Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 114: His Friends’ Genuine Worry!
"I say we spend the night here, keep an eye on him," Luke said, moving his eyes around everyone with a heavy, protective gaze.
When the three returned from the distant silver trees, Cissel and Ricky told the other two exactly what had happened to John. The latter kept telling them he was alright, feeling better, yet the look of worry on his friends’ faces was truly genuine, truly touching! It was a collective anxiety that seemed to bind them together more tightly than any battle had so far.
Even Ricky showed deep concern about him! The youngster who usually looked for any reason to knock John off his pedestal was now pacing nearby, his brow furrowed as he stole glances at the invincible leader.
"Guys, I’m really fine," John tried to repeat the same words he had been saying for the past hour, yet none of them listened to him. He was a man used to being the pillar of the group, and finding himself the object of pity and care was an alien experience.
"You won’t take shifts with us tonight," Elena said in a serious tone that brooked no argument. "I’ll take your spot this time. Just rest and don’t worry about anything. I have plenty of salted meat and fire to keep the night shift fun for me."
"There aren’t any risks around anymore," Cissel added, her voice soft but firm. "Just rest and leave the night shifts to us! We’ve cleared the immediate area, and the machines are gone. For once, just rest and sleep well."
"Come on," Luke didn’t wait for John to object again. He stepped forward, placed his massive arm around John’s, and practically dragged him to a comfortable spot on the bank of the river. "We’ll spend the night here. Ah, I found something back at the river while you were away... Let’s talk about what I found until you sleep, ok?"
"Your definition for bedtime stories is totally different from mine," Elena laughed shortly, the sound cutting through the tense atmosphere. Cissel and Ricky tagged along, all of them sitting in a loose circle around John, as if they were physically guarding him from snapping back to how he had looked an hour ago.
Seeing all this made John finally accept his fate. ’I never thought they’d grow this worried about me,’ he thought to himself, feeling deeply touched by their attitude. He had always seen himself as their leader, the one providing the tools and means for their survival, but he hadn’t fully realised that he had become the emotional anchor of the group as well.
Back then, he had just burnt half of his Mental Points in one go to explore the entire map of his area. The heat that looked tingling and harmless at first had turned into a searing fever that brought his mind into a momentary coma.
He didn’t see his face or how he looked back then, but he was sure he must have looked terrible to scare even Ricky—to make the arrogant youngster worry about his safety was no small feat.
Yet the most surprising was Cissel. He had thought all this time that she was perhaps toying with him, having a bit of fun with the mysterious guy of the group.
Yet when he saw the look of horror on her face, the worry that never left her eyes, and the faint tremors that appeared on her hands from time to time, John learned how Cissel truly felt towards him. It wasn’t just a game she was playing; it was a profound connection born of shared trauma and mutual reliance.
’Anyway, I gained a lot this time,’ he mused. As he was forced to lie back and rest, he stole a glance over his internal map. The entire area that had been greyed out and shrouded in mystery was now completely open for him to check.
He could now pick any part of the map and examine it in high definition. It felt more like exploring these parts as if he were actually there! He spotted a few more gatherings of Blue Serpentile trees scattered like sapphire clusters across the landscape, plus the mysterious silver trees as well, their metallic leaves shimmering even in the map’s rendering.
Aside from that, he noticed that the river branch they were now spending the night on was the sole water supply in the entire area. It originated from the mountainous North, snaking down in a coiled, serpentine path toward the Southeast. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
’This river might be the main water supply in other areas too,’ he noted. However, he couldn’t see an inch beyond the borders of his area.
The territory was surrounded by a wall of pitch-black fog on the map, the same initial fog that had surrounded everyone when they first stepped into this world. It was a stark reminder that they were in a bubble of safety within a much larger, darker ocean.
’When looking at the map in a general overview, I can see green dots referring to me and my friends,’ John realised. When he returned to check the area map as a whole, there were five small, pulsating green dots at the exact location where they were now sitting. ’Does that mean if the machines came again, I’ll be able to spot them?’
Realising this possibility made him feel more assured about detecting any attack beforehand. With this map, falling into a sneak attack would be impossible. And if the machines tried their luck next time, he wouldn’t only spot them early on and prepare for their arrival, he would also learn about the area they came from.
Then he could even plan to invade that area later to extricate the danger deeply from its roots. A burgeoning ambition was slowly replacing the defensive mindset that had gripped him since the D-1000s appeared.
The team spent a few hours listening to stories about what everyone did. Luke started by telling how he found a shallow section of the river, with large rocks placed in the riverbed.
According to him, the river flow was calm before the rocks and grew in intensity afterwards. Luke had tested it himself, and he managed to steadily walk his way back and forth between the two banks of the river without being swept away.
