Infinitium

(Dyson Sphere, Day 10)

Adam only slept for about 4 hours before he was up again and moving. He accessed the surveillance of the Syndicate overseers on Triton and their headquarters around the Galaxy, as well as their Regional Headquarters for his Universe, the Universe of Primore, and a third Universe. They’d actually come up with a numbering system that was part of Earth’s designation. His Universe was identified as 59. There were other designators in front of it to make it unique among the infinite number of Universes out there but only the last two numbers counted in any grouping of 99. It was pretty ingenious.

He checked Primore, it resided within Universe 01 though the planet had not been given a designation and was simply Primore. That caught his interest, and he reviewed the history of Primore and found that the system had existed since before he punched Nox in the head, which without intervention wasn’t possible. Something or someone must be doing something to renew the star and the planet.

As he reviewed the information concerning the Syndicate base on Triton he discovered that only one observer and administrator had been spaghettified by the Unicorn singularity when they tried to send a team to Earth to destroy one of the sanctuaries. The team was a group of demons being portaled to Earth directly from Hell. Their portal opened as a second one opened into chaos flooding hell with pure chaos. Even the denizens of hell could not resist the Universal equalizer that chaos was.

The chaos flooded into hell and destroyed the team, well except for one, which was turned into an angel before it disappeared. Otherwise, their staging area was wiped out of existence as chaos had started to spread further into Hell before Thor closed the portal and stopped the tide of chaos. Eventually, the chaos that had flooded in was absorbed into hell, but the damage was done and a permanent entry into the Astral now resided in that location as the barrier between the Astral and Hell had been destroyed there.

While the hellions and hell were changed the observer and the administrator had each been controlled to stand and step through a portal to a rogue moon. A third portal was opened, and the singularity sucked the moon and both of them through obliterating them in the process. That gravity lensing effect was no joke. Adam reviewed their conversation right before shit had gone sideways from their perspective.

“Are you sure you want to do this? The rules state that no one can enter or leave a planet under cultivation” the observer said.

“True, but someone has, even if we can’t prove it and this is going to look like a random monster spawn.

“Okay, here we go, in 3, 2, 1…”

They didn’t even get to continue talking. Adam had forgotten how clinical and inhuman the Thor side of himself could be. But it was done, and it didn’t look like there would be any Gods he’d be giving allegiance to or taking orders from in the future. Whatever had decided that he needed to remember obviously didn’t want him getting bogged down in divine politics. Which brought him to his next train of thought.

Divinity. In roughly 12 hours if he continued to level he had to choose a purpose. Or, if he leveled did that mean he had already chosen his purpose? To know the purpose he wished to serve he probably needed to know himself. Since this rollercoaster had started he’d reacted and taken control, even forced people to do what he thought was good for them. Of course, he’d been shown that there was a reason everyone had been sacrificed yet…yet, he had not known that the Universe that contained Primore was number 01. Was it the first Universe? If so what happened if it was destroyed? Nothing? Did this Cosmos pop? He had to admit his consciousness was a little clearer now that he knew the souls here would go on, but he wondered about that as well. With the change, wherever the souls went to after death, the ones that made it there the last time. When the change happened, were the souls pulled out of that existence and replaced here, or did they continue on wherever they went and also get recreated here, or did they just cease to exist? When the change happened did that allow them to exist again? So many questions with so many possible answers that required belief and/or faith.

As he thought about all the aspects of reality and the various purposes he could have; wrath, revenge, life, goodness… a list that could go on forever, Adam realized that the one thing he believed in above everything else was the ability to change or be changed. Of course, If he was going to serve the purpose of change for all then he would have to further define his purpose, did he want to serve random change or guided change, or all kinds of change. Or would it be better to say that the purpose he wanted to serve was Personal Growth? How about Personal Growth that came through change both random and guided? Personal Growth had such a nice ring to it and as far as he could remember the Greeks had only had Auxo, or Auxesia, as the Goddess of Growth. Not exactly the same thing.

