Autophagy

"Ugh..." Song Lei groaned and clasped his hands to his face. An ungodly amount of pain jolted his brain up. After struggling for a few seconds, Song Lei suppressed the pain and sat straight.

After looking around for some time, he realized that he was back in dorm room 1407. As the pain faded away, he felt refreshed.

'What is going on?' Song Lei thought. Looking around, he understood that it was probably nighttime. When he turned his head and looked to the side, he saw that Clark and Rufus were sleeping like normal.

'How long did I sleep for? And why am I not in the infirmary?' Song Lei thought. Unfortunately for him, his questions went unanswered. He looked at the clock and realized that it was 00:00. Normally, he would just assume that he had slept for about three hours, however, it was better to not assume. From how tired he had been, it was possible that he had slept for more than an entire day.

As the clock hit midnight, Aston and Clark got up and went to the festival as always. After seeing them leave, Song Lei reached his head downwards to look at Aston. Aston was laying on his bed with his eyes wide open.

"Oh... So you're awake," Aston said when he saw Song Lei. "Honestly, I don't understand how you could bear this. It's only midnight and I already feel like I'm dying."

"Bear what?" Song Lei asked. Because he had just woken up, his brain was still trying to recover.

"Not sleeping," Aston said. He yawned loudly. "So you managed to beat Lucas?" He said while raising one of his brows. Song Lei nodded as an answer while jumping down the bed. "I'm surprised," Aston continued. "It has only been about five months since you came here and you've developed so much."

Song Lei scratched the back of his head shyly. He wasn't used to getting praised.

"Anyways," Song Lei changed the topic. "You should go back to sleep. This is kinda good. I don't have to fight during the evenings anymore," he said. Lucas was his last opponent in the arena. By beating him, he had truly tarnished Lucas' reputation. First, he had been beaten by Clark. Now, he was also beaten by his student, who had less than half of his experience. This was what Clark had wanted him to do.

"Whatever you say," Aston said. He knew why Song Lei was sacrificing so much for him, so he was doing his best to make Song Lei's efforts not go to vain. And succeeding he was... In these few months, he had managed to create something that would be even more important than a soul dagger, which they still couldn't produce.

Soul barriers...

These small marble-like machines were able to do something that gave them an incredible advantage over the worms in the orphanage.

By socketing this on anyone's ornaments such as earrings or bracelets, they could protect their souls from getting invaded by soul worms. By using this, they had managed to crank the numbers of people who hadn't been infected by the worms to thirty in five months. For them, who needed every helping hand, this was incredibly important.

However, there was something Song Lei was incredibly worried about. For some reason, Clark acted like he was totally oblivious to the situation. Song Lei knew that this was not the case, after all, Clark was an incredibly sly person. There would be no way that he wouldn't realize something was wrong with the new trainees.

Song Lei sighed at the thought of this and laid comfortably back on his bed after seeing Aston go back to sleep. Although it didn't seem like too much, this little amount of extra sleep he got was really important to him. From today on, he would be able to sleep extra hours in his free time. This way, his body would be able to at least hold on for more time.

After his guard duty was over at around 3 a.m, Song Lei went to sleep. He got up at 5 a.m and washed up before going to the morning training. After training for three months under the B section coach, he had managed to develop his body and skills enough to participate in A section training.

After eating their breakfast, Song Lei and Aston went to their morning classes together. The first subject would be German. No matter what someone did with their lives, learning new languages would be one of the most important things they must do. No matter if you were a secret agent or a scientist, you needed to know a few languages to do your job properly.

After they entered and sat down on their desks, their teacher came in. Weirdly, however, the one who came in wasn't the German teacher, but their firearms instructor.

"Ahem. Everyone! Good morning to you all!" Their instructor said. His eyes were filled with tiredness. He yawned widely, making every trainee sleepy, and continued by saying, "I'm sure you guys are pondering about why I'm the one coming here. Of course, there's a very good reason behind why I'm doing this."

After taking a few breaths and sitting down on his chair, the instructor smiled gently.

"Today marks the end of your first training year," he said. As soon as these words left his mouth, trainees started trying to understand what he meant. They knew they shouldn't make any noises, so they didn't chatter amongst each other. "You guys will have a field test exam next week. So be prepared for that. Further information will be hung on the noticeboard of the orphanage."

After he muttered the words 'field test', every trainee in the class tensed up. For them, something unknown like a 'field test' was something dangerous. Up until now, they had a very strict schedule in the orphanage that dictated almost every aspect of their lives. They were slowly losing their ability to think for themselves.

"Something other to note is that the fact that you guys will be having a holiday," the instructor continued nonchalantly. He had been working in this orphanage for a long time, so he knew what kind of reaction the trainees would give. "After your classes today are over, you guys are free to do whatever you want during the next week."

After the instructor uttered his words, one of the trainees raised his hand.

"You may speak."

"Sir? Are we able to leave the orphanage during the holiday?" the trainee asked. The instructor shook his head to the sides and sighed.

"No. You can't. You can only do whatever you want on the premises of the orphanage. However, as opposed to the normal, you can visit other sections as you wish," the instructor explained. Trainees looked around and made eye contact with each other, trying to communicate without saying anything. Shortly after, another trainee got permission to speak.

"Does the same go for all the trainees?" He said. "For example... Can the trainees from section C come here?"

"Yes. Yes, they can," the instructor said with a sly grin on his face. He didn't elaborate further and left it at that. He gathered his things and quickly left the class as if he was escaping. After he left the class, their German teacher entered in his stead and started the class as normal...

The day went on without any other problems. During the free break, Song Lei and Aston got together to talk about the announcement

"What do you think?" Song Lei asked. He had no idea what the 'field test' could be. Aston scratched his cheek and closed his eyes to think.

"I think it's something related to killing people," he said with confidence. Song Lei raised one of his brows.

"How can you be so sure?" He asked. He slightly fastened his steps and reached the bench first to sit down.

"Think about it," Aston started explaining. "Although this orphanage is trying to nurture all kinds of talents, in the end, it is working for a criminal organization. The real purpose of this place is to create cold-blooded murderers that are either adept in firearms or at martial arts."

"Hmm..." Song Lei thought. "That seems reasonable. However, what do you think the exact exam will be?"

"It's hard to be sure..." Aston said. He didn't sit down next to Song Lei and instead started walking back and forth in front of him. "It could be something like an assassination assignment..."

"It's hard to guess..." Song Lei muttered. He yawned and stretched widely to relieve his stress. Thinking about the upcoming one-week holiday, he grinned cheekily.

"What happened?" Aston asked with a puzzled expression. He couldn't understand why Song Lei seemed so happy.

"What do you mean? We have a week-long holiday in front of us, right? How could I not be happy? I have been working my ass off for the last five months," Song Lei explained his reasoning. During the holiday, he could relax and sleep as much as he wanted.

"God... Anyways. Rather, I have some good news for you," Aston said.

"What is it?" Song Lei asked curiously.

"I may have found a way to create soul weapons...."