Chapter 154: The Boiler Room's Burping Virus
The entrance to the Main Boiler Room didn't have a door; it had a giant, circular iron iris that hissed with scorching white steam. As Aki and his team stepped inside, the temperature jumped by forty degrees. The air was thick with the smell of scorched copper and something that smelled suspiciously like overcooked pepperoni pizza.
"Why does a world of machines smell like a cheap Italian restaurant?" Aki asked, wiping the condensation from his multi-lens goggles.
"That's not pizza, Aki," Rena warned, her hands glowing with a soft blue 'Cooling Aura' to prevent their leather gear from melting. "That's the smell of 'Data-Degradation'. The virus is literally cooking the server's fundamental code!"
In the center of the room sat the Great Boiler. It was a massive, three-story tall cylinder of blackened brass, covered in millions of pipes, valves, and screaming pressure gauges. But it wasn't functioning normally. A thick, pulsing mass of purple and black pixels had wrapped around the boiler like a digital parasite. The virus was forcing the boiler to produce "Corrupted Steam," which was being pumped into the sky to infect the rest of the world.
"Look at the pressure gauge!" Sai yelled, his heavy diving-suit clanking as he pointed at a needle that was shaking violently in the red zone. "If that thing hits the limit, this whole flying tea-kettle becomes a flying bomb!"
The Boss of Steam
Suddenly, the virus responded. The purple mass shifted, and from the side of the boiler, a giant face formed out of molten metal and glitchy code. It didn't look like Marcus. It looked like a very angry, very burnt toaster.
[WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED MAINTENANCE DETECTED. INITIATING... 'THE_BIG_BURP' PROTOCOL.]
"The Big Burp?" Aki stared at the screen. "Who programmed this server? A toddler?"
The Boiler-Monster didn't answer. Instead, it opened a massive hatch where its mouth should be and shot out a volley of glowing, red-hot coals. But these weren't normal coals—they were 'Logic-Bombs'. Each one that hit the ground exploded into a swarm of "Pop-Up Ads" that tried to sell them steam-powered lawnmowers.
"Sai! Shields up!" Von commanded, his violet steam-rapier humming with energy.
Sai stepped forward, planting his feet firmly on the vibrating metal floor. He grabbed a giant copper lid from a nearby spare-parts bin and used it as a makeshift shield. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! The logic-bombs bounced off the copper, creating tiny explosions of advertisements that filled the air.
"I'm taking too much heat!" Sai roared, his pink apron (which had somehow reappeared over his brass armor) beginning to smoke. "Rena! Give me some ice!"
Rena didn't just give him ice. She reached into the 'Server-Permissions' and found a hidden file for 'Weather-Control'. "Hold on, Sai! I'm localized-downloading a blizzard!"
A small, concentrated snowstorm erupted around Sai, turning the steam into harmless mist.
The Password of Doom
"Aki! The control panel is open! Do your thing!" Von yelled, slicing through a mechanical tentacle that had tried to grab his leg.
Aki dashed through the chaos, dodging red-hot pipes and flying pop-up ads for "Luxury Steam-Clogs." He reached the main terminal, which was a mahogany desk with a typewriter instead of a keyboard.
"A typewriter? Seriously?" Aki grumbled, his fingers hovering over the keys.
A screen popped up, glowing with a mocking green light:
[SECURITY CHALLENGE: ONLY THE GREATEST PROGRAMMER IN THE MULTIVERSE MAY PASS. INPUT PASSWORD TO PURGE VIRUS.]
"The greatest programmer? That's subjective!" Aki shouted at the screen. He tried: ADMIN_1234.
[INCORRECT. HINT: TWO LEGENDS, ONE CODE.]
Aki paused. A smile touched his lips as he remembered the small USB drive Zero had given him back in the Old Sector. He realized that this "Greater Grid" was built on the foundation of the original creators' friendship.
He typed with lightning speed: ZERO_AND_AKI.
The typewriter started dinging like a bell. The purple mass of the virus let out a high-pitched, digital shriek. The face on the boiler began to melt, turning from a burnt toaster back into a normal piece of machinery.
The Reward of the Weird
The pressure needle slowly drifted back into the green zone. The boiler let out one last, massive, satisfying burp—but this time, instead of corrupted code, it shot out a single, glowing golden object.
The object clattered across the floor and landed at Aki's feet. He picked it up. It was a giant, solid-gold tooth, roughly the size of a bowling ball.
[MISSION COMPLETE: SERVER 909 STABILIZED.]
[LOOT ACQUIRED: THE GOLDEN TOOTH OF THE STEAM-GIANT.]
"A tooth?" Sai asked, walking over and poking the golden object with his finger. "We almost got turned into human-barbecue for a dental-record?"
"It's not just gold, Sai," Aki said, pointing to the bottom of the tooth where a small USB port was hidden. "This is a 'Hardware-Key'. It contains the coordinates for the next server in the Grid."
"And look," Rena said, pointing to the sky outside the iris-door. The red errors were gone. The sky was now a beautiful, clear amber, filled with hundreds of peaceful, flying tea-kettles.
"One server down, nine hundred and eight to go," Von said, sheathing his violet rapier. "Aki, I hope the next one doesn't involve detergent ads or giant teeth."
"No promises, Von," Aki laughed, tossing the golden tooth into his leather backpack. "But hey, at least we didn't buy the skin cream!"