"So many ways to do this."
"I must leave some backdoors for myself..."
"The most simple way of doing this would be having past, present, and future."
"But that would be too similar to other realities!"
"It would also lock me in a set timeline. Especially if I don't make branching paths or other universes for each probability."
"Even if I could freely travel to different timelines. This creates the exact same issue of having variants of myself that could lead to competition."
"I have created the Universal Time Constant."
"But even as I have these thoughts. Time hasn't been launched yet."
"I get it. In order to properly have Time. You would need an observer affected by it."
Somnus had made himself a being without origin. He was also outside of Time. But after getting this idea he started to work on another consciousness.
This consciousness would be more like a programmed observer without emotions. It was essentially a program that existed. Think quantum mechanics and superposition. His reality didn't have these mechanics yet.
But his reality was existing in multiple states.
By creating an observer. Even if it was just a program that spent an eternity measuring. The act of measuring in itself would cause a collapse into a consistent state.
Somnus's dream seed had grown into multiple dimensions and he was a being unaffected by Time. Even him 'observing' didn't cause a collapse in its various states. His existence couldn't be proven from the perspective of those in his reality.
It was as if he was reality itself.
Somnus created a program called:
{T19 - 10011 I8 - 01000 M12 - 01100 E4 - 00100 S18 - 10010 T19 - 10011 R17 - 10001 E4 - 00100 A0 - 00000 M12 - 01100}
This observer was basically called 'Time Stream'.
It had its own consciousness that was a pattern.
It basically scanned '10011010000110000100' and counted the tick. It then repeated this for the foreseeable future.
There was currently no 'end' of the Time Stream. But there was a beginning!
The moment Somnus gave birth to this entity. It performed its duties wonderfully. While it was said to not have emotions. That was slightly untrue. Think of an artificial intelligence. You reward certain behaviors with 'fitness'. You punish certain behaviors by removing 'fitness'.
As the creator of the Time Stream. Somnus could 'pause' it.
By doing this. The entity would stop observing.
The act of observing Time was the default mode of this entity. It counting each individual tick was basically the same for it as breathing is for a normal human.
The next thing Somnus needed to do was establish a few functions to thoroughly control it.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Once there are more real consciousness's in this reality. I wonder if the manipulation of the time stream will affect those new observers?"
Somnus checked the time stream.
TIMESTAMP: 1;
He waited a few seconds.
TIMESTAMP: 3;
He waited six more seconds.
TIMESTAMP: 9;
"It is formatted in seconds..."
It should be noted that a second in Somnus's universe is 60,000 ticks. It is 24 times longer then a second in his previous reality. But here it is still called a 'second'.
He then adjusted the time stamp.
TS: Year 0, Day 1;
Somnus created another entity named:
{H7 - 00111 I8 - 01000 S18 - 10010 T19 - 10011 O14 - 01110 R17 - 10001 Y24 - 11000}
History
This existence/program was responsible for keeping a interactive log of the data that happened in the time stream. The addition of this entity meant that Somnus could 'move' backwards in the history of time.
"I wonder what happens if I try to move forward?"
TS: Year 5994, Day 240;
Somnus simply adjusted his thinking slightly and found that he had skipped almost six thousand years! This was from a single thought!
"From my will alone, I went dormant for thousands of years."
"This isn't time travel. It is more like moving forward at the same rate as usual. My memories of existing in the present are removed. It is basically the same as going into a coma and thinking you have traveled into the future when you wake up a decade later."
"The real test is whether I can go backwards in history and the time stream."
Somnus started to will him going back in time.
TS: Year 3000, Day 179;
"It seems that Time is just data here. Past events and such can get unraveled and there is no difference between going backwards or forwards."
The next test Somnus did was 'pausing' time.
He controlled the time stream and started to manually count.
Somnus considered a year to be 360 days.
A day to be 24 hours.
A hour to be 60 minutes.
A minute to be 60 seconds.
A second to be 60,000 ticks.
He counted the seconds.
"1..."
"2..."
"3..."
"4..."
"5..."
A year later.
"31,099,998..."
"31,099,999..."
"31,100,000!"
"Alright. It has been a year in terms of my thoughts. It is insane that I never got bored or tired. No body. No need to take a break or rest. No need to eat or sleep."
"I'm like a computer fused with my past fragments of memory..."
TS: Year 3000, Day 179;
"No time passed at all..."
"The rules behind how my 'time' works in my reality are quite simple."
"I exist outside it. Even if restarted."
"Time moves forward."
"It is neither an illusion or multiverses/different timelines..."
"There is a single version of events."
"Tampering with the past will indeed destroy the future. It will get overwritten."
"But this is all just a prototype."
During the year Somnus had been counting. He had used his other threads to brainstorm. He decided to place 'Time Stream', and 'History' in their own what he called 'nodes'.
Basically.
He reset them and copied their blank state.
This way he could create multiple universes using the same system.
He then destroyed these programs.
They were to be used to create a universe. One of many.
"My first reality..."
"I shall name it..."
Universe #01
----------------------------------------
Zhar's POV:
Zhar was not conscious.
Even his special body that had turned from false to true couldn't allow him to think in a place without Time.
An unknown amount of time or really no time passed before he regained consciousness.
"Where am I?"
He could think.
But his body could not move. It was as if it didn't exist. But he had died guarding the dream seed? What was happening? He faintly remembered a man in a suit with a face covered in fog.
He could almost feel an illusory temple around him. But it was as if it was collapsing between real and fake. It was as if he was existing as pure information itself.
Days passed and his condition didn't improve.
"Is this the afterlife?"
Five thousand, nine hundred and ninety four years and two hundred and forty days passed.
"When will this end..."
His consciousness was constantly paralyzed in this state. His consciousness peaked every hundred years and then went back to sleep.
Somnus had forgotten about him! Not only that.
When Somnus destroyed the observer entities.
That 'node' of reality collapsed. Almost as if it never existed.
Zhar gained a unique quality from this experience. He had the ability to remember past information.
What exactly is soul? Zhar kept his memories of that false timeline. But he had found himself frozen again.
He couldn't think without time.
The reason Zhar was affected at all was due to Somnus being careless in his test. Now that Somnus had made separate nodes for each universe. Things wouldn't bleed into reality and Zhar wouldn't have to go through such torment.
----------------------------------------
"Now that I have functioning time..."
"I need space!"