Loop 82 Year 21 Day 18

I’ve successfully completed a cloning factory. The results are … not what I expected.

When I clone one person that has a power, all of their clones have very similar powers. None have the exact same power though.

Even the ones I clone at the very end of the embryo development have slightly different powers. The sooner they are separated from the original embryo, the more their powers differ.

I thought that they would have identical powers, but I guess not.

The experiments on them have been very successful. The first batch just turned six today. I am currently sending them into the Bermuda Void.

They all have APG manipulation. I’ve been holding back on sending someone else for these past 11 years.

I wanted to send in test subjects I had specifically created, and that are perfectly controlled. I did mention that I’d need to go back in my loop in order to get cloning info, right?

Well that isn’t completely true. I figured it out in about five years. These first few batches of clones are horribly disfigured. Most have extra arms or legs, or are missing some.

My latest batches are doing exceedingly well though. I’ve even taken on a mini-side-project. I’m segregating different parts of the DNA to try to create super-soldiers. Just sifting through the sperm and embryos to find the power I want isn’t good enough anymore.

Now I want to figure out a way to create the ideal people. If it works out I might even release them to see how well they can survive in a wasteland.

Hell, if that works, I might even be able to change the powers babies are born with. Even with identical sperm and embryo.

Loop 82 Year 21 Day 19

Today the clones make it to the void. Right away some of them die. Specifically they ones that could only sense the APG.

They begin to scream when they are within a hundred or so feet. They are bound and gagged by the on-board bots. The kids are utterly loyal to me, but I don’t want to have to remember the annoying sounds of screams when I think of my data from this moment.

The rest of the clones at least manage to step off of the plane. They begin dying off as they near it. The ones that are left don’t seem to have much constancy in powers. About half of them can directly manipulate APG, but the other half can’t.

After getting their report sheets from AI, I quickly discover the linking factor. Their power level is at 7 or higher. I have a rating system for power users. This is the first time it has actually ever come up as useful.

On a scale of 1 to 9, 9 is the highest. At level nine they are practically a god within their sphere of influence, ie:

Someone that can manipulate an ounce of APG would be a 2, but only because APG is so powerful. Someone that is level 9 could manipulate an virtually unlimited amount of APG at once. This has very little practical use outside of creating intentional power discrepancy to see the Nature vs. Nurture aspect of the final value of power users.

The level 7s die out when they are about ten feet from the void, none of the APG manipulators die. Of course those that can directly manipulate APG are completely immune to it.

Or… Are they immune to HRL? This whole experiment throws many of my preconceptions into question.

By the time they are within arm’s reach only the level 9s are left, along with the APG manipulators.

There are ten APG manipulators, and two level nine people with APG powers. One of the level 9s has the power to actually talk to the APG, as if it were a living organism. He only receives jumbled information though.

I put him on this trip because I couldn’t find a use for talking to APG, at least not when it only replies with nonsense. None of what it says is coherent. At least that is what the subject says. He is still alive though. So I guess he was telling the truth.

Of course the experiments we did on him basically proved without a doubt he was the real deal.

The other level nine was a girl that had the power to turn Uranium and HRL into APG herself. She was not immune to the effects of the APG though. She was immune to the radioactivity of Uranium, and to the HRL.

In the next loop I’m going to create her, or someone like her, and then send them to the void at power level 1. That will be an interesting experiment.

She could be the missing link between APG users. If they were actually just a more powerful version of HRL users, I would have to recreate some certain experiments.

Next comes the best part of my experiment.

I have never actually directly touched the void. Something about it just made me stay away. I could control my fear, and forget it, but I wanted to test it on someone else first.

The first to touch it are the APG users. I don’t want to just waste the level nines if I can help it.

Their hands inch closer to the void. Just as they touch it, the burst into that same invisible substance. The substance seems to suddenly latch on to everything around it.

As soon as the formless substance latches on to one of the experiments, it consumes them. They explode and it continues. It begins to consume everything around it, forming an intangible black hole-like effect.

Within a second I feel myself being dragged in exactly that direction. The effect gets stronger by the millisecond. In less than a second I am there, at the void, and touching it.

Loop 82 Abyss

Damn… I didn’t expect that to happen.

Though I say that, I am pretty content with the results. So touching the void thing is a no-no.

Suddenly I realize something. The blurry, indistinct voices, are speaking to me.

No not to me. Through me? I don’t know. But I can hear snippets.

I make out several words. They are disturbing.

They form a single thought. The voice seems excited, even happy, as if it had just discovered something utterly amazing.

“forget all loops… end of the first era!”

Loop 83 Year 1 Day 1

I am leaving my girlfriend, to allow a bit more freedom in my machinations. We will see how well I do on my own right off of the bat.

Loop 83 Year 1 Day 50

Today I am starting to conquer the world. I want to see what will happen to the void if I control everything.

Loop 83 Year 1 Day 200

I am basically in control over all of Central and South America, and parts of Europe and Asia. I can kill off anyone I want, or extend the life of anyone I want.

Obviously for the former I use nanites. For the latter I use the longevity methods I created in my past loop.

It is amazing how much I can improve things, like the longevity methods, by using a large amount of test subjects.

