Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 68: The Fog Seekers Cores!
As John pulled his hand back, he wasn’t just holding flesh or bone. To the others, he held a small, globular object that shimmered with a faint red light. It pulsed in his palm like a tiny, mechanical heart. To John’s eyes, however, it was a condensed, swirling knot of red codes.
The moment his hand made full contact with the cluster of codes, he received a notification about it!
[Ding! You have acquired 1x Dormant Fog Seeker Core!]
[Fog Seeker Core: Low Grade]
John stared at the notification windows that hovered in his vision. As he focused on the object in his hand, more notifications arrived, unfurling a list of possibilities that made his heart beat harder.
[Description: An inert essence harvested from a Fog Seeker. While dormant, it holds no power. Can be used to absorb the Deadly Black Fog, recharging it into an Active Fog Seeker Core.]
[Active Fog Seeker Core: Low Grade]
[Usage 1: Can be used to generate energy (Requires two Active Fog Seeker Cores).]
[Usage 2: Can be ingested to add 1 random Stat point or 1 Mental Point cap to the user (Maximum: 100 Active Fog Seeker Cores).]
[Usage 3: Can be fed to weapons and gear to add 1 random stat or a random bonus effect (Success chance of adding bonus effect is low – Maximum: 10 Active Fog Seeker Cores)]
*Fwoosh!*
John couldn’t help himself; he sucked in a sharp, cold breath of air that hissed through his teeth. He reread the description three times, his eyes darting frantically across the floating text.
This wasn’t just a drop. This was a life-saving miracle. In a world where their attributes had been slashed to near-zero, these cores were the only way to rewrite their destiny.
He looked up, his gaze sweeping across the dead Fog Seekers’ bodies. He began counting the loot—there were sixteen other corpses of the Fog Seekers they had already slain. Each one was a potential upgrade. Each one was a step closer to completing his quest.
"John? What happened?" Luke insisted, his voice laced with a mixture of concern and growing curiosity. The rest of the group had gathered around, their eyes fixed on the pulsating red marble in John’s hand. They couldn’t see the system windows, but they could see the sudden spark in John’s eyes.
"Great news..." John started, his voice cracking with a rare moment of genuine excitement.
*Roar!*
The fog didn’t care about his celebration. Before he could finish his sentence, a series of guttural roars erupted from the fogline. The shadows at the edge of the area rippled like black water, and this time, the wave was larger. Fifteen monsters emerged from the dark fog, their elongated limbs scraping against the dirt as they encircled the team.
"Tsk! Not even giving me a break to celebrate this baby," John muttered. He slowly stood up, the joints in his shoulders popping as he stretched. He didn’t look back at his teammates, but his voice was firm, commanding the space. "There are fifteen of them this time. I’m leaving four for you to handle. Get ready!"
The moment the words left his lips, the Fog Seekers lunged.
But the dynamic had shifted. Armed with the knowledge of the cores, John was pumped up like never before. Despair had been replaced by a fierce hunger to complete the quest. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, he would cling to it with both hands and all ten fingers.
He didn’t slow down. He didn’t wait for the monsters to reach him. John became a blur of motion, his sword whistling through the air with lethal momentum. He didn’t even stop to see if his friends were managing their portion of the horde.
He moved with a violent pace, jumping left to avoid a swipe, pivoting right to sever a neck. With every step he took, a new corpse was added to the pile. He wasn’t just defending anymore; he was harvesting.
"Now," John breathed, as the last of the Fog Seekers fell into a corpse. The skirmish had lasted less than a minute. He turned toward his friends, who were standing over only two corpses, looking slightly surprised at the sheer intensity of his assault. John had a beaming, almost wild smile on his face. "It’s time to solve your low attribute problem once and for all!"
"Is there a way to solve it? For real?!"
Cissel was the first to react, practically jumping toward him. Her eyes were wide, burning with a desperate desire to grow stronger. She wasn’t the type to cower or play the victim; the feeling of being left behind by the boys—all thanks to John’s superior gear—had been eating at her. She had been miles behind Ricky and Luke in terms of raw output, and it grated on her pride.
She wanted to ask if he had more weapons, even if it was just a kitchen knife, as long as it had higher attributes to make her useful again. But she held her tongue before, knowing John wasn’t the type to be stingy. If he had a solution, he would share it.
"I’m not entirely sure yet," John admitted, realising his excitement might have made him sound a bit too certain. He reigned in his enthusiasm, taking a steadying breath. "But let’s give it a try. See these monsters? They have an item hidden inside their bellies. All of you—extract them. Now!"
He didn’t waste time describing the codes or the cores. He simply watched as the four of them knelt by the closest corpses. With varying degrees of hesitation and disgust, they used their weapons to open the creatures’ bellies. One by one, they pulled out the faint, red shimmering spheres.
As they did, John turned his back to them and walked toward the edge of their turf, where the thick veil of the black fog swirled like a living wall. Under the watchful, confused gazes of his team, he reached out. He extended his hand into the darkness, clenching the core between his fingers.
The moment his skin broke the plane of the black mist, a barrage of warnings flared in his eyes and ears.
[Ding! You have come into contact with a toxic environment!]
[Ding! Your Hacker Mind has negated all mental hallucinations from the fog!] 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
[Ding! Warning: You cannot last more than ten minutes inside the black fog, or your body will begin to decompose!]
