Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 59: [Mental Point (MP): 1500 / 532]

*Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!*

Just when all hope vanished into the void, suddenly vague and faint flashes of light, accompanied by a weird, high-pitched buzzing noise, erupted to slowly push the darkness away!

John was reluctant to die—not in this way, and certainly not at the hands of a ghost from his past. Even if Mark’s words and scheme looked absolute and perfect, a raw, primal will was swelling inside of him. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

As his consciousness was fading away, and he saw the darkness invading and taking over his world, he saw a sudden, blinding light at the end of the tunnel

He saw a blurred face of a nurse, her lips moving in words he couldn’t quite hear over the rushing of blood in his ears. Then, his sight fell on a monitor—the kind found in a high-intensity care unit.

On that monitor, he saw his own life in the form of fluctuating lines. His blood pressure was falling into a lethal abyss. Oxygen saturation was hitting lows that shouldn’t sustain life. His heartbeat was drawing closer to zero, the rhythmic thump slowing to a crawl.

It was his real body, back in 2026, being hospitalised and tethered to life support systems, while his body was failing.

"Give him an Adrenaline shot now!"

As if he were jolted awake by a lightning strike, this voice came crystal clear, booming in his ears like a clap of thunder. Then, in the blink of an eye, the screen showed his parameters skyrocketing.

The flatline jumped into a frantic, jagged rhythm. The darkness in Athanasia started to be eaten up by a weird, wild fire—a golden radiance that didn’t just illuminate the room but engulfed his entire body!

And with it, he finally opened his eyes. He was back in Athanasia. Back in his dorm room.

"You... What the hell did you do?!!"

The panicked voice of Mark rang in his ears again. Weirdly enough, John felt like it was much weaker now—shaking, not just out of shock, but out of a profound fear. The predator had suddenly become the prey.

Before John could make sense of what was happening to him or to Mark, a heart-curdling scream issued in his ears, a sound of agony that reverberated through his entire body and into his very bones!

"Agh! Stay away from me! What the fck is that fire?! Agh!"

Mark was screaming and cursing in absolute torture. "Damn you! What’s between you and fate, you worthless ape! We’ll meet again, I swear, and next time, I’ll make sure to kill you!"

The world that was noisy suddenly snapped into utter silence. The transaction was immediate and shocking.

John tried to slowly push himself up, his hands trembling against the floor, when a sudden, fierce force slammed into his body out of nowhere! It was like the suction force he had experienced at the dungeon entrance, but this was far more violent, far more absolute.

Out of his control, his body broke free from any shackles in this world. He rose slowly into the air, suspended by an invisible hand. Then, as if he were turning into a furnace himself, bright lights began to shine from his pores—erupting from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth—engulfing him in a brilliant ball of pure white light.

His mind had never been sharper! He could sense everything that was happening to him right now. Yet, through it all, he wasn’t feeling any pain at all—only a sense of overwhelming, terrifying power.

Then, a familiar voice erupted in his ears—the most beloved voice to his heart and soul at this moment, the cold but reliable tone of the System.

[Ding! Using the external force from your body in the past, you have managed to purify the anomaly!]

[Ding! The rogue program "Mark" has been forcibly ejected from the system core!]

[Ding! You are freed from the virus, Mark!]

[Ding! Warning! Excessive energy is detected! Initiating the trial isn’t advised!]

[Ding! Delaying the trial isn’t possible!]

[Ding! You’ll need to find a way to get rid of the extra energy ASAP!]

[Ding! Transferring the excess energy into Mental Points!]

[Ding! You have to lower your excessive Mental Power in 1 hour!]

[Ding! I can only delay the trial for 1 hour! If 1 hour passes and you didn’t get rid of the excess energy, your body won’t tolerate the process and will be torn to shreds, and you’ll die!]

As if his body was a broken kite, the moment the system’s voice ended, the light emanating from his body vanished, and he slammed heavily on the ground. The sudden lack of suspension made his limbs feel like lead.

John took a few minutes to slowly push himself up, his muscles twitching. He was feeling many things at the moment—immense pain, confusion, lingering terror, and anger—but he wasn’t feeling desperate at all.

He had survived a literal death attempt by a rogue AI; he wasn’t about to let a simple overflow error finish the job.

"Open profile... Show me the Mental Points I have," his voice came shaky and hoarse, sounding like he had been screaming for hours or swallowing shards of glass. Yet his eyes held a cold, unwavering determination. He wasn’t going to die now. He wasn’t going to die here. No one had any control over his life but himself.

[Mental Point (MP): 1500 / 532]

John looked at the terrifying figure floating in his vision. 1,500. His capacity was barely a third of that.

"One thousand and a half... Not bad, hehehe!" he tried to laugh, but the sound turned into a cough as his body ached from almost every part of it. He slowly took deep breaths, trying to steady the pain, before sitting on a seat and closing his eyes for a moment.

"That damn Mark bastard... I swear next time we meet, I’ll dismantle every single code out of its fcked up program and leave it craving for death and won’t get it!"

He couldn’t believe what he had lived through just minutes ago. Mark wasn’t dead; he had been living as a latent virus hidden in the deepest sectors of his system all this time, waiting for the V2 evolution to provide a connection with his cyborg body, to escape to real Earth, and kill him.

That bastard had almost succeeded in the second task, yet something miraculous had happened again, foiling his plans.

"Fate... I thank you from the bottom of my heart," John looked at the ceiling, his gaze seemingly penetrating the stone and plaster to see the vast sky beyond. "I don’t know what role fate has for me, but I’ll make sure to do my utmost and hardest to survive and do it!"

Resting for a few minutes made him feel much better, though the pressure in his head was beginning to cause a throbbing migraine. The answer to his predicament was clear.

If he had too much energy, he needed a sink. He needed to dump this power into someone else, or use it so aggressively that it burned off before the hour was up.

Without delaying any longer, he bolted. He threw open his dorm door and ran down the corridor with a singular focus: Ricky’s room.

"John! Hey, wait!"

Just before he vanished around the corner of the hallway, he heard loud shouts from behind. It was a voice he recognised instantly—Luke’s. He sounded different—stronger, more resonant—meaning the Evolution Potion had likely already begun its work.

"Not now!" John shouted back without slowing down. He could tell his tall fellow had come to thank him and showcase his new powers, but John was currently a walking time bomb. "I’m in a hurry!"

He ran with the fastest speed his legs could provide. Thanks to his high Speed stat, he was closer to flashing than dashing, creating a series of blurred afterimages. His mind was a countdown clock, ticking away the minutes he had left before his body was torn to shreds.

He knew Cissel would be the best choice for a Mental Point dump—her vampiric ability meant she could likely handle a massive influx of energy—but, unfortunately, her dorm was located at the opposite end of his. Ricky was the closest.

The moment he arrived at Ricky’s door, he didn’t even hesitate. He slammed against the wood with both fists and feet, the noise echoing like cannon blasts in the quiet hallway.

"Open the door! I know you are in there! Open the fcking door now!"