Chapter 257: Nature of the Anomaly

Ryan went into overdrive from that moment onward. I was scrutinizing his every move, trying to figure out, at least in part, what his abilities were. I knew that he could somehow anticipate what was ahead, thus seeing into the future in one capacity or another, but how he was doing that was still a mystery. 

To test this further, I would, through Xaz and her dreamscape, throw in random instructions to my cultists, having them change plans without thought or logic, just to see how Ryan would react. The problem was that he didn’t seem to react at all, or at least not to all of the disjointed commands that I was sending. 

I decided that my limited neanderthal brain was better off allocating all the hard thinking to someone much smarter than I was. What the hell is going on, Noe? Can he or can he not see the future?

“Have you noticed that Anomaly Ryan only seems to change course three times?”

Yeah, Noe. I have eyes. I can see that.

She sighed. “Let me rephrase my question in another way, my Host. Have you considered why he has only changed courses three times despite the dozens of random commands that you have given?”

I took a moment to think about the instructions. Four of my directives had to do with changing the course of my cultists, whether that be speeding up their approach or moving to a new location every ten or so minutes. Ryan had given new instructions, telling his troops to reposition only once, during my first command, but nothing after that.
The other set of instructions I had given was to arbitrarily increase and decrease the number of invading cultists, and I had done that no less than 5 times. Once again, Ryan only reacted once.

The only other time that he reacted was from my last instruction, when I told them that I would send David to lead a smaller, auxiliary force to flank from the back. Ryan had decided to keep Ashwin back in reserve in response to that, alongside reinforcing the suspected approach point of my prophet. 

Sorry, Noe, I still don’t see the pattern.

My sassy system sighed again. “He is only making changes that will affect him in the end, once your forces have already reached his position. He is ignoring the useless instructions that you inserted in the middle.”

And how does that tell us anything we don’t already know? We know he can see the future in some capacity. 

“Remember that the future is not a fixed entity, my Host,” Noe continued, “Your Regressor only had knowledge of one timeline, yet it seems that is not the case for the Overseer’s Temporal Anomaly. If he is ignoring the irrelevant details, then it means that he seems to be able to see multiple probable futures at the same time, and not only that, but also somehow determine which one of these possible futures will impact our current reality.”

Uh, in layman's terms? 

“It means that he can see all of the branching paths, regardless of what variables that we input. Such a powerful ability would have severe limitations, so it is best that we figure out what they are, and as fast as possible as well.”

Got it, so we know for a fact that he can see directly into multiple futures, screwing with him’s worthless, and we have to find out how, exactly, he’s doing it. Sounds easy…

“Don’t get distracted, Walter. There is a hint on the limitations that he has.”

I frowned. There is? Cause I don’t see one, Noe.

“The fact that he had to change his directives three times should be telling.”

Sorry, you lost me again.

“I worry about you sometimes, dear Walter,” she said with a tut, “Think, of a second, of why Ryan chose not to simply give out all of his instructions at once instead of waiting 15 to 20 minutes between each instance. If he could truly see all possible timelines and ignore the useless information, then surely he wouldn’t need to make adjustments on the fly.”

Okay, that’s fair enough, so what do you think that means?

“There are several possibilities, my Host. It could either mean that he can only see a limited number of possible timelines or that he can only see a very narrow distance into the future. Did you also notice something strange about his being every time you introduced a large change in the future?”

I nodded this time because, yeah, I had. I had chalked it up as fatigue using whatever ability that he was using, but perhaps Noe saw something that I didn’t. He was sweating and jittery… but wait, now that I think about it, there were times when he was worse off than others. 

“Indeed, especially the time when you sent David into the fray.”

I nodded slowly, replaying Ryan’s reaction the moment I made that decision back in my cortex. And true to Noe’s words, the man really was out of sorts. One moment he was calm, collected, and issuing orders, and the next, almost instantaneously, he was sweat-soaked and slightly disoriented. Ryan had tried to hide this fact, but no amount of acting could fool Noe’s detection skills. He looked like he wanted to scream in panic and pain for a fraction of a second before he fully composed himself. It was precisely because it took him such a short amount of time to recover that I had almost missed the clue.

So did it mean that Ryan experienced the events in the future personally? Kind of like having a whole lot of mini-regressions instead of one big one like in Jae-Hyun’s case? Hm, it was a distinct possibility, but either way, what was undeniable was that avoiding trouble caused him to suffer, and that was something that I could certainly use. Now, if I can just make it so that he’s constantly suffering…

“Just be careful of that plan, dear Walter.”

What do you mean? I know the guy’s tough, but he’ll wear down eventually.

