Only I know about “Level Up” in this world

nn!!! Sparks flew and the ogre’s halberd was blown away.
His stance broke with the shock of my blow, and he fell backwards on his butt.

“Ha…?”

The ogre gaped because he couldn’t believe that he was overpowered.

“Why..? What..?”

He then saw me and his face stiffened in fear.

“Wha..? What the hell are you?!?”

“Can’t you tell? I’m just a regular human.”

“Don’t lie!! There is no way a Level 1 human has such strength! We ogres are at Level 10 you know?!”

“Is that so? That’s still lower than mine.”

“Eh..?”

“I am at Level 14.”

When I showed him the Level crest on the back of my hand, he stiffened in surprise.

“Wha…Wha…?”

He couldn’t believe his own eyes and was just staring.
I had no need to wait for him to snap out of it.
I approached the ogre to put an end to him.

“Don’t worry, you’re the last one.”, I told him dispassionately.
“I’ve killed all your other friends.”

“Wha…at?”

“Unfortunately, this is an eat or be eaten world.
The weak will be eaten.
So, don’t resent me for it.
If you want to resent something, resent the fact that you were born as a weak ogre.”

“Hiiii…”

The ogre finally realised that he was the prey and not the hunter.
Leaking a high shriek and dragging his butt, he tried to retreat.

“Wait, please! Let me go! I’ll do anything you want! You want to leave through here right? I’ll let you go! Th..That’s right! If you’re a human you can’t open this gate right? If you kill me you won’t be able to leave easily.”

“Tell me…”, I interrupted his blithering.
“…have you ever let your prey go?”

“Well…that…”

“Of course you haven’t.”

Declaring that, I beheaded him using the halberd.

“Nor have I.”

The final ogre’s head fell on the ground as his death throes still echoed.

“………..”

And then, silence fell.
Only the dispassionate crackling of the distant fire was heard.
I wiped the spurts of blood off my face and discarded the halberd.

“With this it’s Subjugation Complete1 for all the ogres.”

When I checked the Level crest on the back of my hand, it showed… Level 15.
I’ve managed to raise it this much after killing every ogre in the town.
This should be more than sufficient for any stray monsters around this area.

“All that’s left now is to leave this town.”

I walked up to the enormous iron gate that blocked the town’s exit.
A symbol of oppression for the humans, the thing that kept them imprisoned for so long.
This gate is so solid and massive that there is no need to lock it.
Even if a bunch of humans at Level 1 try to open it together, they would manage to move it a few millimetres at best.
That’s why no one has opened this gate for so long or rather no one has even thought about opening it.
I placed my hands on such a gate and…

“Theo, is that you?”

…heard someone call me from behind.

T/N Notes:

Authors use Subjugation Complete like how we might use Game Over.