Autophagy

Song Lei clicked on the red dot and started reading the message they had just gotten.

[Congratulations on becoming a verified member of the Heaven Alliance Forum!]

[Your rank has been assigned as Member.]

[As your rank goes up, the amount of knowledge you can access will rise accordingly.]

[To raise your rank on the forum, please upload knowledge that hasn't been posted before. The more you provide for the Alliance database, the more ranks you'll gain.]

Song Lei and Old Wolf kept reading through the forum rules. There wasn't anything particularly important other than the first few rules. After they browsed through the forum for some more, Song Lei turned off the computer.

"We can deal with that later..." Old Wolf said while crossing arms in front of his chest. "What are you going to do later on?"

Song Lei pondered for a moment. "Why? Is there something to be done?" Song Lei asked.

"Well... I'm a bit ashamed to say this but I hope that you can continue clearing floors from now on. When Damien is gone, we won't have anyone left other than me and you that can clear floors," Old Wolf said. Right from the beginning, he was against Song Lei being punished in such a vile way. Furthermore, with the contributions Song Lei had made to the branch, it sounded really rude to tell him to go on solo expeditions.

"Sure. It's not really a problem for me," Song Lei said. After all, clearing floors were really beneficial to him. And he knew that Old Wolf couldn't go and do it himself. The branch leader needed to be there if anything occurred.

"Thank you Lei..." Old Wolf muttered. He seemed to be bothered a lot by the fact that a lot of his branch members had died. Even though he got along with only a few of them, he still felt that he was responsible for their lives. The fact that they were dead now felt like he was the one who had let them die.

Not wanting to bother him more, Song Lei left Old Wolf alone and went back to his room. The quake demon was chilling in a corner like always, without a care in the world.

'I wonder when this guy will become my familiar,' Song Lei thought. He wanted to learn more about his summons, as he was kinda oblivious to a lot of facts. For example, how did his familiar subspace look? Was it comfortable? Would Sugihara feel lonely in there? Hoping that he could get an answer, Song Lei decided to summon Sugihara.

Song Lei raised his hand towards the middle of the room.

"Come."

As soon as he chanted the summoning word, a small blob of light popped out of his hand. The light blob slowly turned into a body of a girl, which was Sugihara.

"That's so lame..." She muttered as soon as she appeared. Song Lei raised one of his brows.

"What? What is lame?" He asked.

"Shouldn't you have a cooler summoning word? I don't know... Like, 'Arise' or 'Come forth!' For example..." Sugihara said. Song Lei sighed deeply.

"That's too long. The shorter the chant, the faster I can summon you guys in dire situations," he said. Sugihara shrugged at his answer.

"You do you I guess..."

"Anyways, I wanted to ask you some questions. That's why I summoned you."

"Ask ahead then," Sugihara said. Song Lei thought while holding his chin.

"First of all," Song Lei started asking. "What kind of place is my familiar subspace?"

"Hmm…" Sugihara crossed her arms in front of her chest. "It's a bit hard to say actually…"

"What do you mean by that?" Song Lei urged her to continue.

"The subspace doesn't actually exist. Or to be precise, It's more like a waiting lounge for us familiars. We lose our consciousness when we enter it," she said. "For example, for me, it hasn't even been a second since you last summoned me. Our existence is dependent on you. Unless you summon us, we don't exist."

"I see…" Song Lei scratched his head. "Another question, is it possible for my familiars to betray me?" Song Lei asked.

"It's possible but not likely. Your skill somehow affects our minds to make you more likable," Sugihara said while twirling her hair. "Well... for me, nothing much has changed. But if you were to somehow make a being that hates you your familiar, it wouldn't be that hostile towards you."

"That's great. And how much do you exactly know about this place?" Song Lei questioned.

"Not more than you," Sugihara said. She then proceeded to tell Song Lei about what she knew about the New World.

Her knowledge about the place was exactly the same as what Song Lei knew. It seemed to be synchronized automatically.

As her summoning time was about to end, Song Lei asked one last question.

"Do you hate me for bringing you to this place?" He asked. There was an anxious expression on his face.

"No. It was my choice after all," Sugihara answered with a wide smile on her face.

"What do you mean, your choice?" Song Lei said.

"I know that you wouldn't have chosen a spirit if I didn't urge you to do so."

Seeing that she knew, Song Lei smiled shyly.

"Oh. My time is up now. See you," Sugihara said. With a flicker, she turned into a small, spiritual ball of light and got sucked into Song Lei's hand.

[Sugihara Tokiyo has been recalled. Cooldown: 23:59:59 1/2]

Song Lei took a deep breath and laid down on his bed. He still had some questions but unfortunately, Sugihara's summoning time was already up.

He didn't want to waste his remaining summon chance. After all, he might need it when he least expects it.

After he was done, Song Lei decided to head to the 16th floor. Reaching his destination, he checked rooms 1601 and 1602.

'What the...'

Song Lei was dumbfounded by the effectiveness of the bacteria. The abomination residue had already been decomposed and cleaned by them in less than a day.

Seeing that the bacteria had already done their job, Song Lei decided that he had to do his part too. He rolled up his sleeves and started cleaning the room. The place was in a mess because of the monster, however, it still looked like a proper room. Fortunately, the walls hadn't been harmed nor the furniture inside the rooms.

After spending another hour, he was able to somewhat make the place look plausible to the eye. Thinking for a second, he went back to the 14th floor.

"I've prepared the place for you to move into," Song Lei said while crossing his arms in front of him. "Let's go."

"Really?" Song Ming said. There was a sour expression on his face. "But I couldn't finish my tea in time... And I don't want to leave my table."

"Don't worry, I will carry them there for you," Song Lei said. He lifted the table and carried it with one hand.  Song Ming nodded and got up from his place. His body was incredibly slim. His height was around 1.70 meters but he looked like he was no more than 40 kilograms.

With Song Ming in tow, Song Lei started walking to the 16th floor. As they entered the hallway of the 16th floor, Song Ming's face brightened a little bit.

"This place is really warm..." He said while rubbing his hands. "I like it."

"I'm happy to hear that," Song Lei said. Since the time he raised his body stat, his homeostasis had become much better, allowing his body to deal with the hot better. For Song Ming, the reason why he was so cold was probably related to the fact that he was a ghost.

They entered the room and Song Lei positioned the table right in the middle of the room. Song Ming's gloomy face was replaced with a blank expression. For some reason though, this expression looked more like a smile in Song Lei's eyes.

"I hope you're happy with your new place. If you have any complaints, please leave it as a note stuck to your door, I will check them occasionally," Song Lei said. For some reason, he felt like he could become a landlord if he tried really hard to.

"Thank you," Song Ming said. He poured himself a cup of tea. He had carried his teapot with him. Song Lei wondered what Song Ming was drinking, as it looked like cold water from outside.

"No problem. See you later," he said. After he was done talking with Song Ming, he left the room.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, he jumped in his place because of a sudden notification.

[Congratulations! You've acquired a new tenant! Rented rooms: 1/2. Your Blood bead income from this floor is raised.]

[Tenants needed until you reach the first landlord level: 8]

As Song Lei recovered from his shock and read the notifications, a wide smile appeared on his face.

"This is interesting...."