"What the hell do I do now?" I muttered, feeling paralyzed by choice.

  I was experiencing choice paralysis, unable to make a decision. Utterly frozen and stuck in place as-

  I stopped caring and made a decision.

  "Meh, I'll just go home. See how it is." I spoke cheerfully, patting Jimmy as I prepared myself for the return back to Earth.

  Well, my Earth anyway. There was one version of Earth that was under the control of the faker, but it was ruined like the others. I had thought I could at least meet some humans for the first time in a long while, but the planet was empty. Only monsters remained.

  Maybe there was some kind of secret universe only the faker knew about? Surely not all of his "property" was listed in that jailbroken System.

  And if I can't learn about it or find a way to visualize it properly, then I can't go there. If I simply thought about such a place and Gated my way there, there's a chance that the universe would be unrelated to the faker. There's a limit to how big or zoomed out of a perspective I need to stick to. I go too far and I start going to universes completely unrelated to me or my goals. The multiverse was a pain to navigate when you aren't just going in some vague direction.

  I'd just have to assume that I was in the clear of reasonable responsibility. I am not a God, and I am not responsible for every single universe in existence. Even if I can theoretically go to any one of them, limited only by imagination or comprehension.

  Excuse thoroughly formulated, I let excitement fill me as thoughts of returning home and meeting my fellow humans bounce around in my mind.

  I couldn't leave just yet, as my little heroes still need to kick my ass before I can leave their worlds alone to heal. The process takes a few months for them to grow and get to the point of "powerful enough" to defeat me, but what I'm really waiting for is their world to stabilize as they accept that the faker is truly gone.

  Months I don't actually need to be present in, so I can do cool guy things like speed up time around me by slowing myself down. It takes around 2 million to slow or speed up time by 0.5%, in a small pocket of influence that only includes my body.

  I could control a greater area, but then the cost jumps the bigger the zone. Around an additional 2 million points for each foot away from the center of influence. So it's only usable for me or the immediate surroundings.

  Thanks to my hundreds upon thousands of planets and becoming an expert at waiting, I got really good at manipulating time. If I used all of my Energy stores, I could slow or speed up time by a modest number.

  By a small percentage of 668,033,162,174%. Not a big deal.

  'It's still so ridiculous to me, just how big that number is. Completely unreasonable and unbalanced. Jerald would hate it.' I huffed with a smile as I slowly and very carefully speed up time by slowing myself down.

  I can slow time down by 100%, completely stopping it basically, but I can also slow it down by the full 668 billion and nothing will change. I cannot travel backwards in time, only slow down or speed up. Speeding up is actually much more reasonable numbers wise, as 100% makes it double. So one second becomes two.

  668 billion as a percentage makes it so one day becomes around 19 million years. Safe to say I have never gone above 25 million percent. Slowing myself down by 21.6 million percent will make 5 months pass in just about a minute in my time.

  Surely this will have no negative effect whatsoever.

  ...

  Anyway, I watched the planet spin rapidly as it moved around the sun. I think I was also moving around the planet as I orbited it, but it was hard to tell with how fast we were spinning.

  "Aaaand stop." I ceased the time manipulation and all of my senses caught up to me.

  Everything felt pretty good on the spider planet, seems like they made a lot of progress. The other heroes were doing well too, with their planets being equally well developed.

  I had feared manipulating time would make it so I would end up missing a lot of my life I built back on my "Cool Guy Planet", I still haven't thought of a name for it, but thankfully my other instances seem to be outside of the time bubble. For whatever reason.

  It is probably the same reason why when making antimatter, I can make so much more with my instances instead of alone. There's this disconnect between the instances and our powers, something that makes them separate despite being the literal same person.

  So as time passes incredibly fast for one instance, where I can feel time slipping by, I can feel another instance where it moves normally. It is incredibly strange to experience, having two different views of different times. Since the main instance, me, was in the time bubble I experienced time slipping by like I wanted. At the same time I was also half aware while time moved normally for my other instances.

  Green system magic. Has to be.

  Ignoring yet another blatant universal law being broken somehow, I psyched myself up for several BBG(Big Bad Guy) fights at once.

  ...

  --------- Yrutha, the Hero Polumb ---------

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Life was hell.

  Wake up, slave away for no reason, sleep for 2 hours, and repeat.

  Torture. Whole and pure.

  "I'm going to beat that motherfuckers ass." I growled as I slew yet another monster, while my fellow Polumbs cowered behind their city walls.

  I was a "Hero", which meant I was saddled with the responsibility of protecting everyone else. All of my kin who were currently dropping all the fighting on me instead of helping.

  A level 17 walking tree tried to hit me with a vine, but it was so pathetically slow and weak I dodged it by just walking towards the monster. It died with a single strike of my web whip.

  This was all his fault.

  "The Dark Lord Azurath..!" I muttered to myself, hatred fueling my actions as I leveled up again.

  That thing showed up one day, and made my already hellish life even more terrible! I didn't want to be some Hero, or main character.

  "But noo~! I'm the Hero~! I have to fight him~!" I mocked my peoples pleas to defeat the alien god thing.

  I didn't even know what it was, and I had to slay it? Are you fucking kidding me?

  It held the planet in its hand for crying out loud! I don't want to fight that! It's scary!

  "I just want to eat snacks and drink tea all day. Is that so much to ask for?" My voice wavered as I forced myself into a happy place.

  There is only one thing that makes any of this better. The System.

