Athanasia: My Hacker System

Chapter 309: The Twelfth Territory

It seemed impossible to have another undocumented territory in the pocket trial, yet the hypothesis solved every lingering mystery.

The hidden sixth core, the one John had been hunting for days, must be tucked away inside that secret territory. It also explained the anomalous machine squads; they weren’t strays from known dens, but the overflow from this high-density blind spot.

"I don’t know how long Mark kept this territory hidden or what kind of horrors he’s been cooking up in there, but I should expect something fierce waiting for me," John said, his voice hardening.

He felt a paradoxical mix of relief and intense worry. He finally knew where the finish line was, but Cissel was walking into that darkness alone, entirely unaware of the mechanical nightmare she was about to stumble into. Without hesitation, John charged forward, heading straight for the point where the map ended, and the real fight would begin.

He was worried for her, gnawing at his gut, yet a cold relief washed over him. The mysterious sixth den was finally located. He knew with absolute certainty that no matter what horrors lay on the other side of that fog, crushing this final core would signal the end of the entire pocket trial. His system evolution mission would be completed, the nightmare would break, and he would finally return to the academy.

"I should first hurry to the Bulltors," he muttered, weighing the limited options flashing through his mind. He debated taking a detour to the nearby Bulltors to warn them, dispatching scouts to alert Elena, Luke, and Ricky, and then leading the remaining heavy hitters toward the twelve territory.

Doing this would set the entire board in motion, but it risked a delay of several crucial hours. He considered rushing in alone to rescue her first, then sending her back to warn the others.

Yet, when he thought of the sheer amount of items he had packed into her storage device, how much she had grown since their first day in this world, and the fact that she was one of the only two people who truly understood a lot about machines, he felt a surge of reassurance. She was strong; she would hold the line.

With his decision made, John pivoted. He didn’t just run; he ignited his Speed Lock ability in rapid succession, layering the activations on top of one another. The overlapped effects worked magic on his velocity, blurring the world into a smear of grey and black. He managed to cross a distance that should have taken three hours in just thirty minutes.

"Send out the scouts! Inform everyone!" John barked the moment he skidded into the Bulltors’ base, finding the two Bulltors of the Twelve, leading the five-hundred-strong Bulltors force.

"Tell all the Bulltors to gather under the leadership of Ricky, Elena, and Luke. The rest of you, arm yourselves and follow my trail. Be ready to clash with the machine swarm at a moment’s notice!"

Driven by a volatile cocktail of excitement and anxiety, John rained down a series of rapid-fire orders before turning back toward the northern void. He had tasted the benefits of stacking Speed Lock, and he leaned into it again.

The strain was immense; he had to replenish his Mental Points once every thirty seconds to keep doing this, but he didn’t care. He pushed his mind and body to the absolute brink, charging toward the hidden territory where Cissel was, praying she would still be standing strong when he arrived.

The distance from the Bulltors’ base to the northern border was a gruelling four-hour march for a standard unit. John crossed it in less than sixty minutes.

The moment he reached the furthest boundary of the pocket trial, he took one deep breath and plunged forward. The fog didn’t resist him. There was no physical wall, no barrier to block his advance. This confirmed his theory: Mark had indeed added a twelfth territory within the pocket trial, successfully masking the sixth den from him.

As he stepped into the fog further north, a notification popped up in his face:

[Ding! Warning: New territory detected. You may pay 1,000 Mental Points to widely activate the Ping Route ability and scan the entire territory ahead.]

"Do it. Now," John commanded.

The system had increased the cost, but he didn’t blink. He pulled a metal scrap from his inventory, absorbed it to recharge his current MP reserves, and watched as the map updated in a violent burst of data.

A massive, hidden territory revealed itself. It was structurally identical to the one they had first appeared in, sitting adjacent to the starting zone like a dark twin. However, where his map was usually green or neutral, this entire sector was painted a deep, bleeding crimson.

At first glance, the density of the red was overwhelming, but three things stood out immediately. First was his distance: at his current speed, he would reach the border of the territory in roughly one hour. Second was Cissel.

A lone green dot was pulse-beating in the periphery of that crimson tsunami.

"That’s my girl!" John chuckled, a flash of pride breaking through his worry.

As he had expected, she wasn’t hiding; she was standing firm in the heart of a massive outpost she had laid out herself. She had filled the perimeter to the brim with the towers and cannons he had provided, and dozens of his mobile fortresses were visible on the map, engaged in a fierce slaughter against endless hordes of machines.

To John’s surprise, as he zoomed the map into the chaos surrounding Cissel, he didn’t find any alien or unknown models. Instead, he recognised the three types that he and the rest of the team had been fighting for days.

They were the same evolved breeds that had emerged from the high-tier dens in the western territories: the giant D-1000s, the thruster S-1000s, and the swarming metallic wasps that choked the sky like a localised storm.

Seeing her locked in combat with these familiar mechanical units brought a wave of genuine relief to John’s heart. He knew this familiarity was her greatest asset; it gave her the critical window needed to adapt her tactics and establish a strong defensive perimeter.

It was far better than her being blindsided by a completely new breed of higher-grade units she had never countered before.

And yet, that realisation shed light on a glaring, deeply confusing point.