You woke up with a yawn, slipping out of bed and lazily changing out of your pajamas into your usual casual attire. There was no real reason to leave the house today, but you dressed up anyway, more out of habit than necessity. Once ready, you headed to the kitchen, eager for breakfast.
That’s when a cold sensation crawled down your spine—a feeling unlike anything you’d ever experienced before. It was as if the air around you had shifted, making everything seem unnervingly out of place.
The first oddity you noticed was in the kitchen: your cousin was missing. Wait, what?
She had been staying with you for the past four days. Her house had been fumigated due to a pest infestation, and she needed a place to stay for about a week. It wasn’t a big deal—hosting family for a short time was hardly an inconvenience. Besides, she lived nearby, and her presence had been easy to accommodate.
Your cousin had a peculiar habit of eating breakfast early, alone in the kitchen. That quirk was why you had bothered to get dressed first thing this morning; she loved to tease you about your pajamas.
But now, as you stepped into the kitchen, she wasn’t there. It was the exact time she would usually be seated at the table. You felt a small pang of worry.
You began searching the house for her, but there was no trace—none of her belongings, none of the items she had brought with her. The house was filled only with your things. Had she left early because her house was ready sooner than expected?
No, that didn’t add up. Your cousin wasn’t the type to leave without saying goodbye, and the keys to the house were still hanging on the wall. How could she have left without you noticing?
Something was off. The eerie silence and emptiness unsettled you, as though she had simply ceased to exist. The thought made your stomach churn.
Almost reflexively, you reached for the TV remote. Maybe the news would have answers, though even you didn’t know what you were hoping to find. But when you pressed the button, nothing happened. The TV didn’t turn on. At first, you blamed the remote’s batteries, but then you remembered replacing them recently. You tried turning on the TV manually—still nothing. Was the power out?
You grabbed your phone to check for any notifications—a scheduled power outage, perhaps—or maybe a message from your cousin explaining her disappearance. But as you stared at the screen, your confusion deepened: no internet, no mobile data, and most perplexing of all, no signal. How could you have no signal inside your own home?
You roamed the house, checking everything. The power was indeed out. The fridge wasn’t humming, though the food inside was still cold, suggesting the outage had happened only moments ago—perhaps thirty minutes at most.
The strange events only deepened your unease.
Your cousin had vanished without a trace, taking all her belongings with her. The power outage, your phone losing signal, and even the landline not working—it all felt too coincidental to be random.
Fear clawed at your chest as you decided it was time to leave the house. You thought of asking your neighbor if she knew anything about the power outage or if her phone still had a signal. Perhaps this was all just a bizarre misunderstanding.
But nothing could have prepared you for what awaited outside.
The world beyond your front door was... unrecognizable. How could you even begin to describe it?
EVERY TRACE OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION HAD VANISHED COMPLETELY.
Instead of houses and streets, there was only sprawling wilderness. Your neighbor's home, the ones lining your street, the lampposts, telephone lines, and even the asphalt roads—all of it was gone. Your house stood alone, the only human-made structure for miles and miles, surrounded by endless nature.
Desperation gripped you as you ran, searching for answers. You sprinted through what used to be your neighborhood, your breath ragged, your mind racing. Yet all you found were trees, grass, and animals. No buildings, no roads, no people. You called out, screamed, but there was no response.
You were awake—of that, you were certain. This was no dream.
The obvious conclusion would be that your house had been transported to another world, like something out of a popular isekai anime. But as you explored, the evidence suggested otherwise.
Signs of your old world still lingered, like ghosts of the civilization that once thrived here. For instance, the strange neighbor who raised chickens and sold their eggs—her house and coop were gone, but her chickens remained, wandering the landscape just as confused as you. Another neighbor had planted an apple tree in his garden; the tree stood exactly where it had always been, though the house that once surrounded it had vanished.
Most striking of all were the marks left on the ground. Perfectly square impressions in the earth showed where the houses of your neighborhood had once stood. You could easily recognize the shapes and locations, each one a reminder of a home that no longer existed. These remnants provided an eerie roadmap, guiding you back to your house in the midst of the desolate landscape.
