I don’t even know if I died and was resurrected or if I never died in the first place. Still, since I wasn’t finding anything out about my newfound innate abilities and had pretty much nothing else to do, I decided to take advantage of the feature to fall dormant so that night would come back swiftly.

  There wasn’t even anything to listen to. Even the words of loud-mouthed neighbours couldn’t be discerned through the walls, and since this was a residential area for the somewhat wealthy, there wasn’t much traffic. Therefore, not many gossipers were moving around.

  I sat against a wall in my room and lied in the same position as the automaton that had become my body had been in.

  My deactivated, soulless lump of steel impression could probably fool even the most astute, though I couldn’t check it for myself since I was basically passed out whilst it was happening, but I think I caught the fact that my purple dots went dark as it happened.

  Huh? Oh… It’s already done?

  It felt like someone fast-forwarded time. That was basically how sleeping worked, but not to such a noticeable extent, especially since I felt no fatigue or groginess whatsoever. It felt like I just blinked, and boom! The world had darkened.

  Speaking of which, blinking was also something I didn’t do anymore. I was just always staring, and I realised that I had still been doing so even whilst being dormant. The memories of hours of the unchanging bedroom soon flooded into my mind, feeling like a fever dream.

  The exact same vision, unmoving except for the light levels slowly changing as time passed… It felt weird to suddenly have hours of perfectly, crystal clear memories implanted in my mind. Especially since it brought no discomfort whatsoever, they just popped in there like it was normal.

  I shook my head, the steel making up my ferocious jaw groaning as I did, it was best not to dwell for too long on the specifics.

  The sudden rush of memories informed me that I had been roused from my dormancy earlier than expected. Thankfully, once I decided to stay dormant for a certain period of time or until a precise moment, I wasn’t just stuck in it, no matter what. Although the list of what could cause me to jolt awake was unclear, it seemed like an unexpected, loud sound was part of it.

  I neared one of the boarded-up windows of my room, this one granting sight upon the front yard and street, and as I thought, the sound in question was a small rock hitting the house.

  Thrown by a snotty brat who had no business being outside at this hour.

  There wasn’t only one of the foul little critters, though. There were five of them, and it seemed like they were, at least, partly responsible for all the broken windows.

  Do they not know that property damage can get them up to three fingers chopped off? If the law wasn’t being upheld, then I would gladly do justice myself!

  But no, five of them were too much. They would scatter in every direction like insects when you lifted the rock they resided under, and from there, if I dealt with one, it would leave evidence, and then, those brats would actually be believed.

  So it seemed likely that they would not face rightful justice today, or at least, not at my hands.

  I am certain the negative emotions of younglings like these would be especially succulent… I didn’t know why, I just felt like they were the best source of it.

  “Come on, are you scared of just an old house?”

  “You’re such a scaredy cat! I bet you still wet your bed!”

  The spawnlings were partaking in what I would describe as their default behaviour, which was to be jerks to one another. Precisely, to the smallest and youngest one who did not dare talk back.

  These dirty things were annoying and ugly, but they were primarily cowards, although their lack of intellect often caused them to misjudge what should be feared, and what should not be…

  I despise imps like these five so much, I wish I could just grab their heads and… Hold a minute, are they actually going to force that one to try and get into the house? Is my home the local haunted house now?

  “I… I am not a scaredy cat!"

  “Then why aren’t you moving, huh? Afraid the killer is gonna get ya?” they laughed like hyenas, if hyenas were awful and spawns of the devil.

  “I… I know there is no killer!” the smallest boy decisively stepped forward, got through the gate that couldn’t even be locked anymore, and walked up the few steps to the front door. He reached for the handle and… Failed to open it, I had locked it, after all.

  The boy looked a bit confused as I stared at him from between two boards.

  “Huh… It’s not opening…”

  “Stop lying! Why would the door be locked all of a sudden?” another one of the kids was quick to call the youngest a liar, but the timid boy insisted on trying to open the door, and it quickly became obvious that it genuinely wasn’t opening.

  Soon enough, they all gathered at the front door and saw for themselves what the truth was.

  “How is this even possible?”

  “Don’t you guys think the door looks a bit different as well?”

  “Do you really think I remember what the damned door looks like?”

  “Something isn’t right… Did someone actually move in or something?”

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  “No way! Who would want to live in the house of a killer?”

  “My dad says it's dirt-cheap though…”

  I honestly could barely differentiate them from one another. They sounded exactly the same to me.

  “Maybe we can get in if he walks around to the backyard?”

  “Urgh… Are you sure? That place is probably infested with snakes! I remember one time in our backyard…”

  “Well then, how is Heldion supposed to have his rite of passage and join the team? There is only one place where we can do that!”

  “I mean… There is the old diner as well…”

  “Way too far”

  They all looked at one another in silence.

