The void felt different after the others vanished. Emptier, but somehow more focused, as if the cosmic being's attention that had been spread across all eight billion people was now concentrated on Sam alone. He stood in the endless white, notebook clutched against his chest like a shield, the silence pressing against his ears.
Then the voice came.
It resonated through him rather than in the air, vibrating in his bones and his mind, as if the sound itself was a fundamental force of the universe. It carried no emotion, yet somehow held layers beneath it, like a melody hidden in a single note.
Sam jumped, his heart hammering against his ribs. He spun around, searching for the source, but there was only the white, only the endless nothing.
"Who—?" he managed, his voice cracking.
"Why?" The entity repeated.
Sam managed a wry smile despite his racing heart. This was it, direct contact with the entity that had just reshaped reality itself. His mind produced a thousand questions, but he forced himself to focus.
"Curiosity," he answered.
"I see."
The pause that followed seemed to stretch forever. When the entity spoke again, Sam could have sworn there was a tone of amusement.
"Abstaining from making a wish... didn't your scientific hunger drive you to wish for knowledge? For answers to the questions that have plagued your species?"
"That's exactly why I didn't," Sam said. "Any wish I made would have been based on my current understanding, my current limitations. But this," He gestured at the screen, at the void around them. "This is unprecedented. I needed to see what variables I hadn't accounted for."
"You treat this as an experiment." The entity's voice carried what might have been approval.
"Isn't it?" Sam challenged, suppressing his fear. "You didn't do this randomly. You chose our planet for specific reasons. What are you testing?"
As the silence stretched on, Sam began to wonder if he'd overstepped a boundary. Then the entity spoke again, and this time the amusement was unmistakable.
"You're an interesting specimen, Samuel Keaton. Very well. I shall offer you what your abstinence has earned, three questions, and I will answer them as completely as I am able."
Sam's hands trembled as he opened his notebook, pen poised.
"Where do you come from?" he asked, his voice steadier now. "What are you?"
"I am not from your world. I am what you might one day become, if you survive long enough. When you can travel between the stars, then perhaps you will find others like me."
Sam scribbled frantically, trying to capture every nuance. The implications were staggering, aliens existed, intelligent life beyond Earth, and they were immensely powerful.
"Why?" he asked for his second question. "Why give humanity this opportunity? What do you gain from reshaping our world?"
"The same thing that drives you to study the behaviour of creatures in your laboratories," the entity replied, the amusement tinged with something darker. "Curiosity. Entertainment. The desire to see how intelligence behaves when all its assumptions are stripped away. Your species is young, chaotic, and unpredictable. You make for... fascinating subjects."
The words sent a chill down Sam's spine. They weren't just experimental subjects, they were a source of entertainment.
"Who are you?" he asked for his final question. "Not what you are, but who. What should I call the entity that changed everything?"
"You may call me Progenitor Zhi."
The moment the name was spoken, Sam convulsed.
Pressure crashed down on him like the weight of galaxies. The universe itself seemed to recoil from the name. His vision blurred, his lungs burned as he tried to breathe.
Then it passed, leaving him gasping and shaking.
"Forgive me," Progenitor Zhi said, and for the first time the entity sounded almost... apologetic. "I sometimes forget how fragile young minds can be. You asked for my title, and titles have power. Consider it a glimpse at what is possible."
Sam tried to speak, to ask follow-up questions, to process what he'd just experienced, but the entity was already moving on.
"Your experiment has yielded results, Samuel Keaton. I will return you to your world now."
The white light erupted around him. As his consciousness faded, Sam's last coherent thought was a mixture of terror and exhilaration.
He had answers. But more importantly, he was beginning to understand just how many questions there were that he hadn't even known to ask.