(Chaos, January 2nd, 2037, Day 366)

As I stood in line I accessed the nanites and noted that the historical archives had increased by a significant amount. I started reviewing what had occurred after I’d sent the nanites through the portal to the far past. A quick check verified that no changes had been made to the timeline which was exactly how I wanted it. However, going over the data was going to take a lot longer than it would take me to get through this line. I’d only glanced down for about a minute as I followed whoever was in front of me and the hundred or so people I’d been following was already down by half. If only normal Bureaucracy could move so quickly. I’d once stood at the Department of Motor Vehicles for over two hours, and I’d been the fifth person in line. This was much faster. As I watched, I realized why we were moving so quickly. First, there were ten tellers. Second, as each person came up to the window they were scanned, and their identity was placed on a screen the teller could see. Then they cashed in their winnings or transferred credits and they were done. It was a very quick and efficient system.

Only a couple of minutes later I heard a teller call, “Next!” I made my way over and stopped in front of the teller.

The teller, a very short man, covered from head to toe in extra blondish brown hair looked at the screen, then looked at the screen and looked back at me before asking, “Johnathan Bennard, how can I help you?”

“I’m here to collect my winnings on the Cultivation of Earth”

“The latest Cultivation, yes, let me check your account,” He said as he started checking the information on the screen. “Sir, it seems that a lock has been placed on your funds citing ineligibility.”

“Ineligibility?” I asked.

“Yes sir, Divines may not place bets upon themselves on worlds that are being cultivated”

“Please check your records, what level was I on January 2nd, 2036 at 5 a.m. when the Cultivation announcement sounded on Earth?”

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with….”

“Check it!” I said placing just a hint of anger into my demeanor

“At the beginning of the Cultivation your level was Grade 2 Level 6,” he said wonderingly then asked, “But how sir?

“How doesn’t matter, I believe the rule you’re referring to states that no Divine may make a bet on themselves at the start of the cultivation though divines can come and go freely, yes?” I ask

“Well, yes sir but this is highly irregular…”

“Simple question, can you release my funds, or do I need to speak to management?”

“No sir, I can’t release your funds, and neither can the manager. This wager has been deemed ineligible by an Administrator.”

“And the Administrators name?” I asked

“Why the gentlemen beside you sir?”

I turned and looked at Apolyn who’d come up behind me while I was talking to the teller. “So, Administrator for both the Gambler’s Network and the Syndicate as well?” I asked.

“Yes, Johnathan, your wager was deemed ineligible as you hold the status of a divine,” Apolyn said smugly

“Well, that is true now, but was it true when I made the wager?”

“Hiding one’s true levels is not unheard of. As a Demi-God, you could have hidden your true level quite easily”

“Was I?”

“Of course you were, you couldn’t have leveled to such heights in a single year?”

“Again, I’ll ask you if you’re sure?”

“Of course, I’m not sure but that is the call that is being made and enforced,” Apolyn declared while Elisa and Beaezul looked on smiling wolfishly.

“You know, I played this game once before. I won, which is why I could make such an insane wager in the first place. That you are technically reducing another Divine’s Divinity Points that were rewarded to another entity by so much, I wonder…” I said as I trailed off and watched Apolyn’s eyes go wide.

“I did no such thing!” Apolyn declared.

“You did, let me explain. In another time and place, a Divine did not follow the rules that divines have and tried to kill me when I freed him. Unknown to that divine I was a pretty powerful mortal and well let’s just say things didn’t go his way. As part of his punishment, a wish I had was granted. What was the wish you ask? Well that’s easy, unlimited wealth”

“You can’t wish for unlimited wealth, that never works,” Elisa said.

“True, it doesn’t normally work and no divine could grant that wish without also tying that wish to their power in someway”

“So you’re saying that you have the ability to conjure unlimited wealth and that a divine is paying for it.