  I can just feel it, they aren’t just going to walk away. They are going to be irrational and try to get in through the backyard, and over there, the door is locked too, but it is withered enough that they might just get the idea of trying to break it down.

  I bet everyone knows that those kids come here to mess around, and even if not, it will definitely be on the chopping block if they disappear.

  What a drag… If I just scare them, surely, no one is going to believe them that a monster lives inside this house, right? Who would believe those little idiots after all? If they aren’t hurt and only shaken, it will be like they invented everything…

  And anyway, younglings like them, they might not even say anything about it, too afraid of not being trusted and subsequently grounded for going to a dangerous place.

  An abandoned house was definitely not the most secure location to be in…

  Heheh… Let’s see what those tough little fellows are made of. This should be fun.

  I went on the move quickly before they could get around the residence. My heavy body, coupled with the creaky floor, made it so that I was incredibly lacking in stealth here, though, and without something over my face, my eyes gave me away in the dark.

  I wish I could do something about this. Especially since I could see things even when dormant, but nothing I tried worked, so I have to work around my problems.

  Positioning myself in the darkest room I could find, I hid behind the open door and simply stood still, just like when I ambushed that man in the backroom.

  Meanwhile, I could hear the group of boys speaking a distance away.

  “That door is also locked! Did we really just walk through stringing nettles for nothing?! My entire body is itchy!”

  “Hold on, let a real man handle this!”

  “Seriously? Everyone thinks you're a girl at first”

  “S-Shut up! Can a girl do this?” in retaliation for the assault on his nonexistent masculinity, the young boy delivered a kick to the decrepit door. He failed to force it open.

  “Actually, my big sister told me that the girl who lived here was pretty strong, so it looks like you can’t do what a girl can”

  “Seriously shut up!”

  After a few more strikes- Or rather, after twenty more of them to the point that the boy was left sweating and panting.

  “Hey! Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t see any of you try!”

  “I was just thinking that the next time you lose a bet, we should have you dress like a girl”

  “I am not doing this again, no matter what!”

  Again? What were kids up to these days? Could they have gotten even worse in twenty years? How could the worst possibly go lower? How mysterious.

  “Alright, Heldion, now you go in!”

  “Huh…”

  “What?”

  “I think he worries that there is actually someone inside, since both doors were locked and all that…”

  “...Let’s all go in then! If there is a killer, we’ll just beat the hell out of them!”

  I frankly don’t understand what the point of their presence here is anymore, but as much as I would like to come running down the stairs and shake them for answers, I stand perfectly still in the darkness, listening to their hushed voices and steps.

  Instantly after entering the house, it was like their bravado deflated. They spoke in low tones and walked around carefully, as though worried to wake someone up.

  I put a slight bit more weight on my left leg, causing the floorboards beneath me to creak, and I have to hold back my laughter as I can just hear them all stiffen up in place from sheer terror.

  And surprisingly, this seems to count as negative emotions toward me, as I absorb a good amount of fear from that little action. It's about as much as what I got when I was twisting someone’s neck the wrong way.

  The system was right, if I hadn’t ended that guy too quickly, he probably could have delivered me even more of that sweet, sweet fear~

  “Did you guys hear that?!”

  “That was just wood creaking, it’s normal, don’t be such a baby!” said the one who had given me the most fear.

  So next, I did my best to make some sort of exhale noise, but of course, it was as ghost-like as I could muster.

  “What the hell was that?! Wood creaking?!”

  “Y-Yes… I mean, it has to be, right?”

  “Heldion, walk up the stairs!”

  “What?”

  “It’s your rite of passage, go upstairs and look around!”

  The timid boy said nothing for a little while, but getting into the ‘team’ must really be important for him, as he actually stepped forward and began ascending the steps.

  You little fool… If there were an actual killer or monster in this house, you would be dead meat!

  I didn’t make any other noise, allowing the boy called Heldion to go all the way up without interrupting.

  Right now, if I wanted to, I could probably rush out and grab him. The room I was in was just to his right, in fact… I just had an incredible idea.

  Slowly and carefully, I lifted myself on my toes… or whatever it was that I had at the end of my metal feet.

  My eyes soon rose just barely above the door. Two purple dots staring directly at the timid boy.

  This Heldion looked as uncomfortable as one could get. His body language was defensive, and his eyes were darting all over the place as his so-called friends encouraged him to explore further whilst they remained at the bottom of the stairs.

  And then, he and I made eye contact.

  It was clear that for a moment, he didn’t understand what he was looking at.

  To him, I was just two small purple dots, nothing more than that.

  But he soon put two and two together, a swell of fear emerged from him and he screamed.

  What a scream!

  He turned and rushed down the stairs, and to really perfect the experience, I slammed the door shut, scaring the rest of the boys out of their wits.

  Oooh… If I had one, my stomach would be hurting from laughter right now. Hopefully, this will convince these nosy brats to never set foot here again.