The first thing I did was check my screen. So I willed the notifications to appear.

You have Defeated Liu (Level 175)

Received +285 Stat Points.

You have completed the quest Kill Cheomyeon Clan Soldiers.

You have received +10 Stat Points and A vial of purified Ki.

Nice! I’ve got in total 295 Stat points I can use. However, instead of investing them straight away I decided to pause. I analysed the fight and my contributions to it. It seems like I only contributed twenty percent whilst the rest came from Viktor.

He was doing most of the heavy lifting, drawing the attention, attacking whilst injured. It wasn’t an easy feat. He pretty much carried the whole fight and I only dealt the killing blow.

It was only because I was too weak to help or take some of the burden off him. I mean I didn’t care about him. But one thing I hated was being a baggage to someone. It was a feeling ingrained in my psyche from an young age by my mother.

Recalling this feeling unlocked a memory. Of my mother. She would often teach me that being a burden to someone is humiliating. It’s better to have some self-respect and stand in your own two feet.

Resonating with this deeply, I decided not to invest the points now, but later, at a time of my choosing. I could simply will my stats and the system would do so.

A gurgle grabbed my attention. It was Viktor and he collapsed on the floor. I knelt down beside him and held in my hands. He looked to be on the last line. The amount of blood he was throwing up seemed to be a lot. Honestly, if it was someone else they’d be dead by now. But Viktor? It seemed like he still had some life left. Or at least that’s what I sensed.

He ruffled my hair and smiled, “you did good kid.”

“Yeah, we’ll if I didn’t you’d be dead now.”

“Hah, I think I only postponed it for now.”

I looked around, the smoke clearing up now as the wind began blowing. There was nothing else other than the corpses of the Martial Gold and his associates here, including us. But I feared that this fight and the amount of commotion it caused would’ve attracted attention by now. I kinda felt that as the smoke cleared away, there would be more of these guys, waiting for us, behind the smoke.

However, my expectations turned to dust as there was no one. Not a single person, except for the people here. It was puzzling, but I figured it was best to leave it at this. There were more pressing matters to attend to, as another short gurgle caught my attention.

“We need to get you to a hospital,” I said.

“I don’t know if a hospital will fix me, but an elixir sure might,” he coughed.

“I-I don’t know what that is or how to get it.”

He let a short giggle escape, “Of course you don’t. It’s a potion of sorts, that can heal you, grant you strength, ki or anything you really want. In this case I need a potent ginseng elixir to really heal properly, Kira probably has some.”

Tiny echoes rang in my ear of steps. Coming from beyond the still clearing smoke. The steps grew louder as they came towards us. They were heavy and strong. A silhouette emerged behind the smoke. It was a dark blob at first, but it gained shape as the wind blew away the smoke. It was a woman.

Then the wind blew away a chunk of the smoke to reveal the beautiful woman behind it. Kira. Her hair flowed in the wind, as if it was in running water. Her beautiful face was dirty, soot and smeared touched upon her cheeks and forehead. Though it didn’t diminish her beauty in the slightest. She sheathed her sword, in it’s sheath, but when she looked at us her eyes widened and she made a run for it.

She quickly came and pushed me out of the way, whilst I was cradling Viktor. It was swift movement that didn’t seem rough on Viktor as he only groaned slightly in response, whilst I tumbled backwards.

“Hey what gives?” I hurled at her.

She ignored my question. “How is he?”.

I patted myself, clearing the dust off. “Yeah, I’m fine as well thanks for asking, but he needs to see a doctor urgently and possibly soon.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The worried expression washed over Kira’s face. She slid her hand into her inner coat pocket and retrieved a vial, which stored a crimson liquid. it wouldn’t have been wrong to assume it was blood judging the color, but I seriously doubted she would feed him blood.

She popped up off the top, gently lifted his head and drew his lower lip down, then poured the contents down. Viktor's face, which was in ragged pain before, now seems to relax. She then threw the vial away. and gently lifted him up. I quickly rushed forward and helped him up as well, holding his arm and being mindful of his scorched back.

“I gave him something for now, should help him relax and ease the pain,” she said. “But, we need to lay low somewhere. If they found us out here, they’ll surely know where our safehouse is. We need to go somewhere else.”

“Where would we go?”

"Back to the ship, and we chart course to a different spot in Korea."

Then as if on cue, when I looked at the ship, it exploded. A sudden burst of flames and smoke, as if a wave of heat and energy had suddenly swept through the air. The ship disintegrated into burning embers and smoke, sparks flew in all directions and huge chunks of the ship crashed to the ground. The sky was painted in a brilliant mix of orange and red, and the sound of what seemed like thunder echoed throughout. The sea churned and roiled where the explosion had taken place, sending ripples of foam and debris in all directions.

