“No, no, no, no,” I murmured as I processed that soul-crushing revelation I was given. I couldn’t handle it. If it was a time loop, everything I had done had really happened. It meant that all my work had changed nothing. It meant that-
“Sorry about this, but I really need you up and running right away,” the voice stated. “[Suppress Emotions].”
I felt like I could have stopped the ability from being used. I could tell that [Memory Protection] gave me something I could fight back with.
Except, I didn’t want to feel anything at that moment.
I let it through. My emotions faded, making it much easier for cold logic to emerge.
If this is all a time loop, then I just have to break it.
“Disrupt!” I shouted with a snap. And then another snap. “Control Z!” I tried a different tactic.
“You’re an admin right now,” came the voice. “Or at least… an admin enough for our purposes. You can’t use Placeholder spells and skills here.”
“But I’m still in Placeholder!” I protested as I gestured at the shattered obelisk… with my body nowhere near it.
Wait…
“Where did I-“ I looked at my body next to Cameron, and the voice chuckled.
System: ERROR. Time loop destabilized. Take corrective action
“This isn’t the second time the crystal was destroyed. It’s the first. And you are going to fix it,” the voice continued. “Say, [Initiate System Revert].”
With that, the voice passed me something that felt like a spell but was completely alien to my normal spellcasting senses.
I folded my shadowy arms.
“No,” I replied. “You can’t make me.”
“You’re right… I can’t. The System, however…”
What followed was the most excruciating pain of my entire life. I felt every one of my atoms being disintegrated, and before I could even process it, I had caved.
“[Initiate System Revert]!” I blurted out.
System: Falling back to most recent applicable backup
System: WARNING. No additional corrective actions taken, timeline will likely destabilize again!
“Don’t worry about that. It doesn’t account for your [Memory Protection]. Past you will get it sorted in the next go around.”
Meanwhile, I was on all fours.
“What… was that?” I asked.
“You were erasing yourself from existence,” the voice stated matter-of-factly. “Without this loop, you cease to exist. Now that you’ve learned that that is unpleasant, I recommend that you just play along. Okay?”
I didn’t have time to retort before the scene in the cathedral vanished.
The next thing I knew, we were hovering over a young boy lying under the covers of his bed.
“Next up, [Override Hero Selection], Jonathan Andrews,” the voice stated as I felt another pseudo-spell passed to me.
“Wait… So I picked the [Hero]?” I asked.
“Indeed, if you had gotten the one that System would have given you, you never would have made it that far… or you would have managed to complete the entire ritual without a hitch and not used the clockwork heart that made this all possible.”
Great, so the heart was rigged for all of this as well. I should have known something was off with how it reacted to the ritual, but it wasn’t exactly a component I could spare for testing.
However, AltSys gave something away there. I just had to stop the [Hero] selection, and I would either complete the ritual as intended or die to the [Hero].
I was fine with either. I tried to hold out again but didn’t last much longer. The [Hero] was picked just like it had happened the first time.
“AltSys, why are you making me do this?” I asked with a weary voice as we went forward in time to the next time I apparently intervened.
“AltSys isn’t my name,” AltSys replied. “AltSys was merely what you called the both of us since you didn’t have any clue of who or what was on the other end of some misformatted System message.” He chuckled. “No. You are as much AltSys as I am.”
And that was the end of the conversation because we had to have some more chats with John. And by we, I mean mostly the being I still mentally had pegged as AltSys.
It turned out that his speaking transmitted to people we were talking to just fine. The only difference is that every single time an admin… skill?... power?... came up, I was the one who had to use it.
“Why did I have to increase John’s illusion resist?” I asked. “Why couldn’t you just do it yourself?”
“Because this way, any admin action that noticeably affects Placeholder is being taken by an ephemeral being that is flitting undetected through time,” AltSys stated.
“Which means…” my eyes widened slightly. “You son of a birch. That’s how you evaded Admin.”
“Got it in one,” AltSys replied. “He spent so many manipulation points looking for a literal ghost. It was kinda hilarious, honestly.”
“And manipulation points are?”
“Literally MP… but for admins,” the admin replied. “If you want to change a world, you have to shell out the MP for it. Oh, and yes, you can convert your MP to System MP, but the conversion ratio’s terrible.”
Since I doubt I have any manipulation points, that means he’s the one supplying them all. If I take out AltSys, then-
“Good luck trying to take out an admin,” AltSys replied.
“How are you reading my thoughts? Is that an admin power?” I was sure I should be furious, but that emotional suppression was working overtime.
“Kinda,” he replied. “But to get back on topic, admins are incredibly hard to kill, should they even be stupid enough to go down to a world in person. Your second favorite admin, for example. Should he go down there physically, he would be… what… level 100? It looks like he liked your class, so he would probably take it again, max out all the skills, and then give himself even more ridiculous armor than the set you have on.”
“That’s hardly fair,” I said, a frown just barely poking through the emotional controls.
