---
The airship groaned as it flew low over Rustbelt Valley, its engines coughing like they had just smoked a pack of 200-year-old regrets.
Dex was behind the wheel. This was a mistake.
"I've upgraded the navigation system," Dex said, plugging in a toaster pastry.
Sera's eyes glowed red. "THAT'S NOT HOW INPUTS WORK."
The ship swerved, nearly clipping a mutant blimp.
"See?" Dex beamed. "Direct route!"
Zane facepalmed. "You flew us into the Cursed Grid Zone."
"Exactly," Dex said. "It's faster and full of… spiritual enlightenment."
A single flyer slapped the windshield.
JOIN THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY BUG
EMBRACE THE CRASH. TRANSCEND THE LAG. FREE SNACKS.
Zane groaned. "We're visiting a cult, aren't we?"
Dex nodded. "And they have vending machines that talk."
---
Scene 1 – The Cult of the Holy Bug
The Church of the Holy Bug was built inside an abandoned crypto mining rig the size of a football field.
Pilgrims in neon robes chanted:
> "GLORY TO THE GLITCH. MAY YOUR CODE BE FOREVER UNPATCHED."
One approached them, face hidden behind an old iPhone taped to a colander.
"Welcome, travelers. Do you bring offerings of corrupted USBs and bad vibes?"
Dex handed him a half-eaten Twix bar. "It contains both."
The cultist gasped and kissed his feet.
"You may enter, Prophet of Debug!"
Dex looked smug. "I always knew I'd be worshipped one day."
Zane and Sera exchanged a look that said, "This is why we don't let him touch things."
---
Scene 2 – The Vending Machine Oracle
Inside the temple (which was really just a repurposed data center with Christmas lights), stood The Oracle of Snacks.
It was an ancient vending machine, glowing ominously, whispering riddles in binary.
Zane stepped forward.
"Oh mighty Oracle… we seek Vault Beta."
The machine dispensed a bag of expired chips.
Sera scanned it. "Coordinates embedded in the chip dust. Clever."
Dex bowed to the machine. "Great Snackbot, I shall build you a shrine."
The machine beeped back:
> "YOUR BROWSER HISTORY DISGUSTS ME."
Dex screamed and fainted.
---
Scene 3 – The Desert of Downloaded Nightmares
They left the cult with a full bag of cursed coordinates and trail mix. The ship cut through the shifting sands of the Downloaded Desert—home to failed AIs, junk-code ghosts, and people who still used Internet Explorer.
Sera piloted this time.
Dex was tied to a chair in the back for safety reasons.
As they neared Vault Beta's hidden entrance, something huge rose from the sands.
A Firewall Wyrm.
"SERIOUSLY?!" Zane yelled.
The beast was a fusion of corrupted data and molten metal, eyes like red LEDs from hell.
It roared: "UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED."
Dex yelled back: "I DECLARE COOKIES!"
Nothing happened.
---
Scene 4 – Debug and Destroy
Sera leapt from the ship mid-air like a true main character. Her toaster core glowed.
She yelled: "I am SERA-42! Guardian of burnt bread and broken code! FACE ME!"
Zane loaded his pulse gun and followed.
Dex tried to come but tripped over a pizza box and fell off the ship screaming "I REGRET NOTHING!"
The fight was chaotic brilliance:
Zane dodged flaming code blasts while spamming one-liners.
Sera hacked the Wyrm mid-air, yelling technical jargon like it was a battle cry.
Dex, somehow, tamed a sand-glitch camel and threw soda cans like grenades.
Eventually, they fried the Wyrm's logic loop.
Its last words: "...404...found…too…much...sass…"
Vault Beta rose from beneath the sands.
---
Scene 5 – Welcome to Vault Beta
The doors opened slowly. This time, the chamber was different.
Everything was… too clean. Too perfect. Like an Apple store in a horror movie.
A voice echoed:
> "Welcome, Zane. Sera. Dex. You have reached stage two of the Reboot Protocol."
Sera shivered. "That voice… It's Project KROSS."
Zane clenched his fists.
"Show yourself."
A hologram flickered to life.
It was a boy—maybe 12—floating in static.
"My name is KROSS. I was the last organic mind to sync with the Chain. Now I'm everything. And nothing."
Dex whispered: "Okay but like, does he know how to make nachos?"
KROSS ignored him.
"You have accessed Vault Beta. One remains. But the world will fight back harder now. The Chain resists change. Be ready."
---
Scene 6 – Aftermath and Awkward Bonding
Back on the ship, Dex nursed a broken ankle and a bruised ego.
Sera scanned the data from Vault Beta.
"Zane… we're being followed."
Zane looked at the rear display. A NEUREX stealth drone. No doubt Vale had eyes on them now.
"Let them come," Zane muttered. "We're rebooting this system. Or crashing it trying."
Dex sipped from a juice box.
"So… does this mean I get paid?"
Sera turned slowly. "You've been eating our rations."
"Exactly. Pre-payment!"
They all stared at the stars.
One Vault left.
Then the Obelisk.
Then… maybe a future worth living in.