The orange blob came loose from the glove and turned back into the pen as I admired the amazing piece of art on the table I’d drawn with the glove’s fingers. Anyone who said that my mighty dragon looked terrible was wrong.

Anyway, this combination had worked exactly how I expected it to. It had retained the bubble ability while gaining the ability to draw with the fingers. It was… well, cool, I suppose. But not exactly useful in any meaningful way. I could just use the pen on its own if I really needed to write or draw something. Which didn’t happen very often either.

And no, unfortunately, things drawn by the glove didn’t gain the bubble’s toughness or their ability to pop and knock people away. That would have been pretty awesome, but alas.

“Right, so… The next most voted thing iiis… The shower head into the glove. Hmm… I can sort of see how this might end up being useful, but we’ll have to see…”

Once again, I went through the process of fusing the shower head into the glove and was soon left with a glove that had the outline of three raindrops in its palm circle now.

As always, I struck a pose, extended my hand forward, and fed it some Ether. The glove glowed for a moment, before a bubble formed, and as soon as I cut off the Ether feeding the bubble, it popped off and got launched forward by a stream of water that automatically came from the palm.

“Whoa–”

The bubble flew across the room, bounced off a wall, and slammed into a chair, toppling it over, before continuing to innocently float in the air, now without most of its momentum.

“Okaaay… huh. That’s actually already pretty nice. I can use this as a cannonball, chat!”

GeorgeDoshington: oh shit nice

KaiEbikoOfficial: nice!

trelipideliberitation: arrrr matey!

trelipideliberitation: sink those stinkin landlubber chairs!

I snorted and looked back at the bubble, briefly wondering how it could both fly through the air like a cannonball with seemingly no resistance, but also gently wobble in the air like an actual bubble.

I probably shouldn’t question it too much.

I drew my sword once more and slashed through the air, shooting off a lightning bolt at the bubble. As expected, the bubble exploded into water as it hit, drenching half of the room.

Good thing the room was big enough that it didn’t reach all the way to me.

“Alright! Yes! I think I’m going to keep this one, chat. Just one last experiment…”

Unlike the shower head, the glove didn’t have a convenient button to activate the stream of water, but I was decent enough with Ether manipulation now that I could tell it used Ether in a slightly different way when it had activated the stream of water that had launched the bubble.

I just needed to replicate it and–

A jet of water suddenly spewed out of the glove’s palm, startling me a little.

“Whoa! Uh… That was way easier than the bubble or the sword…” I frowned, feeling a little annoyed. Why were all the combat items difficult to make work, but any utility functions were easy?

Well, at least I could still take a shower, although it would probably be quite weird to use a glove for that.

GeorgeDoshington: noice

GeorgeDoshington: its like that flower squirting prank

KaiEbikoOfficial: so you’re keeping this?

“Heh, kind of… Yeah, I think I’m keeping this. I can always take it apart and try different combinations, but I like what this does.”

I nodded to myself in satisfaction and then turned back to the table.

“Sooo, what else can I make…? I feel like there isn’t that much left that could potentially be useful… Hmm…”

I idly leaned on a nearby chair, opened my infinite pizza box, took a slice, and bit into it as I looked over the items splayed on the table.

I still had the soap, the pen, the mop, my bucket, the towel, the time-freezing popsicle… And some other junk, but these were probably the most relevant.

GeorgeDoshington: popsicle and pizza for ultimate time travel pizza

FouxMoux: try popsicle into your wristwatch thing

“Who eats popsicle and pizza together…” I murmured before looking at my bracelet and humming in thought. “You know… I kinda forgot I could use this, too… And I do wonder what combining it with the popsicle would do… A thing that keeps track of time and a thing that dilates time…? Am I going to get a tiny time machine or something?”

Although… the popsicle was a consumable. It would be gone forever after I ate it. If I fused it with something, would whatever function it added also be temporary? What would happen if I used it all up and then tried to unfuse the two? Would it let me? Or would it be stuck in the fused state forever?

Hmm…

Well, I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal even if they were stuck together forever. The popsicle was only temporary and the bracelet was just a utility item anyway. I wouldn’t lose all that much, especially since I was done with floor two where it was supposed to be the most useful.

“...You know what? Let’s try it!”

I took off the bracelet and placed it on the table. Then I grabbed the still-wrapped popsicle – which still felt suspiciously warm to touch – and immediately tried using Fusion on it.

It turned into a blob of energy as expected… except it was different. Sure, there were a few wisps of orange as usual, but the vast majority of the thing was purple and moving in a very uncanny and kind of headache-inducing manner. It was like someone had taken a million remote controllers, each keyed to a small part of the purple blob, and then kept randomly pressing the pause, fast forward, and rewind buttons.

I didn’t combine it with the bracelet yet and instead stared at the thing, feeling both awed and disturbed.

uptonMIKE: uh

uptonMIKE: seizure warning please

trelipideliberitation: wtf

GeorgeDoshington: this is so fucking trippy

KaiEbikoOfficial: wow that’s so weird

“Right, uh… Sorry. I didn’t expect this to be so… different. Why is it so different, anyway?”