“No, I’m saying that the powers that be where I was worked with a couple of different divines to set this up. Every time I do this, “ I said as I pulled out a gold bar and set it in front of the teller. “Or this,” I said as I pulled out a million-dollar chip for the casino in the other room, “Divinity points are charged to the divine that set up the ability for me. He in turn diverts that debt to the divine that tried and failed to kill me”

“That can’t be true, there are no divines…”

I cut off Apolyn. There are no divines that are not currently trapped or in transition that have that debt, you are correct. However, the divine will exist and when that happens It will be a very long time before his divinity gets back to a zero balance, “ I said as I handed the 1 million credit poker chip to the teller, “For you, enjoy.”

“That’s insane!” Apolyn said

“That’s brilliant!” Beaezul said. “So this divine that doesn’t even exist yet will come into existence owning Divinity Points?

“Yep!”

“And every time you create wealth he gets more debt?”

“Again yes”

“Absolutely brilliant!”

“We only have your word on this” Apolyn said as Elisa looked at me hesitantly

I looked at the Teller and asked, “What is my credit rating?”

“Sir, your credit rating is unlimited”

“Is that after the removal of his wager from his account?” Elisa asked.

“Yes, The wager has already been subtracted from the account and added to the Networks coffers. His account is still listed as Platinum with unlimited funding.”

Elisa looked thoughtful for a moment, shrugged, and then said “I vote to return his funds and payout his wager”

“Me Too,” Beaezul said.

“Seriously? No, that requires a unanimous vote from the three of us and I will not vote for it.!” He declared.

I looked at Elisa and Beaezul and said, “Thank you for your support.” I turned to stare at Apolyn. “So, you believe that you can renege on a wager that is being enforced through the divine, both the hellish and the celestial and there will be no consequences?” I asked

“I believe that you lied about your level and made a wager which violated our rules?” Apolyn retorted.

“Is your purpose in any way related to deception?” I asked.

“No, I serve the purpose of Power, specifically gaining it, which can be done through loopholes making this within the scope of my purpose”

“Did you receive any boosts to your divinity when you added this much credit to your coffers? I would think that the amount in question would have earned you at least 1 Divinity Point” I said.

“No, and credits do not often lead to Divinity Points as they do not always represent power.”

Elisa and Beaezul looked thoughtful as I continued, “True, except when you earn said credits from a divine at least two categories higher than you reducing their power, which by default implies that you are more powerful than that divine. Even now you are trying not to gloat because you think you bested me.”

“I am not, “ he said unconvincingly.

“Yeah, keep saying that. Instead, I’m going to show you a neat trick.

I accessed my Cosmic Access log and requested an Adjudicator to resolve a dispute between three Divines with a few suggestions added in to ease any decisions that went in my favor. Almost immediately a sphere of golden light surrounded Elisa, Beaezul, Apolyn, and myself. A Portal opened and Adaline stepped out. I noticed I was frozen except for my ability to look around as were the other three. Adaline looked at the four of us then opened up a holographic viewing screen and watched the conversation we’d just had. Then she followed the system back, reviewing at a very high speed my last year. I was able to keep up but I was pretty sure the other three would have just seen a blur. Adaline looked at Apolyn then myself then back to Apolyn before she spoke, “Judgement is for the plaintiff. This adjudication is complete.” A gold portal opened and she stepped through then the Gold portal disappeared.

“What was that?” Apolyn asked shocked

I turned to the Teller, “Have the funds been released from my wager?” I asked

“Yes Sir”

“Payout as follows 3.0e 99 to every single human from Earth. Names and accounts follow,” I said as I shunted the names of all the humans from Earth into his terminal.

“But Sir, are you sure”

“Yes, do it!” I said as I watched Apolyn’s face start to turn red.

“Oh calm down Apolyn, it’s not that bad. The Syndicate had the funds and automatically liquidated the stock, which I bought. I now own 70% of the Syndicate. And I did say I owed you after all. By the way, if you learn nothing else from this, you should take it to heart that even Divines, Celestial or Hellish, answer to someone else, and broken promises and violations of the rules that we’re supposed to follow are enforced. I’ve been reviewing how the Syndicate has been doing things and I have to say I’m not at all impressed.”

