บท 6: 6 Ghost system

[Ghost System]

[initialising...]

Rhys blinked, waiting for the baffling words to disappear from his vision. When he saw that the words were not going away he tried to reach out and touch them, only to find that he was grabbing at air. Just when he was about to investigate the weird words, a flood of nurses and doctors rushed towards him.

"Young man, look at me! Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?" Nurse Jackie was the first one to his side, she lifted up his chin and was holding up four fingers in front of his face while shining a small light in my eyes.

"Four." Rhys croaked out the number from his dry throat while squinting from the bright light in his eyes.

"How is this possible?" A man in a white doctor's coat next to Rhys looked baffled as he stared down at his life scanner.

The young man had definitely died, and there had never been a case where someone had suddenly regained consciousness after being declared dead by the life scanner. Furthermore, they had not even tried to resuscitate him, yet he had woken up all by himself. This was unheard of in this late century. Doctor Rayburn had studied pre-invasion medicine and learnt about cases of people waking up after being resuscitated, but since the invention of the life scanner which could calculate the possibility of someone being able to resuscitate after death, such cases had gone down to zero. How had he just spontaneously come back to life? However he had done it, Rayburn was certain there would be negative side effects, loss of vision, loss of use of some limbs, there had to be something.

Rayburn wrestled his way to the front of the other doctors and nurses fussing over the patient and began his own checks on the young man.

Rhys was still quite disorientated. He was not expecting to wake up in a hospital with a bunch of people surrounding him, so all the noises and questions that were being thrown at him were giving him a headache.

"What happened?" He asked while pushing back the people around him, trying to recall his memories while trying to wrap his head around the strange words in his vision.

[Ghost system]

[Loading...]

"That's what we want to know." Rhys stiffened at the sound of a colder less caring voice than that of the medical staff. He looked forward to see a huge burly man in black military apparel standing at the foot of his hospital bed. The man in the front looked to be middle aged but with a thick muscled body and a rugged shaven face. Behind him were four younger-looking military agents with the same cold stern faces, all staring at him.

"I need to know everything that happened while you were in the black portal, as well as how you managed to obtain the portal."

As soon as Rhys heard the words 'black portal' his memories came rushing back. From the moment Barrow had approached him after school to the moment he inhaled the core before those boney monsters attacked him, everything was as clear as day to him.

Rhys's attention refocused as the soldiers behind the main burly guy placed their hands on their sheathed weapons. It was a clear threat directed at Rhys, showing him the danger he was in if he decided not to talk.

Even though Rhys was forced to go through the portal in the first place, he was pretty certain that the military could still slap him with the infamous 'treason' charge that they applied so liberally to those who disobeyed them. Pissing off the military was a bad move, especially in sector 5 where they had an authoritarian like control. Thus him holding back information could land him in a lot of unwanted trouble. Rhys just wanted to get back home to gramps as soon as possible so he decided to be as honest as possible.

"It was not me. I was not involved in the purchasing or organizing of the raid, I only ended up going in because the leader of the raid forced me to." Rhys began calmly.

"And why would someone need a core-less person to go on a potentially dangerous raid with them?" The general asked the boy sharply, glowering at him, trying to suss out any deception.

"My guess is he didn't have enough money for a gem evaluator so they brought me along instead since I work at a gem store." Although Rhys found the General intimidating, he knew he could not let it show. He needed to remain calm and collected if he was going to get through this without having to give up the A grade gem he had in his back pocket.

"And what is the..." The general was about to ask another question when nurse Jackie interrupted him.

"The patient just recovered from an extremely taxing infusion. He needs to rest now, your questions can be answered later." Nurse Jackie said this in a huff. She could not believe how roughly the military was treating such a sickly patient. Just as she was about to take hold of the General's arm and usher him out the room, a loud slap was heard and nurse Jackie was thrown to the floor with a loud thud.

With wide eyes she looked up to see one of the soldiers glowering down at her. The back of his hand was outstretched and his eyes were glowing furiously down at Jackie. He had backhanded her with enough strength to send her crashing to the floor.

