2 World Overflowing with Emotion

Prol had always preferred to go nowhere. Ever since he was young, he was forced to go here and there. He believes that's why he relished in the opportunity to simply stay put for a bit, unwind, and be alone with his thoughts. Though, he supposes it's challenging to be alone with them when you have an assistant that works off thoughts at the very least, she knew how to respect boundaries.

As the 'god' had said, he indeed had a background in programming. He had to program Rin somehow, after all. It wasn't unusual he would code either on Rin, or some exploit in his spare time. Beyond that, he had a habit of consuming entertainment. It gave him ideas. He very rarely remembered anything for long, but the ideas stuck, expanding his library of ready-made concepts to fit any problem. He grew into reading codes and algorithms for a similar reason, but some of them were indeed dreadfully boring.

The relevance, of course, was to explain his desires. Obviously, he couldn't consume entertainment while in a space alone with himself. At best, he could re-read something he had already read. Rin was a secret, so he didn't put random data on her. That limited him to programming Rin, but he questioned if he dared to do so while he could potentially be observed. This left him with only one real, and particularly obvious option for entertainment after he woke from his nap.

Mess about with his soul.

Though he had no idea how to do anything meaningful, he had established that he could change his appearance, and the appearance of his soul. Previously, he had made a bed according to his will. It was as simple as willing and imagining it, and it seemed like anything he wanted could happen. Starting with something he was familiar with, he thinks back to the gyms he's used. Not wanting to waste effort, he goes with a standard layout he's familiar with, with rows of machinery. It takes a while for him to clearly imagine it, but after a minute or two he projects his will onto his soul, and a gym immediately takes shape.

[Is there any point in exercising when you change your appearance at will, Master?] Rin asks, clearly uncertain as to his intentions.

("I suppose not.") he replies, feeling utterly exhausted just looking at the equipment. With much less will than it took to make it in the first place, the equipment vanishes. Immediately, he feels much better.

[Master, it seems like affecting your soul drains some form of energy. You were tired after making the bed, and now this? My Master is not so lazy!] Rin worriedly inputs.

("You're right about that. But there's little else to do, regardless. It's impossible to learn anything new, or improve my body. The best I can do is learn about the situation I'm in.")

...

For Prol, failure was never an option. How could he afford to fail the only thing he was capable of doing? In the first place, it was the only way he expected it might be possible for him to escape his soul by mastering it. In the second, he was perhaps the type to get carried away. He didn't keep track of how much time had passed, but Rin indicated it was unlikely their situation would ever actually be dealt with.

[Master, I don't believe I understand how any of this has gotten us closer to escaping.] Rin complains for the umpteentillionth time, but he can hear the concern in her voice, so he can't be mad just a bit exasperated.

("I'm telling you, a zipline is definitely the most productive thing I've done. I can get from the tree house to the ravine in no time, you know? It's all about efficiency! Efficiency!") As he explains this, he grabs the zipline, and jumps off the ledge. Immediately, his body flies out from the force as he follows the line down. The green below quickly gains definition, before coming into focus as the tops of trees in a forest. The line which definitely is nowhere close to taut blows him freely in the wind, and his angle slowly changes taking him over the forest, and in a few seconds, he dives back down into a great chasm in the earth next to the forest.

[But Master, why do we need any of that?!] Rin screams along the wild ride she didn't seem to enjoy thrill rides as much as he did.

("Rin, don't be silly. Where else would I keep my factory, if not the ravine?")

[BUT MASTER, you can create anything with a mere thought. For what do we need a factory?!]

("Silly girl, isn't it too far below my stature to bother with making simple things?") he asks, earning him a noise that oozes exasperation from his assistant.

He reaches the bottom of the ravine, and with a light hop, he slams into his landing pad, which bounces him back ahead with a couple quick steps of his long legs, he arrives immediately in front of a double door in the wall of the bottom of the ravine. Coming to a pause, he opens the door, and walks inside, his gaze wandering over the piles of countless small dolls. Mere plastic figurines, but each one unique. A product of his experiments, with attempting to generate appearances randomly. Though some were horrid, having fangs or oozing unknown sludges, each one was definitely a creature of some sort- and he considered that a success.

