The Ghost System - Chapter 16

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“Fine, we’ll fight after food.”

“No!” Gunn planted his feet firmly into the ground.

Rhys could only marvel at Gunn who was more and more turning out to be his complete opposite. While Rhys thrived from thinking situations out and coming up with the most plausible solutions, Gunn was practically allergic to rationality. All he wanted to do was fight, immediately.

“Fight me now!” He balled his hands into fists ready to attack.

Otis and Rhys simultaneously stepped around Gunn and reached for the doors of the cafeteria, not caring about this demands in the slightest.

“NO!”

Gunn ran up behind them and shoved the two out of the way. He coiled his right arm around the door handles so that no one could open the doors, and with a crazy determined look in his eyes, he shouted at Rhys. “Man up and fight me now!”

“Hey!” A girl from behind the three snapped in disgust at Gunn. “Some of us want to eat.”

“Yeah, seriously dude, move.” More and more grumbles were being heard from the students approaching the cafeteria as they were being blocked from entering by Gunn.

Once again Gunn did not care about what anyone else thought, he only did what he wanted to and had no regrets. “Go eat dirt then, I’m not moving until…”

“Move.”

The words were said as if a death sentence had been handed out, the threat of violence in the voice stopped everyone in their tracks.

The students all turned around to see who had spoken, but before they knew what was happening a fearsome bolt of electricity smashed through the angry mob of students and slammed Gunn against the metal doors. Gunn was pinned to the doors, shaking violently as the electricity wrecked through his body. All everyone could do was stare wide-eyed as the spectacle in front of them. It was not long before Gunn collapsed to the ground in front of the cafeteria as wisps of smoke wafted off his back.

Everyone caught a glimpse of the cold ruthless eyes that cared nothing about other people, and they all saw the three-striped juvenile tattoo below his blonde hair on the nape of his neck, like a mark of honour among the cold-blooded and dangerously strong.

Rhys glanced around to see a mix of expressions on the people’s faces. The majority of people were painted with fear and alarm, though a few students looked impressed and even awestruck. One girl in particular was biting her bottom lip and staring at him with glossy eyes. Rhys glanced at his roommate’s back walking into the cafeteria and felt a small shameful ache in his gut. He wondered what it was like to be someone who inspired such vivid reactions in other people. What was it like to be someone others paid attention to?

[‘It is glorious you know’]

‘What?’ Rhys was snatched from his contemplation by the teacher.

[‘Having others fear and admire you, I mean. It is the privilege of the strong, something attainable if you would only work for it.’]

“That was the guy from the orientation test.” Otis breathed out shakily remembering the screams that came from the fourth corner.

“Yeah,” Rhys sighed. “He’s my roommate.” There was a long pause wherein Otis stared at Rhys trying to determine whether Rhys was being serious or not.

“You’re joking right?”

Rhys only shook his head as he watched his roommate push open the cafeteria doors and entered.

“Hang in there.” Otis looked down at Rhys with the same earnest eyes from yesterday which caused Rhys to chuckled slightly.

“I’ll try.”

As the trance left behind by the display of power lifted, the college students outside slowly began to filter into the cafeteria. All of them were similarly inquiring about who that guy was and how the hell he was able to get such an awesome core. Rhys listened intently to their passing conversations feeling just a tiny bit jealous about how they talked about him with such admiration.

After everyone had gone inside, Rhys tentatively put his finger under Gunn’s nose to see if he was still breathing. Thankfully, Gunn was still alive. After a few seconds of discussion, Rhys and Otis thought it would be overkill to lug him all the way to the infirmary when they could simply prop him up against the wall and pat his head for good luck. Otis wiped the drool from the side of Gunn’s mouth with the bottom of his t-shirt to ease his conscience before him and Rhys entered the cafeteria.

Finally, Rhys was inside the cafeteria. He was astounded by how much food there was and by how delicious it all looked. He was expecting to be fed the bitter government-issued food pills or powdered eggs, the stuff he had lived off in high school, but instead, the ginormous cafeteria was chock full of real vegetables and meat, all the food groups and even desserts.

[‘Yes, you must use this opportunity to replenish your strength and add weight to you pathetic body’]

Rhys could barely hear the insults from inside his head because the delicious smells had put him in a trance.

“I must be dreaming.”

Otis laughed out loud from behind Rhys while loading his plate full of chicken wings.

“Yeah well, the military college is ultimately trying to recruit us into the army. You know, they have to feed us well in order for us to get stronger, especially since they are not willing to compromise on the toughness of the training they need at least one way for the students to want to be here.”

Rhys eventually took a seat once he had stacked three plates full of meat. He could not remember the last time he had eaten real meat. Since powder substitutes or food pills were so much cheaper, he and Gramps had lived off that for the longest time.

While Rhys ate he activated his skill and scanned the people in the room for their auras. Although the majority were strengthening cores, Rhys managed to gain some Exp from a few unique abilities in the room.

