Athanasia: My Hacker System

Chapter 315: The Sad Life of Reincarnated Paragons

John’s firm words landed and silenced everyone completely, cutting through Cissel’s spiralling self-reprimand and halting Ricky’s frantic self-doubt.

Ricky was mentally scrambling, trying to squeeze his mind for an answer as to how John knew he was a PARIE, and exactly how long he had been sitting on that information. The answer came swiftly with John’s next calm statement.

"I’ve already investigated the two of you thoroughly," John said, his voice level and devoid of judgment. "I knew Ricky was a PARIE since our early days at the academy. To be frank, I didn’t know what the word actually meant at the time, but now the picture is clear."

He turned his gaze toward Cissel, his eyes unblinking. "I want to know and hear all about your powers, your backstory, and the circumstances of your return... Everything. And you too," he added, shifting his focus back to Ricky, "I want the full history. No more redactions."

His collected response to a revelation that should have shattered their relationship was profoundly surprising to both Cissel and Ricky. Cissel, in particular, looked at him with a mixture of confusion and burgeoning hope.

"Do you... Do you actually understand what a Regressor is?" Cissel probed, her voice a hushed whisper. She was trying to gauge whether he truly grasped the weight of her existence, whether he truly understood what her power was.

"Someone who keeps coming back in time, like living in a loop, right?" John said steadily, his expression unchanging.

"Someone who is trying to change a specific outcome, to stop a disaster, or perhaps cause one. I don’t mind the nature of your mission, but I do mind having secrets kept from me from this moment onward."

His words were crystal clear, his meaning subtle yet direct. He didn’t care what burdens or dark secrets they held deep within their souls. He himself carried a secret so deep that he never planned to expose it to a living soul; he was hardly in a position to judge others for their own hidden lives.

And yet, he wouldn’t tolerate a lack of transparency moving forward. Now that the two had effectively unmasked each other at this crucial juncture, he wouldn’t accept anything less than the complete, unvarnished truth.

He was already thinking several steps ahead, calculating how to contend with the established Paragon factions once they exited the trial.

Finding out he had two Paragons on his side changed his strategic starting point entirely, but only if he knew exactly what he was working with, only if he figured a way to use this to the best of his interest.

As for Luke and Elena, they remained frozen in their silence, exchanging a series of glances that held a thousand words.

To them, there were only two possibilities: either an elaborate lie was masterfully manipulating John, or their entire understanding of the world was about to be turned upside down. They were destined to find that the second scenario was the truth, the one outcome they least expected.

"Let me handle the explanation then," Ricky said, pausing as he tried to reclaim some shred of his former dignity. "But first... I need to know how you managed to bypass the security measures at the Azure Academy. Those files are highly protected..."

"Why are you so damn fixated on such a trivial detail?" John asked, his voice tinged with genuine annoyance.

"You’ve seen me pull one miracle after another for weeks now. You’ve watched me destroy machines that should be invincible and navigate through hell that should have killed us. Do you really think the academy’s security measures are enough to stop me?"

"Don’t mind him," Cissel sighed, her posture relaxing slightly as she realised John wasn’t going to cast her aside.

"He’s just terrified for his own life. You see, while he is a Kraken God Paragon reincarnation, he isn’t the only one. The Paragons of old ensured their survival by spreading many seeds across the world.

These avatars and reincarnations are now locked in a bloody, winner-take-all competition. The sole survivor at the end of the carnage is the only one who gets the right to reclaim the Paragon seat."

"In other words," Ricky interrupted, his voice sharp as he felt her stealing the limelight, "I need to know if the security measures I’ve relied on are flawed or not. If you could see my file, then my rivals, the other Kraken God Paragon candidates, might be able to find me. I thought I was invisible within the academy, yet you walked right through the front door."

"Oh, so you’re trying to hide?!"

As if a thick veil had finally been removed from his eyes, Luke shouted in sudden realisation. He looked at Ricky with a mix of pity and fascination. "This is the first time I’ve ever heard of such a thing, multiple successors existing at the exact same time, hunting each other down like animals..."

"As if you ever heard of a Paragon getting reincarnated before," Elena said, rolling her eyes with a dry, sceptical huff. Luke couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it all, yet he remained silent, waiting to hear more about this hidden world from him.

"A competition over the seat of your Paragon... How do things work exactly?" John asked, completely ignoring the useless chatter. He focused entirely on the important facts of the situation, the parts that truly mattered to his long-term strategy.

"It’s like how most Paragon reincarnation festivities go, actually," Ricky said casually, though his eyes betrayed a flicker of weary darkness.

"All Paragons, or at least the majority, enjoy an unnaturally long life by playing with the laws of reincarnation. We don’t actually die in the way humans do. We fragment our souls into seeds and scatter them into many fertile lands..."

"By that, he means ladies," Cissel interrupted. Her tone was placid, giving no hint of what she truly felt about the practice, though the sharp edge of her gaze spoke volumes.