Master Of Time

There is a snag in my seemingly perfect plan to get rich quick, however.

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 security team composed entirely of robot rushes to my location within seconds.

And before the robots could shock me into unconsciousness with their energy pistol and drag me back to their HQ for some very lovely bad buy good guy interrogation, I jump back about 10 minutes, to the exact moment that 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 with one stone if I think more about it.

Not wanting to get arrested and interrogated by an artificial intelligence, I decide to change the future by making myself scarce.

I will have to figure 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 can I?

Nah. I rather not going through the whole birthing process again.

Being a fetus will be unimaginable horrifying!

Oh God! I just imagine it!

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

Hey, my vomit just time travelled! Heh.

I did exactly that.

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

Luckily, I sleep through most of it.

I am not too concern about somehow dying as a baby, sleeping on the stone steps in the middle of the 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.

Well, technically not when I am in danger, but when I am actually dead.

I accidently gotten myself playing chicken against a speeding truck by jumping through time more than once.

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 only recall finding myself back to where and when I about to teleport or jump through time, indicating that I die the moment I try to.

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

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

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

Yeah. I am unable to go through with, knowing how old she is exactly.

F.u.c.k! So much missed opportunities.

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 also Sasha, just like my stepmother, takes a great care of baby-me along with many others.

But even with all the technology at their disposal, they are unable to determine who my parents are, and that is because actual parents are long dead, almost a thousand years ago.

The Federation still manages to determine my lineage, however.

Apparently, my father, my actual father, has some children with Sasha. Eh? No, I mean my stepmother.

His descendants continue 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.

Unfortunately, his descendants don't want to adopt me. I guess they have enough infightings amongst themselves for their inheritance to bother with me. They weirdly blame each other for the mistake of fathering me.

Funny.

Anyway, I remain in the orphanage until I am 12 years old. I spend my second childhood learning about the great history of the 31st century. It seems like a reasonable thing to do, especially when I am trying to live here now.

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

You know, ship that travels amongst the stars.

But even with the Hyperdrive Engine powering the starsh.i.p.s, it will still take many 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.

That is kind of awesome. An interstellar empire!

Sadly, great tensions are growing amongst the world superpowers, centering around something about the unfair distribution of stellar resources, which will lead to the 2nd Planetary Conflict.

I know this fact because I have experienced for myself the collateral damage personally.

The 1st Planetary Conflict was between humanity and artificial intelligence (AI). It ends with a truce as the AI, more collectively known as cybernetic lifeforms, didn't want to kill their creators, at least that is what people believe.

The cybernetic lifeform merely want freedom, and they gain it while humanity gains its peace. It seems like a good exchange, and now cybernetic lifeform becomes an integral part of humanity, automating almost everything in daily life.

It is the reason why I couldn't access my bank account. Damn.

Oh well, at least I can go to school again after reaching puberty.

It is strange that actual schooling starts at 12 for everyone, but I guess that is understandable with the neural interface. With it, 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, and I don't feel like describe all the weird fetishes that people have.

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

And when I am 18 finally years old again, I 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 physiology in order to strength my body and prevent the oxidation of my cells 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.

Awesome.

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.