Athanasia: My Hacker System

"This is how the academy teachers are distributed between Paragon-affiliated ones and neutral teachers."

John and his friends heaved a deep sigh of relief at the success of their first step. Watching Nikolas sign the golden scroll with a drop of his own blood was the moment they realised they had successfully crossed the most troublesome stretch of their plan.

The significance wasn’t just about gaining Nikolas as an ally; it was about avoiding the scorched-earth path they would have been forced to take if he had resisted.

Once the teacher had joined their inner circle, the atmosphere in the guest hall shifted. The tension bled out, replaced by the hushed, urgent tones of conspirators.

Lanmar was called back through the portal, but before the portal closed, John summoned others. Goven walked through next, offering a respectful nod to John and his friends.

John then signalled for the Demon to step up, letting the creature’s chaotic aura linger for a moment as a final testament to the diversity of their forces. Finally, he closed the portal, the blue light vanishing.

John wanted his teacher to grasp the full, staggering reality of the situation on the other side. If it had been possible, he would have preferred for Nikolas to walk through and witness the zone himself, the Big Wall, the mines, and the standing army.

However, the laws of the Source Code World were unyielding. Goven and Blakar had stressed this point repeatedly: no one was allowed to pass through the portal if they hadn’t cleared the initial pocket trial.

If Nikolas were to step through, the Source Code World would likely flag him as an unauthorised interloper and dump him into a fresh pocket trial, forcing him to compete for his life.

After John spent an hour explaining everything about the Source Code World, it was Nikolas’s turn to pull back the curtain on the academy. He described the current power structure with a clarity that made even John’s mind reel.

According to Nikolas, almost ninety percent of the teachers in the entire academy were secretly or openly affiliated with a Paragon faction. In the Military Department, the heart of the academy’s power, that number spiked to more than ninety-five percent.

"The only good news is the sole rule that has been followed since the foundation of this institution," Nikolas said, his eyes moving over the faces of the five students.

"No matter what, the Headmasters of the different departments and the Grandmaster of the academy must be selected from the neutral faction. This is the only way we maintain our public stance as a neutral ground for all of humanity."

"Oh, is that so?" John’s eyes shone with a fierce light. "Does that mean..."

"The current Headmaster of our department is neutral," Nikolas confirmed, anticipating the question.

"In fact, he was my own instructor when I joined the academy decades ago. He is just like me; he hates the Paragons down to the core, seeing them as the rot that is eating our potential from within."

"That explains why he glared so fiercely when we mentioned the new Paragon," Luke noted, a sudden bark of laughter escaping him. "Don’t tell me you want us to recruit the Headmaster next!"

"It’s an option," Nikolas shrugged, his eyes devoid of any humour. "Gaining his official support wouldn’t just be an advantage; it would be monumental. It would give us the legal shield we need to operate within these walls."

"Not now," John cautioned, holding up a hand. He didn’t want to stretch his luck or overplay his hand this early. "Let’s focus on the urgent matters first. Teacher, can you gain access to the student files and the encrypted information on the general network?"

John knew that the academy, much like the world at large, was tied together by a general network, a digital infrastructure that functioned much like the internet of his past life on Earth. He needed to secure their digital footprint before the Anomaly God Paragon rumours reached a fever pitch.

When Nikolas looked at him with a puzzled expression, John slowly explained what he wanted. He knew his friends had done a spectacular job of preparing the human survivors they saved, but he was a realist. He couldn’t trust three thousand traumatised people to keep a secret forever.

Eventually, someone would crack. Someone would sketch his face as the new Paragon, or give a detailed description of John’s friends.

"You want me to replace your photos and names in the official files?!!" Nikolas’ eyes widened, and for a moment, he looked as if he were about to object. But then, a dark, amused chuckle rumbled in his chest, and he shook his head.

"It’s a trivial thing for someone with my authority. I can wipe the old records and replace them with generic or altered data tonight. To anyone looking at the archives tomorrow, you’ll look like five completely different students who just happened to go missing and came back."

"That’s good," John nodded, a weight lifted from his shoulders. This was a critical vulnerability handled.

"The next step is a very important one. We need a base of operations. Not these guest dorms, and not our old rooms. We need a spot that is hidden from the eyes of the Headmaster, the spies in the academy, and the monitoring devices. We need a place where we can plan things freely and store supplies without being detected."

"This can be quite challenging," Nikolas sighed, leaning back against a lavishly carved mahogany pillar.

"As far as I know, there is an old basement that stretches underneath the entire department. However, that place was taken as a common storage spot for anything of no value to the department long ago. It’s cluttered with rusted equipment, broken furniture, and decades of forgotten paperwork."

Nikolas’s tone suggested that while the space was vast and largely ignored, it was still a known entity. It was technically accessible, which meant it was exposed. It wasn’t the impenetrable sanctuary John required.

John exchanged silent, meaningful glances with his friends; they had survived an apocalypse by being meticulous, and they weren’t about to get sloppy now. They all shook their heads in unison.