Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 201: Six Thousand Humans Rescue Mission!
"Enough," Reody said, his voice quiet but commanding. He looked at John. "Just tell us what you want to know, what you want us to do, and we’ll do it, we’ll tell you everything you want. If you have a plan to save the two thousand of our people, we are yours."
"Reody... What the hell?!!"
Lanmar turned sharply toward Reody, his voice cracking with a mixture of shock and perceived betrayal. To Lanmar, Reody’s words sounded like a formal surrender of their racial sovereignty. His expression was a raw wound, as if he were seeing a stranger standing in his brother-in-arms’ place.
Yet, Reody didn’t seem bothered by the look or the accusatory attitude. He stood his ground, his gaze steady and sharp. He began to slowly explain to his thick-headed friends exactly what they were missing, the cold, bitter reality of their situation that pride and rage were currently obscuring.
"I know what I’m going to say is bitter and heavy, Lanmar, but it is the truth. Two thousand of our people won’t be enough, not at all, to even defend themselves against the coming storm. You saw it with your own eyes," Reody gestured toward John and his friends around.
"You saw how a mere five fallen humans stood tall and conquered hundreds of thousands of terrifying monsters! You saw how they transformed into forces of nature during that war. Even if they are individually powerful, they lack the sheer numbers to occupy and hold this trial.
And even if our race is on the verge of collapsing, our two thousand survivors can form the perfect cornerstone for the humans to take over. We provide the bulk; they provide the edge."
"You aren’t serious!" Lanmar shouted, his massive fists clenching so hard the knuckles turned white. He tried to threaten his friend to stop with glaring eyes, but Reody continued without a flicker of doubt, laying his final piece of logic on the table.
"On top of that, I’d prefer to die rather than see those Hivemind bastards or the treacherous machines on their side win the trial over us! A fallen race like the humans winning is a thousand times better for the name and prestige of the Bulltors than becoming cattle for the Hivemind. You all know that!"
Reody moved his eyes among the other ten Bulltors. His words seemed to strike a deep, resonant chord in their souls. The logic of spite as a strategy was something a warrior race could understand.
"Furthermore, by being the first to join them, we secure a position of power," Reody turned back to John before adding, "I bet we’ll achieve enough credits and merit that the humans will be forced to treat us well, to treat those who remain of our people with the respect we’ve earned on the battlefield."
"You are speaking as if there is no other way!" Lanmar growled, but the fire in his voice was dying, replaced by a sullen realisation. Reody signalled to John with a short nod, then led the other Bulltors away to continue their debate in private, leaving the humans alone by the lake.
"They are far more stubborn than I thought," Luke sighed, "Did they forget? John is literally their master. With a single order through the contract, they’d be forced to obey every word!"
"It’s not that easy," Ricky interrupted, shaking his head. He motioned toward John, who was staring into the horizon. "Or else he would have saved himself the headache and just given the order, right?"
The four of them turned toward John, and he simply nodded, confirming Ricky’s intuition.
"I noticed that my direct orders are executed instantly," John explained, his voice low. "But that’s the extent of it. The Bulltors return to their normal state of mind the moment the order is executed on the spot. There is no guarantee that forcing them to cooperate for a long-term, complex war using the contract will actually work. I need their hearts in the fight, not just forcing their will from time to time. If they resent us, they’ll find a way to fail when it matters most."
"Does this mean..." Elena looked at the others, her brow furrowed. "You already have a specific plan that requires them to act on their own?"
"And that plan must have a part where you won’t be with us, or with them, to give orders every five minutes," Cissel added. She puffed her cheeks out in a helpless, slightly frustrated way, yet for a reason John couldn’t quite define, she looked incredibly alluring with the lake background.
"Ahem." John cleared his throat suddenly, feeling a brief, uncharacteristic heat in his chest. Cissel raised an eyebrow, not missing his slight reaction. "In fact, none of us will be with the Bulltors for quite some time."
"What do you mean?" Luke asked, leaning forward in confusion.
John decided it was time to drop the second bombshell of the morning. "My scouting wasn’t just limited to the Bulltor lands. There are roughly over six thousand humans currently alive back in the southwestern territory."
He intentionally paused, letting the silence stretch so they could fully absorb the staggering figure. Compared to their tiny group of five, it was a civilisation.
"We need to go and rescue them first," John continued, his voice firm. "We bring them here, bolster our numbers, and then we move out to take control of the entire trial. We can’t conquer a world with five people and two thousand mourning giants."
"..."
The group exchanged silent, wide-eyed glances. The scale of the mission had just shifted from a local skirmish to a rescue operation.
"Is there really that many still alive?!" Luke was the first to break the silence. When John nodded solemnly, Luke heaved a long, deep sigh of relief. "Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go and get our people. I’m tired of our five being the only humans in this godforsaken place."
"Didn’t you hear? The Bulltors are this close to being wiped out," Ricky said, giving Luke a flat, serious look. It was the kind of look a veteran gives a fresh recruit, silently asking him to let his mind evolve at the same rate as his physical power.
"If we go to bring the humans back while leaving the Bulltors to die, the Hivemind won’t just sit there. They’ll cut our retreat path and swallow us whole before we ever see the base again."