“It’s not meant to be fair. Normies aren’t meant to kill admins, especially cautious ones. I mean, a smart admin would even have it set up to automatically convert their manipulation points into health in a crisis situation to avoid one-shot abilities. Sure, they may overdraw and go negative, but-“ AltSys paused. “And I’ve probably said a bit too much about that since you’re still plotting my murder. Sorry, but you won’t get a shot at me in any way that matters.”
“Coward,” I muttered.
From there, I got to view several key moments in Placeholder’s history… and mine… from an outside perspective.
I gave myself the 0 perk point achievement for entering Heaven and dutifully reverted the server to avoid my death to that holy light.
And then… things got out of order.
I was suddenly back in my first life, fixing things. A server reset in the Starry Forest where the rest of the party died without me. A stupid Minecraft reference achievement for punching down a tree and then uncapping my level from level 9 to 25.
Then, we started jumping around.
I had to help fix the bug I caused by putting an obelisk into my inventory. AltSys did most of the talking there and seemed to be taking a jab at me most of the time.
Then, a server reset for each of Jake’s deaths. The death to the mimic in the Faroff forest dungeon. His death falling from the great central mountains. And finally, his death to Admin which provided my last ditch effort to save Placeholder by giving my life.
“I know what you’re doing,” I stated flatly. I had no option but flat with my emotions still suppressed.
“And what is that?” AltSys asked.
“You’re throwing the softballs first,” I replied. “You’re getting me used to fixing things by starting with the ones I would still allow anyway. It won’t work. As soon as we get to Megan-“
“The only interaction dealing with Megan was after her death,” AltSys said softly.
“I know that,” I stated tersely. The barest hint of my anger poking through the suppression. “And this time, I’ll convince myself. I’ll-“
“Next stop is up,” AltSys interrupted me.
And there I was, giving a banal achievement to Jake for being the first one to complete a tutorial. Fast forward a bit, and I was forced to answer my own questions. Then, I had to trick myself into picking up [Memory Protection] as I gave myself the achievements to afford it. And finally, I gave myself my own warnings about how claiming the dungeons could destroy a large part of the world.
“Fat lot of good that did,” I grumbled to myself.
“At least at the next one you’ll be able to kill yourself,” AltSys replied.
That had my attention. I perked up… just so we could resolve the error caused when a person in two factions attempts to claim an obelisk.
“Ha, ha,” I stated as I watched myself explode and then die in the tutorial for the first time.
“I didn’t say it would stick.”
He was slowly working me into the more difficult memories.
I had to talk myself into claiming the Faroff Forest dungeon to get an achievement… which nearly cost me my life since it announced loud and clear that I claimed it for the [Demon Lord].
I had to initiate a server reset after watching Tim and his father get brutally murdered by a giant dave I had created on a whim.
And then, I had to talk to myself about every question I could think of while walking alone in the swamp.
I tried to warn myself. I tried to give some sort of clue about what I should do to stop everything that was coming, but I couldn’t. Whenever I was about to give a hint, the words would fail me, and I would feel the pain of my entire existence being unmade.
I spoke exactly the information I was given so long ago. A bunch of things I thought were helpful… and a bunch of advice that was ultimately wrong and useless.
“Well, at least I know for certain why Tim caused the reset now,” I stated dryly.
“Indeed, you would never have made it this far without him.”
I was sure we were running out of things to fix, but I had a few surprises left for me.
We talked to Jake as he struggled so hard against the System that he gained [Grit], I used [Sleep] on myself at the end of my first life and preserved what little sanity I could for 50 years of sensory deprivation, and then far in the future from both of those, we yoinked Jeremiah out of Placeholder and into the void to have a chat.
“What are you actually going to do with him?” I asked AltSys.
“I meant what I said. I don’t know how, but I’ll find a way to get him out of here and to a place that needs him as a hero.”
I nodded slowly. I was still sure that I hated AltSys’ guts, at least once I was capable of that again, but he at least seemed to care. Which made him just the slightest, tiniest bit better than Admin.
Even if I still would destroy either of them if I got the chance.
AltSys paused for a bit, and we made a few more minor adjustments. Adding some code to the clockwork heart that would let AltSys take over the ritual, and giving an achievement for defeating Tim when he was a lich.
“Stop. Stalling,” I stated, the emotional controls fraying. “Take me back. Take me to when she died.”
“Are you sure you’re ready?” AltSys asked. “There are still a few more-“
“Take. Me. Back.”
He reluctantly agreed.
We suddenly were in the clearing. The dragon breathed fire over the party.
“[Initiate System Revert],” I stated softly before the prompt even came up.
Past me [Disrupted] the fire next, and the dragon landed and whipped Jake with its tail.
I had… forgotten, that Jake had died there as well.
“[Initiate System Revert],” I stated once more.
Then, I watched as the dragon flung Jake past me through my non-existent shadowy body.
Then, things got weird.
