The Golden Gears sector was a masterpiece of kinetic architecture. Everything moved. The floors were conveyor belts of obsidian; the walls were rotating brass cylinders etched with logic-gates. It was a frictionless, noiseless world where the sound of a single heartbeat could be detected by the acoustic dampeners.
[ZONE: THE GOLDEN GEARS - REFINERY SUB-LEVEL]
[SECURITY LEVEL: HIGH (RANK 25-30)]
[ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT: FRICTIONLESS SURFACES]
"Don't touch the floor," Kenji whispered, his hand staying Elara's arm. "It's polarized. If your boots make contact, the static discharge will alert the entire spire."
"How are we supposed to move then?" Bjorn asked, looking at the shifting, spinning clockwork that filled the corridor.
"We move through the gaps," Kenji said. He closed his eyes, activating [System Sight]. In this higher layer, the "Code" didn't look like text; it looked like a complex symphony of vibrations. "We're going to use [Resonance Sync]."
[NEW SKILL LEARNED: RESONANCE SYNC (RANK 1)]
[EFFECT: VIBRATE YOUR MANA-WELL TO MATCH THE FREQUENCY OF THE ENVIRONMENT]
Kenji reached out and touched a massive, rotating brass pillar. His hand didn't slip. Instead, his fingers seemed to "merge" slightly with the metal. His body began to hum at a low frequency, a sound that harmonized perfectly with the grinding of the gears.
"Copy my frequency," Kenji commanded.
He touched Elara and Bjorn, flowing his mana through them like a tuning fork. Slowly, their physical presence became "invisible" to the Spire's sensors. They weren't hiding; they were simply becoming part of the machinery's noise.
They moved like ghosts, leaping from rotating gear to spinning axle. Below them, they saw the Automated Forges, giant pits where "unsettled" materials were being melted down. And there, suspended in a web of golden containment beams, was the Scrap-Venture.
The ship looked like a wounded beast. Its hull was partially peeled back, revealing the glowing, blue core of the Stasis Diamond. A group of Lead-Archivists, Rank 25 mages with heads shaped like triangular crystals were chanting in a binary tongue, their fingers weaving light-threads to pull the Diamond from its housing.
[TARGET: LEAD-ARCHIVIST (RANK 25)]
[CLASS: SYSTEM LOGICIAN]
"If they pull that Diamond, the ship's structural integrity will collapse," Mateo's voice whispered in Kenji's ear, now clearer as they approached the holding cells. "Priya and I are in a suppression field directly beneath the forge. Kenji, the Archivists... they aren't just taking the Diamond. They're trying to 'Rewrite' it. They want to turn it into a Time-Anchor for the Architect."
"I see the anchors," Kenji said, his eyes narrowing.
He saw four massive pillars holding the containment web in place. Each pillar was a Rank 30 object, reinforced by the Spire's central power core.
"Bjorn, Elara, stay in sync," Kenji directed. "I'm going to drop the frequency for a split second to 'Audit' the first pillar. When I do, the security bots will swarm. You have exactly ten seconds to keep them off me while I rewrite the pillar's ownership code."
"Ten seconds in this gravity is a lifetime," Bjorn grumbled, but he gripped his axe.
"Go!"
Kenji dropped his resonance. He became "Physical" again. Instantly, the Spire shrieked. A red strobe-light bathed the room as dozens of Clockwork Guardians spherical drones with retractable blades burst from the walls.
Kenji ignored them. He slammed his hand into the base of the first pillar.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: STEAL-RECYCLE (RANK 1)]
[AUDITING OBJECT: GRAVITY ANCHOR 01...]
0%... 20%...
A Clockwork Guardian dove at Kenji's head. Elara intercepted it mid-air, her frost-blades moving with a new, fluid grace. She wasn't just freezing them; she was using the frictionless floor to slide around the drones, her movements a blur of ice and motion.
40%... 60%...
Bjorn stood back-to-back with Kenji, his axe creating a "Wall of Echoes." Every strike from a drone was absorbed and redirected, the Viking acting as a living shield.
80%... 100%!
[AUDIT COMPLETE]
[OBJECT OWNERSHIP: KENJI TANAKA]
The first pillar didn't break. It simply changed its loyalty. The golden beam it was emitting suddenly turned violet and snapped toward the Lead-Archivists.
"WHAT?" the lead Archivist shrieked, his binary chant breaking.
The beam hit the Archivist, not to kill him, but to Recycle his Rank. The mage's Level 25 stats began to drain into the pillar, which in turn shunted the energy directly into Kenji.
[MANA SURGE DETECTED!]
[LEVEL UP: 12 -> 15]
"Three more to go," Kenji said, his eyes burning with the stolen light of the Spire. "And I think I'm starting to like the way this layer works."
The Lead-Archivists realized they weren't dealing with a simple intruder. They were dealing with a System Parasite.
"De-compile him!" the Archivists roared in unison.
The floor beneath Kenji's feet suddenly turned into a liquid-logic pool, attempting to "Un-make" his physical form. But Kenji just smiled. He had spent his whole life in the scrap heaps,he was already made of parts.
"You can't de-compile what's already broken," Kenji said, lunging for the second pillar.