Autophagy

Song Lei pointed towards the big tent in the middle.

"Is that the main tent?" He asked while pointing towards it.

"Yes, it is," Zac answered calmly. "Let's go there. Clark might be waiting for me."

Song Lei nodded and started following Zac closely. The base was in a chaotic state. a lot of trainees were running around and trying to finish whatever was assigned to them by their superiors. Occasionally, a few trainees that were running past them would stop and salute Zac as if they were in the military. Song Lei was surprised that all these people had accepted the hierarchy set up by Clark so easily.

'Well... These people tend to follow whoever is the strongest...' Song Lei thought. As his mind was busy with such thoughts, they arrived at the tent and entered it.

The tent's insides were pretty simple. There were a few gas lamps standing on various furniture and boxes around the place. The flickering flames of those gas lamps illuminated the room gently. Although it was still morning and the sun was still up, because of the material the tent was made out of, the whole room would be dark in case the gas lamps weren't there.

Right in the middle of this tent was a long table with twelve chairs around it. In front of the table, there was a whiteboard that had a crude map of the orphanage with different kinds of plans written on it. If Song Lei were to make a comparison, this layout was exactly the same as the meeting room in the Heaven and Hell Apartment's 7th floor.

There were eleven people sitting on the chairs that were placed around the table side by side. There was a single empty one on a further corner of the table. After Zac saw the chair, his grim expression lightened up a little bit. He hurried towards the chair and sat down. Song Lei followed along, however, because there wasn't any place for him to sit, He just sat down on one of the boxes. He was wishing that he would be able to find Aston here, however, he wasn't able to spot him.

"Welcome, Zac. Welcome, Lewis," Clark welcomed them. He didn't seem to be bothered by Song Lei's intrusion on their meeting.

"Aston isn't here?" Song Lei asked. What he wanted to do was to find Aston.

"Oh? Wasn't Aston with you? We haven't seen him yet..." Clark said. He looked around and inspected the other trainee's expressions. From what he could tell, the others hadn't seen him too.

"Oh well..." Song Lei muttered. If they didn't know where Aston was, there wasn't much he could do. After all, this forest was too big and chaotic at the moment for him to search Aston by himself. 'Now that I'm here, maybe I should listen to their conversation...' Song Lei thought.

"Anyways, as I've said. We shouldn't disperse our forces anymore," Clark said while raising one of his fingers. He turned his head and glanced over every single person in the room. He then got up from his seat and started drawing on the whiteboard. "These Section C trainees have some weird strength to them."

"They're like berserkers," one of the trainees in the room said. Song Lei tried to remember this person's name but couldn't do so. He didn't know any other person in this room except Zac and Clark.

"Exactly. They don't seem very smart, however, they have monster-like strength," Clark said. He sat back on his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What do you think Zac? You're the one who has fought the most with those people."

"What you say is true. A bit downplayed actually," Zac said. He imitated Clark and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I don't really know how... but... those people can't even speak when they go into a fight. And they're truly monstrous. I think they are able to exert about fifty percent more than what they would be able to do when they go into a berserk state..."

"Huh..."

Everyone went silent and started thinking about what they would do. With such a gap in their strength, they didn't know what they would do to beat Section C. Compared to the stiff atmosphere in the room, Song Lei was casually dangling his legs off of the box and waiting for them to continue.

This attitude of him must've caught Clark's attention as he turned towards Song Lei.

"Let's hear what our Star Lewis has to say," he said with a big smile on his face. Song Lei held his urge to facepalm back because of the cringy nickname.

"What should I say? Not much... I thought that this would be easy for you guys," Song Lei said. He was truly thinking that it would be easy for Clark to figure out a solution. "You're on the right track after all."

"Could you elaborate on that please?" Clark said with his signature creepy smile. Whenever Song Lei saw that smile on his face, he would get the urge to punch him.

"Umm..." Song Lei wasn't sure how to answer. He cast a quick glance on the faces of the other trainees. They were all expectantly looking at him. Gathering his thought into proper sentences, Song Lei started talking.

"Well... Do you remember what Zac said half a minute ago?" Song Lei asked.

"The fact that they're too strong compared to how they should be?" One of the trainees said.

"That too, but I'm not talking about that specifically," Song Lei continued his explanation. "The fact that they can't communicate once they go into their frenzy mode. That's what you should use."

"How can we use that? And would it even matter against them? After all... They're too strong," said Zac. He seemed to be hopeless about the situation.

"What do you mean 'Would it even matter'?" Song Lei said while raising one of his brows. "Communication and intelligence are the strongest skills of humans. Pure strength, unless too much, can't go against them."

"That seems plausible," Clark said while nodding. He held his chin and thought for a second, he then continued by saying, "What do you suggest us to do?"

"Hmm..."

Song Lei held his chin and raised his head while thinking.

"You guys should go with what Clark said. Don't spread your forces too much. Work as teams. Use shock and awe when you can," Song Lei said. He tapped on his chin one last time. "And separate their forces without wasting your resources. Because they aren't able to communicate, it should be pretty easy."

"What do you-"

"Clark must've understood. Ask him the rest..." Song Lei cut off the trainee's words. He knew that Clark would've understood what he meant by now. He didn't want to stay and act as a military advisor for these people.

"Indeed," Clark said as Song Lei was about to leave. "See you."

Song Lei didn't answer and waved his hand before leaving the tent. He had come here to listen to their top-secret meeting, however, he had instead given them advice on how to beat their enemies. Normally, he wouldn't help Clark in any way. However, if section C indeed managed to beat them and ransack section A, he would be on the losing side too.

As he started strolling through the base to figure out the general situation amidst the trainees, he saw a bush moving weirdly in the distance. Although there wasn't any wind and there were no other bushes moving around it, it was shaking back and forth.

Noticing that their base was being watched, Song Lei quickly rushed forward. On the way, he picked up a stone and threw it into the bush, hoping to disorient whoever was scouting their camp.

"Ow! Fuck!" A voice resounded from the bush. As Song Lei heard the voice, a frown was placed on his face. "What the Fuck? Why did you just throw that?" The voice said. Song Lei facepalmed and went into the bushes.

"Aston..."

"Yeah. That's me," Aston said emotionlessly.

"Why are you sneaking around the base like this?" Song Lei asked. "And uh... Who is that?" He said. Next to Aston was an unconscious person laying on the ground. There was quite a bit of blood scattered on the ground, making Song Lei worry that Aston had accidentally killed someone.

"I'm running an experiment..." Aston said. He turned back towards the unconscious person and turned him over, making him lay face-first on the ground. He then took out a scalpel from his pocket and cut a little opening on the unconscious trainee's nape. Seeing him do such a thing, Song Lei's eyes widened.

"What are you doing?" Song Lei said. Although he didn't want to disturb him, the consequences would be fatal for Aston if he were to kill someone.

"Don't worry. I just cut the skin," he said. He then took out a small steel tong from his pocket and inserted it into the opening on the trainee's nape.

"What will you do if he gets an infection. He isn't from section A right?" Song Lei said. If it were someone from section A, they would be able to regenerate quickly with the help of the soul worm. However, he was worried that the trainees from section C didn't have soul worms.

"God damn... Oh well... I can't take it out," Aston muttered to himself. He quickly took out the tongs and called Song Lei to his side. "These guys will heal pretty quickly too. Come. Take a look."

Raising one of his brows, Song Lei walked to Aston's side skeptically and looked into the cut that Aston had made on the trainee's nape.

"What the fuck...?"