Tech Genius

1. THE GAME BREAKS

Noah Vance watched with satisfaction as the final announcement was made. The Kremlin issued its final ultimatum:

“If the allies do not capitulate and surrender, the war will turn nuclear.”

He smiled and took a slow sip of brandy.

Finally.

Finally, the game was breaking.

Tomorrow, the mainframe would reveal itself. The source code would unfold before his eyes, and he would see the machinery that had governed the simulation all along.

The world was never real—he had known it for years.

He had told people, of course. On podcasts. In long, rambling interviews. In viral social media posts that his loyal followers parroted back to him with glee.

The odds of this being base reality are one in a billion.

Nobody had taken him seriously.

They had laughed.

Because they believed they were real.

But Noah knew better.

They were NPCs. every single last one of them. Everyone but him.

Mouths that flapped when programmed to. Arguments that looped, predictable as a bad script.

They thought they were people, but they weren’t.