KaiEbikoOfficial: because it messes with time?

FouxMoux: if orange is Ether, then this must be Tempor no?

“Oh… Right, yeah. I think you’re right, Foux. This is… probably pure Tempor, or something.”

We’d been pretty sure before, but this more or less confirmed that Tempor was used for… well, space-time stuff.

Well then. Now I really wanted to see what this would make.

I carefully took the shifting blob of energy and continued with the Fusion process, stuffing it inside the bracelet. The thing glowed for a second, then seemed to glitch like a video game object, and then abruptly stopped glowing and snapped to its new form.

It looked similar to before, but now had a cyan hue and several blunt icicle-like growths jutting from the bottom of it. The little screen still showed the time like normal though.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Well, it looks fancy… Does it do anything special, though?”

I shot an Appraisal at it, hoping it would give me some hints.

Waterproof Key bracelet + Time-freezing popsicle (fused)

A fusion of two objects.

[INNATE] [LIMITED] skill: Bullet time - Use a large amount of Tempor to speed up your own passage through time, making it seem like everything but you is slowed down.

This object is a Key item.

GeorgeDoshington: hoollyyy shiiitt

trelipideliberitation: oh damnnn thats so good!

My eyes went wide.

“It gained a skill, chat! And a really good one at that!” I cheered as I grabbed the bracelet and put it back on my right wrist. “But it has a new key word. And ‘limited’ sounds like…”

[LIMITED] - This skill has a limited number of uses and will disappear after you use the last bit of its charge.

“...Yeah, I figured as much. But it makes sense and I kinda expected it… Still! This is amazing! It’s like the ultimate trump card! When I get into a tough spot again, I can just use this to slow everything down and run. I am definitely keeping this! Thanks for the suggestion, Foux!”

FouxMoux: heck yeah!

FouxMoux: no prob!

I grinned, looking down on my cannonball glove and my bullet time bracelet.

“Yeah, this Fusion sub skill is by far the best investment of skill points yet. Only six points to make all this stuff? Heck yeah! Sign me up!”

It was the most expensive upgrade I’d gotten so far, but it still seemed a lot stronger than everything else I had. Although, to be fair, it had some obvious disadvantages, like needing to have some items in the first place, and the possibility of losing items I’d made. Although, the latter wasn’t that big of a deal since there wasn’t anyone around who could steal my stuff.

But then again, all my fire skills were from a completely different race and if I thought about it, they all supported a different… playstyle, for lack of a better word. One where you barrel forward and burn everything in your way while healing from your own flames.

On the other hand, all the human skills – except for Streamer – seemed to be about analyzing objects, crafting them into something, and conquering dungeons with them.

That kind of felt… intentional. Like someone purposefully designed all these skills to create different ‘classes’ with different playstyles, so to speak.

The Fate Weaver…

I shook my head.

“Anyway, now that I think about it, I feel like my problem with not enough skill slots is because I have these phoenix skills. Without them, I probably wouldn’t need more slots for a while. It kind of feels like I’m using a cheat code the game wasn’t balanced for…”

GeorgeDoshington: stop using it then lol

KaiEbikoOfficial: nana this isn’t a game

KaiEbikoOfficial: cheat if you have to

trelipideliberitation: your clearly meant to cheat tho

I hummed.

“Yeah, I guess I’m just overthinking this… Anyway, I should probably test this thing… Ugh, but I don’t wanna waste it. What if it only has like a few seconds worth of charge? I don’t wanna blow my trump card like that…” I looked around the room. “...But then, what if I try to use it in a fight and it doesn’t work the way I think? Ugh…”

I mentally looked around and found the innate skill. It felt just like every other skill I had, albeit sort of similar to Quick Fetch.

uptonMIKE: you should still test it

uptonMIKE: what if it drains you too fast and knocks you out

I grimaced.

“That’s a good point, Mike… It does say that it uses a large amount, so I probably can’t use it for long. Especially since Streamer already hogs half of my reserves, apparently.” I huffed. “Okay, fine! I’ll try testing this thing. Let’s see…”

I glanced around the assortment of stuff on the table, reached for the wallet, and pulled out one of the copper coins. I curled my right hand, placed the coin on the thumb, and then flipped the coin into the air.

As it spun, I activated the mental switch and watched as the coin went from spinning way too fast to see, to lazily turning in the air.

“Oh, man… This is…” I stared at the phenomenon and calmly walked around the still spinning coin, listening to the soft sound of air periodically being pushed away.

GeorgeDoshington: slooowmoooo

FouxMoux: nice it works

I walked back, grabbed another coin from the wallet, held it up, and then dropped it.

It began falling at a normal speed, but a split second later, when it stopped touching my fingers, it abruptly slowed down.

“Interesting…” I murmured.

While the first coin was still spinning through the air, about to reach its apex, and the second one was slowly falling, I stepped to the side, drew my sword, poured some Ether into it, and then slashed in front of me.

The result was fascinating.

