Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 243: The Grand Meeting
The Bulltor responsible for the scouts looked between his peers, but they all shook their heads in unison. No one had received a single abnormal report. The southern border, by all accounts, was supposed to be quiet.
"Don’t expect to get any distress signals today," John said, pausing to let out a heavy, weary sigh. He looked at the gathered giants and his two friends, his voice turning solemn as he added, "It’s not the Hiveminds that are the problem. It’s... The humans!"
"..."
His words landed like a lightning blow. Total silence washed over the area. Even Cissel and Elena exchanged a look of pure bewilderment. They knew their own race still had thousands left in the southwesternmost territory, yet they were scattered and struggling in this trial. They couldn’t fathom how their kin could be a source of trouble significant enough to make John look this troubled.
"Give us half an hour," Elena said, her face hardening as she switched back into a mission-ready mindset. She turned toward the sleeping spots of her friends. "I’ll wake up that noisy boy, Luke, and drag him here by his ears if I have to!"
"And I’ll go throw a bucket of ice-cold water over Ricky’s head," Cissel added with a flicker of her usual dark humour. She looked at the Bulltors. "As for you, go and round up the rest of the Twelve. Find Lanmar and Reody. Everyone meets here in thirty minutes. No excuses."
Watching them disperse, John returned his gaze to the map. He watched the three clusters of green dots with an intensity that bordered on obsession and worry. Even after the half-hour had passed and the full leadership council gathered, he still couldn’t find a head or tail to the humans’ behaviour.
The atmosphere in the meeting was suffocatingly serious. Those who had spoken with John earlier had already spread the news, and the confusion was palpable. No one could understand how a few hundred humans could be a threat.
To Bulltors, humans, the fallen race, were never a threat. And to John’s friends, they expected trouble to happen to their kinsmen, not for them to cause one.
"I’ll be frank and direct," John said, his eyes scanning the assembly. "There are three different groups of humans, spread across three different territories as we speak."
"What’s wrong with that?!" Ricky was the first to speak up, his voice tinged with the grogginess of his sudden awakening. He interrupted John without thinking. "Isn’t it normal for any race to send its members around to explore? Maybe they’re looking for resources or trying to find us."
Ricky looked toward the Bulltors, seeking confirmation from the more experienced trial-goers. But the giants remained silent. They didn’t nod back; they simply watched John, their expressions grim.
They realised, far better than Ricky. Anything normally happening with other races was an anomaly for humans, as they were an incapable and undependable fallen race in their eyes, aside from the five anomalies in front of them right now.
"The problem," John continued, ignoring the interruption, "is that these three groups are each formed of the exact same number: three hundred people. And they aren’t exploring. They are grouped together, stuck to a specific spot, and haven’t moved a single muscle for hours."
"Well..." Blakar cleared his throat, shifting his weight uncomfortably. He looked at his fellow Twelve members. "Is this some sort of ritual, perhaps? A tradition of your people?"
"Not a chance," Luke said, shaking his head vigorously. "We are a restless race, especially in a dangerous place like this. We don’t just stand in fields for hours doing nothing." He paused, his eyes narrowing as a thought occurred to him. He turned to John. "Are you absolutely sure it’s exactly three hundred in each group?"
"I’ve counted them thrice," John nodded slowly. "What are you thinking, Luke?"
"I just don’t know... But that number... I’m sure I heard it before... Somewhere..." Luke’s voice trailed off, but then he snapped his fingers.
"Isn’t it the same as what we faced back at the first yellow monster outbreak? Weren’t there a group of three hundred Wrathers gathered around the den before it got revived and mutated? They didn’t move a muscle for hours till the lightning fell, right?"
"..."
His words landed, and even John’s eyes went wide. The air in the area seemed to thicken as the other three friends shared the same frozen reaction. John finally put his finger on where and when he had faced that specific, haunting number before.
Realising this, linking the two events together, the symmetry was as undeniable as it was terrifying. It wasn’t just a mere coincidence; his gut feeling was screaming with warning alarms.
"Let’s not jump to conclusions too fast," Blakar interjected. He had already heard countless stories from Lanmar, Reody, and the others about the harrowing events in the five humans territory. He had quickly grasped the grim direction John and the other four were heading in their thoughts.
"First of all, are they situated over a den? Secondly, are there any black clouds back there? You know lightning is needed to activate these dens.
And more importantly, can humans even possess the immense power required to do something like that? I know the five of you are absurdly strong, but does your entire race, the thousands of others, have such hidden potential and unique powers?"
The questions Blakar posed were all pinpoint accurate. They made John offer a calm, albeit strained, smile.
"We don’t know any of that yet," John admitted, his voice regaining its steady, strong edge.
"First, I can’t tell from this distance if they are standing on top of a cleared den or a random piece of land. The topography of the spots they are occupying looks the same to me.
As for the black clouds, I haven’t seen any yet, and I frankly don’t know if a lightning strike is coming or not. And to your last point, I don’t know if our entire race shares our potential. We’ve only ever dealt with the five of us out of the entire human population in this trial."
