The world above was louder than Null expected.
The broken facility groaned behind him as he stepped through the newly-formed hole in the wall, leaving behind the only place he'd ever known though "known" was a generous term for waking up to red warnings and reality-breaking powers.
Null stood at the mouth of an underground tunnel. Cold wind lashed at his face. The smell of ozone, rust, and something dead made him wrinkle his nose.
Above, the city skyline looked like someone had run a magnet through a digital painting. Skyscrapers leaned at unnatural angles. Floating chunks of buildings hovered midair. The sky glitched now and then, flickering between violet clouds and static.
This wasn't Earth.
Or at least… not the version he remembered.
Not that he remembered anything.
---
[Codex Notice]
* Location: Fractured Earth
Time-Sync: Undefined
Local Laws of Physics: Unstable
Status: Hostile Zone*
---
Null glanced at the glowing notice hovering next to his head. "Thanks, floating horror tutorial."
He reached up and tried to swipe it away. It made a sarcastic beep and minimized itself into a corner of his vision.
"…You'll fit right in."
As Null stepped onto cracked asphalt, he noticed something strange: the world was quiet. Too quiet. The wind howled, and buildings creaked, but there was no life. No people. No vehicles. Just empty echoes.
Until something howled back.
---
From the distance came a shriek part digital distortion, part beast. A six-legged thing skittered into view, its skin flickering between flesh and pixelated static. Its face was wrong. It had too many eyes. Or not enough. It shifted as Null tried to focus.
> [Glitch beast: Type-Error]
*Classification: Null-Eater
Threat Level: Fatal
Weakness: ???
Status: Tracking You*
"Oh, great," Null muttered. "First day out and I'm already on someone's lunch menu."
---
He ran.
Boots slamming against broken concrete, he ducked behind a rusted shell of a truck. The creature followed, limbs clicking like corrupted sound files. He dove through a shattered window of a building and skidded across a floor of cracked marble and collapsed tech panels.
His chest pulsed blue light leaking from the glowing core embedded in him. And then…
---
> [ Codex Triggered]
Unstable Zone Detected.
Reality Thread Found: [Structure: Door (Locked)]
Status: Glitched – Editable.
---
"Right. Edit mode."
He crawled toward a heavy vault door in the hallway and slapped his hand on it.
> [Door Lock: Engaged]
[Change to: Open Sesame]
Edit Successful.
The massive door creaked, then flew open with a hiss of pressurized air.
Null jumped inside, spun around, and slammed his hand back on the door.
> [Door Status: Open]
[Closed + Reinforced]
Edit Successful.
SLAM.
The Glitch beast skidded to a halt just inches from the closing seam, snarling and warping as if trying to glitch through. But the reinforced door held.
For now Null collapsed against the wall, panting, sweat dripping down his face.
"…Okay," he said between gasps. "Note to self. Don't fight corrupted monsters until you know more than one cheat code."
---
He looked around the room. It was some kind of old command center, now abandoned. Terminals lined the walls, all dark. The middle console blinked slowly.
> [System Booting…]
He approached and placed his hand on the surface. The console flared to life.
> Welcome, NULL.
ZionTech User Clearance: [BUG TYPE – OVERRIDE]
Load Records?
[Yes] [No]
Null stared at the screen. He didn't know what he'd find in there memories, danger, answers?
He tapped "Yes."
---
The screen lit up with blue fire.
A video started playing: a lab technician, panicked, speaking into the camera.
"If you're seeing this… the experiment failed. The subject Null he didn't initialize as planned. He rewrote his core functions. He's not human anymore. He's… something else."
"We tried to contain it. But every time we isolated his code, it evolved."
"We don't know what he is. He's not supposed to exist. He's a living contradiction."
The feed ended.
Null blinked. "Cool. I'm basically a walking 404 error."
---
Suddenly, the room dimmed. Sirens began to whine.
> [Codex Alert: Glitch beast attempting to override structural boundaries.]
A huge claw burst through the wall beside him.
Null's eyes flashed red.
He stood slowly, brushing dust off his jacket. "Alright, ugly…"
He raised a hand. The Codex interface opened in front of him like a heads-up display.
"…let's see what happens when I delete you."
---