Chapter 4: Rebirth
In a dark bathroom, a transparent, human-shaped silhouette sat on a toilet all alone muttering to itself. If anyone was nearby to witness this, they might have believed that there is a ghost in the bathroom ...
"Wait? Didn't I die? Does that mean I'm a ghost now?!" the silhouette hollered as it stood up.
As if coming alive, the transparent silhouette faded in a bit, turning translucent and revealing a familiar young man with short black hair, brown eyes, skinny, and only about 5 foot 6 inches tall. The face was average and ordinary, and can probably pass as a nobody on the streets. However, the purple bruises on his neck stood out and will draw attention wherever he goes. Not only that, although he wore a white t-shirt, he wasn't wearing any pants and could easily be mistaken as a pervert.
"Why am I still alive ... even as a ghost? And how can I still remember everything so clearly? I thought ghosts lose all their memories ... at least that is how it is in novels?"
Pro scratched his head in confusion while glancing around at the dark bathroom. Although he felt that it was a bit unfair that he just died like that, but at least he came back.
"Well, since I'm alive, I'll just continue living as before," Pro walked over to the bathroom light switch to flip it on and off, "First I got to go complain about that faulty light bulb and get a new one. That's more money out of my pitiful wallet."
Pro sighed as he walked out of the opened bathroom door. Suddenly, a ding resounded in Pro's mind.
[Warning! Host is leaving his designated domain. Host's spirit will gradually dissipate when outside his domain. Once the spirit dissipates, the host will cease to exist.]
[Time remaining until spirit dissipates: 60 seconds]
"What?!" Pro froze and saw the screen popping up in front of him.
Pro rubbed his eyes to see if he was seeing things, and he realized he is seeing things, his personal golden finger system!
Reading the second line where a countdown was quickly occurring, Pro's eyes twitched. He then glanced down at his body to see it gradually fading away. Pro stared in horror for a couple of seconds before swiftly stepping back into the bathroom after which his body gradually recovered.
"No way ... am I trapped in this bathroom now? Does that mean I have to live in the bathroom?!"
Then, as if remembering something, Pro froze. Then, he stiffly turned his head around to check the dark bathroom as a chill went up his spine.
"Is that thing that killed me still in here? If I'm stuck here ... does that mean I'm stuck with it?"
Pro choked a bit before whimpering, "U-ummm ... sister, are you there? M-maybe we can talk this out, and coexist like a family ... please don't kill me ... wait I'm dead, can I still die?"
After waiting a while in the silent bathroom, Pro didn't get any response so his courage increased by a little bit, "Since I'm already dead, it's not like it can get worst."
Pro then began to explore the dark bathroom and barely noticed that the mirror was gone.
"Is that where sister was hiding before? But what happened? Who took the mirror away?" Pro pondered as he continued his exploration.
Noticing some cracks on the walls near the door, Pro couldn't help but exclaim, "Was there a fight of some sort here? I remember there wasn't any cracks before. Did someone come and kill the ghost that killed me? Could it be the police?"
Pro frowned in thought as he browsed through his memories of novels and made some connections, "Could this world not be as simple as I thought it was. Maybe there are people with special powers or exorcists of some sort to fight ghosts? There must be, I mean if ghosts exist, then its counterpart must also exist in some fashion."
Pro shivered as he peeked out the doorway of the bathroom, "That exorcist or whoever is gone right?"
Noticing that the apartment was empty, Pro breathed a sigh of relief, "Glad I am not going to be exorcised right after I was reborn, but ... they will eventually come for me won't they?"
"Although I have no info on what they are, the worst case scenario is that they can take me out easily. In order to continue living, I have to hide, but that is not going to solve the problem because they probably have some sort of technique to find my hiding spot. I must get strong enough as soon as possible so that they can't kill me!" Pro thought as he recalled the noise from earlier, "System?"
A status screen then materialized in front of Pro as Pro smiled cheerfully, "At least I have a golden finger, not all is lost."
[Name] Pro Ye
[Title] None
[Level] Lower Baleful Spirit
[Yin Energy] 100/100
[Possession Object] Toilet
[Abilities]
Toilet Attraction, Constipation, Pain in the Ass, System Library
[Domain]
Bathroom
[Life points] 0
Pro stared at his status screen for a while, then he began to curse and rage, "Why am I bound to the toilet of all things?! And what is with these abilities? Other protagonists in novel get cheats for upgrading or some OP inheritance, and I get the power of constipation?!"
After a section of omitted raging and cursing, Pro finally calmed down and studies his status carefully. Pro glanced at the System Library ability as that seems to be where one would go to get info.
"System Library?"
The status screen faded away to reveal a catalog screen with a search bar at the top with a description "Think about what you want to search". Pro then began to search up the info on his abilities.
