Autophagy

"That's natural. He is a genius after all," Clark said. He folded his arms together in front of his chest. "Enough about that, why don't we go to the ring again? There should be some interesting fights today."

"Sure," Song Lei nodded. They all headed to the ring and met up with the other people.

"Hey, Clark!" One of those people said. His name was Zac. He was one of the best fighter trainees in the orphanage. Although he wasn't a match for Clark, he would be able to beat most of the trainees.

"Zac? This place seems to be more crowded than normal today," Clark said. He looked around the place and realized that there were more than twenty people standing around the ring.

"Of course! After hearing that you would be bringing your fabled fighter with you, no one would skip today," Zac said. He turned his towards Rufus for a second, he then looked at Song Lei. "Is this him? He looks to be very skinny. Do you think that he can live up to your expectations?"

Song Lei raised one of his brows after hearing Zac's words. He looked at Clark for an explanation, however, he couldn't get that explanation. Instead, Clark answered Zac cheerfully.

"You can expect a lot from him," he said. He turned to look at Song Lei with his creepy smile. There seemed to be a shadow covering his face, making him look like a villain. "He will entertain you a lot." Hearing his words, Song Lei shivered in his place.

'He remembers the things that happened last night!' Song Lei thought. Rufus hadn't acted differently that day, however, Clark was different. He had pulled Song Lei into his trap. Song Lei looked around and saw the expectant face of more than twenty people. They were waiting for him to give them a good show. 

Song Lei knew that he didn't have any other choice. From what he could understand, Clark hadn't exposed them even though he knew that they were unaffected by the worms.

'He wants to blackmail me...' Song Lei guessed. Although he wasn't sure of Clark's ambitions, he knew that he wasn't up to good.

Hearing Clark's words, the audience got even more excited. Zac walked behind Song Lei and pushed him towards the ring. Having no other choice left, Song Lei didn't resist and got on the ring. On the other side, another trainee with similar sizes to Song Lei was waiting. He seemed to be confident in himself as there was a wide smile on his face.

"What are the rules?" Song Lei looked at and asked Zac. Everyone slightly chuckled at his notion.

"There are no rules," Zac said. He blinked at the other trainee that was on the ring and continued by saying, "You have to make your opponent surrender or unable to fight."

Sighing in his head, Song Lei nodded. Injuries would be inescapable in such a fight. He didn't know how the orphanage would let such a thing continue.

"Ready!" Zac shouted while raising his hand. He looked at Song Lei and his opponent to confirm they were ready. Seeing them nod, he brought down his arm with a swoosh.

"Fight!"

As soon as Zac's voice resounded in the building, his opponent charged towards Song Lei. His steps were firm and his balance was quite good. Song Lei knew that it wouldn't be an easy fight as he stepped forward. A small cloud of dust got blown into the air around the place Song Lei placed his feet. 

Just as his opponent was about to reach him, Song Lei aligned his fist and sent a quick jab. His opponent knew that he would get knocked out if he were to get hit. So he aborted his attack and dodged to the side.

Rolling on the ground, he stopped and raised his head. There was a grin on his face.

"You are much better than I expected," he said. "I'm Tomas. You're Lewis, right? I will remember your name."

Song Lei put a fake smile on his face out of courtesy. Giving Tomas no time to recuperate, Song Lei charged in and swung his fist. Unfortunately for him, Tomas managed to dodge his attack. Seeing that his attack had missed, Song Lei quickly pulled it back.

Tomas utilized the small opening in Song Lei's defenses and threw sent a quick punch at Song Lei's liver. Fortunately, Song Lei managed to slightly crouch and make the attack connect with his ribs. Although it still hurt a lot, if it were to hit his liver, he would immediately lose all of his balance and get forced to surrender.

Tomas, on the other hand, clicked his tongue after seeing that Song Lei had managed to save himself. He took a few steps back and created some distance between him and Song Lei to get his thrown off balance back. Song Lei gathered his breath and calmed himself down. After they were both done recuperating, they kicked off towards each other at the same time.

The whole audience had picked up a side and was cheering. Some were on Song Lei's side while the others were on Tomas'.

"You were right. Tomas is no easy deal to match with, especially in the same weight class, and Lewis seems to be able to go toe to toe with him," Zac whispered to Clark. Clark's smile widened as he nodded.

"I told you right? Furthermore, it has only been two days since he came here," Clark said. "With proper amounts of training, he will be able to become the third-best fighter trainee in the orphanage."

"Mhm," Zac nodded. He then focused back on the intense fight that was going on.

Both Song Lei and Tomas sent flurries of punches towards each other. Each time a punch was about to hit one of them, the opposite side would deflect it or dodge it in creative ways. Their fight looked more like an action film. This status quo kept on going for half a minute before both Song Lei and Tomas got tired.

Jumping backward at the same time, both created some distance between each other to gather their energy. They knew that their opponent wasn't going down any time soon, so they didn't want to leave it to chance.

Gathering his breath, Song Lei started taking slow but firm steps towards Tomas. Tomas did the exact same. Their fast attacks hadn't worked very well for both, so they decided to switch tactics. As there were about three meters left between them, they both started circling each other, forming an anxious cycle of a staredown.

The whole audience held their breaths as they waited for one of them to break the status quo.

Shortly after, Tomas couldn't wait anymore and closed the distance between them with two wide steps. These two steps were gentle and serene like a river. At the same time, they were harsh and sudden like a waterfall. Song Lei wasn't expecting this movement of Tomas as he was caught off-guard. Currently, there were less than thirty centimeters left between them.

"Fuck!" Song Lei cursed inside his head. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to react to Tomas' movements. Before he could properly comprehend what was going on, he received a heavy elbow strike right on his chin. As soon as it connected with his face, Song Lei lost consciousness before even falling to the ground.

However, strange energy coming from deep inside him jolted his brain into waking up. Coupled with his inhuman willpower and the strange energy, Song Lei managed to regain his lost consciousness in a second.

Thinking that he had won, Tomas acted carelessly and stopped looking at Song Lei. Unfortunately for him, this sealed his fate.

Song Lei placed both of his hands on the ground and swept with one of his legs and hit Tomas. Tomas lost his balance and fell to the ground facefirst. Seeing that he had managed to make Tomas fall, Song Lei got him into a neck lock before he was able to recuperate.

Seeing that he had no way of winning, Tomas tapped Song Lei on his arm.

"Tomas surrenders! Lewis is the winner!" Zac announced. Everyone cheered Song Lei as they saw him suddenly turn the tides.

Hearing the announcement, Song Lei let Tomas go and got up. Tomas coughed heavily and gathered his breath before getting up. He turned towards Song Lei with an exhausted smile. He held his hand out towards Song Lei.

"That was a great match..." He muttered with a hoarse voice. Song Lei shook hands with him. They then both left the ring.

"Good job Lewis," Zac said while walking towards Song Lei with Clark on his side. "Tomas is a really strong opponent. I'm surprised you could beat him."

Song Lei smiled shyly at Zac's notion.

"Thanks. I need to go now. I'm really tired," Song Lei said. He walked past them towards the exit of the building. However, before he could leave, Clark held his arm and whispered to his ear.

"Keep winning me matches and you can keep living in my heavenly kingdom as an outcast..." He said.

Without any further explanations, he pushed Song Lei towards the exit. A deep frown appeared on Song Lei's face as he started walking towards the laboratory....