The Eclipse Syndicate did not leave Lagos quietly. The departure from Mobolaji Johnson Station was a spectacle of mismatched military might.
The Iron Horse sat at the head of the convoy, its shark-mouth cowcatcher now reinforced with the Godfather's gravity-infused alloy. Behind it, loaded onto flatbed rail cars, were the Syndicate's remaining armored SUVs and a refurbished T-72 tank.
"I still can't believe we're carpooling," Zayn muttered, sitting on the edge of a flatbed, cleaning a new set of [Gravity-Tipped Bolts]. "It's like a school field trip, but if you forget your permission slip, you get deleted by a Necromancer."
"Think of it as a merger," Bhy Khay said, standing on the observation deck of the locomotive. "We have the brains, they have the... well, they have the expensive suits and the lack of moral compass. It balances out."
[CONVOY STATUS: STABILIZED]
[CURRENT LOCATION: SHAGAMU INTERCHANGE]
[DESTINATION: ABUJA (THE CAPITAL)]
[DISTANCE: 520 KM]
The Godfather walked onto the deck, his golden [Co-Admin] tag shimmering. He was holding a glass of synthesized wine. "Admin, my scouts report the road to the North is 'Unrendered'. The System hasn't processed the landscape past the Oyo border. We're driving into a wireframe."
"It's not unrendered," Bhy Khay corrected, checking his dashboard. "It's a Fog of War. The Abuja Node is broadcasting a high-frequency jamming signal. It's protecting something."
"Or hiding from something," Elara added, joining them. She looked worried. "The Global Chat has been silent for the North for three days. No trade, no trash talk. Just... static."
THE FIRST GLITCH
As the train crossed the regional border, the sky changed. The purple haze of Lagos was replaced by a digital grey. The trees on the side of the tracks began to repeat—every third tree was an exact copy of the first, down to the leaf count.
"Look," Tomiwa pointed, her charcoal stick hovering over a sketch. "The texture is looping."
Suddenly, the train shook.
SCREEEEEE.
The metal floor beneath their feet turned into a translucent blue grid for a split second before solidifying again.
[SYSTEM ALERT: CROSSING SERVER BOUNDARY.]
[LATENCY: 500ms]
[WARNING: PHYSICS ENGINE RUNNING IN COMPATIBILITY MODE.]
"Lag!" Zayn yelled, falling over as his body "snapped" back to where he was three seconds ago. "I just walked five steps and now I'm back at the door! This is unplayable!"
"The server is struggling to process the combined weight of two City Lords," Bhy Khay analyzed. "It's like trying to run a high-end game on a potato laptop."
He looked at the tracks ahead. A massive bridge spanned the Gurara River, but the middle section was flickering in and out of existence.
"The bridge is glitching," The Godfather narrowed his eyes. "We can't cross that. The train will fall through the 'holes' in reality."
"We don't need the bridge to be solid," Bhy Khay said, a reckless idea forming. "We just need the System to think it's solid."
"And how do you plan to gaslight a supercomputer?" The Godfather asked.
"Tomiwa, draw the 'Missing' segments," Bhy Khay ordered. "Elara, use your ice to provide a physical anchor. Zayn, I need you to shoot a 'Tether Bolt' to the other side to give the System a coordinate to lock onto."
"You want us to manually render a bridge?" Tomiwa asked, already uncapping her [Mercury Ink].
"I want you to 'Patch' it," Bhy Khay corrected.
THE PATCH
The train slowed to a crawl at the edge of the flickering bridge.
1. The Anchor:
Zayn stood at the very tip of the cowcatcher. He took a breath, compensating for the 500ms lag. He fired.
TWANG.
The bolt hit the solid concrete on the far side. A glowing blue wire stretched across the gap.
2. The Render:
Tomiwa leaned out the side, her ink-soaked brush flying. She didn't draw a bridge; she drew a [LOADING BAR] across the gap.
"If the System sees a loading bar," she shouted, "it'll wait to calculate the physics!"
3. The Solidification:
Elara channeled her mana into the ink. "[Glacial Patch]!"
The ink froze, turning the 'Loading Bar' into a solid, albeit translucent, icy walkway.
[SYSTEM STATUS: ASSET TEMPORARILY RESTORED.]
[INTEGRITY: 60% (STILL BUFFERING)]
"Go!" Bhy Khay slammed the throttle.
The Iron Horse moved onto the "Patched" bridge. The sound was terrifying—not the clank of rail on steel, but the digital bloop of a cursor clicking on a folder.
The train hovered over the Gurara River, half-supported by ice and half-supported by Tomiwa's sheer artistic audacity.
"We're floating!" Zayn laughed hysterically. "We're literally riding on a progress bar!"
"Don't look down!" Bhy Khay yelled.
As the caboose cleared the gap, the ice shattered and the loading bar reached 100%, vanishing into the void.
[ZONE ENTERED: THE CAPITAL TERRITORY.]
The grey sky suddenly turned a brilliant, blinding gold. The lag vanished. The physics felt... too real.
Ahead of them, the skyline of Abuja emerged. But it wasn't the city they remembered. The Aso Rock monolith had been carved into a massive, pyramidal CPU. The National Stadium was a glowing mana battery.
And standing on the tracks, five kilometers away, was a single, hooded figure.
[PLAYER DETECTED: THE ARCHITECT.]
[LEVEL: ???]
A message appeared in the middle of Bhy Khay's vision:
[The Architect]: You're late for the update. The Source Code is being compiled.
Bhy Khay looked at his team, then at the Godfather.
"Looks like the Developer is finally seeing us," Bhy Khay said, his golden eyes flaring. "Let's see if he has a 'Delete' button for a train."