Nurse Jackie was new to the sector five main hospital, so she still did not quite grasp the power the military had over all the other departments. No other nurse or doctor would have dreamed of telling the general off, for fear of the exact situation she was in now. And it was that same fear that kept any of them from helping her up or speaking up against the soldier who had gotten violent with her.

"Move." The solider's cold words silenced nurse Jackie, and she found herself fearfully crawling away out of their path. The disbelief and humiliation were written all over her face as her eyes began to swell with tears. She felt so useless in that moment, not being able to protect her patient yet again.

The general refocused on the boy in the bed. "What was the name of the leader of your group?"

"Barrow Busk." Rhys replied.

The general cocked his eyebrow at the name of one of district 20's lowly gang leaders. Barrow Busk had recently come to the attention of the military because of the numerous reports filed against him from District 20 business owners who alleged that he was going around the city threatening them to pay him a tax for having a business on his turf. The general wondered how it was possible that such a small fry got hold of a black portal.

"Where did he obtain the black portal?" The general asked never taking his eyes off Rhys.

"I am not sure, but I heard a few of the other guys mention something about it being online, the black market I think." Rhys thought back to what he had heard Barrow and his men say before they had entered the portal.

"How many people went into the portal?"

"Fifteen I think, but I'm not sure."

"Were you the only survivor?"

"Yes." Rhys replied easily to this question since he had watched them all die.

"Why were you the only one to survive?" The general eyed the scrawny looking young man before him. It was hard to think that out of fifteen people, this kid would be the sole survivor. And he had been core-less during the raid, which should have secured his death and yet he was the only one to make it out.

"I got lucky." Rhys was not about to admit that he killed all of them with the black-lake man-sized leeches.

The general chuckled at the boy's answer and then turned back to look at one of the soldiers behind him.

The soldier stepped forward and turned to face the general. "His heartbeat was steady, we can assume that he was being truthful."

"Hmm." The general nodded as the soldier stepped back in line. While Rhys marvelled at the fact that the soldier had been monitoring his heartbeat throughout the questioning, thankfully he had not had to lie yet. Rhys also then realised the soldier must have the ability of a heightened sense of hearing, it was pretty incredible that the man could monitor someone's heartbeat from a few meters away. This only led Rhys to wander what ability he had gained.

Although the general trusted his soldier's ability, he still could sense that the boy was holding something back.

"Did you bring anything back from the planet?" The general eyed the boy somewhat amused now. The kid seemed a bit interesting to him.

Rhys sucked in a breath as he felt the A grade gem still in his pocket. The gem was worth a lot of money, money that him and gramps needed desperately, he could not give this up to the military.

"I found a core in castle-like structure in that world. It's the core I absorbed." Rhys hoped that answering like this would not get him found out. He was being truthful about the core but leaving out the part of the story where he brought back an A grade gem.

The general turned his head to the side to hear from the soldier capable of monitoring heartbeats. The soldier nodded his head, indicating that what Rhys was saying was truthful. Seeing this Rhys thanked his lucky stars in his head.

"Ah yes." The general grinned. "It's gutsy to infuse without anyone around to help you though, boy. If not for us bringing you back to the hospital, you would be dead. If not from the infusion, those monsters would have made mince meat out of you."

Rhys grimaced as he remembered the horrible visuals his eyes had been confronted with in the black portal. "Yes, thank you for saving me." Rhys was grateful that they had taken him back to Earth, but the general's words somehow felt like they were meant to intimidate him.

There was a long pause wherein no one said anything. The medical staff felt very awkward because they wanted to go ahead and examine the medical marvel that was Rhys. Especially Doctor Rayburn and Nurse Jackie. The military wanted to further interrogate the boy on what had happened in the black portal while Rhys was getting increasingly agitated wanting to go home and see gramps. And also figure out what the hell the [Ghost system] was.

"Search him." The general suddenly commanded.

Rhys eyes shot wide open and he was about to fight back, but before he could move the soldiers were on him. Two soldiers were easily holding him in place while another one began to search his pockets.

