The Ghost System - Chapter 7

[Spiritual body used +5 Exp]

[Spiritual body used +5 Exp]

[Spiritual body used +5 Exp]

[Spiritual body used +10 Exp]

[Spiritual body used +10 Exp]

[40/100 Exp]

Rhys grinned when he saw his reward increase from 5 Exp to 10 Exp. He was no longer putting his hand through objects, but his whole body instead, which he was happy to see doubled his reward to 10 Exp. Thankfully, when he used this skill on his entire body, his clothes were able to pass through solids with him, so he did not come out the other side of a street lamp naked.

It was about a 10km walk from the sector 5 main hospital to his home in District 20, which Rhys knew was far too tough a walk for a guy with his stamina, so he was racing to get to the early morning busses that would be leaving soon. He was already panting as he jogged to the bus stop but he didn’t feel exhausted because he was too excited as he was running through trash cans and lamp poles while using his skill. He savoured the tingling sensation he felt when his body passed through a solid object.

[HP 12/20]

This newest message startled Rhys a bit.

Apparently, the usage of his ability and the running would take a toll on his health. From what he knew about those rich-kid games, when the HP reached 0, the player died. He would have to keep that in mind for the future.

[Stamina +1]

[Stamina: 4]

Rhys smiled at the increase of his stamina though. He guessed that with a little bit of training, he could really improve his strength and agility as well.

He made it to the bus just in time and found himself to be one of few passengers taking the early-early bus. He quickly walked past the few passengers and took a seat at the back. He then discreetly reached into his pocket and pulled out the gold card the hospital had given him in exchange for the gem. He admired the glistening gold colour while concealing it in his palm. Even though he was holding it in his hand, this whole situation still felt unreal. He had seen so many movies wherein the suave main character was holding one of these famous gold cards, casually buying expensive clothes and paying for the finest goods. Realistically, a gold card was given out when more than 100,000 zen was loaded onto a card. The hospital’s evaluator had evaluated the gem to be worth 500,000 zen and thus he had qualified for a gold card on which his 500 000 zen had been loaded to.

Rhys felt like such a big shot, there at the back of the bus with such a card in his hand. The temptation to go out and buy all the things he had been craving during his life was strong. He could not help him imagine going into the fresh foods section of the food outlets and buying real fruits and vegetables for the first time. Or going to a technology outlet and buying a Zencho smartphone and laptop. Even though he was thoroughly tempted, he pushed back those desires. Although it was a lot of money, it could easily be wasted if he was not careful with it. He had seen what had happened to Mrs Trudge.

In her youth, she had been pretty strong and won 1,000,000 zen in the national amateur fighting championship for making it to the semi-finals. Having been a poor district 20 street thug all her life, she went absolutely crazy with all that money. Left her partner and kids, underwent numerous plastic surgeries, spent half her money on material things (none of which was property) and lent the rest to her ‘friends’ who never paid her back. In two years she became homeless. With nothing to her name. Rhys knew her favourite sleeping spot was opposite their storefront. When they had left-over food, they would give it to her, so she preferred staying near gramps and Rhys. It was on one of the days where Rhys went to go and give her food, that she told Rhys her life story, from which Rhys learned some valuable lessons.

Rhys was already planning on buying Gramps and him a home in the better-off District17, which was much safer and had more opportunities for him and gramps than District 20 where they were currently living.

Rhys wondered if they had enough to maybe even move out of Sector 5 altogether. They could sell off the script store and he could make sure gramps lived comfortably while he was off at the military college.

Rhys slid the card back in his pocket, satisfied with his plan, before anyone noticed and lay back in his seat. He just sat and smiled for a moment before a bright idea came to mind.

“Aura detection.” He whispered with a devilish grin on his face.

He looked forward at the five other people on the bus and he was instantly was amazed by what he was seeing. The Aura detection ability had opened up his vision to a new plane of seeing. Around the bodies’ of the people in the bus, he could see each of them had a glowing light which he guessed was the ‘aura’ the [Ghost system] was talking about.

From a glance, he could see that each person’s aura was different. The woman closest to him, who was wrapped in a blanket leaning against the window, had a small blueish aura that seemed to flow like water. While the man a few rows ahead of her, who looked to be wearing some kind of construction uniform, had a much larger much brighter red aura that blazed like fire. He wondered if their aura’s had anything to do with their abilities… Unfortunately, he had no way of testing that out, so he banked that thought for later.

[Aura detection activated +5 Exp]

[Aura Detection used +5 Exp]

Seeing that he could also receive exp from this skill, he used the skill on everyone on the bus.

When he went for a second round of using the skill, he was disappointed to find that he did not gain Exp this time. He surmised that he could only gain exp for the skill when he used it on a person for the first time.

[10/20 HP]

Rhys felt pretty concerned that he was at half his original health, just from the short time since he had woken up from the hospital. Apparently, his skills took a lot out of him, or maybe it was just the jogging that had drained him…?