It was as if someone had clicked a cosmic "close window" button, erasing every human structure and inhabitant—leaving behind only you, your house, and your belongings in your house.
How could something like this happen?
Confused, desperate, and craving answers, you decided to venture beyond the confines of your home. You hoped—prayed, even—that you weren’t the last human left alive. Surely, someone else had to be out there.
You walked for hours, calling out into the wilderness: “HELLO? Is anyone here? Please, somebody, HELP! Is anyone alive out there? PLEASE RESPOND!!” Your voice echoed in vain, met only by the rustling of leaves and the occasional chirp of birds. No human sounds, no response.
Fatigue set in, and your shouting dwindled. All you saw were trees, animals, and endless wilderness. The absence of human life was deafening.
And then, finally, something happened.
After four grueling hours of walking in a straight line, you saw it—a figure perched on a rock in the distance. As you drew closer, you realized it was… a massive red gorilla, its fur shimmering as though it were ablaze.
Wait—what?
It was unlike anything you’d ever seen. Gorillas didn’t even live in your country, let alone glowing red ones. Was this some kind of hallucination? At first, you thought it might have escaped from a zoo, but the way it radiated light made it seem more like a creature from a fantasy book.
Desperation overrode logic. You approached the gorilla, deciding that speaking to a glowing animal made more sense than wander for more hours in search of another human being.
But before you could utter a word, the gorilla spoke first.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” it said in a deep, resonant voice.
You froze, staring in disbelief. Words—words you could understand—had just come from the mouth of this otherworldly creature. Perhaps you’d finally lost your mind.
“You… you can talk?” you stammered. “Who are you? Do you know what happened to everyone? Why can you talk? What’s going on?”
The gorilla met your frantic gaze, its tone calm and deliberate. “In terms your mind can comprehend, I am what your civilization would call God—the Creator of all.”
“God?” you repeated, your voice barely a whisper. At this point, after everything you’d seen, you were ready to believe anything.
“Yes, something akin to that. It is the simplest way to explain what I am. I am the one who created humanity, and, I am also the one who has erased it.”
The weight of those words hit you like a freight train.
“What… what do you mean?” you managed to ask, though part of you didn’t want to hear the answer.
“Human civilization, as you knew it, no longer exists,” the gorilla said matter-of-factly. “I have wiped it from the face of the Earth. Every human being, every structure, every record of your history—gone. Cemeteries, artifacts, even skeletal remains—all erased. The only evidence that humanity ever existed is you, your house, and nothing else.”
Shock rendered you speechless. You stood there, gaping at the glowing gorilla, your mind scrambling to process the impossible. After several long moments, you finally choked out a single word:
“Why?”
The gorilla’s eyes locked onto yours, its voice suddenly heavy with weariness.
“Because I was bored,” it said. “Your civilization—your people—have disappointed me for millennia. Two thousand years ago, you were tedious. Two thousand years later, you are no better. With all your knowledge and technology, you still haven’t invented flying cars! Do you have any idea how much hope I placed in humanity after watching Back to the Future Part II? Fantastic movie, by the way. My favorite. But here we are, decades later, and still no flying cars! Not even after I sent you a pandemic to shake things up.”
You blinked, torn between laughing and crying. Was this real? Was God—if this being truly was God—telling you humanity had been erased because of flying cars?
“...Okay,” you said, voice trembling. “But why didn’t you erase me? Or my house?”
The gorilla stepped down from its rock, moving closer. Its eyes burned with intensity.
“Because I have chosen you,” it said. “You will become the creator and architect of the new humanity.”
Your eyes widened in disbelief. “...What?”
The gorilla nodded solemnly. “You will build this world anew. Come, let me explain.”
“That’s right,” the red gorilla said, “you are the one I’ve chosen to become the creator and director of the new humanity. Now, I request your silence for the next 30 minutes while I explain everything.”
