**Chapter 93: Defense of the Timeline**
**Day 1,299.**
**Location: Core of Star System Z-42.**
**Current Status: Glitching.**
**Mood: Nostalgic (Forced).**
I was drinking tea.
Technically, I was simulating the sensation of drinking tea while floating in the superheated plasma of a red dwarf star, but the distinction is semantic. I had perfectly reconstructed the molecular structure of an Earl Grey blend from Earth, circa three years ago.
I took a sip.
It tasted like static.
I frowned. The star around me dimmed as my concentration faltered. I tried again, focusing on the memory of the taste. The bergamot, the tannins, the heat.
Nothing. Just a gray, flavorless void in my mind.
"That's odd," I murmured, my voice shaking the solar corona.
I reached for another memory. My first apartment. The one with the leaky faucet and the landlord who smelled like cabbage.
The memory flickered. The walls of the apartment in my mind were dissolving into white noise. The face of the landlord was pixelated.
**[System Alert: Causality Error.]**
**[Data Corruption Detected in Sector: Past.]**
**[Critical Warning: Origin Point is being overwritten.]**
I sat up, the tea forgotten. The localized gravity around me spiked, crushing a passing solar flare into a dense ball of iron.
"Architect," I projected. "Run a diagnostic on my history."
*// DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE. PRIME ENTITY, YOUR SAVE FILE IS BEING EDITED. //*
"They aren't attacking *me*," I realized, a cold fury settling in my chest that was hotter than the fusion fire surrounding me. "They know they can't kill me now. I'm too heavy. I'm an immovable object."
*// AFFIRMATIVE. THE ENEMY HAS BYPASSED THE PRESENT. THEY HAVE INITIATED A TEMPORAL INCURSION. //*
I saw it then. Through the eyes of the universe, I looked backward.
Time isn't a straight line; it's a rope. And someone was taking a pair of scissors to the frayed end of it.
Specifically, they were targeting **Day 1**.
The day I got the power. The day the algorithm started. If they killed me on Day 0, or even Day 1 before the first compound interest tick applied, I wouldn't be a God. I would just be a dead human.
And if I died then, I ceased to exist now.
"The Arithmancer," I growled. "Only a creature of pure math would try to solve the equation by deleting the starting variable."
I stood up. "I need to go back."
*// NEGATIVE. //*
The Architect's refusal was absolute.
*// YOUR CURRENT MASS EXCEEDS THE LOAD LIMIT OF THE PAST. IF YOU ENTER THE TIMELINE OF DAY 1, YOU WILL COLLAPSE CAUSALITY INSTANTLY. YOU CANNOT FIT IN THE BOX ANYMORE. //*
I clenched my fists. It was the classic grandfather paradox, weaponized against me. I was too big to save myself.
"If I can't go," I said, looking down at the mortal plane, "then I need someone who fits."
I looked at the *Violet Shadow*. I looked at the Order of Truth.
"Architect. Initiate Quest: Operation Retrograde."
***
**Location: The *Violet Shadow* (Mess Hall).**
**Current Status: Eating Pizza (Synthetic).**
**Mood: Confused.**
I (Mortal Shigu) was midway through a slice of pepperoni when the world turned gray.
It wasn't just the lights. The color desaturated from everything. Jax, who was bragging about his new cannon, turned into a black-and-white movie character. The taste of the pizza vanished, replaced by the texture of cardboard.
"Uh," Jax paused, looking at his grey hands. "Is the graphics card dying?"
Tali, our Zyloth medic, dropped her datapad. "I feel... light. Like I'm fading."
**[System Alert: Global Quest.]**
**[Quest Type: RAID (Mythic).]**
**[Title: Defense of the Timeline.]**
**[Objective: Protect the Admin's Past.]**
**[Briefing: The Enemy is attempting to spawn-camp the Admin. You must travel to Earth (Past) and ensure the User 'Shigu' survives Day 1.]**
**[Failure Condition: Total Existence Failure.]**
A portal opened in the center of the mess hall.
It didn't look like the blue, stable portals Ren usually opened. This one looked like a swirling clock face made of gold and smoke.
