Autophagy

"That bastard locked me in this dream space... Anyways, because I'm a ghost, the only thing I have with me is my soul. That being the case, I don't need any help with controlling my soul anymore."

"Oh..." Song Lei quickly understood.

"That's enough talk about me. It's your turn now," Aston said. "What's your real name?"

"I'm Song Lei."

"Chinese, I assume?" Aston said. Seeing Song Lei nod, he smiled. "What did you do while you were still alive? Were you a martial artist of some kind? I've always heard stuff about Chinese martial artists but never had the chance to confirm them myself."

"Huh. Well, not really. I was just an ordinary construction worker," Song Lei said.

"I see, I see. Then I presume that you must've gotten your hands on some pretty cool skill upon your arrival in the New World," Aston guessed. "I've seen some humans and they all had gained some sort of skill after getting pulled into the New World."

"You're right," Song Lei said. "By the way, why are you a ghost?" Song Lei asked. "I thought that every person who was pulled here would gain a new body..."

"Is that so?" Aston asked. "That's, indeed, interesting. Maybe it's because I came here by artificial means? I need to study it more to figure it out."

Seeing Aston's carefree attitude, Song Lei shrugged it off and sat down on the bed.

"So... You know that we have to beat the main villain of this dream space, right?" Song Lei asked. After Aston nodded, he continued by saying, "Who is it?"

"Hmm... If it were to be someone, it would definitely be that brother of mine," Aston answered while holding his chin. Song Lei could pick up an angry expression that had appeared on Aston's face for a split second.

"Wait... Your brother? You have a brother?" Song Lei asked confusedly. "I've never seen him in this dream space. Why is that?"

"Not really," Aston answered. "You've seen him before, however briefly."

Hearing Aston's words, Song Lei held his chin and started thinking about who Aston's brother could be. However, no matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to figure it out.

"It's the prince," Aston said. Song Lei's eyelids widened for a second. He turned towards Aston and looked at him closely. Now that he took a closer look, there was an astounding amount of resemblance between the two. Because Song Lei had seen the prince in his formal attire, he couldn't exactly match it up with Aston who would wear the orphanage's uniform all the time.

"So..." Song Lei muttered. He didn't want to say anything that would sadden Aston. "Are you a prince too?"

"Nope. I'm just an illegitimate child," Aston explained. In contrary to what he was talking about, his usual smile was plastered on his face.

"Umm..."

"Because that was the case, I was given to this orphanage," Aston said. "I didn't remember a lot from my childhood. It took me a lot of time to figure all that stuff out."

"What was your relationship was like with your brother?" Song Lei asked. He himself had a little sister who he held dear. He wondered how Aston feel about his own sibling.

"We were like strangers so, not very good," Aston started explaining. "Things started getting more and more troublesome as I got mixed up with the Eye Orphanage and the Secret Blood Order. We eventually became enemies. If I had some kind of trauma in my life, it would've been caused by that person."

"Well then..." Song Lei said as he jumped up from the bed. "Where should we start?"

"We should first leave the orphanage," Aston said. "At least that's what I think."

"That sounds good. It won't be easy to tell people how things came to this," Song Lei said. "We should act independently from the orphanage."

"I should have some earning in my hands," Aston said. "I can probably handle our lodgings and stuff."

"Do you think we can just barge into the palace and take down the prince?" Song Lei suggested. "After all, as long as we can take down the prince in one go, we will be able to finish the dream space."

"That sounds plausible to the ears, however," Aston said as he scratched his cheek. "In case there is something unexpected, we might not be able to escape. Now that I've broken my shackles, the prince will also gain supernatural powers in accordance to the dream space."

"For that reason, we have to get ready," Song Lei completed Aston's sentence.

"That's right. Let's start by buying a place near the palace. With our new appearances, we won't get caught, however, we will definitely look suspicious."

Hearing Aston's words, Song Lei walked near a mirror. There was his face, staring right back at him. Considering that he was an Asian person right in the middle of London was enough to attract the attention of a lot of people.

"By the way, are normal people able to see those?" Song Lei said as he pointed towards the soul circuits running along Aston's skin.

"These? Yeah, probably," Aston said. "I mean, you can see them right?"

"Well, that's not really distinctive," Song Lei said. "I have an ability that gives me the ability to see such things, so..."

Hearing Song Lei's words, Aston's eyes shone with excitement. He quickly stepped towards him and started pulling on Song Lei's eyelids.

"Umm... What are you doing?" Song Lei asked. Although he was confused by Aston's actions, he could somewhat guess why he did such a thing. 

"Amazing! How can someone have such a skill?" Aston spoke in excitement. He raised one of his fingers as the other one held Song Lei's eyelids wide open. Suddenly, the finger he had raised into the air lit up like a flashlight and illuminated Song Lei's eyes.

"How intricate..." Aston muttered. Song Lei wasn't sure if Aston was talking about the general structure of the human eye or specifically his eye. "A part of your iris seems as if it's dead," Aston said as he let go of Song Lei and took a step back. "From what I can understand, it has achieved a state of matter that's similar to that of soulite. There are a few microscopic crystals floating in particular parts of your eye liquid."

"Especially that strange grey ring in your pupil, it's mesmerizing..." Aston muttered in awe. Song Lei was starting to feel a bit embarrassed.

"Did you really figure that out just by looking?" Song Lei asked as he scratched his cheek.

"Of course! My eyes have the ability to switch between a few modes. One of them is a microscope mode," Aston explained how he achieved such a feat. He then walked towards Song Lei and showed him his eyes.

His eyes were blue, however, it was easy to see a few different patterns moving around inside his eyeballs from time to time if you inspected it carefully.

Those shapes seemed like little cogwheels or strings, constantly moving around without making any noises. It made him look like he was a cyborg. Considering the time Aston died, Song Lei was dumbfounded that Aston could achieve such levels of science in those times.

After Song Lei finished looking, Aston took a step back.

"I hope you let me cut your eye open and inspect it one day," he said. Song Lei's mouth twitched at Aston's wish.

"Yeah... Not any time soon."

"Anyways," Aston changed the topic. "We need to leave now if we want to escape without any troubles. Although there isn't anyone that can harm us in the orphanage, we don't want to get entangled in a meaningless conflict."

Seeing Song Lei nod, Aston walked towards the window of the room.

"Can you keep up?" He asked Song Lei. Seeing him nod, he jumped out of the window in a single motion. Song Lei didn't waste any time and jumped out too. As Aston fell down towards the ground, the soul circuits running under his skin pulsated and sent waves of energy towards his legs, protecting them from the impact of the collision.

Song Lei didn't need such a thing. Now that his Body stat was back to 12, he could achieve some superhuman feats easily. Jumping off of the third floor was also one of those feats.

The two, now awakened, buddies made their way through the orphanage's grounds like a pair of entangled winds. After Aston gathered his stuff from his own room, they went to the gate of the orphanage.

Song Lei felt a bit awkward. He had lived in this orphanage for more than three years. Now that he was about to leave, probably to never return again, his emotions churned inside him.

"Should we leave something like a message?" Song Lei asked.

"Sure. Why not?" Aston answered. Song Lei wanted to make sure that he was at least able to inform Otto of their departure. Considering this, he left a piece of paper on the security guard booth before leaving together with Aston.

[We'll be taking our leave....]