Autophagy

Just like Isabel's floor, this one had an extra room. That would be Aston's room that stood at the end of the corridor. Approaching the door of Aston's room, Song Lei held the door's handle. After pulling on it, he was met with a familiar sight.

The room was the same one as their room in the Eye Orphanage dorms. Aston was sitting on one of the beds, calmly waiting for Song Lei. Hearing the door open, he turned his head towards Song Lei.

"Hey," Aston said as he got up from the bed.

"What are those circuit lines on the corridor?" Song Lei asked without feeling the need to greet Aston.

"I was initially left here after coming to the New World," Aston started explaining. "After making some research, I figured out a way to keep the other ghosts out of this place. They contain a volatile type of soul energy alongside electricity," He said smugly. "I call this thing the Soul Fortress. It is actually a singular, huge structure," he said. Suddenly, his expression saddened. "Of course, all of these were before the apartment manager locked me into the dream space"

"That's..." Song Lei didn't know what to say. "That's incredible! How much soul energy does it require?"

"Not much. I supply it with energy without tiring myself out. That's usually enough for a whole month."

"I know that the apartment has electricity for some reason. Is it enough though?" Song Lei asked.

"There is also no problem there," Aston said.

"Wait... So does it mean that the only resident of this floor is you?" Song Lei asked.

"Yes. That's indeed the case," Aston said. Hearing his words Song Lei quickly brought up his system screen with excitement.

[Currently rentable rooms: 1/19]

After reading the number, he took a deep breath and closed the screen.

"How long would it take for you to create the Soul Fortress on another floor?" Song Lei asked.

"Hmm..." Aston thought. "First of all, the floor has to be clean from tenants that we can't come to an agreement with. So that's a thing. Let's assume that this problem is resolved, then it would probably take around two days or so."

"That's incredible!" Song Lei said again in excitement. He could ask Aston to reinforce the lower floors. That would help him take care of things much easier. "Can I ask for your help?" Song Lei said.

"Sure, what's the matter? Do you want me to reinforce the lower floors too?" Aston asked.

"That's the case, however..." Song Lei didn't know how to explain. The 16th floor was covered with lava which made it impossible to enter some of the rooms. "It's hard to explain, are you aware of the situation on floor 16?"

"Umm... I haven't been there before..." Aston said as he thought. "Hell, I have never even been out of this floor before. I only had some interactions with the 16th floor's spirit guardian. What was the lady's name again?"

"Isabel?"

"Yeah! Her daughter is so cute! They are also very nice people," Aston praised. "They were stuck inside a dream space too, right? I assume you have saved them from there before coming here. Maybe I should go visit them some time..."

Song Lei smiled at Aston. Compared to his younger self, older Aston was much more cheerful. Although he was still serious when he needed to be, he wasn't that way when he didn't need to.

"Let's go now," Song Lei said.

"Yeah," Aston agreed. "And it seems like you have something that you can't exactly explain. We can resolve that when we go there."

After agreeing to do so, Song Lei and Aston left the room. By now, Song Lei had pretty much become able to interact with sane ghosts as if they were normal humans. The only problem was the fact that physical interaction was still really hard.

Descending to the lower floor, Aston and Song Lei stepped into the corridor.

"Wow... That's so cool," Aston said as he looked at the lava that was crawling through the corridor. "It's so weird though. Even I can feel the heat, which should be impossible."

"So it has some spiritual properties?" Song Lei asked. Aston didn't answer and crouched down to touch the lava. Song Lei wasn't sure how good of an idea this was, however, he didn't comment on it.

"Well, technically," Aston said. "Albeit, this doesn't have any physical properties. This is entirely made of spiritual energy."

"What?" Song Lei said in a confused manner. "So let's say that a person who isn't very well at detecting supernatural beings enters this place. What would happen to them?"

"They would... Die?" Aston hypothesized. "Probably. They would still feel the heat, however, they wouldn't be able to see the lava. Yeah, they would die. Think about it, you feel an incredible amount of heat but you don't know where it is coming from. You would probably look around to see what was going on and instantly evaporate."

"That's okay, but..." Song Lei muttered. "I once used this lava to dispose of a body. How is that possible?"

Aston raised his head and looked at Song Lei awkwardly. "Uhm... Then this substance needs more inspection. I need to bring some special devices to check what it exactly does. However, before that, let's pay our visit to Mrs. Isabel. I don't want to get disturbed during my research."

"Sure," Song Lei said. They walked to the end of the floor and knocked on Isabel's door. It creaked open solely by itself.

"Come in," Isabel's voice resounded. Aston and Song Lei didn't wait for more as they stepped into the room.

The room's decoration had changed a lot compared to before. It used to be a bland room that looked like it was from a hotel. Now, however, it looked more like a child's room, decorated with pink and its shades.

In the room, Mia sat on a chair as her mother combed her hair calmly. However, her eyes were sparkling in excitement. As soon as she saw Song Lei, she got up and ran towards him.

"I haven't finished... Never mind," Isabel said as she sighed. She got up from the bed. Mia charged ahead and jumped. Dipping into Song Lei's body. Because she was a ghost, their interaction was incredibly awkward. Half of her dipped into Song Lei's body, making Song Lei look like he was going through mitosis. "Oh! Aston? It's great to see you again. If you had told me you would be coming, I would've prepared something to eat for you..."

"Sorry..." Aston muttered with an awkward smile on his face.

"Wait. What do you guys even eat?" Song Lei asked. Aston and Isabel looked at him for a second and acted as if he didn't say anything.

"So we will be coworkers from now on..." Isabel muttered.

"Yeah! And from the looks of it, Lei doesn't think of stopping anytime soon," Aston said as he looked towards Song Lei. Disregarding their refusal of answering him, Song Lei scratched his cheek.

"Are all the upper floors like this?" Song Lei asked. "I mean, do all the floor have spirit guardians?"

"Almost," Aston answered. He threw a glance towards Isabel. Seeing his gesture, Isabel conjured a ball of flesh. It changed shapes and turned into a wooden chair that was indistinguishable from a normal one. Sitting on it, Aston continued his explanation. "The apartment manager lives on the uppermost floor. Other than that, all the floors have their own spirit guardians."

"I see..." Song Lei muttered as he did his best to pat Mia's head. "So I have to go through eleven more dream spaces?"

"Not exactly," Aston said. "From what I can see, you have an ability that can improve your soul power. If you keep doing what you've been doing so far, you'll eventually be able to resist dream space's restrictions or outright ignore their existence."

"What would happen to the spirit guardians then?" Song Lei asked.

"That is an entirely different subject," Aston said. "It takes more than a robust amount of soul energy to save a guardian from a dream space. And you probably won't be able to figure out a spell that can do so."

"So?"

"Depends on you," Aston said. "You can enter the dream space out of your own volition and clear it.. Or you can go ahead and destroy it. That would result in the spirit guardian dying though."

"Hmm..." Song Lei thought while holding his chin. "Well, this is a topic of another time. You guys should stay here as you probably have a lot to talk about. I'll come back from time to time. I hope you can finish the soul fortress as soon as possible, Aston."

"Wait, what is he talking about?" Isabel asked Aston. Without listening, Song Lei bade his farewells to Mia and left the room.

'It's about time that I go back to my room and check out my rewards....'