They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 208: Mole

We took a brief, tense rest to bandage the remaining wounds and let the potions fully settle into our systems.

Once Garf could put his full weight on his legs without wincing, we packed up to push toward the deeper levels.

Edric took the lead, his dark cloak blending seamlessly into the dungeon’s gloom. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Yenna walked a few paces behind him, her arms crossed.

She wasn’t yelling at him anymore, but she kept throwing sideways, complicated glances at his back.

Garf and Mira followed, falling into an easy, quiet conversation about their gear and the layout of the floor.

Scarlet, Tessa, and I took the middle of the formation, leaving Rolf to guard the rear.

We hadn’t walked for more than ten minutes down the tunnel when Rolf suddenly stopped.

"Umm..." the rogue shifted his weight from foot to foot, clutching his stomach awkwardly.

"Nature calls. Give me a sec." He turned and immediately started hurrying back the way we came, toward the cavern where the bodies were.

Yenna stopped and threw her hands up in exasperation. "Really? Right now, Rolf?"

Rolf paused just long enough to flash his usual, nervous, sheepish smile over his shoulder.

"Sorry! Weak bladder! I’ll be right back!" He jogged off, quickly disappearing into the shadows.

Yenna let out a heavy sigh, leaning her back against the cool stone of the tunnel. "Unbelievable."

The rest of the group took the opportunity to sit down on some nearby boulders. Tessa looked at Garf’s heavily dented armor and Mira’s bruised arms, her brow furrowing with genuine concern.

"Is it really okay to keep going?" Tessa asked softly. "Shouldn’t you all be resting right now? You took a lot of damage."

Garf let out a deep, rumbling chuckle, patting the broad iron face of his shield.

"Don’t worry about us, little lady. We just got caught off guard by those bastards. If they hadn’t ambushed us from the shadows, we wouldn’t have had much of a problem."

He jerked a massive thumb toward the front of the tunnel. "Besides, our best guy is back now. We’ll be fine."

Edric didn’t say anything, just kept his eyes scanning the dark path ahead.

While they talked, my mind was miles away.

My eyes drifted back down the dark, empty tunnel where Rolf had gone. The image of the rogue standing over those figures , his hand twitching deliberately toward the corpse... it was itching at my brain.

He wasn’t going to rob them or was he? I thought, a cold knot forming in my stomach. He seemed to be like... reaching for something specific.

I stood up, adjusting Oathstorm at my hip.

Tessa looked up at me, blinking. "Where are you going?"

"Nature’s call," I said, keeping my face perfectly neutral. "Must be contagious. Be right back."

Before anyone could object, I slipped away from the group, jogging lightly down the tunnel.

But the moment I was out of the glow of their fire orbs, my demeanor shifted completely. I slowed my pace, dropping my center of gravity.

[Target: Jin -> Modify Property: Acoustic Signature = 0% Modify Property: Light Reflection = -80%]

My boots hit the stone floor in absolute, dead silence.

The shadows in the tunnel seemed to cling to my clothes, obscuring my outline. I pressed my back flat against the damp, freezing wall of the cavern, edging my way toward the entrance of the chamber where we had fought those bastard.

And suddenly... I paused.

As I heard, a voice was echoing faintly off the stone. It wasn’t the sound of someone relieving themselves. It was a hushed, urgent whisper.

I carefully slid sideways, gluing myself to the jagged rock at the corner of the cavern entrance, and peeked an eye around the stone.

The view made my blood run instantly cold.

Rolf wasn’t peeing.

He was standing directly over the charred corpse of the figure.

The nervous, cowardly posture he always carried was completely gone. His spine was straight, his face hard and calculating in the dim light.

In his right hand, he held a faintly glowing, crimson communication crystal. He was pressing it near his mouth.

"I don’t care what the original parameters were," Rolf hissed into the crystal, his voice dripping with cold professionalism.

"The primary targets are still breathing. Zero-Two and Zero-Four are dead."

Static hissed faintly from the crystal, a distorted voice answering him, though I couldn’t make out the words.

Rolf scowled, kicking the dead assassin’s boot.

"Because of an anomaly! Some kid intervened. And Edric showed up early. The ambush failed."

He paused, listening to the crystal again. He dragged his free hand down his face in frustration.

"Yes, my cover is still intact," Rolf whispered harshly. "But the timetable is ruined. If they push deeper into the dungeon, they’re going to find the staging area. I need new orders. Do I initiate the collapse, or do I wait for extraction?"

I pulled my head back behind the wall. The cold stone dug into my spine.

My heart hammered a frantic, deafening rhythm against my ribs.

Panic flared in my chest, hot and suffocating. I needed to get back to the others.

But just as I took a slow, silent step backward, preparing to slip away.

"Ah. You’re here too?"

The voice came from right beside me.

Fuck. When did he—?

I froze, the blood turning to ice in my veins. I slowly turned my head.

Standing just a few feet away in the dimly lit tunnel was Rolf.

The cold, calculating posture I had just witnessed was completely gone. He was hunched over slightly, his hands shoved into his pockets, wearing his usual, nervous, sheepish smile.

"Feeling better?" he asked, tilting his head innocently.

I forced my facial muscles to relax, swallowing the lump in my throat.

"Yeah. Yes. You?"

"Much better!" He nodded vigorously, gesturing down the dark path with his chin. "Let’s walk back together, yeah? Don’t want to keep the others waiting."

He fell into step beside me.

My skin crawled. I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead, but I opened my system interface in my peripheral vision, aiming it right at the rogue walking shoulder-to-shoulder with me.

[Target: Rolf]

[Analyzing...]

[ERROR: Target level exceeds user. Higher level required.]

My eyes widened.

Error?