Jake and past me just… fell. We clipped through the ground and just kept going. The world went dark. The ground collapsed and-
System: WARNING. Divergent timeline detected! Branching
“Hang on,” AltSys murmured. There was a rumbling and a high-pitched whine, and then we were suddenly back in the clearing as Jake and I got tossed several feet to my right instead.
“Divergent timelines are when the OmniverseEngine decides to pick up some alternate decision and just run with it,” AltSys answered my unspoken question. “That was a particularly strange one because I can’t even locate the branch it generated, and it seemed like the OmniverseEngine was just… dumping the memory.”
“Should I be concerned that not even the all-powerful admins know how this stupid machine works?” I asked.
“One, we’re not all-powerful, and two, this isn’t just tech. It’s magitech. Good luck having any magitech of this scale working in ways that make sense.”
However, our banter was short-lived. The Demon Lord of Wrath was fighting the dragon… and then that was over.
“You don’t have to watch this,” AltSys murmured.
“No… I have to. This is my fault. This is my fault twice over,” I replied. The suppressed emotions no longer holding the tears in check.
I watched myself… murder Megan. I watched myself chase after the party to kill them too. And then, when that was all done, all I could do was try to convince my grieving self not to side with Admin because it wouldn’t end well.
I failed. As I already knew I would. And then, we moved on, back into the future.
My sorrow was quickly being replaced by anger. I was mad at myself. I was mad at AltSys. I was mad at the world.
“Almost time for one of our chats,” AltSys muttered. Then, we were suddenly in the fight with the Adamantium spider. It was charging forward to kill Erica.
With no intervention from me, AltSys sped up Titania’s perception of time to allow her to cast [Lightning Spear]… and nearly kill herself.
As we hovered over her comatose body, I let AltSys have it about that entire situation… and about Erica, who I would force into using [Heroic Sacrifice].
AltSys informed me that she would be sent back to her world, which mollified me. However, I didn’t truly believe him until we traveled with her, and I watched her deck one of her bullies in the face.
“Good for her,” I stated softly.
“And our other chat…” AltSys murmured.
This time, it was hovering over my aged body. The life I became deceit form.
I let him have it. About the suffering he put me through in that life.
In return, he cryptically told me my end would be worth it.
Time started winding back again, and I stewed in silence.
“What will my end be, and how do you know?” I asked.
“That’s not for me to tell you,” AltSys replied.
“So… you’re either a prophet… or you’re from the future,” I replied. “The farther future.”
He didn’t reply.
I stewed in silence.
“We’re here now, back at the beginning,” AltSys finally stated.
“The beginning of what?” I asked, my anger still poking through.
“Placeholder,” he stated. “I’ll need you to be quiet for this next part. [Mute].”
I struggled against the command, but AltSys put more power behind it, and eventually, I caved.
And then, we were far above a featureless plain.
Right before my eyes, I watched the terrain… render in is the best way I could describe it. Shadowy ground was slowly replaced by mountains, trees, grasslands, the sea in the north, the swamp to the south, and the desert in the east.
I groaned soundlessly because there was one thing that was confirmed.
Placeholder was flat.
Anyway, after that came the lighting. The fake sun was hung in the sky, and light and shadows came into being.
And then came structures. Fully developed dungeons formed, along with towns, cities, and villages.
And finally… people.
Adults, children, the elderly, humans, dwarves, beastborn, and elves, all sprang up out of nowhere, and the cities were populated.
I had a thousand questions, but those were put on hold when I heard a familiar voice ring out.
“Well, what do we have here?” Admin asked. “An unfinished world in this backwater that no one else will visit?”
I could practically feel his wicked grin.
“Perfect.”
After a brief moment, I could only assume was for him to maniacally rub his hands or some other BS villain thing, he continued.
“[Modify World Parameters],” he stated.
The next part was something physical that AltSys and I couldn’t see because we were left there in torturous silence as he hmmed to himself and said a bunch of things like.
“No… too much MP… that will work… ah, there we go.”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
After what felt like an eternity, Admin was done.
“I’ll be back when you’re finished, my own personal paradise,” he chuckled.
After a few more seconds, AltSys spoke up. “Okay, I’ve unmuted you.”
“What the frick was that?” I asked.
“The creation of the world you’ve been living in for the past five or so centuries,” he stated.
“It seems… kinda underwhelming.”
“Yeah, it is. Oh, and while that was the creation, it’s currently going through the rest of a setup process. We’re going to interrupt that.”
“What? Why?”
“Because the current setup will result in a peaceful world being created and lived in for just long enough for the world to be heavily populated… so Admin can roll in with a bunch of demons and enjoy slaughtering everything.”
“Oh,” I stated quietly. “So, Placeholder history-“
“Begins at this point, and all the adventurers will be coming in about six months,” AltSys answered. “Normally, the world is given some time left to its own devices to generate history before interacting with other worlds or admins, but we don’t have time for that. We have to start things up now.”
From there, it was my turn to [Modify World Parameters]. I didn’t actually change too much. The biggest thing was making it so that all demons, except the [Demon Lord], started spawned in Hell. Then, AltSys and I assembled the quest with the elemental dungeons that would allow it to be unlocked.