"So I'm guessing that's not an option anymore, do you have any other ideas on where we could go?"

She looked away. “I don’t know.”

I mulled over for a moment. There weren’t many options for me to hide. Of course I had my apartment, but I wasn’t sure if that was the right place to go. Yeah, sure these guys knew where I lived, however, I didn’t want them to actually crash at the place. I’d most likely endanger the people around me, but….

I sighed. I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t leave them here, despite who and what they are. I looked at Viktor and sighed a second time. I’ve been left with no options and it’s the only way. It was the only way to convince myself that this was the best option I had.

“Um..” I began, “So..um..we could crash at my place for the time being. They most likely don’t know who I am as of yet, so my identity is a bit of a secret and I think it’s the best place to lay low.”

She looked at me, suspicion written on her face. “Hmm, you make sense. But this seems sudden. Why would you do this?”

I breathed in. “I just don't want to leave the person who saved my life to die. I-I mean I could be wrong and they weren’t going to actually take me and kill me. But Viktor tried saving me, the least I could do is provide him with a roof where he will be safe for the time being whilst we get a doctor to nurse him back.”

She chewed on my words for a moment. I could see her taking her time to process everything. In those fleeting moments I felt her star pierced through me, like it was looking directly within my body. I could sense she was judging my body language, and felt her taking notice of the sweat droplet glistening against my skin.

Then that feeling stopped. “Okay,” she responded. “Take us to your place.”

I relaxed, then dug into my pockets for my phone. I froze, it wasn’t there. Then I quickly patted down. My phone? Where was it? Then it dawned on me that I was out for a few days that either must’ve gotten lost or they would’ve taken it away.

“I need a phone, to find out where we are and how to get back.”

“No,” she responded.

“What do you mean no? I need a phone to get back to my apartment. We can’t go if I don’t know where we are,” I retorted back at her.

“You’ll most likely call the police or someone If I hand you a phone. It’ll put us in danger.” she growled.

What is wrong with this woman? “Hey! I just saved him. I didn’t have to, but I did. Now I’m trying my level best here and doing the right thing.”

Then I pointed to the collar on my neck that she so nicely thrust. “You control me. Meaning you can literally order me not to call anyone that might endanger you. I am literally at your disposal here. What more do you need to trust me? Heck it should be the opposite you should be doing things for me trust you.”

She rolled her eyes, then drew a flip phone, from her pockets. She flipped it open and handed it over to me. A slight growl escaped her mouth as she did.

I looked at, it was quite old. Maybe about fifteen years old, judging by the shape and how minimal it was.

“Old tech,” I remarked.

“Better than the new phones they have and even better security.”

“Yeah, I get it, you’re not a fan of smartphones.”

She groaned, but she wasn’t wrong. If we are going to be the run, old phones would really help. I gotta find a way to find me a phone like this. Smartphones are easily hackable nowadays and with the level lf technology they have, with all this Ki Martial Artists mumbo jumbo. It’s frightening.

But this phone wasn’t going to help me, I didn’t have maps and I didn’t know where we were. But an idea bloomed, maybe the system would have something.

Hey system, do you have like directions installed?

If by directions you mean a navigation system then certainly. Where would you like to go?

Back to my apartment off Seoul University.

Please wait, checking user memories of location.

…

Location found!

Loading route…

…

Route loaded, please follow the arrows to reach your destination.

Out of nowhere, a blue arrowheads appeared in the ground, they were light, transparent blue in colour allowing me to see the asphalt ground underneath. I laughed and smirked, this technology was just full of surprises.

But I can’t tell Kira, nor anyone else about this.

Then I felt the neck collar tightening around my skin and heated a loud voice in my head, “come here.”

My body moved without delay and a moment later stood before Kira.

“Just moments ago, you made me remember I had a slave collar one. With all the ambush and what’s happened I nearly forgotten that. As your reward, I command you not to approach the police in anyway shape or form, or ask anyone else for help except me or my team.”

I wasn’t going to lie, I hated her before, now I absolutely loathe her. Her and my dumb mouth for even reminding her.

A small “yes”, escaped from my squeezed throat before she relaxed her grasp. I drew a large amount of breath, taking it in rapid succession, before letting go, as I was getting light headed.

Then looked at her with pure hatred. Promising myself internally, to kill her one day. She then cracked a smile, as if hearing my intent. I wanted to say something, but paused. I didn’t want to give her more ammo to place further restrictions on me. Had to find a way to get rid of this collar first and foremost. But right now, we needed to go.

I moved away from her and pointed in the direction the arrow was pointing.

“There, we need to go there, c’mon.”

She piggybacked Viktor, nudged her head forward. Telling me to lead the way and I obliged. Though there was a feeling inside my stomach that this was going to be a long walk back home and I wasn’t talking about the distance.