Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 231: The Fog Golden Core, the Reset Core!

John had briefed his friends on the anomalous shift he had detected earlier, how the main Wrathers den had been moved from the eastern region to the centre of the map. He didn’t dare approach the central zone yet, deciding to stop and fortify the area ten kilometres around. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"I bet you’re planning to go in there alone, like usual," Cissel said, finally ending her bickering with Elena. She turned to John with glaring eyes that silently blamed him for taking a neutral stance on the grenade issue.

"Not this time," John said, surprising them. "We only have a few hours left before the new day. We need to act fast. We need to get rid of at least two of the yellow dens tonight, then we can pull back, rest, and let the Bulltors handle the daytime mopping."

"They are strong and capable, no doubt," Luke said, looking at the distance Bulltor squads who were currently fighting against the monsters. "But they’re exhausted. Like us, they didn’t get any moment of sleep."

"There are two thousand of them," Ricky interjected, his voice carrying over the crackle of the fire circles.

"And only a small portion of that force is actually following us this deep! The rest are fighting the easy battles back there, so they aren’t that exhausted. I believe they are more than capable of handling the stragglers during the daylight hours."

"And since John laid down all those outposts, the daytime fight won’t be nearly as gruelling as it was before," Elena chimed in. Luke simply shrugged, offering no further argument; the logic was flawless.

John issued his final orders after coordinating with his friends. He requested only the Twelve and their hand-picked elites to remain as the mobile vanguard for the final push.

The rest of the Bulltors were commanded to retreat into the safety of the well-protected main base and the different outposts scattered behind them. He stressed over them to rest, ensuring they would be fresh to take over the defence task the moment the daylight descended and the night-fighting concluded.

With the vanguard set, they made the final trek toward the first of the three yellow dens. But as they cleared the way towards the den and John placed his bloodied hand over the big core to hack it, he was welcomed by a notification that froze him in his tracks.

[Ding! The Fog Golden Den has reached Wave 62!]

[Ding! Options available: Obtain the Fog Golden Core — Destroy the Fog Golden Core — Hack the Fog Golden Core!]

[Ding! Which course of action will you decide?]

John stared at the floating notifications, confused. He had been half-joking earlier when he guessed the yellow monsters were somewhere in their twentieth wave, but the reality was far more extreme. After absorbing the shock, he wavered between two specific paths: Obtain or Hack.

Hacking the core would turn the core into a Pocket Trial Ownership part. Obtaining it, however, would put the core in his hands as an item. He didn’t yet know the specific benefits of a golden core of such massive size, so his curiosity won out.

’Let’s obtain it!’ he commanded mentally.

The moment the choice was made, the golden core shone with a sudden, blinding intensity, emitting dazzling rays of light as if a miniature star had fallen upon the territory.

The Bulltors and his friends alike shielded their eyes, dazed by the sheer majesty of the scene. But for John, the awe was quickly replaced by an immense shock as the item’s details appeared.

[Ding! You have obtained 1x Fog Golden Core!]

[Item: Fog Golden Core — Unique Grade — Consumable!]

[Description: A core that holds an immense amount of mutation power! It can be activated by initiating a handshake. Once activated, it will transform all cores within a 1-kilometre radius, resetting any usage limitations or thresholds enforced upon them!]

John’s mind went numb as he reread the description thrice. The meaning was clear: he could gather any type of core, Wrathers, Yellow monsters, or Fog Seekers, place them near this Golden Core, and reset their limits of using them.

The threshold that he and his friends had hit earlier for any of the three cores would be instantly erased. They could consume cores to grow their power one extra time.

It was an outcome even he hadn’t dared to dream of.

’This is the first consumable item I’ve ever gained...’ he thought, his pulse quickening. ’But its most vital use isn’t here. Its true value will be after we return to Athanasia.’

John knew that while increasing their stats or evolving their abilities further within this trial would be helpful, it wasn’t strictly necessary. He and his friends had already reached a level of power that bypassed almost every threat present in this pocket.

To grow even stronger here would be a useless overkill. It would be far wiser to save this reset core for their return to the game world, where the stakes were infinitely higher. Especially when he wasn’t sure whether, by returning, he and his friends would undergo another round of sealing their newfound strength here.

However, just as he was about to lead the group away from the now-destroyed den, a second notification flashed across his vision, turning his victory sour.

[Ding! Warning! The Fog Golden Den will continue to unleash yellow monsters until the quota for Wave 62 is completed!]

’Excuse me... What?!!’ John took a few moments to grasp the absurdity of the message. If he had obtained the core, shouldn’t the den be dead? The system’s immediate follow-up confirmed his doubts.

[Ding! As the territory space is limited and the density of existing monsters is too high, the den could not unleash the full quota of monsters at once! Most of the wave isn’t released yet!]

[Ding! 10 Mental Points have been deducted for the inquiry!]

’I get that part,’ John thought, his jaw tightening, ’but what I don’t understand is... How did sixty-two waves even appear? There was no one out here to kill the previous waves to trigger the next. And not that long passed before I arrived here and started mass killing them!’