Athanasia: My Hacker System

Chapter 294: John Is a God of War!

"John is already past the river," Cissel muttered. "Ok... At least the machines are distracted. Let’s build a fortress here and start attacking their rear. We have to peel some of this pressure off him."

"..."

Ricky couldn’t say a single word for a long time. He had arrived expecting to find John struggling as they had, perhaps pinned down and forced to build miles of outposts just to survive the tide.

Yet, seeing him far, far away from their entry point, having already crossed the river and likely reaching the den in less than two hours, dealt a devastating blow to Ricky’s pride and lingering arrogance.

He had genuinely thought that by adopting John’s methods, the outposts, the fortresses, the towers and cannons, he could stand shoulder to shoulder with him. He had accepted there might be a small gap in their abilities, a minor lead held by John’s mysterious ways.

Yet, right now, it was clear the gap between their powers was as wide as the distance between their standings in this territory.

One was a man who had spent hours huddled inside a steel fortress, fearing to set a single foot outside into the fog, while the second was leisurely walking through a mechanical ocean, fighting with a ferocity that suggested he was a god of war rather than a mere human.

Ricky finally realised it. He finally admitted the truth he had been trying to avoid: ’I won’t, and will never be, able to come close to him ever again!’ He gritted his teeth until he felt an immense, sharp pain radiating through his jaw.

Despite the severe blow his pride took, he didn’t stand idle. He worked with Elena to construct the fortress, while the Bulltors braced themselves, their massive hands tightening around their weapons as the deadly fight loomed in the near distance.

Once the fortress was constructed and they had scattered the traps, sensors, and mobile fortresses, they rejoined the battle in earnest. The towers and cannons roared to life, sending streaks of light into the backs of the machine horde.

At first, the machines seemed to totally ignore them. Even when the Bulltors sent small squads out to lure the machine toward the kill zone, the machines refused to budge. It felt as if they didn’t sense any other presence but John’s.

Ricky and Elena kept firing from a distance, killing machines with ease for several hours, until the tide finally turned. John had reached the den, surrounded it with his circular defences, and now he was heading back toward them. The machines followed his steps like fireflies attracted to a flame, a massive, swirling tail of metal trailing behind the streak of his movement.

The moment John drew closer, the insane number of machines started to flood the area around the new fortress, totally surrounding the structure.

It was a suffocating sight, yet not a single machine unit, not even the high-altitude flying drones, cared to trespass into the fortress’s inner perimeter, nor to attack them. John’s presence seemed to create a vacuum of aggro that nothing else could compete with.

When John finally vaulted over the wall and landed inside their fortress, the entire base felt like it had become the eye of a global storm.

"I’m glad to see you are fine and healthy," Ricky said, his voice sounding weirder and more strained than usual.

The shock he had felt earlier had only escalated now that he was watching John in person. John wasn’t just surviving; he was thriving.

He was running and fighting with a casualness that bordered on invincibility, not even sporting a single scratch despite the plasma shots and bombs that had clearly detonated in his vicinity. He acted like a real god of war, as if the entire mechanical world was worth less than nothing in front of him.

"Hey, he’s just shocked, and quite envious, hahaha!" Elena teased, nudging Ricky before turning to John. A genuine, bright smile broke across her face. "I’ve never been as happy to see someone as I am to see you right now! Did you destroy the den, by the way?"

"It’s contained, for now," John said, pausing to check his Mental Points. "I need it to keep running for a while before I destroy it. But fret not, I laid down tight circles of defences that will keep killing the machines as they spawn."

His words took the two by surprise, yet he didn’t offer a deeper explanation. Knowing the astronomical value of the evolved cores he could gain, John wasn’t willing to waste a single den by closing it prematurely.

He had laid down a reinforced version of the same encirclement he had used at the northern den, adding extra layers of mobile fortresses and heavy towers just to ensure no surprises would break his farm.

He already wasted one core by hacking it for a temporary ability. While the benefits of having a temporary ability were tempting, it paled in comparison to the permanent grade-up potential of an acquired core.

He turned his attention toward the churning horizon outside the walls. "Still, the situation here is unstable. The wave patterns are shifting everywhere. They are now pushed to follow my steps wherever I go. Are you sure you can handle the remaining machines here on your own while I head back north?"

"Are you planning to leave this fast?!!" Elena asked in shock, her head whipping back and forth between John’s composed face and Ricky’s ashen, pale expression.

"Tsk, you still aren’t aware of what’s actually going on out there," John said, shaking his head slowly. He took a moment to explain the broader situation, laying out the grim reality of the multi-front war they were currently drowning in.

As he spoke, the gravity of the situation began to sink in, turning Elena’s confusion into a cold, hard dread. Even Ricky snapped out of his internal feelings and looked in a disturbed way towards John.

"Higher forms of machines... Two more evolved dens... And an additional hidden one in the north..." Ricky muttered to himself, his voice trailing off as he processed the scale of the threat. Suddenly, he snapped out of his trance, turned to Darge, and shouted, "You’ll have to handle the situation here on your own for a while!"

"What?!!"