Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 97: Using the Sandbox Ability!

The war around them had shifted in the past couple of minutes. With the fog gone, the D-1000s were relentless in their assault, but the monsters weren’t going down without a fight.

"What the heck is that thing?! Is that monster the boss of those minions we were fighting so far?!!!" Elena stuttered in shock, pointing toward the centre of the fray.

In the middle of the brutal fighting, a titan had emerged. It was a giant version of the Fog Seekers, standing at least ten meters tall. Its skin wasn’t just grey; it was a skinless, pitch-black mass of muscles and terrifying power.

It swiped a massive claw through a squad of D-1000s, tossing the machines aside like they were made of tin cans, instantly killing them.

Thanks to its massive body, its front arms and rear legs were way bigger, its claws were way deadlier and sharper. In addition to that, the ferocity and strength this grand monster showed were far beyond what anyone here had faced before! Every time it slammed its massive claws into the ground, it vibrated up through the soles of John’s boots.

’This is Ogolith!’ John recalled the objectives of his quest, his heart hammering against his chest. ’How the hell does the system expect me to kill it? In the middle of this huge battlefield with thousands of machines and tens of thousands of Fog Seekers?!’

John could easily tell his quest objectives would all be fulfilled the moment he won this big battle and killed that behemoth. It was the linchpin. If the Ogolith fell, the rest of the Fog Seekers would lose their hive-mind focus, and the machines might run out of primary targets and kill them. But it was a tall order—literally.

’I can’t kill that behemoth without killing its minions first... And yet the most annoying foes here are those metallic bastards...’

The D-1000s were the real nightmare. Even as the Ogolith crushed dozens of them, hundreds more were stepping up, firing their laser guns. The dense rain of laser shots burned into the behemoth’s thick muscles, leaving behind many wounds. John recalled how easy it was to kill them inside the fog.

He couldn’t help but regret not exterminating more of the units on the ridge when he had the chance. But suddenly a thought flashed in his mind, sparking like lightning.

’I can use my Sandbox ability... I never tested it, so it’s better to do the testing here before deciding how to implement it to save the day... Shall I use it on myself or them?’

He moved his eyes among his friends, seeking a baseline. The three of them couldn’t help but notice how weirdly he was looking at them. His gaze was serious, drifting over their features as if he were looking at enemies rather than friends.

"What?" Luke exclaimed in fear, taking a defensive step back. "If you are thinking of picking a punching bag for those maniacs, then forget it! I won’t sign up for it! I’ve done enough carrying for one day!"

"No, it’s not that," John muttered. He hurriedly checked the details of his ability before an evil, knowing smile spread across his lips. ’This ability... I can use it for long distance...’

He turned his gaze toward the distance, where the Ogolith was fighting brutally against hundreds of machines. It was a chaotic mess of laser shots and shining cold claws. He decided to give the ability a try over the monster first, as it was well within the range of its range.

His three friends exchanged silent, worried gazes. They feared that whatever had hit Ricky had finally infected John while he was performing that extraction earlier. To them, John looked like he had finally snapped. Yet what happened next made all of their eyes open wide as a weird, impossible phenomenon occurred right before them!

’Sandbox!’ John thought.

[Ding! Please pause your eyes over the area you want, and the ability will be activated after thinking of what you want the illusion to be like!] 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

’This easy?’ John raised an eyebrow. He noticed that when he focused on the Ogolith, a semi-transparent white square appeared in his vision, measuring five meters in each direction, centred on the behemoth. ’Make it so the Ogolith vanished and isn’t there!’

This was his first time using the ability, but the results were instantaneous. The machines all over the immediate area that had been relentlessly attacking the behemoth suddenly stopped.

Their laser muzzles dipped, and all stood in confusion, motionless for the sudden change. It was as if they had lost their target or someone had pulled their power plug! To their sensors, the ten-meter-tall monster had simply ceased to exist.

"What’s going on?!!" Luke approached the rocky edge of their hidden groove, squinting his eyes.

Cissel and Elena moved closer as well, to get a better look and verify that what they were seeing wasn’t a hallucination or a dream. The battlefield had gone eerily silent for long, suffocating seconds.

"Where the heck did that behemoth go?!! John, what did you do to it?!!!"

Everyone turned to John as if he were the main and sole suspect, which he was. He simply shrugged, maintaining his poker face, while inwardly realising how fearsome his ability truly was! He had essentially tampered with the perception of everyone looking at the spot he marked.

’I never thought it could affect everyone, not just the ones inside the area of its effect,’ he thought, moving his eyes to reread the description again. The two-and-a-half Mental Points cost was an absolute steal for this level of deception!

"Oh, here it is!"

Just before John could celebrate his success, the Ogolith realised its enemies had stopped fighting. It took advantage of the machine’s weird pause to sweep a massive arm across their front line, devastating dozens of D-1000s in a single blow.

As it moved out of the five-meter Sandbox zone, it reappeared to the machines’ sensors. It didn’t stop there. After waving its claws for a few more times and destroying the machines around it, it jumped into another highly dense area of D-1000 units, crushing them under its weight.

"It felt like... A magic spell was cast over it to make it vanish!!" Elena whispered, her voice trembling with awe.

She gave John a weird, suspicious look. Not only her, but the other two as well. They were beginning to realise that John’s abilities were far more than just high stats or good swordplay.

And just when John was thinking about another dilemma—specifically, how to keep the behemoth invisible long enough to wipe out the remaining machines—a low, raspy groan came from behind them, startling everyone.

"Why do I feel like... I was drowning in a long nightmare lately?"