Fin sat in the rubble for a long minute, staring at the golden letters hanging in the corner of his vision.
"Okay... so it’s not going away," he muttered, poking a finger through the panel for the tenth time. "Cool, cool... I’m haunted by a spreadsheet."
The poking actually did something, making a secondary menu unfold under his finger, line after line sliding out of the gold light.
[ System shop: locked ]
[ Skills: locked ]
[ Inventory: locked ]
[ Quest board: locked ]
[ Absorption log: locked ]
[ Sponsor channel: --- ]
He read the list top to bottom, then read it again, waiting for a single door to open.
"Every single thing is locked... unbelievable." He chuckled at the grayed-out lines, because of course even his divine cheat came with paywalls. "All that power she poured into me and I still can’t afford the good stuff."
The last line bothered him more than the rest, sitting there dead where her voice should’ve been.
’Lady dumps a truck of power into me and leaves me her voicemail box... thanks, I guess.’
Only two menu items escaped the gray: an active quest slot and a gold tag pulsing beside it.
[ Bonus surprise ]
’Bonus surprise huh,’ he thought, squinting at it with deep suspicion. ’Right. Like anything titled that ever ended nicely in this city.’
He tapped it regardless, deciding a gift from a god was still a gift worth taking.
Warmth rolled through him, the same second-heartbeat heat from the alley, settling into his arms, shoulders, and legs.
[ Bonus surprise opened ]
[ +20 stat points distributed ]
[ Rank: unranked → F+ ]
He stood there flexing his hands while the change finished settling, feeling lighter, sharper, the constant background ache of twelve-hour shifts gone.
"Ohoo, so this is F plus," he read aloud, then said it again just to hear the words. "F plus... wow... I’m actually awakened..."
It was the bottom of the food chain with a plus stapled to it, but he couldn’t help a grin. "Haha, well, it’s a start. I wanted this, and now I got it."
The quest slot picked that exact moment to open itself, flashing bright gold in his line of sight.
[ Quest: first blood ]
[ Kill 10 monsters. ]
[ Reward: 50 stat points ]
[ Time limit: none ]
"Fifty points," he said, doing the math on his fingers. "Twenty made me F plus... fifty makes me what, D with a crown?"
He looked down the broken street, smoke drifting past the corner while something monstrous dragged itself through a shopfront two blocks over.
’Kill ten monsters, huh,’ he thought, rolling his shoulders until they popped cleanly. ’I already died once today, so what’s left to be scared of.’
"Let’s roll," he said, cracking his neck with a grin.
He sprinted around the corner, his body responding before he could plan each movement. Three steps carried him up the wall before he dropped back onto the street.
He stopped and looked back at the wall, then at his own legs, stunned by the fluid motion.
’What the hell,’ he thought, landing on a dumpster lid without deciding to. ’Okay... now that is fun.’
He vaulted a crushed car, then backflipped off its hood on instinct. His jump cleared the roof, landing him in a jog without breaking stride.
Nothing in his life prepared him to move like this. They just came out of him clean, as though each movement waited nineteen years for permission.
He cleared an overturned cart, catching an awning rail with one hand. His momentum swung him around the support before he dropped onto the asphalt.
’My balance is insane,’ he realized, laughing out loud as he sprinted down the road. ’I feel like I could jump over a bus if I tried.’
The honest truth, the one he’d never say aloud, was that he was having the time of his life.
The worst day of the city’s history was turning into the most thrilling evening of his, sending him grinning through the dust.
Monsters skittered along distant streets while hunched shapes watched him from rooftops. They scattered whenever he turned toward them, slipping behind the wreckage.
"Hey, get back here," he called after a crab-legged thing that fled under a bus. "I only need ten of you... come on, just one."
The counter sat in the corner of his vision reading a stubborn zero out of ten.
Then, down a side street past a collapsed awning, he found the one monster in the city that wasn’t running from him.
It was hunched over a wrecked storefront, green hide, tusks, crude plate, dragging a cleaver through the debris.
The fun drained out of him all at once, replaced by something and sharp.
’Well, look who it is.’
His killer, already working on its next target without a care for the man it left dead in an alley.
He peeled a long pipe off a debris pile, weighing it in his grip, feeling his fingers dent the pipe without trying.
’You didn’t even finish me off properly,’ he thought, his pulse hammering against his ribs. ’I wasn’t worth a second swing, remember that?’
He drew his arm back and threw the pipe, putting his entire grudge into the release.
The pipe crossed the street before the orc finished turning its head, taking it through the skull with a crunch.
The monster went down mid-turn, cleaver clattering, and didn’t get back up.
[ Monster killed: orc (E-Rank) ]
[ Kill count: 1/10 ]
He approached the corpse, studying the creature responsible for his death in the alley.
"Gughhh," he mocked, imitating the death rattle. "That’s you. That’s what you sounded like."
He kicked the cleaver away from the limp hand with his foot.
"You caved in my chest not long ago, big guy... feels longer, honestly." He crouched at the edge of its shadow. "How does it feel, getting folded by a normal guy?"
The corpse offered no comeback, allowing him to count the argument as a victory.
He started planning his next line when hunger struck him, carrying an appetite that had nothing to do with food.
It pulled from somewhere deeper than his stomach, like a magnetic tug pointing straight at the dead orc.
His mouth watered, his whole body leaning toward the corpse with the desperation of someone denied food for days.
’What is this,’ he thought, taking a cautious half step back. ’Why does it look like... fuel?’
The panel answered before he could finish being disturbed, blooming gold in the air between him and the body.
[ Absorb? ]
[ Target: orc (E-Rank) - deceased ]
[ Available: ]
[ > strength ]
[ > speed ]
[ > endurance ]
[ > skills / abilities ]
[ Note: selection is permanent, choose wisely. ]
"...absorb," he whispered, the strange hunger and the golden panel finally connecting in his mind. "Oh... that’s what you are."
He stared at the four options, the adrenaline in his blood suddenly spiking.
’Strength, speed, endurance, skills...’ He looked at his own trembling hands. ’I can take whatever they have.’
"One choice," he said, reading the warning again. "Not four."
’Speed gets me away. Endurance keeps me standing. Neither helps if I cannot break the next thing holding me down.’
He checked the street beyond the corpse before returning to the menu.
’Skills might mean anything. I cannot afford to buy a mystery while Jolly is somewhere in this mess.’
"Strength first. I can regret the other three when we get home."
He reached toward the first choice, his heart pounding as he prepared to claim what the monster left behind.