Athanasia: My Hacker System

Chapter 400: I’m Here to Join the Club!

"You said I can come and join your club, so I’m here, and I want to join it."

The words hung in the air, a persistent echo from a conversation that felt like it belonged to a different lifetime. After John had successfully purged the lethal black fog contamination from Cissel, the girl had plummeted into an expectedly deep sleep.

John didn’t linger at her bedside. With his task complete and his heart heavy, he turned and moved out of the infirmary with his core group of friends, followed closely by a bewildered and wide-eyed Ben.

The Headmaster had made a final, lingering attempt to secure a sample of the black fluid before they departed, but John had shut the request down right on the spot. Even with the rejection, the old man hadn’t looked particularly offended; he had a silent intuition that more opportunities to study the substance would inevitably surface later.

The five of them marched out of the department. Nikolas trailed just behind them. As the leading teacher assigned to their club, his presence was a formal requirement for the completion of their club base, but his interest was far from purely out of the rules.

Nikolas was one of the few who understood the importance of the battle in the city. He knew what John intended to do with the newly acquired Instant Dungeon core, and he wanted to see the dungeon world firsthand.

As for the Headmaster, he claimed he had a mountain of administrative duties to attend to before the grand academy summit. However, he made it clear that he would be watching their progress through Nikolas, who had promised to record every detail of launching the club.

Once they stepped beyond the department gates and walked a short distance, a massive structure came into view. A second set of high, imposing walls stretched for a couple of miles in either direction. This was it, the club base.

The walls stood tall and mighty, their surfaces smooth and reinforced with defensive metal that shimmered faintly in the daylight. The scene was breathtaking, projecting an aura of absolute intimidation to anyone who dared to approach without an invitation.

"They are indeed worth every penny we spent," Ricky said, coming to a halt by John’s side. They stood before a colossal main gate that blocked the only entry path into the club.

"They did an amazing job," Elena agreed, her head tilting back as she tried to see the top of the ramparts.

"Let’s go inside," Luke added, his hand already reaching for a phantom handle. "Did they give you the keys, Ricky? Or do we have to wait for a foreman?"

"Keys? No, we are using a far more advanced method," Ricky interrupted, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. He extended one hand toward the gate while resting his other on the hilt of his sword. "I thought... Why don’t we add a little touch from our John’s most famous signature move?"

"Oh no, you didn’t link it to our DNA!" Luke rolled his eyes, though a smirk played at the corner of his mouth. Elena remained momentarily speechless, her gaze shifting between Ricky and the silent gate.

As for John, he wasn’t in the mood for the usual banter. After the harrowing experience of extracting the fog from Cissel, his mind was miles away, drifting through a sea of troubling realisations.

He was squeezing his brain, trying to find answers to questions that felt increasingly urgent. ’How could I have overlooked such a possibility? How did I miss the signs? And more importantly... how the hell did Mark manage to smuggle the Black Fog into the world of Athanasia?’

The questions were like a puzzle with half the pieces missing, and every time he thought he had found a link, his mind added three more layers of complexity.

"Don’t just complain before trying it out," Ricky said, turning toward John. He let out an inward sigh, seeing the hollow, distracted look in his friend’s eyes. It was clear John wasn’t truly present; his thoughts were locked away in a dark room, dissecting the events of the last hour.

"Why doesn’t our John give it a try first?" Luke suggested, clearing his throat loudly to snap John back to reality. "Come on, big bro. Let’s inaugurate our club with your unique style."

"What?" John blinked, startled out of his trance when he heard his name. He listened as Ricky gave him a brief explanation of the gate’s lock mechanism, repeating what he said just moments ago, and eventually decided to give it a try.

The process was seamless. He initiated a normal handshake, but he didn’t bother hacking or overriding any permissions.

The massive iron gates shook with a low, tectonic rumble. A small door, perfectly concealed within the larger structure, began to slide open. It behaved exactly like the outer mist surrounding their zone in the new world, parting with fluid, ethereal grace.

Ricky had clearly taken inspiration from their time in the pocket trial and the Source Code world, adding several touches to the club’s architecture.

John passed through the opening first, his steps echoing in the short tunnel. Ricky followed, then the others. Once they stepped out onto the interior, a much broader world revealed itself. This was no longer just a plot of land or a construction site; it was a sanctuary. It was home, it was theirs.

"They indeed did a great job," Nikolas muttered, his sharp eyes scanning the perimeter. He didn’t miss the subtle outlines of hidden defensive platforms buried just beneath the topsoil, or the way the buildings were positioned to create overlapping fields of fire.

To the naked eye, the base looked like a spacious campus filled with dedicated buildings for training, research, and socialising. But to the experienced, battle-hardened eyes of Nikolas, he saw it for what it truly was: a fortress designed to withstand a siege.

Nikolas hadn’t had the chance to review the actual blueprints John’s friends had prepared during the early planning stages. Looking around now, a deep, professional curiosity began to gnaw at him. He wondered what other secrets they had buried deep beneath the manicured lawns and training grounds.

’They didn’t actually bring out those terrifying cannons John mentioned, did they? Or the specialised towers they kept describing during telling their story?’ he wondered. He cast a wary glance at the students, who were already treating the fortress like a private playground.

The moment they crossed the inner perimeter, the group’s stoicism evaporated. They began running from building to building, checking every room and testing the equipment like children in a high-tech zoo. Even Ben was caught up in the excitement, his face lighting up with genuine fun.

John, however, remained at the back. He walked with a heavy pace by Nikolas’s side, his mind still drifting in the dark waters of his recent encounter. He looked down at the grass, his eyes unfocused, lost in a spiral of what-ifs regarding Cissel, Mark, and the black fog.

Seeing him looking so hollow made Nikolas let out a long, empathetic sigh. "Listen, John... About what happened back at the infirmary..." Nikolas began, his voice softening. He was about to offer some veteran perspective to console the youth, but he was cut off by a booming, resonant shout coming from beyond the main gate.

"I’m here to join the club!"

The shout was so loud it pulled everyone’s attention back to the front entrance. Standing before the imposing gates was a tall, powerfully built youth with the unmistakable air of a seventh-year veteran. It was Mond. Seeing the unexpected visitor managed to do what Nikolas’s words couldn’t: it snapped John back into the present reality.

John gave a subtle nod to Luke, who moved down to the gate and triggered the opening of the tunnelled door. As Mond stepped through the small access door, a wide, shocked smile spread across his face at the sight of the expansive base.

"Do you know him?" Ricky asked, moving to John’s side and giving him a small, encouraging nudge. "I don’t recall seeing his name on the recruitment lists the girls put together."

"I invited him," John said quietly. As he spoke, his mind briefly flashed back to the circumstances of their meeting. Recalling those moments, the brief window of normalcy before the chaos of the city and the incident with Cissel, caused a momentary flicker of pain in his eyes, but he kept his composure.

"He promised he could help me get past my bottleneck," Mond said, walking toward the group. He scanned the faces, his eyes lingering on Ben with a look of recognition, acknowledging the former ace. Then, his gaze fell upon Nikolas, and his entire posture stiffened in shock.

"Teacher Nikolas?! You are the leading teacher of this club?!" Mond looked as if he had just seen a ghost. Nikolas responded with a calm smile and a respectful nod.

"I can’t believe John aimed for you as the second recruit of the club, hahaha!" Nikolas laughed, looking genuinely amused. It was clear there was a history between the two. As Mond relaxed and spoke up, the story came out: Nikolas had taken over Mond’s class when they first entered the academy, filling in for a teacher who had been sent on a high-stakes, two-year mission.

"I was surprised to see you step down from your throne after the third year," Nikolas noted, his expression turning serious. "I heard about your bottleneck, of course. But when I led your class during those first two years, there was no sign of such a thing. You were a prodigy. What happened?"