Ren, the Void Paladin and my unofficial second-in-command, stepped out. He looked grim. His armor, usually pristine, was flickering.
"Did you get the message?" Ren asked, his voice echoing strangely.
"Spawn-camping?" Jax sputtered. "That's low. Even for Eldritch horrors, that's low."
I stood up, wiping my mouth. The gravity of the situation hit me. If the Prime Body died in the past, this Avatar—and everything else—vanished.
"We need a team," Ren said, looking at me. "Small. High impact. Low disruption. We can't send an army, or the timeline will shatter."
"I'm going," I said immediately.
Ren hesitated. "Shigu... it's *your* past. Seeing it might be... disorienting. And if you run into yourself..."
"If I run into myself, I'll deal with it," I lied. "Besides, I'm the only one who knows the layout of the apartment. It's a tactical advantage."
Ren nodded. "Fine. You, me, Jax, Tali. And one Chronomancer from the Order."
"We have a Chronomancer?" Jax asked.
"We do now," Ren said. "The expansion unlocked weird classes."
A figure stepped from behind Ren. It was a young woman wearing robes that seemed to flow backward in the wind, even though the air was still.
**[Player: Elara.]**
**[Class: Weaver of Seconds.]**
**[Level: 45.]**
"The stream is unstable," Elara whispered. Her eyes were milky white, seeing things we couldn't. "The Redactors are already there. They are eating the minutes."
"Then let's go," I said, grabbing my newly enchanted vibro-knife. "I haven't been home in three years."
***
**Location: Earth (The Past).**
**Date: Day 1 (Morning).**
**Setting: Shigu's Old Apartment.**
**Current Status: Stealth Mode.**
The transition felt like being pulled through a straw.
We popped into existence in a narrow, dimly lit hallway. The smell hit me first. Mildew, stale ramen, and cheap cleaning spray.
"Ugh," Jax whispered, pinching his nose. "What is this map? The graphics are terrible."
"This isn't a map, Jax," I whispered back, a strange lump forming in my throat. "This is where I lived."
We were invisible. Elara had cast a **[Veil of Now]** on the party, keeping us out of sync with the local time-stream by half a second. We were ghosts.
I looked at the door number: 4B.
"He's in there," I said softly. "Past Me."
"Target identified," Ren said, his hand resting on the hilt of his void blade. "What is the threat?"
Elara pointed at the ceiling. "There."
I looked up.
Crawling on the ceiling, unseen by normal human eyes, were creatures that looked like white noise given form. They were humanoid, but their features were blurred, as if someone had taken an eraser to a drawing. They moved with jerky, glitchy motions.
**[Enemy: Redactor.]**
**[Type: Temporal Parasite.]**
**[Objective: Delete.]**
"They're trying to erase the apartment," Elara hissed. "If they delete the room, he falls into the void before he wakes up."
"Engage," Ren ordered. "Silent ops. Do not break the walls."
Jax raised his cannon. "Silent? With this?"
"Use the suppressor mod!" I hissed.
Jax tapped the weapon. It shifted, the barrel glowing a soft violet.
The battle began.
It was the strangest fight of my life. We were fighting in a cramped, three-foot-wide hallway. The Redactors dropped from the ceiling, their limbs elongating like taffy to strike at us.
Ren moved like a dancer. He didn't swing his sword; he thrust it with surgical precision, piercing the static-creatures. When they died, they didn't bleed; they just faded away, like a bad signal.
*Pfft. Pfft.*
Jax's cannon coughed soft pulses of energy. The Redactors exploded into clouds of numbers.
"Clear," Ren signaled.
"For now," Elara said, sweating. "But the big one is coming. The timeline is rejecting the event."
I put my ear to the door.
Inside, I heard a groan. The squeak of bedsprings.
"I'm waking up," I whispered.
This was it. The moment.
On this morning, three years ago, I woke up feeling existential dread. I had decided to do *something*. Anything. So I decided to do a pushup.
That single pushup triggered the System.
"We have to make sure he does the workout," I said. "If the Redactors distract him, or kill him, or if he just gets depressed and goes back to sleep... game over."
Suddenly, the wall opposite the apartment dissolved.