If he was going to define the purpose he wanted to serve it would be personal growth that leads to self-discovery about oneself and the Universe around them. His purpose would then be to continue on a journey of self-discovery while providing the tools and guides necessary to help others do the same. Adam felt like he was on the right track with this idea but he wasn’t quite ready yet.

Adam decided to check out the Dyson sphere and see how big it really was. He stood up from his bed, went to the balcony, and launched himself into the air. With a thought, he was west towards the coast of California at three times the speed of sound. Though there really wasn’t a west in this giant sphere. He noticed that he broke the sound barrier and felt no discomfort. His Fundamental Ability Adaption must be allowing him to withstand the friction of the wind. He willed himself to move faster. Then did the math in his head. If he wanted to make it all the way around the circumference of the sphere he’d need to travel at Mach, carry the 1, holy hell Mach 75,000 or 54,750,000 mph. That kind of speed was just silly. Also, he’d be creating a shock wave that would be quite powerful. Instead, he traveled away from the surface and eventually rose above the atmosphere which mirrored Earth’s atmosphere perfectly. The nanites ensured the various atmospheric layers were handled properly and maintained normal air pressure. In the vacuum above the inner surface area of the Dyson Sphere, he looked back down at the surface, the Sun at his back. There was enough surface area in this sphere to hold the surface area of Earth 1,422,041,645 times. Keeping this in the region of Chaos might not be the best plan. Maybe he could move it to the edge of the Astral Plane and create a Universe that only contained a Dyson Sphere? That would be interesting. He couldn’t do that right now though, the increase in Divinity Points, while he was in the region of Chaos, was just too much to give up.

Putting his mind back on his test flight inside the Dyson Sphere, he increased his speed and took a leisurely stroll around the sphere looking over the various areas and landmasses that had been created, as well as the oceans if you could call oceans that were wider than the complete surface of the Earth an ocean. He double-checked the areas and made sure there was nothing crazy going on, super deep oceans or super high mountains. There weren’t. His Thor Aspect had kept all the Nanites on task, just like he always did.

Adam changed course and headed back toward his estate replica. He landed and conjured a glass of water that his nanites created for him. He sat down on the deck as his home in the Dyson Sphere was covered in twilight. The bands of sunlight and darkness became visible as the night came to this region of the sphere. The other areas still in daylight were so far away that it appeared as if bands of a nebula were moving toward his location from the east and away from him to the west. To ensure that the day-night cycle could be maintained a very thin layer of material that only allowed the equivalent of twilight to reach the most northern and southern regions of the Dyson sphere made up the top of the slitted structure that provides night and day around the equatorial region of the Dyson sphere. The areas in perpetual twilight allowed for a diversity of creatures that could not exist on Earth. He was pretty sure vampires and undead that couldn’t handle sunlight would love those regions if he ever allowed them to move into this Dyson Sphere.

As he looked off into the twilight and took a sip of his water, various thoughts ran through his mis mind until he received the prompt he’d been waiting for,

Congratulations! You have reached the Categorization of Divine 1. Before any further levels of Divinity may be earned you must choose a purpose to follow. This purpose will grant bonus Divinity Points when followed and severe penalties when ignored. Be wary, the purpose you chose can only be changed at great cost. What Purpose do you choose to serve?

Adam hesitated for a moment then said “Personal Growth that leads to self-discovery about oneself and the Universe around them.”

Such a Purpose is unacceptable. This implies that one will always grow when entropy and fate decree this cannot be true. Eventually, all things must end. Please choose another Purpose.

Well, that sucked, Adam thought as he considered what type of purpose he could follow then he said simply, “Natural Selection.”

The Purpose of Natural Selection is acceptable. As a being with the influence of a Divine with the purpose of “Natural Selection,” it is your purpose to ensure that natural selection is maintained. While broad in scope one primary concern of a divine that follows this purpose is to ensure that higher powers do not meddle in the affairs of mortals. Failure to serve your purpose may result in the loss of divinity.

