Autophagy

They were running out of time, however, there was an incredibly excited expression on Aston's face. So Song Lei decided that it wasn't the best idea to disturb him. If he were to disturb some kind of discovery, he would regret it a lot. Since the anxious feeling hadn't returned since the last time, he waited till Aston was done with his job without disturbing him.

"I found it!" Aston shouted.

"Calm down," Song Lei patted his back when Aston shouted. He didn't want to attract attention.

"Right... Sorry," Aston muttered. However, his excitement hadn't lessened in any way.

"What did you find?" Song Lei asked. He walked to Aston's side and watched his hands. If it was something that excited Aston this much, it had to be something very important.

"I finally figured it out," Aston muttered. He took out a circular device with a small button on top that Song Lei hadn't seen before from his toolbox. "The way to win against neural spiders..."

After hearing Aston's words, Song Lei's eyes widened.

"I thought that we weren't able to take them out without harming the host's spine," he said.

"That used to be the case," Aston said. "Now, however, we can do it with minimal damage."

Song Lei closed his eyes and tried to feel if the anxious feeling was back. Understanding that they probably weren't being watched, Song Lei said, "Show it to me."

"Come closer," Aston urged Song Lei to walk to his side. "Watch."

Seeing that Song Lei was ready, Aston turned his head back towards the Section C trainee. He lifted the weird tool in his hand and pressed it on the trainee's back. When he pressed the button, an electric current passed through the trainee's body.

Shortly after, the small neural spider attached to his spine shook and detached itself from him. Unfortunately for it, it wasn't quick enough. This amount of electric current wouldn't do any permanent damage to a human. On the other hand, for such a small life form, it was lethal. The neural spider was electrocuted to death in no time. As it was detached from the host's spine, it didn't have the chance to regenerate itself.

As the neural spider was dead, Aston didn't need to keep the trainee. He sutured the small cut on his nape.

"Incredible..." Song Lei muttered. "What is this?" He asked Aston while pointing at the small circular tool in his hands.

"Oh, this? This is something I invented a few months ago," he said while showing the tool to Aston from every angle. "I call it 'the taser'. It uses electricity to immobilize people. Well... It's still in a crude state, however, it does the job."

"That seems useful..." Song Lei muttered.

"Here, take it," Aston said while holding out another taser to him. "Let's test it out on moving targets."

Song Lei nodded as a small smile appeared on his face. He took the taser from Aston's hands and spun it in his hands a few times to get used to it.

"Let's keep going," Aston said before getting up from the ground. His legs had become numb, so he had to jump around a little bit to get his blood running properly. When he was finally ready, they both departed towards a random direction they picked. In the meanwhile, they made sure to not forget the way they came from.

After walking for a while, they spotted another group of three Section C trainees. They seemed to be walking around aimlessly through the forest.

"Why do you think they are always grouping like this?" Song Lei whispered after they both crouched next to a bush. "Are they dispatching scout groups for some reason?"

"Maybe? It's a bit hard to guess," Aston answered quietly. They waited for an opportunity to take the three out at the same time. Fortunately, they were able to find that window of opportunity.

After the three trainees came closer to them, Song Lei and Aston jumped out of their hiding places at the same time. They had repeated this action a lot of times. So they had no problem synchronizing while doing so.

As Song Lei and Aston both charged in, one of the trainees realized them and took his stance. The other two were alarmed by his action and raised their fists.

'Shit...' Song Lei thought. 'We're not lucky this time I guess...'

As both Song Lei and Aston engaged in a fistfight, they refrained from using their tasers. After all, if their enemies felt that they were in danger and called for reinforcements, they would be done for.

After they came in close range, both Song Lei and Aston struck out their fists at the same time. Being the runner-up in fighter trainees among Section A, Song Lei was able to weave around the trainee's defense and land a square hit on his chin.

Aston, on the other hand, wasn't in as good of a situation. Seeing that Aston was the one struggling, two out of three trainees surrounded him to quickly take him out. Unfortunately for them, Aston was no easy prey. He was able to hold his own before Song Lei finished the trainee on his side and came for help. The two Section C trainees decided that they were in a disadvantageous situation and backed up to create some distance between them and Song Lei.

Song Lei and Aston did their best to catch up, however, despite their efforts, their enemies were able to create a distance of five meters between them. They had plenty of chance to run away or call for reinforcements. Surprisingly, they didn't do any of that. Instead, their eyes started turning red as their muscles bulged. Their somewhat lean figures became muscular and swole in no time.

"Shit! They are going into berserk mode, we have to take them out before that!" Song Lei said to Aston. Aston nodded at him.

"Yes. Use the taser now. They won't have the mental capability to call for help from now on," Aston said. Heeding his words, Song Lei charged into the bull-like Section C trainees. Just as Song Lei and Aston were about to reach and electrocute them, the trainees completed their transformation.

Both of them dodged to the side. Both Song Lei and Aston's attacks missed. If they were normal people, they would've lost all of their balance after missing that attack. Fortunately, they knew how to recover from an unsuccessful attack.

As they rolled on the ground and retook their stance, the berserk trainees had already reached their side. Song Lei couldn't afford to focus on Aston's side. These two trainees were much different than the previous ones. Song Lei could beat three average berserk trainees all by himself without experiencing much trouble. However, one of these two trainees was able to match up with him.

Seeing the trainee rush towards him, Song Lei raised his hands and brought his center of gravity closer to the ground. Just as the trainee's punch was about to connect with his face, he grabbed his arm with his two hands and used his own body as a leverage point to throw him into the air.

Utilizing the incredible momentum behind the berserk trainee, Song Lei was able to lift him into the air. The berserk trainee saw his eyesight turn upside down before hitting his back on the ground. Because of his increased weight from the berserk transformation, the impact was much more than what it should have been.

Song Lei quickly checked the condition of the trainee and realized that he hadn't fainted yet. Utilizing the fact that he was immobilized, Song Lei used the taser and electrocuted the trainee. After five seconds of electrocution, the trainee's body went back to its normal state. From how his eyes had rolled back into their sockets, Snog Lei could understand that he had already lost his consciousness.

After finishing off his own opponent, Song Lei focused on Aston who was trying his best to keep up with the berserk trainee. Although he wasn't doing that good, him being able to do this much was surprising for Song Lei. After all, Aston wasn't a fighter trainee like Song Lei. His job was to do research, provide logistics, and invent things for the orphanage.

Wasting no more time, Song Lei rushed to Aston's side. Aston had lost his taser after getting hit by the berserk trainee on the wrist.

Utilizing the fact that the trainee was focused on Aston, Song Lei charged in sneakily and pressed the taser on the trainee's back before pressing the trigger.

*Bzz

After just five seconds of electrocution, the trainee lost consciousness and went back to his normal state. Finally, Song Lei and Aston were able to win the fight. Song Lei was mostly unscathed. On the other hand, Aston had laid and on the ground and was gasping for air.

"Hey. Are you okay..?" Song Lei asked nervously.

"I- I'm okay. It's been a while since I exercised this much," Aston said amidst his constant breathing. "Let's go back to the base...."