It didn't break. It simply ceased to be. Through the hole, I saw a void of swirling equations.
And stepping out of the math was a creature. It was a geometric shape—a dodecahedron made of obsidian—floating in the air. Around it orbited rings of burning script.
**[Enemy: The Proof of Null.]**
**[Rank: High Servant of the Arithmancer.]**
**[Level: 90.]**
"**ERROR,**" the shape vibrated. The sound was felt in our teeth rather than heard. "**THE VARIABLE 'SHIGU' MUST EQUAL ZERO.**"
"Level 90?" Jax squeaked. "In a hallway?"
"Ren!" I shouted. "Tank it!"
Ren stepped forward, his shield of void-light flaring up. "You shall not subtract him!"
The Proof of Null fired a beam of pure logic. It struck Ren's shield. The shield didn't crack; it began to un-happen. Ren gritted his teeth, pouring Divine Mana into the defense.
"Tali! Reinforce reality!" I ordered.
Tali slammed her staff onto the linoleum floor. **[Skill: Anchor.]** Golden chains erupted from the floorboards, wrapping around the hallway, holding the physical world together against the erasing force of the enemy.
"Elara, keep the sound contained!" I yelled. "If Past Me hears this, he might run out the door and get vaporized!"
"I'm trying!" Elara screamed, her hands weaving complex sigils in the air. "The sound dampener is at 100%!"
Inside the apartment, I heard footsteps.
*Thump. Thump. Thump.*
"He's going to the living room," I narrated, sweat pouring down my face. "He's going to try the pushup."
The Proof of Null spun. It ignored Ren. It realized it couldn't break the tank.
So it cheated.
It fired a needle of black light. Not at us. Through the door.
"No!" I lunged.
I wasn't fast enough to block it physically. The needle passed through the wood of the door like a ghost.
It was aiming for Past Shigu's heart.
"I can't stop it!" Ren shouted. "It's phased!"
I did the only thing I could think of. I couldn't stop the attack physically. I had to stop it *conceptually*.
I was the Admin. Even in the past.
"**System!**" I screamed, channeling every ounce of Divine Mana the Prime Body was funneling to me. "**System Override! Sandbox Mode!**"
**[Alert: Admin Privileges Detected.]**
**[Local Reality Modification: Enabled.]**
I reached out with my mind and grabbed the needle of black light. It was pure math. A localized equation designed to stop a heart.
I didn't delete it. I didn't have the processing power to delete a Level 90 attack.
I *changed* it.
I rewrote the payload.
Instead of **[Heart_Stop]**, I frantically typed **[Muscle_Fatigue]**.
The needle hit Past Shigu inside the room.
I heard a gasp. A grunt of pain.
"Ow," Past Shigu's voice came through the thin door. "Crap, I'm out of shape. My chest hurts."
He didn't die. He just thought he pulled a muscle.
"He's still alive!" I shouted.
The Proof of Null paused, its geometric form rotating in confusion. "**CALCULATION ERROR. TARGET PERSISTS.**"
"My turn," Ren snarled.
Ren dropped his defense. He grabbed his sword with both hands. The blade turned pitch black, sucking in the dim light of the hallway.
**[Skill: Dimensional Severance.]**
Ren swung.
He didn't cut the monster. He cut the *math* supporting the monster.
A fissure opened in the hallway, revealing the chaotic purple sky of the Interstice. The vacuum sucked at the Proof of Null.
"**IMPOSSIBLE. THE REMAINDER CANNOT BE GREATER THAN THE DIVISOR.**"
"We aren't remainders," Ren roared, kicking the geometric shape. "We're the solution!"
The Proof of Null tumbled backward into the rift.
"Jax! Close the door!"
Jax leveled his cannon at the tear in reality. "Eat lead! Or... solar plasma! Whatever!"
He fired a sustained beam at the edges of the rift. The heat cauterized the wound in space-time. The hole shrank, then vanished with a soft *pop*.
Silence returned to the hallway.
We stood there, panting. The walls were scorched. The carpet was smoking. But the door to 4B was intact.
Inside, I heard a grunt. Then a counting voice.
"One."
Pause.
"Two."
My heart hammered in my chest.
"Three."