[Aura: wolf physiology (weak)]

[Aura: Enhanced intelligence (weak)]

[Aura: Light generation (very weak)]

[…]

[…]

[Aura detection used + 25 Exp]

Although Rhys was happy to finally get more EXP, the abilities he had seen were all pretty common.

From what Rhys had seen so far the majority of people were categorised as weak or very weak. Once in while Rhys would see someone with the ‘average’ label. Although the system marked them as average, from Rhys’s experience people rated as average were quite strong. Otis was rated as average, but Rhys knew that when he compared Otis to other strengthening cores, Otis was definitely outstanding. Then finally it was the ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ category. If Rhys’s roommate was anyone to go by, people rated as strong by the system were extremely dangerous. Rhys’s roommate not only had an extremely rare and valued ability, but he was also able to control it remarkably.

After Rhys and Otis licked their plates clean, they sat in a daze at their booth. Rhys patted his bulging belly while Otis slumped over ready to take a nap.

“So you’ve met my roommate, but who is yours?” Rhys asked curiously.

“My roommate hasn’t arrived yet, so I’ve got my room to myself for now.”

“Oh right, I forgot that people are still arriving.” Rhys burped and it smelled like the chicken and mashed potatoes he had eaten. “How many people are going to be at this college anyways?”

“Well for us freshmen, were are split into groups of about fifty people when we do that initiation test, then there are about twenty-four batches of those students arriving per day. And people have been able to come to campus for four months, minus a few deaths for each batch. Um, so that’s about…”

“Somewhere between one-hundred and forty-thousand to one-hundred and fifty-thousand people.” Rhys summarised feeling too lazy to do the exact math.

Rhys ignored the impressed look on Otis’s face and realised that there were still another four campuses in the sector, each with about the same number of freshmen students. No to mention that most people enrolled in the college early, so the number of incoming students was probably much larger than what Otis had described, most likely closer to about two hundred thousand freshmen per campus.

“This is one huge operation they are running.” Rhys sighed as he thought about all the talented students being registered.

“Yeah, that’s a lot of competition.” Otis looked sternly down into his plate of food. Rhys could see something was brewing behind his large forehead, something that Rhys wanted to unpack.

“District seventeen is a nice place though, it’s supposed to be the best district in sector five. From what I know about you, you have an older brother and most probably a family and a nice place to call home. So why would you come to the military college? Surely there were lots of other options for someone like you?” Rhys had been wondering about this for quite a while. He understood why the military college was the favourable option for district 20’s young adults who had no better options but not for the seventeenth district and up who were living relatively good lives.

“What are you talking about? Although the military college has a tough reputation, it’s still a great way to get trained and raise your skills. Even if I don’t decide to join the military I’ll still graduate with qualifications.”

Rhys was surprised by the genuinely happy look on Otis’s face. Although Rhys had not paid that much attention when people talked about the military college, when he had tuned in, all he heard were disturbing things, from cruel instructors to bullying, Yet Otis who had grown up in a different district praised the college to no end.

“Anyway, we’ll find out sooner or later what kind of place this is.” Rhys patted his belly.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two as they were each trying to figure out each other’s ideologies. After a while, Otis was the one to break the silence.

“Do you want to go to the arena after this?” He sat forward and placed both hands on the table enthusiastically. “Apparently it’s a thing to sit there and watch as the new students come in, you know, sniff out the competition.”

‘That would be a great chance to use my Aura detection skill.’ Rhys smiled knowing that he was guaranteed to get more EXP with the arrival of new students.

[‘Yes it would be, but first the library. Don’t make me give you another quest.’]

Rhys sighed knowing that he should really go to the library. “Maybe I’ll meet you there later.”

“Sure. After dinner?”

“Sure.”

Rhys slowly stood up from the table and steadied himself, trying to regain balance with his extra poundage. Rhys waved goodbye to Otis who decided he wanted to stew for a bit longer and headed to the library.

On his way out he saw his roommate sitting at a large booth surrounded by other students. The girls were leaning towards him and cooing at him while the guys were laughing loudly trying to catch his attention that way. It was clear that the other freshmen had already identified their top dog and were trying to get into his good books while he was docile.

The image of his content smirk stuck in Rhys’s brain as he walked in the direction of the library. People really did flock to you if they believed you were powerful.

The campus was ginormous to the point that it resembled a city rather than a campus, but thankfully the library was only a ten-minute walk from the cafeteria. The library looked more like a skyscraper than any of the libraries Rhys had ever seen. It towered into the sky and reflected the clouds and surrounding buildings with its glass panelling. When Rhys stepped through the large entrance he was immediately greeted by a large flatscreen that displayed a piece of unsettling information.

It read, ‘Countdown to the start of Military college: 15 hours!’

