The convenience store was a tomb.
Soo-ah limped through the shattered glass, her bare feet leaving bloody prints on the tile. I followed close behind, the broken street sign still in my hand, my eyes scanning the darkness beyond the flickering fluorescent lights. The shelves were overturned, the coolers smashed, the counter splintered like someone had taken an axe to it.
She collapsed against the back wall, sliding down to the floor. Her leg was a mess. The goblins had cut her deep—I could see the white of something I didn't want to name.
"We need to stop the bleeding," I said.
"I know." She pressed her torn sleeve against the wound. It soaked through in seconds.
I knelt beside her. The System Interface was still there, floating in the corner of my vision. I pulled up her status.
```
BOUND ALLY: Lee Soo-ah
Talent: Healing Touch (C-rank → B-rank due to multiplier)
Current HP: 38/100
Status: Bleeding (moderate), Exhaustion (severe)
```
"You have a healing talent," I said. "Use it."
"I don't know how."
"You do now. Focus on the wound. Think about closing it. And invest something."
She looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I grabbed a piece of broken glass and sliced my palm. Blood welled up.
"I invest this blood into Lee Soo-ah's healing," I said.
```
Investment: 1 drop of blood (Kang Jinho) → 10,000 drops of healing energy.
Target: Lee Soo-ah. Wound status: closing.
```
The gash on her leg began to knit. Not fast, but visibly. The bleeding slowed. The edges pulled together. Soo-ah gasped.
"That's—that's not me."
"No. It's me. But you need to learn to do it yourself." I sat back on my heels. "Now try. Close your eyes. Feel your talent. It's there, inside you. Like a muscle you've never used."
She closed her eyes. Her face scrunched in concentration. A faint white glow appeared around her fingers.
"I think… I think I'm doing it."
"Keep going."
The glow brightened. The wound healed faster. Within a minute, the gash was just a red line. Within five, it was gone.
She opened her eyes. They were wet. "I've never… I didn't know I could do that."
"Nobody knows what they can do until they have to." I stood up and looked around the ruined store. "We need supplies. Food, water, bandages. Check the back room."
She nodded and limped toward the stockroom. I walked to the front of the store, stepping over broken glass and overturned displays. Outside, the night was still screaming. But the immediate area was quiet. I'd killed everything within a two-block radius.
I leaned against the counter and pulled up my full System Interface.
```
═══════════════════════════════════════
USER: Kang Jinho
TALENT: 10,000× RETURN (EX-rank)
BIND SLOTS: 1/10
- Lee Soo-ah (Healing Touch, C→B)
═══════════════════════════════════════
STATS (current, approximate):
Strength: 12/100 (was 5)
Speed: 10/100 (was 4)
Endurance: 14/100 (was 3)
Perception: 8/100 (was 2)
Recovery: 9/100 (was 1)
═══════════════════════════════════════
MONSTER KILLS:
Goblins: 17
Ogres: 3
Harpy: 1
Total cores absorbed: 21 (F and E rank)
═══════════════════════════════════════
TITLES EARNED:
[First Blood] – +5% damage to goblins
[Ogre Slayer] – +10% physical defense
[Lone Survivor] – +5% recovery rate
═══════════════════════════════════════
```
I was still weak. But I wasn't the same person who'd been delivering cold chicken twelve hours ago.
Soo-ah came back with a plastic bag full of rice cakes, bottled water, and a first-aid kit. "This is all I could find."
"It's enough." I took the bag. "We need to find shelter. Somewhere defensible."
"There's a warehouse two streets over. My dad used to work there before… before everything."
"Show me."
---
The warehouse was perfect.
Three stories, concrete walls, a roof that didn't leak, and only two entrances. The loading dock at the front and a fire escape at the back. We barricaded both with pallets and machinery.
Soo-ah found an old office on the second floor with a couch that wasn't completely disgusting. I dragged it into the main space and told her to sleep.
"What about you?" she asked.
"I'll take first watch."
She didn't argue. She curled up on the couch and was asleep in seconds.
I sat against a pillar near the loading dock, my broken street sign across my knees, and watched the night.
The System Interface had a new tab: DIMENSIONAL RIFTS.
```
═══════════════════════════════════════
LOCAL RIFTS (Seoul area):
S-rank: 1 (N Seoul Tower)
A-rank: 3 (Gangnam, Yongsan, Mapo)
B-rank: 7
C-rank: 12
D-rank and below: 47
Estimated time until S-rank rift spawns boss: 72 hours
═══════════════════════════════════════
```
An S-rank rift. That was the big tear I'd seen. The one that had started everything. I wasn't ready for that. Not even close.
