Autophagy

"How did you guys set up an alliance in the first place? You even have branches and stuff..." Song Lei walked while asking. They were on a floor clad with ghost-repellant talismans just like room 1407. But this time, the whole floor was a safehouse. The lights were on albeit being faint.

"Faction leader gave us all of these talismans. He has a lot more of these back in the faction HQ. These are the go-to choice when you want to create safe houses in the city," explained Old Wolf. He was still holding the knife from before in his hand. Although he wasn't going to use it on him, it still made Song Lei nervous.

"You call this a safe house but the floor seems desolate. Are you guys really living here?" Song Lei pondered. He had knocked and entered some of the rooms while he was on the way but there wasn't any furniture inside.

After walking for some time, they arrived at the end of the hallway. There were 15 rooms on this floor, unlike the others.

"We don't actually live here. Think of it as a meeting place. Normally, we place only one member on every floor as lingering in one place as groups will bring some dangerous things about," said Old Wolf. The faint smile on his face made Song Lei gulp loudly.

"Dangerous things..? Like what?" Song Lei asked nervously. Old Wolf looked at him briefly and kept walking.

"This apartment has 29 floors and is named Heaven and Hell Apartment. Floors from 1 to 14 are named Heaven while 16 to 29 are named Hell, hence the name of the apartment," Old Wolf said.

"Then what is the 15th flo- Why are you changing the topic?"

"Now that's a good question! The 15th floor has some special characteristics to it. It is the floor that connects Heaven with Hell. We call it The Purgatory."

"That's cool but-"

"Whoever lingers too long on the 15th floor loses their control on their soul, becoming an eternal tenant of this apartment. Whether you go to Heaven or Hell depends entirely on your luck. But one thing is certain. You don't want to be a tenant of this apartment. Ever," Old Wolf emphasized. Song Lei threw the unimportant question in his mind out and absorbed every bit of information Old Wolf gave him. Initially, he had thought that Old Wolf was just trying to distract him from his question but he quickly realized that he was giving out some important information about the apartment.

"All of that sounds a bit vague to me but I will be careful," Song Lei said.

"Mhm. I like smart kids like you. Here we are. When you enter this room, you will meet your new friends. Just remember this with every single part of your brain," Old Wolf ordered. Song Lei looked at him earnestly.

"From this moment on, every single person you meet in this world will be a different kind of freak show. Those people being good or bad doesn't matter. It's my first time seeing someone that still has hope in their eyes survive this long. If you are not careful, that little fire in your eyes will be blown out in no time," warned Old Wolf. Song Lei nodded without saying anything.

"Let's go in. We've been standing here for too long," Old Wolf said while pulling the handle of the door. After opening the door, Old Wolf entered the room and Song Lei followed him in.

The room was shaped like a rectangle. It had a long table in the middle of it and there were 10 people sitting around the table. These people all looked very weird. Some of them had big scars on their face. Some had very muscly bodies while some had weird hair colors.

Old Wolf walked towards the head of the table and pointed at the empty chair for Song Lei to sit. Song Lei sat down and looked at Old Wolf without saying anything. Someone was shaking the table with their foot but Song Lei couldn't see who was doing it.

"Stop it," said Old Wolf. The shaking suddenly stopped for a few seconds and then started again. This time, it was much weaker. Old Wolf sighed. He then turned his head to Song Lei. "Introduce yourself."

Song Lei slowly got up.

"I'm Song Lei. I've just come to this place so I don't know a lot. I hope that you'll take care of me," Song Lei said. He sat back down.

A fierce-looking man that had a lip piercing with red hair spoke condescendingly. "How old were you again?"

Song Lei looked at the man in the eyes.

"18," Song Lei said shortly.

*Bang!

The person who was shaking their leg suddenly got a bit excited and accidentally hit the table. Song Lei jumped in his place.

"Xu Chang! You can do this stuff after the meeting is over!" Old Wolf shouted. As he wasn't looking at anyone particularly, Song Lei couldn't understand who he was talking to. No one answered Old Wolf's question.

"Do you really think that it is the right thing to take this little asshole in? He's a fucking child!" Shouted the man with red hair. He didn't seem to like the idea of Song Lei joining their branch.

"Why don't we just throw him into the horde for an expedition? Or we could give him to Fu Ah. I'm sure she would appreciate a new test subject," the red-haired man continued. He turned to look at the woman sitting next to Song Lei. She had long brown hair and was wearing casual clothes. There wasn't a change of expression on her face. She seemed to be the most normal person in the room.

"You're not that old either. You're being hypocritical," said Old Wolf. "And age doesn't even matter in this world. He's skilled and that's all that matters."

"That may be true. He killed that psychopath Xiang Yimu after all," another man said with a smile. He looked to be around 25 years old with black hair. He didn't seem to be Chinese. He slowly turned to Song Lei and made a thumbs up. "I have always hated that guy's guts. Great job dude!"

"If you all hated Xiang Yimu that much, then why didn't you kill him?" Song Lei asked. This question wasn't directed at any particular person. Nobody seemed to like Xiang Yimu.

"Now you're being cocky and questioning us? You must hate living so much," sneered the red-haired man with anger. He then raised his hand and stood up. "I'm starting a vote! Let's kick this Shit Lei out!"

The red-haired man looked around for some time and saw that no one was raising their hand.

"Come on! Are you guys serious?!" The red-haired man asked while sitting back. "Okay... At least tell us what your ability is."

Song Lei looked at the red-haired man.

"My ability is...."