Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 36: Goblin Iron Code: Level 5 Item

For the next couple of minutes, the hall became a chaotic battlefield. John moved through the centre of the frenzy, taking hits that would have broken a normal person’s bones, but only cost him a single point of HP each.

He managed to leave more than forty monsters paralysed on the ground. He knew the duration of his Object Lockdown ability would wane after two minutes, so he timed his strikes perfectly, ensuring the monsters he immobilised would stay down until he could circle back to finish them.

"Only five remain," he said, catching sight of the last small group still on their feet. He decided to see if he could take five at once while keeping an eye on his status. "That ability is more useful than I thought!"

His HP was supposed to be hitting rock bottom after taking dozens of hits, if not for the HP Regeneration ability. It had triggered exactly when it was supposed to, keeping his HP hovering at a stable eleven points despite the constant battering.

He didn’t hesitate to start fighting in his usual way, evading the clumsy swings of the final five thanks to Frame Recognition, and punching back with the combined force of MP Absorption and Object Lockdown.

[-6] [-6] [-6] [-12]

[+5] [+9] [+4] [+6]

He found it easy to evade the attacks of these five monsters. Every punch made the Goblins lose six HP, but the last hit on the fourth goblin suddenly flashed a brilliant, saturated, crimson red.

"It must be a critical hit!" His eyes shone brighter when he saw the big red number. "So I can cause critical damage, but the probability is quite low..."

The remaining four monsters didn’t last long. As the last one fell, John heard a series of wet, glitchy sounds behind him. Many of the monsters he had immobilised earlier were starting to jitter; they were breaking free of his ability’s restraints as the timer expired.

"Not giving me time to catch my breath? Fine, another round then!"

He knew the Frenzy State was close to ending, so he didn’t hold back anymore. He started attacking the recovering monsters freely, no longer worried about their high stats. He was a whirlwind of motion, his fists moving faster than the goblins could stand up.

In less than half a minute, the Frenzy State ended. With its conclusion, the monsters that had been breaking free suddenly slowed down. They stood up and... Stopped. They didn’t move a muscle, returning to their dormant, white-coded state, while returning to the dormant state seemed to break his restraining ability.

"It’s payback time!"

John didn’t stop for even a second. He didn’t know if the Frenzy state could be reactivated, and he didn’t intend to find out. He went through the remaining monsters like a scythe through wheat, killing every last one of them over the next ten minutes.

"That’s weird..."

Since the start of the Frenzy, John had been totally focused on nothing but survival and killing. But once the hall was finally clear and the last Goblin had vanished, he checked his profile. To his shock, he didn’t find any change at all in his Stat points.

"Weird... Does it mean killing monsters in Frenzy State won’t get me any Stat points?"

He stood in the centre of the silent, vast hall, waiting for the system to clarify the situation. But the system, by recent habit, stuck to a stubborn silence and said nothing.

Before he could start pestering the system for an answer regarding the missing stat points, John’s eyes were drawn to a flicker of light not far from where the last goblin had fallen. Usually, the monsters in this dungeon vanished into thin air, leaving behind nothing. But now, a few meters away, a cluster of white codes pulsed on the cold floor.

"This..." John hesitated. He’d had nothing but bad experiences with clusters of codes in this world; usually, they were monitoring devices or special codes with dangerous abilities. He approached the cluster cautiously, standing over it with his hand hovering just inches away, waiting for the usual warning notification.

But as his fingers brushed the light, the system chimed with a neutral, informative tone.

[Goblin Iron Code: Level 5 item.]

[Description: A crystallised fragment of iron ore code. Can be used in coding a weapon!]

"Iron Code? Code I can use for coding weapons?!!" John was startled.

He picked it up. It was about the size of his palm and felt surprisingly solid, with a weight that didn’t feel that heavy.

"How can I code a weapon using this?" The question sparked a fire in his mind. In his previous life as a hacker on Earth, he had written scripts, bypassed firewalls, and injected viruses into databases, but he had never tried to code a game weapon.

"Let’s see... Shell ability!"

His curiosity was rising as fast as his adrenaline. The familiar black command window appeared in the air before his eyes. As the window appeared, the object vanished from his hand as if being digitised and absorbed. Instantly, five lines of code flickered into existence within the Shell window.

"Oh, so that’s how it is..."

The experience was incredibly refreshing. He leaned in, reading the five code lines that defined the essence of the ore.

[PARAM durability = 0.88;

[PARAM strength = 1.25;

[PARAM sharpness = 0.60;

[PARAM shape = BALL_CONST;

[PARAM weight = 0.5]

The Goblin Iron Code had broken down into its fundamental parameters. These were the values that shaped how the object existed in the world. John’s fingers twitched in the air, his mind already spinning with possibilities.

"I can try to change these values, or add more lines, and see what happens," he whispered, his enthusiasm rising like a rocket. "I’ll make a sword out of it! If I can rewrite the shape parameter and boost the strength..."

He began his trials, attempting to edit the BALL_CONST to SWORD_TYPE. He tried to push the Strength value from 1.25 to a lethal 50.00. But the moment he tried to compile the script, the window flashed red, and the code reverted to its original state.

He tried to replicate the code lines entirely underneath the five original lines, injecting his own values while adding more code lines like Movement_Speed, but again, the system rejected the input. However, at one time, a string of notifications followed one failure.

[Ding! Your attempt to code a sword failed!]

[Ding! You need more Iron Codes to create the weapon!]

[Ding! ’Coding Weapons Proficiency’ unlocked!]

[Ding! Coding Weapons Proficiency gained 1 point!]

[Ding! You consumed 1 Mental Point in your failed attempt!]

[Coding Weapons Proficiency: 1/100]

"Interesting!" John checked his profile immediately. There it was, the humble one point of Coding Weapons Proficiency.

"So my final method is correct. I just need to replicate the code structure with my own values under the absorbed Iron Code, but I can’t conjure mass out of nothing, and I can’t add anything that didn’t exist. I need enough Iron Codes to make a sword. But how many are needed?"

Realising that the Frenzied Goblins were effectively loot drops for building his sword, John’s perspective on the dungeon shifted. He moved through the vast hall, scanning every inch of the floor with his Frame Recognition ability, searching for the tell-tale white shimmer. After a careful ten-minute sweep, he found three more clusters of Goblin Iron Code.

He attempted the process again, integrating all four pieces into the Shell window.

[Ding! Your attempt to code a sword failed!]

[Ding! Coding Weapons Proficiency gained 1 point!]

[Ding! You consumed 1 Mental Point in your failed attempt!]

"Four pieces still aren’t enough," he noted, his excitement tempered by the reality of the resource cost. He waited in the hall until his abilities timed out, then examined the physical form of the four Iron Codes he gained after the Shell ability ended. Without the Frame Recognition ability, they looked like four small, white, unrefined ore pieces.

"I need more to make my sword," he said, his eyes turning toward the gate leading to Stage 2. "So, I harvest Stat and Mental Points from the normal monsters, then I harvest Iron Codes when they enter their Frenzy State. It’s a balanced system... I like it!"

Deciphering the underlying logic of the dungeon made him feel a profound sense of satisfaction. Whether he was killing for stats or farming for ore, every action was bringing him closer to being stronger. He hoped the next hall would have even more monsters—and enough Iron Codes to finally forge his first weapon.