Autophagy

"Anyways. Congratulations. You've made it through the hardest part. I will go now. You should rest as there will be some people that will want to visit you," the doctor said as he left the room.

Song Lei nodded slightly and sighed at the sight of the doctor leaving the room.

'I lived through...' He muttered inwardly. The fact that he was still alive surprised him a lot. He remembered being rescued by a man called William, however, that was it. He was unconscious during the rest of it. From what he could deduce, the guy called William had probably beaten the monster on his own. After all, there was no other trainee that could help him against that.

As Song Lei was deep in thought, the door of the room was opened once more. This time, Aston threw himself inside the room. From how he breathed, it was easy to guess that he had run all the way here.

"A-Are you okay?" Aston asked. Song Lei nodded slightly. He could try to speak, however, his mouth was dry. He felt that opening his mouth would be harder than slightly shaking his head.

"That's good..." Aston muttered as he plopped down on a chair that was next to Song Lei's bed. "Great..."

Song Lei watched Aston gradually calm down and gather his breath. He was fidgety. He constantly avoided making eye contact with Song Lei, making it really easy to understand that he was anxious.

He finally managed to muster up his courage and said, "I have to explain some things to you, right?"

Song Lei smiled widely. Aston understood what he was trying to say and sighed deeply. After taking a deep breath, he started explaining everything that had transpired between him and the Secret Blood Order. As he mentioned the secret organization, a deep frown appeared on Song Lei's face.

'So these people have come here too...' He thought. 'Is it someone that has entered this place from the New World? No. That's not quite possible. The last time that happened was an entirely different case,' Song Lei started eliminating the guesses he made one by one.

'In the end, the most plausible one is...' Song Lei thought. A solemn expression settled on his face. 'That they exist in the Old World too...'

This changed a lot of things. Initially, Song Lei thought that the New World and the Old World were completely unrelated to each other. After all, he had never heard of anyone having supernatural powers during his time in the Old World.

With what had happened in Isabel's mansion, Song Lei had thought that all of these soul worms and stuff were symbolic things in the mind of the owner of this dream space. However, from what it looked like, that wasn't actually the case.

'So these monsters exist in real life too..?' Song Lei contemplated. Although this thought was becoming more and more prominent in his head, he still couldn't completely be sure.

"And there is one more thing," Aston woke Song Lei up from his daze. "They want you too."

"Hm..?"

Song Lei turned his head back towards Aston.

"The Secret Blood Order. They want you to join them alongside me," Aston said. After hearing his words, Song Lei's mouth twitched.

"I... Don't... Have a choice," Song Lei muttered. "Right..?"

A bitter smile appeared on Aston's face. He had never wanted things to escalate to such a degree. Song Lei was his one and single genuine friend. He couldn't stand seeing him in such a helpless state.

"Oh... Right," Song Lei said. He realized that he had forgotten the most important thing to ask. "What... Happened with the... Soul worms..?"

"They have completely been eliminated," Aston said. "That monster... The one you fought with. It became like that because of the residual soul energy that had accumulated in the orphanage," he said. He got up from the chair he was sitting on and walked towards the window. "That energy entered Clark's body and attacked you. Fortunately, William came and destroyed the monster."

"Is... Clark and the others okay?" Song Lei asked. Seeing that Song Lei was still struggling to speak, Aston figured out what the problem was and poured a cup of water for Song Lei.

"Yes. No trainees other than Clark were harmed," Aston said. "Clark isn't in that bad of a situation too. Just a few scratches, fortunately."

"That's great..." Song Lei muttered after gulping down the water. "Do they... Like, remember anything?"

"Yes," Aston said. "At least I think that's the case. No trainee really wants to talk about it. Everyone acts as nothing happened at all."

"Oh..." Song Lei muttered. This was the best possible thing to happen. "By the way, how long has it been since I went into a coma?"

"About twenty days I think..? I'm not so sure," Aston said.

As they kept chitchatting, the door of the room was opened once more.

"Oh? Otto?" Song Lei said in surprise as he watched the middle-aged man enter the room.

"Hey. I'm surprised you still remember me," Otto said. The last time they met was when Song Lei had first come to the orphanage. Otto was the one that had brought Song Lei to this place. He also worked as the right hand of the Department Head.

"You know each other?" Aston asked with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, it's a long story," Song Lei said. He slightly pushed himself and adjusted his sitting posture before saying, "Anyways, what brings you here?"

"I won't dilly-dally," Otto said. "The department head wants to meet you."

"The department head? Who is that?" Song Lei asked.

"He is the person who runs this orphanage," Otto explained calmly.

"Why is he called the department head? Wouldn't it be better to just call him 'director' or something?" Song Lei asked.

"This orphanage is a department of the Eye Organization. Naturally, he will be called the department head," Otto said. Realizing that he was being distracted by Song Lei, he shook his head and continued by saying, "The department head wants to meet you as soon as possible. You should rest now, however, as soon as you feel like you can, you should come to meet him. I'll be taking my leave now."

Song Lei watched Otto hurriedly leave the room and walk away.

'Finally. I'll be able to see the person who runs this goddamn place,' Song Lei thought. 'And I'll learn why he turned a blind eye to the whole Soul Worm situation.'

"I should leave too," Aston interrupted Song Lei's inner monologue. "I'll come back later. You should rest a lot."

"See you," Song Lei sent Aston off. Finally relaxing his muscles, Song Lei sunk deeper into the bed.

He felt comfortable. After working so hard for a few months, he felt like he finally deserved some rest. He had nothing to worry about for now. All he had to do was to sit in his place and heal with time.

Closing his eyes, Song Lei once again let his senses fade away...

...

He woke up in the middle of the night. He glanced around the room for some time and tried to see what had caused him to wake up. He knew that he hadn't woken up naturally, however, he couldn't spot the reason no matter how much he looked around.

As he was cluelessly staring around, a loud noise made him jump in his place. Focusing on his senses, Song Lei realized that he could hear a lot of noises. Although they were far away, they were noticeable when he focused enough.

Although he couldn't quite put a finger on it, the noises were familiar. He tried to push himself up from the bed and managed to do so. His body was truly tenacious, being able to recover from such injuries in such a short time. Of course, the green liquid given to him by William probably played a huge role in this. However, it was still an incredible feat.

As Song Lei walked towards the window, the door of the room was opened. He turned to look at who had entered and saw it was Aston.

"What happened?" Song Lei asked. There was a worried expression on Aston's face.

"I don't know," Aston muttered. "However, we have a big problem in our hands."

"What do you mean?" Song Lei asked as he raised one of his brows. Aston didn't answer and walked to Song Lei side. Supporting him with his arms, Aston helped Song Lei walk to the window.

"Fucking hell..." Song Lei muttered as anger blossomed on his face.

Right in the middle of the field was a huge bonfire with all the trainees dancing around it.

"Didn't you tell me that all the soul worms were exterminated?" Song Lei said. "What is this now?"

"I have no idea," Aston said apologetically. "Come with me. We have to go meet with the others."

Song Lei sighed deeply after hearing Aston's words.

"You guys really tire me out...."

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