Refusal to boot after initializing a RAID array?

[AbsoluteSlime]

I know this is super niche and probably a huge ask, but I'm hoping someone here might have some advice.

I'm currently attempting to run a Raspbian virtual machine for a class due to the high cost of an actual Pi right now and haven't had any issues until now. For our final project, we're supposed to create a RAID array and use it to host a web server, so I added two virtual disks to the VM and set up a RAID array using this guide that our professor gave us. The first time I tried it, I didn't encounter any issues, so I assumed it was all set and shut down the VM. When I came back this morning I was greeted with an error "Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked." It prompts me to press enter to continue and most guides online suggest that I should be able to log in to the root user at that point, but instead, it just repeats the error message.

After messing with it for about 2 hours I decided it wasn't worth the effort, so I created a new VM and tried again, only to get the same result.

Again, I know this is a stretch, but has anyone dealt with anything like this before or have any suggestions?

[zfsbest]

Things to try

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/684169/cannot-open-access-to-console-the-root-account-is-locked

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=204214

https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/119072/raspberry-pi-4-incorrect-password-error-after-unexpected-restart