The chicken was cold by the time I reached the apartment.
Not that the customer would care. He was drunk, based on the slurred voice on the phone, and drunk people don't notice temperature. They notice hunger. And I was about to hand him two bags of greasy salvation.
I was twenty-two, a college dropout, living in a goshiwon the size of a prison cell. My mother died of cancer when I was twelve. My father remarried and moved to Busan, and I became a line on someone else's tax form. I delivered chicken for a living because it paid just enough to keep me from starving.
That Tuesday had been normal. Rain in the morning. A lunch rush that didn't tip. An afternoon nap on a mattress that smelled like mildew.
Then, at 7:23 PM, the sky broke.
---
I was crossing the street near Hongik University when the sound hit me.
Not thunder. Not a plane. A tearing sound, like fabric ripping, but deeper. Like the universe itself was yawning.
I looked up.
Above N Seoul Tower, the sky had cracked. A black line, thin as a hair, then wider, wider, bleeding purple light. Behind it was not the evening stars. Behind it was darkness that moved. Darkness that had shape.
The first monster fell.
It was the size of a minivan, shaped like a wolf but wrong—six legs, three eyes, a mouth full of teeth that pointed in every direction. It landed on a department store roof, and the building collapsed like wet cardboard. Dust exploded outward. Glass rained down.
Then the screaming started.
I stood frozen, chicken bags in my hands, watching people run. A woman in a business suit trampled a child to get into a subway station. A man tried to drive his car through a crowd. A teenager tripped, and a goblin—a goblin, like from the fantasy novels I used to read—ripped his arm off.
I dropped the chicken.
I ran.
---
I ended up behind a dumpster in an alley, gasping for breath. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would crack my ribs. My hands were shaking. I had no weapon. No plan. No power.
I was just a chicken delivery boy.
And then a goblin found me.
It was maybe three feet tall, green-skinned, with yellow eyes that glowed in the dark. It had a rusted knife in one hand and a human finger in the other. It was chewing on the finger.
We stared at each other.
Move, I told myself. Do something.
I threw a rock. Missed.
The goblin charged.
I grabbed the only thing within reach—a broken street sign that had been torn from its post—and swung it like a baseball bat.
CRACK.
The sign connected with the goblin's skull. Black blood sprayed across my face. The creature crumpled at my feet, twitching.
I stared at the corpse. My hands were still shaking. My breath was ragged.
And then a blue panel appeared in front of my eyes.
---
```
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE.
User: Kang Jinho (Earth-7, Seoul)
Awakening status: LATE (post-catastrophe awakening)
Talent detected: 10,000× RETURN (EX-rank)
Binding system detected: BIND 10 PERSONS (active)
```
I blinked. The panel didn't go away.
"What the hell?"
The panel expanded.
```
10,000× RETURN (EX-rank)
- Any resource you invest (time, energy, blood, training, resources) returns 10,000 times the normal result.
- 1 hour of training = 10,000 hours of experience.
- 1 healing potion = 10,000 healing potions.
- 1 drop of blood = 10,000 drops of strength.
- 1 monster core = 10,000× stats.
BIND 10 PERSONS (active)
- You may bind up to 10 individuals to your soul.
- Bound individuals share your 10,000× RETURN multiplier.
- Bound individuals are permanently loyal (cannot betray).
- You share senses, memories, and abilities with bound individuals.
- Binding is irreversible.
- Current bound: 0/10
```
I read it three times.
Then I laughed. Not because it was funny. Because I was losing my mind.
But the goblin corpse was still there. The sky was still torn open. The screaming was still happening.
This is real, I thought. I have a power. A broken, insane, unfair power.
I tested it. I had a small cut on my finger from the broken street sign. I focused on the cut and thought: I invest this blood into my healing.
Nothing happened.
Then I remembered the word invest. I pricked my finger and let a single drop of blood fall onto the ground. I focused my will.
I invest this blood into my regeneration.
The panel flickered.
```
Investment: 1 drop of blood → 10,000 drops of healing energy.
Your wounds have healed (minor).
Your maximum HP has increased by 0.1%.
Your regeneration rate has increased by 0.01%.
```
The cut on my finger closed. I felt a warmth spread through my chest—not pain, not pleasure, just more. More strength. More life.
I looked at the goblin corpse. Then at the sky. Then at the city burning around me.
I can survive this, I thought. I can grow. And then I can make them pay.
I picked up the broken street sign and walked back into the chaos.
---
The next six hours were a blur of blood and terror.
I killed seventeen goblins. Three ogres. A harpy that tried to rip my face off. Each kill made me stronger. Each drop of blood I invested made me faster. Each monster core I absorbed multiplied my stats by ten thousand.
By midnight, I was no longer a chicken delivery boy.
I was something else.
I found Lee Soo-ah at 2 AM, cornered by a pack of goblins in an alley near Hongdae. She was nineteen, a university student, with a broken bottle in her hand and a gash on her leg. She was crying. She was still fighting.
I killed the goblins in seven seconds.
She stared at me like I was a monster.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
"Someone who's going to save you." I extended my hand. "But first, you need to agree to something."
"What?"
"I'm going to bind you to me. You'll become stronger than you can imagine. You'll never be alone again. And you can never betray me."
She looked at my hand. At the blood on my face. At the dead goblins.
She took my hand.
```
BINDING ACTIVATED.
Target: Lee Soo-ah (Talent: Healing Touch, C-rank)
Binding confirmed. Slot 1/10 filled.
Lee Soo-ah now shares 10,000× RETURN.
Loyalty: Absolute.
Shared abilities: Healing Touch, Minor Pain Resistance, Empathy.
```
I felt her presence in my mind—warm, bright, like a second heartbeat. She gasped.
"I can feel you," she said. "Inside my head."
"Don't worry. You'll get used to it." I helped her stand. "Now let's go. We have a lot of work to do."
Behind us, the rift in the sky pulsed. More monsters fell. More screams echoed.
I didn't look back.
---
END OF CHAPTER 1
tags: #System #Apocalypse #DarkFantasy #Binding #OverpoweredMC