Of course the test subjects are mostly owners of large corporations, or leaders of nations. They pay the best to be part of my experiments.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Enticing a new person is easy. All I have to do is show them a few of my energy supplements, and the skin toner, which actually reduces the wrinkles in a person’s body.

The combination of the two works wonders for getting money. I bribe or extort anyone I want to. Usually the leaders of the companies that have something I actually want.

After only a few months, I create an improved way to create ‘immortals’. Instead of a large clunky machine, along with several types of longevity liquids being pumped constantly into the body.

Now I can make a concoction that actually reduces the weight of blood cells, while maintaining their ability to carry oxygen. That obviously helps the heart work less intensely, which in turn makes facilitating the body much easier.

It also increases the production of necessary amino acids, and cannibalizes dormant (useless) cells. The cannibalized cells are then used to fuel the creation of new, working, cells. One of the biggest things it does, though, is that it increase bone density which helps with many things: Red blood cell creation, reinforces bones, increases muscle mass eventually etc.

That bone density thing took quite a few dozen homeless people to test it on. I think it was worth it. They would have died anyway. For that matter, they will come back in the next loop.

So I use them for my experiments. It’s better than them going to waste.

With the immortality potion up to that level, I was able to mass market it. Well I mass market it to the level of making sure to have enough to have the most powerful people all get some.

I make sure that the potion only gives enough enhancement that the people that take it, must take it at least once a month. Each small vial (one dose) costs roughly a hundred thousand dollars, but gives about ten years of life.

I obviously have a version that permanently enhances the body, but I don’t distribute it to anyone else. That is for personal use.

With my vast funds I begin implementing Operation: Downfall. I intend to see what killing off all life before the bombs drop does.

With my massive amounts of nanites in place, and several hundreds of nuclear weapons at my finger tips, I’m going to control this version of the Armageddon.

Loop 83 Year 1 Day 265

There is a hundred days until the bombs drop. That’s more than enough time.

I basically used a combination of bribery and extortion to take chunks of Germany and Russia. With just those parts, I think it’s time to start my plan.

I have AI get into every single computer I can.

Within an hour she has control over 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal.

I smile when she gives me the conformation.

I am sitting in my chair. In my room filled with wall-to-wall computers. As soon as she gives me ok, I give her the signal to launch. My computers are tuned to every major news channel. They are still going even though the world is about to end.

I had let it known about a day before that I had control of the world’s nukes. All I did was hack into every television and brag about it a bit.

The world has been in horribly amusing these past hours, but it’s time to own up to my promise.

AI drops the bombs. The world is quickly blanketed in rains of all consuming fire.

There are only two people safe.: me and little emperor. I made sure to have at least one nanite in every person on Earth. It cost a lot to produce that many. I’m talking the amount of money it would take the entire world a week to make. But I had a massive influx of money with my immortality serum.

Anyone with a working nanite after that was detonated. A single explosion of APG to the heart was enough to render anyone not immune to HRL or APG very, VERY dead.

Anyone that was, well they still had a tiny bit of shrapnel burst through their bodies. It would take a while, but even that much damage will grow into a life threatening amount.

With that, I begin my inspection of little emperor.

Loop 83 Year 1 Day 300

LE is not very cooperative. I am doing all sorts of experiments on him. He’s just a kid, but will soon get some amazing powers. I am going to try to change that.

If I can somehow modify what his power will become, I might end his interference with my life. If he no longer is a Looper, her can’t very well do anything to stop me, now can he?

I begin injecting him with all sorts of chemicals. Non-lethal, but very painful.

I also subject him to all manner of ghastly experiments, meant to test the power of his body and mind.

Loop 83 Year 1 Day 365

I don’t know how, but the bombs still drop. There are only two people alive right now, at least that I could find using all of the world’s resources.

I ignore the bombs. That experiment is a failure. I’m still on the one with Little Emperor though. That one is proving to be very interesting.

Loop 83 Year 8 Day 1

Today is the day Little Emperor is supposed to gain his abilities. I have long since broken his mind and body.

Very early on I cut off all of his limbs, and forcefully connected him to a life machine. With the mentality of a child, he couldn’t handle it.

I occasionally take him outside, of course in a machine that keeps him alive.

He can’t even think for himself. I talk to him sometimes. When I do I see a small light in his eyes. Does he realize I’m talking to him?

I can’t think of a way to tell without using telepathy. Which I don’t have.

One of the experiments I run on him include injecting him with stem cells. Cells that have not developed into a specific type, so can be used to mimic any type of cell.

After some very thorough tests, I have created a cloned body of him. Using the information I got from the last loop proved invaluable. Of course I do have a bit of information I had AI gather from labs before I dropped the nukes.

With all of that information, I was able to create a semblance of actual cloning. I took a random person, this Little Emperor, and made a perfect body clone. The bad news is that the clones I’ve made of him have all been very much brain dead.

That includes the clones taken from him before I broke him. I don’t know how to fix that part.

Anyway, I have all of the clones tied up as well. It’d be interesting for him to come back into one of their bodies. I would find it unamusing if he used one of those bodies to kill me though. I wasn’t going to let him take my research lab from me.

It’s the long awaited day. I have him perfectly monitored. I will know to the second when this little boy gets his power. Then I’ll have some very polite questions to ask him.