Making Deals with Kronika, the "Keeper of Time", What Can Be Learned From It (MK11)
Updated: Apr 6
(Note: No gore included, despite the subject being within a Mortal Kombat game. This is literally safe for work)
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I have read many books, played many video games, and watched many movies in my life. However, there is one character that I have found to be both the most powerful and the most purely evil.
I do not pretend to know much about her, as she has only appeared in a single game so far. However, I do know that she is one of the most powerful characters I have ever encountered in fiction.
Lady Kronika is a supreme divine being who appears to have complete control over time, space, and infinite realities. I have fought her several times, and I can confirm that she is one of the most overpowered opponents I have ever faced in a fighting game.
In a fictional universe based on paganism, where there are multiple gods, Lady Kronika is even beyond godhood. She is a Titan, a being of even higher power. It is believed that she was named after the Greek god Chronos, but I have been unable to find confirmation of this.
Being supposedly omnipotent and extremely evil, she is responsible for the crisis of infinite timelines and realities, and thus, for the deaths of countless beings. In her own franchise, despite only appearing in a single game out of 11 games, she is considered the main villain and the most powerful entity in a series of games where you can play as immortal beings.
For some reason, you, the player, can make infinite deals with her if you visit a certain island in the game. This island, which appears to be under eternal moonlight, is filled with treasure chests. These chests can contain a variety of items, some of which are more important than others.
In fact, I have been looting this island for over a year and a half, on and off, and I still do not know exactly what I have collected. All I know is that I have a large number of items that I may not even be aware of, and that I may never use.
The island is quite large, but there are at least two portals on it that connect to Lady Kronika. You do not even get to speak to her directly; she simply ignores your existence as a mere customer.
Her deal is simple: you pay her 100,000 gold coins (which is easily attainable in the main game), and she will reset 50 of the treasure chests you have already looted.
However, she will also place them in a different timeline, so that they will contain different rewards each time you make a deal with her. You can make these deals in sets of 50, and then proceed to loot the chests again, like the greedy materialist you supposedly are.
In other words, you can never loot the entire island. The island, under Kronika's control, seems to be stuck beyond the natural flow of time. No matter how many treasure chests you loot, she can always grant you the ability to open them up again, and again, and again.
There is no true success in this; there is only unlimited benefit, earned by paying a currency within the game. One could say that the island is both useful and useless.
Imagine having all of your food, shelter, and desires provided for you for the rest of your life, without having to do very much in return. That is how I feel when I make deals with Lady Kronika. Despite being an evil goddess, she does provide good business.
As I play Mortal Kombat 11 more and more, I realize that, despite being defeated in the game's plot, Lady Kronika is nonetheless the supreme ruler of the game in practice. This is because, if you enjoy looting the island, you will have to defeat opponents for gold coins. These gold coins can ultimately be used to benefit Kronika more than they benefit you.
As I mentioned before, there are many items in the game, and most of them are useless and are left ignored by the average player, which I also am. However, the ambition to have more and more, especially when it is so easy to do so, remains.
By making infinite deals with a time goddess, I have come to understand that, as a player, I am not really in control. The right to reset the bounty on the island is always priced, by a Titan who does not even bother to communicate with you, even when you are giving her money for her service.
She is definitely not human or mortal. She seems to give people the illusion of control, while she herself is the one who determines what will be in the treasure chests.
Just like she sealed the fates of many unknown timelines and realities, without their residents even knowing, as they died so swiftly. She is the ultimate designer, for she can determine what will happen and what will not, and whether or not one's reality might be wiped in an instant by her sole desire. Those who believe in the philosophy of grand design, in the idea that everything is predetermined, should consider that the entity behind it all, if it indeed exists, might be evil, similarly or exactly like Lady Kronika.
I can understand how functional determinism is as a philosophy, whether correct or not. A true determinist would, after all, try and see anything and anyone as something of a greater reason, one that is meant for themselves and for others as well. In Judaism, there is an old saying: "Everything is for a greater good."
But what if the one doing the determining isn't as good as we may think? What if we, like Kronika, are not the ones who benefit from them, but vice versa—benefit themselves, using us as mere playthings, as mere pawns, to fulfill whatever motives they have?
