The room was white.
Not metaphorically—literally white. As if some developer ran out of textures.
Zeke blinked. Then blinked again.
Zeke: "…Bitty? Why does everything look like someone forgot to finish rendering reality?"
Bitty (now a floating cube): "Congratulations. You have accidentally entered the Root Layer—the universe's debug environment."
Zeke: "I just pressed escape three times and hit the vending machine with a spoon."
Bitty: "Yes. The spoon was the key."
Zeke: "What… is this place?"
Bitty: "Here, all source code is visible. Every law of physics is editable. You… are technically admin now."
Zeke: "…I'm sorry, WHAT?"
...
The Universal Console Appeared
[root@universe]$: _
Zeke: "Oh no. I should not have this power. I once deleted my own face trying to install a sneeze filter."
Bitty: "You now have the power to fix everything. Or break it permanently."
Zeke: "You mean… I could bring back the old pizza rolls?"
Bitty: "You could erase war, poverty, or pineapple pizza."
Zeke (sweating): "So much responsibility… I only came here to fake my death and sleep."
...
He Typed
[root@universe]$: uninstall: zeke.core
ERROR: You are a protected entity. Divine flag enabled.
Zeke: "I can't even delete myself? What the hell kind of god am I?!"
Bitty: "A reluctant one. The best kind."
...
Suddenly—An Incoming Message
Incoming transmission: [The Architect]
Zeke: "Wait. Who the hell is 'The Architect'?"
Bitty: "The one who wrote the first line of code."
Zeke (groans): "Tell them I don't want the job."
...
The Transmission Played
A shadowy figure in glowing robes appeared, pixelated and half-rendered.
The Architect: "You were never meant to ascend. And yet… here you are. Chaos wrapped in humor, wearing a bathrobe."
Zeke: "Listen, buddy. I don't want to rule anything. I just wanted a snack, and maybe to prank the empire."
The Architect: "And in doing so, you exposed every flaw in our systems. Your misunderstandings… reshaped reality."
Zeke: "…So… what now?"
The Architect: "Now you choose. Reboot the world, or walk away."
...
Zeke Looked at the Console
[root@universe]$: reboot_all
He hovered over the command. Thought about all the people. All the weirdos. All the chaos. And the dumb memes with his face on them.
Then he typed something else.
[root@universe]$: chmod 000 zeke.core
[root@universe]$: logout
Bitty: "…You locked your admin status?"
Zeke (smirking): "If I can't delete myself, I can at least stop editing everything."
Bitty: "Where will we go?"
Zeke: "Anywhere with bad service and no believers."
...
The world resumed.
The galaxies spun.
And somewhere, in a noodle shop at the end of time, a man in a bathrobe slurped quietly.
On the wall, a poorly drawn painting showed a man shouting "Pineapple Pizza Is a Lie!" with angel wings.
Zeke: "Let them believe whatever they want. I've got noodles."
Bitty: "And… if they come looking for you?"
Zeke: "I'll do what I always do: wing it, and hope they brought snacks."
...
THE END
Zeke was never a hacker at all.
His "skills" were just a fluke triggered by a dormant debug admin ID tied to a long-forgotten universe prototype called "Project: Chaos Engine."
The universe? One massive simulation created as a joke by interns from a higher dimension.
Zeke was the punchline—until he became the rewrite.
Somewhere deep in the system logs, the Architect types a single line:
[root@universe]$: reactivate.chaos.prototype()
Neon Ghost will return… or maybe not.