Mutations Before the Cataclysm Should Be Explained Scientifically

The Great Cataclysm is bizarre.

So bizarre that all kinds of wild human imaginings have turned out to be more or less accurate.

Like a zombie apocalypse, like collective ascension to a higher dimension, like spiritual qi revival, like...

"Like NPCs collectively gaining root access."

"Exactly!"

"But our world isn't a game."

"Right... is it?"

"Don't worry. We're not programs cobbled together by some higher-dimensional life-form using algorithms. Our world is the real world."

"The real world? How could anyone gain root access to change its rules?"

"So it isn't that someone gained root access. The rules have melted."

"What rules?"

"The laws of physics."