One moment, I was surrounded by towering trees; the next, I stood in a sterile, square room. Its walls, floor, and ceiling were made of unnaturally smooth stone, polished to the point of being almost reflective. The dim, ethereal glow that filled the chamber came not from torches or crystals but from circular depressions in the ceiling, casting a cold, artificial light.

  The contrast was jarring, a stark departure from the dense, living forest I had just left behind. Against two walls stood rows of server racks, their blinking lights dim and sporadic, some flickering weakly as though struggling to remain powered. But what dominated the space was the massive circular console in the center of the room, its curved surface lined with interfaces and an inactive holographic projector.

  “Shit,” I muttered, my eyes locking onto the scorched remnants of the main networking stack. The damage was severe, with deep burn marks scarring the external casing, and if the outside looked this bad, the inside was likely worse.

  My stomach twisted as I stepped closer, already suspecting the worst. “By all that is holy, how in the ever-living fuck did this happen? The surge protection in this room should be nearly impossible to overload.”

  ?Near impossible doesn’t mean impossible,? Gem commented dryly. ?But that still doesn’t explain why the dungeon went into hibernation. Even if the main networking stack was fried, the system has redundancy built in. It should have been able to rebuild it.?

  “So we’re looking for something more,” I murmured, scanning the adjacent racks for any additional damage. Then something clicked in my memory, and my stomach dropped further. “Um, Gem, correct me if I’m wrong, and please, by all means, correct me, but isn’t the main compute unit for the Dungeon Intelligence in the rack right next to the network core?”

  ?That’s correct,? Gem confirmed. ?They were positioned together to reduce latency in processing dungeon operations. It was one of those efficiency decisions that made sense in theory, though the actual performance gain was negligible.?

  I stepped around the console and let out a frustrated breath. “Well, someone should get a swift kick upside the head for that decision because whatever fried the network stack also got the main compute unit.”

  ?Fuuuck,? Gem groaned, the digital equivalent of a head hitting a desk.

  “I couldn’t have said it better myself.” I exhaled sharply and pulled out the chair in front of the central console, dropping into it with a sigh. Leaning back with my eyes closed and rubbing my forehead, I continued. “The good news is that the primary storage array looks intact, so if we’re lucky, there’s a backup of the Dungeon Intelligence still in there.”

  ?And the bad news?? Gem prompted, though I could hear the answer in her tone.

  “The bad news is that this looks like a more-than-one-night job,” I admitted, rubbing my temples. “At best, I can get the maintenance bots running to repair the damage, and they should be able to work during the day while I’m back at camp. But I'll still have to figure out a way to lead everyone on a merry little goose chase until they're done. Then, figure out a way to slip away for long enough to load the backup and get everything back online. We're looking at at least four days, if not a week. On the bright side, the transport platform that connects to the main parts depot still looks functional.”

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  ?You are such a ray of sunshine,? Gem quipped.

  I pushed myself upright and tapped the console’s interface, watching the screen flicker to life. “Alright, let’s get the diagnostics running and see if anything else is broken. While that’s running, I’ll do a manual inspection.”

  As the interface booted up, I moved to one of the damaged racks, carefully pulling open the panels to assess the extent of the destruction. Even after all this time, the smell of burnt circuitry still lingered, and the components inside were warped and blackened from whatever catastrophic event had occurred.

  ?That’s worse than I expected,? Gem admitted. ?You’re not just looking at a blown network stack; that entire section of the infrastructure was completely fried.?

  “No kidding,” I muttered, reaching inside and gently brushing my fingers over the corroded connectors. The damage was extensive as if an immense surge had torn through the system in an uncontrolled burst. Electrical surges should cause uniform burn patterns, but this looked more like something had violently overloaded all at once, cascading through the system. That didn’t make sense—unless something external had triggered it. A freak event, maybe? But what could generate that much-uncontrolled power?

  ?That’s… not normal,? Gem observed. ?Are you seeing what I’m seeing??

  I frowned. “Yeah, and I don’t like it. This isn’t just a power failure; something more destructive burned through this system.” I withdrew my hand and turned back toward the console as the diagnostic finished running. The results that scrolled across the display only deepened my concern.

  Primary Networking Stack: Critical Failure

  Main Compute Unit: Non-Responsive

  Backup Compute Unit: Operational

  Primary Storage Array: Operational with Partial Data Loss

  Transport System: Functional with Limited Power

  Maintenance Subsystems: Inactive – Manual Restart Required

  I let out a slow breath, forcing myself to stay focused. "Not great, but at least we have something to work with."

  ?Yeah, I gathered that,? Gem said, relief evident in her tone. ?At least the backup’s still intact. That means if we can get the hardware repaired, we should be able to restore the Dungeon Intelligence without too much reconstruction.?

  I ran a hand through my hair. “Which means we’re still going to need to cross-check the storage array for any inconsistencies before we load it back up. No telling what kind of corruption might have affected secondary systems.”

  ?If the primary storage array is still operational, there’s a chance the core system logs are intact. But we won’t know until you dig through them.?

  I nodded, already queuing up commands on the console. “Alright, first things first. I’m going to reinitialize the maintenance subsystems. If the repair drones are still functional, they can start handling some of this while I sort through the data.”

  I keyed in the restart sequence, watching as the system struggled to respond. After several agonizing seconds, a status message flickered onto the screen:

  Maintenance Subsystems Rebooting… Partial Functionality Restored. Deploying Repair Units.

  I exhaled in relief as a faint hum vibrated through the floor, signaling the activation of the repair drones. From somewhere deeper in the room, I heard the mechanical whirring of long-dormant machines coming to life.

  ?That’s a start,? Gem said, sounding slightly more optimistic. ?At least we’re not doing this completely alone.?

  “Yeah,” I agreed, leaning back slightly. “But this is just the beginning. We’ve got a long way to go before this place is even close to functional again.”

  I glanced back at the server racks, then at the console, the weight of the task ahead settling on me. This wasn’t going to be easy.