“What?” Apolyn said as he pulled up his interface to check

“How?” Elisa said

“You used your infinite wealth to buy out the 70% as soon as it became available which incurred even more debt onto the divine you hinted at just a little while ago,” Beaezul said wonderingly. “Remind me to never get on your bad side, he must have really pissed you off”

“Kind of, yeah!”

Apolyn, having calmed down, looked thoughtful for a second then mused out loud, “So some form of Judge for the gods exists and found your claim to be just and honest and enforced the promise of a divine because I had wronged you? That means that you must have been a mortal when the Cultivation started, but now you’re a Demi-God. How?”

“I did say I had you to thank for where I am today. That includes your ability to come up with ways to cheat the systems in place to cheat those systems. And while I might owe you for getting me here. I’m not about to give away all of my secrets.”

“That’s impossible…” Apolyn said.

“What now,” Elisa asked.

“Now, well now I’m going to be busy for the next little bit but the one thing I want the three of you to understand is that the days of Cultivation are over. If you want to make a dungeon or Labyrinth world and somehow find a way to gamble on the Adventures that go in that’s fine. I’m even fine with dungeon worlds being created to see if Adventures have what it takes. What will not happen again is a cultivation. I could go back in time and try to fix this problem but I don’t see it going my way, well at least until…”

Apolyn flickered then rebounded and flew into an invisible wall of force I’d erected.

I moved in a flash, grabbed Apolyn by his neck, and lifted him into the air. “You are beginning to try my patience dumbass,” I said as I pile drove him into the ground causing him to instantly turn into a spirit, which I then trapped and put back into a new body I conjured while my nanites fixed all the damage to the structures I’d just done.

Apolyn looked around and then at me with fear in his eyes and said, “You killed me!”

“Sure did, right after you tried to change the timeline again. Apolyn, seriously, I knew you were a little on the slow side the last time you tried to pull one over on something much more powerful than you and you got yourself nuked for your trouble but that was just sad. Serious question to all three of you, how many times did you try to change the timeline to get rid of me?”

“I lost count,” Elisa said

“As did I,” Beaezul agreed

Apolyn just glared then answered resignedly once he realized I was waiting for an answer, “A lot”

“10,467 times to be exact,” I said. “If it didn’t work during any of those attempts what made you think it would have worked now? Changes to this Timeline will not ever affect me so let’s move past that idiocy. Next time I’ll just kill and let what’s left head off to the Eye. My debt to you is now paid in full.

“But you killed me?”

“Apolyn, you need to trust me when I say that if I’d been in the wrong. The lady you just saw would have appeared and stopped me from killing you, it’s kind of their thing.”

“Oh”

“Yeah, Oh. So anyway, back to what I was going to say before. There will be no more cultivations. Each and every planet that has been seeded and caged is starting to suffer from containment problems. Over the next 100 years or so, the mana density of those worlds is going to come up to normal, and spell casters will be reintroduced into those worlds. No more mass killings for soul stones. If people need them they’ll have to go out and earn them the old-fashioned way through the dungeons and The Labyrinth.

“But that is so inefficient,” Elisa said

“Yes, but it’s fair and offers mortals the chance and choice as well as free will to pursue their own destiny, something Cultivations didn’t allow.”

“It was fair to the mortals!” Apolyn said

“Really?” I answered. “On each planet cultivated, what percentage of the indigenous population survived the full year?” I asked.

“I don’t have those statistics,” Apolyn said

“I do,” I said. “ The maximum was 14% and the worst was 0% I am rounding down on the 0% as some of the population was saved at the last minute but .0001% of a population does round down to 0%. Anyway, the average when you add in all the other cultivations is right around 7%”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Elisa asked.

