Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 62: Exchanging Information, and Secrets!

"And how come you know all of this?" Elena asked, giving Ricky a look filled with sharp suspicion. Her gaze was piercing, yet it didn’t seem to affect Ricky at all. He simply gave a calm, dismissive shrug.

"Everyone has their secrets, and considering we are in immediate danger, this isn’t the time to doubt each other," he said. With those simple words, he didn’t just extricate himself from further interrogation; he inadvertently helped John by shifting the focus away from the ’how’ and onto the ’now’.

"What I’m trying to say is that I heard this world is trying to absorb Earth itself, which includes the game devices supporting it. That is the true threat."

Ricky went silent after that, clearly finished with his contribution. John processed the ’Earth absorption’ theory.

Then it was Cissel’s turn to speak.

"All I know is the general description of this place—how scary and deadly it is. I’ve heard that humans get abducted from our world and sent here specifically to be slaughtered at the hands of monsters."

"Abducted?" Luke’s eyes went wide. He looked at each member of the group, his gaze finally fixating on John with a look of dawning horror. "That must be it! It’s exactly what happened! Those Year Two bastards! Someone must have planned to abduct John and send him here to die, and we just got caught in the middle!"

"That’s definitely possible," Elena joined in, her voice trembling slightly. "In my family, one of our strongest members vanished one day without a trace. Weeks later, he reappeared in the middle of the estate, on the verge of death.

He spoke about falling into a hidden trap and being sent to this very world. He said everyone on his team was killed within days. He was lucky enough to find a way back, but it was already too late to save him. We couldn’t even get much information before he died."

Her face twisted in a mask of grief and remembered terror. "All we could learn from his final moments was this: deadly monsters are roaming the fog. They don’t just appear out of nowhere; they always come with a signal. A repeated, rhythmic sound... One that sounds like hitting two swords against each other!"

Everyone fell into a heavy, expectant silence. It was clear to John that no one—not even the secretive Ricky or the observant Cissel—had heard such critical intelligence regarding the ’Sword Clang’ signal before. After the collective pool of knowledge had been drained, all eyes returned to fall upon John.

He was the centre of the mystery, the catalyst for their displacement. He knew there was no way out this time; he had to speak. Fortunately, he had heard enough from their own stories to weave a compelling narrative they would believe.

"You all know how tired I was after the match, so when we came back to the academy, I headed directly to my dorm," he began, grounding his story in the truth everyone had witnessed. He paused, his expression darkening as he added the necessary fiction.

"Then something happened. A flash of light and a weird, distorted voice that told me I was going to leave the world and go somewhere else to fight for humanity’s survival. Then... Then..."

He faked a subtle trembling in his hands, as if the mere memory was a physical weight crushing his chest. Seeing him like this, seemingly vulnerable and broken, drove a surge of empathy from the group. Even Ricky’s suspicion softened, and Cissel’s cold gaze wavered.

"I felt like my entire body was about to explode from the inside out!" John continued, his voice rising in fake panic. "I don’t know exactly what happened, but I felt this immense, terrifying surge of power. I couldn’t control it. I ran to find you all because I thought... I thought you were the only ones strong enough to help me get rid of it before I detonated!"

"That reminds me," Ricky said, his brow furrowing as a specific detail resurfaced. "How come you knew I had two abilities? I’ve kept that secret from everyone, even the instructors."

"You knew about mine as well!" Cissel added, her voice sharp. Elena and Luke looked back and forth between the three of them, stunned by the revelation that their teammates were dual-ability users.

"It’s simple," John shrugged, leaning into his role as a commoner. "I can sense power from anyone. I don’t know if it’s a fault or something unique, but I’ve had this ability for a few years now. I felt the two abilities when we fought against each other.

I just deducted their uses from the way you moved and the effects of your strikes." Then, his features turned serious, a glint flashed in his eyes as he added, "Do you want me to explain the specifics of your powers now? Right here?"

"No need," Ricky cleared his throat quickly, his bravado vanishing. Cissel looked away, her jaw tightened. John could tell he had hit a nerve; they both had secrets they weren’t ready to share with the likes of Luke and Elena. It worked exactly as he expected—by threatening their privacy, he secured his own.

"That explains it then... How you managed to easily toy with both of us," Ricky’s voice was tinged with a small amount of lingering rage.

"It’s his power," Cissel said, surprisingly coming to John’s defence. "He must have unlocked his Six Sense attributes without even knowing it. It’s part of his natural talent, so it’s not something to be ashamed of."

She directed the last of her words directly to John, and for a moment, he was startled by the unexpected kindness in her tone. But what she said next made him swallow his relief.

"After all, I also have a similar ability—to gauge the true strength of someone."

She dropped her last words like a bomb. What she truly meant was that she had three abilities, not just two! John was the most shocked out of everyone. Using his Frame Recognition, he had clearly seen two groups of special codes inside her body, not three.

This meant either Cissel possessed a passive ability that didn’t manifest as a code cluster, or John’s system synchronisation or the level of his ability were low to see it.

Before he or anyone else could probe further, the world around them began to vibrate. The silence of the void was shattered by a series of notifications in John’s mind.

[Ding! 30 minutes preparation period is over!]

[Ding! Your Evolution Trial starts now!]

[Ding! Quest 1: Survive the next 24 hours!]

[Quest Detail: You have appeared inside the temporary relay point of the Fog Extension! The fog is filled with deadly Fog Seekers, attracted by high-pitch sounds. Your enemies—the machines—have already installed high-pitch sound devices around your spot to attract the swarm!] 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

[Quest Targets:

Find and destroy the high-pitch sound devices (0/100).

Kill any Fog Seeker invading your area!

Don’t lose a single team member!]

[Quest Duration: 24 hours!]

[Quest Rewards: Assessed after finishing the quest!]

Just as John finished reading the final line, the environment reacted. A rhythmic, piercing, high-pitched noise erupted from the darkness surrounding their small island of light.

*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*