What if we are only deluded by the idea that we are indeed free, when our freedom is granted by someone else as a mere permission? What if life is but a scam with an ulterior motive none of us are necessarily aware of? Another Jewish saying: "Man thinks, God laughs." My lack of religious beliefs is irrelevant right now.
I enjoyed that island a lot thus far, but isn't it just a scam for Kronika? A scam to pay her with currency just to give oneself the illusion of prosperity, of wealth, by having many things one might not even regard or use or even remember that one has?
These last few days have been quite hard for me, as I have allegedly been attempted to be deceived with "financial opportunities" online. Could it be that it was thanks to my own financial satisfaction, and my lack of want for much more than I already have, that I wasn't manipulated by them at all?
I really hate Lady Kronika, the Keeper of Time. She disregards any looter who arrives on the island she has power over, and only gives her service, nothing more, nothing less, without marketing herself, and without telling us why we should have more of these many random items.
Making a deal with the devil, per se, would be like making a deal with her—a deal that might only make you feel, one day, that you were deluded by the desire for many minor and unnecessary materials, consumables, and artifacts.
In exchange, you are basically stuck generating resources for that purpose alone. There are other investments but they are very tiny in relation. With the way you earn money, being the slaughter of countless opponents. The player is just a fighter drone for that divine Titan. But it's just business, and the deaths of countless, may matter little to you. Let alone, to her. Because as long as she is paid, she does not care. You can't even communicate with her directly, when conducting business with her. Nonetheless, she is, in a way, your boss.
There's no escape from her island. You're not even safe within the island, as you can die in several ways, only to be resurrected infinitely. It's Kronika's doing, given her ability to manipulate time. An immortal customer is a customer that can always pay...
After all, you're useful to her, as you provide her with coins, hearts and souls. The agony of your character does not matter to her. Perhaps the killings you make, whenever you fight, matter to her more. As if she is manipulating you without any loss on her end. Because even if you kill her in the fighting modes, it does not matter in any way.
The only thing that matters to her is power. You are just a means for that end. A pawn who can't escape his/her own reality.
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Do you see now why I chose asceticism? Not only due to the want to avoid deception, but also because there are many things in life we do not really need and yet we buy them regardless. Some of these things we would buy might never be in actual use, and even though they would be ours, yes? ...that notion of getting something to be yours could be nothing but a hollow way to feel like you're progressing with your life.
I'm not sad because of this fictional deity. I'm sad because those who tried to supposedly deceive me with their financial offers... None of them bothered to answer me this question: "Why should I have more than what I already have while being satisfied from them too?"
Why would I want to have more of something I don't even need to get any more of it? Why buy 2 jars of coffee when I can enjoy 1 for the time being?
Why go to a restaurant when I can be satisfied by my own food at a far cheaper price, that would also last for a couple of days and not just a single meal? Why would anyone want more than one private car, when they already have a single car? Why would anyone want to live in a mansion, when they can live happily in a far smaller house or apartment?
I mean... if I am to potentially be deceived, at least tell me a reason why I should have more of what I already have. These supposed deceivers never bothered to convince me why I should have more. It seems as if it is a "granted," that we all want more than we have, even though that is a very broad generalization.
I do have the "money," the gold coins, to invest in her offer as much as I'd like... but why, exactly? To kill more and more for her? Like in real life, this financial materialism is a cycle that never ends. You work partially for services and products you don't really need, only to work for their gain, once more. Unnecessarily, we are being played, despite having the choice to do otherwise.
If I am to eternally be stuck on a mystical island with infinite riches, at least tell me why I would desire infinite wealth in the first place! Chest after chest, "reward" after "reward"... what is the role of such absurd infinity? The role is, of course, to please. Kronika, the supplier.
This is, you see, the existential absurdity of having immense wealth, and why, since I've been introduced to philosophy, I've always been an existentialist at heart. I do not care for all these items— I need to know their purpose in the grand scheme of things, in order to give them value!
Never get addicted to hedonistic pursuits, or the cycle of instant gratification will everlast.
