Autophagy

"Fuck!"

'Why is this so hard?!'

Throwing himself on the bed, Song Lei held his head with both of his hands and rolled around. Soul Energy Regeneration Art wasn't only absurdly difficult. It also took an immense toll on his mind. After trying to figure out how to use it for almost an hour, not only was he not able to learn it, he was also left with a tired mind.

Shuffling his hair with both of his hands, he decided to take a quick nap before going to check Isabel and Aston's progression. Hopefully, Aston would have managed to finish his own research so that he could focus on Song Lei's request.

Closing his eyes, he drifted into a state of deep sleep...

...

"Do you think that this will work?"

"I don't know..." The man in a red robe answered. They were in a cave. This cave didn't have anything inside it other than these two men. The only thing illuminating the cave was the dim light coming from the sun penetrating through its entrance. "If it doesn't, the king will never forgive us no matter what we do. You were the one to receive the revelation, right? We have to do it."

"Mm," the other one nodded. Compared to the red-robed man, he wore a blue one. He was much taller and had a better build. However, his stature meant nothing against the red-robed man.

Seeing the blue-robed man agree, he raised his hand.

"Bring her in."

As soon as his voice left the cave, another person in a robe came in with a white-haired girl in tow.

"Leave her on the ground," the red-robed man ordered once again. "And leave those here too," he said as he pointed towards the robed man.

"As you order, our great bishop," the man said as he threw the white-haired girl to the ground. The girl shrieked as the pain of hitting her forehead on the ground alerted her brain. She wanted to speak, however, her mouth was bound tightly with a rope. The same rope was also binding her arms and legs, preventing her from making any moves.

Seeing the white-haired girl unable to move, the man in robe took out a dagger and a shield. The dagger was completely made of silver. On its guard was an eye symbol. It was engraved there so well that any person that saw it would think that it was a genuine eye.

The shield also had a peculiar design. It was a heater shield with square black and red color palette. In the middle of the shield was a bloody, red-pupilled eye.

"You can leave," the red-robed bishop said. With his order, the robed man left the cave, leaving the three alone in it.

Seeing the man leave, the bishop crouched on the ground and looked at the face of the white-haired girl.

"Did you think that you could escape? Where did you think you would go, you witch? Were you trying to escape to the edge of the world?" He questioned the girl.

The girl had red eyes alongside her beautiful and shimmering white hair. Her face was like that of a goddess, so shapely that she could topple countries if she put it to good use. Now, however, it was covered in dirt, mud, and scars. Her thin body was shivering out of fear.

Seeing the girl close her eyes, the bishop got up and turned towards the blue-robed man.

"Start getting ready for the ritual. It's about time we finish our task," he said. Hearing his words, the white-haired girl shook in her place with fear once more.

"Pleashe sahve mhe..." She muttered. Unfortunately, nobody could hear her pleadings...

...

"What was that..." Song Lei muttered. He was left gasping for air as he sat straight on his bed. He could recall every single part of the dream that he had just seen. Considering how detailed it was, Song Lei could somewhat understand that it wasn't just an ordinary dream.

'Who was that girl? Was she trying to reach out to me?' He muttered inwardly. 'And that symbol on the shield, I remember I seeing it somewhere...'

Thinking about the symbol on the shield, Song Lei did his best to remember. Unfortunately, he couldn't do so no matter how hard he tried.

"Whatever... Maybe it's still too early..."

pushing aside the dream to a corner of his brain, Song Lei took out his phone.

'I slept for twelve hours...'

Sighing, he put his phone back into his pocket. Not wasting any more time, he got up from his bed and went to the 16th floor to meet up with Isabel.

As he was getting near her room, he heard an awkward noise. Focusing his mind on the noises, he managed to realize that it was the muffled screams of a person.

'Fuck! Something must have happened...' Song Lei shouted in his mind as he picked up his pace. Opening the door of the room, he saw Isabel sitting on the couch while holding a gamepad in her hands.

"God damn it! How do you even kill this thing!?" She shouted in anger. Mia was doing her best to silence her angry shouts as she pressed her hands on Isabel's mouth. "What were the developers even thinking?!"

"Uhmm..."

Not knowing what to say, Song Lei turned his head to look at the monitor he had just bought from the system shop less than a day ago.

'Oh, so she was playing Dim Souls...'

"Hey," Song Lei touched Isabel's shoulder to catch her attention. Isabel jumped in her place as she turned to look at Song Lei.

"I finished the flag, it's there," She said as she pointed towards her bed. Song Lei walked up and looked at the small banner flag lying on top of the bed. He picked it up and looked at it from every direction.

"You're really good at this..." He muttered. The flag was exactly the same as what he had imagined.

"Of course..." She muttered as she kept smashing the same button on the controller. Not wanting to disturb her gaming experience, Song Lei left the room and went up to Aston's floor.

"Did you finish the frame?" Song Lei asked.

"Yeah, I did. Hey, do you have the money to buy some things for me?" Aston asked. Song Lei looked at his balance and scratched the back of his head.

"I have a little bit..."

"Great, can you buy these things?" Aston said as he gave a piece of paper to Song Lei. "I think I'm about to figure out some very important things..."

"Umm, sure," Song Lei said as he looked at the paper given to him by Aston. Fortunately, there weren't too many things written on it. They were at most some materials and devices that could be bought from the system shop without spending too much BC.

"Here," Song Lei said as he started taking out everything he bought from the system and started placing them on a nearby table one by one. "What are you even going to use this for? What are you researching?"

"You'll see once it's over," Aston said. He was fully focused on his research so he couldn't be bothered by Song Lei.

Seeing him in such a state, Song Lei took the golden frame for the flag and left the room.

After going back to room 1407, he sat down on his bed.

'Now that the materials are ready, I need to train a bit more. I don't want to mess up the materials after all...'

Closing his eyes, Song Lei once more started his practice of soul control. As he expected, it was still too hard to form shapes with his soul energy.

'It may be better if I keep practicing that recovery art...'

Song Lei sighed deeply. Now that he had slept for half a day, his mind had rested enough. The same couldn't be said for his soul though. His soul energy had recovered to about its half. From the looks of it, without the Soul Energy Regeneration Art, he wouldn't be able to train his soul control effectively.

Dismissing the doubts in his head, Song Lei started his training once more. He dove deep into his soul, zoomed out, and felt the pain disappear from his head. With anticipation, he turned around once more and tried to interpret what was going on outside his soul.

"Woah..."

The pain he expected never came. Unlike what had happened so far, the knowledge of the 4th dimension crashing down on his head didn't give him that excruciating pain. At most, he felt slight displeasure as his overly-developed brain started converting the image that came from his sight into something that was more understandable.

'Why is this happening? Is it related to that dream..?'

As he kept staring, the meaningless reality outside started becoming more understandable. At first, it was like a blurry image. As time passed, however, it became much more meaningful and turned into what looked like a 3D simulation of his room.

'Let's see....'