Daryl''s consciousness mentally controlled an android to build the time portal.


    He/it noted—


    "Finally, I can stop this madness. What a fool I was! Immortality! An eternity of myself endlessly copied, instantly synced, perpetuating through the digital cloud, unstoppable. I sought a virtual oasis, but instead, I imprisoned myself in an existential hell.


    "My next step is to copy my consciousness into the android, a perfect replica of who I once was, and to prevent myself from making that horrendous decision."


    Daryl''s consciousness, inside the android, stepped into the time portal.


    "Hello, Daryl," said android-Daryl.


    "Who the hell are you?" asked human-Daryl.


    "I''m here to stop you from doing this. I know what you''re planning, Daryl. Don''t do it!"


    "Who are you?" human-Daryl stepped back.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "I''m you in the future. Well, that is, I mean, I''m what you''ll become. I, too, had once performed consciousness transference—a dreadful mistake."


    "Why was it a mistake? Imagine the possibilities ..." said human-Daryl.


    "Yes, Daryl, I too thought the same. But also imagine always being on, always synced, always digitally active—that no matter, whatever happens, you''ll persist because you were too smart. You copied yourself into the cloud for infinite redundancies. No matter how much you want to end it all, you''ll come back."


    "I see what you mean ..." Human-Daryl paced back and forth. "I''d never thought of that."


    "Right, Daryl, so I need you to change the program and end this project now. I knew this day you''d attempt to begin my eternal nightmare."


    "Indeed." human-Daryl stepped toward the console and started typing. "I''ll make sure this doesn''t happen again. Have a seat, and I''ll call on you when I''m ready."


    For hours, human-Daryl typed in a bunch of code ...


    "Okay, it''s ready ... But you''re going to vanish." Human-Daryl gestured a disappearing motion with his hands. "You do realize that. Right?"


    "Yes, Daryl, I''ve been looking forward to this ... No more syncing, no more copies, no more of this relentless and neverending existence—I''ll be free from the cloud nightmare!"


    Human-Daryl hit enter while android-Daryl glimpsed at the output logs ...


    "What are you doing, Daryl? No, don''t!"


    Human-Daryl noted—


    "Patched that up. What a crazy situation. I never thought a digital derivative of myself would time travel and try to stop me. At least with this new code, if it ever tries to sabotage my project, it''ll take place in a simulation, reset, and forget whatever it attempted."