Sixth Floor

Calmly walking up the gloomy, concrete stairway, Pro pondered over the possible dangers of this trip.

"Assuming the pattern is the same as the other floors, there should be six baleful spirits on the sixth floor. These rooms will most likely be apartments 660, 661, 664, 665, and 668. There should be another one within the five remaining apartment rooms."

"This greatly increases the chance of me encountering one, and I definitely won't have an easy time like the previous floors if they all gang up on me, unless a part of them are stuck in their rooms; however, I doubt that I will be that lucky for every floor."

"Not only that, the lingering spirits will probably be stronger as well. Although this would give me more to harvest, it also increases the risk of me being exposed during the fight."

Pro furrowed his brows for a bit, but he relaxed when he glanced at the surrounding stairway, "Well, if I can't fight them, I can easily run. I'll just let them roam around in the stairway while I teleport back to the fourth floor. I'm not afraid even if I make a ruckus, but it's better to be careful just in case some evil spirit has some weird abilities that I can't handle."

Although Pro hasn't really faced any baleful spirits with strange, powerful abilities, he knew they existed according to the memories he gathered from the mystics. Of course, the best example of a baleful spirit with strange, powerful curses would be himself.

Of course, once an evil spirit becomes a blood spirit, they would definitely have powerful curses or abilities. According to the previous owner of the stairway, there should be no blood spirits on the sixth floor, but Pro still need to be wary.

Although Pro didn't teleport directly to the sixth floor to prevent disturbing the floor on accident, he could still teleport to the fifth floor and walk the rest of the way. It didn't take long for Pro to reach the sixth floor.

Pro cautiously peeked his head through the walls to scout the situation. Pro expected there to be a distorted hallway like usual, but the floor turned out to be a normal four-sided hallway. Pro was a bit annoyed as this would mean that he might have to end up far away from the door.

Pondering a bit, a spark of enlightenment struck Pro as he hopped over to the opposite wall of the stairway. Putting his hands through the wall, Pro's eyes glinted in excitement as he realized that he could exit and enter from any direction on a floor with a normal hallway.

"Now I know I can escape by directly phasing through the stairway walls, but this would mean that the enemy spirits can as well if they know how to phase through walls. Also, I will still need to reach the door in order to teleport."

After testing this out for a bit, Pro returned to scouting the situation on multiple sides as best as he could. This entire floor couldn't help but make Pro feel weird.

In front of every apartment door, a bowl of rice sat with a chopstick sticking out of it. Although the rice was probably cold, but it was still fresh. However. what truly caught Pro's attention was the faint yin qi defusing from the bowls of rice.

"Did someone come feed the dead? Or do these bowls of rice have another purpose?" Pro murmured as he furrowed his brows in confusion.

As far as he knew, he didn't notice anyone coming in and out of the building. Of course, he's not always paying attention so he might have missed it. Even so, it's weird that the visitor only delivered it to the sixth floor.

"Humph, since you denied me of my ricesu, then I will steal the rice bowls of the ones you want to feed!" Pro mockingly thought as he cautiously sneaked up to the rice bowl of apartment 660.

Pro cautiously picked up the rice bowl without making any noise. Seeing no reaction from the apartment owners, Pro sneaked back to the stairway with the rice bowl.

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

"Oh? I can actually absorb the yin qi on these bowls?"

Seeing this, Pro's licked his lip as he felt a bit of hunger, not for rice but for points. Glancing down at the bowl of rotten rice, Pro discovered that it was no longer contaminated with yin qi. Seeing that the bowl had nothing else special to it, Pro gladly returned it to the front door of its owner.

Then glancing at the nearby bowls, Pro licked his lips, "I'm sure they won't mind if 'borrow' some of their rice right?"

With this thought, Pro stopped by the front doors of the neighborhood one by one in a clockwise fashion. Fresh, white rice was turned into rotten, brown rice. With an easy 45 points harvested, Pro headed towards the last apartment room of the floor, apartment 661.

Just as Pro picked up the last bowl of rice, the door of apartment 668 in front of him creaked open!

Looking up, Pro saw a short, humpbacked man with pale gray skin and dressed in a tattered, brown robe. Disregarding his almost 90 degree angle disability, the man looked like a normal human being except for his bald head that had a metallic glint on it, but Pro wasn't able to see the man's face as he was facing downwards.