This further infuriated nurse Jackie who watched as her patient was being pinned down by two soldiers twice his weight, but she had learnt her lesson the first time, her swelling cheek and the blood in her mouth were enough to stop her from intervening on the boy's behalf.

Rhys curse internally as a soldier pulled out the beautiful clear white crystal from his back pocket. For a moment the soldier examined it in the air, before handing it to the general.

The general chuckled again while holding the gem up. "You're a tricky little bastard aren't you?" He eyed Rhys with a smirk.

"You almost would have gotten away with it if it weren't for my instincts..." The general mused. "Head my warning boy, it is never a good idea to lie to us."

Rhys swore profusely in his head, he was banking on using that gem to help out gramps, but now that chance was fast slipping away from him. Doctor Rayburn cringed at the sight before him, he only hoped that the boy's punishment would not be too severe.

To everyone's surprise, the general tossed the gem back at Rhys who caught it in both hands.

"Hospital bills are not cheap for civilians such as yourself, and you can't have been earning much as a core-less person." Rhys looked up at the general in surprise, but then his mood quickly lowered as he realised there was no way the military would pass up on an A grade gem without a catch.

"In exchange for my kindness, I expect you to join the military college program where you will be expected to train in order to better serve humanity. Now that your life has some worth you are expected to contribute to society. Registration ends in a week. Don't think that I will forget about you."

Rhys wanted to ask what would happen if he refused, but he already had a pretty good idea. He could get the gem taken away from him or he could find himself slapped with a charge of treason and sent to a concentration camp. Rhys silently watched as the general and his troops left the hospital room.

"College military program." He sighed the words out.

"That's really not a bad deal kid." Doctor Rayburn spoke up seeing Rhy's dejected face. "Its just four years, and you never know, you could end up enjoying it and join the military."

Although Rayburn said this, he himself did not sound confident in his words. Anyone from sector 5 had heard stories from graduates about how tough the program was. About how insane the instructors were and about how cut-throat the environment was. Furthermore, the mortality rate for the program was extremely concerning. With each graduating class losing up to a third of its initial freshman class size.

Nurse Jackie blinked in confusion at the solemn faces of everyone in the room. She had grown up in sector 1, and there everyone loved the military college program. It was a great program where people got to learn to use their abilities. She felt somewhat baffled by everyone's solemn expressions. Although, as she touched her bruised cheek, she began to understand that the military operated very differently in sector 5 than it did in sector 1.

Rayburn reached into his coat and brought out a cold compress, which he handed to Jackie.

"I'm sorry about earlier." He had a guilty expression on his face. "I know that you are only going to be here for six months, but its best you learn now whose toes not to step on."

Jackie pressed the compress to her cheek and bit down on her frustration. She felt stupid and naive. Most of all disillusioned about the military.

"Anyway young man. How are you feeling? Are there any..." The doctor's voice fizzled out as Rhys looked forward and saw the writing in his vision begin to change.

[Ghost system initialised]

[Name: Rhys Anson]

[Race: Human (Transitioning)]

[level 1]

[Exp 0/100]

[HP 20/20]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Strength: 5]

[Agility: 4]

[Stamina: 3]

[Spirituality: 1]

Rhys could not hear a word Rayburn was saying, he just stared dumbfounded at the display in his vision. It looked similar to one of those VR games the rich kids at his school played.

'Human(transitioning)' what the hell was that about? Besides intelligence, his stats were really embarrassing. His stamina was only a 3, and what the heck was the Spirituality stat? Rhys was a firm atheist just like the majority of the population so that was disconcerting.

When he looked up at the nurse and doctor it was clear that they could not see this [Ghost system]. So as they prodded him with strange tools he carried on reading.