Then, I finalized the world setup… which gave me thousands of errors.
“Just set it to automatic patching mode,” AltSys replied. “And use these parameters.”
There was the same feeling before, and I finally realized what it was.
“Code,” I stated flatly. “You’ve been sending me code.”
I could practically hear AltSys shrug. “Yeah, the entire world runs on code. You’re code. I’m code. Deal with it. And use those parameters.”
And so I got a sneak peek of the patching program that would run… only when non-residents noticed something that was off.
So stupid. I thought idly.
However, with that in place, the world started moving. And, way off in the distance, I thought I saw something.
“That doesn’t look anything like me,” I muttered as I saw the giant Demon Lord of Wrath just chilling at the [Demon Lord’s] castle.
“Because it isn’t… yet,” AltSys replied.
And it won’t be. I thought. I was pretending to be compliant, but I just had to find one spot to make a change… and I knew the perfect spot that was coming.
“What next, oh mighty and wise admin?” I asked.
“You make the tutorial. [Create Dimension]. Name: Tutorial. ID: -1,” he stated.
“[Create Dimension],” I ran that specific piece of code. “Name: Tutorial. ID: -1.”
I felt something wrong with the code. It wasn’t meant to be. That wasn’t supposed to work.
I felt AltSys help me force it through, and then we were in the inky void.
“Don’t look down,” he stated.
So, of course, I looked down. I saw the corruption. There was a feeling of great wrongness even from that far-off distance. It felt like the corruption was coming for me and-
My head suddenly snapped upward outside of my own volition.
“Don’t mess around with corruption,” AltSys chided. “If you get sucked into that, not even an admin can save you. Heck, it’s one of the few things that a competent admin is actually afraid of.”
“And you just made a whole dimension of it-“
“More like a quarter of a dimension,” AltSys corrected.
“By forcing the System to use a negative number in a field meant to store unsigned integers,” I continued.
“Guilty,” AltSys replied. “Shouldn’t have worked, but… you know, magitech. Anyway, here are the blueprints. Get to making the tutorial you know and love oh so much.”
I was still holding out for my best possible point to finally erase myself, but it didn’t stop me from trying to sneak some things in. The most important thing to mess with was the first monster template I was offered.
“Otters?” AltSys asked. “Seriously?”
I shrugged. “It was worth a try.”
“Well, try again. And use the daves like you’re supposed to.” AltSys said something I didn’t catch, and the entire tutorial disappeared. “And since you just created a new branch, congrats, you get to start over.”
So I did… with much grumbling. And I even used the daves… just not as I had them in my timeline.
“You made the daves intelligent?” AltSys asked when I finished the first time. He snorted. “Here. Let me show you what that does.”
AltSys fast-forwarded ahead, and things looked like they went the same… up until my first summon. Then, things got weird as the daves kinda took over things.
“[Slimeder]?” I asked dubiously.
“Hey, it’s your fault,” AltSys replied. “Not mine. Try again. Make it exactly to spec.”
I tried to make it to spec the next couple of times. AltSys still found things to nitpick, and he told me they wouldn’t work.
“I don’t get it,” I finally said. “Why do any of these small changes matter?”
“I’ll tell you later,” AltSys replied. “Because you finally got it right. And now, you’re going home.”
“Home,” I whispered. “Earth?”
“Yes.”
“Could I just… stay there?” I asked. “Forget all of this?”
“No, and no,” AltSys replied. “And now, we go.”
I saw a line of System messages go across, and one of them mentioned a “feeder world,” but that was about all I caught. And then, we were hovering around a place I still remembered.
The Comic-Con venue.
“We’ve got a lot to do, but first, you’re going to need this,” AltSys stated. After a moment, gone was my shadowy form. Instead, I was given the same starter clothes I had way back in the tutorial, a green shirt and leather pants, and an appearance that I would have called “generic [Demon Lord].”
“Why do I need a body?” I asked.
“An avatar, technically,” AltSys stated. “And that’s because you’ll need to interact with the world in person. Not just as an admin. Cheaper that way, in this case.”
“Should we even be saying this stuff out loud?” I asked as I looked around and saw a bunch of people milling around. However, they all ignored my existence. Something was off with them, and the more I focused on them, the more I realized they were… dull. Lifeless. In fact, they even seemed to have a grey tinge to them.
“Don’t worry about the NPCs,” AltSys stated. “They don’t do anything when a PC isn’t around.”
“And what the frick is an NPC?” I asked. “Why would there be non-playable characters in a universe simulation?”
“Non-priority characters,” AltSys corrected. “And they exist because this is a feeder world. A world whose sole purpose is to create characters and their usually tragic backstories before they’re shunted off to a different world, never to return again. Unlike Placeholder, which is an actual world, feeder worlds only simulate exactly as much as they need to. For example-“ AltSys paused. “Oh, case in point.”
I felt he was referring to something behind me, and I turned to look.
