Autophagy

"We've done it!" Damien said out loud. Song Lei looked at him while frowning.

"Don't say things like that. You will jinx i-"

*BANG!

"Oh great..." Song Lei muttered while facepalming. A loud noise as if someone had used a gun resounded in the whole apartment. This noise agitated the horde even more as wailings and screamings started enveloping their whole world. The walls and the ceilings seemed to be crying as faint faces appeared on them.

'I've seen something like this...' Song Lei thought to himself. No matter how much effort he put in remembering, he couldn't do so.

"Fuck..." Old Wolf mumbled. "Someone is trying to take over the apartment!" He said. Song Lei frowned as soon as he heard Old Wolf.

"What do you mean by that?" Song Lei asked. He had a certain amount of experience from back in Isabel's dream space about people trying to take over a place in the New World.

"It's literally what I said," Old Wolf spoke. He nervously gulped and continued by saying, "In the New World, all the buildings have their own mind. They're usually made out of the collective consciousness of a lot of people. When you become a tenant of the apartment, you basically turn into a part of it. And the hordes that we see in the apartment are a representation of that consciousness."

"How do you know all of this?" Song Lei asked.

"It was written back in the handbook given to me by the alliance leader," Old Wolf said. "Nevermind that. We have to locate the person trying to corrupt the apartment. If this keeps going on, they'll really take over the apartment. When that happens, we're as good as dead."

Song Lei and Damien nodded. Seeing that there was a grim expression on Song Lei's face, Damien asked with concern, "What happened?"

"Umm... Sorry," Song Lei said.

"What do you mean?" Old Wolf asked him just as he was about to leave.

"Because I've been hiding my skills from you," Song Lei explained. "I mean, I would tell you the truth bu-"

"Don't," Damien cut Song Lei off while chuckling. "We had already guessed that you were hiding your skills and that's the right thing to do. You can't trust in anyone you've met in the New World and that includes us. We are, by no means, blaming you for such a thing."

"Indeed," Old Wolf continued. "I would always rather you have more power than what you show. In the end, you end up helping us one way or another."

"You guys..." Song Lei was speechless. Initially, he had been very suspicious of these two when they had first met. But since then, his opinion of them had become better little by little. This created another problem for him though. He couldn't properly decide whether he should or shouldn't be honest about his abilities.

Song Lei scratched the back of his head as a big smile appeared on his face. There wasn't a need to speak anymore.

Old Wolf patted Song Lei in the back. "We'll probably have to separate our ways now," he said.

Song Lei raised one of his brows and said, "Why?"

Old Wolf sighed deeply. "You've heard the gunshot noise that was just made right? We have to go to the lower floors to help as the mastermind behind the plan might be there. But there is always the risk of it being a wrong alarm. If it's like that, one of us has to go to the upper floor while the other goes to the lower," he said in one breath.

"I see... Will you be going to the lower floors?" Song Lei asked.

"Yes. I and Damien will be going down. I would send Damien with you to the upper floor but he probably wouldn't be able to pass the 15th floor. There is something inexplicable killing people in there," Old Wolf said.

"I know. I can probably handle it," Song Lei said. Although he was nowhere near Old Wolf in the aspect of fighting ghosts, he had a much superior physique compared to him.

Old Wolf, Song Lei, and Damien left the room while protecting themselves. Just as they were about to separate their ways, something came to Song Lei's mind.

"What is soul power?" Song Lei asked Old Wolf. When Old Wolf heard Song Lei's words, he frowned.

"Who did you hear that from?" He asked. "Actually? Never mind. I, too, don't really know what it is. It was something mentioned to me by the faction leader. As far as I know, it's something used by very strong people. I even heard that those who had a good amount of soul power and soul techniques could roam somewhat freely in the New World. Asking more would be useless as I have no idea," Old Wolf explained.

"I see..." Song Lei said. He had just wanted to check whether Old Wolf had any idea about the soul power but the answer he got was more than satisfying. Now, he really wanted to get control of his soul power.

"Well then, see you," Song Lei said. There weren't many ghosts coming down the upper floors. He could just weave through them as they weren't particularly aiming at him.

"Hopefully," Old Wolf said. In truth, they weren't in a good spot. The whole apartment had gone into a state of chaos and the branch he had worked so hard to keep control of was being destroyed right in front of his face. He had no idea whether the members of his branch were alive or not and the place they were residing in was about to be taken over by outsiders.

Old Wolf and Damien headed towards the lower floors while Song Lei reached the 15th floor. After getting the usual system notification, he reached floor 16. The hell floors were infinitely calmer than the heaven ones at the moment. It was as if there was a sound barrier on the 15th-floor stairs. The wailings and the noises resounding in the lower half of the apartment had suddenly disappeared when Song Lei passed the 15th floor.

Reaching the 16th floor, Song Lei quickly stepped into the hallway to be met with the same, burning hot environment.

'I hate this...'

He didn't waste time and walked to the end of the hallway, opening the door to Isabel's room.

"What the fuck..?" Song Lei muttered. Initially, when he first came here, this room was a normal one. But now, the room was covered in pulsating and squirming dark veins. All the veins in the room gathered into one place.

There was a dark silhouette tied to the wall by the dark veins.

"Isabel...?"