Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 248: The Unkillable Mark!

"After all this time not seeing each other, this is how you respond to seeing me? I’m deeply hurt, Mr Mirage!"

Just as John issued the frantic warning to his friends, the middle-aged man calmly shook his head, looking immensely amused by the current situation. He adjusted the collar of his ragged jacket as if he were wearing a tailored suit in a boardroom.

"Didn’t I tell you before? Humans are all an arrogant and useless race," the man sneered, his eyes scanning the perimeter with carelessness.

"I can easily tell you never saw this coming. You never saw me coming. To be honest, I never expected you to last this long here. I thought you were going to die within the first few days, so I decided to send that group of D-1000 units to take over your territory and harvest the remains. Instead, they found you standing and alive, only to end up dying at your hands. Very impressive, Mr Mirage. Truly, indeed, impressive."

"..."

John’s shock was escalating from one personal all-time high record to another, his mind racing to process what he just heard. He had fought the D-1000 machines, thinking they were a Hiveminds’ trump card.

He never expected the machines he fought against to be sent by his deadliest enemy, the one who had attempted to kill him twice so far, and pushed him into this hellish adventure from the very start.

The architect of his misery: Mark.

This meant the machines that had broken the pocket trial rules weren’t accidentally sent to the north, to his territory; they were there specifically to target him.

Mark was well aware of John’s survival and his exponential growth, and he had decided to stage a bigger, more intricate scheme to take him down once and for all. Why else would he stand there, calmly speaking and explaining the mechanics of his dirty scheme, if not for an absolute, chilling confidence in his victory?

"John, who is this man?" Seeing John’s face turn from ashen white to a deep red, Ricky couldn’t help but ask. He stepped closer.

"Mr Mirage will struggle to explain to you who I am," Mark interrupted, letting out an amusing chuckle. "I’m the one who came to smash the board. I am the one born out of your ignorance and your arrogance. I am the one who will be your nightmare, the one who will end your useless history and put a final stop to your miserable race... I am Mark!"

"..."

Hearing Mark’s grandiloquent speech made the group exchange silent, bewildered gazes. Luke was the first to break the silence, pointing his heavy club at the middle-aged man with a look of genuine confusion. "Is he crazy? He’s talking like a cartoon villain."

"Not even close," John hissed, his eyes narrowing to slits. He didn’t wait for another word. He suddenly dashed forward, his speed so high that he almost vanished from his friends’ vision. "And today is going to be your last day... Die, you son of a btch!"

John unleashed a simple, brutal horizontal slash. It was a strike that dealt hundreds of damage. The middle-aged man didn’t last more than a second; his eyes rolled back into his head, turning a dull white, and he slumped to the ground, dead before his body even hit the ground.

"Is that it?" Elena asked in a voice filled with doubt, her bow lowered. "Is that the threat you were so worried about?"

"Mr Mirage, it seems you’ve grown stupider since the last time I saw you. Hahaha!"

The voice came from the crowd. This time, a youngster stepped forward, a boy no older than John and his friends. He was laughing with a booming, resonant sound that felt too large for his small frame. Elena’s words died in her throat, her jaw dropping. The entire team watched with widened eyes as the most bizarre scene they had ever witnessed unfolded.

But to John, the logic was finally clicking into place. He began to link the dots the moment the youngster opened his mouth. Everything that had puzzled him became as clear as day.

"You’re playing a foul play," John said slowly, his voice trembling with a mix of realisation and fury. He moved fast, closing the distance to kill the youngster just as he had the middle-aged man. "You used the humans you controlled to infiltrate the different trials, and you invited your dirty machines over to foul the trials from the inside?!"

"You can’t call it foul play if I’m using an advantage I created through my own hard work and planning," a new voice chimed in.

This time, a beautiful woman stepped forward from the ranks of the thousand. She swayed from side to side as she walked, her gait calm and confident, as if she were walking a fashion stage rather than a battlefield.

"See, Mr Mirage, thanks to you, I broke free from the Big Mind’s grasp," she said, her voice a melodic poison.

"I was the key factor in all these plans. So why would I keep playing for others when I can do it for myself? I can’t express my thanks and gratitude enough for your help back then. So, why don’t you let me send you and your friends to the afterlife? Let’s get this done the easy way..."

"Shut the fck up!" John’s blade flashed again, a horizontal arc hit fast, and severed the woman’s head before she could finish her mockery.

Immediately, a tough-looking man with a scarred face and heavy plated armour stepped forward. He didn’t look bothered by the death of the previous host; if anything, his grin widened, revealing teeth that looked too much like polished chrome.

"Fine! Then let me show you the real beauty of our foul play," the man said, his voice echoing with that same haunting resonance. He took a few heavy steps, stopping just a few meters away from John.

He didn’t raise a weapon. He didn’t need to. He stood with the same suffocating confidence John had witnessed back in the prison, the look of a man who had already seen the end of the movie and knew exactly how the hero died.