Adam didn’t feel any different and double-checked his XP. Yes, he was still gaining Divinity Points at a rate of 1 million per second. So, his purpose did not see him getting free DP per second as against Natural Selection. That was good to know. Adam began to think about the various things the purpose of Natural Selection could include and realized that he needed to understand nature and the rules of the Universe which meant that he should have the ability to review and even tweak those rules in whatever Universe he was in,

Ability Intuited, Congratulations! You have gained the ability “Access Universal Settings” – You may review the rules of any Universe you currently reside in so long as the ambient mana is greater than 1%. You may review, change, and lock settings. Settings may only be unlocked by divines with a purpose that is comparable or if they are higher in rank with access to settings you modify.

Fundamental Ability Intuited, Congratulations! You have gained the ability “Access Cosmic Settings” – You may access the rules that govern the Cosmos. You may review, change, and lock settings that may only be unlocked by other fundamental beings with a purpose similar to yours at a higher level. Fundamental settings are not automatically visible to divine or mortals that have the ability “Access Universal Settings.”

Note: Major changes to the settings of a Cosmos may draw the attention of a Harbinger of Change. Harbingers of Change are the second to final authority on the allowance of any major change to the Cosmos.

Jackpot! That was interesting and was something he would need to know how to do if he was to make the changes he was thinking about. Adam concentrated on the ability to Access Universal Settings and watched as an interface opened up within his prompt menu. From his days of programming, he recognized the format and brought up the help menu then thought “List Commands.” he was rewarded as the list was categorized into 4 groups.

Cosmos settings (Fixed).

Basic Settings

Advanced Settings

Change Log

Adam chose the changelog and watched as it exploded and started scrolling down his vision. He knew at that moment that going through the changelog was going to take a while. He minimized the window and checked on the Syndicate to make sure they were still stumped on how to fix their issues with Earth. He had to admit, it was kind of fun fucking with them this way. Then he sat down in a comfortable Lazy boy recliner he had the nanites create before he opened the window and started from the beginning.

As he went through the changelog he noticed a couple that were fundamental changes but otherwise a majority of the other changes were unremarkable. Each timestamp had an Id code which only took a little while for him to figure out. The code had the identifier of the individual making the changes as well as a timestamp code for when the change was made and what time the individual making the changes was from. He only had to wonder about that for a minute before he came across a minor change that was instituted by someone that was from some time in the future. It looked like the Universe itself was keeping track of who meddled with it and from when.

If the Universe was keeping track of this, was that information somehow used for something else? He looked at the Basic Settings which contained submenus until he found the menu for attributes. Then he formed a query through the help function to find a setting, attribute, or some other designated value that utilized the Changelog time stamp codes.

Cosmic Luck – Cosmic luck for all creatures is set to zero upon the creation of that creature. Actions that change or alter the Universe on a Universal scale (for example, making changes to the timeline) may modify Cosmic Luck either negatively or positively. Note: The odds that any action that modifies Cosmic Luck in a positive way are 1,349,531 to 1.

Cosmic Luck directly affects an entity’s ability to interact with the Universe, Cosmos, and ERROR.

Adam looked through the Universal settings until he found the command he was looking for then pulled up all of his attributes and searched for his Cosmic Luck.

Cosmic Luck: Positive Error

Positive Error? Adam input “Define Positive Error” and received,

A positive error is the result of a calculation that is every increasing positively.

So, another way of describing infinite. Nice. Adam wondered if that Cosmic Luck had anything to do with him gaining the fundamental abilities he had or the adjustment that was made so he’d remember what changed. he returned to looking over the change Log.

Three days later he was still reviewing the changelog when something funny happened. An update to the changelog happened while he was watching. Suddenly, he found himself naked and level 1 back in Antarctica with everyone running towards him on New Year’s Day just before he was to be found, covered, and escorted toward the building. Adam ignored everything around him and accessed the changelog again. Then he found the Universal time flow setting and stopped time while he figured this out. he went into the Advanced Settings and found what he was looking for. Admin functions. he designated himself as an Admin and made himself unaffected by changes to the timeline. When he looked at the timestamp of the change he noted a new designator that he realized designated the Universe the entity had come from that was making changes as 01 and filed that away for later. he undid their change by erasing it in the log which created a prompt.

Timeline Reverted, accept changes to self?