You nodded fervently, sealing your lips as though with an invisible zipper. After all, you were speaking to someone—or something—capable of erasing entire civilizations with a mere thought. If anyone deserved respect, it was this being. You weren’t exactly in a position to challenge Thanos or whatever this being is, possibly something above that.
“Good,” the gorilla continued. “First and foremost, the reason you were chosen is simple: luck. Be grateful. I decided someone in your city would be crowned as the Creator and Director of the New Humanity. I picked a random number, and yours happened to be the winner. No deeper reason exists.”
Luck? The first time in your life you’d ever won anything, and it turned out to be the greatest prize imaginable.
“Second,” the gorilla said, “the reason I didn’t erase your house or belongings was so that you would start your day normally, gradually realizing what had happened. I wasn’t going to hand this title over easily. The one chosen had to pass a small test—to reach me of their own accord. You’ve succeeded, so congratulations. You’ve earned your title. Had you failed to find me before nightfall, I would have simply destroyed the planet entirely, with no second chances.”
You swallowed hard, the weight of that revelation sinking in. It seemed your frantic, straight-line march through the wilderness had saved the planet. Who would’ve thought sheer desperation could be some heroic act?
“If, in the distant future, this new humanity stumbles upon your house searching for their origins, that’s a separate matter,” the gorilla said. “The contents of your home may shape their understanding of where they came from. This will make more sense once I explain further.”
You nodded again, more eager than ever to hear what was coming next.
“As I said, you will be the Creator and Director of the new humanity,” the gorilla declared. “This means the next intelligent species to inhabit this planet—the one that will build and shape a new civilization—will be designed entirely by you. Every aspect of these beings will reflect your desires.”
Your breath hitched. The enormity of what he was saying was hard to comprehend.
“When I created the previous humanity—the one you knew, now erased—I gave them significant genetic freedom. Their DNA allowed for immense variety, leading to countless different individuals. For you, however, I’m offering the chance to create a humanity with far more specific and restricted DNA. You can define their instincts, behaviors, and even cultural tendencies in ways that ensure much greater uniformity among individuals. If you want a more homogeneous species with a particular purpose, this is your opportunity.”
Homogeneous? The word sparked a flood of ideas in your mind.
“Many aspects of a person are determined by their DNA,” the gorilla continued. “In the humanity you knew, behaviors—such as social tendencies—were partially encoded in their DNA. For instance, you may have noticed how men and women often displayed certain patterns of behavior. These tendencies were the result of genetic programming and hormones influencing their bodies and minds. But now, you have the chance to rewrite everything. You can program new instincts and behaviors that didn’t exist in the old humanity, creating a species capable of building a civilization entirely different from the one you knew.”
The implications left you reeling. If behavior could be programmed into DNA, was free will ever truly real?
“To help you understand,” the gorilla said, “I’ll provide some examples.”
You braced yourself as the glowing being began its explanation, seemingly tireless in its ability to speak.
“For instance,” the gorilla said, “you could design a humanity where biological development results in women being significantly taller and more muscular than men. In such a scenario, women would be the physically dominant sex, while men would be smaller and far weaker. This would lead to a society where women dominate every aspect of physical prowess. Records in sports would be set by women, and female athletics would draw all the attention and revenue. Male sports would be seen as a weaker, less impressive version.”
Your mind filled with vivid images of this hypothetical world.
“This physical disparity,” the gorilla continued, “could naturally lead to a matriarchal society, where women are the strong leaders and men serve roles primarily centered around pleasing women, even being seen as little more than toys by many of them.”
"Or you could create a new humanity that leads to a much more patriarchal civilization than the one you knew. You could design the women of the new humanity to all have an extremely submissive personality, constantly seeking men to make decisions as if they were incapable of deciding anything for themselves and were in a constant state of dependence on the opposite sex. In that case, all the women of this new humanity would be designed to be this way and behave this way, as they are encoded this way in their DNA."
