Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 234: What Will Happen When They Go Back to the Academy?!!

For a reason even John couldn’t quite grasp, every time Luke finished a heated speech like this, the Bulltors responded with a deafening, fervent roar.

Their war cries shook the very ground underneath his feet. It felt as though Luke’s words played on a chord deep within the Bulltors souls, or perhaps Luke had accidentally stumbled upon a sacred war custom of these giants that John was entirely oblivious to.

"He is being exceptionally noisy today," Cissel remarked, watching Luke wave his club in the air as he ran back and forth in front of the cheering Bulltors. She shook her head, a small, amused smile playing on her lips.

"I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately, but at least the Bulltors seem to love the performance," Elena added, approaching from the side. Her face mirrored Cissel’s expression.

"At least one of us is having fun," Ricky commented, leaning against a wall. He watched the massive giants banging their shields in rhythm with Luke’s shouts. "I’m starting to think I need to find a way to have a bit of fun myself."

"Aren’t you having fun already?" John raised an eyebrow, joking at what Ricky said. The latter couldn’t help but chuckle in a bitter, tired way.

"I can’t wait to return back to our academy," Ricky sighed, his eyes distant. "Yet I can’t tell how things have changed there. One minute we were just the champions, beating the second-year class, and then we vanished into this place..."

"Those days look like a distant, fleeting memory now," Cissel sighed as well, her fingers tracing the edge of her daggers. "How long do you think has passed back there? A month? A few months?"

"A few months?!" Luke called out from a distance, jogging back toward the group after his speech. "We haven’t been here more than eight weeks, right? Two months at most?"

"We can’t tell," John shook his head, his expression sobering. "We don’t know if time runs the same way here as it does on Earth. Don’t forget this is a whole different world, one that has its own different laws. If it runs slower here, then many more months, maybe even a year, must have passed back home while we’ve been fighting."

"..."

His words managed to stop Luke in his tracks. The reality of this weird situation hit them all at once. The glory of their victories here felt small compared to the potential loss of their old lives. Yet, they couldn’t afford to dwell on the what-ifs.

"What’s the next move then, boss?" Ricky asked, looking at John. "Once this central wave is crushed, do we move to gather our distant human kin, or do we go straight for those Hivemind folks?"

"The Hiveminds, for sure," Elena didn’t wait for John to give his opinion. She stepped forward, her voice sharp. "It’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make in any war, leaving your sworn enemies alive and safe long enough to rebuild their strength and threaten you again. You told us how fast they built that base..."

"We’ll strike them next," John said, raising a hand to calm Elena’s intensity. He could tell she was worried he might prioritise the human rescue over the elimination of a threat.

"We can’t risk having another variable in this pocket trial. Besides, once we deal with the Hiveminds, we will have no other enemies left in this trial. This pocket trial will be our win, and we can finally look for the exit back to Earth."

"Well," Cissel said suddenly, her voice wavering with a hesitation that was rare for her. "Have any of you actually thought about what we’re going to say to the people we know when we return?"

"What do you mean?" Luke gave her a weird, confused look. "We’ll return as heroes! We’ve already secured a pocket trial. We’ll be the ones helping future humans who get sucked into this shithole, the same way the Bulltors and the Krogers do for their kins. I’ve spoken with Lanmar.

Once a race secures a trial, they get privileges. They get to share resources and safety, items that can strengthen any newcomers, secrets and experience they can tell so more can clear other pocket trials, and lots of stuff to share with their whole race."

"I know that, Luke," Cissel rolled her eyes, her patience wearing thin. "You’ve explained the privileges of clearing a trial and owning an area in the bigger world out of here a dozen times. I’m asking about us. We are just five students from the academy.

Do you think the higher-ups will just believe everything we say? Do you think it’s actually safe to share what we know openly with the world? Do you think anyone will believe five students in their first year about any of the unbelievable things we saw and lived through here?"

Her words carried heavy, hidden hints, warnings, and dangers. Even Luke, who had been fantasising about the prestige and fame he would bring back to his family name, hesitated. The subtle warning in her voice painted a picture not of a hero’s welcome, but of a laboratory or an interrogation room, or perhaps even worse, being considered lunatics and losing their minds.

John silently watched the shifting expressions on his friends’ faces. He knew far more than any of them could possibly guess. He had seen the evidence of the machines’ big foul play; the machines were already deeply involved in a big scheme he didn’t yet uncover most of.

They were abducting and killing humans from various timelines to build an army of cyborgs under their total control. And after what he saw here, he started to consider if there was a link between the constant humans failing the pocket trials and this dirty scheme.

The machines were the primal threat, and he could sense their hidden schemes weaving through every pocket trial, and yet he had no clue how all this was connected.