Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 96: Saving Ricky’s Life with a Magic Trick!
"Can you hold him still?"
All of a sudden, John turned towards the group with a look so grave it chilled the air more than the ongoing harsh battle nearby. "Can you stop him from screaming? I mean, really, stop him. If he makes a sound, every machine and monster within a distance will notice our presence and attack us."
"Are you going to kill him?"
Cissel asked. It was the most bizarre question in the world, given the circumstances, and yet John could tell how deep the unspoken enmity between the two ran. He didn’t take her comment lightly; she sounded like she was weighing the pros and cons of such an outcome.
"No, I’m going to save his life!" he firmly said, his eyes locking onto hers to nail the weight of his words.
"Phew, then let’s do it." Unlike what he expected, she heaved a deep sigh of genuine relief.
’I swear I’m at a loss at these two’s relation with each other!’
John inwardly cursed. One moment, she looked like she wanted to bury Ricky, and the next, she was genuinely concerned for his survival. But it wasn’t the time for any questions right now. The clock was ticking, and the system was waiting for his final confirmation.
The D-1000 machines had fully arrived at the cliff’s edge. Unlike what John expected, they didn’t descend the cliff from the slope, but jumped from the edge.
From their high vantage point, they began to fire their laser guns, the beams of death raining down into the valley. Luckily, their strategy didn’t involve descending the slope yet, but they were effectively pinning the Fog Seekers—and by extension, John’s team—into the basin.
John didn’t want to see the machines winning this battle. It was far easier to fight the predictable, instinct-driven Fog Seekers than those cold, laser gun-armed machines, especially now that the fog had cleared and the machines could use their long-range sensors to their full potential.
He was certain that if not for prioritising the monsters as the primary targets for now, they’d have located their spot the moment they reached the edge of the cliff.
He had to solve Ricky’s disaster first and foremost. Only then could he pour all his attention into how to crush both sides without losing anyone on his own.
"Ready?"
His friends moved into position. Cissel reached into her storage device and pulled out a roll of heavy bandage. Without a hint of hesitation, she stuffed it into Ricky’s mouth. The sight was jarring, reminding John of the intense moments he lived back in prison, when he faced a similar fate at the hands of Mark back in the past.
"What?" noticing John’s lingering gaze, she shrugged with a cold pragmatism. "We need to silence his screams, so this is the best method. Trust me, I’ve tried it before... At some place... It won’t choke him to death..."
The stress of the situation was bringing her dangerously close to leaking more dark information about her past, but she caught herself midway. She fell into a brooding silence, refusing to say another word about where she had learned such interrogation-style restraints.
"We are ready," Luke said. He and Elena threw their weight onto Ricky’s limbs, pinning him to the dirt. Luke gave John a small, grim nod.
’Do it!’
The moment John gave the mental command to his system, he felt a sudden, scorching heat blossom under his palm. It wasn’t fire, but a heat emanated from the cluster of codes he was extracting. Inside Ricky’s body, the dark grey cluster fought back.
Ricky’s eyes snapped open, though they were rolled back into his head, showing only the whites. His body started to twitch with a violent intensity.
"Oof... Oof..."
The bandage did its job, luckily, or else the entire basin would have heard his agonising screams. The guttural, soul-wrenching screams were reduced to muffled groans and the sound of teeth grinding against fabric.
Yet, from the fierce twitching of his body, the way his back arched so sharply it threatened to snap, and the way he glared with a mindless, pained fierceness, everyone could imagine how inhumane his torture must have been. It looked less like healing and more like an exorcism.
John showed no mercy. He couldn’t afford to. He kept his palm pressed steadily over Ricky’s body, refusing to budge an inch away! The dark code kept resisting as it was ripped from Ricky’s flank. The torture lasted for a staggering sixty seconds—the longest minute of their lives.
Finally, a sharp chime echoed in John’s ears. The notification of success flashed across his vision, and he felt something soft and pulsating materialise under his touch, just beneath the fabric of Ricky’s shirt.
’Store it!’
Without missing a beat, he extended his hand and touched the extracted cluster of codes, mentally opened his inventory and swept the extracted anomaly into a slot. He intended to check the properties later, but for now, he let his eyes rest on the lingering window hovering in the air.
[Ding! Congratulations! You succeeded in extracting SCT Fog Essence Code!]
[SCT Fog Essence Code: Rare grade!]
[Description: An essence from the deadly fog prevailing the Trial zone in the Source Code World – Can be used to code SCT Fog Resistance Potion!]
"Phew!"
John lowered his head, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He felt as if he had just run a marathon while wearing body weights. He slowly moved his hand away; amazingly, there wasn’t a single speck of blood or dust on Ricky’s clothes, not even a scar on his body. The extraction had been purely magical.
Ricky looked better instantly. The team hadn’t realised just how deathly pale he had become until the vitality began to kick back into his face. The greyish tint vanished, replaced by a faint, healthy flush.
"What now?" Cissel asked. She gave John a sparkling, intense look—one that told him she wouldn’t easily forget the magic trick he had just performed. She would be hunting him for answers the moment they were safe. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
"We need to intervene," John said, stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow. He returned to assessing the battlefield, and the others followed his gaze.
