The silence after ascension was unlike any other silence he had known.
Not the static lull of dead code, nor the hum of looping data.
This was the silence of a system holding its breath.
The world engine no longer moved.
Every line of code, every pulse of digital wind, every simulated heartbeat — suspended, waiting.
He stood alone in the gap between creation and collapse, eyes aglow with the burning glyphs of Root Access.
> [Privilege Confirmed: REALITY EDIT (BETA)]
The words floated before him like divine scripture, carved in golden binary.
Even the light felt hesitant to move around them.
He could feel the new command thread uncoiling in his mind — elegant, endless, and incomprehensibly dangerous. It wasn't magic. It wasn't even code anymore. It was something older, purer: intention given form.
He raised a hand.
The interface responded like it was afraid.
> "Define: Target reality."
He almost laughed.
Almost.
