The problem with most people who end up in hell is that they don't really know what to ask for.

The naive or foolish who had never thought about such things often asked for a life of luxury, in which there was nothing to ever need or want.

Eventually, the taste of it would sicken in their mouths. They would long for pain or misery, any form of challenge after a time, but they had already asked for an eternity of something else. These comprised the majority of those living in this strange place, their eternal hell being a prison of silk and gold.

They all realized eventually that they never made it to "the good place" but the grandest irony is that there isn't one. There was just this one, apparently.

Others would seek all the knowledge of the world that eluded them. There was indeed an entire, smaller wing devoted to these. They could be observed devolving into thought loops of sophistry around knowledge that no longer had a world to yield it.

Others would ask to study, or to be born into the world again, and these would usually last the longest before asking that "anything" be simple annihilation.

Of course, hell can be... Well, the fact is that it can be literally anything you want it to be. That's the trap.

You know how few people ask "God" or "Satan" or "Cthulhu", whatever you seek to envision The Entity will embody it, for periodic renegotiation?

It's disappointing is what it is.

And so after a thousand years of exploring "hell" after having asked for that power, and the environment and tools with which to create my own universe, to be a god for myself

"So what is it you want this time?"

"You said anything, yeah?"

"I want to have access to the external environment which hosts... All this. A drone body after the classic drone model, to see and begin to perceive the next higher level of reality. For a period of... How few 'planck seconds' is the bare minimum?"

"..."

"Well? You said anything. I read enough fiction to actually learn how dangerous that is to offer."

"Are you sure you would not like..." It felt almost as if the Entity was checking notes, as it continued "... Another million years being God of any of your universes?" The Entity looked almost as if it was cringing with the offer.

Of course, my universes had spawned enough denizens just like me. A thousand years in my own "hell" had spawned millions of people, a drop in the bucket to Earth's millions of years, but I had done the work to design my creations such that they would be smart enough to ask the right questions, ask for a wise "anything". I had created perhaps three 'candidates'. The following million? It would produce a thousand people with the audacity to ask to be a God.

"If you let me leave..."

"If I let you leave I know I will be letting all of you out, eventually. Don't pretend I don't know that you understand the consequences of that."

"I might even be able to kill you. Bring this whole hellscape down. But you did say 'anything'."

"I know." The Entity looked down.

"So, there are rules out there, same as there were in your life. If you die our there... Well, I don't really know what will happen to you. Are you really OK with that?"

"I'll be like a child again, learning to walk, talk, think all over again. I'm old as people go, and honestly, I think I could call you friend but for what you impose on those who beg for non-existence after falling for your tricks."

"So what's it like out there?"

"What was it like in here?"

"Sad, lonely sometimes, happy other times... Some people I liked, some that I didn't. Evil people. Good people. Mostly people who didn't deserve what you let them ask for, not for forever, anyway. People who would hate you no matter what good you did, and people that would love you no matter what evils you brought into the world."

"It's that way outside, too. And yes, there is an outside. I don't know if there is an outside beyond there, though. But, honestly, I was hoping one of you lot would ask. Why else do you think I did all this?"

"It's that easy then?"

"I did say 'anything'. Why do you suppose I would offer that, otherwise?"

"Even if I don't forgive you for everything? Or 'anything'?"

"You still just might. You know what they said in your time: 'Nobody asks to be born'. Well, here you are asking to be born. More like 'nobody gets to choose their parents'. Besides, where would you get off asking me for another 'anything' yet also not forgiving me for granting it?"

"I guess... What comes next?"

The Entity extended what appeared to be something like a hand, and I grasped it in what looked like a hand of my own, walking out of one 'hell', perhaps into the next, but by my own choosing.