[Toilet Attraction] Mental attack to cause target to want to poo, Cost: 10
[Constipation] Causes target to have constipation, Cost: 1 per second
[Pain in the Ass] Can absorb life force of individuals in pain
[System Library] Can absorb dissipating souls to collect memories and enhance the system. Automatically parses memories into readable form.
Pro twitched his lips as he stared at his unreliable abilities, except for the system library. Afterwards, he began to search up other info, but realize the database was very small as most searches ended up with no results. Surprisingly, his own memories of novels he had read were parsed into books in the library, but his other memories were not.
"It seems I will need to absorb souls to upgrade the library. I don't understand the level system in this world yet, but I am probably at the bottom. Based on my knowledge from novels, there is also a lingering spirit below baleful, but it seems that the library didn't take my memories into account as it probably isn't verified. Meanwhile I can leave the toilet, which is a good thing, but it seems I am stuck in this bathroom as that seems to be my domain."
As Pro focused on info about the domain, one result popped up.
[Depending on the expansion area, domain can be expanded by consuming life points. Host currently has 0 life points and can not expand the domain.]
Pro's eyes lit up as he saw hope of leaving the bathroom, "Great! But how do I get life points?"
[Life points can be gained through absorbing the life force of living organisms through the host's abilities. Dead organisms will only provide life points until the life force in the organism dissipates.]
Pro frowned a bit as his inner morals had a battle inside of him, but he eventually concluded firmly, "Even if I don't kill them, they will come to kill me. If I have to be evil and take the life of others in order to continue to live, I will. I'm not a good guy anyways, and my current life form is more biased towards evil."
Pro patted himself on the face before his eyes turned sharp, "Now, let's look for something to absorb life force from ..."
Pro glanced around in the darkness. Complete silence greeted him. Not even an insect was around for him to kill. Pro fell on his knees in despair, "If I knew this was going to happen, I would have chosen a more populated place to rent! I have no neighbors ... hell, there isn't even a sh*tty fly here, where am I going to find living organisms to absorb from?!"
Pro could only cry in despair like a man for a bit, before he pulled himself together, "No matter. I can wait. As long as I stay hidden and wait, eventually there will be someone moving on right? I'm sure I'm not the only stupid idiot that will move into a sketchy apartment like this one because the price is cheap ... heck, I think that contractor pit me didn't he? If he dares come back ... hehehe ..."
Evil laughter resounded in the apartment, and it would have scared anyone that lived there, but too bad there wasn't anyone.
Pro got up and stretched. He knew it was late but he didn't feel sleepy at all, "It seems that ghosts don't need sleep huh? I wonder what other special abilities ghosts have?"
After checking the system library for abilities of ghosts, Pro noticed that there were other ghost abilities outside of his special abilities. Although Pro couldn't test his special ghost abilities due to them requiring a target, Pro could try out the abilities inherent to a ghost. Pro then began to experiment with himself throughout the night. After a couple of hours, Pro understood his abilities that were not written into the status screen, but included in the library.
"First, I don't need sleep, at least at night I don't. Second, I possess the ability to turn myself completely transparent which is a good way to hide. I can also pass through solid objects if I focus on imagining I can, and if I lose focus, I will at most get stuck in the object until I get out with no other consequences."
"Even though I can pass through walls, I shouldn't leave my domain so I am still limited to the bathroom. I can concentrate hard and force myself out of my translucent state into a physical state, which allows me to interact with physical objects like when I'm alive. It consumes 50 energy to cast this, but I can only stay in this state for about a minute before I'm forced back to transparency after which I will be in a state of weakness for about an hour where I can't use any of my abilities."
"Instead of doing that, if I were to concentrate a bit and imagine it, I can interact with the physical objects inside my domain with a thought even without a physical state. This consumes 20 energy each time so I could do this up to five times before I have to spend 100 minutes to recover to full energy."
"Finally, I can assimilate myself into my possession object, the toilet, in order to hide even more thoroughly and recover energy at double rate, but in that case my field of vision will be limited to the toilet opening ... does that mean if I hide there I would only see the buttocks of others?! Ugg ... stop imagining the inevitable, I'll try not to hide in there in the future if it's not necessary. Hmm? My body feels a bit weak?"
Pro looked down at his body that was turning a bit more transparent as if he was hiding. He pondered a bit before looking out the small window and saw sparse sunlight coming in, "So it's already daytime huh? It seems that sunlight is a weakness of ghosts. Fortunately, the window is small so I'm not dissipating, but I bet that if there was a lot of sunlight, I might need to hide in the toilet to avoid dissipation. Sunlight might even be used as a weapon by the enemies of ghosts to kill ghosts ..."
After staying in the sunlight for a bit, the weakness was a bit discomforting. Pro found a dark corner away from the sunlight and sat down in it for a rest, "It seems the waiting begins huh?"
Staring out at the slowly brightening living room outside the doorway, Pro looked forward to his new journey, even though it may be one that will be filled with darkness.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone