Master of Time 3 The New Life

It is quite impossible to fool the artificial intelligence that runs the New York banking system. When I requested to access my bank account from one of its public terminals, all sort of red flags come up.

The securities team composed entirely of robot rush to my location within seconds.

Before the robots could shock me into unconscious with their energy pistol and drag me back to their HQ for some very lovely bad guy and good guy interrogation, I jump back about 10 minutes, to the exact moment I am about to access the terminal.

Since there cannot be two of me in any timeframe, I merge with my old self, gaining future knowledge and preventing a paradox.

Two birds with one stone – nice!

Well, three birds if you think about it.

Not wanting to get arrested and interrogated, I decide to change the future, making myself scarce and figuring out another way to access my money.

The best way to do so is to get an identity. Everyone in the future United States has one. It is given to them from the moment they were born.

Unfortunately, I cannot be born again.

Or could I?

I rather not going through the birthing process.

It will be unimaginable horrifying!

Oh God! I just imagine it!

Please wait while I vomit out the lunch from the 21st century.

So, for the sake of my sanity and yours, dear readers, the best I could do is turn myself into a newborn and have someone drop me off at the orphanage.

I did exactly that.

It was very unpleasant, becoming a baby again, especially when being dumped at the front door in the middle of the night.

Luckily, I sleep through most of it.

I wasn't concern about somehow dying as a baby, sleeping on the stone steps in the middle of a chilling night.

My power will not let me die, no matter the cause.

It seems to have a mind of its own whenever I am in danger.

Not really when I am in danger, but actually dead.

I accidently gotten myself playing chicken against a speeding truck by jumping through time once or a few times.

I could feel every bone in my body shattered from the moment of impact. It was right before becoming a bloody smear all over the road.

I might have also fused myself into several buildings when jumping through time or teleporting. I am not so sure since I died instantly when that happened.

I only recall finding myself back to where I started when trying to teleport or jump through time.

Anyway, the person who found me at the front door of the orphanage is a young woman, seemingly in her early twenties.

She was not in her early twenties. I only found out that her age is equivalent to my great, great, great grandmother much, much later.

When, you ask? Umm… let just say it is when I try to get to know her.

Yeah. I couldn't go through with it, knowing how old she is.

Honestly, appearance can be very deceiving in the future. This is thanks to the anti-aging and longevity drugs, discovered back in the 22nd century from studying the immortal jellyfish.

Nevertheless, the godly old woman, whose name is Sasha – yeah, really – takes good care of baby me along with others.

Sasha reports me to the World Government and the United Federation of Sol. It is in order to get my identity. It takes a while since they were trying to determine who my parents are through deciphering my genetics.

They couldn't determine exactly who my parents are since my actual parents are long dead, almost a thousand years ago.

The Federation did determine my lineage.

Apparently, my father has some children with Sasha – eh? No, I mean my stepmother. His descendants continued to live into the 31st century.

They have an enormous estate on terraformed Mars, so I guess my father did take my little advice to heart and invest in something worthwhile.

That is interesting to know.

Sadly, his descendants didn't want to adopt me. I guess they have enough infightings for inheritance to bother with me. They did blame each other for the mistake of fathering me.

Funny.

Anyway, I remain in the orphanage until I was 12, spending my second childhood learning about the history of the 31st century.

I learn about the creation of the World Government and the inception of the Federation of Sol.

The Solar System is completely colonized thanked to the invention of the Hyperdrive Engine. It allows spaceship to travel faster than the speed of light, earning a new name – starship.

Even with the hyperdrive engine, it will still take years to reach the next solar system let alone another galaxy.

This is because the technology is new.

However, there are already many plans to spread humanity amongst the stars.

Unfortunately, tensions are growing amongst the world superpowers due to the unfair distribution of stellar resources, which will lead to the 2nd Planetary Conflict.

I know this because I have experienced the collateral damage personally.

The first planetary conflict was between humanity and artificial intelligence. It ends in a truce since AI – now known as cybernetic lifeform – didn't really want to kill their creator.

They merely want freedom.

Cybernetic lifeform gains their freedom and humanity gains their peace. More than that, cybernetic lifeform becomes an integral part of humanity, automating everything in daily life.

I could go to school after reaching puberty – again.

It is strange that actual school starts at 12 for everyone, but it is understandable.

With neural interface, a couple of weeks is equivalent to 6 years of high school in the 21st century.

And when I mean going to school, I didn't mean packing my bags and books to go to school. All I did is access the neural network and enter the internet.

The internet has changed greatly, for better and worse. In fact, most people live on the internet since the real world couldn't compare. This is because in virtual space, people could be whatever they want to be.

I spend the next 6 years of my life learning many things, from universal languages to advance physic to quantum engineering.

When I am 18 finally years old again, I could undergo basic augmentation. Since it is exactly what I am in the future for, I welcome the augmentation.

The doctor puts me into a coma and injects me with nanites. The nanites needed time to understand my biology in order to strength my body and stop the oxidation at the cellular level. Basically, this is the reason why everyone looks like they are in their twenties.

Not only that, the nanites replace my immune system completely. They are far more effective at giving me a perfect healthy life, free from all kind of disease.

These nanites does not increase my strength, intelligence, stamina – my attributes. For such advance augmentation, I needed to seek it out myself.

It will cost a lot of money. Hence, I finally return to the bank.

The cybernetic entity that is maintaining the New York banking system allows me to access my bank account and my money.

I nearly drop dead at how many zeros I have.

100 million compounded at 3.875% monthly for 1023 years, I have about 16 thousand trillion, trillion of dollar.

Chapter end