They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 140: Alpha [1]

The Alpha tore through what remained of the gate like it was made of paper.

The massive creature, easily fifteen feet tall at the shoulder, with muscles that rippled beneath scarred fur and claws the length of short swords, planted its front paws on the rubble and roared.

The shockwave of sound hit the remaining guards like a physical force. Several of them were literally flung backward, losing their footing, their makeshift defensive line disintegrating in an instant.

The guard captain, blood streaming from a gash across his forehead, his armor dented and torn, staggered to his feet and stared at the Alpha with the expression of a man who’d just seen his own death.

"What the fuck is that thing doing here?!" His voice cracked with desperation and disbelief. "That’s an Alpha! There’s no way... we can’t take that down without knights!"

He was right.

I could see it in my debug vision, the numbers laid out with brutal clarity.

Level 31.

I was level 19.

The math wasn’t even close.

"Shit," I breathed, my grip tightening on the axe handle until my knuckles went white.

Behind me, I heard the villagers and their reactions rippled through like a wave of terror.

"Oh gods—"

"We’re going to die—"

"Run! We have to—"

"There’s nowhere to run!"

The Alpha lowered its massive head, its milky eyes fixing on the scattered guards.

Then it roared again, shorter this time. Sharper.

A command.

The two dire bears flanking it, smaller than the Alpha but still massive, each easily level 18 or 19, charged forward with earth-shaking steps.

And behind them, the remaining beasts that had been waiting beyond the gate surged forward in a flood of fur and fangs and claws.

Wolves. Boars. More bears. At least fifteen of them, emboldened by the Alpha’s presence, no longer hesitating.

The guards tried to reform, the captain screaming orders, but half of them were still on the ground, winded or injured.

They engaged as best they could, spears and swords meeting the charge with desperate courage.

But they were already exhausted. Already wounded. Already dying.

I saw one guard, plant his spear to receive a charging boar. The weapon found its mark, sinking deep into the creature’s chest.

But the boar’s momentum didn’t stop. It drove forward, impaling itself further, and slammed into the guard.

Both went down. Only the boar got back up, the spear jutting from its body like a banner as it staggered toward another target.

The guard didn’t move again.

Scarlet and I engaged immediately, charging to meet the flood before it could overwhelm everything.

I modified my weight again, pushed my enhanced agility to its limit, and threw myself into the nearest wolf.

[Blade Sharpness: Enhanced 400%]

The axe cleaved through its skull, but there were two more right behind it.

I had to dodge, roll, come up swinging at a different angle. But there were too many.

A boar broke past my guard, charging toward where Tessa’s crew was positioned near one of the houses.

"Watch out!" I shouted, but my voice was lost in the chaos.

The boar hit their position like a battering ram.

Tessa tried to set her scythe to receive the charge, but the angle was wrong, her footing uncertain. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The boar’s tusk caught her across the ribs, sending her flying backward into the wall with a sickening crack.

She crumpled.

"Tessa!" Rowan screamed, rushing to her side.

The boar turned on him, and two other crew members had to engage it, desperately stabbing with their weapons, trying to drive it back.

They managed to wound it, slow it down.

But it killed one of them first, a young woman whose name I didn’t even know, her throat torn out by tusks before she could scream.

The other crew members finally brought the boar down, their weapons red with its blood and their companion’s.

But the cost—

More beasts were slipping past us. Past the guards. Into the village proper where the civilians were trying to hold their positions with farm tools and terror-fueled determination.

A wolf found Crew Three on their rooftop. It had climbed the building using window frames and structural damage and appeared on the roof like a nightmare.

They tried to fight it off with their stones and makeshift weapons.

But it killed two of them before throwing itself off the roof, landing hard, limping toward easier prey.

The screams were constant now. Overlapping. Guards. Villagers. Beasts.

The smell of blood was overwhelming, copper and iron and fear.

Scarlet was fighting like a demon beside me, her claws flashing, but even she was taking hits.

I saw a wolf’s claws rake across her shoulder, tearing through cloth and flesh, blood spraying.

She didn’t even slow down, just killed it with vicious efficiency and moved to the next threat.

But we were losing.

The entire situation was spiraling out of control faster than I could adapt.

We won’t survive at this rate.

We had maybe ten more minutes before the defense collapsed completely.

And then the Alpha would move.

It hadn’t even engaged yet, just stood there beyond the ruined gate, watching with those milky eyes as its lesser kin tore through our forces.

Waiting.

My hand went to my belt pouch, fingers finding the small glass vial I’d bought weeks ago in Greyford, before any of this nightmare started.

A mana potion.

I’d been saving it. Hoarding it for an emergency.

This qualifies.

I pulled the vial free, yanked the cork with my teeth, and chugged the contents in one long gulp.

The taste was awful, bitter herbs and something that burned going down, but the effect was immediate.

[MP: 78/194 —> 178/194]

The exhaustion in my limbs faded slightly. My debug vision sharpened, the overlays becoming clearer, faster.

I had maybe one good push left in me.

One chance to turn this around before everything collapsed.

Then before I could do anything... the Alpha roared again, the sound cutting through the chaos like a blade.

And this time, it took a step forward.

Into the village.

Toward us.