Autophagy

After giving out his warnings, Song Lei turned to look at the hallway once more. He gulped loudly and raised his hand.

"Let's go," he whispered. Hearing his command, all of the trainees raised their daggers and ventured into the hallway. This time, however, they didn't charge in blindly. Instead, they walked slowly and did their best to detect any nearby infected. In no time, they managed to sniff out all of the infected patrols on the floor one by one and take them down.

Just like before, Song Lei gathered the bodies of the unconscious trainees and stacked them in a corner of the hallway. They also cleared the rooms on this floor without any problems.

'Isn't this too easy..?' Song Lei thought. He wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. It would be okay if everything went on like this, however, he knew that things wouldn't go this smoothly.

"Has every room been cleared up?" Song Lei asked.

"Yes, boss," One of the trainees reported. Song Lei nodded and sighed. After throwing his worries to a side, Song Lei lead his men to the next floor. As soon as he stepped onto the third floor, he felt cold wash over his body. This floor was where room 1407 was. However, Song Lei had never felt this cold before.

'Something is weird...' Song Lei thought. He stared into the hallway but couldn't see anything out of ordinary. After inspecting his surrounding a bit more, Song Lei realized what the problem was. 'It's coming from the upper floor...'

He raised his head and looked towards the staircase leading to the upper floor. He felt like he could see the cold air flowing down from the upper floor. This cold air also brought a smell that Song Lei couldn't define. It smelled like a mix of all kinds of bodily fluids. On a scale of one to ten, Song Lei could rate it as 6/10 disgusting. For Song Lei who was pretty resistant to disgusting stuff, this was a high amount.

The highest floor of the dorms was a bit awkward in comparison to the others. It didn't have any furniture in its hallway, unlike the others. Also, it had walls that didn't have any patterns on them. They were flat, white walls that made the place look like a hospital corridor. Song Lei couldn't understand why that place had such a design, however, he knew that there was a reason behind it.

There was one more thing that Song Lei wondered. The dorms of the orphanage seemed to be much eerier and darker than how it normally was. As if it knew that things would change a lot after this night, it had gone into a defensive mode. For example, Song Lei hadn't felt this cold when he ventured into the fourth floor for the first time in the night.

Dismissing these thoughts, Song Lei stared back into the hallway. There were more patrols on this floor compared to the others. And from what Song Lei guessed, there was someone that could be considered as a mini-boss on this floor.

'Rufus...' Song Lei thought. Rufus was one of his roommates. After fighting and beating him with Aston, Rufus had been pretty docile. He almost never talked with neither Song Lei nor Aston. He would spend his days staying all by himself. He had also distanced himself from Clark. This was weird. After all, before being beaten by Song Lei, Rufus was like Clark's right hand. Now, however, he was just another trainee that did whatever Aston told him to.

During these one or two months, Rufus would always stay on this floor and patrol the place. From what Song Lei could guess, those who were beaten would lose their rights of joining the festival. Instead, they would have to stay inside the dorms and guard the place. Although this seemed like a weird punishment, it was pretty effective. After all, participating in the midnight festival was an important part of the soul worms' society.

Thinking about the fact that he would have to fight Rufus, Song Lei shivered. No matter how strong he had gotten, Rufus was still Rufus. He had a bear-like body that had continued developing during these five months that Song Lei spent here. Even though Song Lei was the second-best fighter in the orphanage, it wouldn't be easy to fight Rufus who was being physically boosted by the soul worms in this darkness.

'We first need to take every other patrol and encircle Rufus if he is on this floor just like I guessed...' Song Lei planned in his head. He turned to look at his men. He could see that they were ready for whatever was to come. Seeing this, Song Lei descended a few steps and talked about his plan to the trainees. All of them nodded.

Song Lei stepped out onto the hallway. This time, he was also going to join the fight. However, he didn't know where exactly Rufus would be. Before then, he would keep hiding in the shadows while following his men closely.

Silently, all of them started walking through the hallway. Their footsteps were as light as feathers, all of them made sure that they didn't alert any of the patrols. Fortunately, they were able to take down most of the patrols silently, one by one.

However, just as they were proceeding towards another infected, one of the dorm room doors burst open. From the inside came out an infected like no other. His body was like no other's, Song Lei was able to instantly recognize who it was.

'Just as I guessed...'

Seeing Rufus, Song Lei raised his hand to make a gesture. Fortunately, This floor was now relatively clean from other patrols. Seven trainees including Song Lei spread out in the darkness and surrounded Rufus.

'He must've felt something was wrong from where he was. What a monster...' Song Lei thought. His face muscles tightened up to form a frown. Song Lei slightly tapped on the ground. Just enough to alert his men but not alert Rufus. Getting his signal, all of them raised their soul daggers and charged out at the exact same time.

There was a dumbfounded expression on Rufus' face for a split second. After all, he had never expected these puny uninfected to try to put up a fight against him.

"You assholes really think that you can fight against me with those purple toothpicks!?" He shouted. His voice resounded in the hallway, alerting all the other patrols. There was a smirk on his face. It was easy to understand that he underestimated Song Lei and his men.

"Shit..." Song Lei muttered. Things didn't seem good. With Rufus' shout, more and more infected would come out of the rooms and surround them. If they wanted to be able to deal with them, they would have to take care of Rufus first. 'It should be no problem. After all, all the infected go down with a single scratch...'

Charging in at the exact same time, all seven of them swung their soul daggers towards different parts of Rufus' body. Meanwhile, Rufus reached out towards his left and right to grab two of the trainees. Because of the difference in arm length, he was able to catch them before their daggers struck him.

Fortunately, there were seven of them. The remaining five soul daggers landed right on Rufus. Seeing this, Song Lei smiled widely.

'That should d- Fuck,' Thought. A deep frown appeared on his face as he threw himself on the ground.

"What the fuck are those weapons you are holding!?" Rufus shouted as he swung his ginormous arm horizontally to fend Song Lei and his men off. Fortunately, none of them were struck by the attack. Even if they were to get slightly scratched by it, they could get heavily injured. "Patrols! Go and report to our God! These people threaten our existence!" Rufus ordered the patrols that were still conscious.

'Why isn't he affected!?' Song Lei shouted. Although he was panicking, he could quickly calm himself down. 'It probably isn't that he isn't affected. He's just more resistant to these weapons. We need to hit harder if we want to take care of him,' Song Lei decided. He then turned his head slightly to the side and looked at the patrols that were now descending the stairs to report the situation to Clark. 'They won't be able to reach there. It is good that I left half of my people to guard the first floor.'

Not worrying about the patrols, Song Lei turned his attention back towards the giant in front of him. Rufus now raging like a bull. No one in the orphanage would be able to hold their own against him in pure strength.

"Never get hit and put more strength into your attacks," Song Lei advised his men. "He will eventually go down as long as we keep attacking him. We'll then clear this floor and go down to see if the others need help...."