Autophagy

Song Lei turned his head and looked again. The spider's crushed corpse suddenly inflated and healed up as if it was never crushed in the first place.

"Huh..."

"Interesting right?" Aston said. "It seems to draw spinal fluid from the host to heal itself."

"Wait wait! Isn't that really dangerous?" Song Lei asked.

"No. Not really. These spiders are really small. It won't have any effects on them," Aston explained. Song Lei breathed a sigh of relief. He was worried that Aston would accidentally kill one of his test subjects. Fortunately, that didn't seem like it would happen.

"So? Did you find a way to take these spiders out?" Song Lei asked. He wasn't very hopeful as it had taken a good amount of time for Aston to find a way to deal with soul worms.

"Not yet. These things are more difficult to deal with than soul worms," Aston said. He stopped squatting and threw himself on the ground. He seemed tired with the bags under his eyes. "If I were to take them out forcefully, I could hurt the host's spine."

"What would be the level of the damage?" Song Lei asked. If it was something ignorable, they could still go through with it.

"Hmm... It's hard to say because I can't actually try it," Aston said. He raised his hand and inspected it like he was seeing it for the first time. "Full body paralysis... Maybe?"

"Umm..." Song Lei didn't know how to answer. 'Let's discard that idea,' he thought. The sun was setting. This meant that they had about four hours before the soul worms became active. They had no direct encounters with them since the time they needed a test subject. He didn't know if they would do so this night, as they were in a different place. The most Song Lei could hope for was the soul worms to just ignore them and do whatever they wanted to do.

Up until now the only person they knew that was fully taken over by the worms was Clark. He was in such a state that the worms in his body didn't go dormant during the day. He was also the greatest danger to Song Lei and Aston's plans. As long as their actions weren't understood by him, he would keep underestimating them.

After all, no matter how smart Clark was, he couldn't guess that Aston would be able to invent something that would be able to directly damage them.

"Anyways, let's go back to the base," Song Lei said. It wouldn't be smart for Aston to stay out during the night as it would be dangerous. "What should we do about your test subjects?"

"Give me a second," Aston said. He took out a box from his backpack and opened it. Inside it were all kinds of medical tools. After skillfully suturing the wounds of his test subjects, he started carrying one of them. "Let's throw them into the prison with the other captives. No one will notice anything."

"Okay," Song Lei answered. He picked up the remaining two of the section C trainees and started carrying them alongside Aston. During the past six months, Song Lei's build had changed drastically compared to Aston's.

Song Lei had a much heavier training regime and extra matches every night that would work his body much more. With the proper nutrients, he had become much more muscular in no time. In comparison, Aston's changes weren't that obvious. He, too, had changed a lot. However, because he had spent most of his time in the lab, he couldn't get as strong as Song Lei.

They carried the three bodies with them to the tent they used as a prison. There were two trainees standing by the entrance of it, acting as guards.

"Oh! Isn't that Star Lewis? What are you doing here?" One of the guards asked cheerfully. Seeing Song Lei was something that was joyful for most trainees. "Are those new captives?"

"Yeah. They were trying to scout the place," Aston said.

"He is right. We noticed them and took them out," Song Lei confirmed Aston's words.

"Great job as usual. Please bring them inside," the other guard said.

'Clark's authority must've rubbed off on me,' Song Lei thought. The guards took the unconscious captives from Aston and Song Lei to bring them inside.

"Everything has been dealt with. Have a great night," one of the guards said. Song Lei nodded and left the place with Aston. As the time was nearing midnight, Song Lei decided to nap until then. Meanwhile, Aston would stay awake and guard them.

They found their tent quickly. It was a pretty spacious one, although not as much as the main tent. The insides were pretty simple with two sleeping bags laid on the ground and a gas lamp next to them. There was also a large box that they could put their belongings into.

Before going to sleep, both of them searched the place and their sleeping bags carefully. Seeing that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary, Song Lei laid down on his sleeping bag and zipped it up. This was his first time sleeping in such a thing. It was a bit more comfortable than he expected. Seeing that Aston was wide awake and writing down on his notebook, Song Lei closed his eyes and dozed off...

...

Song Lei woke up with the sounds of footsteps. They came from everywhere and in every single direction. It was midnight...

He felt a slight tugging at his arm. When he turned his head and cleaned his moist eyes with his hands. It took him five seconds to properly wake up and finish cleaning his eyes. When his sight returned to him, he was met with Aston's carefree expression.

"Wake up. It's midnight," Aston whispered into Song Lei's ear. Song Lei scratched the back of his head.

"How long have these footsteps gone on for?" He asked. Considering the time it should take for everyone in the base to gather, the festival should've already started.

"It's been fifteen minutes," Aston said. He held his chin and thought for a second. "I think that they're doing something entirely different tonight."

"What do you mean?" Song Lei asked. He raised one of his eyebrows and waited for Aston's answer. All the footsteps and chatterings were making him nauseous.

"I'm not really sure too, however, I can guess that they're getting ready for war," Aston said.

"By 'war' do you mean..?"

"Yes," Aston said. He looked directly into Song Lei's eyes and continued by saying, "Soul worms have the advantage during the night. At least... Probably. They can keep some of the intelligence and still get superhuman strength. If they want to launch an assault, the best choice would be to do so during the night."

"Now that you said it, that seems very probable," Song Lei said. "What should we do?"

"Whatever we want. It doesn't matter," Aston said. "It isn't much different from normal. These worms seem to be avoiding us purposefully. They are probably smarter than we thought."

"Hmm..."

Song Lei held his chin and thought about what they could do. They could just keep staying in their tent and they would probably be safe, however, something was telling him that he should go out and observe what was going on.

"I think I'll go out..." Song Lei muttered. Aston was about to sleep before hearing Song Lei's words. However, as soon as he heard them, he sat straight down.

"What? What do you mean?" Aston said skeptically. "Are you joking or did your brain go smooth?"

Song Lei facepalmed at Aston's question. He knew that he would get such a reaction from him.

"No. Listen first," Song Lei calmed Aston down. "Think about it. When they go for their assault, the camp will be much emptier compared to now. When the camp is empty enough, I will be able to go out and watch the battle with my own eyes."

"And how would that benefit us?" Aston said. Although Song Lei could tell that Aston was pretty much convinced, he still needed to hear full reasoning.

"I can inspect bot soul worms' full capabilities during the night and learn about the changes in section C trainees," Song Lei said. These were the best things he could come up with. Fortunately, they were enough to make Aston go into deep thinking.

"Okay then," Aston said. Song Lei smiled and got out of his sleeping bag. He stretched his body and yawned. All of his body made cracking noises. Seeing that Aston was also getting up, Song Lei raised one of his brows.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to sleep?" Song Lei said. Aston had been awake for a long time.

"Are you planning to keep all the fun to yourself?" Aston asked Song Lei. Although his body was tired, his mind was not. "Of course I'll come along."

Song Lei sighed at Aston's notion.

"Let's go then...."

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