GREYNESS

FUCK! She shouted.

Or at least she wanted to. It seemed that becoming a ghost did not make one audible. So much for that assumption. Shows what people from where she came from knew.

But this was not the time to think about it.

Looking up from her transparent hands, she began to inspect her surroundings in earnest.

She saw nothing new. The landscape was the same as the first time she laid eyes on it. The grey desert spread in all directions as far as the eye could see. There were no signs of life, not even moss. The cloudless sky matched the ground in colour. It all presented a morbid picture.

Where is this? She wondered. Where did that arsehole send me?

There was no sign of life anywhere. Not a tree, not a grass shoot and- as far as she could tell- not a fucking insect in sight. Because the sky was completely devoid of celestial bodies she could not even tell directions. It left her with an epiphany; which way should she go?

Before that… she looked down once more and was met with the previous view of transparent hands.

A ghost? Seriously, a fucking ghost? She raged internally.

This was ridiculous! Who in their fucking mind interpreted I want to stay dead as turn me into a ghost? What the fuck was she expected to do in this form, haunt people? If that was the case where exactly would she find people to haunt in the fucking desert?

Could have at least put me in a settlement, she raged on. At least there she would be able to amuse herself by scaring the settlers or better yet, possess one of them to obtain a body.

Is that even possible? She wondered.

What exactly could she do as a ghost? What was she capable of? If she walked into town would people see her and point, or would she be invisible to everyone who lacked some sort of special sight? Were the stories of ghost being intangible true? It certainly did not feel that way standing on the grey ground. Did that mean stories of ghosts being able to walk through walls were false or was it just that they could not sink into the ground? Most importantly, what about possession? Was that something ghosts were really capable of?

So many questions, she stressed.

She kept staring intently at her hands until the words from before appeared in her mind once more. Instinctively, she knew their source. It was some kind of innate skill she possessed, called {Index}. She did not seem to have any other skills though.

The meaning of the words on the {Index} was obvious. First off, she was a ghost. Second, she lacked a physique; probably because she lacked a body. As for mana, she was not ignorant of it. She had played a few games to know what it was, the energy used by magicians. The words in her mind claimed her capacity was double S, which meant she had a shit-load of it. Did that mean that she could learn to cast spells like in the games? Did the arsehole in the Abyss really send her to a world of magic?

And what of this Darkborne title?

This was the only word she did not understand? What did it mean?

After contemplating for a long time and without coming up with a satisfactory answer she decided to bury her thoughts for now. The questions, she had no answers to them. The best thing to do was to look for someone to explain things to her.

Now, she looked around. In which direction will I find people?

On this featureless ground blanketed by a featureless sky she had no clue which direction to choose. Of course the fact that she could not tell which direction was which had a lot to do with it. There was no way to tell. She doubted that even a native of this land would be able to distinguish the difference. Unless they were using magic. But, magic might or might not exist in this world. Originally she was already sceptical of the being in the Dark. After the stunt it pulled she had even less course to believe it.

I will find out when I meet people, she told herself.

Finally, she chose a random direction and began to walk in that direction. Honestly, she did not know if there were people in the direction she was going. But from what she figured, it was not like she would die of thirst and starvation if she found no one. If tales about ghosts were to be believed, she would not tire either. So, she could look for however long she pleased until she found signs of life.

Time passed as she traversed the desert. She felt that it was a long time but was unsure exactly how long it had been since she started walking. In all that time the sky maintained its dusky appearance. Night never came and a moon never rose. Therefore, it might have felt like an eternity to her but for all she knew maybe it was just a few minutes that could have passed.

After what felt like hours of walking she looked up and sighed.

I wish I could go up there and get a clearer picture of where to go.

If only she could go in the sky perhaps she would be able to spot some settlements. However, much to her disappointment, it seemed the stories of ghosts being able to fly was utter bullshit. At most she could hover half a metre above the ground.

Fuck you! She cursed the Abyssal being for the umpteenth time.

He reincarnated her in another world. As the one behind her reincarnation should he not have provided her with some kind of cheat ability? That was Isekai 101! How could he not know that when he had apparently done the same to ninety-seven others before?

Maybe he just wanted to fuck with me, she thought.

Perhaps that creature really was the Devil and it sent her to the real Hell, a lonely desert scape which she would wander for all eternity.

Please let it not be so, she prayed.

More time elapsed, she could not tell how much. The sky remained the same and the stars stayed absent. It was the same for the landscape. The places she passed were identical to the previous ones. She was not sure if she was going in circles or not. She left no footprints to tell her if it was the case.

Forward, she pressed on.

If she was not walking in circles then great. She might come upon a settlement sometime soon. If she was walking in circles then she would just have to persevere. She was a ghost. She would keep on walking until she escaped the cycle. After all, she had all the time in the world.

The landscape remained the same as she kept walking. The silence remained. In all that time she encountered no life.

At this point she began to wonder if she had truly been sent to a lonely desert Hell as her eternal punishment.

Something was awfully wrong with this place. How could there be no insects anywhere? Those little fuckers could be found everywhere! How was it that she had not encountered one in all the time that she had walked? She must have covered dozens of kilometres on her journey so it should have been impossible for her not to encounter anything. What kind of place was this where there are not even birds in the sky?

After travelling all this time she was ready to give up when she caught sight of movement on the horizon. It was but a small dot. She could not tell what it was, but seeing it filled her with hope. Before she even realised it, she was running in its direction.

The myth about the dead not tiring turned out to be true. This was something she had realised over her long(?) journey to nowhere. Now as she ran she thanked this ghostly trait. The figure on the horizon grew in her eyes and its shape began to outline. Its shape was humanoid, possessing two arms and legs. Joy filled her when her eyes managed to discern the shape.

It's a person! She exclaimed.

However, the next moment she came to an abrupt stop.

She was now standing mere metres from the figure and was able to make out its features clearly. Yes, it was humanoid; it had two arms and two legs. Unfortunately, it was not human… at least not anymore.

Its skin was cracked and flaking, exposing rotten flesh underneath. Its hair was thin and dirty, its eye sockets were empty and its nose was missing. It strode in a slow limping gait as drool dripped from its broken jaw. For the first time since she got here she heard sound and it was in the form of throaty grunts. At some point her {Index} stirred and words appeared in her mind.

Race: Zombie (Undead- Ghoul)

Physique: Grade 5

Mana: H (White)

Where the fuck was I sent to? She wondered for the umpteenth and first time as she stared at the creature in befuddlement.