Chapter 352 - 352: Eight Years Later

And just like that, weeks passed, and their exams ended. But in the game, eight more years had passed.

Connor pressed the enter key on his replacement laptop.

The loading bar filled across the bottom of the screen. His golden avatar materialized on the server grid. Six other radiant signatures spawned directly beside him. Ignisar, Nyxara, and Iron-Arbiter arrived simultaneously.

The Silver Wing aka Nelson, The God of Valleys aka Evan, and The Heavenly Divine Emperor aka Lucy materialized a second later to complete the Fourth Continent leadership group.

Connor adjusted his headset and surveyed the environment through his monitor. THe expected to see the sprawling deserts and ancient stone walls of his kingdom. Towering structures of reinforced concrete and black glass stretched across his entire physical map.

A network of copper power lines zigzagged across the concrete facades to connect streetlamps and automated defense turrets.

Ignisar keyed his voice chat to address the group. "Are we looking at the wrong server?"

Nyxara checked her digital minimap and shook her head. "The coordinates match our exact territories."

Connor spun his camera to view the skyline. Giant star-iron smokestacks replaced the ancient magical spires across the Second, Third, and Fourth Continents. He opened his faction management tab and stared at the plummeting population numbers.

Evan leaned into his microphone. "My faith generation metrics dropped by fifty percent. Half of my followers are gone."

A blinding violet light flared across their shared communication grid. Rubedo projected his digital avatar directly into their void sanctuaries.

"I upheld the terms of our ceasefire," Rubedo announced. "My forces never harmed your remaining mortal followers. I allowed them to live peacefully within your designated borders."

Nelson gripped his mouse tightly. "You stole our populations through economic leverage."

"I provided them with superior infrastructure, abundant food, and absolute security," Rubedo replied. "Your followers looked across the borders and saw the benefits of my industrial network. They abandoned your temples and migrated to my cities to worship the Spiral."

Connor zoomed his camera down to the physical street level, watching a massive mechanized transport vehicle roll past a towering foundry on dense rubber tires.

The combustion engine roared loudly, expelling a cloud of dark exhaust over a group of human laborers. The workers operated pneumatic cranes to load crates of refined star-iron onto waiting trains.

Connor recognized the faces of his summons operating the machinery below. Marcus hauled a crate of iron slag onto a moving belt while Elena welded a steel beam using a handheld blowtorch.

They looked aged and exhausted by the manual labor.

Iron-Arbiter scrutinized the factory floor from his own monitor. "Are those the premium mercenaries?"

Connor watched Marcus wipe grime from his graying hair. "They are from the summoning event."

Rubedo tapped a key on his console to project a digital image of the silver-eyed girl across the shared grid. "This entity orchestrated the summoning event. She hides behind the celestial firewalls."

Connor stared at the projected image. He recognized the mascot from his ruined computer monitor. "She hacked my computer and burned my motherboard. She threatened me directly before my system crashed."

"She knows we are hunting her," Rubedo stated. "We possess the industrial output to conquer any physical terrain. We need you to bypass the digital firewalls blocking the developer domains."

Iron-Arbiter adjusted his digital interface. "We can manipulate the developer console and force the locked portals open. We just need a localized power source to bridge the connection."

Rubedo routed a massive influx of Divine Points from his centralized bio-reactor straight into the server interface. Thousands of captured monster cores fueled the transaction. Thick digital cables materialized in the void, linking Rubedo's treasury directly to a swirling spatial rift hovering in the center of the network.

"Connect your developer tools to the array and open the gate," Rubedo commanded.

Connor opened his administrative interface and targeted the spatial rift. He initiated a brute-force decryption protocol to bypass the server's celestial locks. Ignisar, Nyxara, Iron-Arbiter, Nelson, Evan, and Lucy linked their accounts to Connor's terminal to boost the processing speed.

The spatial rift violently expanded. The white light shifted into a swirling vortex of deep cosmic purple. The game engine threw a series of warning prompts across Connor's screen. The combined administrative authority crushed the firewalls entirely.

Connor pointed at the monitor. "The gate is open. It leads directly to the primary celestial domain."

Rubedo transmitted his voice down to the physical realm to address his Vanguard commanders. "Mobilize the mechanized battalions. Bring the artillery through the breach. We are taking the war to the developers."

The swirling cosmic vortex illuminated Connor's monitor. Brilliant violet light cast harsh shadows across his bedroom walls. He gripped his plastic mouse to push his administrative authority deeper into the celestial domain.

A piercing alert tone erupted from the desktop speakers. The expanded portal contracted instantly. Swirling digital edges collapsed inward to crush the connection entirely.

The monitor blinked black before defaulting back to the standard sanctuary interface.

Connor pushed his rolling chair backward. He stared at the red error codes cascading down his primary screen.

Ignisar keyed his microphone. "The server booted us out of the directory."

Nyxara typed rapidly on her keyboard. "They initiated a localized firewall reset. Our access keys are completely locked."

Rubedo projected his avatar across their shared communication grid. He rested his chin on his knuckles to observe the frantic data streams running across his own obsidian console.

"I anticipated a hard reset," Rubedo stated. "The architects of this system monitor unauthorized backdoor access. Walking straight into their core network requires more than brute force and stolen administrator privileges."

Iron-Arbiter adjusted his headset. "We burned thousands of monster cores to bridge that gap. The energy dissipated into nothing."

"We gained a confirmed coordinate ping," Rubedo replied. He tapped his console to transmit a data packet to the six Earthlings. "The developers recognize the breach. They will reinforce the digital boundaries to isolate the Seventeenth Continent."

Rubedo looked directly into the camera feed. "We will attack the problem from the outside."

Connor leaned closer to his microphone. "You want us to hunt down the studio in the real world? Did you forget we are just normal high school teenagers?"

"You have physical access to the planet," Rubedo confirmed. "Dig into the historical archives and corporate registries. Trace the missing persons reports matching the Miami event and cross-reference them with the creation of Project Civilization."

Lucy unmuted her channel. "You want us to investigate a global tech corporation. We are high school students who just finished our exams."

"Use your wealth and your connections," Rubedo ordered. "You interact with the game from the safety of your bedrooms. My army bleeds inside the code. Uncover the identities of the people running this company and find the source of the mass disappearances."

Evan rubbed his eyes on his feed. "We will look into the corporate filings after we finish the trip on Friday."

"Start digging tonight," Rubedo instructed. "The development studio treats human souls as seasonal content updates. I want to know exactly who built the cage."

"But we have a trip planned."

"That changes nothing. You have access to the internet. You can dig around and research," Rubedo responded.

"But Rubedo…" Ignisar spoke. "Let's say we found something, then what? You are dead in the real world, so it's not like you can leave the game and return to the real world."