novelraw Chapter 293: John Is Finally Here!
Chapter 293: John Is Finally Here!
"At last, he is here!"
A full eight hours had bled away since John had destroyed the second evolved machine den. The journey had been a test of endurance and patience, especially when he kept fighting the machines from time to time, hacking and adding more loot to his arsenal.
The fog was no longer empty; it was filled to the brim with mechanical enemies. Yet, for John, the hardest part of the trek wasn’t the danger or the risk of being overrun. No, the true agony was his own greed, having to leave behind mountains of loot untouched because he had little time to spend on hacking!
The moment he had stepped into the fog, the fight had shifted from a battlefield into his personal playground, and he was effectively killing machines in batches every passing second without feeling any pressure or stress.
Even when the persistent machines from the northern territory attempted to trail him south, John didn’t falter or show a shred of nervousness. He kept his momentum, advancing through the fog while simultaneously recharging his Mental Points
Technically, he could have arrived at the southern border two hours earlier. However, John had made a detour, taking that time to manually relieve the mounting pressure on Cissel and the Bulltors.
He had held the critical intersection between the four territories for two solid hours, a one-man army standing against the tide until he had literally built hills of twisted scrap and smoking metal.
After adding a lot of those metallic hills into his inventory for future recharges, he finally dashed toward the coordinates of Ricky and Elena’s territory. Through the map, he could see the two of them hunkered down inside one of the fortified fortresses.
Further ahead, the Bulltors were still confined to the earliest two fortresses. John didn’t need a detailed report to know the situation had spiralled out of their control; they had been rendered unable to even join the fray, forced into a defensive shell.
They had attempted to use the time to rest and recover, but he could see from their erratic movement that stress and anxiety had cut their sleep short.
John didn’t even consider making another detour, checking on them right away. His schedule was balanced on a razor’s edge, and the mystery of the hidden sixth den in the north still loomed over his thoughts.
He hadn’t yet found the time to properly investigate its location, and that unknown variable made every second precious. He rushed headlong into Ricky and Elena’s territory and began a mass-culling of the local machine population.
The moment he appeared on the battlefield, a violent shift occurred in the machines’ collective behaviour. It was as if a global command had been broadcast across their network. Every unit instantly stopped its northward march and pivoted toward John’s location.
As if a massive dam had been slammed down across the course of a wild river, the mechanical tide abruptly stopped flowing toward Ricky and Elena’s positions.
Inside their fortress, the two exchanged a long, silent gaze. Ricky was the first to break the silence.
"Shall we go and help him then?"
Elena paused, her hand clutching the edge of a wall, overseeing the empty surroundings. "Or shall we use this brief window to lay down a fresh perimeter of yellow grenades?"
"The grenades are useful, but I believe where we use them matters the most right now," Ricky said, his eyes fixated on the distant, swirling fog. "Let’s go. we have to aid him as hard as we can. He’s likely swimming in an endless machine tide right now inside that territory. We can’t let him fight that entire ocean solo."
"Then let’s disassemble this fortress," Elena said, looking around. "We’re running dangerously short on defensive structures as it is."
Ricky didn’t object. They both knew they would be more of a burden than a help if they arrived without the proper means to fortify John’s position. They spent twenty frantic minutes deconstructing the fortress, reclaiming every trap, wall, and mobile fortress they had deployed. Once their inventories were packed, they sprinted toward the heart of the territory.
Midway through their run, they intercepted the confused Bulltors being led by two members of the Twelve.
"Darge! Come with us! Bring everyone with you!" Ricky shouted, not slowing his pace for a single second.
"Do you know what happened?" Darge called out, leading the Bulltors as they chased the humans. He was gasping for air, inquiring about the root cause of the sudden shift in the machines’ aggression.
"What else? John is finally here," Elena laughed, a touch of hysterical relief in her voice. "The machines would never have stopped hounding us if it weren’t for his presence. So let’s go and return the favour."
"As if he truly needs our help," Darge grunted, recalling the terrifying efficiency John had displayed in the northern battles. "Yet, we can at least try our best to lower the pressure on him."
The entire group moved through a bizarre, unsettling emptiness in the fog for almost an hour. The usual metallic clatter and hum of the drones had vanished from their immediate vicinity. By the time they breached the territory, they all skidded to a halt, dazed and amazed by the scene that unfolded in front of them.
The territory was filled to the brim with machines, a roiling sea of steel. They were moving like headless dogs, a frantic, disorganised mass trying to flood in one specific direction. There was no need to ask; that direction was where John was.
Yet, what made their scalps grow numb was the unrelenting thunder of explosions ringing out from the far distance. The sound was constant, a flood of devastation coming from John as if he were an entire army of tens of thousands of men condensed into a single point.
However, the noise wasn’t the most shocking part; it was the location of the sounds.
"Is it just me, or has John already crossed the river?!!" Elena turned to Ricky, her eyes wide with disbelief.