Chapter 494: Amanda''s Recap, The Ankle Break


    Chapter 494: Amanda’s Recap, The Ankle Break


    ( Amanda’s POV )


    From the moment Amanda improved her mastery over her cksmithing skills and realised she had the power to unlock the ankle restraints binding everyone aboard the Arc Ship, the idea almost immediately consumed her.


    The thought of freeing herself, along with the others, became an obsession that fueled her every move, pushing her hard to find a way to make it happen.


    However, she quickly recognized that achieving this goal would require two crucialponents, namely : a key and a counter charge.


    The key was essential for manually triggering the release inside the ankle lock, while the counter charge was needed to safely disable the auto-shock mechanism that would otherwise incapacitate anyone attempting to tamper with the device.


    However, although she knew what was necessary to unlock the device, the real challengey in acquiring them, as finding the rightponents on this secure Arc Ship was no small feat.


    For days, Amanda strategized.


    She pondered as to where she could obtain a long, thin metal rod, which she could fashion into the key, and after much deliberation, she realised her answery in the repairman’s workshop on the Arc Ship. The workshop was likely the only ce where raw metals were readily avable, and it just so happened that Luke, one of the supervisors, worked there.


    Amanda hence concocted an borate n to gain ess to the workshop.


    She approached Luke with a seemingly innocent request, exining that she needed to see the workshop to better understand how to set up her smithy within the game and though Luke didn’t entirely grasp the logic behind her request, he agreed, sensing her genuine enthusiasm.


    Once inside the workshop, Amanda discreetly pocketed a long, thin piece of iron, carefully hiding it up her sleeve as she made sure to maintain herposure as she left, bringing the stolen metal back to her apartment to begin her work.


    Back in her apartment, Amanda set to work on the piece of iron, using nothing more than a kitchen knife to shape it into the precise form needed to release the ankle lock’s key-shaped mechanism.


    The process was slow,borious, and incredibly tedious. Yet, Amanda found an odd sense of satisfaction in the painstaking task. Each careful stroke of the knife brought her closer to her goal, and the sheer focus it required made the hours slip by unnoticed.


    After what felt like an eternity of work, the key was finallyplete!


    Amanda held her breath as she lowered it into her own ankle monitor, carefully guiding it toward the release mechanism and only stopping mere millimetres short of triggering it, before pulling the key back out as she confirmed that it was a perfect fit.


    Despite her sess, Amanda refrained from fully engaging the mechanism, as she knew all too well that the moment the release was triggered, a powerful electric charge would be unleashed, designed to incapacitate anyone tampering with the lock.


    At the risk of facing electrocution, Amanda wasn’t keen on taking that chance— and hence she stopped at the right moment just before triggering the release.


    With the key figured out, Amanda shifted her focus to obtaining the counter charge, but since finding something like a battery or power source aboard the Arc Ship seemed nearly impossible, she could only turn to magic to rece it.


    The passengers aboard the Arc Ship had recently discovered that they could tap into a fraction of their in-game powers and spells in real life after entering the Rainbow Stream and hence Amanda dared to dream that perhaps a strong mage could help her create a counter charge powerful enough to disable the bracelet.


    Since Lysa was the only mage she knew on a personal level. Amanda approached her one day in Sector B, where to her surprise Lysa agreed readily to help, feeling intrigued by the challenge of using her magical abilities in such a unique way.


    After some discussion, the two decided that the best course of action was to attempt a trial run on Amanda’s own bracelet, as the two of them sat within the meditation room of Lysa’s apartment and began working on Amanda’s bracelet.


    Amanda sat on the floor, leg stretched out, as Lysa knelt beside her, muttering a series of incantations under her breath. Lysa’s hands hovered just above Amanda’s ankle monitor, the air around them crackling with energy.


    Amanda’s heart raced as she watched Lysa concentrate, her fingers tracing glowing sigils in the air. The spell was intricate, its power building slowly as Lysa worked.


    Soon, a faint shimmer appeared around the bracelet, flickering like static. As the magical energy built up.


    At this point, Amanda felt a slight warmth around her ankle—the telltale sign that the spell was working.


    The moment of truth arrived when Amanda, using the key she had painstakingly crafted, inserted it into the small slot on the side of the bracelet, as with a slow, deliberate twist, the mechanism released.


    For a split second, Amanda felt a surge of panic. The auto-shock mechanism was still active and she could feel the dormant power humming inside the bracelet, ready to unleash its charge. But as Lysa’s spell fully took hold, the energy within the bracelet seemed to dissipate, fading into nothingness, as the bracelet slid off Amanda’s ankle, ttering softly onto the floor.


    *nk*


    The two women stared at it, breathless. Amanda flexed her ankle, the skin beneath the bracelet pale and marked by the faint outline of where it had once sat, as a sense of overwhelming relief washed over her.


    They had done it!!!! They had found a way to break free of the cursed ankle monitor!


    For a brief, heartstopping moment, the bracelet had been off, the auto-shock mechanism neutralised, as Amanda and Lysa exchanged triumphant looks, a shared sense of victory filling the room, but this did notst long, as Amanda quickly picked the bracelet back up and slid it over her ankle, reattaching it without hesitation.


    They had managed to disable it for a moment, but the consequences of not wearing it long-term were still unknown.


    Authorities on the Arc Ship were sure to notice if someone’s ankle monitor wasn’t in ce, and Amanda wasn’t willing to risk the fallout just yet.


    Despite that, the psychological victory was immense. They now knew that the bracelet could be opened anytime they needed and it gave Amanda a sense of freedom she hadn’t felt since arriving on the Arc Ship—a secret, powerful advantage that no one else knew about.


    ‘I can’t wait to tell Leo about this…’ she thought, as although she did not intend to tell about this sess to anyone else, she did intend to tell it to her dearest.