They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 152: It Worked

"Finally!"

The word came out louder than intended.

Three of the recovering guards jolted awake, one nearly falling off his cot, another grabbing for a weapon that wasn’t there. They looked around blearily for whatever threat had woken them, found nothing except a disheveled young man grinning at a vial on the table, and collectively decided this wasn’t worth being conscious for.

But I barely noticed them.

As my full focus was at the debug overlay hovering above the completed compound.

[COMPOUND_ANALYSIS]

compound_id: "anchor_disruption_agent_v6"

confidence_rating: 100%

stability: PERFECT

status: READY_FOR_ADMINISTRATION

One hundred percent.

The vial sat in the ceramic cup, shimmering faintly with a bright blue luminescence that hadn’t been present in the first two iterations.

I leaned back in the chair and stretched, my arms going above my head, my spine making a series of sounds that were frankly concerning.

My back ached from sitting hunched over the table through another full night. My eyes felt like they’d been filled with sand. The ink stains from yesterday had mostly faded but there were new ones on my left hand.

I rolled my neck, stared at the ceiling for a moment.

Two nights in a row. Agnes is going to say something.

Then the infirmary door opened, letting in a stream of morning light that was becoming personally offensive.

Tessa walked in wearing a simple rust-colored tunic with the sleeves rolled to the elbows and practical dark trousers tucked into worn work boots, her hair tied back in a high tail.

She had a basket over one arm that clinked with the sound of the materials she’d promised to collect this morning.

She took in the scene, the cluttered table, the vial, the scattered pages, me sitting in the chair with the posture of someone whose spine had filed a formal complaint.

Then she pressed a hand to her chest and bowed with elaborate ceremony.

"Oh, Young Master Raith! What an honor to witness your magnificence at..." she glanced at the window, calculating the sun angle, "Six thirty in the morning, for the second consecutive night! We are truly blessed by your—"

"Good morning, Tessa," I said flatly.

She straightened, grinning, entirely unrepentant.

I yawned, jaw cracking.

"Don’t you think you’re being a bit too casual? We barely know each other."

"We faced a life or death situation together," she said immediately, setting the basket down on the table. "That makes us friends. It’s basically a rule."

I raised an eyebrow.

"You sure you’re just a farm girl?"

She stuck her tongue out at me, then started unpacking the basket, her movements quick and efficient.

"All the resin you needed, plus I grabbed extra of the silverleaf since you burned through most of it. And Mira sent some of her winter stock, said you could keep it."

I looked at the materials and nodded.

Door opened again and I looked up to see Rowan stood at the entrance, arms crossed, expression doing its usual thing when he looked at me.

"Tessa. We have the water distribution roster to finish before midday."

Tessa glanced back at him.

"Two minutes."

"You said two minutes twenty minutes ago."

"Urgh!"

She turned back to me, completely unbothered, and patted my shoulder twice with brisk cheerfulness.

"You take care of yourself my lord, you’re barely alive right now," she said pleasantly, and immediately turned and walked toward the door.

Rowan shot me a parting glare and followed her out.

The door swung shut.

I sat there for a moment.

"Damn that girl," I muttered, not entirely without amusement.

I looked at the vial.

Bright blue, shimmering faintly.

Time to find out.

Carefully transferring the compound from the ceramic cup into a small glass vial I’d found in the infirmary supplies, sealed it with a cork, and pocketed it, gathered my notes, and headed out towards that same building.

Agnes answered the door before I’d finished knocking.

"Young Master." Her eyes moved over me. "You didn’t sleep again."

"Good morning to you too."

She stepped back to let me in.

"Where’s your mother?" I asked.

"Still sleeping. The nights have been harder for her lately, she doesn’t rest well, so I let her sleep as late as she can." Agnes glanced toward the back hallway. "Should I wake her?"

"When you can. No rush."

Agnes nodded and disappeared down the hallway.

I sat on the couch, turning the vial in my fingers.

And after few minutes, I heard soft footsteps in the hallway.

Sira emerged, Agnes behind her.

Sira looked like she’d slept poorly, her movements were stiff. But her eyes were clear, and she managed a genuine smile when she saw me.

"Young Master Raith. Early visit."

"Sorry to wake you."

She waved a hand dismissively and lowered herself into the chair across from the couch, Agnes hovering nearby.

I looked at the vial.

"I’ve been working with the infirmary’s healer," I said.

"There’s a tonic that some traveling physicians have used for general mana channel weakness, I had the materials to prepare it here."

I held up the vial.

"It won’t fix everything immediately, but it should help stabilize the weakness in your mana channels and support your body’s natural recovery."

Sira looked at the vial.

Then she looked at Agnes. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Agnes met her mother’s eyes for a moment, then looked at me, then back at her mother, and gave a small nod.

Sira looked back at me, held out her hand, and I placed the vial in her palm.

She unstoppered it, sniffed it once, made a small face at the smell, and drank it in one continuous swallow.

Then she lowered the empty vial.

"Bitter," she confirmed.

"I know."

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then...

Sira winced.

A small thing at first. Then her hand went to her sternum, her brow furrowing.

Then her entire body convulsed.

A full, violent convulsion that threw her back in the chair, her hands gripping the armrests white-knuckled, her teeth clenching hard.

Agnes was at her side instantly. "Mother—"

"Don’t hold her still—" I was on my feet, crossing the room, my debug vision flooding with data.

[ENTITY_SCAN: sira_thorne]

[COMPOUND_INTERACTION: ACTIVE]

mechanism: "anchor_point_destabilization"

status: EXECUTING

pathogen_lattice_response: DESTABILIZING

anchor_failures: 23%...41%...67%...

host_response: {

pain_response: HIGH

mana_channel_sensitivity: ELEVATED_CRITICAL

vital_signs: STRESSED_BUT_STABLE

convulsion_cause: "simultaneous_anchor_failure_cascade"

}

compound_integrity: HOLDING

When all the pathogen’s anchor points destabilized simultaneously, the lattice didn’t release gracefully.

It tore.

And the mana channels weren’t designed for that kind of sudden, widespread disruption.

I should have anticipated this.

"Is she—" Agnes’s voice was tight with barely controlled panic.

"She’s going to be fine," I said quickly, keeping my voice steady even as I watched the readings.

As I said it, I saw the change begin.

Dark lines that had marked Sira’s arms and the hollows beneath her eyes since the infection had taken hold.

They started to fade.

Like ink washing out of cloth, the darkness receding from her extremities inward, the shadow beneath her eyes lightening from black to grey to barely-there.

Her convulsions were slowing, the violent shaking giving way to smaller tremors, then to stillness.

Her breathing, which had been ragged and desperate, began to even out. The clenched muscles in her jaw relaxed. Her grip on the armrests loosened completely.

I opened my debug vision, checking the readings one more time.

pathogen_lattice: FRAGMENTED (94% anchor failure)

replication_status: SUSPENDED

existing_corruption: "dispersing_as_free_particles"

mana_channel_status: "sensitive_but_intact"

host_vital_signs: STABLE

projected_clearance_timeline: 95-110_days

assessment: SUCCESSFUL

It worked.