[70/100 Exp]

[New Quest: Reach 100/100 Exp to level up]

[Rewards: unlock Responsive Stystem]

While Rhys was busy wandering what a ‘responsive system’ was, the bus came to a stop.

Rhys quickly exited the bus and walked his way home. If his stamina was such an issue, he did not want to drain his HP any further. Rhys was imagining what Gramp’s expression would be when he explained to him what had happened. Rhys could not hide his glee when thinking about the huge smile that would be plastered on Gramp’s face when he saw the gold card. Even if Rhys had to go to military college for four years, it put his mind at ease thinking that Gramps would be taken care of.

As Rhys was walking, he suddenly began to cough. His eyes stung a little bit as well while breathing in the air. He looked around and realised that the air felt quite polluted. Rhys sniffed the air and frowned when he realised that the smell was smoke.

The loud blaring of a siren suddenly sounded from behind him. Rhys quickly stepped onto the pavement to get out of the path of the fire truck racing down at the road at full speed. The fire truck confirmed that a fire must have broken out somewhere nearby.

The fire, wherever it was must have been pretty big if a fire truck bothered to come to District 20. The District was pretty infamous for its gang and violence problem, and because of that emergency services decided they would not respond to calls from District 20 unless it was a higher level emergency. This meant ambulances, fire trucks and police did not bother to respond unless there was a large scale incident. Which pretty much meant that District 20 was lawless for the most part.

Although this place was home, Rhys was still pretty nervous walking down the street, he had been mugged and beaten up more than a few times. Especially now with the gold card in his pocket, Rhys was feeling particularly on edge.

He picked up his pace following after the fire truck. Rhys paused as he saw the Firetruck turn left, onto his street…

A deep dread formed in the pit of his stomach as he looked up into the dark night and followed the smoke with his eyes to see where it was coming from. He felt his heart stop when he saw that the smoke was billowing out from his street, from directly above his home, where gramps was. Rhys instantly dashed forward into a full-out sprint down the end of this road and then dashed left onto his street.

He looked on in horror as he saw all his neighbours standing outside watching as their entire street of houses and shops were up in flames.

The firemen were rushing out of their trucks and stopping before the building with their palms outstretched. The firemen manipulated powerful jets of water forward from the fire truck tanks and dowsed the angry fire that was quickly taking over the entire block.

Rhys rushed forward, panic and dismay clouding his judgement. He needed to find gramps.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Before Rhys could get any closer to the fire, two thick arms coiled around him, stopping him in his tracks.

“Argh, let go!” Rhys shouted and kicked.

“Calm down kid.” Mr Swart’s voice shouted into Rhys’s ear. “Let the firemen do their job. If there are any survivors, they will get them.”

“Gramps!” Rhys cried out as the entrance of their shop crashed inwards.

Knowing that he had no time to spare, Rhys used his skill.

‘Spiritual Body’. He called out in his head.

[Spiritual body +10 Exp]

Rhys easily passed through Mr Swart’s arms like a ghost and dashed into the burning building. Mr Swart’s concerned cries were drowned out by the raging crackling fire and the siren of the ambulance and the firetruck. The entire place was engulfed in flames, and although Rhys could not feel the fire nor the burning, he did however get the sensation of heat surrounding his body. Perhaps flames had some resistance against his skill.

Rhys ran through the walls to the back of the script shop, passing by the firemen who were only just entering the building.

“Hey! Hey! Kid, get out of here!” Rhys ignored them and ran to the back of the shop where Gramp’s room was.

This place was on the verge of collapsing, and although that would not hurt Rhys, it would definitely kill gramps.

The back room was up in flames, their small kitchen had already been burnt to a crisp. And Rhys got a glimpse of his room, which looked to be even worse.

[Continued use of skill +15 Exp]

[6/20 Hp]

[User will lose 1 HP for every 2 seconds the skill is continuously used]

“Crap!” Rhys yelled while barrelling through the wall to Gramp’s room. He found the blaring heat around him increase, as if his spiritual body skill was becoming weaker and he was now more susceptible to physical things.

[5/20 Hp]

Tears of relief flooded his face as he found his gramps huddled up in a corner with a cloth over his face. This room had not caught on fire yet, but the smoke was so thick that Rhys could barely see the other side of the room. This was in a way much worse because Gramps had terrible lungs.

Rhys ran to Gramps’s side and braced himself before he released his skill. In his panic, he had completely forgotten about the perilous situation he had gotten himself into. If he was going to carry gramps, he could not use his skill, which meant they would have to brace the fire together.

With a firm resolve. Rhys ripped off a piece of the bedsheet and tied it around his nose and mouth. He then released his skill and groaned as he picked up his unconscious guardian. The weight was tough, although gramps was old and frail he still weighed a good amount. Rhys was actually only managing to hold him because of the adrenaline pumping through his system. Furthermore, now that his skill was released, he coughed violently while his eyes stung from the smoke.