Adam accepted the changes and found himself back in the Dyson Sphere. As soon as the changes were erased new changes were made. This time he didn’t receive a prompt. His status as Admin protected him from whatever bullshit the guy, or gal, from Universe 01 was trying to do. Adam checked his status on the Syndicate system and noted that even though they keep on trying to delete Johnathan Bennard from the timeline, the Universe kept undoing the change and automatically fixing itself. Whoever the user was must be getting frustrated. Also, their Cosmic Luck must be awful by now. When Adam attained Cosmic level Access he’d look them up and see who this entity was if he could. Though by then he should be able to fix the things he wanted to fix.

Over the next 13 days, he learned a lot about the universal settings. The more he dug into the settings the more he felt like it was an assembler language to a program. Not exactly, but close enough that the comparison was accurate. Of course, then, just as he thought he had a handle on what he was looking at he found the setting that squashed any assumptions he’d made that what he was looking at might be just like a computer programming language when he accessed a note concerning user interfaces.

Help, Setting, Utility, Cognitive comparison, Interface: This setting adjusts the interface of this access ability so that the user can access the various functions and settings within by creating an interface that is similar to something the user knows. Note, that specific skills and knowledge will allow this interface to be understood with greater clarity.

So, this interface felt like a computer programing language because that was what he was most comfortable with. Good to know. That also meant that there were probably aspects to the interface that he still wouldn’t know to ask for. Nothing he could worry about now.

Adam finally reached Deity level 10 and had 6 days until he reached Demi-God Status. he decided it was time to go double-check on Earth and see what else was going on.

He portaled to a point near Norad and looked down on the 25-mile radius of the safe zone from about 5 miles up as he willed himself to float. Suddenly, he felt magic lock onto him and yank him away placing him right next to the Unicorn Singularity. Adam felt nothing from it, No gravity, no pull, nothing. He simply floated in space beside it through the event horizon until he was right beside the center of the singularity. Adam wondered… He reached down and touched the singularity as if it was a marble.

Warning: You are about to move an anchor point in this reality.

Warning: Anchor Points are utilized as reference points for the various dimensions as well as attachment points for reality itself.

Warning: You possess the ability “Access Cosmic Settings” You may adjust Cosmic settings manually or within the interface.

Warning adjusting Cosmic settings manually can lead to unintended consequences.

Okay then. Adam let go of the Singularity, as he thought about how funny it would be to roll a singularity like a marble. Yeah, the power was going to his head. Adam opened a portal back to the Dyson sphere and reviewed what had just happened. He reviewed his nanites and noticed the nanites observing Apolyn at Syndicate Headquarters. That bastard had caught him with a wish spell. Technically they were both within the same categorization so there had been no rank disparity. That lucky bastard had wished him to a singularity. Well, it would have been a good idea, if it had been used against anyone but him. But how had Apoyln found Adam? He began looking through the backlogs within his nanites for the answer.

Adam reviewed his nanite footage and watched as Apolyn used a scrying spell to watch for him, target him, make his wish and then watched as Adam appeared beside the Unicorn Singularity and disappeared into the event horizon. For a moment the scry spot lost track of him, probably while he was in the singularity but Adam could clearly see that Apolyn was now watching Adam as he stood there. Adam outranked him now, but he still needed another 57days before he’d be ready to enact his plan. Adam walked out onto his balcony, watching as the scrying spell Apolyn was using tried to zoom out to take in the Sphere. Then he teleported into the milky white substance of Chaos. As he reappeared he watched as Apolyn’s scry spell failed. Apolyn tried repeatedly to cast the spell to look for him again. As Adam had thought, even a visual link directly into Chaos couldn’t hold, plus what would he see except Adam floating in a grey-white energy soup?

Hopefully, he’d think he’d died or something. Of course, if he checked his Syndicate status, which he did as he watched him through the Nanites, he figured out quite easily that he was still alive somewhere. Adam didn’t like Apolyn, but he wasn’t ready to do what needed to be done yet. How could he interact with the humans on Earth while preventing Apolyn from affecting him? he’d have to think about that for a bit.