Autophagy

After the gathering was over, Song Lei left room 1201 and headed towards floor 17. Ascending the stairs, he managed to reach there in no time.

"H- Hey," he said as he pushed open the door. Aston was basically always researching new stuff. If Song Lei were to wait for him to answer the door, he would be basically waiting for the rest of eternity.

Inside, Aston was silently staring at the computer that had line after line of data sliding down erratically on its screen. From what Song Lei could guess, he was still observing the space stability constant.

Seeing this, Song Lei walked forwards.

'Huh. It seems like closing my Spiritual eye doesn't take away my ability to sense ethereal beings completely. I wonder how the Ethereal Senses skill exactly work...' He thought as he looked at Aston's lonely figure. Although there was something substantially different about his vision from before that he couldn't put a finger on, he could still perceive Aston well enough.

"W- What device measures such a thing?" Song Lei asked, implicating the space stability value. The screen that was filled with countless different colored numbers was really interesting. However, the only thing he gained from trying to understand them was a sharp headache.

"It's there," Aston said as he pointed towards a glass tube next to the computer's screen. It had two pipes connected to it from its top. Inside the tube was a weird, dark miasma that Song Lei couldn't exactly visually comprehend. To get a better view, he walked up and viewed it more closely.

Just as he was about to walk back, he heard Aston's excited voice.

"Stop! Stop right there!" he said. "Keep doing whatever you are doing!"

Hearing his orders, Song Lei kept looking at the dark miasma intently.

"That's right! How could I not think of this!?" Aston muttered to himself with absolute amazement showing on his face.

"W- What? What's going on?" Song Lei asked curiously.

"I can't exactly explain as my head is a mess right now. However, you helped me greatly this time," Aston explained as he started jotting down some numbers on a notepad. Seeing the state he was in, Song Lei calmly waited for him to finish his job.

After waiting for ten minutes, Aston finally put aside the notepad and turned towards Song Lei.

"What did you come here for?" He asked.

"D- Do you remember the plan we made for the recovery of the apartment?" Song Lei asked.

"Yeah?"

"I- I think the apartment has recovered enough for us to initiate it."

"Really now? So it's already at a state that it can produce hordes? That's great..." Aston muttered to himself as he caressed his chin. Getting up from his chair and leaning forward, he pressed on a button. Quickly, the dark miasma inside the glass tube was dismissed. This led the constant flow of data on the screen to come to an end. "What's with the stutters, by the way?" He asked as he turned the computer in front of him off.

Hearing his question, Song Lei averted his gaze, not knowing what to say.

"Nevermind. It happens," Aston said. "We are like that too. Beings with awakened souls I mean. We are quick to overcome mental trauma and have stronger mentalities overall. Instead, the damage will sometimes be transferred to our souls. They will be like festering wounds. Those mental wounds will eventually manifest themselves as behavioral complexities."

"W- What? S- So you mean that the mental damage caused my soul to get wounded? Will it heal with time?" Song Lei asked nervously. The anxiety caused his stutters to get slightly worse. At the same time, a peculiar question formed inside his head. 'I can somewhat understand why that would happen after I got attacked by that illusion. However, why didn't I have such symptoms when... When Damien, He Lingxin, and Old Wolf died? Wasn't that also a pretty big trauma..?'

"Hopefully. I can't say that it will definitely heal, however, it shouldn't be that bad..." Aston muttered as he tapped his chin. With his words, the questions inside Song Lei's head quickly dispersed. "Let's get back to our main topic. You said that the apartment has healed enough to create hordes right?"

"Yeah," Song Lei answered.

"That means that we can start our plan," Aston said as he got up from the chair. "Let's go."

"W- Wait. Are you coming too?" Song Lei asked.

"Obviously," Aston said. Song Lei calmed down quickly and followed Aston out of the room.

"Won't leaving your home territory weaken you?" Song Lei asked. Aston stared at him briefly as they started traversing the corridor.

"Yeah. But that won't be a problem. I will only be there acting as eyes for you. You probably won't be able to figure out the exact amount of ghost smog needed. Other than that, everything is up to you," Aston said. After they started descending the lonely and eerie stairs, both of them stopped talking.

Knowing that he would have to deal with their plan for at least an hour, Song Lei had told the newbies to stay inside their rooms. So he didn't have to inform them of the plan.

After arriving on the first floor, Song Lei and Aston stared at the wide entrance for a few seconds. 

"Hm. Staying this far away from the corridor seems to be really dizzying," Aston said. "But it doesn't seem to be getting worse. So I can hold on for a few hours."

"It won't take that long, will it?" Song Lei asked.

"No. No, it won't," Aston confirmed. Sighing deeply, he looked around the corridor to memorize the layout of the place. "This will be really dangerous. And it's slightly carefree."

"I know." Song Lei said. "However, we can't delay this further. As of now, we aren't able to take an initiative against the apartment manager without healing the apartment. And the longer we wait, the more prepared he will be. If he becomes aware of our exact strength, he will be able to produce countermeasures against us."

"Let's start, shall we..?"