Crystal’s eyes glazed over momentarily as she processed the ‘upgrade’ to her status. The next moment, I saw flashes going across her eyes. No, not flashes, lines of code, like from those old movies where people went into a simulation ran by machines that had taken over the Earth.

I figured that meant she was using her technomancer abilities for something. Most active powers, in my experience, had some kind of visual tell. Of course, some of the purely mental ones didn’t, and some had only minor clues, that you could only see if you were looking closely, like hers apparently did.

Finally, her eyes cleared, and she looked at me. “Well, this is certainly a lot of information. The System is definitely robust, but there seems to be some strict limitations in place. There are also hints of locked features in the code, but I’m not sure how to unlock them, just yet, or what those features do.”

“Well, that’s good,” I smiled. “Do you know how to keep the reality warpers and time travelers from breaking reality? Because I really don’t want them to ‘reset’ things. Who knows what would happen if they did?”

“Yes, there’s good news on that front. First, on time travelers, I was able to reinforce the crude controls you put in place, and expand them to include dimension hoppers.” She looked at me. “Oh, your attempt was good, for someone who barely knows how to program, but it was ham-fisted and crude. I’ve cleaned up the code, and made it more flexible. The System will run a check whenever someone tries to use time travel or dimensional travel powers, they will be stopped if the System can’t detect the System on the other side of the transit. I also made this restriction recursive, so that it will effectively have always been in effect, even if time travelers go back to before I set it.”

“Why the dimension-hopping restriction? I haven’t gotten any warnings about them.”

“That’s simple, brother. Dimension hopping is a related ability to time travel. So, clever people could try and get around the restriction you placed by hopping into a different dimension, going back in time to before the System came online, and then coming back to this dimension, still in the past.

“If that happened, then one of four things could occur, and neither of them are pleasant. First, the individual who made the trip might find that they are now unburdened by the System restrictions. And, because of that, they could work to change the future, preventing the fight between the Doctor of Time and the Master of Paradoxes. That would erase this timeline, where we now have some measure of control over the System. Obviously, not ideal.

“Second, upon entering a time or dimension without the System, the individual could cause the System to forcibly activate. While this is less of a problem if another dimension gets ‘activated’, it is a huge problem if the System activated earlier in our timeline than it did, since that would change everything.

“Third, the existence of a System individual in a time or dimension without the System could cause a paradox that creates an annihilation reaction that could destroy the individual, and the dimension in question. For obvious reasons, this is not what we want. I happen to like existing, after all.”

I chuckled at that. “Yes, I’m quite a fan, myself. So, what about the fourth option?”

“The fourth option is the least likely, in my mind. In that scenario, the individual still has the System, but it only works for them. They are able to use the System’s functions for earning XP and advancement, but no one else would. This is less problematic, overall, but could still risk them doing something that would erase this timeline.”

“Which is not a good thing. We would probably lose the control we already have over the System, and there’s no guarantee that we would be able to get it back. If we even remembered having it, in the new timeline. Yeah, best to lock that down altogether. So, what about reality warpers?”

“Ah, well, that was a little more problematic. The power scaling on true reality warpers is insane. You really can’t give those types an inch or they’ll turn it into a mile. Literally.”

“So, what did you come up with?”

“I edited their abilities to being a variable power structure. They’ll still be able to manifest any powers they can think of, but they won’t be able to casually rewrite reality anymore. It will be limited by the same things everyone else is limited by. Which means they won’t be able to undo the System.”

“Good, that was my prime worry. Do you think it would be safe to let the reality warpers out of quarantine? Or should we just keep them there for a while?”

“Keep them there. Say, a month or so? That will give them a good sense of consequences, even if nothing big actually happens to them. Same with the two time travelers that started all of this. I’ve already made sure that their time-ships are working by System rules, so that isn’t a problem. But leaving them in stasis for a while won’t hurt anything, and it will tell them someone’s watching.”

I nodded again, and said, “Excellent work, sister. So, how did you do all that so quickly? I mean, I know you’re good with computers, but that is still really quick work.”

“Oh, that’s easy. You know how people have always compared the human brain to a computer? Well, in my case, that’s pretty accurate. I can think at supercomputer speeds, which helps when I’m interacting with machines. I eliminate the lag normal people go through with brains operating at normal speed, and using keyboards or other physical inputs. Instead, I interface directly with the software, at speeds that can match any AI out there.”

I whistled appreciatively. “Damn, that’s impressive. So, what else did you learn about the System?”

“Well, I’m still running some search functions, but it appears that Local Administrator authority does not make you god.” We shared a grin at that, and she continued, “However, I can say that we can ‘edit’ values, if we’re smart about it. Each edit will be logged, however.”

“Who can see these logs?”

“Other administrators, mostly. However, if you edit a person, like changing their stats, or just editing their location to send them somewhere else? That will be visible to the person themselves.”