A pair of women rounded the corner, and everything came to life all around me. The “NPCs” started laughing and talking, and some of them started giving me weird looks. Meanwhile, the shorter of the two women gasped.
“That cosplay’s great!” she shouted as she sprinted up to me. “Do you mind if I take a pic with you?”
Meanwhile, I choked up. Apparently, the emotional suppression was no longer in effect now that I was back in my body.
“Sam?” I whispered. It was harder to tell without the cat ears and with her looking much more like an everyday girl, but the voice was unmistakable.
She cocked her head. “Do I know you?” she asked. Then after a pause. “Hey, are you okay?”
The second question came because of the tears streaking down my face.
“Yeah, yeah,” I replied. “I’m good. Just these… red contacts, you know?” I wiped at my eyes. Then I gave her the best grin I could muster. “I’d love to take a photo with you!”
She snapped a picture with her phone, with both of us giving cheesy peace signs, and then she waved goodbye.
“I can’t wait for Con next week!” Sam said to her friend… to Lindsey, whose posture, grace, and silence were unmistakable.
“So, they’re priority characters?” I asked as they walked away, and the NPCs slowly faded back to lifelessness.
“Could you imagine a world where they weren’t?” AltSys asked.
“No. No, I couldn’t,” I replied. “So, now what?”
“Now, you need to establish your company and get the tickets out to everyone.”
“Right,” I sighed. “Of course. TDL Industries. And what the frick does that stand for anyway?”
“Titus, Demon Lord,” AltSys replied.
“Really?” I shook my head. “And shouldn’t that be [Demon Lord] Titus Industries?”
“Do you want to run a company called DoLT?” AltSys asked.
“…No,” I sighed again. “Alright. Let’s get this done…”
The one saving grace in dealing with that entire mess was that the NPCs were incredibly suggestible when a PC wasn’t around. I could get them to do basically whatever I wanted. With AltSys there to tell me exactly who needed tickets and where my company and the tickets were soon all set up.
Well… with one exception…
“Where’s Megan’s ticket?” I asked. Not that I wanted her to get a ticket, but I couldn’t exactly stop that from happening if I didn’t know which one was supposed to be hers.
“You seriously think Megan went with her own ticket?” AltSys asked.
I paused. “Yeah, don’t know what I was thinking there.”
Almost before I knew it, it was the night before the convention. That left one last piece of business to take care of.
I kinda feel bad about this. I thought to AltSys as I used [Sneak] in Jake’s room to keep messing with his phone and play alarm sounds throughout the night… the very thing that caused him to mute his phone and made him late to the Con the next day.
“Don’t worry too much about it,” AltSys told me as I left the room, and he herded me to… a random stretch of road by the convention site. And then, suddenly, it was daytime.
If any surrounding NPCs noticed my sudden appearance, they sure didn’t act like it.
“Now, cross the street,” he said.
“Huh?”
“Right now!” he stated urgently.
“Okay, yeesh,” I took off running across the empty road. Someone else darted across it from the opposite direction, but that didn’t grab my attention. No, what caught my attention was the truck that appeared out of nowhere and honked its horn.
Now, for someone with Earth reflexes, the two options are to freeze in place and die like a deer in the headlights or jump out of the way and save yourself.
I was not operating on Earth reflexes. My reflexes were honed by centuries of being the strongest entity around.
I pivoted and met the incoming attack with a perfect [Fire Strike].
There was a squeal of tires and a crunching of the truck’s hood as it stopped dead in its tracks. It had so much momentum that the back side of it kicked up into the air before landing again heavily.
My eyes widened.
“Truck… kun?” I asked as I finally took in the fact that said truck was driverless.
It honked in a way that somehow sounded sad, but before we could continue, I heard someone behind me.
“Woah,” Jake said. “Those special effects were amazing! When’s the movie coming out!?” he asked as we stood there in the middle of the road.
I turned to face him.
“Aw, I’m in the shot, aren’t I?” he asked as he looked around for cameras. “Sorry about that. And.. oh frick! I’m still late!” He took off running again but shouted over his shoulder. “Good luck with the shoot! Can’t wait to see it in theaters!”
“I just stopped Truck-kun from isekaiing Jake,” I stated as I watched the first [Hero] of Placeholder sprint off.
“Yup,” AltSys replied.
“It was supposed to be a solo adventure for him?” I asked.
“Yup. That particular branch… did not go well.”
“Huh,” I muttered.
I turned back to Truck-kun, and there was a blinding flash of light. I watched as all around me, the NPCs shook their heads, and then Truck-Kun vanished… as did I.
I was suddenly back at the convention site.
“It’s almost time,” AltSys told me.
I looked around.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
“Mr. Monotone,” I replied. “You know… the guy who droned on and on and used quantum for every 5th word.”
“Oh, yes,” AltSys replied. “Here are the words for your speech, and here’s the spell you’re going to be casting.”
I frowned as I stared at the note card that appeared in front of me.
“I was Mr. Monotone?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes, better hurry and disguise yourself. It’s almost time.”
