Room 442

[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: 120 seconds]

The countdown has begun and Pro didn't waste any time as he swiftly dived towards Room 442. Stopping in front of the door to Room 442, Pro cautiously stuck his head through the wall to take a peek inside.

Apartment room 442 was oriented in a similar way as apartment room 444. With a glance inside, Pro was able to see a kitchen attached to a living room. There was also a couple of old, broken furnishing with scattered pieces of debris on the ground that had black stains. The old wallpaper was peeling off, revealing the moldy wall behind it. The darkness in the room served to enhance the gloomy atmosphere.

"It seems the coast is clear," Pro muttered as he cautiously stepped through the wall.

Although it was dark, Pro was able to see clearly. This was just part of the unmentioned benefits of being a ghost as the darkness is the home ground of the ghosts. Glancing inside the kitchen, Pro noticed the rusty, unwashed pans in the sink along with the stained counters. Click! Flipping the light switch revealed that the light was completely out of service, unlike apartment 444. The stove also failed to turn on. However, the hum from the refrigerator revealed that it was still working.

"It seems the electricity is out for this apartment even though it is fine for mine," Pro muttered with a frown as he glanced at the refrigerator, "But, it seems that there is still one thing still running without electricity! Clearly, there's a problem."

Pro walked away from the kitchen and explored the living room. Unfortunately, nothing weird was found. Pro then poked his head into the silent bathroom to take a peek.

As soon as his head went in, it seemed to have alerted the tenant of the bathroom. A man dressed in rags appeared inside the mirror and began to frantically beat on the mirror, as if the mirror was a barrier and he was trying to escape from it. One could tell that the man was clearly suffering as his eyeballs were missing and two streams of red tear leaked from his empty eye sockets. He also seemed to be howling in pain, but the bathroom was still silent as if all his howls are trapped within the mirror.

"That's two," Pro muttered as he pulled out his head from the bathroom and glanced at the time.

He then swiftly strolled towards the bedroom and took a peek inside. The bedroom was dark and the window was completely sealed up by wooden boards. An old wardrobe was toppled over, and broken wooden chips scattered on the ground of the bedroom along with parts of the wooden furnishing. The only furnishing that seems to be intact and in-place is an old wooden bed.

Taking a closer look, Pro noticed that the bed was actually tidy, as if there was something tidying it up. Then, Pro felt something glancing at him. Shifting his sight downwards, Pro saw a pair of eyes peeking at him from underneath the bed.

Without disturbing the hidden spirit any further, Pro swiftly pulled his head out. He then dived through the front door and re-entered the hallway. Heading back into his domain, Pro breathed a sigh of relief, "Phew, I didn't expect there to be three lingering spirits all in one apartment room, but it somewhat makes sense. It's not possible to occupy an apartment room all alone unless you are at least a baleful spirit. The weak has to band together somehow, but this may make it a bit more troublesome for me to hunt."

Thinking of the Alice's curse, although it had a low chance of triggering, it still can't be underestimated. There's a variety of different lingering spirits, and each has its own weird curses. Some lingering spirit that has been infused with enough resentment may also have the power to affect the physical world, albeit not as much as a baleful spirit.

While recovering from a weakened state, Pro pondered, "If their curses aren't too strange and powerful, I might be able to take care of two at most with the time I have before dissipation."

Pro thought for a bit before made a decision, "Risks have to be taken. Worst case is that I run back to my domain."

After recharging, Pro prepared himself for the blitz. Then, he swiftly stepped through the wall and charged over to room 442. Entering room 442 once more, Pro dashed into the kitchen.

Cautiously walking up to the refrigerator, Pro smirked to himself, "So, what happens if I open this? Will I be cursed by some lingering spirit? But, who said I was going to open it? Yin Claws!"

Pro's nails elongated and gradually turned pitch black. It wasn't long before sharp claws appeared on both of Pro's hands.

"I Chop!" Pro growled.

With a slash, Pro sliced open the refrigerator like butter.

SCREEE!!

A soft screech resounded from the sliced opened fridge as black bags tumbled out of it. One of the bags rolled on the ground and opened up, allowing a bloody female head to roll out of it. The female head continued to scream in pain as it glared angrily at Pro with its empty eye sockets.

"Not dead yet? No matter! I Chop!" Pro growled as he swung his claws at the head and smashing it into halves, causing it to vaporize into black mist.

Then, Pro turned back to the fridge and waved his claws frantically, "I Chop! I Chop! Chop! Chop!"

The fridge was diced into pieces as a black mist diffused from it. The screams gradually died out not long after, but it wasn't over as Pro noticed that both the bedroom and bathroom doors began to rumble as if something was angrily trying to get out of it.

Grinning, Pro ran over to the bathroom door. With two quick slash at the door knob to destroy the lock, Pro then turned into physical form and kicked the door open. Seeing the man in the mirror, Pro sneered, "It seems you are in pain. Let me add to it, constipation!"

Then, Pro swung his claws at the mirror and shattered it into pieces. Unsurprisingly, black mist flowed out of the shattered glass and formed into the face of the man in the mirror. Ignoring this, Pro stepped away and headed towards the bedroom. Seeing its assailant ignoring it, the spirit howled angrily. This time, it's howl resounded in the bathroom as it dived towards Pro. However, it suddenly froze in place as its face distorted in pain.

SCREE! A scream of fright and pain resounded from the spirit as the face in the air exploded into clumps of black mist. The sound of the scream continued as the black mist churned around in the bathroom, smashing the sink and causing water to spray out. It continued to slam itself against the nearby objects and wall, intending to use pain to counter pain, but it seemed to have no effect.

Seeing this, Pro chuckled, "Bounce away in excitement my friend. It will come out, eventually."

Staring at the trembling bedroom door, Pro smashed the lock once again before opening the door. Glancing inside, Pro noticed a huge change to the bedroom. Bloody red eyes have appeared all over the walls of the bedroom and they were all staring at Pro. A groan resounded from underneath the bed as the bed began to decay rapidly as if time was fast forwarded.

Knowing he can't stay for much longer, Pro dived forward and gave the bed a couple of quick swipes. Black mist defused from the bed as a scream resounded in the room. Pro suddenly felt a wave of dizziness hit him and realized he was hit by a mental attack.

Pro then watched as the decaying bed suddenly lifted upwards revealing sharp teeth and a pitch black hole, as if it was an open mouth ready to eat him. Pro dived backwards as he activated an ability, "It's bed time for you! Spirit Isolation!"

Rolling out of the room and exiting physical form, Pro watched the spirit of the bedroom crash against the doorway; however, it seemed to have hit an invisible barrier that strongly bounced the bed backwards, causing it to smash into the wall on the other side. A screech of pain resounded from the bedroom as the old bed shattered into multiple chunks before it fell silent.

Watching the bloody eyes on the wall fade away, Pro dashed into the room and gave the broken bed a couple more slices to make sure it's dead. Then, Pro swiftly dived out of the apartment and went back to his domain to recover.

"Phew. I didn't expect the bedroom spirit to have a physical form. Fortunately, it seems that the cost of attacking with its physical power comes at the cost of decaying its possession object, the bed. Then, with the rebound from the spirit isolation, it killed itself from smashing itself into a wall," Pro concluded before staring at his system that has no notifications, "So I killed the spirits, but it seems I won't be able to absorb their memories if they are not in my domain. There is also no points. Did I just do all that for nothing?"

Pro frowned in thought as he recovered. After recovering completely, Pro then headed back to apartment room 442. The quiet apartment greeted Pro in its destroyed state just as before. Glancing at the debris of the refrigerator, a thought came to Pro's mind. He opened the door to room 442, collected a piece of debris, and transferred it back to his domain.

[Ding! Object with yin qi detected. Absorbing remnant yin qi. Host gains 5 life points.]

"As expected! I can still collect the spirit's possession object to gain points!" Pro exclaimed in excitement as his eyes sparkled.

Knowing this, Pro didn't waste any time and rapidly transferred the debris of the spirits back to his domain piece by piece.

[Ding! Object with yin qi detected. Absorbing remnant yin qi. Host gains 5 life points.]

[Ding! Object with yin qi detected. Absorbing remnant yin qi. Host gains 10 life points.]

[Ding! ...]

It wasn't long before Pro cleaned out apartment room 442. Finally finishing the arduous task, Pro plopped down on his bed and hugged Alice as he calculated his gains.

"Although I didn't gain any abilities, this hunt brought me a total of 50 points! The fridge and bathroom spirits provided 10 points each while the bedroom spirit gave a whopping 30 points! Now I have a total of 590 points. Unfortunately, this is only a one-time gain, and it comes at the cost of losing future subordinates and a not so friendly relationship with my neighbors. Not only that, the points gained may not be as much as grinding a couple of humans. Plus, grinding humans with my abilities has much less risk and difficulty than hunting myself."

Pro sighed as he realized that even if he hunted all the spirits on this floor, he won't get enough to redeem the hallway expansion, "It seems I still need to attract more visitors in the end. I don't know when the next batch will come from the online community ..."

Glancing at the sunlight peeking in from the gaps of the clothes hanging over the window, Pro then glanced down at the landline phone. Blinking his eyes, a mischievous thought arose in his mind.

Chuckling to himself as the plan was finalized, Pro pinched Alice on the face as he whispered, "Alice, are you hungry? How does pizza sound?"