5 60 Million Years
"1.6 million years. So much time has passed. It's actually incredible.", said Midas while doing "The Dog" Yoga Asana(Pose). He had been in this library for 1.6 million years now.
Modern humans had only been around for about 200,000 years only. He had been alive for 8 times that amount of time. Time is known as the greatest illusion in the world and yet it was clearly showing its incredible effects on Midas.
Time was most definitely real. Midas could feel it. Everyday.
The isolation and quiet was incredibly unnerving at first. Midas had lost himself countless of times and he had reinvented himself countless of times. These past years were not easy for him. Everyday was a struggle, and he had come up with mechanisms for making it through.
He had a daily schedule that he followed to a T to keep himself on track. In his schedule, he would work out, meditate, and have as much fun as possible.
He had also been terribly busy. He completely read every book in the world in record time. He had also learned every language in the world and even listened to every genre of Music. Midas had even written his own 'Bible', which was a crystalisation of an identity he wanted to assume from then on.
Currently, Midas was busying himself with reading some ancient documents which one would have found in some vaults hidden deep inside the Vatican. What he found was shocking.
After reading those ancient documents and texts, Midas had formulated some semblance of the true history of humanity, and it was not the same as what was being read in history books. When Midas realised this he wasn't surprised at all.
Information is Power. Those who control information had the power and ability to tell the rest of the world whatever they wanted. Those in power have an agenda and they will do whatever it takes to get whatever they want, even if it means telling lies for thousands of years just to keep their dignity.
Midas had read through handwritten scrolls, slabs, secret documents... His findings terrified him to some extent, but they also confirmed an unseen hand permeating the world. A hand that had been guiding the direction of history for almost 2000 years now, and would probably continue to do so for the rest of human civilization as we know it.
It wasn't just history that was affected, it was Philosophy, Religion, Science and Politics too. The origins of modern history had been obscured and what was left was merely whatever they needed people to believe.
Everything had been altered, and the true secret documents had been hidden with most being destroyed. There is an agenda about the way things are being done.
What agenda could this be?
Total World Domination?
Midas had found that there is a group of people on Earth who are in control of everything. From the food a normal family eats, to the media they consume. Everything is force fed to them in order to control their perception of the world and the way they react to the stimulus they receive. Even war and politics are nothing more than just plays orchestrated according to the whims and designs of this hand.
It turned out that as long as they controlled people's perception of the world and their values, they would enslave them and their future generations. And that's exactly what they did.
After 70,000 years of reading these History documents, Midas could feel the threat that these kinds of people could pose to him. They own everything and have influence everywhere. If they wanted him to disappear, he would absolutely disappear.
Midas also began reading up on secret intelligence reports from every country. That was data from every Intelligence agency in the World, all in his hands.
He read up on the state of the world from the intelligence reports of the Central Intelligence Agency of America, Mossad of Israel, Federal Security Service of Russia, The Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) of the UK…
The reports he read even dated back to before the 20th century. The information, workings, motives and methods of these agencies and the people behind them was an eyeopener for Midas.
Some of the most terrifying 'terrorist' plots were planned, preordained, and managed by these agencies and the guiding hand behind them.
The world was not a safe place at all. It was incredibly dangerous. He had to take measures into his own hands. He had to learn how to protect himself and the things he cares about.
There are three Powers that rule the world. If one had all three they would effectively become a transcendent existence on Earth, capable of moving anyone and anything in any way possible with no ramifications or repercussions.
These three Powers were Money, Violence, and Politics.
And these secret existences had a grasp on all three. This was how they kept the World under their control for hundreds of years.
If Midas was going to survive in such a cruel world, where the people in Power convince the people out of Power that they had free will while exploiting those powerless people for all their worth to fulfill their own goals and ends, then he needed Power of his own.
He had no Money or Political sway, and with him being forced to participate in these Trials, he probably could not get those anytime soon.
With regards to this, Midas merely shrugged to himself. What was out of his control was unnecessary to be thought about. He would work hard towards his goals, but realistically, only time would tell.
He would continue to train his skills in these three areas though, as they would always be useful in his dealings with humans.
As such, after spending 500,000 years reading secret Government data and intelligence reports, Midas took 200,000 years to learn about Military Skills.
He taught himself Combat Skills by learning all 180 martial art styles that exist on the planet. Midas used books, videos, audiobooks, movies and anything else he could find to teach himself. Whenever he would search for an opponent to go against, he would simulate a battle in his mind.
Although that never felt like enough, he had the time to simulate every battle scenario, and with his understanding of the human body from his academic studies, he had become a master at predicting how people are capable of moving.
With time and discipline he had drilled into himself every form of movement that the human body can possibly make when it's attacking, defending, or anything in between.
He taught himself all about Weapons, how to handle them, how to assemble and disassemble them and so much more. There were no weapons in the library, so he tore apart unused shelves that had been previously holding books and created life sized models of weapons. He trained with them every day the same as a soldier would.
Midas even taught himself other Soldier Training Basics like Teamwork skills, Logistic Skills, Equipment Maintenance Skills, and Intelligence gathering skills.
Then he received the notification that told him that he's going in the right direction.
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| Announcement |
[Congratulations! You have completed a section of Reading.]