And that was how I learned that that entire monotonous speech that Jake and I had nearly slept through… was actually a spell component.
And this works as a spell to take people to the other world because?
“You’ve still got a bit of truck-kun’s bumper on your hand,” AtlSys replied quietly enough not to be heard by all the PCs in the room. “So, you just suck people in with a bunch of [Gravitus] and [Magnetismus], have them all collide with that, and that will take care of the rest.”
It was stupid… but it apparently worked. I droned on, just as I had heard myself do in my first life, and soon it was time to cast.
“We will now allow the audience to participate in the demo,” I droned. “[Gravity Ball],” I stated quietly.
I knew he wanted me to grab everyone up in order, but with a sly grin, I sucked everyone up at random the first time around.
He let me have it when we teleported along with them to Placeholder, and he showed me what had become of everyone I brought over… and how Sam was the one saddled with my body.
“Are you going to do it correctly now?” he asked, irritation seeping into his voice.
“Yes,” I replied, chagrined. It was definitely not in my calculations that I would pass my burden off to Sam. “I’ll do it in order.”
And then, we were back to right after the cast.
I still had my last plan, but it had to wait. I sucked up every single person in the room except for myself.
The ball hovered there, just a few feet from my original Earth body…
And I let the spell go.
I felt the pain immediately. I was being erased from existence. But it was okay. I held on because I knew that if I did, they would all be safe. She would be safe. I could handle anything to ensure that-
The ball was suddenly jerked forward, and the feeling stopped.
“No!” I shouted as I rounded on the generic mannequin of an NPC that had appeared before me and took over the spell.
“You aren’t the only one that this impacts!” AltSys snarled as his mannequin poked me in the chest. “Stop thinking about yourself for one fricking minute!”
“I’m not thinking about myself!” I snarled back. “I was going to die to save all of them! How the frick is that selfish!?”
“Your death murders everyone you care about!”
“My death here would save tens of thousands of lives!”
We stood there glaring at each other until AltSys sighed.
“Alright, avatars off,” he stated. We were suddenly back to shadowy figure and surrounding voice.
“You don’t believe me that your death here makes things worse? Fine. I’ll waste the ungodly amount of MP needed to show you,” AltSys continued. “[Engine Branch]. Dash force. Codename, It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“Here you go!” AltSys said sarcastically. “I made a new branch. It ignores the ontological problems of you not existing to make the tutorial or change the parameters of the world. Both of which are needed for the world to stand even a passing thought of a fighting chance.” He snorted before continuing. “So, here you go! Here’s what would happen in the best-case scenario without you.”
We watched people running around the tutorial at 10X speed.
“Without you, everyone eventually makes it through the tutorial by finding the boss room and defeating the ants in the second wave,” he stated. “Though hospitality protocol was keyed to you exactly, so some people nearly died to starvation in a way that respawns wouldn’t help.”
I watched as Jake and the rest of the party still met up and cleared things.
“Without you, there’s no prophecy. No one knows what the [Hero] is supposed to do or that he is even coming,” AltSys continued as I watched the Faroff Villagers surround Jake in suspicion. Unlike in my time, they did not throw him a feast.
“Without you, there are no server resets,” AltSys stated as we zoomed forward several days. “So, the first time that Jake tries to open that mimic that beat out [Identify]…” I watched as Jake was devoured whole, and the rest of the party could do nothing to stop it.
“Ope. The [Heroes] dead. Good news, though!” AltSys continued sarcastically as we suddenly swapped to Richard from Noon Debris. “We’ve got a spare!” I watched as Richard managed to clear a dungeon with the help of his party, and they hit level 10. Then, I watched as the Demon Lord of Wrath laid waste to a western Virian town.
“Don’t worry… the Hero will get it!” AltSys said mockingly as he showed Richard and co ride to go stop the world-ending threat. Richard unlocked [Sunder] and… was still no match. I watched the [Demon Lord] destroy them and continue moving south toward the first dungeon.
“Okay, I get it,” I replied tersely.
“No, I don’t think you do,” AltSys snapped. “So, you get to watch this nice little timeline to the end.”
I watched as the [Demon Lord] cut a swathe of destruction southward because how could a bunch of people below level 10 stand a chance where the [Hero] failed?
“No… Sam… Lindsey… Garret,” I murmured as I watched them form up with all the other soldiers to try to stop the [Demon Lord]. “Run. Just run!”
They didn’t. They did their best to stop the [Demon Lord], but it wasn’t even close. All they did was delay him a bit, which maybe bought a few more people time to escape.
The rest of the party had cut and run. Emilia and Megan had nothing to tie them to the group, so they left at their first chance, and Andrew evacuated to take care of Tim.
And then, we skipped forward a lot.
The [Demon Lord] claimed each of the dungeons and went to the castle in the west.
An army was raised, with a new [Hero] as a last-ditch attempt to stop him, but it was too late. Admin came to the world.
“I get the picture,” I stated. “We can stop this now.”
