The Ghost System

Rhys was a deer in headlights as he stared at his roommate, the one guy in the entire freshmen class whom he did not want to bunk with. The guy was an unreasonably powerful juvenile delinquent with homicidal tendencies who would probably not blink an eye about frying his new roommate to death. Furthermore, the system had warned Rhys that this delinquent's power would prove problematic to him. The more Rhys thought about it, the more his heart rate began to rise.

He watched anxiously as his roommate stared down at him with eagle eyes. He was like a seasoned butcher judging the latest cut of meat, deciding whether the meat could be left alone or needed to be sliced. Rhys gulped nervously shoving dry air down his tense throat.

Suddenly his roommate's predatory eyes softened. The acute sense of danger he felt lessened but did not disappear. The delinquent stepped around Rhys as if he was nothing more than an annoying smudge on the floor, and headed straight into his bedroom. The loud thud of the door closing behind him was a warning to keep out of his way.

After a moment of being stumped by what had happened, Rhys threw his head back in relief. Being ignored by the delinquent was a much better outcome than having to fight him. They would be roommates but nothing more, not even acquaintances since Rhys did not know the guy's name. They would just cohabitate, and that was fine with Rhys.

Rhys hobbled back into his room as the weight of the last two days manifested in his body. He opened the closet in his room and was glad to find a pair of military grey pyjamas and two extra pairs of grey military shirts and pants. Itching to get out of the room and away from the electric power station housed in the room next to his, Rhys set off down the hall to find the bathrooms with his pyjamas in hand.

To his surprise, the communal bathroom was only a few doors down from his room. It was spacious and clean with a line of twelve basins and mirrors across from a line of cubicled toilets, around the corner within the room were all the showers and one bath. Rhys plopped his stuff down at a sink and stared at himself in the mirror. His dreary brown eyes were rimmed with dark circles, his black hair looked haggard and his cheeks were sunken in.

['You look awful...']

Rhys's eye twitched and he clenched his fists. He wished that the system's teacher was a real living being and not a program, because that meant, one day, Rhys might find a way to physically put his hands around this jerk's neck and strangle him.

As Rhys was about to head to the showers, he noticed something about his hair, something odd. He leaned in closer to the mirror to take a better look. With his hand, he combed back his bird's nest and stared at the roots of his hair. He had black hair, pitch-black hair, and yet the roots of his hair had become white...

Certain that he was hallucinating, Rhys hauled himself onto the sink to get an even closer look at his roots. He could only blink and hope for what he was seeing to change before he realised that his hair roots were indeed white.

"What the hell?"

There was only one possible reason his hair would randomly be changing colour on him.

"Does this have something to do with my transition?"

['Correct.'] The voice sing-songed in his head. ['The most noticeable mark of any worthy inheritor is soulless hair.']

"Soulless hair?" Rhys raised his eyebrows unimpressed. "Is that alien for badly bleached hair?"

['You ignorant ape. How dare you mock the illustrious white hair of the higher beings. Show some respect.']

"Well, I'm supposed to be transitioning into one of those higher beings, so shouldn't you show some respect when you're talking to me?" Rhys smirked as he tapped on the shower settings. The warm water rained down from the ceiling.

['Comparing what you are now to a higher being is like comparing a peasant beggar to an emperor.'] Rhys flinched as the teacher snarled at him in his head.

Rhys chuckled happily in the shower, he was feeling much better now that his body was clean. He smiled contently but soon frowned when a thought crossed his mind.

"Actually, what am I right now? My information tab just says I am transitioning but are there phases to the transition, or does the transition happen all at once?" Rhys tapped on the shower controls to turn off the water. He pressed the settings for the air dryer this time and was soon engulfed in a warm tornado of air that dried his wet skin.

["There are multiple phases, a few of which you are cleared to learn about, but the system is having a problem translating them because of the lack of correct vocabulary in your memories. Head to the library as soon as possible and glance through any books about spirituality, ancient civilisations, religion and death. The system needs to be able to explain things to you effectively or you will have to learn the language of the higher beings."]

Rhys had thought about going to sleep after his shower, but apparently there were more pressing things at hand. He stepped out of the dryer and got changed into the military clothes he had brought with him.

Rhys was about to go back to his room to fetch some stuff when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and another idea sparked in his head. Rhys turned to looked at his reflection in the mirror, and summoned his skill.

'Aura Detection'

[Aura Detection used + 5 Exp]

[Name: Rhys Anson]

[Aura: Ghost System inheritor (average)]

Rhys was so focused on studying his aura that he did not pay any attention to the words the system printed out.

