Autophagy

As the cold wind blew across the valley, it brought the faint smell of garbage into Song Lei's nostrils. The water puddles that had been formed by the recent rain splashed around as he ran over it. This place was an alley in Brighton. It was mostly devoid of people, making it easier for Song Lei to run through it with all of his speed.

"Stop bastard!"

"Do you think it's easy to mess with us?!"

"*Sigh... How did it even come to this..?" Song Lei muttered. He was currently being chased by more than fifteen thugs.

Yesterday, he and Aston had spent all day trying to forge a proper soul weapon. At the end of twelve tiring hours, they had managed to achieve their objective. Now that Aston had learned the proper way of forging by trial and error, Song Lei no longer needed to keep going with him.

Today, he went through a few investigation places he had determined and spoke with some people. He had planned to keep his investigation up and try to gather whatever knowledge he could. However, while on the way to his next investigation spot, he was cornered by some thugs. He initially fought five of them and beat them all down, unfortunately, the reinforcements arrived before he could escape.

Now, he was being chased by more than fifteen people from The Wolf Gang. No matter how strong he was, he wouldn't be able to fight against this many people by himself.

'I didn't think they would be this angry at me...' Song Lei thought as he turned a corner and entered another alley. 'Fuck...'

It was a dead end. Running to the end of the alley, Song Lei looked at the people that were charging towards him. He took a deep breath and ran towards the wall. When there was left one meter between him and the wall, he jumped up and took another step on the vertical wall. Fortunately, it wasn't that tall of a wall.

Song Lei had managed to jump over the wall, however, the same couldn't be said for the thugs. They didn't have the same agility and strength Song Lei had. So they could only push each other up.

By the time they were able to go to the other side of the wall, Song Lei was long gone. The leader of the thug group spat on the ground and sighed.

"Bastard... We'll find you..."

...

"Huff... Huff..." Song Lei was left gasping for air. His superior parkour abilities had gotten him out of the situation, however, he had slightly hurt his wrist now. This could restrain his ability to move a little bit.

'Hopefully, I won't have to fight with anyone that is as strong as me...' He thought. Deciding that it wasn't a good idea to waste more time sitting here, he got up and started walking towards another investigation place. He couldn't go to his original destination as it would probably be guarded by some guys from The Wolf Gang.

It took him an hour of walking to get to his destination. This place was an abandoned warehouse. It was a frequented place of Hector. He would bring those people who he deems as toys and 'play' with them here. Song Lei had gotten this information from one of the people he had talked with.

After reaching the aforementioned warehouse, Song Lei started circling around it to survey the area. There weren't any guards around so he could roam around freely. Getting a bit closer, he took out a paper from his backpack and started drawing the map of the warehouse's premises.

'Should I enter it..?' Song Lei asked in his mind. He didn't know what to do. This place was a good choice for the assassination. It would be incredibly beneficial if he were able to map the insides of it. However, if Hector and his men came while he was mapping it out, it wouldn't be a fun experience for Song Lei.

'Fuck it.'

Song Lei dashed to the entrance of the warehouse. He had looked through the windows of the warehouse to make sure that there wasn't anyone inside it. He was sure that no one was there. He just had to make sure that Hector didn't come while he was mapping the warehouse.

*Creak

After reaching the warehouse's entrance, Song Lei saw that the gate was blocked by a padlock attached to a thick chain. It would be impossible for Song Lei to break it, so he had to utilize the lockpicking skills that he had acquired in the orphanage.

After taking out a picklock from his backpack, Song Lei started fiddling around with the padlock. In less than twenty seconds, he managed to unlock it. The padlock clicked open. Song Lei took out the chain and threw it aside.

'Now this is dangerous. If Hector comes here and sees this unlocked, he will figure out that I've broken into this place...' Song Lei thought. He knew he had to act quick, so he just did that.

He pulled the warehouse's metal gates open with little to no hardship. A wave of dust hit his face as soon as he stepped in. He coughed a little bit and rubbed his eyes to get used to the place. The sun was dipping down into the horizon, so the warehouse wasn't that bright. The only source of light was the windows that were high up the wall.

A few streaks of light entered through them, illuminating the warehouse in a poetic way. The light streaks also made the dust that was flying around the place more visible to the eye. Those dust particles looked more like little fairies to Song Lei's eyes.

Song Lei closed the gate behind him and stepped deeper into the warehouse. There were all sizes of boxes neatly stored on pallet racks side by side.

'Perfect,' Song Lei rejoiced. The neatly arranged boxes and the pallet racks would provide him with an incredible amount of cover and hiding places. In the case that Hector and his men came back, he would be able to hide until they were gone. He had also brought food and water that would be enough for two days.

Not wasting any more time, Song Lei started investigating the warehouse carefully. He wanted to learn what kind of goods were stored in this place. For such a poor place as Brighton, having this big of a warehouse was really awkward.

Song Lei took out a knife from his pocket and pulled out a small box from the racks. He cut the box open with his knife. Inside it was some military rations. They seemed newly produced. Closing the box and putting it deep into the shelf so that it wouldn't be found, Song Lei took out another box. He had to make sure that the open boxes were hidden well. If Hector found out that someone had broken into the warehouse, he would stop using this place altogether.

Song Lei wanted to have this place as an option when he really started his assassination attempt. So he didn't want that happening.

After searching through a few more boxes, Song Lei found out that there wasn't anything out of ordinary in them. There were mostly rations and different kinds of import items that wouldn't hurt anybody. He had been expecting there to be things like drugs and weapons in it. So this was a surprise to Song Lei.

After making sure that everything looked exactly the same as before, Song Lei started mapping out the warehouse. Fortunately, it had a pretty simple layout that could be mapped out easily. While Song Lei mapped out the warehouse, he also found Hector's torture tools that had been stored away in a corner of the warehouse. Although they weren't as brutal as the ones Xu Chang had, they still looked horrible.

After finishing his map, Song Lei started walking towards the exit.

Just as he was about to reach the entrance, he heard rustling noises coming from outside.

'Fuck! Was I caught?' Thinking that he was about to get caught, Song Lei rolled to a side and hid behind whatever boxes he could find.

"Meow!" A cat entered the warehouse. Seeing this, a deep frown appeared on Song Lei's face.

'This is the part where I relax and the villains enter right after the cat!' He shouted in his mind. After waiting for five minutes, Song Lei realized that no one was coming in. The cat casually strolled around the warehouse without a care in the world and the only noise that resounded in the warehouse was the cat's paws hitting the ground rhythmically.

'Did I watch too many movies..?' Song Lei thought as he sighed. He got out of his hiding place carefully and picked up the cat. He pulled open the gates of the warehouse before leaving. 'Huh... I was ready to be met with ten guns aimed at my head but that doesn't seem to be the case...'

After closing the gates of the warehouse and locking the chain in its place, Song Lei took the cat and left the place. Fortunately, things had gone much better than he had thought. After leaving the cat on the ground, Song Lei made sure that he wasn't being followed and ran back to their house. He had managed to gather a good amount of information today, so it was time for him to rest....