Autophagy

"Poison Eye was a very important friend of mine, so I wanted to help him in any way I could," Clark said. He started tapping on the table and looked right into Song Lei's eyes. "What I wanted was to find the best way of helping him," he said. "Unfortunately, he was a bit too much of a softie against orphans such as you."

"And you did what..?" Song Lei urged him to continue.

"I just gave the trainees here a little push," the Department head said. He smiled and got back up from his chair. He walked to the window. "I thought, 'Why should I make do with normal humans? Shouldn't I just make them something more..?'"

Song Lei sighed deeply. He somewhat knew what the department head was going to say.

"I can see it in your expression. You know what I'm talking about," he said as he turned towards Song Lei. "I managed to get in contact with people who were knowledgeable about souls. Their name was the Secret Blood Order."

'Again..?' Song Lei muttered inwardly. The department head realized the change in his attitude but didn't comment on it.

"They were something more. They knew a lot, you see... I asked them to help me with what I need," The department head continued explaining. "However, after all, nothing is for free. I asked them for help, they asked for my help."

"What did they want you to do?" Song Lei asked. The department head chuckled.

"Don't be impatient..." He said. "Anyways, what they asked for wasn't anything that I wasn't able to do. I just had to help them run a few small experiments."

"By any chance, are those small experiments..?" Song Lei muttered as his brows furrowed.

"Exactly," the department head confirmed. He slightly slapped the table and continued by saying, "They needed to test out a few creatures they had found. These creatures were peculiar. They attached themselves to people's souls and made them lose their minds during the night. What do you call these stuff again?"

"The soul worms..." Song Lei muttered. He had guessed what the department head was going to say, however, hearing it directly from him was still different.

"The soul worms! Right! What a nice name," the department head praised. He opened another drawer and took out a purple dagger from inside. "Your friend and you worked really hard for this stuff I must say. I heard that you guys created a new scientific discipline or something."

Song Lei sighed deeply after seeing that the soul dagger had fallen into the hands of the department head. If he had the dagger with him, then the Secret Blood Order must have also found it.

"Don't worry. I didn't hand it to the organization," the department head said as if he was reading Song Lei's mind. Hearing his words, Song Lei's face brightened.

"Really?"

"Don't be stupid. Why would I give out such an important discovery? Fortunately, that guy called William wasn't well-versed in such stuff and didn't realize that this was something important," The department head said. Song Lei got up from his seat and tried to take the soul dagger from the department head's hands, however, the department head dodged his snatching attempt as if it was nothing.

"Now now... There is no need to be hasty, is there Mr. Lewis?" The department head said. "I don't plan on snitching on you guys any time soon, however, you have to do some stuff for me."

"What do you want?" Song Lei asked calmly. He felt like he was getting closer to the end of this Dream Space slowly. He had been here for more than six months. And during these six months, he didn't feel that he was making any progressions towards finishing it. Now, however, things were changing pretty quickly.

"There's actually not much you can do," the department head said as he put the dagger back into his drawer. "What I want is your friend, Aston."

Song Lei's mouth twitched after hearing his words, however, he waited for the department head to finish his words.

"Your friend is a genius. That's not hard to understand, right?" The department head said. "The Secret Blood Order counted you guys destroying the soul worms as a failure of the experiment."

"And that means..?"

"I won't be getting the superhuman trainees that I wanted," The department head said. "Since that is the case, your friend Aston will have to stay and work for me for an indefinite time."

"That's not something that I can answer on Aston's behalf. And you must know that he has been contacted by the Secret Blood Order, right? How do you plan to hide it from them?" Song Lei asked.

"There is no need to hide anything. They don't have any influence on him anymore. I'll be protecting him with everything I have," the department head said. "And you must've realized that Aston has changed. He has become dependant on you. From now on, whatever you say will have a big impact on Aston's decisions."

Song Lei couldn't really refute. For some reason, Aston had become more and more attached to him with time. Song Lei had already realized this, however, he didn't know how the department head would've figured this out.

"I'll talk to him," Song Lei said. He had to jolt his mind and remind himself that he was in a dream space. Because he had spent a long time inside it, he started acting as if this was his real life. This was a no-go as technically nothing that happened in here mattered outside.

"That's a good decision Mr. Lewis," The department head said. "I'm asking again. Do you want something to drink?" The department head asked again as he took out a bottle of red wine from under his table.

"No, thanks," Song Lei answered. He had no plans of getting drunk with this sociopath.

"Great. You can leave now. You have three more days to rest. Then you'll have to start your training again. You're the best fighter trainee in the orphanage. Don't forget that," The department head said in one breath. He opened the bottle and poured the wine into a glass he had on his table.

Hearing his words, Song Lei's mouth twitched. He turned around and left the room with quick steps.

...

"That's the gist of it," Song Lei said as he plopped down on his bed. He had told everything that transpired between him and the department head to Aston. One of the things that he hated the most was lying. Unless absolutely necessary, he wouldn't tell big lies.

Aston scratched his chin with his index finger. He had to think about all the things Song Lei had told to him in one go.

"I'll accept it."

"Hm..?"

"I'll accept his offer," Aston said.

"Are you sure?" Song Lei asked with concern.

"Yes. This will be a great opportunity to develop my science. And even if I don't accept, all of my research will eventually get destroyed or go into the hands of The Secret Blood Order," Aston explained his reasoning.

"Wouldn't the department head steal your research?" Song Lei asked.

"No. He doesn't have anyone that can understand my research on his side," Aston explained. "The scientific community of today wouldn't be able to understand any of the concepts. Hell, even a hundred years later might be too early to understand them."

Song Lei chuckled at Aston's cockiness. Although it sounded cocky, there was nothing wrong with it.

"Let's sleep," Song Lei said. "We can think about all of this stuff tomorrow."

"Yeah..."

...

The birds chirped and the sun shone brightly. It was a summer day, one that was too hot to be comfortable. One would be able to see the water vapor pouring out of Song Lei's body. He dropped the weights onto his sides and laid on the ground.

It had been two whole years since the incident with the soul worms. Since then, Aston had been training alongside Song Lei, all the while trying to produce superhumans. Fortunately, he managed to finish his task two months ago.

As opposed to the crude ways of the traditional soul-practitioners, Aston was a scientist. He wanted his inventions to be elegant and humanitarian as opposed to them.

Song Lei looked at the bottle of purple liquid in his hands. This was called the "Soulvent". It had an incredible ability to make people much stronger than what a normal person could become. It was enough to just keep training and take this liquid after every training session. This would unlock the body's potential, making it break free of its evolutionary limits.

After a certain amount of training, a person would hit their limit. This would cause their growth to diminish and stop with time. With the help of this liquid, Aston managed to leverage that limit to threefolds.

Song Lei downed the bottle of liquid. It had an awkward, chemical juice flavor. It didn't taste bad. It just wasn't that good.

"This stuff is great..." Song Lei muttered. He could feel his body getting stronger in these two months. As he kept lying on the floor, the door to his personal training room was opened.

"Come. We have a mission...."