It started with a scream.
Not a loud one. Not the kind that echoed down abandoned metal corridors or made rats scurry. No—this was a code scream. A digital shriek that echoed through firewalls and forced blinking red lights across a lab that hadn't been touched in over a year.
The scream had a name: Null.
---
"System Error: Core Initialization Failed."
"Subject: NULL_0001"
"Status: Nonviable..."
"Containment Status: Unknown."
---
The terminal buzzed, then sparked. A burnt smell mixed with antiseptic air. Deep beneath the ruins of what used to be the ZionTech Research Facility, something moved. It coughed. Then it laughed.
"I'm alive?" said the voice.
He sat up slowly, surrounded by broken glass and floating screens frozen on error codes. Wires clung to his skin like vines, and a pale blue glow pulsed from his chest.
He didn't know his name. Didn't remember a childhood. But he knew one thing with bone-deep certainty:
> He was not supposed to exist.
---
Outside, the sky burned purple. Twisted skyscrapers reached like fingers into the poisoned clouds. Mutants roamed freely, the remnants of humanity's failed experiments in gene-forged survival.
Deep underground, Null stumbled forward. Every light flickered as he passed. Machines shut down. Surveillance systems blinked out. He was like a virus rejected by reality, yet alive inside it.
---
He found a mirror. The reflection wasn't comforting.
Jet-black hair. Crimson red eyes. A body with glowing fractures under the skin, like cracked code barely holding together. His eyes flickered with lines of text he didn't understand.
Then he heard a voice:
> [Codex Detected. Initializing User Interface…]
> [ Alert: Host does not meet biological or spiritual requirements.]
> [ Bypassing restrictions…]
> [Welcome, NULL. You are now the sole wielder of the Codex of Alteration.]
"…Cool," he muttered, then paused. "Wait. What?"
A screen popped up, hovering in front of him.
---
[Codex of Alteration – Alpha Access]
[ Permission Level: Rootless]
[Class: Bug-Type Entity]
[ Available Functions:]
[Edit: Glitched Lines Only]
[Save: Manual]
[Execute: Limited]
---
Null blinked.
He reached out and pressed a floating option that said "Edit." A string of characters appeared.
> [Gravity: 9.8m/s²]
[Access Denied]
But one line glitched constantly:
> [Wall Integrity: 100%]
[Error: Undefined Variable]
He tapped it.
> [Wall Integrity: 0%]
The metal wall beside him exploded outward.
Null flinched. Dust cleared. Fresh air well, toxic air rushed in.
His lips curled into a grin.
"I think I just hacked reality."
---
[Codex Update]
> You have discovered your first Glitch Zone.
You can now alter unstable laws of reality in a limited radius.
Proceed with caution. World stability decreasing…
---
And so began the journey of a bug in the system. An error the universe wanted to delete… but couldn't.
Null didn't know where the surface was.
He didn't know the names of the monsters above.
But he did know one thing:
> He was going to break everything the world thought was unbreakable.
And maybe… become a god in the process.