Rhys’s chest tightened as he realised that class would be starting tomorrow. For some reason, he had been under the impression that he had more time, but now he realised that he really did not. He needed to try to get to level five before class started tomorrow.

Rhys walked past the rows and rows of students at desks reading from crystal tablets. From a quick glance at their bright white auras, Rhys saw that the majority of the students in the library were people with brain enhancer cores, people with higher than average intelligence all of whom were rated as weak or very weak. Rhys planted himself in front of a librarian machine and started searching for books. Since he did not have any authors in mind he simply tapped on the non-fiction icon. From there he did a keyword search. He typed in the words ‘aura’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘ghost’.

A variety of different results popped up in the screen, the majority of which were links to pre-invasion television series and movies. Rhys sceptically looked over the titles that all seemed more fantastical than based in reality. With a huff, he scrolled past all the movies and arrived at the bottom of the results list where a hand full of possible useful resources were listed. Although the tower was very tall with at least ten floors, all the books Rhys was looking for were apparently on the underground floors.

With a few more taps Rhys printed out a list of his selected books and headed to the stairs. Unlike the sleek black staircase heading upwards, the staircase heading down looked much older.

The underground floors of the library were literally like a basement where they shoved all the stuff they did not care about but needed to house. Rhys had to squeeze past old boxes and random pieces of abandoned furniture to finally reach the old wooden bookshelves. On those shelves, he eventually located the books he was interested in. Among them was a book about pre-invasion yoga and meditation techniques from India and China, A book of Japanese folklore that apparently detailed the different types of spirits, A book that was meant to give cultural context to the belief in ghosts in Europe and Africa, lastly, there was a short thin biographical book about the lives and works of some psychical researchers.

Although none of them looked like what he really wanted, he hoped that they would at least be able to give him some hints in the right direction. He wanted to level up his skills but he would not be able to do that without getting a better understanding of spirituality.

Rhys carried his books to the least dusty looking lounge chair in the basement. He sat down, placed his books at his feet and began to read.

Although Rhys expected to be bored out of his mind as he read, he found himself getting deeply invested in the books. Because of the subject matter of the books, they read more like science fiction or fantasy than boring non-fiction.

“An aura or energy field is a luminous coloured emanation said to enclose a human body or animal or object,” Rhys murmured the words as he read through the book.

‘Why can I only see the auras of living things if objects also have auras?’

[‘The auras of objects as are complex and require a certain level of concentration to be able to see them. So until you figure out how you will only be able to see the auras of living things.’]

“The aura of a human being is said to be the secret anatomy of the human body that reflects the health and state of mind of the human.”

Rhys immediately thought back to when he had fought Sampson and his two friends. The specific parts of their bodies where they were injured had a dull almost invisible aura light, moreover, when the two guys had died their auras disappeared altogether. If Rhys paid more attention to the auras he would be able to tell where people were injured just be looking at them.

‘The state of mind of the human…’ Rhys reread the line in the book and wondered if he would be able to tell people’s emotions and mentality from looking at their aura.

Rhys delved further and further into the book and found himself absorbing the words easily. The concept of chakra and the third eye and humans having a sixth sense. Rhys was reading faster and retaining the knowledge at a rate he did not think was possible. After about an hour and a half, he finished the two hundred page book and was reaching for the next one. His ability to read and absorb information had definitely increased thanks to his intelligence stat.

[Learned about Aura and other important factors of transition]

[+ 20 Exp]

Rhy’s smirked when he saw the notification and continued to turn the pages of his book. He had about thirteen hours before the term started and he was planning on reading the remaining three books in that time.

Rhys was plunging himself into the fascinating world of ESP and ghosts, things that pre-invasion humans had been obsessed with, something that he was quickly becoming obsessed with as well.

[New Quest: Read the selected three books by midnight]

[Rewards: None]

[Penalty: Haunting]

“You stingy old…” Rhys tried to curb his anger and refocus on his books before he lost the will to read. Once again the teacher gave him a quest without any rewards and only a penalty. Although Rhys had experienced the haunting before and made it out stronger, the mental toll it took on him seeing Barrow’s face again and being beaten up by him, the guy who organized Gramp’s death, was not something he would willingly go through a second time. He would stay there and read until the clock ran out, and if he missed his dinner meetup with Otis he would just have to apologise later.

Thinking about Otis reminded Rhys that he had left Gunn in front of the cafeteria, poor idiotic Gunn. Rhys hoped that Gunn had given up on fighting him.

“Speaking of that,” Rhys suddenly thought of a question that had been eating away at him. “I was sure that you were going to issue me a quest to fight and kill Gunn, but you didn’t…?”

[‘Don’t worry, I have not grown soft on you. I will wait until the time when you have no other choice but to kill. At that time I will watch happily as you abandon your convictions and realize your true potential’]

A raspy chuckle resonated in the back of Rhys’s head as goosebumps spread across his flesh.