House of issues

"MEOW!" The cat continued to meow angrily at Alan as it struggled to free itself from his grasp.

'I'm not one to harm animals... but..' Alan couldn't take it anymore and threw the cat back into the living room and continued to track the ants.

As he was entering the kitchen, the cat came back pouncing at Alan but he just tried to ignore its measly strikes

"MEOW!" The cat continued to scratch Alan, but noticed it couldn't tear through his cloak, so she focused on attacking his skull. Alan found it to be quite disturbing, not because he was afraid the cat would damage his skull, but it was just the cat kept blocking his view.

Thankfully, through soul eyes, Alan could see all the ant souls, even when the cat was blocking his sight.

"MEOW!" Seeing that her attacks and distractions were ineffective against Alan, the cat meowed loud and louder.

"I have to deal with annoying system pings in my head cat, this is nothing!" Alan said as he activated soul transfer.

[Soul transfer activated]

'Speak of the devil'

To Alan's surprise, the cat immediately ran away once he activated soul transfer 'Weird' Alan thought, but didn't complain since it made his job easier.

A faint blue beam was released from his hand, but unlike the first time, the beam had a larger radius, like the light from a flashlight. The more Alan used his variation of soul transfer, the more proficient he became with it and five-hour practice resulted in this change.

The larger beam radius allowed multiple souls to be guided at one go, so the ants were swiftly taken care of in the kitchen.

[Congratulations! You have guided…]

[Congratulations! You have guided…]

Unfortunately, the system still notified him of every individual soul he guided and not summarised them even if he guided multiple at the same time.

After finishing the kitchen, he cleared the upstairs with his beam since it could go past solid objects like the ceiling, allowing him to not walk all the way up for these ants. But the further his beam had to travel, the less area it covered and would be smaller.

[Congratulations! You have guided…]

Finishing the job in the house, Alan walked out of the kitchen and left the house. Before he could get to the door, it opened and, from surprise, he ran to the living room as if he was an intruder.

'Wait...what am I doing?' Realising his foolishness. He stood up from hiding beside the couch and was about to walk out the window, but was stopped by the cat.

"You again? Forgot about my powers?" Alan said as he activated soul transfer, causing his hands to glow blue.

[Soul transfer activated]

However, unlike before, the cat still stood in front of Alan, though it was shivering.

'The hell? You ran off so quick last time…' Alan was confused with the cat's behaviour.

The two were staring down at each other 'Do I really have to guide you now?' Alan regretfully thought as he wanted to save the cat for when it was required for him to guide a cat soul. He knew that compared to ant souls, the soul of a cat was probably much more difficult to find, so he wanted to take a mental note of the house to return when it was time to take the cat.

"Meow!" The cat meowed at Alan but unlike before, it was much calmer but sounded urgent to Alan which confused him more.

*slap!*

A slapping sound could be heard from the corridor, grabbing Alan's attention immediately. He walked over to check what happened and could see a man standing upright over a woman who was on the floor, holding her left cheek.

'Oh no' Alan had a bad feeling about this…

"You useless woman! All you had to do was look gorgeous by my side and be quiet!" The man shouted at the woman.

"I...I'm sorry...they were t-touching me...a-and-" the woman cried as she weakly explained herself to the man.

The man kicked her, prompting her to lie down on the floor as she clutched her stomach in pain "You think I give a shit!? If they wanted to feel you up, you should have been an obedient bitch and let them!" The man continued to shout as he stomped at the poor woman on the floor.

'This guy!' Alan was furious as he tried to grab the man's hand but his hand phased through the man. "Fuck!" He cursed as he watched the woman be stomped by the man.

It was torture for Alan to just watch the scene without being able to do anything, he tried everything he could think off.

He tried beaming soul transfer at him but was given the prompt [Soul transfer is ineffective on the living]

He tried the skill soul bind hoping it had a use but once again [Soul bind is ineffective on the living]

He was completely hopeless in this situation as he watched the man release his fury on his wife.

After a while he stopped and took off his nice suit, throwing it at her and went to the living room "Be useful for once and put this away." He coldly ordered..

Alan clenched his bony hands as he saw the poor woman weeping on the ground, yet still forcing herself to stand up and obey his order.

From the corner of his view, he saw the cat try to attack the man but just like him; the cat phased through him.

'So that's why the cat stopped me. It wants my help,' Alan realised the cat's intention while watching the woman weakly place the suit on a peg and drag herself upstairs.

Seeing her wobble and lean on the wall while walking up made Alan furious 'This is not how you treat your wife! This is not how you treat a fellow human!' Alan cursed in his mind as, unknowingly to him, his empty eyes glowed a faint red.