Items Pour Out a Hundredfold

If there was a silver lining, this was it.

"Yeah. At least they're not coming out a hundredfold."

Whatever these wild dogs had been eating, they had blown past the neighborhood mutts I'd been picturing. They were big enough you'd be justified calling them half-wolves, plump and well-fed in a way that said a stick-thin guy like me would get mounted and shredded the second one of them pounced.

And not one of those things—a hundred of them? Forget burying the cabin. The barking alone might have driven me insane from the inside. Even twelve already packed the front yard so full I could barely see it through the window.

"Hah. Maybe I should just bail right now."

The base—meaning the cabin—seemed to work on a system where the Server Connection Device's energy would protect it if it came under attack. In that case, maybe the smart play was to charge the energy and log out now, while the wild dogs were still just milling around the yard instead of hitting the base.

I'd had this baseless confidence that I could handle maybe one of them with the solid internals I'd built up getting to level 9. Twelve was a different story. Even if I could overpower a wild dog with my bare hands, the odds of getting torn apart by the ones swarming in from every direction were plenty high.

And yet I couldn't take a single step toward the Server Connection Device. The situation had changed, and I knew the right answer—but I still hesitated. Curiosity, of course. I wanted to know.

That was the result of the Growth Cards I'd picked, resisting every other temptation on the faith that stacking stats was the smartest play at low levels. Compared to the level-up points hunters received, they were still so low they barely stacked up against even B-class or C-class—but still.

"Running away because I got scared of some shitty mutts just doesn't sit right."

I had a weapon, too. I summoned up the courage to walk out there and fight them head-on.

"Woof! Woof!"

The moment I made up my mind, the wild dogs moved. Instead of coming straight at the cabin, they seemed confused, burying their snouts in the fallen weeds and sniffing around. Watching them poke through the piles of Life Grass I'd gathered in various spots, I got the picture.

"Those bastards came here to eat the Life Fruit."

Common sense said that unless this place was an actual game, there was no reason for twelve wild dogs to suddenly show up at a cabin nobody lived in. I was here now, sure, but originally the cabin would have been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠empty. So these wild dogs hadn't come because they smelled me. They'd come the same way they always did. Because they were hungry. To eat the Fruits of Life.

But I'd gone and mowed down all the Life Grass in the yard as "cleaning," and moved every last Life Fruit inside as emergency rations. Of course they were confused.

"Grrrr—"

Their favorite restaurant had gone under overnight. The wild dogs were pissed. They bared their teeth and started hunting for whoever had wrecked the place—and that was when their eyes met mine, watching them through the cabin window.

"Woof!"

One of them barked, and the rest charged the cabin. With bodies that size, wouldn't they smash right through the windows? I stepped back and raised the rusted longsword, but—

BAM!!

As it slammed into the window, some kind of thin film acted as a buffer and bounced the wild dog right off.

CLANG!!

"Oh."

A nearly invisible barrier was covering the entire cabin. So this was the Server Connection Device's energy. It had been barely noticeable when I was coming and going, but it did its job against the beasts' attacks. That was a relief. At least I wouldn't die as long as I stayed inside.

I checked the Server Connection Device. The energy hadn't even dropped from a single impact. If I wanted to clear the quest on condition (2), I could just crawl into my sleeping bag right now and go to sleep.

With that realization, the tension drained out of me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and my brain started working again.

"If it doesn't just defend against attacks on the base—if it also blocks things from coming in?"

One of them I could handle. So as long as I didn't let myself get surrounded by all twelve, I'd be fine, right? Watching the wild dogs ram their heads against the little cabin from all sides, I carefully approached the front door.

"Woof! Woof!"

I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should really open the door on things barking loud enough to make my ears ring. But—

Creak!

I opened the door, set a single Life Fruit just inside the entrance, stepped back, and raised the longsword. The doorway was narrow. At most, one of those oversized wild dogs could squeeze through.

"Woof?"

Sure enough, the wild dog that had been ramming the wall right next to the door caught the scent of the Life Fruit. Drool streaming from its jaws, it shoved its head through.

Ting!

"Whew."