  It had shown up right after the Dark Lord did, and everyone was fearful of it for a while, but then it started to help us in ways impossible to describe.

  The System had shown us how to make proper houses and markets, how to grow edible and tasty plants, and even brought my favorite things ever into my life.

  Sugary sweets and drinks.

  Every single Shop Point I earn from monster slaying goes into buying cookies, soft bread, tea, and into my savings for when I finally retire as a Hero.

  I'm going to open something called a "Cafe". The capital city started to get those recently, and I've only heard rumors but it's the best place to indulge in tea and sweets.

  The System was in my good book, while the Dark Lord was on my hit list.

  Thankfully, after months of training, The System said I was finally ready. That monster I had slain got me to level 100, several times stronger than everyone else around me.

  Most Polumbs are around level 5 or 10, 30 if they do adventure work.

  That didn't matter though, because I was going to obliterate The Dark Lord Azurath and retire somewhere quiet.

  All that's left is to summon him for the final fight. The System can force him to appear, but only once. The rest is up to me.

  "I'm ready. Do it." I nodded to The System, determination swelling up within me.

  The screen flicked off with a flash, and for a few minutes nothing happened.

  Then the ground began to shake.

  "What is this~?! HOW?!" The Dark Lord yelled as his massive form appeared above the clouds.

  I watched as he was forcibly shrunken down, compressed violently as he fell from his place above the clouds.

  The Dark Lord with his gross alien body struck down in the forest like a meteor, a massive shockwave booming out from the strike point.

  Rushing over so as to not miss my chance of striking while he was down, I leapt over the trees and landed in the crater with his slumped body in the middle.

  The crater created a clearing, knocking several trees over for at least a mile. If only the fall had killed him outright.

  He began to stand on his weird two thin legs, and of course he was still at least 5 times taller than I was. Disgusting.

  "So, the Hero has come to battle me? I don't know what magic you cast to bring me down here but-!" I cut The Dark Lord off as I shot a web whip towards his head.

  He couldn't react fast enough, and it smacked him across the head. Sending him flying down to the ground again.

  I wasn't done though, and the sticky web wrapped around his neck as I used the web whip as another limb. Picking him up and slamming him into the ground over and over again.

  "Agh! Let m- Oof! Go-pmb!" He tried to talk, but I wasn't having it.

  Every word was ignored as I pummeled him relentlessly. Finally, he cut my web with a chop of his weird five-digit paw.

  "You! No respect for your betters at all! Whatever, I'll just squash you." He mumbled to himself, and I readied for his attack.

  "I'm going to beat you senseless for all that you've done!" I yelled as he pointed a palm at me.

  I dodged just in time, a bright beam of pure energy blasted past me and decimated a tree, exploding it into chunks and splinters.

  That pissed me off more, because trees were another thing gifted to us by The System. They made our planet much better to look at and live on then the empty rock it used to be.

  "Surprised~? Hehe~. Admit it! You are no-" I cut him off again as I hurled a tree at him.

  He yelped as he was squished by the weight of the massive plant. The trunk rolling over him and putting him into the ground.

  I was still angry, but something felt... off.

  "...Isn't this way too easy?" I mumbled, because I was clearly kicking his ass.

  Wasn't he supposed to be like really strong?

  "This damn System! Interfering with my power!" He yelled, conveniently answering my question as he struggled to lift the tree off of him.

  Unsure how long The System could limit his power, I charged and started landing blows on his exposed one eyed head.

  As I beat him senseless, I finally cast Identification on him...

  ...

  What?

  ...

  That can't be right...

  ...

  He's Level 10.

  I never stopped beating his ass, but I was so confused that I didn't notice that he was building something up.

  "Shit!" I jumped back as the tree exploded off of him, traces of light and fire flowing from his upper limbs.

  "You! I can't believe I'm losing?!" He stammered, stumbling to his feet and swaying slightly.

  Despite being Level 10, he sure was durable. I'd end it in the next attack though.

  "Die!" I screamed, pouring all of my energy and Mana into the Skill I learned at Level 100.

  Brilliant white and blue light blinded me as I heard The Dark Lord Azurath scream in agony. It sounded heavenly.

  Once the light died down, I collapsed to the ground exhausted.

  Looking over at where The Dark Lord had stood, all that was left was a charred stick-like statue. It crumbled into ash slowly, bits falling off and turning into dust.

  The Dark Lord Azurath was completely turned into ash, and the wind blew him away as his dust scattered across the lands.

  "Heh... Choke on that, you bastard." I mumbled before passing out.

  ...

  --------- Greg ---------

  "Wow. Truly, I am astonished." I clapped to myself while floating in orbit.

  I had watched the whole fight, using an instance like a puppet and controlling the fight.

  The Skill she had used was called "Divine Light" and it turned evil beings and entities into ash. I am not one such thing though, so while she was blinded by it's light I replaced my instance with a dirt statue. That I then modified it's atomic makeup into ash, that when I let go of it simply turned into dust.

  Quite the scene really, I should go into Hollywood or something.

  All the other Heroes were having similar victories, using all of their energy to "kill" me.

  "Finally done~!" I stretched out, holding a wrist above my head and pushing.

  Now I could go home without any regrets.

  The System will choose a suitable few to act as admins here, and the planet will recover in time. The Polumbs and all the other species with my Hero projects all recover much faster then if I left The System alone to do its thing.

  Simply put, I am a genius at playing the villain.

  Now, all that's left is to go back to Earth.