“No, we can’t,” AltSys replied, a hint of sorrow replacing the anger. “This is an entire new world. Created just to show you your martyrdom complex doesn’t solve anything. You get to watch all of this until the end.”
And so I watched the death and destruction. The demons as they invaded all of Placeholder from the ashlands in the east.
The world had no one near a high enough level to stop them, but I thought there was at least one saving grace that could turn the tide.
Mishael and the other angels of Placeholder came and stood against the demon threat.
… And were soon defeated by Admin’s avatar.
The world was enslaved.
“Please. Stop,” I begged. As AltSys showed me demons cackling with glee as they beat Megan.
“Very well,” AltSys said softly. “But I think I must also show you this.”
Scenes flashed forward. A young silver-haired girl with wolf ears, who was sickly and called to be [Hero]. AltSys showed me her capture, and then no more.
I sagged to my knees, but AltSys kept going.
An elf with a knack for the bow faired little better against the demon-run world.
“Every [Hero] that you knew in your life is bound to turn up eventually,” AltSys said as we continued leaping through time from [Hero] to [Hero]. “Maybe not in the same time frame, or not in the same circumstances, but the same… model… that created everyone you cared about was sure to be used eventually.”
“Why?” I finally asked as I teared up.
“Why what?”
“Why does this place have to be so cruel?” I asked. “Why are my only choices to be the villain or to watch as Admin kills everyone I love?”
“I… am not the one who should answer that,” AltSys replied softly.
It didn’t matter what the answer was anyway. AltSys had won. My desire to end the loop had been thoroughly beaten out of me.
“Can I… at least see my parents before we finish all of this?” I asked.
“I suppose it is time for one last cruelty,” AltSys replied after a long pause. “Move to time of origin, Titus.”
With a phrase like that, I expected to be headed to a hospital to see my mom giving birth.
I didn’t expect to see myself standing outside of the Comic-Con venue.
“That’s wrong,” I said with a shake of my head. “That’s my last memory from Earth. Not my time of origin.”
“Look closer, Titus,” AltSys whispered.
I took a look at my past self. A real hard look.
“I’m a fricking NPC,” I laughed bitterly as I saw the grey tint. “So, is that why the OmniverseEngine hates me?”
“It doesn’t hate y-“
“And I can read between the lines with your answer. My parents don’t exist. My brother never existed. Any memories I thought I had were just BS generated on the fly so that I could better relate to a PC, right?”
“That’s-“
“I know the answer,” I cut AltSys off with another bitter laugh. “The most cruel way for this to happen is for me to learn that I betrayed my friends for a family that didn’t even exist. So, don’t worry. I’ve got it figured out.” I hung my head. “But, the one question is why? Why did I need to be an NPC? Why couldn’t I at least have had a family?”
There was a brief pause. “Take a look at this,” AltSys stated.
He passed me the code that was used for the transfer over from Earth to Placeholder.
“1000 PCs, converted to 1000 people with advanced classes,” I stated as I slowly decoded the strange programming language. “Weren’t there 1001 of…” I bust up laughing. “I’m a buffer overflow? And the wrong type? Is that why my class was so messed up?”
“I didn’t have nearly enough MP to overwrite the [Demon Lord] directly, but-“
“You had enough to make an oopsie and overwrite its spot in memory with me!” I laughed, the laugh of a man who was too broken to care anymore.
“… Yes, and then we can tweak the parameters of your class a bit as a bugfix,” AltSys replied. “Speaking of, we still have a last stop.”
AltSys ended up handling all of the tutorial intro and class changes himself. I had somehow held up with the emotional suppression earlier on and then being too busy to worry about things, but now I was… breaking.
Soon, we were back in the present. The world was paused as John killed me and destroyed the magicite crystal at the exact moment I cast the spell.
“I hesitate to leave you off like this, but-“
“But we’re all done! Time loop is closed!” I laughed. “Nothing left to change! Now, leave me to my 7th death!”
With a thunderclap, the 7th [Demon Lord] of Placeholder, Titus the Timebreaker, was slain.
I was suddenly without a body… just like always.
Maximum speed. I ordered with a thought.
System : Peak Temporus skill detected. Activating Instantaneous Skip.
I was vomited out on the floor immediately. Just like that, 50 years had passed. I was past 500 years. Even if time travel could change anything, it wouldn’t get me back to the beginning anymore.
But that was okay. I had served my useless purpose.
I slowly dragged myself away from the obelisk. One leaden footstep after another as the System message played.
System: Despair Form Set
My head hung to my chest, and every individual step felt like I was lifting a thousand pounds… even though I knew logically that it was all in my head.
AltSys tried to message me, but I ignored him as I shuffled through the tutorial to my goal.
The ants should have tried to stop me, but… as soon as I entered the room, every single one of them collapsed to the floor. They could scarcely lift an antenna to stop me.
That continued until the boss room. I reached the lava river, and then with a broken half-smile, I threw myself in.
Don’t worry, Megan. I thought as I let the current take me downward. I’ll join you soon.
