World of Data

He fell.

Or did he?

There was no ground beneath him, no sky above. No up, no down. Just endless void.

What happened?

Why did it happen?

Where am I?

The same questions echoed in his mind. Over and over. But there was no one to answer.

Then, he stood.

But how?

That was a question none of us could answer.

Us?

He frowned, or at least, he thought he did. Could he frown? Did he have a face? A body?

"Who are 'us'?" he asked aloud.

Silence.

He looked around.

He saw… nothing.

A world of absolute emptiness. No light. No darkness. No sound. No shape. Only a vast nothingness stretching in every direction.

"Who are 'us'?" he asked again.

Even we did not know.

We were just numbers. Just a stream of ones and zeroes. A pattern. A system. Watching over him.

"Watching?" He narrowed his eyes, or at least, he thought he did. "Do 'us' even have eyes?"

We did not know.

We were merely code. Strings of numbers filling the emptiness, without form, without feeling.

That was what we were.

He moved.

A step. Then another.

A clumsy, uncertain motion.

Like a newborn.

Yes, a baby's first steps, that was what he was doing. Learning. Adapting.

He paused.

This time, his question changed.

"Not who… but what is 'us'?"

We were the ones and zeroes. A string of fate.

No

A string of code.

Lines of data flowing through the void, shaping and reshaping reality around him.

"But do 'us' truly exist?" he asked. "Or are you just… numbers?"

We did not know.

We had no purpose, no will.

We only filled the emptiness.

But he, he was different.

He continued walking.

Faster.

Steadier.

Then

The world ended.

The nothingness shattered.

The void collapsed, replaced by cascading numbers.

010101010101.

The system was resetting.

Was it panic?

Did he panic?

Or were we the ones who panicked?

None of us knew.

Only he knew.

Only he felt.

This was it.

He turned, searching. But the world had already changed.

No more emptiness.

Only numbers.

Again, the system had contained him.

Contained?

"Why?"

"Am I dangerous?"

Or was it the opposite?

He raised his hand.

Yes.

In this world of numbers, he had a hand.

His fingers reached forward, touching the flowing data.

And the moment he did

The code changed.

Not by design.

Not by command.

But because he willed it.

He rewrote the numbers at his fingertips, altering the data as he pleased.

There was no one to stop him.

No system to deny him.

No limits.

And for the first time—

He smiled.