The lightning that shot out of it was still very fast, but now I could actually see it surging through the air toward the corner of the room. The way the lightning expanded out like a spiderweb while maintaining its form was mesmerizing. It hit the wall full two seconds later – from my perspective – and fizzled out against the impenetrable stone.

And then, abruptly, I heard two coins land on the ground, one after another.

“Wha–” I looked down and saw that both the coins had fallen, as if time wasn’t slowed down anymore. “Wait, did I run out already?!”

I frantically searched for the mental switch and found that it was still there, just not activatable because I was missing something. Then I glanced at the bracelet with the intention to use Appraisal on it again, but instead blinked when I saw that it displayed a partially depleted green bar with 93% displayed above it.

I stared for a moment before deflating.

“...Oh. I guess that’s the remaining charge. Crap. Just this already used seven percent? I really need to save this as my trump card, don’t I? Hmm…”

I frowned.

“Why did it stop though? I didn’t stop it myself… Did I run out of Tempor? But I didn’t feel anything.”

Just as a test, I tossed my sword onto a random table and then tried to Quick Fetch it and… Yup, nothing happened. I couldn’t use the skill.

“Huh. I really did. Well, alright. Looks like running out of Tempor is fine, chat.” I smiled.

KaiEbikoOfficial: that’s good

FouxMoux: hold on

KaiEbikoOfficial: no need to worry about overusing it then

FouxMoux: I just realized

FouxMoux: this doesn’t make sense

“What doesn’t make sense? Do you want me to get knocked out?” I asked slyly.

FouxMoux: the time dilation

FouxMoux: we watched it with you

FouxMoux: experienced it

My smile slowly dropped and my eyebrows creased. I tried to reach out for the simple and obvious explanation… but quickly realized that there wasn’t any.

“That… Umm… That shouldn’t be possible…?” I slowly said.

Since I was streaming back to Earth in real time, I’d assumed that both of the worlds’ timelines passed at the same speed. But if they did, then this couldn’t be possible.

What was going on? Was the Bullet TIme skill slowing down the entire world rather than speeding me up? Or was it speeding up the entire Earth along with me instead? Or was it the streamer skill that did either of these?

Or maybe the timelines weren’t even synced at all and I was actually streaming to an entirely different point in time?

But… That… That was absurd. The skills either dilated time for entire worlds, or Streamer had to constantly perform time travel to function. Both to let everyone watch my stream and to get their chat messages back to me.

Either one of these options would be an order of magnitude crazier than anything else this entire adventure had thrown at me so far.

Was it really, though? Tempor was supposed to mess with space-time, wasn’t it? But was it powerful enough to actually do all… or any of that?

GeorgeDoshington: oh shit plotwist

KaiEbikoOfficial: um…

GeorgeDoshington: ur in a simulation

KaiEbikoOfficial: maybe it’s messing with time even more than it lets on?

trelipideliberitation: what the fuck

trelipideliberitation: why does this suddenly feel like cosmic horror

Or… Maybe…

Another option…

…Could…

Could the Streamer skill be fake? Was it really streaming back to Earth? Or was it just conjuring things out of my own mind? After all… Every skill added a mental switch to my mind. Who was to say they couldn’t read my own mind as well? And then use that data to construct a fully believable faked stream chat as well?

I felt a chill go down my spine and forced myself to swallow.

Would the system do something like that? It had never lied to me so far, but…

All the other options felt too absurd. The stream chat being fake made the most sense. Would be the simplest explanation. Occam’s razor.

How hadn’t I thought of this before? Why had I naively accepted everything at face value? Streaming everything I saw and heard to Earth? Absolute nonsense! Even the stuff with me getting super popular and the Snitch admins trying to ban me sounded like my subconscious trying to rationalize everything.

KaiEbikoOfficial: Nana?

KaiEbikoOfficial: are you okay?

Was Ebiko a figment of my imagination turned into a parody of the real person by the system? Was I literally talking to voices in my head and calling them my friends?

KaiEbikoOfficial: Nana?

GeorgeDoshington: existential crisis in process lol

…Did it even matter?

Sure, they might all be fake and I might be alone in reality but… Would I rather ignore them and feel alone as well? I had barely even begun to explore this world, but I didn’t think I would find more people anytime soon, considering I had yet to see a single insect, much less a person.

How long could I last completely on my own with nobody to talk to?

So what if none of the names in chat were real people? Didn’t people nowadays talk to AI chatbots and whatnot anyway? This was basically the same thing, right?

Yeah…

It didn’t matter.

No need to think about this too much.

I didn’t need to do anything differently even if none of this was real.

I cleared my throat and breathed in.

“...Sorry about that, chat. Just got lost in thought a little. You know… It’s all pretty crazy,” I said as calmly as possible. “Well, what did I expect? It messes with the fabric of spacetime, after all… Hah, don’t you guys just hate surprise time travel? It’s always a mess and makes no sense. I hate time travel, that’s for sure.”

Slowly but surely, I returned to rambling about every random thing that came to mind, pretending that nothing had changed.

Subconsciously though, I felt like everything had changed.