Inwardly cursing himself for being unlucky, Pro held his breathe as he prayed inwardly, "He can't see me ... he isn't looking, I just need to back away slowly."

Pro slowly backed away and made sure to check his feet so he doesn't step onto something by accident like the cliche protagonist does.

"Urrrrrg?" the humpbacked man suddenly lifted its head to reveal an ugly face with its mouth and eyes stitched shut by black threads!

The humpbacked monster sniffed the air back and forth like a dog. Pro froze in place as he slowly got his hands in ready position.

As if it actually found something by smell, the humpbacked monster suddenly snapped its head to stare in Pro's direction as its mouth and groaned. Pro gritted his teeth, knowing he was found.

Shing! Pro did not hesitate and pounced forward to hump the monster! Just when Pro was about to land his strike, the monster's mouth stretched open even though the threads tried to keep it shut.

Screeeee! A high pitch scream came out of the mouth, causing Pro to feel as if his surroundings have distorted because he could see the sound waves bouncing all over.

When the scream disappeared, Pro observed his surroundings and discovered that he was no longer in the apartment hallway! He seemed to be in a forest and surrounded by tall, oak trees. However, the scene was not normal because it was in grayscale and it was too awfully silent!

Examining the realistic image of trees nearby, Pro reached out to touch and it felt his hands pass through it.

"Illusion?" Pro murmured.

Bam! Suddenly, Pro felt something slam into his chest and he felt his whole body being knocked flying backwards!

Thud! Pro felt that he slammed into a wall of some sort. His surroundings distorted once more and in a couple of moments, Pro found himself back inside the apartment hallway!

However, with a glance of his surroundings, Pro hiccuped in fright! A group of evil spirits were gathered nearby while screeching at him in intimidation!

Besides the bending humpbacked monster that seemed to have knocked him back with its head, there was a female evil spirit in a dirt-stained white dress. She also had her mouth sewed shut, but her bloodshot eyes were glaring at Pro. Like that wasn't enough, both her hands were cut off and replaced by large scissors that she snapped like claws.

Rrrrrr! The sound a chainsaw roaring echoed in the hallway. Glancing down the hallway towards apartment 665, Pro noticed that there was a strong, sturdy man with a hockey mask welded to his face charging over. His left lower arm was cut off completely and replaced by a chainsaw!

Not only that, Pro could also hear screeches and thuds echoing from afar in the hallway, as if the other evil spirits were also heading in his direction.

"Hahaha, well since you are all awake, I won't bother you anymore. Enjoy your meal!" Pro chuckled awkwardly as he bounced up and dashed for the stairway.

The lady with the scissor hands pounced forward to intercept Pro's escape. A giant scissor snapped at empty air as Pro easily side-stepped it. As he continued his escape, Pro smashed his claws down at the scissor to counterattack.

Clang! Unlike Pro's claws that didn't break, the scissor was actually dented due to the tremendous force of the clash! However, the scissor was still intact which showed that it won't be so easy to solve its owner.

Screeee! The lady indiscriminately swung its dented scissors around while screaming in pain. This managed to hinder the humpbacked monster who was charging over with its metallic head.

However, Pro didn't continue to engage with them. His priority was to return to his domain first.

As Pro swiftly dashed across the hallway to the walls of the stairway, a man, dressed in a security uniform and with a rustic old lantern lamp as its head, suddenly materialized out of thin air and ambushed Pro with a glaring yellow beam of light from its lamp.

Getting hit by the searchlight-like beam, Pro felt his movement become sluggish as it felt like he was moving underwater. Perhaps if Pro had a normal human's strength, he would have been frozen in place and unable to move!

Fortunately, Pro could still move fluidly, albeit a bit slower. However, seeing the approaching chainsaw man, Pro didn't want to delay any further. Giving a strong kick to the ground, Pro boosted himself forward. Zooming forward a bit, Pro flew out of the beam of searchlight and regained his normal movement.

While Pro continued to dash forward in a zigzag pattern in order to avoid the beam of searchlight that was trying to catch his trails, he fired a couple of yin needles at the light in hopes of interrupting its search. However, once the needle entered the beam of light, they gradually slowed down and lost their power. Seeing this, Pro gave up on his counterattack.

