(Dyson Sphere, Day 10)

I only slept for about 4 hours before I was up again and moving. I accessed the surveillance of the Syndicate overseers on Triton and their headquarters around the Galaxy, as well as their Regional Headquarters for my 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. My 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. I checked Primore and that planet resided within Universe 01 though the planet had not been given a designation and was simply Primore. That caught my interest, and I reviewed the history of Primore and found that the system had existed since before I 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 I reviewed the information concerning the Syndicate base on Triton I 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. There 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 in 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 and had started to spread further into Hell before Thor closed the portal and stopped the tide of chaos. Eventually, the chaos altered and 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. I 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. I’d forgotten how clinical and inhuman that side of myself could be. But it was done, and it didn’t look like there would be any Gods I’d be giving allegiance to or taking orders from in the future. Whatever had decided that I needed to remember obviously didn’t want me getting bogged down in divine politics. Which brought me to my next train of thought.

Divinity. In roughly 12 hours if I continued to level I had to choose a purpose. Or, if I leveled did that mean I had already chosen my purpose? To know the purpose I wished to serve I probably needed to know myself. Since this rollercoaster had started I’d reacted and taken control, even forcing people to do what I thought was good for them. Of course, I’d been shown that there was a reason everyone had been sacrificed yet…yet, I 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? I had to admit my conscious was a little clearer now that I knew the souls here would go on, but I 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 different answers of belief and faith.

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

If I was going to define the purpose I wanted to serve it would be personal growth that leads to self-discovery about oneself and the Universe around them. My 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. I needed to think.

I decided to check out the Dyson sphere and see how big it really was. I stood up from my bed, went to the balcony, and launched myself into the air. With a Thought, I was traveling faster than the speed of sound west towards the coast of California at three times the speed of sound. Though there really wasn’t a west in this giant sphere. I noticed that I broke the sound barrier and felt no discomfort. My Fundamental Ability “Adaption” must be allowing me to withstand the friction of the wind. I willed myself to move faster. Then did the math in my head. If I wanted to make it all the way around the circumference of the sphere I’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, I’d be creating a shock wave that would be quite powerful. Instead, I 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, I looked back down at the surface, the Sun at my back. There is 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 I could move it to the edge of the Astral Plane and create a Universe that only contains a Dyson Sphere, that would be interesting. I won’t do it right now though, the increase in Divinity Points, while I’m in the region of Chaos, is just too much to give up. Now that I’m in a vacuum I increase my speed and take a leisurely stroll around the sphere looking over the various areas and landmasses that have been created as well as the oceans if you can call oceans that are wider than the complete surface of the Earth and Ocean. I double-check the areas and make sure there is nothing crazy going on, super deep oceans or super high mountains. There aren’t, my Thor Aspect kept all the Nanites on task, just like I always have.

I changed course and head back toward my estate replica. I landed and grabbed a glass of water that the nanites create for me. I sit down on the deck as one of the worlds falls to twilight. The bands of sunlight and darkness become visible as the night comes to this region of the sphere. The other day areas are so far away that they appear as bands of the nebula are moving toward my location from the east and away from me to the west. To ensure that the day-night cycle could be maintained a very thin layer of material that only allows the equivalent of twilight to reach the most northern and southern regions of the Dyson sphere make up the top of the slitted structure that provides night and day the equatorial region of the Dyson sphere. The areas in twilight allowed for a diversity of creatures that could not exist on earth. I was pretty sure vampires and undead that couldn’t handle sunlight would love those regions if I ever moved this sphere out of the region of Chaos.

As I take in the twilight and sip my water, various thoughts run through my head until I receive the prompt I’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 thwarted. Be wary, the purpose you chose can only be changed at great cost. What Purpose do you choose to serve?

I 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. I thought for a moment and then reworded the purpose I wished to serve, “Natural Selection,” I said.

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 enforce changes to the natural course of things. Failure to serve your purpose may result in the loss of divinity.

