Time snapped back into place like a stretched rubber band.
The Dire Bloodhound was a blur of crimson fur and rotting breath, lunging straight for my throat. But the golden text—[Weakness: Corrupted Core (Left Chest)]—glowed like a neon sign in the murky forest, refusing to fade.
I didn't think. I couldn't. I threw my body to the right, slipping heavily on the slick, bloody mud. It wasn't a graceful dodge; it was a desperate, flailing dive. The beast's jaws snapped shut exactly where my head had been a fraction of a second ago, the sheer force of its bite creating an audible crack in the air.
I scrambled to my hands and knees, my heart pounding a frantic, terrifying rhythm that reminded me of a heavy funk bassline on absolute overdrive. Focus, Amine. Just focus. I repeated my own name like a lifeline, desperately trying to anchor myself to reality. I was just a guy from Kenitra who spent his days writing code and watching anime, not some seasoned warrior. My legs were shaking so badly I could barely command them to stand.
The beast skidded, its claws tearing deep gouges into the earth, and whipped its massive head around to face me again. The blue flames in its eyes flared higher.
I needed a weapon. Fast.
My frantic eyes scanned the mud and locked onto the fallen armored man a few feet away. His hand, stiff and lifeless, was still curled around the hilt of a broken iron longsword.
With a scream that was half-terror, half-adrenaline, I lunged for it. My fingers wrapped around the cold, mud-caked leather grip just as the Bloodhound charged again. I dragged the sword upward. It was impossibly heavy, the jagged, broken edge catching the dim, sickly light of the sky.
[Agility: 85] The system's golden text floated above the charging monster. It was fast, impossibly fast. But thanks to the Source Code Vision, its trajectory wasn't a mystery anymore. A faint, glowing red line materialized in my vision, tracing the exact path of the beast's leap—like a predicted flight path drawn on a screen.
It leaped into the air, aiming to pin me to the ground and tear my throat out.
Instead of running, which I knew I couldn't do fast enough, I fell onto my back and braced the heavy hilt of the broken sword against the solid earth. I pointed the jagged blade upward at a forty-five-degree angle, aligning it perfectly with the glowing red trajectory line. It was a desperate, stupid gamble—a move I'd seen a hundred times in manga—but doing it in real life felt like stepping in front of a speeding train.
Please work. Please compile without errors.
The beast descended.
The impact was like getting hit by a concrete block. Pain exploded up my arms as the immense weight of the Bloodhound crashed onto the blade. But the sword held against the earth. The jagged iron pierced straight through the glowing golden target on its left chest—the Corrupted Core.
A horrific, unearthly shriek tore from the monster's throat, vibrating right through my bones. Hot, black liquid sprayed across my face and tunic, smelling of sulfur and burnt electronics. I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting razor-sharp claws to tear me apart in its death throes.
Instead, the crushing weight suddenly vanished.
I opened my eyes, gasping for air. The Dire Bloodhound was dissolving. Its massive body was breaking apart into thousands of glowing blue polygons, scattering into the wind like digital ashes deleting themselves from reality.
I let go of the sword and collapsed backward into the mud, my chest heaving, staring up at the bruised sky. My arms felt like they had been ripped from their sockets. I was covered in mud, sweat, and monster blood.
Then, the familiar, clear ding echoed in my mind.
[Enemy Defeated: Dire Bloodhound (Lv. 15)] [Calculating Experience...] [Level Up! You are now Level 2.] [Level Up! You are now Level 3.] [System Notification: Massive level gap detected. Bonus EXP awarded.] [New Loot Acquired: 1x Corrupted Canine Fang, 50x Copper Coins] [Status: Exhausted. Recommendation: Find a safe zone.]
I let out a breathless, hysterical laugh that sounded dangerously close to a sob.
"A safe zone," I muttered to the empty forest, wiping the black grime from my eyes with a trembling hand. "Yeah... let me just open Google Maps."
I was alive. But as I looked around the dark, unforgiving trees, listening to the distant, unnatural howls echoing in the wind, I realized that fixing the first bug was only the beginning. I had to survive the whole damn program.