Autophagy

Their enemies were patrolling the area as groups of two, so they had to knock them out without any of them being able to make any sounds.

They knew the layout of the base very well. If they could utilize their knowledge to their best, they would be able to resolve this issue easily.

After crouch-walking towards the base for two nerve-wracking minutes, they managed to reach one of the tents on the outer side of the base.

Aston gestured Song Lei to get away from him and hide behind the tent that was next to the one they were currently hiding behind. Song Lei nodded and went to the next tent like a ghost. Even if there was someone that was looking towards him, they wouldn't be able to notice him moving. It was like he had blended into his surroundings.

Aston was in a similar state. As two very talented trainees, they were much better than a lot of other trainees at lots of different skills. The orphanage did a great job at creating all-rounders. The weird side was, those all-rounders all had their masteries alongside their general skills.

For example, Aston was very good at all kinds of things spanning from CQC to firearms. However, his main forte was science. And from what Song Lei could see, he was one of the best, if not the best, scientists in the entire world.

Song Lei, on the other hand, was a very unique trainee. He was a master at being an all-rounder. His tenacious and studious mind alongside his nerves of steel made him capable of becoming very good at a lot of stuff.

While Song Lei was thinking, his thoughts were disturbed by the approaching footsteps and the chattering of Section C patrols.

"It was really easy just like the queen said," One of the trainees said. The other chuckled slightly at his words.

"It was easy, however, only for you," he said. "Look at the state of my body."

As they kept on bickering back and forth, Aston gestured Song Lei to get ready. Seeing him giving the sing, Song Lei arched his back and gathered all the energy in his muscles. He was like a cannon that was about to explode as his muscles exuded with sheer force.

Aston was in a similar state. They both wanted to make sure everything was cleanly done.

Shortly after, the patrols reached the corner. As soon as they did so, Song Lei and Aston launched forward from their hiding places. Before the patrols could even comprehend what was happening, Song Lei slapped the nape of one of them.

Aston, on the other hand, knocked out the patrol on his side and then slapped his nape. With their precise movements, both trainees had fallen down at the same time without making any noises. Song Lei and Aston both had to hold back their urge to high-five. They carefully pulled the two unconscious trainees into a tent and piled them up.

They repeated the same actions a few times until the pile was made up of sixteen trainees. From what Aston had counted, they only had twelve remaining to deal with. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be that easy to do so. After all, those trainees would eventually realize that their numbers were dwindling. If Song Lei and Aston wanted to finish this off without alerting them, they would have to act quickly.

"Everyone gather up in front of the captive tent! Someone is hunting us!" A shout resounded across the base.

"Fuck..." Song Lei muttered while facepalming. Aston touched his shoulder and pulled him out of the tent to observe what the enemy trainees would do. Fortunately, none of them saw Song Lei and Aston.

"We're still undiscovered. Although they can guess that our numbers are small due to the fact we are taking such an indirect approach, they don't know how many people we have," Song Lei quickly told Aston. "We should use the fact that we're in the dark and wait for a better opportunity."

"Stop," Aston stopped Song Lei by pulling his arm. "You're going off-plan. Did you forget why we came here?"

Hearing Aston's words, Song Lei calmed down and gave a deep breath.

"You're right," he said. "We should get your research papers and wait in our tent."

The reason why Song Lei and Aston had entered the base was because of the fact that they didn't want Aston's research papers going into the hands of other people. However, now that the enemy had gathered in one place, they could easily go to their tents. Eventually, Clark and his assault team would come back to clear this place. They could wait until then.

After Song Lei calmed down, they hurried to their tent. When they entered it, they both sighed breaths of relief and plopped down on the ground. Everything was untouched. Some of the Section C trainees were searching the tents occasionally while patrolling the area. Fortunately, their tent wasn't one of those that were researched.

Aston ran up to their personal belongings box and took his remaining research papers out of it. He was showing an expression that Song Lei had never seen him show. His eyes were filled with gentleness and love when he looked at his research papers.

'He thinks of them as his children...' Song Lei thought.

After hugging his research papers for some time, Aston finally stopped doing so and put them into his backpack.

"Now that we've everything sorted out, we can just wait for Clark to come back," Aston said. Not a second after he finished his words, shouts started resounding across the base. Amidst these shouts were lots of voices that both Song Lei and Aston recognized. "Oh. They've already come."

"It seems that way," Song Lei said. he got up from the ground and slightly pushed the entrance of the tent to peek out. Although their entrance didn't have that good of a sight of the situation, he could still understand that the fight was pretty much over from the shadows that were forming up because of the gas lamps that trainees were carrying. "They're finished."

"That's great then," Aston said. He took out a small clock from his backpack and looked at the time. "It's about time that the soul worms go back to their dormant state. We can rest now."

"Great..." Song Lei muttered before yawning. Although he had slept before, all this action had made him sleepy. Aston, on the other hand, acted as if he had slept for hours. He was trying to read his research papers in the darkness. "Go to sleep. You can look at them tomorrow."

"You're right..." Aston muttered. He put the research papers into his backpack before entering his sleeping bag and zipping it up. He, too, yawned and closed his eyes. He hadn't slept for almost more than a day. His body was incredibly tired, so much so that he, who had been suffering from insomnia, instantly went into sleep.

Seeing this, Song Lei slightly smiled and went to sleep too...

...

Song Lei woke up with the sounds of the morning forest. All kinds of animals were waking up from their sleep alongside them. They could hear the chirping of the birds and the roars of predators.

He got out of his sleeping bag and stretched. Next to him, Aston was still sleeping soundly, so he didn't want to disturb him. Instead, he left the tent and strolled around the base. As they had thought, the base had been retaken by Clark during the night. Surprisingly, no one had disturbed them during the night

Since their fight against Rufus, it felt like the soul worms were avoiding contact with them. As if someone was instructing them to not do so.

'Is it Clark..?' Song Lei thought. He knew that Clark saw him as nothing more than a tool. What he wondered was why he wasn't just infecting Song Lei with all the soul worms he could find. "Whatever..."

With the sun rising from the horizon, a few trainees had already woken up. They were all carrying around stuff and accomplishing the tasks that were given to them by their superiors tediously. The hierarchy between these people still amazed Song Lei.

Seeing that he didn't have much to do, Song Lei decided to go for a jog. After the battle last night, the surroundings would be devoid of any conflicts for now. Going on jogs had become one of Song Lei's pastimes.

During his jog, he would think about the important things to him such as his sister. He would imagine meeting her again. These daydreams would at least make the fact that he was currently inside of a ghost's dream space less dreadful. After all, any kind of hope would make things easier.

After finishing his jog, Song Lei decided to take a bath. He went back to the base and asked the scout team for any nearby water sources that he could bathe in. Seeing that Song Lei was going for a bath, Aston tagged along as they both walked towards the direction the scouts showed them....