Autophagy
Chapter 7 - A 'Shitty' Situation | 7

'Someone is coming!'

The footsteps started coming closer. It sounded like there were more than two people.

"Did this asshole really die? Normally, he wouldn't leave his katana no matter what," a male with a hoarse voice talked. He sounded like he was sick.

"This room looks like it has been ransacked. Was it an exceptionally strong poltergeist? The light bulb was popped too." Another person talked. This time, it was a woman. She had an alluring voice. Song Lei could imagine her being very beautiful.

People who entered the room turned their flashlights on. Song Lei was scared of being noticed so he held his breath.

'Considering that they know Xiang Yimu, they might be dangerous.'

"I don't think so. Do poltergeists leave ghost goo in the rooms they haunt?" The man asked.

"Not really. We heard a lot of commotion coming from this floor. Maybe the horde was alarmed," The woman answered.

"What?! Why would the horde activate? Xiang Yimu is a sly bastard. He wouldn't do things that could put him in danger."

The woman went quiet for a bit, she then kept talking.

"You're probably right. There must be some kind of external factor. Was it a lost one that spawned on this floor?"

"And how would a newbie lost one manage to kill Xiang Yimu and make all this goo?"

"He must have an offensive type ability. You know that Xiang Yimu is a barrier type," the woman said.

"Hmm... Oh. Xiang Yimu loves baiting newbies in and murdering them slowly. They must've fought and triggered the horde. It's possible that they both got devoured. That explains the goo-covered walls," the man said while using his index finger to probe the goo. "It's disgusting."

"Yeah yeah... We know. Stop fingering the walls, let's get going. There's nothing more to do here," the woman said. Some footsteps were heard and the door was closed. Song Lei didn't dare to make a sound as he was scared that those people would act like they were gone to bait him out. There was no light source in the room so he couldn't see anything.

Song Lei couldn't hear anything other than his breathing. Quite some time had passed and there was no movement in the room. It seemed like those people were gone.

"Oh well... I guess the newbie is really dead."

"Yeah let's go. We should report the things that happened here to the boss."

The door opened and closed again. Song Lei's heart was about to rip open his chest. He was about to faint from the thrill. Song Lei laid under the bed for another 15 minutes to calm down.

'I should go back to room 1407,' Song Lei thought. He was actually scared of those people somehow figuring out his room and ambushing him as soon as he got there. He considered staying in room 1401 as it was closer to the staircase but there were several problems with this.

He didn't know whether those people would come back or not. Even if he solved this problem somehow, he still didn't want to lose his protection from ghosts. He didn't know why Xiang Yimu was staying in this room but room 1407 had perfect protection. No ghost could enter the room and Song Lei could sleep in peace knowing that he was safe. Well, partially. There was still a quake demon in the room. Although it was tamed, Song Lei was scared that it would suddenly turn on him.

After carefully standing up, Song Lei went to the door and pulled the handle. He didn't turn his flashlight on just in case those people were still around. He got back to his room uneventfully. After storing the food he had found back in Xiang Yimu's room, Song Lei laid in the bed. It was already 5 p.m when he got back to room 1407.

'Is the clock wrong? There's no way 7 hours have passed since I went out,' thought Lei. 'How long did I wait under that bed?'

Song Lei put the clock back where it was and started calculating how long the food he looted today would last.

'If I keep eating minimal amounts of food every day, these can last me around 10 days. I first have to eat the fresh ones. The canned food can be eaten later. Uh... Yeah. This is not much different than my last life,' thought Lei with a faint smile resting on his lips.

Song Lei started pondering about the things those people said.

'They were talking about something called the horde. What is the horde? Is it a horde of ghosts? Even though I'm not sure, it can't be anything good. It's probably caused by loud noises. I shouldn't make commotions like before. I was extremely lucky to get out of there alive.'

'After that, they called me a lost one. I think the people who get transferred here by those rifts Xiang Yimu told me about before are called lost ones. It's a pretty fitting name in my opinion,' deducted Song Lei. 'They were talking about abilities. Is my system considered an ability? According to them, there must be different types of abilities. I'm not sure...'

Honestly, there was too much information Song Lei had to process but he had no energy to do so.

'I missed my sister and Jia Feng...'

...

*CLASH!

'WHAT!?'

Song Lei jumped out of the bed with his bloodshot eyes wide open. A loud voice resounded in the room.

'Where did that sound come from?!'

*CLASH!

'It's the same sound! I think it's coming from the bathroom.'

Song Lei didn't want to go back to the bathroom as he was scared of meeting the replicant again. But this clashing would start pulling unwanted things to his room.

'I need to stop this as soon as possible!'

Song Lei ran up to the bathroom and entered it. Mirror pieces were still scattered on the ground. He had to be careful.

Nothing had changed except one thing.

'Was this toilet always here?'

Considering the fact that this was a bathroom, it was not really weird for there to be a toilet. The problem was, this toilet was not here at all back when Song Lei was there! Another tiny problem was the fact that the toilet's lid was opening and closing on its own.

*CLASH!

Song Lei tried blocking the lid with his hands but it didn't work. The lid kept opening and closing on its own no matter what he did.

'Why would a toilet lid do this?! Is it a ghost?' Song Lei thought. 'How can I stop it?! Do I have to feed it like the quake demon? How do you even feed a toilet?'

*GROWL

'Ugh... My stomach... I need to use the to-...'

That was it. He had found the way

'Fuck....'