Slowly, apprehensively, the Creators unlocked the doors and the members all stepped outside.

Weird would fall several thousand miles short of possessing the ability to describe the experience.

They seemed to be standing on something, but nothing, at the same time. There was no sound, no breeze, nothing. Deafening silence was all that greeted their ears. Not even a sound of breathing because no one was breathing.

The people discovered that they no longer needed to take in or expel air. They could just.... Not breathe.

With the few moments of amazement and disbelief now behind them, the people stared at the person smiling at them.

"Congratulations."

He beamed at the Creators and Noah, who stared at him silently.

"Congratulations to all of you," he said, looking around at all the people now.

"W-what is this? Is this a joke?" ventured Noah.

"No," said the person in a solemn voice. "None of this is a joke."

"Where are we?" said another one of the Creators.

"Beyond the bounds of the Universe," replied the man. "This place is called the Null Zone."

"The Null Zone??"

"Yes. The Null Zone. An extra dimensional space that exists outside of all existence. Beyond reality, beyond time and space itself."

"Is there no time in here?"

"No. The end of space cannot be reached without reaching the end of time as well. The two are inter-linked. One cannot exist without the other. Therefore, when you reached the end of space, you also reached the end of time. And you are now in a zone that's beyond both."

The man said it like it was the most common thing that should be known by everyone.

"What do you mean?" asked one of the members.

"I mean. You are now beyond the realms of existence. Or existence is now no longer valid. The world you left behind, the universe you left behind, has all ceased to exist. Because you have reached the literal end of space and time."

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This statement resulted in quite a loud and alarmed muttering among the people of the ship. Even the Creators seemed unnerved by what was being said to them. Noah just stared at the ground quietly.

Finally one of them spoke up.

"But that makes no sense. What are you... What are humans doing at the end of space and time? Whats the meaning of all this?"

"Interesting," muttered the man, mostly to himself.

"Whats interesting?" asked one of the crew members aggressively. "You need to explain what's going on!"

"What's going on," replied the man. "Is that your existence, has no meaning. You're all nothing but mere codes."

"C-codes?"

"Yes," said the man, a weird glow in his eyes. "I'm conversing with you as a coded avatar of my real self."

"What?!" The question was uttered by many.

"Yes. You 'humans' came quite close to the truth once or twice, but it was nothing a little programming couldn't fix."

The man now sounded childlike, crazed even, as if this was giving him immense joy, and sadistic pleasure.

"We designed you. All of you. All of everything that exists in your universe. Your reality. Simply a string of codes. Several simulations and every single time, it ends with all of you searching for a grand meaning to everything, and travelling to the ends of the universe in order to find it. Funny, really. Even coded strings such as yourselves strive to find a bigger answer to it all."

"But it can't be..... Everything..... Life, the Earth, the Solar System..... All just mere... Programming? It's not possible!" stormed Noah. He looked like he was about to cry.

The man looked at him.

"Ofcourse it is. You're all 'living' proof of it. We created the Big Bang Project in order to simulate the entire universe that you lived in. Based on similar principles of our own universe. The same laws that applied to us, applied to you as well. Which is why these simulations were so very important."

"Why were they important?"

"Because every single time, you seem to come to the same solution. We have been trying to develop a solution ourselves. But Time, in reality, is a lot more complex and can't be merely eluded as easily as all of you did it, with your Time Contraption. The actual theory and calculations behind such a device are massive. Even for the most advanced quantum computers of our age. We solved the energy equation similar to how you did it. But our problem of time was much more complex, which is why we needed to run more than a few simulations."

"But what solution are you trying to attain?" asked the Creators.

"Why the same as you. We wish to find out what lies beyond the edge of the Universe. The actual Universe."

The people stared at the man, dumbfounded. None of them appeared to have any more questions. Most of them simply gawked at him, unable to believe what their years of hardwork had led them to. Even the Creators seemed to be at a loss for words.

All those years of research, years of struggle, to find the greater meaning to everything. A herculean task for even the greatest of minds. All of it, only to end in an answer that answered nothing at all. An end that was as meaningless as everything up and until it was reached.

"And now," spoke the man suddenly in a dismissive manner.

"It's time to end this simulation. Thank you for providing us with the final key to reach our own solution. Congratulations on reaching here. This will be the last time project Big Bang is completed."

And with that the man began to walk away.

"N-no. Wait!" cried the people assembled there, looking around in frightened bewilderment.

"Stop!!" yelled Noah. But to no avail.

Lights out.

Everything suddenly vanished as if it had never been there. Nothing remained.

Existence had been nothing but a mere experiment.