Athanasia: My Hacker System

Chapter 296: Securing the Fourth Machine Den

"Ok, it seems the more I delay, the worse it gets!!"

John’s voice was barely a whisper against the roar of the wind as he ran at a speed that blurred the world into a grey and silver streak. He traversed the thick, suffocating fog, banking hard toward the western territory.

The entire foggy expanse was filled to the brim with machines. He kept killing them wherever he passed, his abilities lashing out like lightning, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t even making a dent in their absolute numbers.

The moment he finally breached the border of that specific territory, however, he skidded to a halt. He was welcomed by a sight he had never expected, one that made his mind spin.

"One hour without intervention and the den evolves by ten levels," John muttered, the math scrolling in his head. "One full day passed, which equals twenty-four hours. And almost fifteen hours have passed so far on the second day... So I now have to handle another evolved machine wave?!!"

On his map, the red dots had shifted. A new breed of machines appeared at the heart of the territory, new types he hadn’t met before.

Their numbers were relatively low, numbering only in the tens of thousands compared to the millions he had faced earlier, but they looked ferocious. Even from a distance, their frames appeared denser, bigger, and far deadlier than the previous evolved types.

John didn’t truly care about their classifications anymore. While a part of him was curious to see what these apex predators were capable of, his schedule was too tight to waste even a minute on an experimental skirmish.

Like a juggernaut, he marched forward unhindered. He didn’t care about the machines standing in his path, clearing them with a continuous barrage of his abilities. But as he drew closer to the den, he finally spotted the reason for the eerie silence of the new machine types.

The three new types of machines were on the ground, but they weren’t searching for him. They were hovering over the broken bodies of the older versions, literally tearing them apart and consuming them. It was a gruesome, mechanical cannibalism, the same behaviour he had previously observed in the Hiveminds.

"Hmm, they are trying to scavenge enough power just to move and fight," John said, shaking his head. It was a pathetic sight in its own way. The new types were so advanced, so energy-heavy, that they had emerged from the den heavily depleted, unable to even move to stop him despite his proximity.

"I don’t have time to watch you stand on your feet and wait for you to fight me properly just to see your new abilities. Let’s put an end to this... Logic Bomb... One second! Logic Bomb... One second..."

*Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

John knew this new wave was literally powerless and vulnerable. Even if they evolved, their lack of energy made them sitting ducks for his deadly ability. He ferociously killed them in batches, the explosions echoing across the riverbanks until not a single unit remained functional.

As the next wave erupted from the den, John didn’t give them a chance to begin their scavenging. He made his way directly toward the entrance, killing the newly arrived units before they could even march a dozen meters away from their birthplace. He stepped over the twitching piles of metal scrap and headed straight for the core.

The moment he claimed the core, the machine waves groaned to a halt. It launched one final, desperate wave of two hundred thousand newly evolved units, but John felt too weary to kill them himself.

"I’ll need to take a break, eat, and drink," he sighed, stretching his aching limbs.

He accessed his inventory and began deploying several Mobile Fortresses. He let them loose around the den’s perimeter, boarding them with towers and cannons to clean up the remaining machines in the territory. "I’ll stay here for one hour," he decided, "before I move again."

He hadn’t enjoyed a single moment of proper rest for two days now. His eyes were bloodshot, and his headache was barely bearable, yet he knew this wasn’t the time for a deep sleep. He had neutralised the danger in four out of the six territories; all that remained was Luke’s den and the mysterious den in the north.

Recalling the northern threat, John pulled out a large piece of cooked meat and began to eat while the sounds of roaring cannons and explosions erupted all around his temporary camp. He casually checked the map, tracking the movement of his friends.

Ricky and Elena had decided to head north to investigate the location of the mysterious den. As he suggested, they had passed by Cissel and brought her along.

With the four southern and western dens effectively destroyed or contained, there was no longer an imminent threat requiring her to hold the western border any longer. She had joined their mobile strike force, and the three of them were now carving a path toward the northern fog.

While John took his brief rest, he checked to see what they were doing now. The three had made significant progress. They had passed through Luke’s territory, where they stayed for several hours to provide much-needed reinforcement, and had little rest.

Together, they laid down extra layers of defences and distributed the high-tier weapons John had provided, effectively turning Luke’s perimeter into an impregnable, deadly fortress.

In the end, Ricky had made a decision to split the group. He continued north with Cissel to maintain their reconnaissance mission, leaving Luke and Elena behind to handle the residual machine waves. They were to hold the line and wait for John’s eventual arrival.

Currently, the northern duo was marching through the Bulltors’ territory. John could tell from their slow movement that they were conducting a grid search, checking to see if the mysterious sixth den was hidden within the giants’ lands. By his estimation, they would finish their sweep of that territory by nightfall.

John panned his map from the far north to the southern edge of the trial zone. For the first time in days, the board looked like it was under his control, all except for that mysterious den. Even Luke was performing admirably, his position bolstered by the Bulltors on his side and Elena’s explosive power.

"Night is about to fall soon," John muttered. Around his camp, the Mobile Fortresses continued their grim work, butchering the machine batches without a single moment of rest. The remaining machine horde in this territory was no longer a viable threat.

"If that’s the case, then why don’t I pass through the human territory first and say hi?"