“Simple math Elisa. If the system had been fair the numbers would have been between 40 and 60 percent. Cultivations that reduce the population of a planet by 93% on average, yeah, there’s no way that was fair.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Apolyn said.

I pulled up the data and shunted it to their Personal Interfaces as I said, “As one of the great debaters from my Earth once said, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”

All three looked over their interfaces before Beaezul asked, “How do you have all this information? The numbers look like the data before we scrubbed it?”

“It is. I have full access to any information that the Syndicate acquired during its long existence. I am seriously disappointed in the Divines that utilized this loophole to level and make soul stones. The number of sentients that died for those that did this…No more. Go find a way to continue to serve your purpose while I figure out what I’m going to do next.” I said as I teleported back to the Dyson Sphere.

As I appeared in my estate overlooking Alamogordo I set my nanites in multiple places to task. For the Dyson Sphere, I had them move and alter the currents of Chaos to bring the sphere closer to the border of the astral. Inside I couldn’t feel the movement, but I knew we were underway and getting closer. I had also used my nanites to lockout and take control of every Syndicate terminal everywhere. Then placed a message on each Monitor.

Closed until further notice!

Pay and services will continue for the foreseeable future.

Enjoy your much-deserved vacations!

That done I sat back and started reviewing the archived information that the nanites had gathered from the very beginning and was shocked to my core. As I reviewed I realized Universe 01 had already existed when I dropped my nanites off in the past. My nanites had entered Universe 01 before it gained the additional identifiers it had and flooded the Universe. I noted that the stellar makeup looked somewhat familiar and realized that Primore existed within the Milky Way. The solar system containing Earth was on the opposite side of the Milky Way and it looked like the Galaxy wasn’t aging.

Whatever kept the structure of the Galaxy and Primore from changing did not stop civilizations from rising and falling on the surface of Primore or any of the other planets in the Galaxy. It simply kept the stars from dying and the planets from being decaying due to entropy. I watched as the heavens around Primore remained the same for hundreds of millions of billions of years. It was insane.

I watched as a second universe popped into existence within Chaos. It was a mirror of the first, except this time, things were allowed to occur naturally. When the Universe finally faded towards its heat death Chaos broke through the barriers and reabsorbed everything. While I’d focused on universe 02 other Universes had popped into existence and the cycle never seemed to end. Any Universe that popped into existence near Universe 01 was a replica of it. This pattern seemed to follow what I learned. I was still only seeing a small part of Chaos so the other Universes I’d found that had been different could come into existence eventually. I watched the life and death of countless Universes, Universe 01 remained the same until the Change was instituted.

In-Universe 01 Earth had gone through multiple cycles of rebirth. Multiple species had achieved sentience through the creatures that existed there and the version of humanity that existed, thrived, and died represented what one would find if they read a fantasy novel more than any science fiction novel. I watched as Gods rose and fell. Some ceased to exist altogether as someone else changed the timeline. Of course, I couldn’t see this through the nanites picked up temporal echoes of what could have been. If not for the extreme amount of processing power my nanites gave me my mind would have been able to handle it, but I wouldn’t have recognized it for what it was.

I continued reviewing the past as the Dyson Sphere made its way towards the Astral border and the remnants of humanity from the Cultivation went through their training and enjoyed their lives of no worry as I tried to put it all together. I had broken the Syndicate, which felt great. Now I needed to find out what had happened to those original Gods while I tried to figure out what to do next. This was not going to be as easy as I’d thought it would be because I had a feeling I couldn’t just go back and reset everything from the beginning. Primore was older than I had thought and was kept in its current condition yet, whoever had been watching had allowed it to be destroyed by Chaos before the last change. Why would they do that unless they had already known what was going to happen, or was I just a fly stuck in the greater tapestry of existence with no input on how this all turned out? I conjured a Long Island Iced Tea and watched the version of the night inside the sphere fall as I wondered what the hell was actually going on?