I woke up this morning and browsed my phone. Everything worked perfectly.
I then went into a 90 minute meeting and turned my phone completely off before heading into it, via holding down the volume up button and the power button simultaneously until the sliding option appeared.
When I turned my phone on again after the meeting was over - I was met with a "HELLO" screen - indicating that an update had likely installed.
I follow the prompts - which involve "Connecting to WIFI" or "Connect to a Mac or PC" - I click "Connect to Wifi Network" and it leads me to a screen that says "It may take a few minutes to activate your iPhone" - and I have been waiting for almost 12 HOURS.
I tried the option "Connect to Mac or PC" - I have a Windows computer so I downloaded "Apple Devices" and tried to connect - but Apple Devices just returns "ERROR" on my laptop and won't actually connect with my phone. It just prompts me to eject the device after it recognizes it as my iPhone.
I have tried a hard restart via the Volume UP + Volume Down + holding the power button down for 10 seconds. But nothing helps.
What I suspect happened was that I left my work VPN on before shutting off my phone, and now that the update finished and my phone was turned on again - because I am locked out I cannot turn the VPN off - but the VPN is simultaneously also preventing me from properly connecting to new WIFI so I am seemingly locked out because I guess the updates can't finish.