Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 99: A Plan in Motion

"You have lost your mind for sure!!"

Luke was the first to comment on John’s crazy plan, his voice cracking with a mixture of disbelief and sheer terror. John didn’t look up immediately; instead, he continued to use the tip of his sword to carve a miniature map of the ongoing battlefield into the dirt.

The drawing was rough but effective. He marked the line of the big river branch that bordered the valley on one side, the steep, rocky cliff that stretched for several kilometres, and the wide-open killing field in the centre where the clashes between the machines and the monsters were currently turning the ground into a swamp of oil and black blood. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Come on, Luke. Think," John said, finally rolling his eyes. He looked at his friend, realising Luke was once again the slowest to grasp the necessity of the plan. "You’ve fought both now. If I asked you to pick one enemy we can actually beat without getting vaporised from a kilometre away, which would you choose?"

"I get what you want to say, but..." Luke’s voice trailed off as he moved his eyes among the others, desperately searching for a single sane person to side with him and bring some logic back to John.

"If your stealth ability can work as you say," Ricky was the first to speak up, his tone surprisingly calm for someone who had just woken up from a coma.

"Then, aside from that big behemoth, the Ogolith, there isn’t a single monster out there that can pose a legitimate threat to us if we fought seriously. But those D-1000s? They are bad news. They don’t get tired, they don’t miss, and they have the high ground; they have laser guns."

Luke blinked, feeling a sting of betrayal. He felt like his teammate—the one who had literally fought and tortured him for two days straight—was now letting him down by agreeing with John’s madness.

"I also feel the same," Elena added. When Luke turned to her with pleading eyes, she hesitated for a moment before she made up her mind. "I’ll pick the monsters any time over those machines. It’s like John said; we already fought against more than five thousand monsters earlier and won. We know how to kill them at least. We can handle them."

"It’s not a big deal?!" Luke bellowed, his hands flying up in immense shock. "Elena, there are over twenty thousand monsters there! Maybe more! It’s a sea of claws!"

No one gave his outburst any care. They were already looking at John.

"Besides, John’s plan will ensure the battle lasts a bit longer," Cissel was the last to speak up, her eyes fixed on the flashes of laser fire nearby.

"I know those D-1000s. If they focused their fire on the monsters, not the big behemoth, it wouldn’t matter if there were tens of thousands of monsters. Even a few hundred machines will be enough to execute every Fog Seeker in the area, and us."

"Ok," Luke finally resigned to the bitter truth, his shoulders sagging. "I just... I can’t believe you are all looking for the core loot when there are tens of thousands of them waiting to be slaughtered first! We’re talking about a mountain of cores, sure, but only if we survive to collect them!"

"..."

The group stared at Luke in silence. No one could believe that even in the middle of a suicide mission, his mind had automatically drifted toward the potential profit of the cores.

"Anyway," John cleared his throat after taking a long, deep look at his friend. He was checking Luke’s body, making sure he wasn’t secretly infected by the grey fog codes like Ricky had been. Satisfied that Luke was just being himself, he pointed toward the cliff.

"We’ll target those up there at the top of the cliff first. They are the primary damage dealers in the machine army right now. They are away from any harm, as for the monsters that were up there, we cleared them ourselves a few hours ago, so the cliff should be relatively free of Fog Seekers."

John moved his eyes toward the top of the cliff, where close to a hundred machines were firing at the Ogolith below. The lances of light were blinding.

"Don’t forget: I’ll mark the areas first. You make sure to follow my lead exactly. If we can’t take down those machines in three minutes, make sure to stick by my side. And whatever you do, don’t forget to duck flat on the ground if the machines start blind-firing. They’ll shoot at anything at the shoulder range if they are suddenly attacked."

John checked his Mental Points. His Sandbox ability had a range that would cover ten meters if he centred it on himself, and it would last for five minutes. It was enough to get them in close. If someone—especially Luke or the still-recovering Ricky—got into trouble, the five-minute window would give him enough time to pull them back into the illusion safe area around him.

"Moving now," John whispered.

He started the ascent, laying down layers of his ability one after another. He moved with a slow pace, his feet barely making a sound on the loose shale of the cliffside. He had to chain his ability four times to create a continuous mask for their ascent. The team followed him in a tight, single-file line, staying within the boundaries of his ability.

Cissel was the first to follow, her movements precise and fearless. Watching her disappear into thin air gave even Luke the push he needed; he moved up with steady steps and a newfound, albeit shaky, confidence.

Even if Ricky, Cissel, and Elena had voiced supportive words down below, the reality of the situation hit them differently as they scaled the final few meters. To stand within arm’s reach of a D-1000 was to look death in its mechanical eye.

However, when they recalled how John’s silhouette vanished from their sight as he climbed the cliff, or how the big behemoth vanished before, they realised they wouldn’t be seen.

Within seconds, the team stood shoulder to shoulder at the top next to John, huddled within a ten-meter radius of his Sandbox field. They watched in sheer amazement as the machines continued their firing, ignoring the humans as if they were nothing more than the mountain air.