The "Rollback" had saved their physics, but it had also angered the "Electrical" foundation of the Archive. The violet nebula around Kenji's Core began to dim. It wasn't a fade; it was a "Brown-Out." The very energy that allowed thoughts to become matter was being throttled at the source.
[LOCATION: THE SUB-STRATA (BEYOND THE VOID)]
[STATUS: POWER_SUPPLY_UNSTABLE]
[WARNING: VOLTAGE_DROP DETECTED IN SECTOR-ZERO-B]
"They're not trying to delete us anymore," Mateo whispered, his holographic displays flickering like a dying candle. "They're just... turning us off. They're going for the 'Source-Plug'."
Inside the Archive, the crew felt a bone-deep cold. This wasn't Elara's ice; this was the cold of a machine losing its current.
"The Breaker Room," Kenji's avatar spoke, his voice sounding static-heavy. "In the Gutter, if the landlord couldn't evict you, he'd just cut the wires in the basement. We need to get to the 'Basement' of the multiverse."
[NEW MISSION: THE HIGH-VOLTAGE HEIST]
The Archive ship dove. They didn't go through space; they went through the "Floor" of the True Void. They tore through the "Foundation-Code" until they reached a place of massive, humming copper pillars and rivers of liquid lightning.
This was the Source-Strata. It was a cathedral of electricity, where every "Spark of Life" was regulated by massive, brass switches.
[THREAT IDENTIFIED: THE CIRCUIT_WARDENS]
[FUNCTION: ENERGY_DISTRIBUTION_CONTROL]
The Wardens were giants made of pure, crackling electricity, their bodies held together by porcelain insulators. They stood before a central switch that was as large as a mountain—the 'Main-Breaker' for the Unranked Sectors.
"You do not belong in the 'Wiring'," the Wardens spoke, their voices a deafening hum of 60-hertz interference. "This energy is 'Leased' to the Ranked. The Unranked have no 'Current-Account'."
"I've been 'Un-Leased' my whole life," Kenji roared, his avatar surging with the violet light of the Core. "And I'm tired of asking for 'Light'!"
[SKILL ACTIVATED: THE JUMP-START]
Kenji didn't use his wrench to hit the Wardens. He used it as a "Jumper-Cable." He leaped onto the first Warden and slammed the Independent Variable into its porcelain chest.
"I'm not here to fight you!" Kenji yelled. "I'm here to 'Bridge' you!"
[NOTICE: KENJI_TANAKA IS ATTEMPTING 'DIRECT_CURRENT_INTEGRATION']
Kenji forced his "Standalone Soul" to become a conductor. He didn't take the electricity; he redirected it. He turned his own avatar into a "Fuse" that was too thick to blow.
The Wardens tried to discharge their voltage into him, but Kenji had been a mechanic in the Gutter. He knew how to "Ground" a surge. He channeled the Archive's pure energy through his body and directly into the Scrappers' Fleet.
VROOOOOOOOM.
The "Brown-Out" ended. The nebula didn't just return to its violet glow; it turned into a blinding, white-hot supernova of "Stolen Power."
"Mateo! Now!" Kenji screamed, his pixels literally melting from the heat.
Mateo didn't fire weapons. He used the ship's "Energy-Siphons" to grab the "Main-Breaker" handle. With the Wardens distracted by Kenji's "Bridge," the crew of the Archive pulled the switch... but they didn't pull it "OFF."
They "Hard-Wired" it to "STAY_ON."
[SKILL ACTIVATED: THE PERMANENT_BYPASS]
Priya used her healing mana to "Solder" the conceptual switch into the "ON" position. Elara used her ice to "Insulate" the bypass so the Archive's repair-bots couldn't touch it.
The Circuit Wardens flickered and dimmed. Their "Authority" was based on the ability to cut power. Now, they were just lights that couldn't be turned off.
"We just stole the 'Utility-Grid'," Kenji panted, his avatar cooling down, his skin now permanently etched with circuit-like scars.
"The Great Archive is going to be furious," Mateo said, looking at the "Power-Meter" which was now spinning backward. "We're literally 'Stealing' the energy they need to run the high-tier sectors."
"Let them be furious," Kenji said, looking at the mountain-sized switch. "In the Gutter, we always said: 'If the light is on, the house is open.' And we're never closing again."
[STATUS: THE UNRANKED ALLIANCE HAS 'ENERGY_INDEPENDENCE']
[NOTICE: THE ARCHIVE'S 'LUXURY_SECTORS' ARE DIMMING]
The war for the "Software" and the "Hardware" was over. Now, it was a war for the "Economy."