[Honestly, Master… As long as there's not another ape war, perhaps I can be a bit content. But what are you even trying to accomplish?]

("Oh? Finally gave in and asked? While you're a great success of mine, I've yet to manage to program creativity into you. You can infer, you can learn, and you can definitely create things. But you can't generate media for me to consume. By creating random characters, it's the first step to programming creativity.") he explains, a tinge of affection both for her and his own ideas filling his voice. He definitely couldn't explain he was attempting to buffer overflow his soul's container for freedom. It was just too dumb. He was afraid he'd never hear the end of it if he failed.

He had eventually succumbed to the temptation of writing code. Even if he didn't work on Rin, he could still work on other projects. If he made them look crazy enough, it was likely nobody would ask questions even as he attempted to break free. When they finally knew what hit them, it would be much, much too late. The problem with a buffer overflow is that it needed to stem from the discovery of such a bug.

Only by filling with data and awaiting a glitch could one determine where it was, and about where to put their exploit. The exact right amount of junk data was necessary but it also meant he could only keep generating junk data until he encountered a glitch. Then, and only then, could he break out.

Of course, there were a few premises he relied upon. One, that such a thing would even be possible. Two, that a glitch wouldn't outright kill him. Three, the bug wouldn't be fixed before he figured out the method to take advantage of it. If even one premise was wrong, he knew he was just wasting his time. But not trying was equally a waste of time, so he had nothing to lose. Anyone knew that someone with nothing to lose was the most dangerous of all.

He felt like he had to be getting close, as his world was pretty large, and had a lot of data. These intricate details, theoretically, should use up more space regardless of their physical size. At least, so he assumed, but then again, what wasn't an assumption? If it didn't work, he'd just make them bigger next time.

After nodding at the rows of figurines, he reaches his control panel. Production hadn't hit a snag so far, meaning the code had no major issues. He didn't dare buffer overflow with questionable code- who knew what would happen to him. Even what he was doing now was a risk one he would just have to go along with. He grabs hold of a slider, and slowly starts raising it. As he does, figurines spill out one after another, a bit faster each time, and the backlight on the slider gets a bit darker. With a quick slide, it goes from green to a deep red- as figurines start piling up in needless amounts.

[Master?! Are you trying to win a world record for largest collection of random figurines?!]

("Ah, Rin. One day you will understand the methods to your Master's madness. That, I do so wish to promise you.")

He had previously determined he would grow tired as he created things, and that definitely hadn't changed. But rather, the more he created, the better at it he got. He didn't believe the quantity of energy had increased at all, but his efficiency was worlds apart from before. In this case, since it was just changing the shape of one thing to another, the production wouldn't tire him at all. Despite that, the thought of trying to organize all these figurines was definitely exhausting.

Pacing back and forth, Prol soon finds himself outside the ravine, standing on a pile of figurines that had built up under his feet. As the quantity continued to increase, he felt his soul shaking, as if something was pulling on it.

Prol frowns a bit at the feeling. Was his soul perhaps in a more physical container? Did it get caught in something? That could be dangerous. The pulling becomes a tugging, and the tugging becomes dragging. In an instant, he is ripped from the space he had created, and starts falling through time and space. In response, he can only scream as he takes the ride of his life.

…

A young being with silver framed glasses sits on a throne, judging soul after soul. However, between souls one day, he hears a dinging noise.

"Ah, that troublesome guy's judgment is finished," he notes, before heading to the soul prison dimension he had left him in. He quickly finds the cell, and steps in. Immediately, he freezes. All he can see is countless little figurine dolls, as far as the eye can see. "Why the fuck?"

After a moment of confusion, he clears his mind, and yells into the empty world. "Prol! We got your results! You're going to be reincarnated into a world of your choice with a system!"

"..."

"Prol?! Fuck! That usually works," he grumbles, before stepping back out of the world. He can just get some peons to sort through it all and find the bastard. He could hide, but he couldn't run.