July 19th, 2022

I woke up Tuesday around 7 a.m. with everything I’d meditated about still fresh on my mind. Humans had attributes and mine were incredibly high? Most Role-Playing Games (RPGs) I’d come across had attributes ranging from 1 to 25. There were a couple that went higher, and fewer still which gave you the tools to allow your character to reach attribute levels that were conceivably unlimited. Even in those games, an attribute of 18 was considered the normal human maximum. Anything higher than 25 was considered superhuman. My attributes were 1,818. What I’d been told seemed more like the attribute system from a superhero RPG I’d played, but not quite. Which brought up the question: Was I a God? Was I immortal? If everything about me was improved by 1,818%, did that mean that my average life span was increased by that much? If so, that meant I could live to the age of 1,563 years, if the average lifespan for males was 86 years old. First things first, though. I rose from my bed and went through my morning routine. I used the facilities, brushed my teeth, shaved, and took a shower. Heading into the kitchen, I saw a note from Mom and Dad on the fridge.

“We have a breakfast date with Cruz’s from Church, won’t be back until this afternoon. Love Mom.”

Reading the note, I realized just how lucky I was that they weren’t around this morning. Was that because of my attributes? I wanted to figure out if the dreams were just dreams or if Abi existed. I grabbed some Cocoa Pebbles from the cupboard, made a bowl, and sat at the table to eat. Opening my phone, I checked the news and social media to find out that nothing really important had happened. I had started following the Stock Market but hadn’t really put much thought into it, though if my mind was supposed to be that much better, maybe I should? While I finished my breakfast, I watched the news.

Once I was done eating breakfast, I cleaned up my mess, rinsed off the dishes I’d used, and placed them in the dishwasher. That done, it was time to see if there really was no spoon. I figured the easiest way to test whether what Abi was telling me was true or not was to go out to the backyard and grab the ladder. Extending it out, I placed one end against the roof with the bottom on the ground. From the ground to the roof was about 12 feet, give or take. If I could actually jump 18 times as high as an average human, 12 feet should be a piece of cake. I looked around to make sure none of the neighbors were looking in my general direction. Satisfied no one was nearby, I focused on landing with my right foot on the roof and jumped. I arced up into the air and my right foot landed where I’d wanted it to. I turned around quickly then looked down to the ground and exclaimed with a loud “Yeah!”

I dropped down to the ground without a second thought, wait, what? On the ground, I realized I’d jumped down and I hadn’t given doing so a second thought until I’d already done it. I wondered how far I could drop without hurting myself? Getting my mind back on what I was going to do next, I walked inside and grabbed one of the steak knives. Not being a complete moron, because you’d have to be a complete moron to intentionally cut yourself. I took the sharp end of the knife to the tip of his finger and sliced it until I could just see blood starting to well up, which immediately stopped. I poked the knife against my finger It hurt, not as much as I expected it to, but it did hurt. I kept pushing the knife in until I felt the tip of the knife touch the bone of my finger and finally a constant trickle of blood started. I removed the knife and watched as the cut knit itself then disappeared entirely within a second. I rinsed the knife off in the sink and then wiped it off with a paper towel before I put it in the dishwasher.

A few things came to mind after those two tests. First, was I blessed, or cursed? Second, letting anyone else know about this could be very bad. Third, I wouldn’t be able to do any more truly insane testing as there were cameras everywhere. That thought caused me to pause for a moment. Had anyone pointed a camera in my general direction while I was outside.? I reviewed my memories quickly and was sure that I hadn’t noticed any cameras. I could have missed something but if my luck was as high as Abi said I would just have to trust in that hypothetical Luck attribute.

Suddenly, everything shifted. I like Bradley Cooper's character from Limitless. My understanding of everything exploded. Overwhelmed, I stood next to the bathroom sink, unmoving. Every book I’d ever read, every class I’d ever taken, every theory I’d ever heard, every bit of knowledge I’d absorbed over the years amalgamated. I felt like one of my favorite characters did every time the narrator of one of my favorite series did when the narrator exclaimed “He knew!” I didn’t know everything of course, but my gaming knowledge, coupled with every single science fiction, fantasy, and scientific paper I’d ever read I knew quite a bit. Better still, I was confident that I could turn some of that fiction into reality. In just under a second I knew what I wanted to do. To succeed I would need money. With that revelation, I had a plan.

I went to my room and dressed to go out. I put on a nice pair of shorts, a nice T-shirt that had Neo and Trinity on it from the Matrix Resurrections. I thought it was appropriate, especially if this first step in my plan worked. I grabbed my car keys, left the house, and drove to the Loves Truckstop on the south end of town.

When I arrived at the truck stop, I walked inside and went up to the counter where Cindy was standing.

Looking up, she asked, “Hey Johnathan, haven’t seen you around here in a while, what can I do for you?”

Pulling out three dollars, I smiled and said, “I’m feeling lucky today, heard the jackpot of mega-millions was up over half a billion, figured I’d buy a ticket.”

“Can’t win if you don’t play, or some such nonsense,” Cindy quipped back

“You know it. Hey, you should wish me luck. If I win, I’ll remember that you sold me the ticket!” I said with a smile.

Laughing, she took my money and handed me a ticket as she said, “Well I would hope so. I’ve only known you your whole life. Of course, that’s just about half the population in this small town. Do you need anything else?”

Taking the lottery ticket and setting it in my wallet, I said, “Nope, this will do. Have a great day!”