Without a second to lose, Rhys used his and Gramp’s body weight to bust open the door, knowing that if he touched the door handle, he would scorch his hand beyond repair.

[Warning! User is in danger]

[Warning get to safety!]

[4/20 Hp]

When Rhys busted out of the bedroom, he was then faced with the main heart of the fire. The heat was unbearable, to the point that he could feel his skin burning just from standing in there.

Rhys ran for what was left of the main entrance with all that was left of his strength. His eyes were stinging, his legs were aching, his skin was burning but the adrenaline in him kept him going.

Luckily the firefighters outside were doing a good job of manipulating the water so once Rhys got the front of the store he found the fire there had almost been completely handled. He burst out of the front entrance and into the cool street air. Almost immediately he lost all of his strength, so he and gramps plummeted to the sidewalk with a thud and pained grunt from Rhys.

[3/20 Hp]

[Strength +2]

[Stamina +2]

[Agility +2]

[Spirituality +4]

Even though Rhys was exhausted, a smile spread across his face seeing his stats.

[Congratulations. Quest is Complete]

[ Level 2]

[5/200 Exp]

[Reward: Responsive System Unlocked]

[Responsive System: A User friendly system interface, that allows the user to interact with the system through thought, voice commands and questions]

For the second time that day, medical staff were rushing towards Rhys. Their eyes wide with shock and concern as they began to prod and poke at him. He could only chuckle at the deja vu.

Rhys closed his eyes and breathed happily while the staff were loading him and gramps into the ambulance. He felt them rubbing a soothing jell onto his burnt arms as the ambulance took off at full speed.

“Patient is steady. Heartbeat is normal. First to second degree burns on arms and hands. Breathing is unsteady, possible lung damage.” The emergency service worker above Rhys said.

[2/20 Hp]

Then someone on the other side of the ambulance spoke. “Patient is unresponsive. Heartbeat has not been detected. Pass me the life scanner.”

Rhys immediately opened his eyes and turned to look at Gramps. The old man so still as the emergency worker was prodding and testing him…

Rhys watched with tears in his eyes as the worker pressed the life scanner to Gramp’s neck. A black cross was instantly displayed on the machine causing the worker to sigh, then pick up a clipboard.

“Time of death: 4:17 am.”

‘No… No way.’ A pain Rhys had never felt before spread across his chest. Like someone was beating him with a flaming bat, a terrible burning pressure pounded against his chest.

“Patient’s heart rate has spiked!” The responder shouted from above Rhys. “He is having a seizure!” She shouted in a panic as she reached for more tools.

Although Rhys had lost control of his body as it began to shake violently from shock, his eyes never left Gramps face. A part of him still did not believe it.

‘Aura detection’ he summoned his new skill, willing to use the last of his health on this.

[ Aura detection used +5 Exp]

Rhys stared at gramps with his skill but frowned when he saw that gramps had no aura. There was no light surrounding him like the others. To make sure that his skill was working, Rhys glanced up at the emergency workers hovering over him, and confirmed that he could see both of their auras. They both had small green auras that they seem to be channeling into their hands right above Rhys’s chest.

[ Aura detection used +5 Exp]

[ Aura detection used +5 Exp]

He could feel the strain in his chest lessening as the cool green aura seeped into him. He realised then that his earlier hypothesis was correct. The aura he could see around a person correlated to their ability. They both had green auras and so it was not a coincidence that they were both healers. Rhys committed to memory that green auras meant healers.

He turned back to gramps and confirmed that gramps had no aura. He already had an idea as to why, but he needed to confirm it otherwise he would not accept reality.

‘System, what does it mean when someone does not have an aura?’ He asked the responsive system in his head, dreading the answer he knew was coming.

[listen kiddo, all living humans have an aura. So if someone does not have an aura, that person is dead]

Rhys cringed at the all too familiar sound of Gramp’s voice. It had somehow copied Gramps’s voice and was using it to talk to him. This pained Rhys more than he understood why, all he wanted to do was make it stop.

‘Why the hell do you sound like Gramps?’ Rhys grilled the system in his head.

[Don’t fret Kiddo, the system has calculated from your memories that this voice and speech pattern relaxes you the most]

Rhys closed his eyes, all too overwhelmed by his life crashing down around him.

‘I don’t like it. Pick a new voice.’ Rhys did not want to listen to some kind of imitation of gramps, he wanted to talk to the real gramps, anything less than that just pained him.

[Responsive system, recalibrating…]

[Is this type of speech more comfortable for you?]

Rhys sighed in relief at the classical monotonous tone of a regular AI interface’s voice. It was a hundred times better than hearing the voice of his gramps.

‘Yes.’

Before Rhys knew what was going on, pain and exhaustion overtook him, and he passed out in the ambulance.