Richard borrowed the bathroom at Hopper's house to take a shower. When he first entered the bathroom and looked in the mirror, he gave himself a fright; the amount of blood loss was too much.
But it was fine, not a big deal; he could recover quickly just by eating something.
Bathing under the gentle stream of the shower head, Richard didn't feel much warmth from the water. There was now a persistent chill deep within his body, as if it were a spectral coldness from the depths of his soul. He knew very well that the thing originally in Room 1408, the thing in the tape recorder, had now fused into his body.
His attention wasn't on the shower at all, because the skill panel had undergone an incredible change during the short time his consciousness had been invaded by Henry.
[Agent: Richard (F Rank)]
[Skills: Programming (A Rank), All-around Housework (A Rank), Culinary Arts (A Rank), Shooting (A Rank), English (C Rank), Misfortune (D Rank), Phantom Spirit Body (D Rank)]
[Derivative Skills: Hyper-digestion, Universal Solution, Universal Repair]
[Investigation Files: Phantom Haunting Spirit (001)]
"There's a rank next to my name, one more skill, and a brand-new section... Wait, why the hell did my Misfortune actually level up!?" Richard's expression changed drastically as he hurriedly looked back through the system messages.
[You have decrypted an Anomaly—Phantom Haunting Spirit.]
[New section opened: Agent Achievement Rank enabled.]
[The Anomaly chooses to fuse with you... Determination: Your ability is insufficient to resist the fusion.]
[By living and dying with an Anomaly, it is possible to obtain the Anomaly's favor.]
[Ding! You have mastered Phantom Spirit Body (D Rank)]
Richard opened his mouth wide, letting the water from above flow into his mouth, washing out the blood he hadn't yet spat out.
He touched his chest, feeling his beating heart, yet for a moment, he didn't feel like he was alive.
He fell silent for a moment, then clicked on the updated parts of the skill panel one by one to check the specific information.
[Phantom Haunting Spirit (001) - This is the first Anomaly you have decrypted, so it has been numbered as 1 in the files. The Phantom Haunting Spirit is an Anomaly born from coincidence and conceptual thought. Because the concept of 13 being unlucky is widely circulated, everything related to 13 has received an unlucky "blessing." The Phantom Haunting Spirit was born under the influence of the unlucky power emitted by multiple people and things related to 13 within an area.]
[It cannot harm people directly, but it is adept at creating illusions to torture life forms that enter its hunting range. It likes to force desperate people to commit suicide because only then can it savor the souls it finds delicious.]
[Misfortune (D Rank) - You must be careful to avoid death, for you can never die peacefully; your death will inevitably be accompanied by pain and torture that penetrates to the bone.]
[Phantom Spirit Body (D Rank) - The power of the Phantom Haunting Spirit has combined with your spirit, granting you some of its abilities. At the same time, your spirit has evolved into a second physical existence, allowing you to freely control your spiritual body in battle.]
Richard was enlightened yet somewhat dazed. Having cracked the Anomaly behind the phantom room and gained a reliable new skill was naturally quite pleasing, but that D-rank Misfortune skill was truly disheartening.
The introduction for D-rank Misfortune could actually be summarized in one phrase: he would die a miserable death.
"I'm really fed up with this Phantom Haunting Spirit. Thank you so much. It's fine that you fused with me because you didn't want to die, but then you return kindness with ingratitude by helping me level up my Misfortune? It's like you're worried my way of dying won't be painful enough." Richard was a bit speechless, but he had to admit that the Phantom Haunting Spirit had also saved him this time.
Could this be considered saving each other?
After showering, feeling refreshed, Richard came out of the bathroom with a slightly pale face from excessive blood loss. By this time, Hopper and Eleven had already prepared some food for him.
Richard immediately started eating. As he ate quickly, the color in his face improved at a visible rate.
Hopper watched from the side and had to admit that sometimes he quite envied Richard's abilities. Being able to heal quickly and recover stamina rapidly could be useful in all sorts of situations, whether in battle against abnormal creatures or in daily life.
Halfway through the meal, Richard had almost completely recovered. All that remained was a slight lack of concentration, which would naturally resolve after a sleep; it wasn't a major issue.
"This tape recorder seems to be broken, is it okay?" Chief Hopper asked as he saw Richard's eating speed gradually slow down. He was fiddling with the remains of the tape recorder and no longer felt any discomfort from it.
Richard shook his head, his mouth stuffed with spaghetti, and said indistinctly, "Yeah, it's fine. The thing inside is gone. Even if the tape recorder is fixed, it will only be an ordinary tape recorder from now on."
"It's gone? Were you attacked by that thing just now?" Eleven asked worriedly, feeling a bit dejected. "Sorry, I wasn't able to help you just now."
"It's not your fault." Richard patted the girl's head and smiled. "You've already done enough. If you hadn't destroyed the tape recorder in time, I'm afraid I wouldn't have survived today."
Saying that, Richard slowly recounted what had happened: "Speaking of which, what happened just now wasn't entirely the work of the haunting spirit in the tape recorder. Henry also came to attack me. That Bootleg Swamp Thing tried to kill me again. Unfortunately for him, he didn't expect me to suddenly power up. I scared that grandson off in an instant. It's a pity I couldn't keep him here; otherwise, he would have met his end early."
Hearing Richard describe his near-death experience so nonchalantly, both Eleven and Hopper were quite shocked and felt a faint heartache for him.
"I will work hard to train my abilities and destroy that monster Henry with you in the future," Eleven said seriously, gripping Richard's arms with both hands. "I don't want to see you get hurt again."
"Sure," Richard smiled, giving his usual refreshing smile and agreeing readily.
But the more he was like this, the more Eleven and the others, who had come to understand Richard's character a bit, knew that he would be even more prone to acting on his own.
Eleven and Chief Hopper were both secretly worried for Richard. They glanced at each other, seemingly having made some kind of decision.
Richard returned home with a groggy head. He didn't want to do anything or think about anything tonight. He threw himself onto the large bed at home, not even taking off his shoes, and fell straight asleep.
He slept soundly and selflessly, so much so that he forgot he had agreed to stay home and watch newly bought videotapes with Robin tonight.
When Robin came to Richard's house with food and drinks, she was happy about tonight's rare activity and glad that she could finally spend some time alone with Richard after not seeing him for nearly a week. However, she only saw a seemingly exhausted Richard lying on the bed in his room, ignoring her and sleeping like a log.
"Sigh, your first time breaking a promise was actually to me. It's really hard to be happy about that." Robin crouched by the bed, looking at his sleeping face, and couldn't help but want to reach out and touch him, her gaze entirely drawn to his rosy lips.
Unknowingly, she became a bit immersed in the little game of teasing his sleeping face.
The desk lamp cast their shadows onto the wall, and the heads of the two shadows slowly overlapped for a long time...