"You could also design your new humanity to have a series of instincts that didn't exist in the one you knew, as I mentioned. For example, you could create a humanity where men are instinctively incapable of hating or even hurting women, as if something in their biology prevents them from attacking anything they identify as a female of their species, perhaps through a system that recognizes them by pheromones these women produce. Therefore, in this new humanity, something like incels or any form of abuse towards women is completely impossible to exist. This could lead to creating a humanity where women constantly take advantage of men all the time to get what they want and do what they want."
“And here are more ideas, you could code this new humanity,” the glowing red gorilla continued, “so that every member naturally gravitates toward and adores a single idea, as if it were the inevitable conclusion of their thoughts. For example, you could program them to believe, unquestionably, that communism is the ideal form of government. They would then strive to spread communism across the globe, creating a future where every nation identifies as communist, and everyone works in harmony to make communist work somehow.”
The gorilla’s glowing eyes seemed to flicker as it spoke.
“You could also alter their biological traits in ways unimaginable to your former species. For instance, you could decide that all members of this new humanity will have identical hair color, or you could introduce new colors entirely, you could also make that these factors depend and vary according to gender. Perhaps create a humanity where all the women will be blonde all the men have bright blue hair.
"Or," the gorilla added with a faint smirk, “you could make it so that every human is born with superpowers, like something out of those Marvel or DC comics.”
The possibilities swirled in your mind like an endless vortex of creativity and chaos.
“Of course, you could also create a humanity with traits reminiscent of dogs,” the gorilla said. “Give them fur, floppy ears, and canine-like behavior. Or design them to have a very complicated reproductive cycle with twelve biological sexes instead of just two. You might even create a humanity consisting solely of females who reproduce by cloning themselves, much like certain lizards who can also do that. And why stop there? Give them lizard tails and reptilian eyes. By now, I’m sure you grasp the concept.”
“Yes, sir?..God? sir…” you managed to say, nodding in acknowledgment.
“Good. What’s crucial to understand is this: while you can design their DNA, the laws of physics on this planet, and the planet, is the same. The world itself will not bend to your whims. For instance, if you create a humanity that survives exclusively on crabs they can't eat anything else and that's their entire diet, they might face extinction due to the difficulty of catching and cracking open such prey. And you can’t make crabs rain from the sky to solve that problem, because that would defy the laws of this universe.”
You couldn’t help but chuckle nervously. So much for your dream of a donut rainstorm.
“Nonetheless,” the gorilla continued, “you retain complete freedom within the realm of biological design. For example, if you want humans with super gigantic heads as big as a tree, you can make it work—just remember to give them exceptionally strong necks to support the weight.”
“How exactly am I supposed to do all this?” you asked, still trying to wrap your head around the logistics.
“I’m glad you asked,” the gorilla said with a sly grin. With a wave of its hairy hand, a chair and an old typewriter on a table materialized before you. It looked ancient, its keys tarnished with age.
“Your civilization recently made great strides in artificial intelligence,” the gorilla said. “Surely, you’re familiar with the concept of a ‘prompt,’ and how people used them to give instructions to an AI, to generate the picture they wish to obtain. This process will work similarly.”
The gorilla walked over to the typewriter and placed a sheet of paper in it.
“You’ll sit here,” it explained, “and write a PROMPT—a detailed description of how you want the new humanity to be. There’s no fixed structure you must follow, you are free to give whatever kind of description you want, but 3 key points to describe could be BIOLOGY, BEHAVIORS, and CULTURE, if you are interested in having some reference points. When you have finished your PROMPT and it is ready, just throw the typewriter to the ground.”
“Uh… throw it?”
“Yes,” the gorilla replied with a flourish. “When you do, the typewriter and its paper will melt into a pool of ink containing the DNA you’ve designed, one based on the description of your prompt to define the species that is defined by this code. I’ll then use this DNA to create the first 250 humans of your new species.”
You nodded slowly, there were no words to describe how excited you were to start with all this.
“These 250 humans will be implanted with false memories to give them a basic understanding of who they are and how to survive together. They’ll have no knowledge that they were created from nothing mere hours ago, they will believe the lie that they have been around for a while having their little primitive society.