The barrier stopped the wild dog's head even as it tried to come through the open doorway. I'd opened it myself, so I'd been worried they might be able to get in—but even that was perfectly blocked.

Only one experiment left. The wild dog and I, standing a single step apart through the open door. If I swung the longsword from inside the transparent barrier, would I stay protected while the wild dog took the hit? Could I pull off that miracle noob-cheese—safe on my side, wrecking them on theirs?

"Double Attack!"

I brought the longsword down on the head of the wild dog ramming the barrier. It felt less like cutting and more like smashing a skull in with a wooden sword, given how rusted the blade was.

THWACK!

The rusted copper longsword, empowered by Double Attack, came down on the wild dog's head with zero resistance. It worked. The longsword itself left the barrier and lost its protection, but attacking from the inside out was possible.

THUD!!

"Huh?"

I'd put everything I had into the swing, just in case it didn't die in one hit. But the wild dog I'd struck in the head died far more pathetically than I'd expected. Without even a scream. Its skull caved in, blood pooling so thick on the ground in front of the door it was grotesque.

"Heh."

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hollow laugh escaped me. I'd figured a wild dog would be manageable, sure, but this easy? I couldn't shake the thought. Even if I'd used Double Attack, killing it in one shot put some real confidence in me.

"Bring it, you sons of bitches!!"

Of course, I didn't actually go outside. The wild dogs reacted to something coming out of the cabin for the first time and charged—and I smashed their skulls in from inside like a cheapskate, swinging nothing but the longsword.

"THE HEAD!!!!"

CLAAANG!!

"Ah. Missed."

A one-sided massacre. I stayed behind the energy barrier and smashed every wild dog skull that came close—the greediest, most one-sided trade in history.

Around the sixth kill, the dumb wild dogs finally started backing away from the cabin on instinct. They bared their teeth, but their legs were shaking. Fear. They should have run. But hunger, it seemed, overrode even that instinct.

I picked up a Life Fruit and rolled it out past the barrier.

"Grrrrr—"

"What else are you mutts gonna do?"

And the wild dogs came closer. It wasn't close enough to smash their heads from the safety of the inside—but my whole body was soaked in dopamine right now, so I didn't care. I felt like I could do anything.

The moment all six remaining wild dogs came for the Life Fruit rolling among the blood and corpses—

"DIIIE!!"

I charged out, swinging the longsword wildly, smashing skulls. There was no technique. All the already-terrified wild dogs could do was flinch and scramble backward. Of course, once they realized the thing that had done this to them was a scrawny human, they started fighting back.

"AAAAAAHH!!"

The pain of one biting my thigh was nothing to me, drowning in adrenaline. Whether it was the extra stamina letting me endure the pain or not, I was drunk on the confidence of having gotten stronger and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the thrilling double-hit of Double Attack ringing out with every swing—

"Fuuuuck."

I collapsed onto a pile of Life Grass stems, sprawling out like a starfish. I'd done it. Pools of blood and wild dog corpses. Every single one with a smashed skull or a caved-in body—and I'd done all of that.

It felt like just yesterday that I'd lost an arm-wrestling match to Kim Yerin after she became a hunter and gotten mocked for three months straight.

"Heheheh."

The reason you study. The reason you work out. The reason you invest. All of it is to prove something. The moment you feel growth the most is when you see the numbers go up with your own eyes.

"This is sick."

I picked up a Life Fruit caked in dirt and blood and bit into it. The stinging bite wounds on my thigh and forearm dulled, then vanished. My drained stamina recovered and filled back up—almost too good to waste as mere food.

The cool night wind felt refreshing today, cooling a body that had burned so hot. The first real courage I'd shown in thirty years of life. The first time I'd ever killed something. Combined with the tangible growth from all that weed-cutting grind, the payoff for that courage came back a hundredfold. It felt good.

But that wasn't all. Growth Cards piled up in front of my eyes—and besides those, scattered beside the wild dog corpses on the ground, all kinds of byproducts caught my eye between the cards.

I'd offhandedly mentioned wanting to eat some meat, and these Santa wild dogs had snuck over and granted the wish.