Autophagy

After he finished talking to Aston about his worries, Song Lei went back to his room. After lazing around for a little bit, he decided that it was about time he finished his leftover job on this floor. There were seven more rooms to clear on this floor. Hopefully, he would be able to find new tenants.

After leaving his room while taking The Excommunicator with him, he started clearing the rooms one by one. With how much his stats had improved, he was able to take almost all of them down in a single move. Although doing so weighed down on his conscience, he forced his way through.

He took care of all of the remaining rooms in one go. Fortunately, he was able to find a new tenant that was sane enough to communicate with.

This ghost was named Haru. Much to Song Lei's surprise, he wasn't an ordinary low-level spirit like the others. Instead, he was a specialized ghost of the poltergeist class. This was the first new type of supernatural being he had seen after a long time.

So far, he knew of a few types of them.

One was the one he interacted most with. The Spirit Guardians... They had high levels of consciousness with strong mental abilities. They were very territorial beings, making them the perfect guardians. This was the reason they were being nurtured and used as traps by the original landlord. Unfortunately, they didn't have much fighting strength compared to other advanced types of ghosts from what Song Lei had heard.

The other type were demons like the quake demon. Apparently, a demon was a category of supernatural beings, similar to ghosts or abominations. They had high fighting abilities, held down by their limited mental capabilities. Making them almost the exact opposite of spirit guardians.

And there were average spirits that were mostly low-level ghosts of the people that used to live in the Old World. These had their own unique habits and were mostly devoid of reasoning. They acted as the desires of their old selves.

Last but not least, there were the fleshly abominations that he had met on the 16th floor. These were the most disgusting out of all the things he had ever seen. They didn't resemble humans in any way. Their bodies were mostly made of some weird green mucus, teeth, hair, and flesh. If he had to associate them with something, they looked like ginormous and horrific snails. They were totally devoid of intelligence. They also didn't have good combat abilities. They were just... Disgusting.

The poltergeists weren't advanced beings, rather, they were low-level ghosts that were specialized in manipulating the physical world. They were pretty much able to do anything that a normal physical being was able to do. They could freely interact with their environment and living beings. They also had slightly better physical capabilities than the average human.

Haru was a poltergeist. He was apparently a high-school boy that lived with his aunt in the Old World. He had no memories of his death, leaving him confused in this world as a ghost.

"You've had a hard time," Song Lei said as he sat across the ground table. Haru had already dealt with his grief a long time ago. Song Lei's words were only able to make him slightly nod.

"What have you come here for?" Haru asked. Compared to Song Ming, Song Lei's first tenant, Haru still had the mental capacity to ask questions and contemplate things.

"I need you to move to an upper floor," Song Lei said. "I've already prepared a place for you."

"What kind of place is it?" Haru asked. "I've never left this house before..."

"You can see what kind of place it is by yourself," Song Lei said. "There are also other sane ghosts like you. Maybe you can talk to them."

Song Lei's words caused Haru's eyes to brighten for a second. He thought that he was incredibly lucky for meeting a single person he could talk to and was content with it. However, hearing that there were even more people, he became much happier.

"Let's not waste any time," he said like an excited child. He got up and left the room with Song Lei. After going to the 16th floor, they entered the corridor.

"Woah? Why is this place... So warm? And what's up with all this lava?" He asked confusedly. Song Lei had realized this with his first tenant. This kind of temperature was something that ghosts hadn't come in contact with before. After all, having no physical bodies, the temperature didn't mean much for them.

"We don't know too..." Song Lei said. He led Haru to Isabel's room. "You'll meet the person that will take care of you from now on."

Hearing Song Lei's words, Haru gulped loudly. A drop of sweat trickled off of his head as the door opened with a creak.

"Hey, I brought a new tenant," Song Lei said.

"Oh really?" Isabel asked. "The other one is still considerably quiet. Is this one the same?"

"G- Good evening!" Haru shouted. Song Lei gently tapped Haru's shoulder to calm him down. It wasn't a great idea to make so much noise in the apartment.

"Haha! Good evening young man." Isabel chuckled at the excited Haru. "I'm Isabel." She knew that Haru had probably been in the apartment for a long amount of time. In a place like this, it was always exciting to meet new people.

"Well, we won't disturb you anymore," Song Lei said. "I'll show him to his room."

"Yeah, see you later," Isabel said. Song Lei closed the door and led Haru to the opposite room of Song Ming.

"How is it?" Song Lei asked. Although he was asking, the room was pretty much identical to Haru's old one. However, to Haru that was filled with excitement, it was different. Everything looked more colorful to him.

"It's great!" Haru answered. "Will there be more people coming here from now on?"

"Hopefully," Song Lei said vaguely. He couldn't promise anything. However, he was indeed hoping that he would be able to find more tenants for this place. Not only for the benefits it would bring alone. It felt great to see people be happy. He didn't want these lonely souls to suffer quietly, all on their own. Giving them a place where they could live together would be great.

"I'll be leaving now, if you need anything, you can leave a note on your door or reach out to Isabel. We'll deal with it to our best."

"Mhm. See you!" Haru said with a big smile on his face. Leaving the house, Song Lei decided to pay Song Ming a visit.

Knocking on his door, he waited for an answer.

"Come in..."

As he heard the calm voice of Song Ming, he opened the door. Just like he expected, Song Ming was sitting on the ground, slowly sipping on his tea as always.

Honestly, Song Lei had no idea what Song Ming was drinking. He assumed that it was tea, however, he wasn't sure. Walking up, he sat on the ground, across Song Ming. He slightly lifted the lid of the teapot and looked into it.

'Umm...'

The teapot was filled with water that wasn't even hot. Thinking about it for a second, Song Lei bought some soul fragments from the system and put them into the teapot. The soul fragments instantly blended in with the water and gave it a slightly gray hue. Song Ming didn't seem to care about what Song Lei was doing as he kept staring at the ground.

As he lifted his cup to take another sip, he realized that there wasn't any water left in it. Not feeling the similar wetness in his mouth, he poured some more water and started drinking it. Much to his surprise, the taste of the tea this time was much different.

"Uhh..." Grunted Song Ming. His regular sips started becoming more and more erratic. Eventually, he started gulping down the tea like he was a person that had been left in the desert for a day, slowly dying of thirst.

As he kept gulping down the water mixed with soul fragments cup after cup, tears started coming out of Song Ming's eyes. They wet his cheeks before rolling down and falling to the ground. As the water in the pot was depleted, Song Ming, for the first time since long ago, put the cup on the table out of his own volition.

He kept sitting in his place, silently sobbing because of all the pain he had gone through.

"I- I had been starving for such a long time..." He muttered as best as he could. "I turned off my mind and suppressed my thirst for souls with this tap water. Day after day..."

Song Lei looked at the grown man crying like a baby in front of him. They were probably of similar age. And in a different scenario, he could easily imagine himself being in the place of Song Ming.

It wasn't easy for normal ghosts to secure themselves food in the New World. Most would just go insane and leave their pains aside, however, Song Ming refused to become a monster.

Eating wasn't something that ghosts absolutely needed. They just had a natural instinct of wanting to do so. The more time they spent without consuming souls, the more that hunger became stronger. Song Ming had been suppressing that urge for a long time. He had to deal with hunger, all the while suppressing his urge to go berserk.

"Th- Thank you so much..." He muttered as he kept sobbing. A bittersweet smile was plastered onto Song Lei's face.

'I hope that one day... These poor souls won't have to suffer like this...' He muttered in his mind.

'I hope that one day, the New World will cease to exist....'