apolyn on the other hand was now earning Divinity Points from the XP he was harvesting but at a 1 million to 1 ratio. He’d be the equivalent of a Rank 1 Divine in 17 more hours, Level 2 Divine 17 hours after that and he wasn’t going to have a chance to catch up. It was good to know that saving the women and children had prevented him from drawing experience from their souls. Anything to thwart that asshole’s plans was automatically a win for him.

He was drawn from his thoughts when his nanites informed him that the Dyson Sphere was stable. Adam teleported to a secure chamber inside the crust of the Dyson Sphere and recreated his brain construct and regulated a portion of his mind to it. He might not have the ability anymore but he still understood how to tie himself to a computer and utilize it to improve his memory capacity, sorting, and computational functions.

Next, he connected his additional “brain” to all the known nanites and turned it on. Like that, he was back. In a picosecond, he’d reviewed everything he needed to and relegated those functions to that portion of his identity that he still thought of as Thor. If he was being honest, Thor had been incredibly bored with the lowered input speeds from one biological entity though he hadn’t thought about it until he could do so again.

The first thing he did was ghost himself. Adam removed the ability of his nanites anywhere to target or see him by any request, search, or function, even with real-time observation. They could see him of course, they just didn’t report that they saw him. If the entity looking for him wasn’t directly in front of Adam the nanites could not be utilized to see him.

Next, he made sure all power requirements were met for the portal facilities. While the inside of the Dyson sphere didn’t represent the amount of space Thor had occupied before the change, it was also true that the facilities that were created on the planets never took up more than 5 to 10 percent of a planet the size of Earth. Now he had an area of 1.1e17 miles to work with. A quarter of the area under the landmasses, oceans, mountains seas deserts, and prairies he’d created throughout the Dyson Sphere.

Adam also had the sphere populated with normal Earth-type animals, bacteria, and everything that was needed to sustain an ecosystem that large. He’d even included an area that was an exact copy of the planet Earth and had teleported to a copy of his estate near Alamogordo up in the mountains.

It was one thing to know he was in a Dyson sphere in the abstract. It is quite another to look up into the sky and see the huge walls of a world rise up and away from him on all sides, far past the hazy horizon. Adam went into his living room and brought up the information concerning the cultivation of world 59,666 (Earth).

Cultivation Planet 59,666 (Earth)

Population: 2,196,342,245

Average Ambient Magic Level: .1

Maximum Ambient Magic Level: 10

Cage Status 0%

Soul Trap Status 100%

Only 9 Days since the cultivation had started and almost 4 billion people had died. In the grand scheme of Cultivations that was less than 1% of the total number of people that had been killed in the name of cheap materials for crafting and cheap experience because he was sure Apolyn couldn’t have been the first being to try that hack to the system.

Adam checked his odds on the Gamblers Network.

Name: Johnathan Bennard

Location: Dallas Texas

Profession: Professor of Computer Science, University of North Texas at Dallas

Age: 35

Odds: 10,000 to 1 (1 Month)

100,000 to 1 (3 Months)

500,000 to 1 (12 Month’s)

They were going to wish those odds were correct.

The next thing he did was find and review every single person that was still alive on planet Earth. Yes, his nanites were present throughout all the animals, plants, and materials of Earth. Monsters that spawned onto Earth were permeated by the nanites immediately but there was still a one or two-second delay when they came into existence when they were not controlled by the nanites which meant that he needed to hack the Syndicate.

Of course, Hacking the Syndicate wasn’t hard. He was now controlling the system they thought they controlled. Adam easily removed any record of all the changes he made. Once he was sure that he could control all the humans he needed to, he had the nanites in his targets take control of every person that was closest to a Safe Zone and walked them into a Syndicate Store. While he walked them into the stores, he created the wealth they needed with his ability Infinite Wealth so that there was actual money behind the transaction as he transferred those funds to everyone he was controlling. He backdated the fund transfers to before the beginning of the Cultivation, changing all backup copies of any backup documents as well, then had the people he controlled purchase a Sanctuary Obelisk just like he had with the same settings for 328,680,000 Credits. Next, they’d go outside and activate it. This happened simultaneously across the globe in 3,000 locations. With a possible million people per sanctuary that should be enough areas to hold all the survivors, He’d even left a little wiggle room.

