Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 148: The Purpose of Machines’ Presence in Their Pocket Trial!

"We don’t exactly have a large number of people to fill the base to begin with," Elena defended, crossing her arms. "Most of the territory is still empty dirt and rock. Using it for defence isn’t a waste—it’s an investment. It’s not a big problem if we have to walk extra minutes with focus to get to the lake."

Lanmar let out a long, weary sigh, looking at Elena with the patient expression of a teacher dealing with a slow student. "You still don’t get the scale of what John is doing here," he said, pointing a thick finger at the centre of the layout.

"This area—this specific base—it isn’t just a temporary camp. If you manage to win this pocket trial by miracle and survive the upcoming sieges, this fortress will become the absolute centre and main operational base of your entire new area.

Every resource, every race member you contracted, and every human survivor will flow through here. You’re building a capital city, not a tent." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Wait... Do you actually believe we can win now?" John interrupted, looking up from his Shell interface. He felt a genuine spark of surprise. This stubborn Bulltor, who had spent the first few days treating them like fragile anomalies, was finally speaking as if their victory was a certainty.

"With everything I’ve seen you pull off here? Come on!" Lanmar huffed, throwing his hands up. "I won’t go so far as to say you could win a direct war against my entire race, but I’m certain of one thing: even if every single one of my people currently in this pocket trial gathered together and tried to storm this base, they would fail miserably.

Just look at those scary cannons! Damn it, John, no one in their right mind can crush a base with this much firepower. And now you’ve gone and added an extra layer of minefields and a maze? Tsk. It’s overkill, but it’s effective overkill."

"Hahaha!" Cissel couldn’t help but let out a rare, genuine laugh at Lanmar’s exasperation.

"Don’t worry so much, Lanmar. When we eventually conquer the other factions and bind them to us using the contracts, we’ll expand the outer perimeter. We’ll cover the entire territory with walls, and clear out plenty of open space inside for everyone to live comfortably if needed."

Lanmar went silent, his expression unreadable. He wasn’t entirely in favour of such a complicated, imperialistic setting—the idea of being bound by contracts was still a bitter pill—yet John didn’t seem to mind the implication at all. He just kept working.

"By the way, how many golden scrolls do we actually have in storage?" Elena suddenly asked, using her unique nickname for the contracts. She always had a way of naming the items as if they were something out of a fairy tale.

"We have slightly over a thousand," John said, pausing for a second. "I didn’t count them properly earlier because the machines didn’t carry nearly as many as your group did, Lanmar. But between what we scavenged from both, we’ve easily crossed the thousand-mark."

"That’s another weird thing about those machines," Lanmar sighed, shaking his head. "In the history of the trials, that race is infamous for its obsession with control. They love to dominate other races and add more servants to their collective.

Seeing them carry so few magical contracts is a real mystery to me. Usually, a mechanical battalion would be carrying thousands of them to enslave whoever they defeat."

"That’s because they aren’t here to recruit," John said flatly. He finished the final line of code on an anti-air cannon and then immediately jumped to the next unit.

"You’re speaking as if you know exactly what their presence here was for," Ricky said, narrowing his eyes as he leaned against a stack of wall segments. "Care to share the secret with the rest of the group?"

"They came directly from the Mechanical Hivemind area," John said, dropping one bombshell after another without breaking his rhythm of work. "And since that race is in an alliance with the beasts and insects, I can jump to the most logical conclusion. They weren’t here by accident. They were smuggled into this pocket trial specifically to act as a force multiplier for the Hivemind forces."

Lanmar shot to his feet, his eyes wide. "Are you implying... Are you saying they are here just to kill? To weaken the other races and leave enough corpses for the insects and beasts to feed on?"

"Exactly," John said, his voice cold. "The machines are the scalpel; the insects are the cleaners. And if my guess about their purpose is right, I can already pinpoint exactly who their next target is."

"Next target?!" Luke bolted upright, looking around at the horizon as if expecting an ambush. "Is that why you’ve been so obsessed with strengthening the base? Are they coming here?"

"Not us," John said, rolling his eyes at Luke’s panic. "They aren’t coming for us yet. They’re attacking them."

John jerked his head toward Lanmar. The Bulltor stood frozen for a split second before his face contorted with a mix of shock and dawning horror.

"You’ve got to be kidding me!" Lanmar’s voice boomed, the fear for his people evident in the set of his jaw. "Can you... Can you help? Can we go to them?"

"No," John said decisively. He didn’t look up. "That’s exactly why I didn’t want to tell you about this earlier."

"But... Why?!! They’re my kin! Let’s send someone to warn them at least!" Lanmar roared, a spark of rage flickering in his eyes.

"Because no one back there will ever believe you, believe me, believe any of us," John said, letting out a soft, weary sigh. He finally stopped working and looked Lanmar in the eye.

"Think back to when we first spoke about the machines. Even when you were standing on top of their broken metal bodies and severed limbs, you refused to believe they were even here! Now, imagine what your people would think if you returned and tried to warn them.

You’d tell them about a race that shouldn’t exist in this pocket, being led by a human they’ve never met. They’d think you’d gone mad from the fog. They wouldn’t mobilise and prepare anything; they’d just waste time debating you while the machines moved into position and attacked."