Autophagy

Feeling that he was being sucked into something, Song Lei slapped himself in his cheek with all of his strength, causing his mouth to start bleeding. As soon as he did so, he found himself right at the entrance of the passage.

'What was that..?' Song Lei muttered inwardly. He looked around to see what had caused the illusion he just had. 'Maybe it's some sort of protection device? What kind of device could cause such a thing though...?'

Having no answer to this question, he decided to continue on his journey. After walking for a few more minutes, he saw an unordinary light coming from the end of the corridor. Slowing down his footsteps, Song Lei became even more careful than normal.

Whoever the person who had placed that device that made him hallucinate was, it wasn't a normal person. After all, Hugh was the vice-head of the SSFUK. To expect this place to be without safety would be foolish.

As he kept walking, the strange light became brighter and brighter. It had a blue hue to it. Occasionally, a few shadows would appear, indicating that someone or something was walking past the light source.

This made Song Lei even more anxious. The shadow's eeriness was amplified with the fact that Song Lei was currently in a secret passage with probably sound isolated walls. Even if he were to scream, no one would hear him.

Finally reaching the entrance of a room, Song Lei slightly reached his head out and looked inside. Hugh was there, occasionally walking past the blue light that was illuminating the room. He seemed to be searching for something.

There was an anxious expression on his face. Although his body was always sweaty, now, it was to a different degree.

"Come on... Come on... Where are you..?" Hugh muttered to himself. "The prince will kill me if I don't send it right now..."

Song Lei silently entered the room. Cloaked by the noises Hugh made, he walked towards one of the walls and shrouded into the shadows. The room was a pretty simple one. Its walls were similar to the ones in the passage. There were a few shelves and boxes laid here and there.

"Yes! Found it!" Hugh shouted in excitement. He lifted his hands, holding a vial carefully. In the vial was a purple liquid that instantly piqued Song Lei's interest.

'That's the Soulvent...' Song Lei thought. He had come to the palace to search for this. After being stolen, it definitely couldn't be researched by the government. There was an obvious reason for this.

Slightly turning his head to the side, Song Lei looked towards a group of documents stacked on top of each other. 'I should take a look after finishing this...' Song Lei muttered inwardly. He quickly turned his attention back towards Hugh.

After finding the vial of Soulvent, Hugh's motions had become timid instead of erratic. Although he was still palpitating, he did his best to make sure the vial was safe. After making sure he took the right thing, he put it inside a heavily protected silver suitcase.

Just as he was about to get up and leave, he felt an awkward sensation on his neck.

'What is going on?' He tried to mutter. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to push out any air from his lungs. As his sight constantly spun around in midair, he saw a headless body. 'That's...'

Before dying, Hugh managed to realize what had happened to him. This caused his eyes to be as wide as they could.

"Clean..." Song Lei thought as he cleaned the dagger in his hand with a piece of cloth. 'Hopefully, I won't have to kill anyone other than Hugh,' Song Lei thought. He hid his dagger back into his sleeve and picked up the suitcase. After that, he walked to the pile of documents he had looked towards before.

Walking to the pile of documents, Song Lei picked up the one on top of the pile.

"Defence of the Realm Act..." Song Lei muttered the title. Opening its first page, he saw a stamp that read 'Top Secret'. Flipping another page, he read the contents of the document. "As expected..." He thought aloud.

"They're getting ready for the war."

Putting the document back to where it was, Song Lei read the documents one by one, inscribing every single piece of information into his head.

The United Kingdom was ready for war. With the unification of the German Empire, the tensions in Europe were higher than ever. A war of an unimaginable scale was showing its head on the horizon. With the unstable state The United Kingdom was in, they needed to be sure that they were ready for the war.

Because of the unrest amongst the peasants caused by low life quality, the kingdom had a lot to deal with. They needed a strong army if they wanted to win a hypothetical war. Unfortunately, they didn't have the money to win the war by using conventional means. Instead, they wanted something else, something that could turn the tides in such a situation. Something unorthodox...

In the last decade, super-soldiers were something that would occasionally be discussed amongst the higher-ups of the military of some countries. The concept was there and there were a few different ways to go about it. Unfortunately, none of those ways were usable as of now.

There were chemical drugs that were being developed to dope up the soldiers. However, they were by no means mass-producible at the moment. What's more was the side effects of the drugs. They couldn't murder their own soldiers with their own hands. That way, even if they were to win the war, they would lose much more than they would gain.

There were also some engineers that thought of ways such as developing external skeletal support systems. Unfortunately, none of these ideas were viable for now.

In such a situation, the only choice The United Kingdom had left was the SSFUK. The prime minister thought that they would be the only group that would be able to provide them with super-soldiers made with mystical arts, so he had given this task to them. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. The SSFUK had no idea how they would achieve such a thing. Not being able to refuse the prime minister, they had taken on this task.

After searching for countless methods, they weren't able to figure anything out. Just as they were about to give up, a saving grace had appeared right before their eyes. The Soulvent... This liquid that had been produced by Aston was something that had to be taken. If they were able to secure themselves a sample and figure out its composition, they would be able to mass-produce it. With a good amount of Soulvent in their hands, they could make their average soldier much stronger than normal with proper training.

Unfortunately for them, their plans were going to fail miserably. With Song Lei and Aston working together, not many would be able to hold them back.

'Wasn't this too easy?' Song Lei thought as he finished reading the last document. He had spent fifteen minutes reading most of the documents. Although this was dangerous, getting all the knowledge was worth it. What worried him was the fact that he was able to finish off his mission in such an easy way. 'Let's not get careless. I'm still in the tiger's den.'

Making sure that he left no evidence behind, Song Lei left the room. He had to walk all the passage once more. Fortunately, this time, there were no hallucination devices. He managed to leave the passage safely and closed the shelf behind him.

'Let's leave...' Song Lei muttered inwardly. He stepped towards the nearest window and opened it. He reached his head out and looked around. He was currently on the second floor. For someone like him, the jump was an easy one to make. He didn't waste any time and stepped on the window's sill.

The roaring wind brushed past his face, making his hair flutter while passing by. Just as he was about to drop down, he heard the door of the room behind him being banged open.

"Stop him!" A voice resounded across the room.

'Fuck!' Song Lei shouted inwardly. He slightly turned his head and looked into the room. There were more than five black-clothed men rushing towards him. Behind them was someone that Song Lei didn't recognize. However, from his demeanor, it was easy to guess that he was a member of the upper-strata of society.

Song Lei quickly threw himself down and stepped on the ground gracefully. He knew that the people behind him were trained professionals. If he wanted to escape, he needed to go all out. Knowing this, he utilized all the energy in his muscles and kicked the ground. As soon as he did so, a cloud of dust was lifted into the air. Launching forward with inhuman speed, Song Lei started his escape....