Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 245: If They Didn’t Clear the Fog and Kill the Fog Seekers, Then Who Did It?!!
"We are here... Stay vigilant and be alert all the time!"
John led the group as they crossed the fog into the south-western territory. They had cut the travel time down significantly by maintaining a high-speed pace, covering a distance that would have normally taken ten hours in less than four.
During the trek, the team had kept up a steady stream of conversation to bleed off the tension. They spoke of their experiences within the pocket trial, spinning theories about what the world would look like once they secured the entire trial, and debating how the academy would react to their return.
John interacted with them occasionally, offering a nod, a short opinion, or a brief correction, but for the most part, his eyes remained glued to the map floating just before his vision.
He watched the strategic movements of the Bulltors’ army. A grand force of three thousand five hundred warriors was currently marching toward the Hiveminds’ stronghold, leaving a contingent of five hundred behind to safeguard their newly gained territory.
Watching the sheer power of that army, John realised that under normal circumstances, this battle would be an easy win. The Hiveminds were cornered and outnumbered. Yet, the nagging feeling in his gut persisted, a whisper that the Hiveminds were exactly the type to employ a dirty trick that neither he nor the Bulltors had seen coming.
Then, he shifted his full attention back to the three human clusters. He watched for any flickers, any movement, any change at all. But even after hours of travel, he ended up with nothing. The humans remained on the ground, motionless, as if they had been frozen in time while the rest of the world moved on.
The moment they passed through the initial fog wall and entered the heart of the south-western territory, John issued his warning. During the journey, the team had exhausted every possible theory.
Luke remained stubbornly stuck to his original thought: that the humans were acting as biological catalysts, similar to how the Wrathers had sacrificed themselves to activate the old dens and summon the yellow monsters.
This theory, however, had been met with lighthearted jokes from the others. Cissel had laughed, asking if they should expect a human version of the yellow monsters, perhaps a wave of murderous toddlers, to come screaming out of the ground. Ricky, on the other hand, decisively rejected the idea.
"They must be lured to these places and pinned there by a force we don’t understand yet," Ricky had argued confidently. "Even if we are a curious race, we are also a cautious one. Humans prefer to stick together in safety rather than venturing into lethal unknowns without a very good reason."
While no one had a better theory to present, Ricky’s idea didn’t gain much traction either. Regardless of the why, every single person in the group knew that something monumental was occurring. The proof was written in the lines of John’s face; he hadn’t dropped his mask of grim seriousness since the moment he first spotted the green dots.
The territory they were currently standing in was supposed to be raw and untamed. Before leaving the base, John had explicitly asked Blakar if the Bulltors had ever sent scouts here to clear the fog or exterminate the Fog Seekers. The answer had been a firm no.
The Bulltors had been hit too hard by the D-1000s and the subsequent Hiveminds battle; they couldn’t risk thinning their ranks to explore a southern wasteland when they could barely defend their own base and territory.
"That’s weird!" John’s voice cut through the silence as he looked around.
The rest of the team tensed up immediately, weapons half-raised. John scanned the horizon with his specialised vision, his eyes darting back and forth.
"This territory... It’s clear of fog for a massive distance. And I can’t see a single Fog Seeker!"
"How is that weird, exactly?" Elena asked, looking around at the clear landscape that didn’t look much different from theirs. "Isn’t it a good thing? It means we don’t have to waste energy fighting those annoying monsters. Won’t that make our task easier?"
"If the Bulltors didn’t come here to clear the fog or kill the monsters," Ricky said, rolling his eyes as the logic clicked into place, "then who did? Our people? I don’t think they have that kind of strength to begin with. Right, John?"
He turned toward John, as did everyone else. John was busy cross-referencing the map to confirm a nagging suspicion. He noticed that across all three human locations, not a single Fog Seeker had attacked or even appeared near the stationary groups.
It was as if a no-monster zone had been established around them, adding another layer of mystery to the whole situation.
Then, he turned his focus to the southernmost territory in the west, the area where the main body of the human survivors was supposed to be. There, the map told a very different story.
He could see hundreds of Fog Seekers actively harassing the different human groups. He could see the location of the local den, and the Ogolith standing there, alive, and completely untouched.
"They can’t be the ones doing this," John said firmly, his voice echoing in the empty expanse.
"Back at the main human territory at the distant south, our people haven’t even managed to clear the Fog Seekers around their own camp, let alone destroy the den or kill Ogolith. They haven’t cleared much of the fog at all. Whoever cleared this area and killed the monsters... It isn’t one of our people."
"I told you," Ricky said with a faint, knowing smile playing on his lips, "they didn’t come here of their own free will! Something must have attracted and controlled them to do all this. It’s a lure, plain and simple!"
"Enough with that useless theory," Luke fumed, his impatience bubbling over. He gripped his club tighter, his knuckles whitening. "I’m telling you, they are here to trigger something. It’s exactly like how the Wrathers behaved to activate the old den! They are biological keys!"
