The vibrant greens of the Jade Empire faded into a haze of sulfur and scorched iron as the Scrap-Venture crossed the meridian into Sector 6. Here, the "Sky" was a ceiling of massive, interlocking copper plates, and the "Sun" was the glowing heat of a thousand subterranean furnaces.
[ZONE: THE STEAM-WASTES - SECTOR 6]
[LOCAL LAW: THERMODYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM]
[ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE: 140°F (STOWING TO PASSIVE HEAT)]
"The air is... heavy," Mateo gasped, adjusted his Synapse-Hub to compensate for the atmospheric pressure. "It's not just gravity anymore. It's the steam. The water vapor here is saturated with mana-conductive particulates."
"It's a giant engine," Kenji said, standing at the viewport.
Below them stretched a landscape of endless pipes, brass dunes, and "Piston-Cities" that rose and fell with the rhythmic breathing of the planet's core. This was the Steam-Wastes, the industrial heart of the Second Layer. If the Gutter was where the scrap was thrown away, the Wastes were where it was smelted down for the Architect's "True Projects."
"Kenji, look at the hull," Elara pointed out.
The Frost-Silk they had woven in the Jade Empire was beginning to hiss. The extreme heat was causing a "Thermal Conflict" with their new gear.
"We need to adapt, and fast," Kenji muttered. "Bjorn, take us down toward that outpost, the one shaped like a pressure-gauge."
As they descended, they were intercepted. Not by drones or soldiers, but by a fleet of Steam-Skippers delicate, high-speed vessels made of polished brass and glass.
[TARGETS: THE BRASS DRAGOONS (RANK 48 - ASCENDANT)]
The lead Skipper pulled alongside the Scrap-Venture. A man in a high-collared leather coat and mechanical goggles stepped onto the wing of his craft, his movements fluid despite the high pressure.
"Unidentified vessel! You are entering the airspace of the Copper Sultanate," he shouted through a brass megaphone. "State your Rank and your Purpose, or be vented!"
"I'm Kenji Tanaka," Kenji shouted back, stepping onto the ship's ramp. "I'm a Scrapsmith. I'm looking for the Seven-Valve Core."
The man in goggles froze. He signaled his fleet to hold fire. "A Smith? From the Lower Layers? You're the one who turned the Harvesters into a garden." He hopped onto the Scrap-Venture's ramp, his goggles whirring as they scanned Kenji. "I am Captain Vane. And you've picked a hell of a time to show up. The Sultan is currently 'Revising' the pressure-laws. If he finishes, the entire sector will be compressed into a single block of brass with us inside it."
[NEW MAIN QUEST: THE PRESSURE GAUGE]
Objective: Reach the Sultan's Obsidian Spire and halt the "Great Compression."
Sector Rank: 45-60.
"Why would the Sultan destroy his own kingdom?" Elara asked.
"He's not destroying it," Vane spat, lead them toward the bridge. "He's 'Optimizing' it. The Architect promised him a seat in the Third Layer if he could prove that the Steam-Wastes could produce enough power for the Void-Reaper Motherships. The only way to get that much power is to shrink the space and double the heat."
Vane looked at Kenji's Void-Weaver armor. "That silk won't last an hour in the Smelting Desert. You need Valve-Iron."
"Then show me where the scrap is," Kenji said.
They landed at Valve-Town, a settlement built inside a massive, decommissioned pressure-release valve. The "Scrap" here was incredible huge gears made of "Heat-Sink Gold," pistons of "Diamond-Carbon," and miles of copper wiring that pulsed with raw, unrefined steam-mana.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: THERMAL RECYCLING (RANK 1)]
Kenji knelt by a pile of discarded pressure-plates. He felt the heat not as a threat, but as a source. In the Jade Empire, he had learned to weave. Here, he had to learn to Compress.
"Mateo, I need a pressure-seal. Bjorn, I need you to act as a bellows," Kenji commanded.
He took the Jade Silk and began to "Inlay" it into the heavy Valve-Iron. He wasn't just fusing them; he was creating a Heat-Exchange System. Every bit of the Waste's ambient heat would now be sucked into the armor, converted into mana, and stored in the Recursive Iron core.
[EQUIPMENT UPGRADE: STEAM-CORE PLATING (RANK 45)]
[SPECIAL ABILITY: RADIATOR-BURST (RELEASE STORED HEAT AS AN EXPLOSIVE AOE)]
As the last plate snapped into place, a massive tremor shook Valve-Town. A golden notification flared across the sky.
[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: COMPRESSION STAGE 1 INITIATED]
[LOCAL GRAVITY INCREASED BY 2x]
The ground groaned. The buildings of Valve-Town began to sink into the brass sands.
"It's starting!" Vane yelled, his skippers struggling to take off in the increased gravity. "The Sultan has turned the Master Valve!"
Kenji stood up, his new Steam-Core armor hissing as it began to drink the heat of the world. He felt his power peaking.
"Vane, get your men to the perimeter," Kenji said, his voice deep and resonant. "We're going to the Spire. And tell the Sultan... the Scrapsmith doesn't like being squeezed."
[LEVEL UP: 45 -> 48]