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

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 with a higher level. Fundamental settings are not 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 major changes to the Cosmos.

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

Cosmos settings (Fixed).

Basic Settings

Advanced Settings

Change Log

I chose the change log and watched as it exploded and started scrolling down my vision. Well, this was going to take a while. I minimized the window for a minute. Checked on the Syndicate to make sure they were still stumped on how to fix their issues with Earth. I had to admit, it was kind of fun fucking with them this way. Then I sat down in a comfortable Lazy boy recliner I had the nanites create before I opened the window and started from the beginning.

As I went through the changelog I noticed a couple that were colored purple, indicating that they were fundamental changes but otherwise most were blue. Each timestamp had an Id code which only took a little while for me 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. I only had to wonder about that for a minute before I 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. I looked at the Basic Settings which contained submenus until a found attributes. Then I 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 a 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.

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

Cosmic Luck: Positive Error

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

A positive error is the result of a calculation that does not end.

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

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

Timeline Reverted, accept changes to self?

I accepted the changes and found myself back in the Dyson Sphere. As soon as the changes were erased new changes were made. This time I didn’t receive a prompt. My status of Admin protected me from whatever bullshit the guy or gal from 01 was trying to do. I checked my status on the Syndicate system and noted that even though they keep on trying to delete Johnathan Bennard from the timeline and myself 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 I go over Cosmic Access I’ll look them up and see who this entity is if I can. Though by then I should be ready to fix the things I want to fix.

Over the next 13 days, I learn a lot about the universal settings. The more I dig into the settings the more I feel like this is an assembler language to a program. Not exactly, but close enough that the comparison is accurate then just as I think I have a handle on what I’m looking at I find the setting that squashes any assumptions I’ve made that this might be just like a computer programming language. I find it under,

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 certain 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 I was most comfortable with. Good to know. That also meant that there were probably aspects to the interface that I still wouldn’t know to ask for. Nothing I could worry about now. I had finally reached Deity level 10 and had 6 days until I reached Demi-God Status. I decided it was time to go double-check on Earth and see what else was going on.

I portaled to a point near Norad and looked down on the 25-mile radius of the safe zone from about 5 miles up as I willed myself to float. Suddenly, I feel magic lock onto me and yank me away placing me right next to the Unicorn Singularity. I feel nothing from it, No gravity, no pull, nothing. I simply float in space beside it. I wonder. I reach down and touch the singularity as if it’s 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 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, I let go of the Singularity, as I thought about how funny it would be to roll a singularity like a marble. Yeah, the power was going to my head. I opened a portal back to the Dyson sphere and reviewed what had just happened. I reviewed my nanites and noticed the nanites observing Apolyn at Syndicate Headquarters. That bastard had caught me with a wish spell. Technically we were both within the same categorization so there had been no rank disparity. That lucky bastard had wished me to a singularity. Well, it would have been a good idea. I look further back to figure out how he found me.

I reviewed my nanite footage and watched as he used a scrying spell to watch for me, target me, make his wish and then watch as I try to pick up the singularity, let it go then teleport to where I was now. In fact, he is even now he was watching me stand here. I outranked him now, but I needed another 57days before I’d be ready to enact my plan. I walked out onto my balcony, watching as the scrying spell Apolyn is using tries to zoom out to take in the Sphere. Then I teleported into the milky white substance of Chaos. As I reappeared I watched as Apolyn’s scry spell fails. He tries repeatedly to cast the spell to look at me again. As I had thought, even a visual link directly into Chaos couldn’t hold, plus what would he see except me floating in a grey-white soup. Hopefully, he’d think I’d died or something. Of course, if he checked my Syndicate status, which he did as I watched him through the Nanites, he figured out quite easily that I was still alive somewhere. I didn’t like Apolyn, but I wasn’t ready to do what needed to be done yet. How could I interact with the humans on Earth while preventing him from affecting me? I’d have to think about that for a second.