Autophagy

'What if I..?' A certain idea ran through Damien's mind. He took out the rope from Song Lei's backpack and started wrapping it around Song Lei. After he made sure that he had firmly tied Song Lei up, he took out a piece of cloth from his backpack. He then rolled it into a ball and threw it into the stairwell.

The cloth ball rolled down the stairwell and hit the lowest floor.

'Great!' Damien cheered in his head. 'The apartment is still not back to normal!'

Normally, ethereal hands would appear out of nowhere to consume whatever was thrown into the stairwell. Now, however, because the apartment was in disarray from Andres' attack. They weren't doing what they would normally do.

Seeing this, a somewhat of a crazy idea popped up in Damien's mind. He tied Song Lei up with the rope as best as he could and lifted him up.

'Sorry, bud! You'll have to put up with it for now,' Damien thought with a mischievous smile on his face.

Damien held the rope tightly with his hands and released Song Lei down to the stairwell. He could deal with the weight somehow by getting support from the railings. After Song Lei's unconscious body stabilized, Damien started lowering him fastly. He couldn't afford to be slow as he didn't want to keep Song Lei on the 15th floor for a long time.

Fortunately, nothing bad happened as Damien managed to lower Song Lei to the 14th floor. When he confirmed that it was the right height, he tied the end of the rope to the railings and knotted it tightly.

'Here goes nothing!' Damien thought. He took up a running stance and started rushing to the 14th floor. He was, again, able to pass the 15th floor safely. When he reached the 14th floor, he saw Song Lei still dangling in his place.

He reached out with his hands and untied Song Lei without dropping him. When he managed to pick Song Lei up safely, he breathed a sigh of relief.

'It worked!' Damien thought. Actually, he had no doubt that it would work. He wouldn't have tried something that would hurt Song Lei after all. However, he was still surprised how smoothly things had gone.

After picking Song Lei up, Damien brought him into room 1407. As long as Song Lei was there, the quake demon would stay calm. He then left the room and went to meet up with the others.

"I'm back," Damien said while entering room 1401. Fu Ah and He Lingxin were still waiting silently. Hearing him, they both turned their heads towards him.

"So you couldn't find him? He must've died," Fu Ah said. He Lingxin's face got pale when he heard her.

"D- Don't say it like that! Maybe he is somewhere else? Or it could be that Damien couldn't find him," He Lingxin said. Listening to their bickering, Damien's mouth twitched

"Okay, you two... It's enough. I found Song Lei and he is lying unconscious in room 1407 now. I took him there so we could directly carry everyone there," Damien said. "I even found an extra mattress in that room. We can use that space to create more place for our wounded."

"That seems like a good idea," Fu Ah said. "Let's go now."

Hearing her, Damien and He Lingxin didn't wait anymore. They all picked up a person and carried it to room 1407.

When they reached it, Damien laid the mattress on the floor. After laying down all the wounded, all of them sighed a breath of relief.

"So? Has the disaster been resolved?" Fu Ah asked.

"Yes. There was a man's corpse lying next to Song Lei when I found him. He wore a similar robe to the other ones'. However, his seemed to be more complex. He was probably their mastermind," Damien explained. He omitted the parts about Isabel. He didn't want to expose Song Lei's secrets to everyone without asking him first. Having such a powerful ghost as a friend was probably something he would want to keep as a secret.

After finishing talking about various topics, Damien yawned.

"I will sleep for now," he said. "If something happens, you can wake me up."

Damien had been actively on the move for quite some time. He hadn't rested in a while.

"Go ahead. I will keep an eye out for you," Fu Ah said.

"Thanks. Remember, if Song Lei wakes up, instantly wake me up too," Damien told Fu Ah. If Song Lei woke up while he was sleeping and went back into his slumber again, he might not be able to tell him about the curse.

After everything was done, Damien laid on the mattress that was laid on the ground and went into a deep sleep.

...

Song Lei woke up with severe pain everywhere on his body. He started coughing hysterically as soon as he tried to breathe. His sight was filled with countless system notifications.

[You've been cursed! Time left until activation: 19:07:23]

[You've been cursed! Time left until activation: 18:34:45]

[You've been cursed..!

He quickly dismissed all the notifications as all of them were the same. He had 16 hours left until the activation of the curse.

'I have to find a way to resolve this problem,' he thought.

"Oh? You're up?" Fu Ah said after seeing Song Lei opening his eyes. "You don't seem like you're in a good situation. Want me to do a check-up on you?"

"No need," Song Lei said. He wiped the sweat that was trickling off of his head.

After Song Lei refused her help, Fu Ah went to Damien's side and prodded him to wake him up. Damien jumped in his place as he woke up.

"God! Huff... Okay... What's going on?" Damien asked.

"Song Lei is up," Fu Ah said. Hearing her words, Damien instantly turned his head towards Song Lei.

"Great!" Damien said. He quickly got up and went to Song Lei's side. "Are you okay?"

"Somewhat..." Song Lei answered. "Were you the one to pick me up?"

"Yes..." Damien answered.

'Did he meet Isabel? How did he even come up to the 16th floor? Even if he came up there, how did he carry me back down?' Song Lei asked question after question in his head.

Seeing that he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, Damien leaned forward a little bit and whispered into Song Lei's ear, "That friend of yours told me that there was a curse on you and you had to raise your soul power to cleanse it. I don't know what it means but you should understand it."

  Song Lei raised his brows in awe. He didn't know how to answer back, seeing that Damien knew a lot.

"Thanks," Song Lei answered. He turned his head towards Fu Ah. "I will sleep for some more as I still don't feel well enough."

"That's the right choice champ. You're our biggest trump card against human enemies after all," Fu Ah answered.

Song Lei nodded and laid back on the bed. Although he had seen the state the other branch members were in, he really didn't have the energy to comment on it.

After lying on the bed and closing his eyes, Song Lei started looking through his system. Recently, he had discovered that he could still use the system while his eyes were closed.

'So I need to raise my soul stat to cleanse myself from the curse...' Song Lei thought. After waiting for some time to calm down his breathing and make himself look like he was asleep, he allocated a point on his soul stat.

A tingling sensation filled his body and his whole being. This feeling was much more intense back when he had first spent a point on soul. Now, however, he had gotten mostly used to it.

[The curse weakens. Time left until activation: 27:34:12]

'So it didn't cleanse instantly... Do I have to spend more points?' He thought. He could feel that the curse had weakened physically. The curse was making him feel sick and out of energy. However, as soon as he spent a point on soul, his body relaxed a lot.

He had gained a level after beating Andres so he had gained two points. With the one point that he was keeping to use as an emergency health potion, he had two left now.

'I wonder why he gave me Exp... I thought that killing humans didn't give Exp,' Song Lei thought. He hadn't gotten any Exp or a system notification back when he had killed Tao Cai. 'Something must be different about him.'

After getting ready, Song Lei spent another point on soul. When the tingling passed, another system notification appeared.

[The curse weakens. Time left until activation: 77:19:24]

'It still didn't heal...'

Song Lei was a bit disappointed. Although he didn't want to spend his emergency point, he was forced to.

He took a deep breath and spent his last point on soul, raising it to 10.

As soon as he did so, an incredible feeling started rising from his lower body....