Autophagy

"You see..." Damien said with an awkward smile on his face. The small light bulb of the room was flickering. Song Lei felt an ominous feeling. "We're in a bit of a problem," Damien continued.

"I can pretty much understand that..." Song Lei sneered. He walked to the door and leaned in to look through the peephole. But before he could do that, Damien pulled him back.

"Stop. You won't want to look out there," Damien said. He went to the light switch, turned it off, and went back to the bed.

"Don't make too much noise for now. We'll wait until it passes," he said. Song Lei, who had a lot of questions to ask, decided to keep silent. He walked to the side of Damien and both of them kept waiting for a long time. When the noises that were coming from the corridor went away, Damien turned the lights back on. They weren't flickering this time.

"So? What was that?" Song Lei asked while crossing his arms. It hadn't been that long since he had met Damien. His general idea of Damien was that Damien was a fearless adrenaline addict. But at this moment, Damien seemed to be really careful of what was happening out in the corridor.

"It isn't exactly over yet," Damien said while looking out the peephole. There wasn't anything in the corridor at the moment. "But it should be safe."

Damien talked to himself and turned towards Song Lei after sighing.

"That was the Call Gong," he explained. "It will only be used in dire situations as it makes the horde go crazy."

Song Lei nodded and kept listening.

"The Call Gong is a special item that Old Wolf has. Him ringing the gong means that something really dangerous is happening and that we have to go back down to the 7th floor in the next 24 hours," Damien said. After gulping loudly, he turned back to the door and kept inspecting the outside. Even though he couldn't see anything, he was doing his best to be as careful as he could.

"We should wait here for a few hours," Damien continued. he seemed to be scared of whatever was happening outside.

"I was going to sleep anyways," Song Lei said. He walked to his bed and laid down.

"You can. I will wait here too. When you wake up, we will both go down and see what's happening," he said.

Song Lei curled up on the bed and slept for a few hours. When he woke up, he saw Damien sitting on the ground next to him. After rubbing his eyes with his hands, he touched Damien's back.

"Oh? You're up?" Damien said. He turned towards Song Lei and got up.

"Yes."

"Let's go then. Are you ready?" Damien asked while holding the handle of the door. He made sure one last time that there wasn't anything outside the room by looking through the peephole.

Song Lei gathered his stuff, wore his backpack, and held his cursed knife tightly.

"I'm ready," he confirmed. After that, Damien opened the door. As soon as the door was opened, a horrible sulfuric stench filled their nostrils. Damien hardly held himself back from puking by holding his mouth. Song Lei, though, seemed somewhat unphased.

After Damien got used to the smell, they left the room together and started descending the stairs. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The only slight difference was that the temperature seemed to be somewhat lower than normal.

As they kept descending, they felt the temperature sharply dropping. When they were on the 11th floor, Song Lei started hearing those weird rattlings again. They looked at each other with Damien and Song Lei leaned over to see what was happening in the corridor.

'Um...'

The corridor wasn't that out of ordinary. The problem was, for some reason, the end of the corridor was completely dark. Normally, there would always be a little amount of light in the corridor, enough for someone to see just a little bit. But this time, half of the corridor seemed to be completely dark.

'What is that..?' Song Lei thought to himself. He tried his best to think for a reasonable explanation. While he was thinking, he saw the darkness suddenly start moving. It was coming towards them.

'Fuck!' Song Lei shouted in his mind. He didn't have the time to think about what was happening. Song Lei turned around to see what Damien was doing. When he turned around, he realized that Damien was locked in his place, seemingly unable to move. His eyes were opened wide and there was sweat pouring out of his forehead. When Song Lei looked more in detail, he realized that Damien's eyes had a different shape to them. They were glowing yellow in the dark staircase.

Song Lei tried to wake Damien up from his daze as he nudged him.

"Hey, we have to go," Song Lei whispered as silently as he could. Unfortunately, Damien wasn't responding. He seemed to be completely locked out.

Seeing that Damien wasn't moving, Song Lei took another look at the hallway. They didn't have much time to left as the darkness was picking up its speed. He wanted to avoid whatever the darkness was. In the New World, the most dangerous things were the ones you had no knowledge about.

Song Lei picked up Damien in a princess carry and ran towards the lower floor. Because he had raised his body stat to 6, he could probably carry someone twice Damien's weight in this style.

'Shit!' Song Lei shouted in his mind. There were other batches of darkness coming from the lower and the upper floor. Seeing that he had no other place to go, Song Lei made a choice. He ran into the 11th floor and started knocking on the door of room 1101.

There were a few meters left between him and the darkness. If it kept on going like this, They would be swallowed in less than ten seconds.

'Come on..! Open up!' Song Lei waited anxiously. Just as they were about to get swallowed, the door was opened and they were pulled inside.

"Huff... Huff... Umm... Long time no see? I guess..." Song Lei said awkwardly. He dropped Damien on the ground.

"Well well...."