Autophagy

"You guys did a good job; ranking as the 12th team," Instructor said. There was a big smile on his face. Song Lei could tell it was a fake one, however, he didn't really care about it. Fiddling his fingers, he made sure that he was sitting in a good posture. instructors in the orphanage cared a lot about manners.

"You managed to secure a living place for yourself. You found out that the Wolf Gang wasn't a run-of-the-mill organization. You also managed to perfectly assassinate your target without leaving any evidence for the police," The instructor kept listing their achievements one by one.

He took out a few documents from a nearby drawer and read through them. "Unfortunately, you spent too much time while doing all this. If not, you could've been the first. Anyways, you can leave now. Remember that the classes will start three days later."

"Thank you, sir," Song Lei said as he slightly nodded. Aston and he got up from their places and left the room. As soon as they did so, Song Lei sighed deeply. They were now back in the orphanage after finishing their mission.

"That was tiring..." Song Lei said. They had to explain a lot of things to the instructor such as what they did every day one-by-one. Of course, they had to make up a lot of stuff. After all, they couldn't just tell the instructor about to fact that Aston had spent most of his time forging weapons.

Weirdly, they hadn't been searched while entering the orphanage. "Do you think they already know?" Song Lei asked. All the other trainees had been searched before entering the orphanage in case they brought something dangerous with them.

"Probably. There isn't any reason for them to not search us. I think they want to see what we're capable of," Aston explained. "And most importantly, they want to see what these soul weapons are capable of."

"Why do you think the administration ignore the soul worm problem?" Song Lei asked. He already had his guess, however, he wanted to hear it from Aston's mouth.

"I think they were the ones to actually release them here," Aston said. "Maybe it's an experiment? I'm not sure..."

"We can talk about it later. Tonight is the big night," Song Lei said. They had already arrived at their destination. A wide smile appeared on Song Lei's face as he pulled the handle of the door in front of him. The door creaked open, revealing a rather crowded laboratory.

There were twenty trainees of all sizes sitting and lazing around. As soon as Aston and Song Lei appeared, they got up from their places excitedly. These people were members of the group Aston and Song Lei had formed. All of them had strong souls that were somewhat resistant to the soul worms. They had joined the group after becoming immune to the soul worms with the help of Aston.

None of them wanted to become infected by soul worms, so all of them were grateful to Aston and Song Lei for saving them. If not, they would've either been infected or would have to keep resisting all by themselves.

"Bosses! Welcome back!" One of the trainees said as he patted Song Lei's back and lead them in. "We all managed to secure our places in the field test! We were waiting for your arrival!"

"We had to spend a lot of time explaining things to the instructor. That's why we were late," Song Lei explained. He walked to the middle of the room and sat down on one of the two seats that had been left empty for him and Aston.

This place was a chemistry lab in the orphanage. It was a rather secluded place that was far from prying eyes. Considering the nature of the trainees in the orphanage, not a lot of people would come here. After all, most of the trainees were combat-oriented ones, unlike Aston.

Aston had always frequented this place to run experiments on a lot of things. With time, after the orphanage realized how smart he was, the chemistry lab was directly handed to him. The teacher that had been taking care of this place even gave the keys to the Aston. In return, Aston would have to make sure that the place stayed clean.

After securing themselves allies with Song Lei, they formed a little group. This group didn't even have any names and their only purpose was to support each other who weren't infected. With time, this place became their secret little place where they would gather to discuss important stuff.

"Before we talk about your experiences during the field test, however, Aston has good news for you," Song Lei said. Hearing his words, excited expressions appeared on the trainee's faces one by one.

They knew that Aston and Song Lei had a very important task at their hands, however, none of them knew what it was. During all the time they were at the field test, they were waiting for this good news.

Finally, Aston got up from his seat and walked to a corner of the room. He then proceeded to open a closet and take out a bag from inside it. After pulling the bag to the middle of the room, Aston spilled its insides on the ground. Clanking sounds filled the room as purple-colored daggers poured out of the bag one by one.

"W- What are these?" One of the trainees asked confusedly. Aston smiled and bent down to pick up one of the daggers.

"These are soul daggers," he started his explanation. He walked to Song Lei's side and raised the dagger. "They have the ability to beat soul worms," he said. After that, he brought down the dagger and slightly scratched Song Lei's skin. As soon as the dagger came in contact with his blood, Song Lei crumbled on the ground and started shivering.

'I shouldn't have accepted this...' Song Lei thought. He had accepted to become Aston's demonstration subject. However, having his soul shaken was a disgusting feeling. It was as if all his organs were flailing around in his body, trying to break out.

"It also has the ability to stun normal people, however, our main objective is to use these and cleanse the orphanage from the wretched soul worms," Aston explained. He had prepared a dagger for every trainee here alongside a sheath to hide them. He made a gesture towards one of the trainees. Seeing Aston's gesture, the trainee got up from his seat and started distributing the daggers to everyone.

"Remember. These things are real weapons and are totally capable of killing people," Aston said as he sheathed his own dagger and hid it inside his pants. "Make sure that you don't stab or seriously hurt anyone. If you do, you'll be expelled from the orphanage. Or worse, you may be executed directly."

As soon as the trainees heard his words, all of them became more serious. This was no joking matter. After all, none of them had homes or parents to return to. Even if they weren't executed and thrown out to the streets, which wasn't very possible, they probably wouldn't be able to survive by themselves.

"In short, you have to make sure that you just scratch your opponents with it," Aston said. He walked back to his seat. As he did so, all the trainees' eyes followed him. Throwing himself on the seat, he closed his eyes and continued his explanation by saying, "As long as you scratch them, the dagger will do the job for you. On the good side of the things, scratching them slightly will be much easier than killing them."

Aston opened his eyes back again and inspected all the trainee's faces. There was doubt, fear, and most importantly, excitement in their eyes. Seeing this, he sighed and said, "If you guys want me to do a demonstration, please say so. We will postpone the operation to tomorrow and spend this night to make a proper demonstration for you guys."

Hearing Aston's words, all of the trainees shook their heads. None of them wanted to delay anymore. What they wanted was salvation.

Gathering his strength back and coughing a few times, Song Lei got up from the ground and stretched. Even him, who had an incredibly strong soul had been stunned for a few minutes just by getting scratched by a soul dagger.

After cleaning the dust off from his clothes with his hands, Song Lei threw himself on the couch.

"Are you okay?" One of the trainees sitting next to Song Lei asked.

"I'm fine," Song Lei said.

"H- How did it feel?" The trainee couldn't hold himself back from asking.

"Not good," Song Lei said with a frown on his face. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to fight with anyone that was using soul weapons.

"Anyways," Aston said as he got up from his seat and clapped his hands. This stopped the conversation between Song Lei and the trainee.

"Now that we have confirmed you guys have no complaints about our plan, we shall proceed...!"

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