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

Not wanting to invent the wheel I visualized the chamber I’d created in Chaos and teleported myself into it. Sure enough, I materialized in the structure I’d created which was created by chaotic Nanites which until this point I wasn’t sure I could recreate, but we were in Chaos so they could most definitely exist here. Funny thing about my nanites. They’d all been programmed to self-replicate and repair me and Thor. I willed my resistance and adaptation off and touched my hands to a wall. Within a second my heads-up display and interface were back in place. That’s when I received a shock.

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

I ensured quantum links were established, set them to replicate the chaos touching this structure to nanites, and started funneling the chaotic nanites into my personnel storage as they were created. This wasn’t very hard to do as the chaos that had been funneling through me was used to create more nanites.

1% saturation? A full percent of something that was supposedly infinite was now also 1% chaotic Nanites? That was interesting. From my memory I pulled the program I’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 I noticed that someone had made subtle changes to the programming that was overseeing the nanites. Following the links back to an origin point I found a sub-atomic region that had a connection I couldn’t follow. I sent an inquiry and realized that the other end of that connection led to my old Place of Power and my Personal Vault there. The hand-shaking protocols, security measures, and connection requirements were all familiar to me. I thought about using that connection then disregarded it. That location was outside of this cosmos and I wasn’t supposed to remember that information. I might be able to feign ignorance on stumbling back into something I’d created and hacking my way back into the system. If I followed that link and bypassed the countermeasures I’d put in place, something that would take a quantum computer hundreds of years to do, I’d be declaring loud and clear, I remember! Instead of hacking the connection I sent a request for a data dump and started reviewing the historical data of my nanites within this realm of Chaos.

I reviewed the footage by absorbing the files into my intellect and allowing my mind to sort and prioritize the information that I was reviewing. Three messages grabbed my 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. I had no idea if that was at the beginning of it or at the moment I forced the change. I reviewed some of the footage and realized it was definitely around the time I punched Nox in the head. I had updates coming from both the nanites left in Chaos and the ones that had been left behind in that Universe. It seemed that I’d been leaking nanites as I 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 me 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 smaller than the subatomic level 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. I watched as the chaotic nanites spread further into the Cosmos.

As I watched I considered something, why hadn’t the nanites recognized me as their creator when I first appeared on Earth. Obviously, they’d been aware of me. I divided my awareness and reviewed the nanite response to my appearance.

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

Then I compared it to the Timestamp for when I 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 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 me, probably because of my 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 my alternates that might exist throughout the cosmos because none of them would remember the coding I’d embedded in them or be able to reach them in Chaos. I thought about it for a second then created a very complex set of physical actions that I would need to take in sequence that would automatically allow any nanites that were created by me to recognize me as their creator, repair my link, and give me access. If I’d had that during the last change. I’d have been set from the start. I made it a 512-point sequence. I 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 me, I’d have my ability to move around instantaneously back in about 60 seconds.

I went back to reviewing the history of the Cosmos my Nanites existed within. My 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. I watched as the programs that were written utilized requested information from my nanites allowing for observation, monitoring, and targeting within any Universe they were introduced to. Ultimately though no one in the Syndicate had control of my nanites. They were just being neutral and helpful to whoever talked to them while they searched for their creator. Funny how the plot of Star Trek the Motion Picture had a similar plot.

Next, I thought about how many Nanites were floating around in Chaos. 1% saturation huh. I thought about recreating my portal network. I 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. 10 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.

I thought about it for a moment then I had an idea, a Dyson Sphere. I 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. I 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, I was sure a small Dyson sphere here wouldn’t draw too much attention and would exist forever no matter what happened to the Universes that came and went.

The main reason I wanted to create this structure was to recreate my portal network. Which would allow me to instantly travel to any point I’d been or any point my nanites were as well as do the same for a huge number of people. The energy that my nanites had access to in this realm of chaos was effectively unlimited. I 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 mass I needed into the structures I needed.

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

Next, I reviewed my trip through the space I’d been transported through and was given quite a shock. As my 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 by the Astral Plane.

The nanites had spread throughout every Universe connected to the Astral and into every dimension that were connected to any of the Universes it had come across. Like Chaos, Astral Space was just as vast. Like Chaos, my nanites were everywhere. I 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. I 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.

I reviewed more data, I wanted to know if the nanites had expanded out of chaos across gaps of nothing, and what I found shocked me to the core. The nanites had reached an edge of Chaos and found a barrier of sorts. Along that barrier over the 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.