Additionally, there was a glitch in the system when anyone not within 25 miles of the sanctuary stepped through a portal onto a sanctuary. Any monsters that were above level 100 suddenly evaporated and all the other monsters froze allowing the humans to escape to safety. Additionally, Adam set up regenerating food supplies using the nanites and made sure that no nanites reported where the energy bars and water were coming from. Adam even saved that prick of a husband to the President. His luck attribute must have been working overtime because he’d been teleported out of his safe zone and ended up in a small community that helped keep him alive until Adam allowed him back into the Safe Zone.

One aspect of his mind watched as the observers and technicians went crazy trying to figure out what had happened. One moment humans were fighting for their lives, the next they were safe in sanctuaries. Just to make sure the supervisors wouldn’t do what they did to him, twice, he added a back door hack into all his nanites that would automatically target the technician that entered the command and the individual that ordered it and teleport them to the 1-inch above the event horizon of the Unicorn Singularity.

For the next part of his plan, he needed even more levels and a little bit of time. The humans of Earth were now safe, had food, water, and oops, he forgot. Adam turned on the nanite’s self-replicate and repair for all the humans on Earth, thereby ensuring they wouldn’t die of natural causes…ever. he also stored full copies of each person, including the women and children off-planet in the Dyson Sphere, something that the nanites hadn’t been configured to do before now. That done he made his way over to his balcony and stepped out to look over the empty city of Alamogordo and the White Sands beyond. he had to admit it was good to be back.

Adam double-checked to make sure he was still earning 1 million DP per second, which he was. His thoughts shifted and he realized that he probably couldn’t bring anyone here that couldn’t survive exposure to chaos. If there was that much ambient energy around it would probably kill them or change them though the animals and bacteria being created by the chaotic nanites were doing okay. Probably because they were made of the stuff of chaos.

Adam needed to double-check some of his assumptions and theories to continue with the plan he had. He didn’t figure it would take very long but he needed to make sure he was still leveling. he’d be able to check that in about 15 hours. If he was still leveling and if he wasn’t reading the scaling and XP wrong he would reach Demi-God level 5 right around the 318th day of the cultivation. It looked like almost every divine, good, or evil, that was involved with the Syndicate was of the Divine categorization. The highest he’d found had been level 9. No one with a categorization of Deity or higher seemed to show any interest, though there was no way to be sure. Most were outside any location his nanites had ever traveled to and they were in the heavens and the hells. Adam attributed that to the possibility that creatures of Demi-God or higher status had probably become fundamental in one way or another and while his nanites could affect and be controlled by him he was pretty sure that they couldn’t affect the fundamental rules of the Cosmos, just like he couldn’t.

Adam willed the casting of a Telepathy like spell that could reach Earth from Chaos and contacted Admiral Ainsworth with Telepathy.

Admiral Ainsworth, it’s Johnathan or as I prefer Adam

Adam, where are you?, the Admiral asked back.

Elsewhere. I’ve done what I can. 2 billion people are now in 3,000 Safe Zones around the world like the one you’re in. You’ll notice that your water supply and stores of MREs will not run out over the next year. Enjoy that. Other places will be making do with less.

What are we supposed to do for the next year? The Admiral asked.

There are monsters out there, you probably need to work on leveling but don’t put yourselves in danger. In one year, when the opportunity is given, accept the opportunity to join the syndicate, you’ll be taken off-world, but it’ll be better than where you are. Adam sent back to him.

What will you be doing?

If I told you, you wouldn’t believe him. Stay safe Admiral, you probably won’t hear from me again for a while.

Adam broke the connection and went and laid down in his bedroom. He knew he’d just taken a nap, but he was already exhausted. he had 309 days until he reached his maximum level before the 365-day mark. he went to his room, which was an exact duplicate of the room Clarence had tried to assassinate him in, so long ago, and went to sleep confident that his monitoring algorithms would notify him of any changes he needed to worry about.