Autophagy

"Oh hey, what do you need?" Isabel welcomed Song Lei in. Song Lei shyly stepped into the room. He felt like he was asking for too much. In these last few days, he constantly sought out the help of Aston and Isabel. Although he knew that he was their faction leader and didn't need to be shy, he still felt like he was being a burden to them.

As he entered the room, he saw that Mia was sitting on the bed, dangling her feet. She seemed to be bored out of her mind as she blankly stared at the ground. Not even the arrival of Song Lei, whose arrival Mia would normally deem as a cheerful event, seemed to boost her mood anymore. Song Lei felt slightly sad while thinking about the fact that Mia had no friends to play with.

"What do you guys do here all day? Isn't it boring?" Song Lei asked. Hearing his question, Isabel smiled awkwardly.

"Well, of course, it is boring," she said. "There's not many people to talk to. There is nowhere to go too so we are stuck here..."

Hearing her words, Song Lei held his chin and went into deep thought.

"You don't have to think that hard about it. As long as you keep gathering new tenants, we will have many more people to talk with! So don't worry about us, okay?" Isabel said. From her voice, it was obvious that she was trying to console him.

"Hmm... How about I try that..?" Song Lei murmured. Isabel wasn't able to understand what he was talking about. "Anyways, I need something."

Hearing him change the topic, Isabel was relieved. She didn't want a young man like Song Lei to ponder over such things.

"Tell me," she said.

"I am trying to craft a Claim Flag."

"Claim Flag? What is that?" Isabel asked as she sat down on her bed. Song Lei followed along and sat down on a chair.

"Well, you remember how my ability considered floor 7 as Heaven Alliance's official territory?" Song Lei asked. Seeing Isabel nod, he continued by saying, "Apparently, we can do the same by crafting a Claim Flag and placing it on the territory we want."

"Oh! I didn't expect you to be able to figure it out this fast," Isabel said. "I thought it would take longer."

"Well, my ability comes in handy in these kinds of situations," Song Lei said as he scratched the back of his head. "Anyways, I have figured out how to craft this thing called Claim Flag, however, I don't have the necessary skills to do so."

"So you need my help with that? What do I have to do?"

"Are you good at sewing?" Song Lei asked. As soon as Isabel heard his words, a cocky smile appeared on her face.

"Hah! No one is better than me when it comes to sewing or embroidery."

"That's great then," Song Lei said. He took out the papers he had received from the system shop and handed them to Isabel. "I need you to sew the flag. The exact measurements are written on it so it probably won't be a problem."

After taking the papers from Song Lei's hands, Isabel flipped through them and looked at the sketches. "I see... Yeah, this won't be a problem, however, I don't think I can craft the golden frame myself. Aston would be better at that."

"I was planning on asking him," Song Lei said. "By the way, you have to embroil our faction's symbol onto the flag."

"Our faction's symbol? What is that?"

"I drew my own design for the flag behind that paper," Song Lei said. "You should check it out."

"Oh! A triquetra! What a great idea for a symbol," Isabel said as she looked at the sketches made by Song Lei. Although Song Lei's inexperience was easy to see from the clumsy drawing, his idea of a symbol was great. "I'll do my best. I assume you'll be the one to provide the necessary tools, right?"

"Yeah," Song Lei confirmed. He started buying the tools Isabel would need one by one. Fortunately, they were nowhere near as expensive as the guide on Claim Flags. After laying out everything she would need on the ground, Song Lei took a step back. "This should be all. Do you need anything else?"

"I can't stop myself from being amazed every time I see your ability..." Isabel muttered. Snapping out of her daze, she answered Song Lei.

"No no. This should be enough. Are you leaving now?" She asked. Song Lei smiled and shook his head without saying anything. He walked towards Mia and sat next to her.

"Hey," Song Lei said as he petted her head. Since the time he awakened his soul, he could physically interact with ghosts as if they were normal humans. "I have something here that I think you will quite like, do you want to see it?" Song Lei asked.

Mia confusedly lifted her head and looked towards Song Lei.

"Follow me," Song Lei said. he opened his system shop and bought a table and a couch. Fortunately, Isabel's place was relatively wide compared to the other rooms in the apartment. After placing them both in a corner of the room, he made Mia sit on the couch.

[GameStation 5. 50 BC]

A wide smile appeared on Song Lei's face as he started buying everything he needed to set up the gaming console. Being a poor construction worker in his old life, he was never able to spend money on such things. He didn't have any use for a gaming console now. However, he wanted Mia to be able to at least have fun with this.

'Is it okay for such a young child to play video games on her own?' Song Lei thought. He then remembered the fact that Mia was a ghost and sighed. Human logic didn't exactly work for her. 'Well, I just need to pick the right games,' he thought. Having no way to play the video games he wanted, Song Lei was an avid gameplay viewer in the Old World. He knew a lot of video games that he could make the little girl play.

'How about some Dim Souls? Yeah, that feels right,' Song Lei thought as he bought a few games for Mia to play from the system shop.

"W- What is that?" Isabel asked confusedly. She was distracted with the sketches on the guide for some time. Seeing the weird-looking boxes Song Lei had bought, she walked towards him.

"You'll see," Song Lei said as he powered on the GameStation. The next half an hour went by as he did his best to explain what the console did and how to use it to Isabel and Mia. Fortunately, they were able to understand how it worked and what it did.

"This is such a wonderful thing..." Isabel muttered as she looked at the little white box in front of her. She was amazed that such a small device could achieve such a thing.

"Thank you very much, Mister!" Mia thanked Lei. She jumped up and hugged him tightly before sitting back on the couch. Seeing her this happy made Song Lei feel slightly better for always taking from them.

"No problem. I'll be leaving now," Song Lei said as he walked towards the door. "I'll talk with Aston. When would you be able to finish the flag by the way?"

"Hmm... It should take about twenty to thirty minutes..." She muttered.

"What? How are you going to do that?" Song Lei asked. He expected that it would take at least more than an hour. However, his question was instantly answered as flesh tentacles protruded out of Isabel's back.

"I can control them as well as my hands so they hasten things a lot."

"I- I see..." Song Lei muttered with an awkward smile on his face. Closing the door behind him, he left Isabel's room and headed towards Aston's.

"Hey, I need your help."

"Wait wait," Aston stopped Song Lei as he disassembled another part from the motherboard Song Lei had given to him. "How smart... Time is truly amazing. It gives birth to incredible geniuses."

"Yeah, what did you say?" Aston asked.

"I need your help with this," Song Lei said as he handed the paper in his hand to Aston.

"Hmmm. I'll do it. Leave that there," Aston said as he pointed towards a certain part of the room. Aston's room looked more like a workshop. There were two bunker beds across the room, just like their dorm room from the dream space. However, the rest of the room was filled with all kinds of tools and tables arranged neatly.

"When will it be done?" Song Lei asked.

"It shouldn't take long..."

Sighing deeply, Song Lei left the room. He knew that he couldn't distract Aston while he was focused on his research.

'Now that everything is ready, I should practice....'