And then, the sound I had been waiting for. The sound only I could hear, echoing across three years of time.
*Ding.*
**[System Initialized.]**
**[Welcome, Shigu.]**
**[Daily Growth: +10%.]**
I slumped against the wall, sliding down to the floor. Tears pricked my eyes. Not from sadness, but from relief.
"He got it," I whispered. "The timeline is locked."
Elara checked her chronometer. "The interference is gone. The Arithmancer has lost the signal."
Ren sheathed his sword, leaning against the opposite wall. He looked at me. "That was... close. You saved him. You saved yourself."
"I pulled a muscle," I laughed weakly. "I remember that. I always thought it was weird that my chest hurt *before* I finished the set. I thought I was having a heart attack."
I shook my head. "Turns out, it was an assassination attempt."
Jax poked the scorched spot on the wall. "So, uh, do we clean this up? Or is the landlord going to be really confused?"
"Leave it," I said, standing up. "I remember the hallway smelling like burnt ozone that week. I blamed the neighbor's cooking. It's part of history now."
**[Mission Complete.]**
**[Timeline Integrity: 100%.]**
**[Returning to Present...]**
The world began to dissolve again. The gray faded back into the color of the *Violet Shadow*.
I looked at the door one last time.
"Good luck, kid," I whispered to my past self. "It gets weird."
***
**Location: Core of Star System Z-42.**
**Current Status: Stable.**
**Mood: Vindicated.**
The memory of the tea returned.
I could taste the bergamot. I could see the landlord's face. The past had solidified. The concrete had set.
I (Prime Entity) exhaled, a breath that pushed the solar wind out to the Kuiper Belt.
"They missed," I said.
*// OPERATION RETROGRADE SUCCESSFUL. AVATAR TEAM HAS RETURNED. NO CASUALTIES. //*
"Good."
I called up the map of the Multiverse again. The Arithmancer's realm—Universe-001—was pulsing with data. I could feel their frustration. They had tried to edit the file, and they had failed.
Now, they were out of options. They couldn't kill me in the present. They couldn't kill me in the past.
They were trapped in here with me.
And I was getting bigger.
**[Day 1,299.]**
**[Daily Growth Applied.]**
I felt the surge. That familiar, intoxicating rush of power. 10% more than yesterday.
Yesterday, I could bench-press a solar system. Today? Today I felt like I could juggle black holes.
"Architect," I said, my voice changing. The playfulness was gone. The 'Admin' persona was fading, replaced by the reality of what I had become.
*// YES, PRIME ENTITY? //*
"Calculate the coordinates of Universe-001. The Arithmancer's home."
*// CALCULATING... COORDINATES ACQUIRED. //*
"They tried to break into my house," I said, standing up in the furnace of the star. My form shifted. I was no longer just a man made of fire. I was a construct of golden armor, gravity, and pure will.
I reached out my hand, and the star obeyed. The plasma swirled, condensing into a shape. A spear. A spear made of a collapsed sun.
"They tried to hurt me before I was strong enough to fight back," I continued. "That is unsportsmanlike conduct."
I floated upward, breaching the surface of the star. I hovered in space, shining brighter than the sun I had just left.
Through the link, I spoke to the Order of Truth. I spoke to Ren, to Jax, to Tali, to every player grinding XP in the ruins of the invasion.
"**ATTENTION, PLAYERS.**"
My voice rang in every headset, every mind.
"**THE DEFENSE PHASE IS OVER. THE TUTORIAL IS FINISHED. YOU HAVE PROTECTED THE TIMELINE.**"
I raised the solar spear.
"**NOW, WE BEGIN THE RAID.**"
**[New Global Quest: The Offensive.]**
**[Objective: Invade the Multiverse.]**
**[First Target: Universe-001 (The Realm of Logic).]**
**[Reward: The Throne of Mathematics.]**
I looked at the fabric of space-time, at the thin barrier separating my reality from theirs.
"Architect," I commanded. "Tear down the wall."
*// EXECUTING ORDER 66... CORRECTION... EXECUTING ORDER: BREACH. //*
I smiled.
"Let's go teach them a lesson about exponential growth."
**Chapter 93 Ends.**