“Would it give them our names?” That would be a big problem, after all. Can’t have people knowing that you manipulated them, after all.

“No, it will list us as Local Administrators. That isn’t the problem, however. If edits are made without a System Alert first prompting it, like with the reality warpers, then the individual can start an appeal process, which would alert the next highest level of administrator.”

“So, no sending people we don’t like to horrible places, because they’ll see we did it, send a complaint, and then whoever is above Local Administrator will take notice, and we may get in deep shit?”

“Basically, yes. This also applies to bases, vehicles, and gear that people paid for with points. Their owners will see the changes, and can file complaints, just like if we edited the person directly.”

I nodded slowly. “All right, that is unfortunate, but I guess that I should have expected as much. So, if we can’t edit other people without generating complaints, can we do edits on ourselves?”

Crystal smiled wide. “Yes. This is basically like having the cheat codes in a computer game. Once you understand how the functionality works, you can do all sorts of things. You need money? Edit your bank account. Need to go to Japan? Edit your location.”

“What about more extensive edits? What are our limits?”

Now, Crystal leaned back in her seat, considering. “Well, I would shy away from mental manipulation. It is never a good idea to go editing your own brain, and only slightly better to edit other people’s brains. That can go bad, real fast. Not Mind Control, or stuff like that, I’m talking the scary mental transformations, that are locked in, and can’t be undone. That’s possible, but…”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Possible, but not something to do unless you’re truly desperate.”

“Exactly. For the same reason, editing your age, so that you’re twenty-one again? Probably a bad idea. We have no way of knowing if you’ll lose your memories between now and then, after all. However, editing your body, so that you are physically as young and healthy as you were back then? Totally possible.”

“Editing the body? What other edits are possible?”

“Well, you’re 5’10”? You could easily make yourself an even six feet tall, trim off any pudgy areas you might be concerned about, or turn yourself into King Kong downstairs, if you know what I mean. Anything that doesn’t have a character point value attached to it is fair game.”

I laughed at that. “Well, I’m fairly happy with my size, as it is, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’d wondered what it would be like to be packing like a porn star. I don’t know any guy who hasn’t.”

“Yes, well, let’s just say that I’m considering a few edits, too. The idea of being able to literally craft your body to be just like you’ve always wanted it, without having to do surgery or any of that? Yeah, the number of people who aren’t on board with that is going to be really small.”

“So, now for the big question. What about XP? Can we just award ourselves a bunch of XP, to fill out everything in our sheets that we’d like to do, and make ourselves invincible?”

“Unfortunately, no. At least, not directly. Just adding a bunch of XP to any file is going to create System notifications which go out to other Local Administrators, and elevates it a level for review by higher officials. Thankfully, there are workarounds. You can edit your location so that you take down enemies in quick succession, which can give you XP, but doing too much of that is likely to cause complaints to get elevated.

“That said, however, you can alter XP awards that the System gives out. It will generate a log, just like any other time you edit a person’s information, but you can do it. There are limits, though. Any edit to a single XP event adding more than the original XP result is automatically elevated for review, as is any change reducing gained XP.”

I nodded slowly. “Whoever or whatever made this system must have taken a lot of time to add in all these controls. And you don’t put security and review on something, unless there’s a reason for it. So, maybe a history of administrators abusing their power?”

“Obviously. Wasn’t your first reaction, when you got the notification, to figure out how you could abuse the System to gain power? That’s why you leapt at the chance to be the Local Admin. If this System has been out there longer than human civilization, which is certain, unless the information in the System knowledge skill is false, then it stands to reason that such things have been tried before. In fact, the patch that had to be applied means that there’s been active development on the System all this time.”

“Hm. You know, I wonder if this System is why aliens don’t show up more often?”

“What are you talking about?” Crystal said. “That flier in Russia, Red Star, is an alien. And there are supers all over the world that have alien tech. Hell, the Squadron Supreme’s headquarters is supposed to be LOUSY with it from the Gel-nak invasion!”

“Yes, but Red Star supposedly fell to Earth in an escape pod as an infant, and no one has ever seen more of his kind. The Gel-nak only sent the one fleet. Fifteen ships, and not one of them made it to the ground in one piece. And they were all supposed to be unmanned, run by omnicidal AI controls. That was fifty years ago, and we haven’t seen anything since. The alien tech we have is all from crashes, and no other surviving aliens, unless they’ve been locked away in secret sites like Area 51. We’ve never had any aliens show up, and say ‘Take me to your leader’, you know?”

Crystal took a long sip from her drink as she considered that. “You know, brother? You might actually have a point. If the System was offline here, but active everywhere else, then it might be that people weren’t generally allowed in, except for the few cases where there were emergencies, and they crashed, or went in with drones. That would explain a lot, actually.”

“Yeah, but the real question is: now that the System is online, how long before aliens come to play?”