Athanasia: My Hacker System

Chapter 286: The Two Lovebirds

"Machines are coming from the north?!!"

"There are two other dens in the western regions, and they’ve been enhanced and risen beyond level one hundred?!!!"

The two of them exchanged exclamations in waves of immense shock as they traded the intelligence they had gathered. The air between them crackled heavy with the weight of these revelations.

John had never expected the sixth den to manifest from the northern reaches beyond the Hiveminds; his best tactical guess had placed it at the Hiveminds’ new base, yet Cissel’s firsthand confirmation shattered that theory. He turned his gaze back to the map, his brow furrowed in a deep, troubled V.

The northern territories were supposed to be heavily fortified, with standing Bulltor divisions holding the line. Even if their territory had no one to oversee it, he was absolutely confident no machine den would appear there, thanks to the heavy defences he had laid.

For a den to go unnoticed meant it came from a territory that had no defences or presence of his forces in it, which was literally impossible.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Cissel asked. She waited for John to speak up his mind, but for several long minutes, he remained encased in a heavy silence.

He was obsessively scanning the map, his eyes darting across the northern territories, searching for a single anomaly he had missed, yet finding no clue as to where the sixth den could be hiding.

His best guess now was that Mark had employed the same sophisticated masking techniques used in the west to cloak the den and the machines that came from it. It meant the map could no longer be trusted as an absolute source of truth; he would have to personally visit the territories and scout them himself.

"We need to put an end to this nightmare once and for all," John finally said, snapping out of his analytical daze. He turned toward Cissel, his expression grimmer and more serious than she had ever seen it.

"The night is almost over, and soon the new daylight waves will arise. I’m going to handle the den in my territory first. Once the core is gone, I’ll march toward the other two western dens and destroy them before they can evolve any further."

"Alone?!!!" Cissel was baffled, her voice rising a pitch. "Can’t you see the sheer numbers we’re dealing with? You saw those wasps! You saw the plasma cannons the evolved S-1000s carried!"

"Don’t worry about me," he calmly said, his gaze softening into a kind look. He knew she was overly worried over him, her feelings for him clouding her usually objective judgment.

"Nothing in this world can truly hurt me. I have what it takes to survive a nuke." He paused, his expression shifting to one of genuine concern. "And yet, I’m worried over you." He returned her worry with an even kinder look, adding, "I’m going to have to leave you behind to handle this entire western front alone while I’m gone."

"I’ll manage," Cissel instantly replied, her voice steadying as she looked back toward the fog where the machines were still dying against the hidden towers, shifting her eyes off his. "Once you’ve handled your den, the pressure on this territory will drop significantly. I’ll just need to focus on defending the western border only, right?"

"And the southern border as well... Wait, something is happening at the south..."

John’s eyes froze as he performed a casual sweep of the southern border. He had been so hyper-focused on the evolved machines screaming in from the western territories that he had almost entirely forgotten about the conventional attack from the southern den.

Perhaps facing the apex versions of the machines had made him subconsciously dismiss the weaker versions at the southern border, feeling overconfident that his defences would be sufficient to hold them.

Yet, as he zoomed in, he was startled. He didn’t see the massive red tide he had expected to see threatening the south. When he checked closer, he found that the machines were being strangled miles away, caught in a brutal bottleneck at the fortresses Ricky and Elena had constructed.

He spotted several new, large-scale fortresses integrated into the line, which explained why the machines were failing to make any significant progress.

Cissel remained silent, watching his face, waiting for him to explain what his unique abilities had uncovered. As she expected, after a few minutes, he raised his head and a satisfied, content smile spread across his face. "The southern threat is being handled by Ricky and Elena with surprising effectiveness. They’ve locked it down."

"That’s a relief," Cissel admitted. She had never liked Ricky’s ego, but she had never doubted his strength when backed into a corner. "That means I only need to hold the line for the Western Front. I can do it for sure."

John knew her strength, and as she had pointed out, her task was now simplified to a single-front defence. "Just don’t overstress yourself," he said, unable to suppress an inward sigh of worry. He said his farewell after giving her lots of items, his silhouette blurring as he activated his Speed Lock ability and dashed back toward the eastern den.

The tight encirclement John had placed around his home den had been firing nonstop for hours. But as he crossed back into his territory, the silence was deafening. There was no more roar of cannons, no more hiss of lasers.

"It seems they’ve finally killed off the waitlist," he noted, checking the map. There wasn’t a single red dot remaining inside the den’s radius.

When he arrived at the site, he was greeted by a landscape of utter mechanical ruin. Hills and mountains of scraped metal covered the entire area, raising the topography by several tens of meters.

At this point, even his Mobile Fortresses at the perimeter were struggling to maintain their footing, their massive wheels grinding against the elevated mounds of alloy.

Originally, John had intended to pack up the entire defensive setup and take it with him; after all, once the core was hacked and closed, no more machines would spawn from this location. But then, a thought of Mark and his treacherous, multi-layered schemes crossed his mind. So he decided against it.