But I would be.
I pulled up another tab: BINDING.
```
═══════════════════════════════════════
BINDING STATUS: 1/10
Slot 1: Lee Soo-ah (Healing Touch, B-rank)
Loyalty: Absolute
Shared abilities active: Healing, Pain Resistance, Empathy
Notes: Subject is adapting well to multiplier. Recommend combat training.
═══════════════════════════════════════
RECOMMENDED NEXT BINDS:
- Tank (damage absorption)
- Scout (perception/mobility)
- Production (blacksmithing/alchemy)
═══════════════════════════════════════
```
The System was giving me advice. Good. I needed all the help I could get.
---
Morning came gray and cold.
Soo-ah woke up with a scream. I was at her side in seconds, the street sign raised.
"What? What is it?"
She was clutching her chest, breathing hard. "I dreamed… I dreamed I was you. I saw the goblins. I felt you kill them."
I lowered the sign. "The binding. It goes both ways. You get my memories too."
"I saw your mother." Her voice was small. "In the hospital. You were holding her hand."
I didn't say anything.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Don't be. It was a long time ago." I walked to the window and looked out at the ruined city. "We need to move. There's a stronghold being set up near the old military base. That's where the survivors are going."
"How do you know?"
"Because that's what people do. They run to the nearest thing that looks like safety." I turned to her. "But we're not going to run. We're going to walk. And we're going to kill anything that gets in our way."
She stood up. Her leg was fully healed. Her face was pale but determined.
"Okay," she said. "Let's go."
---
The walk to the military base took four hours.
We should have made it in one. But the streets were crawling with monsters.
I killed a dozen more goblins. Another ogre. A pack of giant rats the size of dogs. Each kill made me stronger. Each core I absorbed pushed my stats higher.
Soo-ah stayed behind me, her healing at the ready. She didn't fight. Not yet. But she learned to watch my back, to call out when something was coming from the side.
We were becoming a team.
By the time we reached the base, my stats had updated.
```
═══════════════════════════════════════
STATS (updated):
Strength: 18/100
Speed: 15/100
Endurance: 21/100
Perception: 12/100
Recovery: 14/100
═══════════════════════════════════════
MONSTER KILLS (total):
Goblins: 29
Ogres: 4
Harpy: 1
Giant rats: 8
Total cores absorbed: 42
═══════════════════════════════════════
```
I was still weak. But I was getting stronger. Fast.
"There." Soo-ah pointed. "I see people."
A makeshift wall had been built around the base—cars, shipping containers, barbed wire. Armed men and women stood guard. Some of them glowed faintly with awakened talents.
We walked toward the gate.
"Halt!" A man in a military uniform raised a rifle. "State your name and rank."
"Kang Jinho. Civilian. This is Lee Soo-ah. Civilian."
"You're alive. That's more than most." He lowered the rifle slightly. "Any injuries?"
"No."
"Any monster kills?"
"Forty-two."
The man's eyebrows went up. He looked at my blood-soaked clothes, my makeshift weapon, my hollow eyes.
"Come in," he said. "The registration tent is on the left."
---
The stronghold was chaos.
Thousands of people crammed into tents and barracks. Children crying. Old people staring at nothing. Awakeners walking around with their chests puffed out, treating the normals like dirt.
I hated it already.
The registration tent was a green canvas shelter with a folding table and a bored-looking woman with a clipboard.
"Name?"
"Kang Jinho."
"Age?"
"Twenty-two."
"Talent?"
I hesitated. "10,000× Return."
She looked up. "What rank?"
"EX."
She stopped writing. "EX? There's no such thing as EX."
"Check your system. It's there."
She tapped a device on her wrist—some kind of awakened scanner. Her eyes went wide.
"EX… that's not possible. Only five people in the world have EX-rank talents."
"Now there's six."
She swallowed. "And her?" She pointed at Soo-ah.
"Healing Touch. C-rank."
The woman wrote it down. "You'll be assigned to Barracks 7. Meals are at 7 AM, 12 PM, and 6 PM. Don't cause trouble."
I took the paper she handed me and walked out.
Soo-ah followed. "Barracks 7?"
"We're not staying there." I looked around at the desperate faces, the armed guards, the rifts still burning in the sky. "We're just passing through."
"Where are we going?"
I thought about the S-rank rift. About the cores I needed. About the power I was building.
"We're going to get strong enough to save this world. Or burn it down. Haven't decided yet."
She didn't laugh. She just nodded.
We walked into the crowd.
---
END OF CHAPTER 2
---
tags: #System #Apocalypse #DarkFantasy #Binding #OverpoweredMC