Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 143: A Kiss!

That night, the members of the team reached a silent, unanimous consensus: no matter how bizarre John’s methods appeared, and no matter how much he looked like a true madman in the heat of the moment, they would never, ever doubt him again. His results spoke louder than his eccentricities.

John fell into a deep sleep that night with a lingering smile on his face, though the source of his contentment felt entirely new to him. The evening had taken an unexpected turn after the barbecue had wound down.

As the others retreated to their makeshift beds, leaving only John and Cissel to keep watch, a heavy, comfortable silence had settled between them. Cissel hadn’t said a word for hours.

Then, without warning, she had leaned over. Before John could process the movement, she planted a soft, fleeting kiss on his cheek. Without a word of explanation, she had bolted, running to find a sleeping spot as far away from him as the camp’s perimeter would allow.

John had stood there for a long time, frozen like a statue. Even now, waking up the next morning, he couldn’t quite shake the weird happiness bubbling in his chest. However, the morning light brought a return to reality.

Cissel had adopted her cold face once again, her attitude sharp and distant. She wouldn’t even commit to two full sentences in his direction, leaving him more confused about her intentions than if she had never kissed him at all.

"So, let me get this straight. You want us to wire the motors with a single energy cell?" Elena asked, her brow furrowed as she reviewed the schematics John had slowly explained.

John nodded, "Exactly. Just do it with half of our remaining motors, and keep them in your storage device for now."

"Ok, operation secret wire-motor is on then," Elena tried to crack a joke, and John missed it as his mind was busy somewhere else.

"I’ll go out to place the walls and towers according to the layout we planned," John added. He stole a glance at Cissel, but she remained a fortress of indifference, her poker face perfectly intact.

He had expected—or perhaps hoped—that she would volunteer to join him without prompting. "Since we need to save time, I’ll leave the wire-motor operation to you, Elena. Cissel and I will handle the external fortifications."

"Me?!" Cissel blurted out. She looked as if he had just suggested they jump into a volcano. To the rest of the team, she looked merely surprised, but Elena, who had been watching the pair with a sharp eye, knew there was more.

"I’ll come along to help, then," Lanmar interjected, stepping forward with newfound enthusiasm. He was rapidly adjusting his role to be John’s primary labourer and right-hand man. "I can carry anything you need from the workshop!"

The memories of the previous night’s demonstration were still vivid in Lanmar’s mind—and he wasn’t the only one. They had all watched in awe as John demonstrated the cannon he modified. By linking the cannon’s to Cissel’s voice, John had allowed her to designate targets simply by speaking.

He had asked Lanmar to stand at a distance and hurl rocks into the air as fast as he could. Lanmar had been sceptical at first, hefting a heavy stone, until John whispered a command to Cissel. Following his lead, she had commanded: "Fire at anything moving in front of me!"

What followed was a display of terrifying might. The cannon’s muzzle moved fast, tracking the rocks through the air. Each shot resulted in an earth-shattering explosion, the fierce shockwaves rattling the teeth of everyone standing nearby. The rocks didn’t even have a chance to begin their descent before they were vaporised into dust.

The sight had been breathtaking, even for Lanmar. Now, he was desperate to help John place those same cannons onto the perimeter walls. He wanted to prove his worth, hoping that if he stayed on John’s good side, he might eventually be granted the same privilege—to have his own voice recorded and recognised by those fierce, deadly cannons.

"I’ll carry the heavy equipment in my storage device," John said, giving Lanmar a calm, knowing gaze. It was as if he could read the giant man’s mind like an open book. "But sure, you’re welcome to tag along."

While John didn’t yet have a specific task for Lanmar, he remembered how helpful the Bulltor had been when he, Cissel, and Elena were drafting the initial base layout.

Cissel, meanwhile, turned her face away, waiting impatiently for John to begin collecting the modular wall segments and defensive towers. John decided not to deactivate them; he hoped he would find a way to place the walls directly without the need to deactivate and then reactivate them. Or else, the Mental Points consumption would be astronomical.

He also made sure to store his MP Pulse device, intending to keep it active and running by his side as a safety precaution.

As they began the thirty-minute trek toward the western borders, the group fell into a strange rhythm. Cissel maintained a wall of stony silence, walking several paces ahead.

Lanmar, on the other hand, was a fountain of nervous energy, peppering John with every random question that popped into his head—ranging from the energy cells to cannons.

"So... honestly, Cissel... What do you really think of the cannons?"

"What do you mean by that?" Cissel asked. She kept her gaze fixed firmly on the horizon, refusing to turn her head even an inch toward him. Had she turned at that moment, John would have seen the mask of indifference slip; a faint, genuine smile played across her lips, softening her features with a rare touch of warmth.

"I’m talking about their positioning," John explained, while imagining a grand wall surrounding his base, with the deadly cannons placed on top of them. "You realise we can actually mount them directly on top of the walls, right? Elevation would give us a massive tactical advantage in terms of range."