Autophagy

There was a very small boy with a malnourished body laying in the bed.

"I'm back, Adrian..." Song Lei muttered. Gabriela had said that Adrian was seven years old, however, no matter how hard Song Lei tried to, he couldn't think of Adrian as seven years old. The little guy looked more like he was four years old. Although this would've made Song Lei's face sour, he knew that he couldn't show a discontent face in front of this lonely child.

Taking out and splitting the bread, Song Lei gave seventy percent of the bread to Adrian. It didn't seem like they had anything to eat other than this bread.

"Thanks, brother..." Adrian said while taking the bread from Song Lei's hands. Although he was sick and had less appetite than a normal seven-year-old, he was still very hungry. It had probably been a long time since he had eaten any meals.

After making sure that Adrian was eating his meal properly, Song Lei sat down in a corner of the make-do house and started eating the bread in his hands. Although he didn't feel much hungry, Lewis' body probably did.

'Now...' Song Lei started thinking about what he could do. First of all, he had to find a way to get his old body back. Second, he had to figure out who was the arch-villain in this dream space. After all, if he wanted to leave this place, he would have to beat the arch-villain.

He took a small branch sitting next to him and started scribbling things on the ground.

'I have very little knowledge about the current place I'm in. This dream space is much different than Isabel's mansion. It has a much wider space than it. While the former had as much space as an average mansion, this place seems to have as much space as a city. Maybe even bigger,' Song Lei thought. 'But what do I do? Who would be the arch-villain in such a scenario? The capitalist system..? The industrial revolution?'

He kept racking his brain to figure out who could be the arch-villain. After all, Adrian and Lewis were two orphans that lived inside a pile of wood and scrap metal.

*Ding

'Hmm...'

*DING

"Hm?" While Song Lei was sitting and thinking, a thud came from the wall. To figure out what was going on, he went to the exit and left his house. As soon as he was out, he saw a small pebble coming at high speed towards him. Using his experience and his sixth sense, he managed to dodge the pebble by a hair's breadth.

"D- Did he dodge that?" A crisp voice asked. Song Lei turned his head towards the place that the pebble had come from. There were three boys that looked to be around his age. One of them was a bit burlier than the other. Although not much, because of the contrast, the teenager looked much bigger than the other two. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest with a condescending look in his eyes.

"Of course he didn't. You just missed retard," the burly teenager said as he slapped the head of the person who had just talked.

One of the other two was a very lanky guy with a pale expression. It seemed like a random wind passing by would break him into two parts. There was also a glob of snot coming out of his nose, entering his mouth. This sight made Song Lei's mouth twitch.

The other boy looked very normal compared to the other two. He was slim, but nowhere near the lanky boy, he was around the same height as Song Lei and he had a timid posture.

"Hey retard! We've come for your daily dose of a beating! If you don't want to get beaten, give us the bread you stole today," the lanky teenager shouted. "Or you can finally pull Gabriella here so that we can have some fun with her. Then we will have no problem left! Hahaha!"

'Oh god...' Song Lei's mouth twitched. 'These guys can't be real...' He facepalmed. He was truly astonished by the ability of the trio on acting like third-rate disposable villains.

"What!? Bastard!" The lanky guy took a few steps angrily and pressed his finger on Song Lei's chest. "Do you want to die!? When did you become so cocky- AAHH!"

As soon as his finger came in contact with Song Lei's chest, Song Lei broke the lanky teenager's finger in a single motion. As the guy crouched while holding his broken finger, Song Lei threw a kick on his neck, instantly making him lose consciousness.

"Bastard!" The burly guy shouted. He charged at Song Lei while raising his fist. He was probably stronger than Song Lei, however, he didn't seem like he knew much about fighting. With all the momentum he had gathered, he wouldn't be able to make any adjustments to his attack. It was filled with openings Song Lei could utilize.

So Song Lei did just that. He sidestepped the burly teenager's attack and tripped him. The guy, who was running at him full speed tripped over and fell on the ground. While he was on the ground, Song Lei stepped a few times at his abdomen and kicked his head. This was enough to make the guy faint.

Finishing two of the trio off in a short amount of time, Song Lei turned to look at the timid boy in an intimidating way. As if he was trying to ask, 'You want some?'

Seeing Song Lei beat two of his friends seemingly without any effort, the timid guy didn't have the courage to put up a fight. While trying to take a few steps back, he tripped and fell down.

"Spare me! I- I..." The timid teenager said. He then started crying silently. He didn't want to piss off Song Lei anymore. Seeing the state of the teenager, Song Lei sighed deeply. He threw the lanky teenager to the side and pulled the bulky one.

"Take them away and don't bother us anymore. I don't want to kill you guys and get in trouble," Song Lei said emotionlessly. The timid teenager nodded a few times and carried his friends away.

'Well... Whatever. I hope they have some amount of intelligence and don't come back,' Song Lei thought. He was really tired and wanted to sleep. So he went back into the house and laid on a sheet that was spread out on the ground. Adrian didn't say anything to him so he closed his eyes and went to sleep...

...

The chirpings of the birds, metal hitting metal, coal furnaces burning, and a train passing by... Song Lei woke up as a streak of light hit his eye from between the openings on their wall. He wiped his eyes with his hands and got up from the ground. Although it was incredibly uncomfortable, Lewis' body was already used to it.

He turned and looked at his little brother Adrian. He seemed to be doing relatively fine while laying on his pile of clothes, sheets, and pillows. Looking at his complexion and sickly body, Song Lei found it very hard to understand how this little boy survived up until now.

After making sure that Adrian was okay, Song Lei left the house and stretched to relax his body. The sun was slightly up. These hours of the day would be the coldest. Fortunately, they weren't in winter. If they were, Song Lei would be freezing to death by now.

While looking around, he noticed his neighbor, who was living in a similar house to his, leave the house with his son in his arms.

"Good morning sir. How is your day?" Song Lei asked out of kindness. The man looked at Song Lei weirdly for some time.

"Not that good. My son died so I'm going to bury him," the man said. He didn't wait for Song Lei's answer and quickly left.

"Uhh..."

Song Lei's eye twitched, he didn't know what to say. Fortunately, he didn't have to say anything to the man.

While looking around, he noticed Gabriela strolling towards him from far away. He, too, walked forward and went towards her.

"Morning'" Song Lei said while waving towards Gabriela. "What are we doing?"

"Do you remember the butcher from half a month ago that we tried to rob and got caught doing so?" Gabriela asked. She knew that Song Lei had lost his memory, she just wanted to try her luck.

"Nope. Wait, if we got caught, didn't they... Like... Arrest us?" Song Lei asked.

"No. The owner is a really nice person so he let us get away with it," Gabriela said. She smiled widely and continued by saying, "Today is the day he readies some of the meat every week. If we are lucky, maybe we can scrap some meat out of his trash can or something."

"Hmm... Wouldn't there be competition for that? Like... I'm sure there would be other people trying the same thing with us. Isn't it dangerous?" Song Lei asked while scratching his cheek.

"Yes. It's dangerous and danger is what we do," Gabriela said smugly. Song Lei had to hold back his urge to facepalm.

"Let's go...."