Necromancer Dreams of Mechs Chapter 40: Chapter 46

Read chapter 40 of Necromancer Dreams of Mechs by Magic on NovelPedia.

Chapter 40: Something Isn’t Right The Real World | Mage Gaming Headquarters The soft hum of servers filled the control room, an endless undertone that made every silence heavier than it should have been. The walls were lined with monitors, their glow painting the sterile space in shades of emerald and gray. The only moving image across the countless screens was the same one they had been watching for hours: a sea of endless grass, rippling under a phantom wind. Ciara Clarence’s heels clicked as she moved back and forth across the polished floor, the controlled rhythm of her pacing at odds with the storm tightening inside her. Her tailored jacket caught the fluorescent light with each turn, and her expression remained as sculpted as glass—unreadable, except for the faint narrowing of her eyes. Finally, she stopped, her voice cutting through the monotony like a blade of ice. “You don’t expect me to believe he has been walking all this time. Surely, Mr. Burke, even your system cannot be so inept.” Her tone wasn’t raised, but the sheer coldness of it made Nathan stir from his chair. He had been slouched back for hours, arms folded, somehow managing to nap through her restrained interrogation of every developer present. On the screens, nothing had changed. Not a creature, not a landmark. Just grass swaying in an infinite ocean of green. David Burke, lead developer and now the unfortunate target of Ciara’s unrelenting scrutiny, cleared his throat. He clutched a tablet against his chest as though it were a shield. “Miss Clarence, I assure you, we are monitoring everything. We’ve never seen… circumstances like these before.” “Unprecedented,” Ciara murmured, her lips curling ever so slightly. “That word seems to be your profession’s favorite excuse.” She stepped closer to the monitors, arms folding with perfect composure. “I was promised the world would load as Allen traveled. Instead, you present me with a mockery—an endless horizon indistinguishable from a frozen screen saver. Do you take me for a fool?” Nathan rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Honestly, it does look like a loading screen,” he muttered, earning the faintest flicker of Ciara’s disapproval. David tried again, his voice taut. “Shutting the game engine down now would… well, it would require a full-scale blackout. The entire city would lose power for a week, and even then, we aren’t sure we could forcibly remove Mr. Voss without catastrophic risk. We have never—” “Never,” Ciara interrupted softly, her gaze turning toward him like frost forming across glass. “A convenient refrain. You have no precedent. You have no plan. What, then, do you have, Mr. Burke, aside from excuses?” Her tone didn’t rise, but Nathan winced anyway. He’d seen Ciara furious before; this was worse. She wasn’t raising her voice because she didn’t need to. David swallowed and looked at his tablet as though the device might offer salvation. “All we can do is observe. Interference is impossible without authorization that… quite frankly, doesn’t exist anymore.” Ciara’s eyes narrowed. Her father’s authority hung over every corner of this operation, yet she would not invoke his name so casually. “Then connect me to the headset.” The words were calm, icy, absolute. David flinched as though slapped. “No. Mr. James still needs to verify the parameters for a second entry. And even if he confirmed them, your father would never allow it. Miss Clarence, we do know two things.” Nathan, half-asleep again, stretched and rolled his shoulders. “And those would be?” David swiped his tablet upward, sending a wave of motion across the monitors. One by one, the endless grass vanished, replaced by a dense wall of text and symbols. The air in the room seemed to sharpen as Ciara’s gaze flicked across the new data. “This,” David said, “is the current list of NPCs capable of forcing a world update.” For the first time, Ciara’s composure slipped—just slightly. A faint tightening around her eyes. “Explain why I see his name there.” Th