I went to my map function and zoomed out. As far as I 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. I 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 I wait for the Dyson Sphere to complete I reviewed what the nanites witnessed in my Universe from the point of my arrival forward. I watched as my alternate self was targeted and placed 1,000 miles above the sun. Well, that definitely looked like it hurt. I also watched as the Administrator reviewed my arrival and called for the early start of the Cultivation. Then I watched the start of the Cultivation and the ruckus my bet and move to save the women and children had made. I had thought the shocks were over at this point by finding out that the male voice that had been talking to the female on the edge of the astral was 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. I called up the nanites that were part of him and reviewed their history. What I found pisses me right off. Apolyn had found a way to cheat the system, again. That dirtbag! Though I have to admit, his 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 I watched as he shape 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 stollen the 55 billion XP to attain Divine Level 1 and had accepted the path of Divinity. Wait, what?

I reviewed my prompts and found that one of my old settings was still active. I’d auto-declined the offer to become a Divine though I was earning Divinity Points. I 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. I’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. That was some funny shit right there.

My nanites informed me that the Dyson Sphere was stable. I teleported to a secure chamber inside the crust of the Dyson Sphere and recreated my brain construct and regulated a portion of my mind to it. I might not have the ability anymore but I still understood how to tie myself to a computer and utilize it to improve my memory capacity, sorting, and computational functions. Then I connected it to all the known nanites and turned it on. Like that, I was back. In a picosecond, I’d reviewed everything I needed to and relegated those functions to that portion of my identity that I still thought of as Thor. If I’m being honest, Thor had been incredibly bored with the lowered input speeds from one biological entity though I hadn’t thought about it until I could do it again.

The first thing I did was Ghost myself. I removed the ability of my nanites anywhere to target or see me by any request, search, or function, even real-time observation. If you weren’t in front of me you couldn’t see me.

Next, I 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 I had an area of 1.1e17 to work with. A quarter of the area under the landmasses, oceans, mountains seas deserts, and prairies I’d created throughout the Dyson Sphere. I also had the sphere being populated with normal Earth-type animals, bacteria, and everything that was needed to sustain an ecosystem that large. I’d even included an area that was an exact copy of the planet Earth and had teleported to a copy of my estate near Alamogordo up in the mountains.

It’s one thing to know you’re 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 you on all sides, far past the hazy horizon. I went into my living room and brought up the information of Cultivation 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 I was sure Apolyn couldn’t have been the first being to that hack to the system.

I checked my 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 Months)

They were going to wish those odds were correct.

The next thing I did was find and review every single person that was still alive on planet Earth. Monsters that spawned in were permeated by the nanites immediately but that one or two seconds when they came into existence they were not controlled by the nanites which meant that I needed to hack the Syndicate. Of course, that wasn’t hard. I was now controlling the system they thought they controlled removing any record of all the changes I was making. My nanites took control of every person that was closest to a Safe Zone and walked into the store. While I walked them into the store I created the wealth I needed with my ability Infinite Wealth so that there was actual money behind the transaction then transferred those funds to the person in question, backdating the transfer to before the beginning of the Cultivation, changing all backup copies of any backup documents as well, then having the people I controlled purchase a Sanctuary Obelisk just like I did 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, I’d 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 escaped to safety. One second everything was fine. Three seconds later all the humans were safe. Additionally, I set up regenerating food supplies using the nanites and made sure that no nanites reported where the energy bars and water were coming from. I 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 my safe zone and ended up in a small community that helped keep him alive.

One aspect of my 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 me, twice, I added a back door hack into all my 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 my plans, I’d needed more levels and time. The Humans of Earth were now safe, had food water and oops, I forgot. I turned on the nanites self-replicate and repair for all the humans on Earth, thereby ensuring they wouldn’t die of natural causes…ever. I 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 I made my way over to my balcony and stepped out to look over the empty city of Alamogordo and the White Sands beyond. I had to admit it was good to be back. I double-checked to make sure I was still earning 1 million DP per second, which I was. I 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.

I needed to double-check some of my assumptions and theories to continue with the plan I had. I didn’t figure it would take very long but I needed to make sure I was still leveling. I’d be able to check that in about 15 hours. If I was still leveling and If I wasn’t reading the scaling and XP wrong I 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 I’d found had been level 9. No one with a categorization of Deity or higher seemed to show any interest though I wouldn’t know. Most were outside any location my nanites had ever traveled to and they were in the heavens and the hells. I attributed that to the possibility that creatures of Demi-God or higher status had probably become fundamental in one way or another and while my nanites could affect and be controlled by me I was pretty sure that they couldn’t affect the fundamental rules of the Cosmos, just like I couldn’t.

I willed the casting of a Telepathy like spell that could reach Earth from Chaos and contacted the Admiral

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

Adam, where are you?

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? he 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 work but it’ll be better than where you are. I thought back to him

What will you be doing?

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

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