Autophagy

While Song Lei was thinking, he felt Aston tapping on his shoulder.

"We've arrived," He said. Song Lei snapped out of his daze and looked towards the horizon. The humble city was slowly showing its face to them. The sun was hung above their head, gently illuminating their way and warming them slightly.

"Huh..." Song Lei muttered. When he saw the poetic scenery, he realized the fact that he would never be able to see these kinds of things in his real life. After all, he was now stuck in the New World. This fact made his heart slightly ache.

"Let's keep going," Aston urged Song Lei. Song Lei nodded and started following Aston's steps. He sighed deeply and turned his head back towards the road. After walking for another kilometer, they managed to enter the city's outskirts.

They started strolling through the streets of the city to see the general layout of the place and get an idea of the people. People here, just like people from the slums in London, lived in really bad conditions. However, they seemed to be happier in comparison. There were children running around. Although they didn't seem to be wealthy, they were still happy.

"Did you pick the place we are staying at?" Song Lei asked. Aston took out his map from his backpack.

"The organization has prepared one for us. However, they said that we could secure ourselves some other place," Aston said. He put the map back in its place. "Apparently, if we do that, we get extra points."

"I can understand why they give extra points for such a thing but how will they even track that?" Song Lei asked.

"Easy. They just have a person supervise the place," Aston started explaining. "As long as they don't report us staying in the arranged house and we finish the mission in time, we will get the extra points."

"So we have to secure a place by ourselves if we want to get the points?" Song Lei asked.

"Not really," Aston said. They both stopped walking and stood in front of a relatively new-looking house. "Follow along," Aston said. He knocked on the door three times, waited for five seconds, and knocked three more times. After half a minute. The door was opened.

"Welcome," the person who opened the door said. Aston and Song Lei entered the house and looked around. It was devoid of proper furniture. It didn't even seem like anybody was living here. Song Lei awkwardly looked at the person that had welcomed them in.

He was a middle-aged person with a relatively bushy beard. He had blue eyes accompanying his black hair that had started turning white, however, he still looked lively. He had a stoic expression on his face.

"Huh... This place looks nice," Song Lei sneered. Aston didn't comment at Song Lei's sarcastic notion and turned towards the person who had welcomed them in.

"Take this," Aston said as he held out some money towards the person. The middle-aged man looked at the money for a second and turned his head towards Aston. Seeing his expression not changing, Aston took out more money. As soon as he did so, a wide smile blossomed on the man's face. "We were never here."

After bribing the supervisor, Aston pulled Song Lei to the upper floor.

"Will that even work?" Song Lei asked while glancing at the supervisor who was counting the money he had just got.

"It will," Aston said. "Remember, this is a test. They want to see that we can do whatever we can to accomplish our missions," he started explaining. "We either find a place to stay by ourselves which shows that we can act independently and improvise..."

"Or we bribe the supervisor and show that we are daring enough," Song Lei finished Aston's sentence.

"Exactly. At least that's what I think," Aston said.

"Well, it doesn't matter even if you're wrong," Song Lei said. "After all, our primary objective is to forge our soul weapons. I don't really care about the points."

"Exactly," Aston said as he opened the door to one of the two rooms that were on the second floor of the house. The room was plain. Unlike the first floor, however, it contained some amount of furniture which consisted of a drawer, a double-size bed, a study desk, and a closet.

"Huh... Minimalistic," Song Lei muttered as he looked at the interior of the room.

"Well... We won't be spending much time here so it's okay," Aston said. "You need to start by asking around and learning about this little crime organization around the city. However, be careful to not attract too much attention. Be as indirect as you can be while asking the questions."

"You don't need to explain. We went through the same curriculum," Song Lei muttered as he started unpacking his things.

"Sorry..." Aston muttered.

"Nevermind that, what are you going to be doing while I'm dealing with that stuff?" Song Lei asked.

"I'll be dealing with the forging of our soul weapons. I'll be spending most of my time in Brighton dealing with that," Aston explained. "So you'll have to deal with the whole ordeal about this criminal organization."

"A solo mission huh..." Song Lei muttered as he took out an improved Colt M1900 from his bag.

"Hopefully, you won't have to use that," Aston said.

"Yeah..." Song Lei answered absentmindedly. It would attract a lot of attention if he were to use a gun in the city. He didn't want that. The best he could hope for was a silent assassination.

"Anyways, let's clean up and rest for the day. You can start your mission late into the night. I'll be finalizing the plans of the weapons," Aston said as he finished unpacking. He took a set of clean clothes with him and left the room.

Song Lei followed him along and took a shower. Fortunately, this house was a relatively luxurious one. Albeit being devoid of proper furniture, it had an individual bathroom. Song Lei knew that most of the low and mid-class people wouldn't have bathrooms for another fifty to sixty years.

After showering, they both went to sleep...

...

Song Lei woke up with the noise of rain tickling the windows. Aston was already up. He was carefully drawing something that Song Lei couldn't really understand. What he could figure out was the fact that it was related to the soul weapons. That was all.

"How is it going?" Song Lei asked as he stretched. He was feeling energized after sleeping on a proper bed after a few days of sleeping out in the wild.

"It's pretty alright. I think I can finish it until tomorrow and start forging," Aston explained as he carefully drew another line on the paper. Song Lei turned his head away from the paper to make sure he didn't get confused by looking at the weird calculations.

"Do you really need all these calculations just to make a few daggers?" Song Lei asked. He knew that crafting weapons was a hard thing to do, however, he couldn't understand what Aston was doing.

"Yes," Aston said. "Forging soul daggers are different from forging average daggers. I need to be precise with what I'm doing and I'll probably fail for the first few times."

"Huh... Good luck with that," Song Lei muttered as he started getting ready to go out. The rain was pouring non-stop, washing away the dirt and the evil from the city. Although it wasn't an ideal time to start his research, he had to start from somewhere.

After placing his tools in his belt and wearing a black trenchcoat, Song Lei readied his mind.

"I'm leaving," he said to Aston. Aston waved his hand for a second without saying anything.

After leaving the house, Song Lei walked to the place he would start searching for information from. It was an inn run by a middle-aged man. His shop was once raided by Hector's crime organization. From what Song Lei could think, this person would help anyone that would be willing to fight against Hector.

The place would be open until 12 a.m. It was currently 9 p.m. So, Song Lei had a good amount of time to spend. The crowd covering the roads was starting to slowly diminish. The noise of footsteps and people talking was being replaced by the rain's furious pitter-patter. After one or two hours, these streets would be almost completely empty. This made Song Lei feel a bit melancholic.

Discarding his thoughts, Song Lei quickened his steps.

He took ten minutes walking from their house to the inn. It wasn't a flashy place by any means. There was a wooden sign right above its entrance, reading as 'White Hart'. Occasionally, a drunkard would come out of the inn flailing around. Some of them would've people accompanying them.

Song Lei watched the entrance for five minutes and decided to enter. Fortunately, the age-restriction laws on alcohol weren't there in this day and age, So Song Lei wouldn't have any problems going in.

'Let's start....'