After that, my intervention ends. Every human born after them will be descendants of these first 250 humans, and everything from there unfolds naturally from the DNA you designed. Also, Hmmm…”
The gorilla snapped its fingers, and the landscape around you was swapped, except for the fact that you and the little table with the chair and the old typewriter were still in the exact same place, everything else changed. The barren emptiness was replaced by a lush environment teeming with life. Animals darted through dense forests, rivers flowed with crystalline water, and mountains loomed in the distance.
“This is a better starting point,” the gorilla said casually. “There’s plenty of wildlife here for them to hunt and use as they take millennia to develop language and their rudimentary knowledge, or their first attempts at complex technology if they ever build any.”
“Uh… am I very far from home now?” you asked hesitantly, glancing at the unfamiliar surroundings.
“Of course. What fun would it be if your house wasn’t buried under centuries of myth and legend by the time the new humanity finds it?”
“Great,” you muttered. “Should’ve brought my backpack…”
The gorilla ignored your complaint and continued, “Now, let’s talk about the powers I’ve granted you. You are immortal. You’ll never need to eat or drink again to survive, and you cannot die. At will, you can become completely invisible and intangible. Close your eyes and think, ‘I am invisible and intangible,’ and it will be so. To reverse it, simply close your eyes and think, ‘I am not.’
“Furthermore, you won’t have to sit idly and watch as millennia pass before the first city arises. You can move freely through time, both forward and backward. Just close your eyes and think of the time you wish to travel to. For example, ‘I want to go 4,000 years into the future,’ and it will happen in an instant. You can also go back in time, but never before the moment I create the first 250 humans. That’s the limit for going back, though no such limit exists for moving forward. You can also use this same power to explore Earth and see where civilization has advanced, thinking things like ‘I want to move 2000 kilometers south of where I am,’ valid with every possible number of distances, and directions being north, south, east, west, etc., your feet will always be on the ground when you use this power to move on space and time.”
HOLY SHIT, YOU’RE IMMORTAL AND ETERNAL NOW?! No wonder you weren’t feeling hungry!
“You have two more powers,” the glowing red gorilla continued, its deep voice reverberating in the air. “First, you can possess and enter the body of any person you encounter throughout history. This allows you to live and experience life through their eyes and body. Simply become invincible and intangible, enter their body, and you’ll gain access to all their memories. You’ll instinctively know how to live their life like you were them. Any actions you take while in their body will feel to them as if they were their own decisions. So you can take advantage of this to get certain people to do things they normally wouldn't do.
“When you wish to leave someone’s body, simply close your eyes and think, ‘I want to separate from this body.’”
You blinked, trying to process all of this.
“And lastly,” the gorilla continued, “you can influence key historical events. If, for example, the future humanity splits into two factions and a war erupts between them, you can decide which side will emerge victorious. To do this, close your eyes and think, ‘This shall be the outcome of this, this side should win.’ This power allows you to shape the path of history, altering how future generations will write their textbooks.”
Let’s recap your powers, then:
1) Close your eyes and think, ‘I am invincible and intangible’ to become so. To revert, close your eyes and think, ‘I am not.’
2) Close your eyes and think, ‘I want to travel X years into the future/past’ to move through time. However, you can’t go further back than the creation of the first 250 humans. You can use this same power to travel around Earth, by closing your eyes and thinking something like ‘I want to travel X kilometres to the north of where I am’
3) While invincible and intangible, you can enter a person’s body to live as them. To leave, close your eyes and think, ‘I want to separate from this body.’
4) You can influence the outcomes of major historical events by closing your eyes and thinking, ‘This shall be the outcome of this, X thing is going to win’ ensuring certain factions or ideologies prevail.
The gorilla’s glowing eyes fixed on you, their intensity somehow growing. “Now,” it declared, “the moment of truth has arrived. It’s time for you to write your Prompt.”
But before we get to that, and before you create the new humanity, and work on your PROMPT, we must address a much more significant question. Because you are far more than just some random person whose cousin no longer exists.
Who are you? What is your name? Who will be the Creator and Director of the New Humanity?