Thoughts and Plans

Pro sighed as he patted his face with this hands, "Wake up Pro, it's not the time to worry about Gods yet. You don't even have the strength to deal with a trifling Black Death Society. And there is no way I can get along with this group as they seem to be evil cultists! Even if I'm evil, joining evil groups like this is just waiting for the protagonist to come to smack me to death."

Glancing at the information that was sorted into its own file of Black Death Society, Pro can't help but moan in frustration. According to the collected information, the Black Death Society is a group of criminals hidden in the city. They are the enemies of the government, and will do anything to cause chaos to gain more power from the evil gods they worship.

Of course, if it was just a small group of cultists, the government would have no problem, but it seems that the cultist group in this city is just one branch! There are an unknown amount of branches of Black Death Society hidden in different cities, each controlled by a powerful elder.

Above them all is the mysterious leader of the Black Death Society who no one has seen as most who had seen this leader are now dead.

If that wasn't enough a headache, there are also other groups of cultists! In fact, if all the cultists joined together, they may be able to overthrow the government completely; however, the evil gods worshiped by these cultists are different and most of them treat both the government and each other as enemies. Heck, even the cultists within the Black Death Society alone don't live in harmony.

As for this spirit farm, it is owned by the elder of the Black Death Society. There was no information on this elder as Wang Ba had never met this elder, but it was known that the elder must be at least a level three mystic!

The danger of mystic apprentices can be considered to be white rank, and possibly up to yellow rank depending on the artifacts they own. Level one mystics has a danger level of yellow rank, mystic level two is to yellow to orange rank, and mystic level three is to orange to red rank! Not only that, the most dangerous part of human mystics is the fact that they can use artifacts to kill beyond their level!

Based on his system library, Pro can only be considered to have a danger rank of yellow. Of course, normal spirits don't seem to have the same level of rationality that Pro has, so that is a hidden trump card, but it still can't bridge the gap between yellow rank and red rank.

"It seems that I will have to step up my game," Pro muttered in a worried tone, "According to the man's memory, the elder will come to replenish the farm once every year, and the next time seems to be in 6 months at most!"

Hugging Alice's soft body, Pro couldn't help but pinch her face, "If only I knew how to raise your level, maybe you can help me somewhat. Too bad Wang Ba Dan did not study this. Logically I should feed you other spirits, but I don't know the consequences of this. If it ends up turning you into a monster, I would rather you stay cute like this. Welp, time to get to work."

Leaving Alice on the bed, Pro hopped off and went to the closet to grab some clothes. Grabbing the two bloody knives, he used the knives as pins to hang the clothes over the window in order to block most of the window. Pro didn't want to risk the sunlight dissipating Alice. Even though he should be able to bring her back, but that is still points lost.

"Well, let's see what I need for the next level upgrade," Pro muttered as he searched the system library.

[To upgrade host level, the following requirements must be met.]

[Requirements] Domain size of at least 2 small rooms, 1 medium room, 1000 life points

Pro grabbed his hair in despair, "Why is the cost so high?! Just the life points alone is a large ditch, but I also need 2 more small rooms along with 1 medium room?! The medium room will cost 1000 points alone, plus the two small rooms, that may be a total of 1400 points, and that is a lower estimate!"

After checking and seeing no way to reduce the cost, Pro can only grit his teeth, "It seems I will need a lot of points. I have about 500 points right now, it should be enough to get a small room at least."

"Let's find a room that I can expand to," Pro muttered as he stared out the window, "Probably not going to work, but expand in this direction?"

[Error. No rooms in this direction to expand to.]

"As expected. I can't expand into empty air. I already know the living room is on the side of the bedroom door and I can't afford it," Pro confirmed before he glanced at the wall opposite of the bathroom wall.

Pro stated, "Expand towards the hallway?"

[Expansion Name] Distorted Hallway

[Room Category] Large

[Specialty] Distorted Space

[Expansion Cost] 5000 Life points

"HUH?! A special room! And a large one at that! But what is this?! 5000 life points?!" Pro dropped on his knee as he cried in exasperation.

"It is now I realize I am a poor man," Pro muttered as he wiped his non-existent tears, "But still, distorted hallway? It's space is distorted? How come I don't feel anything?"

Poking his head through the wall and glancing at the straight hallway outside, Pro noticed nothing wrong. The space didn't look distorted in anyway.

"Could space be distorted in a way I can't see?" Pro muttered in confusion, but as he tried to think deeper, his mind seemed to be clouded by a fog which caused him to be distracted.

