Autophagy

"Yes. Now let me rest for a little bit," Song Lei said. Exhausting his soul felt like he was about to die. If he hadn't raised his mental fortitude by leaps and bounds since he got into New World, he would probably instantly faint.

"Okay... You can actually sleep if you want," Sugihara said. Song Lei raised one of his brows. "I can take care of you."

"What do you mean? Are you sure? You'll be in plenty of danger you know?" Song Lei asked. He entered the nearest room. "What will you do if another monster appears?"

"Since you're sleeping, I can just relocate by myself," Sugihara said. Song Lei touched his chin to think but unfortunately, he was too tired to properly think. For now, though, he was pondering on if he should trust Sugihara enough to sleep beside her.

"Ugh... By the way, did you manage to see who tripped me?" Song Lei asked. While he was running from the monster, a leg had come out of the room they were currently inside. It seemed to have tripped Song Lei intentionally.

"Tch. Whoever it was, it must've escaped somehow," Song Lei muttered. He had searched the room's every nook and cranny but couldn't manage to find who had tripped him. This either indicated that this person had the ability to relocate without adhering to the rules of the basement or that they had the ability to teleport to other places inside the sub-space.

"I thought you had tripped over yourself..." Sugihara muttered. "But if there really was another person who can relocate like that, I can only hope that they're not direct enemies with us."

Song Lei turned his head towards Sugihara and raised one of his brows. He couldn't understand what Sugihara meant. Didn't the person tripping him mean that they were enemies?

"What do you mean by that?" Song Lei asked.

"Think about it. If that person was especially hostile towards us, they would have a lot of ways to kill us other than tripping you over," Sugihara said while raising her finger. She drew a few stickmen with the dust that had gathered on the ground. "He must've used us as a scapegoat to escape. Or to be more precise, he must've gained something from tripping you over."

"Hmm..."

Song Lei didn't have an answer to that. It was highly probable that Sugihara was right. He just hoped that things would go their way.

Having no energy left to think, he threw these topics to a further corner of his mind and curled up in a corner of the room. Although there was a bed in the room, not getting too comfy was the better choice. Sleeping in a warm and comfy bed was really dangerous in situations that he had to wake up quickly.

Currently, his only goal was to make sure that his soul rested enough so he could use the calculus book again.

"That seems uncomfortable," Sugihara said. Song Lei stared at her face for a few seconds with his eyes that seemed like he hadn't slept for a few days.

"Doesn't matter. Wake me up in fifty minutes," Song Lei said. Fifty minutes of a power nap would be great for him if he could really have it.

"Mm," Sugihara nodded.

Song Lei, who was curled up in the corner of the room, closed his eyes. After a few seconds, his breathing became tranquil and calm, indicating that he had already fallen asleep.

Sugihara stared at Song Lei's sleeping face. He always had a calm expression on his face these last two days. His expression would hardly change as if he was suppressing his emotions. His calm demeanor was truly different from other people. However, his sleeping face was much different. It seemed to contain the purity and innocence of a little child. It was easy to understand how tired he was, both physically and mentally.

Sugihara kept staring at his face for a long time. The image of him telling her to leave even though he was in grave danger appeared inside her head. As those images of Song Lei kept circulating inside her head, she started blushing a little bit.

Feeling her heart start beating faster, she sat down next to Song Lei with a wide smile on her face and started waiting for him to wake up.

...

Song Lei opened his eyes as if he wasn't sleeping for the whole time. It was actually a bit scary seeing someone wake up in such a manner. He didn't seem drowsy in any way. He just opened his eyes widely and stared at the room.

He sighed, expecting a sharp pain in his neck since he had slept in a weird position. However, that feeling never came. Instead, there was a soft feeling under his head that made him not want to get up.

Surprised by the situation, his mind forced itself into working and processing the current situation.

"Oh! You woke up!" A pleasant voice filled Song Lei's ears. There was someone staring right at his face, leaving less than a meter between their faces. This person was, of course, Sugihara. Her black hair was touching Song Lei's face. Song Lei's head was currently resting on her thighs. Feeling her soft breathing on his face and seeing her amber eyes staring at him, Song Lei slowly straightened up.

"Thank you..." he muttered. He wiped his eyes with his hands, hiding his slight blush at the same time.

"You woke up in forty minutes," Sugihara said. She touched her chin and continued by saying, "Are you sure that you don't want to continue sleeping?"

"No need to. I don't need much sleep," Song Lei said. He hadn't slept properly in the last thirty hours and that was definitely putting a toll on his mind. Even if it was just for forty minutes, it was still enough to lessen the effects of his lack of sleep.

"Whatever you say... So? What are we doing?" Sugihara asked.

"Let's keep relocating. Now that we have a way to deal with them, we can be less cautious," Song Lei said while looking at the book in his hand.

"Why does that book even repel them?" Sugihara asked. Song Lei raised his eyes for a moment and thought about it.

"I don't know," he answered. To be honest, he really wasn't certain about why these calculus notes would make him exorcise a ghost. However, he had an idea why that would happen. In the New World, symbolism seemed to be very important. This calculus book, especially the notes inside it, might've meant something really important to Toda Anzai.

If that really was the case, these monsters would be something that Toda had coded as monsters in his subconscious.

"Huh. That really sounds sketchy," Sugihara said. "Well, doing that seems to be the best way to go."

Song Lei nodded. Sugihara held Song Lei's arm and they both closed their eyes to relocate. After counting to four, they both opened their eyes. The hallway, as always, had changed slightly. There didn't seem to be anything that was much different than before, however, Song Lei felt that something was different here compared to the other sub-spaces.

Sugihara looked at Song Lei expectantly. Whenever they relocated into a new subspace, they would rely on his sixth sense to decide what to do.

"There is something different," Song Lei muttered. Sugihara turned around and looked towards the end of the corridor to see what Song Lei was talking about. However, she couldn't notice anything out of the normal.

"Seems pretty normal to me," she said.

"Follow me," Song Lei said as he started walking towards the end of the corridor. Sugihara didn't inquire further and started following him.

They were about to reach the end of the corridor as Sugihara realized something weird.

"Where are all the rooms?" She asked. Song Lei frowned and looked around to see what Sugihara meant.

Seeing the situation of the corridor, Song Lei finally understood what she meant.

The whole corridor was empty. Devoid of any kind of doors or decorations. It was only cold hard walls with wooden floorings. At the end of this fifteen meters corridor was a seemingly normal door. However, Song Lei could feel that there was something weird about this door. He pulled Sugihara who was standing next to him in a confused state and started walking towards it.

They kept walking for some time, however, they weren't getting anywhere near the door no matter how much they walked.

Sugihara frowned and looked at Song Lei.

"Why are we not getting any nearer?" She asked. Song Lei facepalmed at the situation. This exact same situation had happened back in Isabel's mansion. At that time, he had walked backward to reach the door.

'There is no harm in trying...' Song Lei thought as he explained the situation to Sugihara. They both turned around and started walking backward towards the door.

They kept walking for a few minutes but didn't manage to reach the door.

'Huh. So it doesn't work...' Song Lei thought.

He touched his chin and started thinking of other ways to overcome this seemingly unpassable hallway. While he was thinking, he felt a tugging at his sleeve.

"I have an idea...."