Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 151: Ding! A Sub-Quest Has Been Issued!

"And... The lake is completely filled!"

The announcement rang out across the territory, met with a collective sigh of relief. Everyone had decided to have their breakfast gathered around the lakeside, watching the water level rise steadily.

It was almost at the brim, a vast, clear mirror reflecting the fortress they had bled and sweated to build. After the frantic scramble to activate the defensive cannons last night, the completion of the lake felt like the final piece of the puzzle. It was the last step in announcing the end of their base’s construction.

"It’s completed!" Elena shouted, her voice carrying toward the ten Bulltors standing at a distance. She gestured toward the inlet that had been feeding the basin. "Bury the canal! Seal it up!"

The Bulltors didn’t need a second command. They sprouted into action, their massive frames moving with surprising speed as they began shovelling and pushing mounds of dirt and rocks into a fifty-meter part of the canal.

They worked fast with efficiency, severing the connection between the lake and the river that had served as their lifeline. It took less than half an hour for the giants to complete the job, leaving a solid earthwork where the rushing water had been before.

Then, it was John’s turn. He stepped forward to the newly buried section. He placed a heavy, reinforced wall segment over the buried canal, perfectly linking the existing fortifications.

He completed the encirclement by dropping a massive defensive tower into place. For the final touch, he manifested the last of the cannons atop the wall, edited it before Luke moved in to link the wires to the energy cell.

"We are done!" John said. His voice was calm, but there was an unmistakable weight of finality behind it. The moment the last connection clicked into place, he looked at his handiwork. "We now have a proper base."

"Hahaha! We can actually celebrate this now!" Elena shouted in triumph. Her laughter sparked a chain reaction; Luke, Lanmar, and the other giants let out cheers of victory.

They immediately began looking towards Elena, their eyes bright with the anticipation of a celebratory meal. After days of work and stress, the thought of her cooking was the ultimate reward.

However, the festive mood didn’t reach everyone. Cissel and Ricky remained behind, their expressions grave. They stood several paces away from the cheering crowd, watching John with an intensity that suggested they were waiting for a bomb to drop.

"What?!" John asked, catching their sombre gazes. He couldn’t help but shrug, trying to deflect the tension. "Why that look? We’ve achieved something great here. Let’s go celebrate with everyone else!"

"We spoke last night," Cissel said suddenly, her voice cutting through the distant laughter. "While you were sleeping, we decided it’s better to learn more about your actual plans for the Hivemind race. We don’t expect you to sit behind these walls and wait for them, right?"

"We know you intend to provoke them," Ricky added, stepping forward. "Your plan is clearly to drive them here and use all this firepower to wipe them out. But the question we can’t answer is: how do you actually intend to lure them? What’s the catch?"

"Well..." John began. He wasn’t particularly surprised by their right on the mark curiosity, but he was impressed that the two of them had actually managed to work together and agree on a unified front.

He opened his mouth to explain his intentions, but before a single word could escape, a flash of brilliant light erupted in his field of vision.

A series of system notifications began scrolling rapidly across his eyes, and the look on his face shifted instantly from calm to a mask of sheer, frozen shock.

[Ding! Congratulations! You have completed a vital part of your ongoing quest!]

[Ding! You have established a strong base that secures your safety, can host at least five thousand humans, and secures your water and food sources!]

[Ding! Now you must prove the strength of the base by withstanding a massive attack against it!]

[Ding! A sub-quest has been issued!]

[Ding! Endure and survive the attack of the Fog Wrathers!]

John’s breath hitched as the requirements flickered in blood-red text.

[Quest Requirements:

+ Survive the onslaught of the Fog Wrathers over your base for 2 days!

+ You must keep all of your team members + the eleven Bulltors, alive!]

[Quest Rewards: Significant increase to the overall main quest rewards!]

[A Bonus Reward: Issued in the event you killed the Fog Sorolith + destroy the Fog Wrathers’ den!]

[Quest Duration: 2 days!]

"John, what happened?!" Cissel asked, rushing to his side. She watched the color drain from his face, replaced by a terrifying paleness. Her voice was thick with genuine worry.

Ricky stood frozen in place, his mind racing to catch up. A horrific thought flashed through his brain, chilling him to the bone. "Don’t tell me... Are they already here?!" He bit his lip, wondering if he had jinxed them by bringing up the Hivemind instead of just enjoying the success of the construction of their base.

John ignored them both. His mind was spinning at a thousand miles an hour, dissecting the notification.

’Damn you, system!’ he cursed inwardly. The shock was rapidly being replaced by a surging, hot anger that turned the pallor of his skin into a deep, glowing redness.

’You were planning this from the very beginning. You didn’t even wait for me to lure the Hivemind folks. You had this card hidden in your sleeve the whole time, just waiting for the base to be complete. Great. Very great!’

Cissel saw the look in his eyes—a volatile mixture of fury and desperation—and involuntarily took a step back. The air around John had suddenly become heavy and dangerous, radiating a pressure that made it hard to breathe.

"Lanmar!"

The shout was a thunderclap. John didn’t answer his friends; instead, he turned sharply toward the group gathered by the fire and roared at the top of his lungs. "Come here! At once!"