An unknown time later, Pro snapped back to his senses, "Huh? What was I just thinking about? Oh right, I was trying to find a room to expand to, but the hallway was too expensive."

Pro then turned around and floated to the bathroom. He glanced at the wall the bathtub was attached to and muttered, "Expand in this direction?"

[Error. No rooms in this direction to expand to.]

Glancing up at the small window, Pro blinked his eyes in confusion. He had a weird feeling that something was wrong, but he can't seem to figure it out at the moment.

"I guess this way is also no go?" Pro muttered in confusion as he strolled out of the bathroom.

With a two minutes of time, it is enough for Pro to peek through the wall on the other side of the living room. There, he saw another apartment, but arranged a bit differently from his apartment room.

The door out to the hallway is on the same side and the kitchen is still attached to the living room, but the living room is oriented horizontally instead of vertically like his apartment. Also, the bedroom and bathroom doors are now on the wall opposite of the hallway door.

Not staying too long and increasing his risk, Pro swiftly went back to his domain while his mind attempted to connect the dots.

"There is the hallway on one side and another apartment room on the other side. This means that my apartment room is only has rooms on two sides while the other two sides are outdoors. Does that mean my room is at the corner of this apartment building? Huh? Wait? Aren't there rooms next to me?!" Pro exclaimed in shock as he swiftly floated back to the bedroom and peeked out the wall again.

As expected, he saw a straight hallway with rooms on both sides and also across from him. Pro's mind spun in confusion, "What is going on?"

Checking the prompt for hallway expansion once more, the fog finally seemed to clear for Pro as he muttered, "Could this be due to the distorted space? There's something wrong with this hallway, but no one noticed anything wrong even after walking through it so many times! Even the police can't find anything wrong. Is there something confusing our senses?"

"According to the corpse monster's memory, no spirit has ever escaped its floor. Perhaps the key to escaping the floor is the hallway!" Pro's eyes lit up as he stared at the hallway in excitement, "If I can control the hallway, I may figure out this mystery and be able to leave this floor! Maybe that is why it is required to assimilate an entire floor into my domain before I can expand to other floors."

After pondering a bit, Pro can only wryly smile, "But 5000 points? How long will it take for me to get that much? Ugg! And it seems my 500 points can't purchase any expansion unless I expand to the living room area first."

After planning a bit, Pro can only grit his teeth, "It seems I will need to take a bit of risk. The largest source of points at the moment is my not so friendly neighbors, but I will need to risk my soul dissipating in order to go to their domains. I only have 2 minutes to spare, if I get trapped in their domain, I will perish."

Pro continued to think, "Unlike me, it seems my neighbors don't seem to be bound by this rule as the corpse monster was able to come over to hunt in my domain. I guess this is a shackle of my system. Although it lets me get stronger with no bottlenecks, allows me to expand my domain infinitely, and can absorb mysterious items to grant me skills, but it restricts my freedom. However, I don't know if this is because something doesn't want me to escape or if it's just for my personal safety."

"Or maybe the system's signal can't extend outside of the domain for long. This seems to be the most likely case because as I level up, the signal can be broadcasted further and my freedom becomes less restricted," Pro speculated.

Sitting on his chair, Pro tapped his finger on the desk as he begun to come up with a plan, "It seems that I can't fight the battle outside. I must lead my neighbors into my domain, and I must not take too long to do so or I will be too weak to fight them. I also should not seek the guardians yet as I don't have a protagonist to help me distract them at the moment. I might not be able to beat them if I let the guardians into my domain directly. I have no clear info on their abilities, and I'm unsure if they can resist my abilities like the evil cultist."

Peeking through the wall to the hallway, Pro glanced at the other rooms on the floor, "According to the corpse monster's memories, some of those rooms have lingering spirits. It seems those shall be my hunting target. Although I may be able to subdue them like Alice, but I need points right now, not more subordinates."

Pro grinned as he finalized his plan, "Scout first to check if there is a prey and to confirm its general location. Also, try to confirm its possession object if possible so it can't hide and recover. Come back to my domain regardless after a minute. If they prey follows, I will hunt it. If it doesn't, I will go hunt it after recovering to top condition."

Glancing at room 442 right next to him, Pro confirmed his target. Rubbing his hands in excitement and with a hint of caution, Pro confidently muttered, "Time to farm life points. Soon, it will be expansion time!"