Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 212: Provoking the Bulltors!

John was entirely oblivious to the shifting dynamics back at his own base. As he started his travel towards the Hiveminds territory, he would occasionally open the map to check on his friends, seeing them working normally.

Even this morning, as he began his final approach toward the Bulltors’ borders, he had watched their green icons gather around the lake for breakfast before resuming the clearing of the fog and collecting the cores.

He had no inkling that they intended to abandon the safety of the silver walls the moment the last part of the purple fog vanished.

He couldn’t have guessed that this simple action, born of their collective anxiety and loyalty, would soon trigger a massive, unexpected sequence of events that would alter the future course of the entire trial, shifting everything away from his initial plans.

By the time Cissel and the others began their march, John had finally crossed into the official Bulltors region. The atmosphere here was different, heavy with the scent of dried blood, sorrow, and defeat. He knew that from this moment on, every step was a potential trigger for a lethal confrontation.

He kept his Frame Recognition ability active all the time, his eyes darting across the landscape, scanning for any hidden trap or incoming enemy as he moved toward the massive silhouette of the Bulltors big base.

Unlike the Hivemind’s territory, which had been a high-tech minefield of traps, the Bulltors lands were strangely clear of any trap. Unlike the Hiveminds, who prioritised towering walls, the Bulltors seemed to have something towards defensive towers.

John could tell even from a far distance that every five walls there was a defensive tower.

After walking for nearly an hour without flagging a single trap, John thought back to the primitive trap devices he had collected from the Bulltors and D-1000s at his own base, the ones he’d dismissed as useless clutter.

"It seems their trap grade and effects aren’t any better than mine," he concluded. If the Bulltors had access to the kind of advanced traps the Hiveminds possessed, their borders would have been a hellscape, especially given their current state of high-alert paranoia.

Their reliance on physical bulk and martial prowess, even their love to use huge towers, was both their greatest strength and their most glaring vulnerability.

As he moved, he bypassed the desolate plain where the grand battle between the Bulltors and the D-1000 units had occurred. The site was littered with the massive bodies of six thousand giants and the smashed, twisted mechanical wreckage of five thousand machines.

John felt a powerful, almost irresistible pull toward the site; his inner greed screamed at him to stop and harvest the thousands of storage programs and devices lying in the dirt.

"Focus, John. Handle the Blue Sacred Challenge first," he whispered, forcing his gaze forward. "Once you have the Holy Right, you’ll have all the time in the world to scavenge this battlefield clean."

He kept that mantra on repeat until the towering walls and towers of the Bulltors’ base finally loomed over him. He deliberately slowed his pace, making sure he was visible to the giants pacing the battlements. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Hey, you! What is a fallen race member, a human, doing here at our gates?!"

The shout was like a crack of thunder, echoing off the walls. John stopped, looking up at the guards. He had expected this kind of reception, the same casual belittlement and instinctive arrogance he had encountered when he first met Lanmar, Reody, and other Bulltors.

He knew that trying to argue about his worth and how different he was from the stigma of being a fallen race member would be a dead end. He would take forever trying to convince them he wasn’t the weakling and failure they perceived him to be.

So, instead of wasting words, he reached into his inventory and pulled out the massive, chimeric head of the Lion-Dinosaur Hivemind mechanical beast. He let it fall to the ground with a heavy thud, the impact sending a small cloud of dust into the air.

He stood in silence for several minutes, allowing the news to propagate among the guards and further beyond. He watched as they leaned over the ramparts, their murmurs growing into a low rumble of disbelief as they recognised the trophy he threw at their doorsteps.

"I am John Mirage," he announced, his voice loud and clear. He repeated the ritualistic phrasing Lanmar had taught him. "A human who has come to claim a fair and honourable fight against the twelve Sacred Bloodlines descendants. I am here to invoke the Blue Sacred Challenge, and fight for pride and glory, fight to earn the Holy Right!"

"Hahaha! Are you out of your goddamn mind?"

The silence was broken not by a challenge, but by a wave of mocking laughter that started on the walls and spread into the base inside. John waited patiently for half an hour, watching the map as a large contingent of Bulltors began converging on the southern gate, the spot he stood at, drawn by the news of the crazy fallen human who wanted to challenge the giants.

"Why are you speaking from behind your walls?" John called out, his voice dripping with a needle-sharp, fake arrogance. "Are you afraid to face me, perhaps? Are the bloodlines of the ancients so thin that you hide from a single human and disgrace them?"

John knew he wouldn’t gain their serious attention without a display of prowess. To get that, he needed to be impulsive, loud, and irritating. He needed to bait them into descending from their towering walls and fight him on equal grounds.

’Sorry, Luke, I’m going to have to act a bit like you today, hehehe!’ he thought, inwardly amused. He knew exactly how his provocation would yield. He had seen it with Lanmar; these giants lived for pride and respect. Respect and pride among the Bulltors were currencies earned only through brute force and terrifying fights.

"What did you just say, little, good-for-nothing, fallen human?"