For some reason I felt the need to google hunt for this book based solely on your description.
Is it The Uploaded? ... perhaps not since you said short story
"In the near future, the elderly have moved online and now live within the computer network. But that doesn’t stop them interfering in the lives of the living, whose sole real purpose now is to maintain the vast servers which support digital Heaven. For one orphan that just isn't enough – he wants more for himself and his sister than a life slaving away for the dead. It turns out that he's not the only one who wants to reset the world..."
Is it The Uploaded? ... perhaps not since you said short story
"In the near future, the elderly have moved online and now live within the computer network. But that doesn’t stop them interfering in the lives of the living, whose sole real purpose now is to maintain the vast servers which support digital Heaven. For one orphan that just isn't enough – he wants more for himself and his sister than a life slaving away for the dead. It turns out that he's not the only one who wants to reset the world..."
https://www.amazon.com/Uploaded-Ferrett-Steinmetz/dp/0857667...