[Progress: 8.000000009080%]
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After doing so, Midas then spent a further 2,000,000 years watching every piece of acting in existence by watching and immersing himself in movies, television and Internet videos. He would absorb every single expression and micro-expression being made and replicate them. In these years he became the greatest actor, able to portray any emotion perfectly without fail.
Midas then took 100,000 years to familiarise himself with every sport, all 8,000 of them, through their videos and Internet writings.
He would watch every sport in the world and learn them fully by modeling the movements of the players. Thus, every trick of the trade was copied and replicated by him. He became the most proficient of Soccer player, Rugby player, Chess Grandmaster, Cyclist, Swimmer…
To accomplish all this, Midas had to tear down whole sections of the library and the outer courtyard. He even built a swimming pool to learn pool sports. Anything he couldn't learn, could be learned on the outside since he already had all the fundamentals of it's Mastery.
Midas became a Jack of all Trades, capable of performing in any profession on Earth from the lowest to the highest level in this time.
After a few more million years, Midas found that he had completely listened to every song in history, and his Music App ended up disappearing from his phone, thus turning the phone into his mode of keeping track of time. And a lot of time ended up passing.
Midas then spent the rest of his time browsing the internet sites that he had not browsed through yet, reading and watching and learning all he could. The open web was most definitely respectable, but the dark web had some startling things that even he had no idea how to deal with.
The startling amount of pornography was a bit unsettling, but after watching all of it and learning the tricks of the trade one could even say that Midas was poised to be a Sex Demon.
Midas smiled when he realised that in this world, he could maintain his erection as much as he liked. With that kind of skill he could pleasure a woman till she couldn't take it anymore.
Midas ascertained that he had attained a sort of mastery over his body that would most probably not disappear even if he went back to the normal world. It was an uncanny feeling. He liked it.
"This if gay porn? Wait, this guy is wearing a skirt. Oh it's a cross dresser." said Midas with the most unfazed expression. He was used to it now. There was always something to learn, even about himself. He had learned to accept humans the way they are with no judgment.
To see a pile of dirt the same way as seeing a pile of gold.
After some time went on like that:
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| Announcement |
[Congratulations! You have completed a section of Reading.]
[Progress: 17.000012200102%]
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It had been more than 10 million years and Midas had read through all the data on the internet and books. Now all that was left was backed up data on every human being. This was data from sites like Facebook and Twitter that have information on people's tendencies and activities on a daily basis.
There was even data from government agencies, including ids and passport information. Satellite information data, Biological footprint data, internet browsing data… On every human in the world since the age of information.
This was exabytes worth of data made up of words, images, and numbers. Instead of feeling down and out, Midas licked his lips and prepared himself for a feast.
And so he devoured the Data. All of it, making sure to leave nothing left.
On this day, Midas found himself sitting in front of a computer screen reading information on some random person named Ana from Bulgaria, her life and death, her spending history on every credit card she had ever used, her internet browsing history, sexual preferences… After completing that he leaned back on his chair and breathed out some turbid air that he had seemingly been holding back for millions of years.
"Huu…"
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| Announcement |
[Congratulations! You have completed a section of Reading.]
[Progress: 100.000000000000%]
[The challenge has been completed! Calculating results…]
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"60 million years… ", said Midas with a bright smile on his face. This was the most difficult task he had ever had in his entire life and there were times where he doubted himself and his capabilities. There were times where he wanted to give up everything and just leave.
And yet here he was. Victorious.
He had made it through his test. No matter what Gift he received, he was grateful for having gone through something like this. He learned so much about nature, about living as a human, and about himself. He was a changed man. Changed for the better.
He looked around and noticed that his library was becoming progressively darker as if he was being returned to that black space again. As he watched and waited for the calculations to be concluded he was reminded of his past when his Bibles started disappearing too.
He had written a total of 4 testaments in his time using some blank books he had found. These Bibles had helped him keep himself together by giving him a place he could come back to when he felt he was losing himself. He would read the book everyday and memorise it again and again and crafted a new Self using that practice.
He really was a changed man. The only thing about him that stayed the same was his physical appearance.
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| Announcement |
[Results have been calculated successfully!]
[Chosen has spent a total of 2 Great Years to complete the challenge. Additional rewards have been awarded!]
[Gifts are constitutions with special abilities. When Chosens receive Gifts of some Rank, they receive 3 Skills of that Rank]
[Gift:]
[Gift of Knowledge (S Rank)]
[Due to the outstanding performance of the Chosen, additional Rewards have been given!]
[Congratulations, the Chosen has received an Authority! Authorities are a higher form of Gifts that also affect the world around an incarnation.]
[Authority:]
[Authority of Omniscience (Ex Rank)]
[Distributing miscellaneous rewards…]
[Received: 20000 AC]
[Received: A new Trait; Old Soul]
[Received: additional Stat Boosts…]
[Details can be checked after leaving the transfer space in 30 seconds…]
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"..."
Midas stared blankly at the stream of messages on the blue floating panels in front of him. He read through the messages with composure as he evaluated his rewards.
'Gift of Knowledge '? Sounds strong. I even managed to get something called an Authority. And it was Ex rank… Not bad.', thought Midas.
"..."
"Ex Rank?!"