There were more insistent messages from AltSys, but I let the peaceful flow take me down to the place I belonged.
The void. Corruption. It would probably make my earlier near-erasures feel like a day spa, but that was okay.
It’s just what I deserve. I thought as I tipped over the edge and began falling… only to collide with something invisible but solid.
I finally read the last message from AltSys.
System : Activate Jumper Protocol!
“No!” I shouted as I banged my fist on the invisible barrier. “[Disrupt]!” I used the skill, but only a single layer of the barrier vanished… and it soon reformed.
“JUST LET ME DIE!” I screamed as I banged uselessly on the barrier with [Elemental Strikes]. “Just. Let. Me. Die…” I broke down into sobs.
System : I… can’t. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for everything that you’ve had to go through.
System : … and for everything you’ve yet to go through. Just know that in the end, it’s worth it
I laughed bitterly. “Oh, and do you happen to know this because you’re me from the farther future?”
System : I can’t claim that I am. No.
“Then just leave me alone and let me die!”
System : I can’t. Because… I don’t exist unless you survive.
That piqued my attention enough to at least read through my tears.
System : You have to understand. Normally time loops, in the rare cases that they occur, happen entirely in the world. If they want, an admin can sit outside and watch the whole thing loop back in on itself.
System : But you… you managed to rope the entire OmniverseEngine into this loop. And without… a future choice you make… Admin will always be the one in charge of Placeholder. I will never be created to take his place
“Are you saying I kill Admin?” I asked.
System : Unfortunately, no. You don’t kill him. And even if you did, his death would be insufficient to bring about my genesis
“Dang,” I muttered. “That might have almost been worth it.” It fluctuated a bit, but Admin was among the top three people I hated most. Along with the other admin who had been ruining my life for the past however long, and… myself.
I curled up. “Alright, you’ve said your piece. Now leave me alone.”
System : ... I will message you again to help you when it’s time
And then, I was left alone with my thoughts. Curled up on a translucent barrier that let the lava flow out beneath me but left me alone there above the void.
I had thousands of thoughts to sort out, and despair form didn’t help matters.
I was a murderer. I had killed almost everyone I loved.
At least their lives were better than the alternative? My last spark of optimism tried to start something.
Both of the alternatives were awful creations of the OmniverseEngine. I brutally crushed my optimism and continued my thoughts.
I had nothing to do but think. I wished I could sleep, to at least take the pain of consciousness from me for a while, but that was just another cruelty of the OmniverseEngine.
And that was the one key in all my thoughts.
The OmniverseEngine made it so that Admin was in charge of my world.
The OmniverseEngine enforced the timeloop over me.
The OmniverseEngine… The OmniverseEngine…
And that sparked one solitary thought.
Who’s really in charge of this thing? Asked a quiet voice within me.
My initial thought was the admins, but no, they were as bound by this reality-simulating magitech as I was.
So… who… or what… was running this?
.
.
.
.
.
“And how dare they,” I whispered as I stood up.
“How dare you make this System that forced me to murder my love?” I asked as I clenched a fist. “How dare you force me to go back in time and ensure that it happened? How dare you sit back and do nothing as Demons run around murdering everyone in thousands of simulated worlds! Do you not care about any of this!? Do you not care about your creation!?”
I could see a range of possibilities. A group of scientists playing god. An aloof clock winder that didn’t care about his creation after it was set up. Or even the OmniverseEngine being all of reality itself so that there was no one outside it to even complain to.
There was only one thing I could do to send my message to any of them, no matter what.
“I’m going to take your stupid server down,” I whispered. “I don’t care if it takes me millennia. I don’t care if I have to bow and scrape to Admin to get my chance at admin credentials. I don’t care what I have to do.”
“I’m going to destroy everything you built!” I shouted at the sky. “As much as I can! Screw the destiny that AltSys said I had. He can go to Hell for all I care! I’m taking this cruel experiment apart, brick by brick! You hear me!?”
I had found my purpose once more. The next war I waged… would be against reality itself.
To Be Continued
While there is still an outside chance that I would have been able to write this book on my own, it most certainly would not have been completed nearly as soon or with as high of quality without the myriad of support I’ve received. So, I just wanted to say a bit of thanks to everyone that helped make this 2nd novel possible.
First is my alpha reader. Thank you for catching several of my stupid mistakes and always being willing to tell me if a plotline is dumb or if something is phrased poorly… and for being willing to deal with me always getting things to you last minute. (I’ll try to do better about that for book 3! I swear!)
Next up are my other readers, especially those benevolent souls who support me on Patreon. Without you, I doubt I would have kept up the motivation to write these two behemoths. Your kind words have always been appreciated, and in many ways, you’re the reason this book exists.
And finally, my parents. The slight awkwardness of being a grown man and having your parents read your fantasy/gamelit novel aside (a genre that I know neither of them would generally touch), I am always so grateful for your love and support.
With that, I hope to see you all in the conclusion of this trilogy…
Game Over