Autophagy

Song Lei took a deep breath and tried to make sense of what had happened.

"I got pulled into the mirror..." he muttered. He was currently in the same bathroom as he was. However, the ominous talismans that were covering its walls to protect the room from outsiders were gone, leaving their places to rundown walls. Obvious cracks making the wall look like it was about to crumble in the next five minutes were everywhere.

There were no signs of the hands that pulled Song Lei inside or were there any monsters. The only supernatural thing in his sight was the floating words in front of his face.

[You've been pulled into a remnant world.]

Song Lei sighed and dismissed the notification. He had no idea what a remnant world would be. Although his mind was running non-stop, trying to figure out what it was, he couldn't come to a conclusion. He brought up his system and looked at his stats.

[Body]: 2 (8)

[Mind]: 2 (8)

[Soul]: 10

"So that's why..." Song Lei muttered while looking through his stats. For some reason, his body and mind stats had been fixed to 2. This was the reason his mind felt so murky and slow. He felt like his brain wasn't getting enough oxygen, resulting in him not being able to think properly as if he was sleepy.

There were mirror pieces on the ground. Almost all of them seemed to have been ground into a fine dust. Only some pieces remained to reflect a small amount. When Song Lei tried to look through it, he saw the bathroom in the New World. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see his own reflection.

"Hm..."

He couldn't understand the mechanism behind the mirror so he decided to stop thinking about it. He just picked up one of the small pieces of mirror, wrapped it in a cloth that he found in the bathroom, and threw it into his pocket.

He had to spend more than ten minutes getting used to his stats being lowered. 'So this is how it feels to be a normal human,' he thought.

After he felt good enough to properly walk again. Song Lei opened the door of the bathroom and left. He was instantly mesmerized by the state of the room.

"L- Light? Sunlight!?" Song Lei said while clasping his hands over his mouth. The normally damp and dimly lit room was now just like a normal apartment room. The walls weren't clad in talismans, there was no quake demon, and most importantly, there was a small window that let the sunlight in.

Song Lei took a few shaky steps towards the window and raised his hand to open it. However, he stopped himself from doing so.

'Come to your senses! I've just been pulled into a mirror by some kind of monster...' Song Lei slapped himself in his cheeks. Although seeing the sunlight again had made him very emotional, he didn't want to let his guard down.

Instead of opening the window and taking in the fresh air, Song Lei made do with basking in the sunlight. He looked out of the window and tried to figure out where he was.

'I have no idea...'

The outside was filled with countless apartments of different sizes, all lined up, forming an endless city. As Song Lei was on the middle floors, he couldn't get a proper panoramic view of the city.

After sighing loudly, He turned around and started searching through the room to find out clues about what was going on.

The apartment room had the same layout as the one in the New World. The kitchen and the bedroom were all crammed into 25 cubic meters. The only extension to that was the bathroom Song Lei had just come out from.

The room was filled with things that you would expect a university student to have. Mostly books, a primitive-looking laptop, and some clothes. With nothing out of place, Song Lei was really wondering if he was still in the New World. While looking around, Song Lei realized a weird fact.

'I'm wearing different clothes...'

As opposed to the clothes he was wearing in the New World, he was now in a pair of blue jeans and a green sweatshirt. Noticing that his situation had been changed too, Song Lei quickly searched his pockets to find the flip phone he had been using since he had been thrown into the New World. This phone, seemingly unbreakable for some reason, had been through countless hardships with him. It was one of the best tools he could ask for; Utility-based, reliable, and durable.

After taking it out, Song Lei flipped the phone open. He was met with the same lock screen, however, there was an unfamiliar date written on it.

17/11/2006 07:12

"Hmm..."

Song Lei tried unlocking the phone but couldn't do so. Normally, the one he used on the New World didn't have a password. Song Lei could just pass the lock screen without entering a password.

He put the phone back into his pocket and decided to turn the laptop on. After the fans of the laptop hummed for a long time, Song Lei was met with a booting screen.

[Mirrors XP]

He facepalmed at the name of the OS and decided to not bother with it. As he tried to log into the computer, he was met with another password screen.

"Toda Anzai..." Song Lei muttered while touching his chin. "So this laptop belongs to this person."

He turned the laptop off and turned his head towards the university books, silently waiting to be opened on the desk.

Song Lei got up and picked up one of the books on the study table to see what it was. The word 'CALCULUS' was written on the cover with all capital letters. This was the same book Song Lei had read when he had entered the New World for the first time. This, however, wasn't battered and worn-down like that. It seemed to be relatively new.

Turning the pages of the book, Song Lei was met with diligently-taken notes and some insights on certain topics. As Song Lei wasn't well-educated and had dropped out after junior middle school, he couldn't understand most of it.

'The calculus book back in the New World had manic writings about the city and the paranormal. Maybe this person had been pulled into the New World at some point...'

However, as Song Lei kept reading, he was met with notes that had nothing to do with the contents of the book.

'Why do I have to go through all this stuff?'

'I don't understand any of this!'

'Welp! Here goes my weekend? What do these even mean?'

'I shouldn't have picked this major.'

'Well... People make mistakes. They always say that getting back on your feet is the most important part!'

'I hate my life.'

'I wIlL kIlL mYsElF'

'DAMN THEM ALL! THEY MADE ME DO THIS AND NOW THEY DARE TO NOT HELP ME!?'

Song Lei took a deep breath and closed the notebook. After going through a certain amount of pages, the notes became psychotic suicide notes and threats. It looked like the diary of a crazy person.

Just as Song Lei was putting the calculus book back into its place, he felt his pocket vibrating. He took out his flip phone and looked at the name that was calling him.

[Toda Hikari]

Song Lei frowned. He instinctually wanted to ignore the call when he saw the unknown name on it. However, he quickly realized that this must be a relative of Toda Anzai.

Song Lei answered the call.

"Honey? How are your studies going?" The woman asked Song Lei. Her voice was devoid of any emotions, as opposed to her wording. Being asked about his studies as soon as he answered the call made Song Lei's mouth twitch.

"They are great," Song Lei answered calmly.

"Really?" Hikari said. She didn't seem to be convinced by his answer. "Normally, you would be talking to me about the ways you're wasting my money like going out with your friends or something."

Honestly, Song Lei didn't want to keep this conversation going anymore. From the attitude of this person, he could somewhat guess that they didn't have a great relationship.

"Son... Whatever. Just make sure that you graduate in time and find a job. You're already 21. I can't keep sending you money for after your graduation."

Hearing that she was calling him her son, Song Lei almost clicked his tongue. He hardly stopped himself from doing so to not cause any more troubles.

"Okay, mom. Love you," Song Lei answered blandly. Hikari didn't even answer and ended the phone call. Song Lei threw the phone back into his pocket and sighed. Somehow, this conversation with a woman she hadn't heard before made him gloomy.

'Well... Whatever,' Song Lei thought. He kept searching through the room and found a small sticky note stuck to his study table. There was a strange chain of words and numbers written on it. Song Lei quickly took out his flip phone again and keyed the words as the password. Much to his surprise, the phone was unlocked.

'Who uses this long of a password?' Song Lei thought. 'Let's see what you're hiding in this phone....'