“True, but do we know how long that will take? It could be days, or it could be months or years. Since Aspirant Ryan is a product of the Overseer or the Trash Matrix, I am leaning toward the latter. And while causing him to suffer would be nice, it does not seem to impact his overall performance much. I would advise against using too many resources and time trying to inconvenience him by constantly shifting plans.”

Okay, fair enough, and giving out too many instructions’ll probably going to get me noticed by the spies here in any case. What would you suggest we do then, Noe? 

“I believe it is time for you to act personally,” she explained with amusement. 

Huh?

“Well, not personally, per se, my Host,” Noe clarified, “But through an avatar. You should feel the ability to make one instinctively with the divine faith flowing through you.”

And how would I justify the need to act in the Trials directly to all of the eyes on me right now?

“Simple.” I could just feel the smirk in her voice now. “Just don’t get caught. What worthless system, do you think, dear Walter, is observing the Trials down below?”

The Trash Matrix…? Ah, I get it now.

Noe chuckled. “It is good to see that you are using your brain again. But yes, Walter, you can act freely so long as we are here. My infiltration of the Trash Matrix has advanced significantly over the days, and with you being at the center of Central operations, I have close to unlimited access to this Trial. Nothing you do will be noticed by the Trash Matrix, at least through a proxy body, although I would still advise that you use caution. I can hide you from the system, but not from any prying eyes.”

Fair enough, although I’m sure that Q and his head of security will also overlook any suspicious activities…

“Best not to count on them too much, my Host. Your friends can help, and Xalla has routed out the defectors in Q’s staff, but they still have no control over the Sponsors. We can safely assume that a good number of them are working closely with our adversary.” 

I know, Noe; my brain hasn’t entirely fried. I can be subtle.

“Can you…?”

I sighed. Say, now that we’re on the topic of divine avatars and whatnot, there was something that’s been bugging me for a while.

“What is the question?”

I know that I’m only juiced up on faith since I’m on Earth, but like, why is that? Big Bob’s a god, and so’s Molly and Abigail, and they’re able to do whatever they want regardless of the planet they’re in. Hell, even that Thoth guy was able to affect the earlier trial.

“Remember when Xalla was talking about lesser gods?” 

Uh, vaguely? I think she mentioned it once or twice in passing.

“Never mind. I worry about your memories sometimes.”

I’m still half asleep, Noe, can’t blame me there.

“Anyway,” she continued, ignoring my comment, “You are currently one of those lesser gods - although the technical, non-derogatory term should be a local god - at least in terms of your use of faith.”

Wait, how come you know this and I don’t?

Noe sighed. “Recall that you have sealed the vast majority of your memories, dear Walter, since your mind would overload otherwise. I have some access to them, albeit only if I search for specific information.”

Right, I still remember that part.

Another sigh escaped Noe’s (nonexistent) mouth. “Anyway, as I was saying, you are using the abilities of a local god, hence you are limited in terms of scope. The others have long ago broken the shackles of a lesser deity and no longer need the faith of others to sustain their being; you are far from that, although thankfully as a Xollon, you do not need to rely on such a flimsy and unreliable resource.”

I frowned at Noe’s words. The power flowing through me, and that’s with just a few hundred thousand cultists, was insane. Heck, most of those devotees weren’t even truly worshipping me. I couldn’t imagine what I’d be like if I had millions, or even billions, under my banner. Flimsy? Faith seems pretty damn strong to me.

“In terms of power, yes, the individual god is indeed formidable. However, a god that survives only through faith is vulnerable in other ways. They will cease to exist if the source of faith is gone, whether that be from a loss in worshipers, or through a simple extinction event. Recall that most religions barely survive a few thousand years, and civilizations hardly longer that that. That is barely a blink of an eye to the higher beings. Along with the fact that they can only impact their immediate surroundings, and you have a being that is quite pitiful to behold. That is why these local deities are usually the butt of jokes.”

Yeesh, no wonder Awake Walter chose to skip this information when he was-

“You are not two separate beings, Walter.”

-when I was downloading info in my head. Who knew the social structure of gods could be so boring?

And there was that sigh again. Seems I was wearing out my trusty System with my attempts at humor. 

All right, all right, I’ll be serious. Thanks for the info, Noe, I know I was the one who asked it in the first place.

“You are welcome,” she answered dryly. 

Now let’s get this party started. Start messing with the Trash Matrix, Noe.

“As you will.”

I chose a spot a little outside the range of Toronto, just on the outskirts of the Greater Toronto Area, as the location to manifest my avatar. Q and his people might be overseeing the entirety of Earth, but the Sponsors certainly wasn’t paying any attention to the areas not affected by the Aspirants. I was sure that my friend wouldn’t get in my way, but I gave him and Xalla a mental heads up just in case. They both gave me a silent nod back, and it was finally time for Walter to make his presence known in the fifth Trial.