Autophagy

"This is going to be hard," Song Lei thought. The dark blob's attack patterns were highly irregular and the thing didn't seem to get tired. Unlike it, Song Lei didn't have unlimited stamina and was getting tired more and more.

In the middle of the messy room, Song Lei looked like he was dancing while avoiding the attacks of the dark blob. One moment, he would move his torso back, another and he would jump. He could probably get ten out of ten points if he did these moves in a dance contest.

Song Lei, who had no choice left, started slowly heading towards the exit while jumping around. The problem was, even if he managed to reach the door, he would have to spend a moment to open it. He was worried that the dark blob could kill him in that small window of time.

'Oh right!' Song Lei shouted in his mind. If he had the chance to do so, he would facepalm. 'I have Guyaa!'

After dodging a few more attacks from the blob, Song Lei stepped back towards the corner of the room and raised his hand.

"Guyaa! Go!" He said. As soon as he finished his words, a small magic circle with a triangle in the middle appeared in front of his hand. The dark blob bounced off of another wall and launched itself towards Song Lei one more time. Unfortunately for it, Guyaa jumped out of the magic circle and flew towards it at incredible speeds. Song Lei had to focus a lot to see what was going on.

The dark blob didn't have the ability to change its course mid-air. Using this opportunity, Guyaa opened its lid and a long, pinkish tongue came out of it. Its tongue grabbed the dark blob and pulled it into Guyaa.

"Burp~"

Guyaa made a burping sound after swallowing the dark blob. It closed its lid and ran towards Song Lei, stopping in front of him.

"Uhh... Good job?" Song Lei said with a raised eyebrow. He knelt down and patted Guyaa on its lid. Guyaa seemed very satisfied with this as it jumped up and down.

"Come," Song Lei said silently to call back Guyaa. The same magic circle appeared again in front of his hand. Guyaa turned into a streak of light, went inside of it, and disappeared.

'I never thought that I would pat a toilet in my whole life,' Song Lei thought while leaving room 701.

[Guyaa has consumed a part of another being's power. It gets slightly stronger.]

[Guyaa has been recalled. Cooldown: 23:59:59]

"Another being..." Song Lei muttered to himself. 'So the black blob wasn't an independent creature but something like a spell? Who would be doing such things in the apartment?' Song Lei thought. He thought about the possibility of the darkness infesting the apartment and the dark blob being related. But as he didn't have any way to test them, he put those thoughts aside and left the room.

Because he was especially careful to not make a sound, no one had been alerted by his fight with the dark blob. Not wasting time anymore, Song Lei ran to the meeting room and barged in. Everyone in the room was calmly sitting and waiting for Song Lei. Seeing him in a distressed state, everyone became alarmed.

"Xu Chang might've been kidnapped," Song Lei said in one breath. Old Wolf raised one of his brows.

"What do you mean by that? Who in this apartment would be able to do such a thing?" Old Wolf asked. They had been on the same floor for more than half a day. Someone couldn't possibly kidnap Xu Chang right under their nose.

Song Lei started explaining what happened after he went to room 701. Of course, he omitted the parts about Guyaa and his system.

"I see," Damien said. "That indeed sounds like someone had kidnapped her. But as far as I know, no one has such an ability in this apartment. At least that we know of..."

"He's right. If you saw something like that, it means that there is someone other than our branch in this apartment," Old Wolf said. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes to think. "Okay. We can't delay any longer. Things have become much more serious now. If the darkness' were normal monsters, it wouldn't be much of a problem but if someone is controlling them, things change a lot."

Old Wolf sighed and got up from his chair.

"Gao Jing and Lu Peng will go towards lower floors to clear out any remaining darkness' I and you two will be going to upper floors," Old Wolf said. He stopped speaking and everyone got up from their seats. Lu Peng seemed dissatisfied but he didn't say anything.

Old Wolf left a note for anyone who might come to the 7th floor after them. They went to the staircase and stood in front of it.

"Don't come back until you guys have cleared all the floors. Make sure to look out for any outsiders. Things aren't as simple as we thought them to be," Old Wolf warned one last time. "Now, go."

Hearing Old Wolf's order, Lu Peng and Gao Jing descended the stairs. After they were out of his line of sight, Old Wolf turned towards Song Lei and Damien.

"I know you guys aren't much of a combat-type, especially Song Lei. Just make sure that you're not hurt and use your abilities to your best," Old Wolf said. He turned towards Damien and said, "Damien, your eyes will be very useful to us. I know that you're not very good with those monsters but you have to hold on."

Damien gulped loudly and nodded. It was easy to see that he was distressed. Seeing him confirm, Old Wolf turned his head towards Song Lei.

"And make sure that Damien is safe when the time comes. You will be acting as his personal guard. I am more than enough to deal with a darkness monster."

Song Lei nodded too. He was pretty sure that he could protect Damien well enough.

Seeing that they were ready to go, Old Wolf took a deep breath and stepped on the stairs.

"Let's go..."