With phase one complete, I needed to do some research to see if what I wanted to do was possible. I drove back to my house then logged into my computer and started researching Chemistry, Physics, Electronics, Metallurgy, and a couple of other subjects. Sure, I’d already had most of that knowledge in my head, but I wanted to make sure the information I was working with was the most up-to-date information available. So, I started reviewing everything I could get my hands on.

When I was done with the quick official search through all normal channels I worked on an algorithm I’d been tinkering with off and on for a while. To do that I activated what I liked to refer to as my super VPN (Virtual Private Network). I had to modify one of the generic VPN’s when I’d noticed that the NSA (National Security Agency) was keeping tabs on me. It had taken a little bit of research and study but eventually, I’d created a VPN that made me completely invisible to every piece of software running on the net that could track my activity. Once my Super VPN was running and the Algorithm was done, I hacked into McMurdo Station and from there reached out to each and every foreign agency that was not an ally of the United States. I utilized every known electronic backdoor that had been built into each and every microchip as well as some programming backdoors that were part of every computer language I’d ever learned, which was all of them now. I searched each database I came across, then deleted any electronic footprint I’d made going into their systems. I couldn’t hack anything that was air-gapped but as I’d learned in one of my psychology electives, people do not always do what they’re told. Those extremely smart and dedicated foreign operatives had made backup copies and filed reports that hinted at the knowledge that I wanted. I didn’t need the actual knowledge. Just the hint of an idea and my mind cross-referenced all I knew, did the math if necessary, and I had a working model of that idea in my mind. The funniest thing I noticed was that every agency I broke into referenced work by other agencies, even agencies in the United States. I found it funny to be learning about what the United States was doing from foreign spy networks.

Once I had all the information I thought I needed, I shut down the links, erasing any evidence of my electronic passage. I made sure all the vital information for the base was backed up on one of their backup drives then instituted a catastrophic wipe and recovery of drives I’d been working through. Basically, I had the drive set all of its sectors to 0 then 1 over a million times before restoring the operating system and the data that it had prior to my invasion. Why? Because when something is deleted from a computer only the first bit of data is changed. To truly delete something, you need to ensure there is no fragment of the information anywhere on the drive in question. By forcing the data sectors to 0 and 1 multiple times, let alone a million, I was making it increasingly difficult for any recovery program to find out what was on the drive, thereby erasing any fragment of knowledge that I had been the source of the infiltration. That of course assumed the agencies in question had hackers good enough to figure out they’d been hacked. I’d used tricks and combinations of tricks that I hadn’t even thought of until a few moments before I did it. As for the people at McMurdo, on the computer screens down there it would look like the drive was going through an automated backup that was simply backing up everything and then reloading it. Their computer would be doing what it had been doing before I hijacked it.

The rest of Tuesday flew by. My mom and dad stopped in when they returned to the house and came up to check on me. When they saw I was busy doing research into what looked like homework, they left me alone. At 8:30 p.m. I finished up what I’d been working on and made my way downstairs to watch TV with my parents. They were watching some police drama and seemed really into it. I sat quietly, reviewing all the information I’d looked up while I waited for the lottery drawing to be televised. I knew that if everything I was told last night was true this lottery drawing would be the event that changed my life forever.

“Johnathan, what were you working on when we came up to check on you, you looked really focused?” my dad asked.

“I was reviewing a couple of theories that are running around and trying to see if I could come up with a way to break through the roadblocks that the scientists have run into?” I said.

“Like what?” my mom asked.

“The big one, Artificial Intelligence. I also looked at Quantum Entanglement, Space Compression Theory, and wormholes.”

“Any luck?” my dad asked though I could tell by the tone of his voice he thought the subjects were of no interest and that I wouldn’t be successful.

“A little, I think I have a few new ideas that will work,” I said. I couldn’t tell him that I’d already come up with a plan to overcome the issues that were plaguing each of the scientists in their fields. I wouldn’t be sharing that knowledge with anyone for a while yet.

As I was thinking about the future the announcer drew my attention to the television, “Good evening, everyone. We’re jumping in before your next scheduled program to bring you the winning numbers for today’s Mega-Millions drawing for 560 million dollars. Earlier this evening we drew the Megaplier. Anyone that does not win the jackpot will have their winnings tripled. Good Luck Everyone!” Without any further fanfare, the announcer continued pausing for a moment before announcing each number.

“13, 33, 38, 44, 1 and 9.”

Not needing to check my ticket, I knew for a fact the numbers on my ticket matched. The announcer looked off-camera for a second then started speaking.

“It looks like we have a winner! The Lovestruck stop in Clovis NM sold the winning ticket earlier today. Remember you only have 90 days to claim your prize and you must do so by coming to the Headquarters building here in Albuquerque.”

“Someone in Clovis won!” my father exclaimed!

I wonder who it was?” my mom asked.

Trying not to give anything away, I answered, “Well, they should know pretty quickly, who’s not going to claim 560 million dollars?” Sighing wistfully and losing interest, my father started surfing for something else to watch as I said, “It’s been a long day; I’m going to turn in for the night. I have some running around to do tomorrow.”

Mom looked up, “Get a good night’s sleep and we’ll see you tomorrow afternoon sometime.”

Dad added, “Night Son, “as he continued looking for something to watch.

I went to my room. I wasn’t tired, but I needed to stay on task. The first thing I had to do was claim the jackpot so I could get started. It seemed that Abi had been correct, and I was extremely lucky.