His aura looked like a graveyard fog that wrapped around him, enclosing him inside a nightmarish egg. There was something about how the mist circled around him and twisted unnaturally that sent shivers down his spine. The more Rhys looked at his aura, the colder and emptier he felt, like he was staring into an abyss. His eyes were locked on the swirls of mist and how they eerily danced about his body, he stared at them for so long that holes and gaps in the mist morphed into hollow faces that moaned out silent horrible tunes. Rhys's chest tightened as their horrible faces stopped moving and stared ominously at him.

Rhys lost all sense of feeling and awareness as he stared into the mirror at the reflection of his aura. The terrible eyes of the ghastly fog pinned him to his spot, holding him there like a prisoner.

Panic flooded his brain as he tried to move but he could not, not even a muscle. He tried to scream for help but not even a syllable passed his lips. The hollow faces of the mist in his reflection were gathering and morphing together to create one giant terrifying face that had a mouth that was widening and widening, preparing to swallow Rhys whole.

Like a small child Rhys could only shiver in terror and watch as he was consumed by the terrifying thing in the mirror.

"Argh! Fuck!" Rhys shouted and fell forward onto the basin as something painful zapped his neck. When he looked up, his aura was gone, but someone else was there with him.

Rhys looked up to see his murderous roommate staring at him with his index finger out, still crackling with the electricity he had used to zap Rhys on the neck with. Rhys did not know whether to be thankful or pissed at the guy for shocking him. On one hand the electricity had caused Rhys to release his skill and free himself from his terrifying aura, but in the other hand, the shock flipping hurt.

The two freshmen stared at each for a long time before one broke the silence.

He raised a blonde eyebrow and stared at Rhys incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

His low toneless voice matched his blank emotionless face.

Rhys was stumped by the seemingly obvious question. "To take a shower..."

"No." The blonde chuckled darkly. "I meant, what are you doing at the military college? How can a guy who is scared of his own reflection even last here..."

Now Rhys understood what the delinquent was saying. The guy had probably walked into the bathroom to see Rhys shivering and whimpering like a wet dog at the sight of his own reflection. Rhys realised that the delinquent must have assumed Rhys was having a mental breakdown after the initiation test.

"I'll be just fine, thanks for the concern." Rhys tutted as he stabilised himself. He looked up to see that the delinquent was eyeing him unimpressed. It clear that Rhys gave off an impression of weakness to everyone he met.

"I'm Rhys by the way." Rhys stood and waited for the guy to reciprocate, but instead the delinquent turned away and walked to the back of the bathroom where the showers were.

Rhys deadpanned. He felt like he had stretched out his hand to a stray dog and instead of kindness he had been bitten. With his wounded pride Rhys returned to his room and flopped over onto his mattress. He had been all amped to go to the library but looking at the time it was almost midnight, and as soon as he laid down, he found the exhaustion he had forgotten flood back into him.

"You could have warned me about what would happen if I looked at my own aura." Rhys grunted as he turned onto his side. "What was that anyway?"

Rhys winced just thinking about the ghastly fog like aura.

['Like I said before, it's complicated to explain without the proper words I can used in the database. I did see an interesting quote from a human philosopher in your memory banks that sums up what happened quite nicely.'] The teacher paused for a moment and cleared his throat before reciting the quote.

['And if you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.']

"Oh yeah, I learnt about that philosopher in school." Rhys smiled remembering the words he had been captured by a few years ago.

"So you're saying my aura is like an abyss, Looking at it for too long is harmful for me?" Rhys turned into his side and rested his head on the pillow.

['Head to library and read books, once you've done that it will be easier for me to explain things to you. It will also raise your int stat, so get going!'] the teacher urge, but Rhys was already slipping into sleep.

"I'll go tomorrow." Rhys huffed.

['Laziness is a sign of weakness of the mind. If you're mind was not so weak you would not have been so disturbed by the sight of your aura. Even more reason for you to head to the library.']

"No. I'm going to sleep." After the two days Rhys had, he felt he deserved sleep. Besides the library would be there for him when he woke up.

['Rhys...']

"No."

['...']

There was silence in his head for a moment, and Rhys thought he had won the battle. However a notification popped up in his vision.

[Attention!]

[New Quest: Go to the library and read texts about death. Time limit to get to the library: 15 minutes]

[Reward: None]

[Penalty: Haunting]

Rhys reconsidered for a moment, however he could not find the strength to lift his body from the bed. So he just lay there not caring. Whatever the penalty was, he would just have to take it.

Rhys's eyes closed and he fell asleep just as the timer went off.

[Quest failed]

[Penalty: Applied]