Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 267: The Mobile Fortress!

Unlike Cissel and Luke’s actions, whose strategy relied on total sabotage and destruction, John’s plan was far crueller and more ambitious.

He didn’t intend to destroy a single wall, cannon, or tower that the machines were currently laying around the den. Instead, he intended to march in, hack the entire structures, and add the machine’s own fortifications to his personal arsenal.

He wasn’t worried about how many layers of defences the machines laid down; in John’s eyes, the machines were giving him more defensive items of silver plate.

He simply needed to wait for Blakar and the Bulltors to arrive so he could train them on the anti-air tactics he’d just perfected. He needed a meat-shield to hold the line while he went to harvest the gifts from the den.

When the hundred drones arrived, John met them with the same type of generosity: death. He used two Logic Bombs to create two crushing kill zones and a single pulse of Lightning Dance to finish the stragglers.

As the wreckage rained down, he sat among the scrap metal to hack into their storage programs before he started to check the new items’ source code.

"Hmm, they are remarkably basic programs," John noted. He found that the running programs for the new weapons weren’t overly complex, which was a blessing.

Their lines of code weren’t that much to begin with, and he didn’t need to do complicated stuff to make the items work, like how he did with the pulse cannons. Even the new cannons didn’t pose any challenge at all; they got everything needed to work perfectly like his edited cannons.

The laser cannons already had sensors integrated into their bodies, and the programs running them were already optimised for high-speed tracking. "If that’s the case, all I need to do is inject my friendly list into the core logic, and try to group ten of them together like how I did before with other items."

He didn’t have enough components to mass-produce the elite versions yet, but he was dying to see what an enhanced variant looked like, what new special effects they would produce.

He spent the next two waves in a trance of hacking, coding, and assembly, refining the parts he scavenged. After he was done with his tests and enhanced all the new items, he sucked a cold breath of air while checking their totally different details.

[Big Laser Cannon: Advanced!]

[Description: A ferocious, heavy-calibre cannon capable of launching ten simultaneous laser shots that can track multiple high-altitude targets at the same time.]

[Special Effect 1: Lightning Shower: Active!]

[Description: Every 2 minutes, the cannon will lock on 100 targets and launch a shower of attacks for 10 seconds straight!]

[Special Effect 2: Lightning Net: Active!]

[Description: Every 10 minutes, the cannon will unleash a net that will cover up a ball-shaped area with a 500-meter radius that lasts for 1 minute. Anything inside won’t be able to escape, and the ball will lower in altitude until it finally hits the ground with everything within its grasp!]

"A fishing net for drones," John chuckled. The idea of dragging the flying drones screaming to the dirt was incredibly satisfying.

[Big Anti-Air Trap: Advanced!]

[Description: A trap that can be triggered and fly high in the air. It hovers for 20 hours, attacking and destroying any flying target around in a globular area with a 500-meter radius!]

[Special Effect 1: Lightning Seeker: Active!]

[Description: Every 5 minutes, the trap will move and seek any enemy by flying directly for 1 minute in one direction at high speed!]

[Special Effect 2: Lightning Party: Active!]

[Description: Once sensing the approach of more than 10 targets at the same time, the trap will unleash a party of attacks, hitting 50 targets at the same time for 30 seconds!]

"A twenty-hour duration? That turns the entire sky into a minefield," he evilly grinned. He could set these and forget them in the middle of an ongoing wave, effectively cordoning off the northern territory from any aerial reinforcements.

[Big Flying Grenade: Advanced!]

[Description: Can be thrown, and it will hover 300 meters over the ground. It can attack any target in a radius of 500 meters, detonating to cover the area in a globular explosion that lasts for 10 seconds!]

[Special Effect 1: Lightning Hover: Passive!]

[Description: Once thrown, the grenade will keep flying with passive momentum for 10 minutes!]

[Special Effect 2: Lightning Recharge: Passive!]

[Description: Once triggered by a target, the grenade will absorb part of the explosion, remaining active and intact, yet yielding a weaker detonation next. Maximum number of recharges: 5!]

John’s eyes widened at the Lightning Recharge. A grenade that exploded, then pulled itself back together to explode again? He already could picture Cissel and Elena fighting hard to grab more of these.

Then he looked at the sensory detectors upgrades, which didn’t disappoint.

[Big Sensory Detector System: Advanced!]

[Description: A ground-based detection system linking up to 500 anchors to a central control unit.]

[Special Effect 1: Lightning Gush: Passive!]

[Description: Automatically feeds data to any nearby friendly targeting system.]

[Special Effect 2: Lightning Fuse: Active!]

[Description: Every 10 minutes, anchors launch a stealth electrical pulse that paralyses all surrounding targets.]

[Big Sensory Aerial Detector System: Advanced!]

[Description: a detection system for aerial units. It works by linking flying anchors together with a central unit. Maximum anchors linked: 250. Attached to a warning system sirens!]

[Special Effect 1: Lightning Spread: Passive!]

[Description: If there is a targeting system around, it will automatically connect with it and feed the targets detected for it to fire at!]

[Special Effect 2: Lightning Discharge: Active!]

[Description: Every 10 minutes, the flying anchors will charge up an electrical pulse that can diffuse, cause damage and paralyse any surrounding targets. The diffuse will be launched in stealth mode, can’t be tracked!]

He was very satisfied with the two sensor detectors upgrades. Then the next item was what John was the most curious about: the evolution of the mobile cart. And this one turned from a mobile cannon and cart into a fortress!

[Big Mobile Fortress: Advanced!]

[Description: A massive mobile fortress that can host walls, towers, and offensive weapons. It runs on 50 wheels and can move freely in a 15-kilometre radius around the central control unit!]

[Special Effect 1: Lightning Charge: Passive!]

[Description: Automatically manages and distributes energy to all weapons and structures on its deck from its embedded energy cells and generator.]

[Special Effect 2: Lightning Push: Active!]

[Description: Every 10 minutes, a surge of current pushes the grades of all structures on top of the fortress by 1 grade!]

"A fortress that upgrades the defences on its back?! Wow!!" John whispered. If he put an advanced tower on it, after ten minutes, it would become something he had never seen before. Even if this change was temporary, it was still worth everything he spent on enhancing this fortress.

Finally, he looked at the last two additions, the items he never expected to enhance would yield a basic transformation in their nature!

[Anchor Factory: Advanced!]

[Description: An advanced-grade detector that uses energy cells to manufacture and deploy up to 100 smaller, basic-grade anchors, creating its own autonomous net.]

[Flying Anchor Factory: Advanced!]

[Description: An advanced grade of detecting flying anchors. It can harbour an energy cell in a special spot, and use the energy to make smaller, basic-grade flying anchors, spreading them around, acting as a small net of its own. Maximum number of anchors made and connected with: 100!]

"Dammit! I’m so good, hahaha!"