[Spiritual body Lv 1:

This skill allows the user to shift the state of their body to its spiritual form, allowing you to pass through solid objects. At lv.1, you can only shift the state of your body and items attached directly to your body, ex clothing. Skill gets stronger as the level increases]

[Aura detection Lv1:

Allows the user to see the energy fields of living things. Skill gets stronger as level increases]

[Energy absorption Lv1:

Allows the user to absorb the aura/energy of living things in order to add to the user's own life force. At Lv1 only small plants can be absorbed. Skill gets stronger as the level increases]

[Aura manipulation unlocks at level 5]

[Possession unlocks when Spirituality is at level 20]

[Dimension Locked]

[All other skills locked]

[Shop unlocks at Lvl 5]

Rhys stared at the words in a daze. He read the description of the three skills over and over again, practically drooling at what he was seeing.

Although he was still pretty confused by the [Ghost system] as he looked at the <skills> they seemed like abilities that were gained by cores.

The ability to pass through solid objects, albeit strange, could be very useful in terms of otherworld raids. The ability to easily pass through dungeon walls easily, the ability to get into spaces that others could not. If the ability functioned at a high level it could possibly be very useful.

And that absorption skill sounded pretty impressive as well...

Maybe only being able to absorb plants was kind of lame but did 'adding to his own life force' mean something similar to revitalisation. If he perfected that ability, could he leave things like hunger and thirst behind him? The possibilities where endless. Literally, it seemed that there were so many other abilities to be unlocked.

Rhys suddenly felt very energised. He needed to know if this ghost system thing was the real deal or not.

He looked at the first skill in his list, took a deep breath and repeated the name of the skill in his head.

'Spiritual body'. This was the skill that was supposed to let him pass through solid objects. Not wanting his entire body to turn 'spiritual' he held up his right hand and focused on it. Rhys watched wondering if he was hallucinating as his right hand glowed ever so slightly. It was covered in an almost imperceptible sheen of light. Rhys's heart was beating hard in his chest, the excitement was getting to him now.

He slowly lowered his hand down to the bed and watched in awe as his hand passed through the mattress below him.

It worked! It really worked. His hand passed through the mattress!

Rhys wiggled his fingers around, marvelling at the tingly sensation being given off. It was different from a sense of touch, it felt like an entirely new sense, the sith sense. A bright smile lit up Rhys's face, his whole life was about to change, he could feel it.

[Spiritual body activated +5 Exp]

Rhys lifted his hand up out of the mattress with a huge smile on his face. The skill was real. Which meant that all the other things from the [ghost system] were real as well.

"Well, I have never seen an ability like that before."

Rhys spun his head to his side to see Doctor Rayburn standing above him.

Rhys had completely forgotten about the doctors and nurses in the room when he had tried out his ability.

"If you trained it a bit more, an ability like that could be pretty useful if you decided to become a doctor. Surgeries could be a piece of cake with someone like you operating." Rayburn smiled down at the flustered teenager.

"Haha, thanks." Rhys chuckled nervously. The doctor was nice and all, but Rhys was not thrilled that he had just revealed his ability to someone who he did not know. Was that intelligence stat all for show? Because he felt really stupid about trying about his ability for all the medical staff to see.

"Thank you, for everything doctor. Am I all cleared to go?"

"Yes, you can go. We did not actually put you in an infusion pod, so your medical bill will be pretty cheap. Just go to the ground floor, you will find the payment office. They will help you exchange the gem for money so that you can pay. Then you are free to go."

"Thanks, doctor."

Rhys eagerly jumped off the hospital bed while putting the gem back in his pocket. He was beyond ready to go home and play with the [ghost system]. After giving a quick thanks to the nurse who had tried to stand up to the military for him, Rhys dashed down the stairs to the payment desk, Leaving Jackie and Rayburn staring at his back.

"Hey, Doctor," Jackie spoke up cautiously. "You are an infusion specialist so you know more about this than me, but, is it normal to be able to use your ability that stably so soon after an infusion?"

"No, it is not normal at all."

Rayburn had not said anything to Rhys, but he had been pretty shocked to see the young man's hand pass through the mattress. He had studied infusions in-depth and had come across a few unusual ones, but Rhys' ability somewhat defied the logic.

Rayburn committed the boy's name to memory before exiting the room to go back to his other patient.