Chapter 28: The Digestive Root-Core
The fall was not into darkness, but into a suffocating, emerald luminescence.
As Joran, Kaelen, Mina, and Silas plummeted through the maw of the forest floor, they didn't hit a solid bottom. Instead, they were caught by a network of [VASCULAR_CABLES]—thick, translucent tubes pulsing with a viscous, glowing green fluid. The air here was heavy with the scent of fermented data and stagnant logic.
[LOCATION: THE ROOT_DIGESTOR - DEPTH: 1.2 KM]
[ENVIRONMENTAL STATUS: GASTRIC_LOGIC_ACTIVE]
[WARNING: DATA_DISSOLUTION IN PROGRESS...]
"Get... it... off!" Silas screamed.
He was suspended five feet above the "ground," his mechanical leg completely encased in fibrous white filaments that looked like fungal mycelium. The filaments weren't just holding him; they were [PARSING] him. Tiny glowing sparks were traveling from Silas's leg into the vines.
[NOTICE: INDIVIDUAL 'SILAS' IS BEING CONVERTED INTO NUTRIENT_CODE]
[CONVERSION RATE: 2% PER MINUTE]
"Silas!" Joran roared, struggling against his own restraints. His matte-black armor was being coated in a sticky, amber-like sap that felt like hardened glue. He tried to summon his [VOID_BREACH], but the energy fizzled out. "The sap... it's an [INPUT_REPRESSOR]! I can't trigger my skills!"
"Mina! The bombs!" Kaelen yelled, his sniper-arm pinned to his chest by a cluster of pulsating roots.
Mina was the only one who hadn't been fully caught yet, thanks to her small size. She was frantic, digging through her bag. "They're all corrupted! The forest changed their properties to [Fertilizer]! If I throw them, I'll just make the roots grow faster!"
The Voice in the Static
"Listen... to... me..."
Elara's voice was a jagged whisper, barely audible over the wet, thumping sound of the Root-Core's heartbeat. Within the Monolith, her crystal was burning white-hot, straining to push a signal through the dense organic interference of Server 04.
"You aren't... in a stomach," Elara's voice echoed in their minds. "You are in a [RE-CYCLING_BIN]. This server doesn't kill; it 'Refactors'. It's trying to break down your 'Server 01' code and turn it into 'Bio-Logic' assets. If you don't resist, you won't die... you'll just become part of the trees."
"I'd rather die!" Joran grunted, his muscles bulging as he tried to tear the amber sap. "Elara, we're locked down! We need a bypass!"
"I can't... bypass the server's laws from here," Elara whispered, her silver code flickering. "But I can [INJECT] a new rule. Mina! Look at the sap. It's not glue. It's a [DATA_ENCRYPTION] layer. You don't need to break it... you need to 'Decrypt' it."
"I don't have a decrypter!" Mina cried.
"Yes, you do. Use the [ADAPTIVE_TENON] you looted from the Stalker. It has the local server's signature. Eat it, Mina! Use its properties to rewrite your bombs!"
Mina hesitated for a second, then pulled out the glowing green tendon they had looted earlier. She took a bite. The "Organic Logic" of Server 04 flooded her system. Her eyes, usually spinning with loading icons, suddenly turned a deep, vibrant moss-green.
[MINA STATUS: TEMPORARY_BIO_ADMIN]
[SKILL EVOLVED: ORGANIC_TRANSMUTATION]
Mina grabbed a handful of her corrupted bombs. She didn't use logic; she used [INSTINCT]. She "felt" the code of the sap and whispered a command.
"Property shift: [Encryption] to [SOLVENT]!"
She threw the shards at Joran and Silas. As soon as the shards touched the amber sap and the mycelium, the organic restraints began to boil and melt, turning into a harmless green mist.
The Counter-Attack
Joran fell to the ground, his violet blade instantly igniting. Now that the Input-Repressor was gone, his Level 21 power surged back with a vengeance.
"My turn," Joran growled.
He didn't just swing his sword; he used his new [ABSOLUTE_COLLISION] passive. He struck the main vascular cable—the one feeding the entire room. The blade sliced through the "Digital Flesh" like a hot knife through butter.
A fountain of glowing green fluid—[RAW_DATA_JUICE]—sprayed across the room.
[ALERT: ROOT_CORE INTEGRITY COMPROMISED]
[INITIATING_DEFENSE_PROTOCOL: WHITE_CELLS]
From the walls, dozens of small, pale orbs began to emerge. They looked like oversized white blood cells, but they were covered in sharp, crystalline needles.
[MOB: LEUKOCYTE_SENTRY]
[LEVEL: 18 (SWARM)]
"They're many, but they're low level!" Kaelen shouted, his sniper-arm finally online. He didn't fire static needles anymore. Following Elara's hint, he had modified his chamber to fire "Bio-Sliver" bullets he'd scavenged from the floor.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
The Sentries popped like bubbles under Kaelen's precise fire. But for every one he killed, two more emerged from the "Wounds" in the walls.
"We can't stay here!" Silas yelled, his mechanical leg whirring with renewed power. "The whole room is starting to contract! It's going to crush us!"
"Wait!" Elara's voice boomed, clearer now that Mina had opened a "Bio-Uplink." "Don't run out. Go deeper. The 'Druid' is guarding the [ROOT_TERMINAL]. That terminal is the heart of the server's evolution. If you can reach it, I can 'Commit' a global patch that will link our worlds forever."
"Deeper into the stomach of the beast?" Joran grinned, a dark, predatory look in his eyes. "Sounds like my kind of mission."
They ran toward a descending tunnel, a massive throat-like passage that led into the very core of the world. As they descended, the "Game" changed again. The walls began to display [HISTORICAL_LOGS]—images of the First Architect planting the seeds of Server 04.
Elara, watching through their eyes, saw something that made her digital heart stop.
In the logs, the First Architect wasn't alone. He was standing next to a man whose face was blurred by a "Permanent Error" mask—the same mask worn by the [DRUID_OF_THE_DEEP_CODE].
"The Druid..." Elara whispered to herself back in the Monolith. "He isn't just a guardian. He's a [CO-FOUNDER]."
[QUEST_UPDATE: THE HEART OF THE OVERGROWTH]
[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT THE DRUID'S AVATAR]