Luckily, it seems the lantern spirit could only move slowly and couldn't rapidly turn its searchlight all over, so Pro was able to avoid the light and made it to the stairway.

As Pro switched to ghost form and was about to phase through the wall, the sound of a vacuum cleaner suddenly roared in the hallway. Pro then felt a strong suction force pull his ghost body sideways, causing him to tumble over!

Glancing over, Pro noticed a faceless, bald monster with a huge but short vacuum hose connecting to where its stomach was supposed to be. Currently, the head of the vacuum's tip was aimed at Pro and trying to suck him towards it!

Feeling that he has no anchor in ghost form, Pro hurriedly switched back to physical form. It was then that the suction force greatly subsided and Pro was able to stabilize himself, but Pro still felt a strong force, that couldn't move him, tugging on him.

Glaring over at the vacuum monster, Pro decided to give the vacuum monster a gift.

"Since you like sucking so much, then suck on this!"

Opening his mouth, Pro fired a barrage of yin needles. The needles pierced through the air and the vacuum suction only served to enhance its speed. It didn't take long for the needles to get sucked into the vacuum tube.

Not long after, the vacuum monster seemed to have choked on what it had eaten. A couple of harsh hissing sounds echoed in the hallway as the vacuum turned off and on. Then, like a cat that coughed up cat hair, the vacuum spat out the couple of needles it sucked in.

Of course, this short time of malfunction gave Pro the time he needed to escape. Avoiding the searchlight that was slowly sweeping over, Pro switched to ghost form, dived through the walls of the stairway, and returned to his domain.

Not wanting to end up being sucked back into the hallway, Pro changed back to physical form. Not knowing if the evil spirits could phase through walls, Pro didn't want to stay and confront the entire floor of spirits. So, Pro linked the sixth floor door to the fourth floor and quickly stepped through it to teleport back to the fourth floor.

Returning back, Pro quickly de-linked the doorway.Watching the door fade in to a solid state, Pro finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, this harvest wasn't so great. 45 points, that can count as scraps!" Pro complained while cursing his poor luck.

[An invader is attempting to enter your domain. Will you allow or deny the entry?]

"Of course, let them in."

[The invader is determined to be a mid-level baleful spirit. The invader's level is an entire rank below the host and can be incorporated into host's domain. Does the host want to consume 500 life points to enslave the mid-level baleful spirit?]

"Huh? A mid-level from the start? Which one is it?"

Pro then activated his domain perception and observed the stairway. At the stairs near the sixth floor door, he saw the lamp spirit sweeping the area with its light.

"No wonder its ability was able to slow me down. Besides the fact that the ability itself is weird, it also has some strength to back it up. If it was a lingering spirit or low-level baleful spirit, I might even treat the searchlight as a regular light. Still, it's not a spirit I would want under my command. With its abnormal appearance, it's a bit too noticeable if I put it in my domain, and being bright doesn't help."

[An invader is attempting to enter your domain. Will you allow or deny the entry?]

[Warning! The barrier to host's domain has been breached! It will cost 15 life points to repair the barrier. Consume life points to repair the barrier?]

"What?! Which piece of sh*t is helping me burn money?! Let them in!" Pro exclaimed in anger.

As he only harvested 45 points, even 15 points can count as a heavy lost. So, Pro decided he will definitely hunt down the loser who damaged his domain.

[The invader is determined to be a low-level baleful spirit. The invader's level is an entire rank below the host and can be incorporated into host's domain. Does the host want to consume 250 life points to enslave the low-level baleful spirit?]

"Yea, I'm probably not taking in any of these evil spirits. Instead, it's better to convert them into points!" Pro snickered as his eyes seemed to have dollar symbols popping up on them.

In Pro's domain perception, he was able to see the lady with the scissors stepping into the stairway after leaving a couple of deep cuts on the concrete wall. It seemed that she was attempting to cut through the wall to get in, but fortunately, Pro managed to stop her in time.

"It seems the rest of the evil spirits are smart to some extend to know not to recklessly invade other spirit's domains. But these two aren't too bright are they?"

Seeing the two evil spirits roaming in different directions in the stairway and not receiving any notifications for further invaders, Pro decided to take action soon.

The fat pieces of meat were delivered to his mouth, how could he not eat them?