They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 136: It’s Time to Level Up [1]
I stepped out of the hall into chaos.
The night air hit me first, thick with smoke and the metallic scent of blood. Fires burned in scattered spots across the village, casting flickering orange light that turned everything into dancing shadows.
The guards were fighting desperately along the palisade walls, maybe twenty of them total spread too thin across too much ground. They thrust spears through gaps in the wooden logs, fired crossbow bolts at shapes moving in the darkness beyond, shouted warnings to each other as sections of the wall shuddered under impacts.
But they were being overwhelmed.
The beasts pressed against every section of the perimeter, massive wolves the size of horses with matted fur and foam dripping from their jaws, bear-like creatures with tusks jutting from their mouths, things that looked like boars but moved with unnatural speed and coordination.
Some of the beasts were trying to climb the palisade, their claws gouging deep furrows in the wood as they scrambled upward. Guards beat them back with spears and axes, but for every one that fell, two more took its place.
And I could see the damage clearly, several of the wooden support beams had massive cracks running through them, the wood splintered and barely holding. One section near the main gate looked ready to collapse entirely.
Soon they’d be inside.
I turned to Scarlet, who’d moved up beside me, her body coiled with barely contained violence.
"Ready?" I asked.
She growled and glared at me.
"If I die," she hissed, "I’ll kill you first!"
Then she ripped off her cloak in one fluid motion, letting it fall to the ground.
Her fox ears were fully visible now, twitching and tracking every sound. Her tail lashed behind her like a whip. Her fingers extended, claws sliding out with, gleaming, razor-sharp, ready to tear flesh.
Then suddenly.
ROAR!
A roar erupted from the gate.
BOOM!
The impact shook the ground beneath my feet.
Two guards flew backward like they’d been hit by a battering ram, their bodies slamming into the wooden houses behind them with sickening crunches. They didn’t get up.
The gate exploded inward, massive wooden beams shattering like kindling.
And the beasts poured through.
A massive dire bear led the charge, easily twelve feet tall on its hind legs, its fur matted with old blood and fresh wounds that it didn’t seem to notice.
Behind it came wolves, boars, something that looked like a massive badger with claws the length of daggers.
Dozens of them, flooding into the village like a living tide of fur and fangs and hunger.
The guard captain, a grizzled man with a scarred face and battered armor, was shouting desperately, his voice nearly lost in the chaos.
"Hold them! Hold the line! Don’t let them reach the—"
But four of the fastest beasts broke away from the main pack.
Wolves, lean and vicious, their eyes gleaming with predatory intelligence.
They saw us standing there in the open street, as of thinking of us as easy prey.
They charged, their snarls rising into howls as they closed the distance with terrifying speed.
"Watch out, kid!" the guard captain shouted, genuine fear in his voice.
I just sighed and activated my debug vision. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
The world shifted, overlays of information appearing across everything in my sight.
[Dire Wolf - Level 14]
[HP: 420/420]
[Speed: High]
I focused on myself next, pulling up my own stats and looking for modifications I could make.
Immediately I felt lighter, like gravity had lost half its grip on me. My movements would be faster now, more fluid.
Then I focused on the axe in my hand.
[Weapon Weight: 2.1kg → Modified to 0.8kg]
[Swing Speed: +60%]
The axe suddenly felt like it weighed almost nothing, the balance completely changed but in a way that would let me move it faster than any normal weapon.
The lead wolf was maybe twenty feet away now, closing fast.
I charged to meet it head-on, my modified weight letting me accelerate faster than should have been possible.
The wolf’s eyes widened slightly, confusion at prey that ran toward it instead of away.
"Want to come for me?" I said, my voice calm despite the adrenaline screaming through my veins.
At the last second, I feinted left.
The wolf committed to the direction, its body already turning to follow, its jaws opening wide to snap shut on where I would be.
Except I wasn’t there.
I’d shifted right instead.
The wolf stumbled, confused, trying to adjust mid-leap.
"Pass my servant first," I muttered.
Scarlet appeared like a ghost, moving so fast she was nearly a blur.
Her claws flashed once, twice, three times in rapid succession.
And... the wolf’s head separated from its body, tumbling through the air trailing blood, before both pieces hit the ground with wet thuds.
I didn’t stop moving.
The second and third wolves were converging on me from different angles, trying to flank, operating with pack tactics that spoke of intelligence and experience.
I hurled the axe in a wide arc toward the second wolf.
But just before releasing my grip, I made a modification.
[Rotation: Enhanced]
[Return Path: Calculated]
The axe left my hand spinning like a boomerang.
It flew in a perfect arc, the blade catching the second wolf across both eyes with surgical precision.
The creature screamed, a sound of pure agony, stumbling blindly as blood poured down its face.
And the axe completed its impossible curve and flew back to my hand, the handle slapping into my palm with satisfying weight.
The third and fourth wolves were on me now, one from each side, coordinating their attack.
I raised the axe, tracking both movements in my peripheral vision.
And waited.
Then...
Now.
I swung at the one on my left, and at the exact point of contact, I made two simultaneous modifications.
[Blade Sharpness: Enhanced 300%]
[Weapon Weight: 0.8kg → 8kg]
The axe suddenly weighed ten times more than a second ago, all that mass concentrated behind a blade that could cut through steel like paper.
The edge met the wolf’s skull and didn’t slow down.
It cleaved straight through bone and brain, continuing through the entire body in one devastating cut that split the creature nearly in half.
But I didn’t stop there... spun, using the momentum, reversing my grip on the axe handle.
The fourth wolf had committed to its lunge, jaws wide, going for my throat.
I ducked under its leap and brought the axe up in an uppercut motion, making the same modifications again.
The blade caught the wolf under its jaw and erupted out the top of its skull in a spray of blood and bone fragments.
The creature’s body went limp mid-air, crashing past me to hit the ground in a boneless heap.
I stood there for a moment, breathing hard, blood dripping from the axe blade.
Then a notification flashed across my vision.
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 17 → Level 18]
[New Stat Points Available: 5]
I rested the axe on my shoulder and turned to look at Scarlet.
She’d already finished the blinded wolf, standing over its corpse.
She looked at me, and for just a moment, there was something like approval in her eyes.
Then more roars erupted from the broken gate.
More beasts were pouring through, another dozen at least, maybe more, the firelight making it hard to count accurately.
The guard captain and his men were being pushed back, losing ground with every second, their formation breaking apart as exhaustion and fear took their toll.
I felt the familiar rush of adrenaline mixing with something else.
"It’s time to level up," I said, more to myself than to anyone else.
And charged.
