Chapter 4: What to do? what to do?
All of which showed up with a small blue screen, meaning that he could truly edit anything he wanted. The bed, the TV, his computer, his clothes, etc. Everything had one.
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Editable Object: The Earth
Durability: S
Description:
A planet formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago orbits the fairly young star of System 287693. Its surface houses many races, some sentient, while others live by instinct alone. Well, known among all these are the bipedal beings who call themselves humans...
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"Holy sh*t, I can edit the earth itself? Does that mean I could give it a red sky if I wanted to? How do I even do that?" David asked curiously as he touched the screen, only for a cursor to appear.
The screen turned into a holographic monitor, and a small keyboard appeared before him. This was how he could edit it all, either by deleting the existing or by simply adding his own, or even both.
"Shit, cancel!!" David hurriedly canceled the editing page so he wouldn't accidentally change something vital to humanity's existence on Earth.
"Oh my god, I can really edit anything I want; that would probably include concepts, right? Which means omnipotence once a month," David said as his eyes widened in excitement.
There was no other way to define what his ability was; if you could change anything about anything, no matter what it was, then you are definitely omnipotent. Well, considering that he can only change what already exists and not create from scratch, David concluded that his ability was more like semi-omnipotence. Like the DC Comics character Lucifer.
The guy is capable of manipulating all existing matter in any way he wants, but he couldn't create his own matter. Nonetheless, David was still excited, which could be evidenced by his periodic short dances as he circled his small apartment. His ability was actually real, and not only that, but he could also truly edit anything. Well, the cost was his lifespan, but he could mitigate that weakness easily.
David celebrated as he danced around his small apartment before realizing something pretty important. What to edit? ... It may sound like a dumb question since the answer should be obvious, but unfortunately, he was in an unpredictable situation, so he had to adapt to fit it.
He could technically grant himself some form of immortality that would help mitigate the cost of an edit, but then again, his tier was still low, and he didn't know the criteria to increase it. Above all, he also didn't know when the event was starting, so if he simply made himself immortal, he would suffer for it later.
Though immortality would be an excellent choice for an apocalyptic event, who was to say that the event would involve things that could kill immortals or some sort of rule that prohibited immortality? It was an obvious and smart move, but he felt that it would be much better if he created something that could not only grant him an increased lifespan but would be accepted basically everywhere. Or you could go anywhere without problems.
"But what if I am not the only one?" David thought he was the only problem with this event.
If there were others that were given gifts as well as in the future, they would eventually butt heads, and David didn't want that. The administrator made the event seem like something that would shatter civilization as we know it, meaning that eventually there would be fights everywhere and someone with any of the OP abilities on the wheel could easily go to the top.
He didn't want to be the only one with abilities, obviously, since that would mean that it would be his sole responsibility to save humanity from extinction, but the possibility of others having powers meant that one day he would have to fight some of them, which meant that he had to choose his edits wisely.
"Back to square one; what to edit?" David asked himself out loud.
The obvious answer was to find something that could give him an infinite lifespan so he could edit as he wanted, but with such an ability, immortality should be one of the easiest things to get. He could directly edit some drug to grant him immortality, edit the air so that each time he breathes in 10 years is added to his lifespan, or create an object that could create something that would grant him immortality.
The means were endless, but David didn't feel right going through that route; there was a chance that the event could begin next month or even tomorrow, so he would only have immortality and no actual way of defending himself. In fact, he didn't know the best route to follow here, just that it wouldn't be something that grants only immortality.
"Considering we are in the digital age, my phone or my computer would make more sense," David deliberated.
On one hand, he had the chance to become the world's most unkillable man, and on the other, he had the chance to possibly create a supremely powerful computer or possibly artificial intelligence that could help him not only figure out immortality but also maybe figure out the best defense against whatever was to come.
Both would be incredibly useful in the long run, but one could grant him immortality and still serve other uses, so David was more inclined to choose the technology route, and it could also help him greatly if the event wasn't going to start anytime soon. He could use it to get rich and use that money to prepare for the event. nOve(1B(1n
Considering all his options, David decided to do the most sensible thing he could think of at this moment. Leave the option to the people on the internet. He could do as he said, and nothing would be wrong, but if he needed the best course of action now, then it was best to let a lot of people decide. After all, it wasn't like the event would take place the next day.
David posted the question, "If given the ability to edit anything you want, be it conceptual, physical, or biological, you can only do it once a month. What would you edit first".
After a bit more explaining, he posted it on every social media platform he knew that had pages for such things. Twitter, Facebook, Quora, Reddit, etc. He posted it everywhere and hoped that the people on the internet would give him a suitable answer by tomorrow.