Autophagy

Old Wolf jumped in front of Damien and Fu Ah. He raised his hands and started creating shockwaves out of them. It was easy to guess that he was running out of fuel as his face had become very pale and his legs were shaking.

"Stay back. It's dangerous," Old Wolf said. He had gathered a considerable amount of knowledge and experience in the New World. Thanks to that, he was somewhat able to tell how dangerous a monster was. And the monster that was currently rushing towards them made alarms go off in his head, indicating that this was probably a very dangerous one.

As the shockwave created by Old Wolf hit the monster, it stopped in its tracks. Unfortunately, the shockwave didn't seem to be able to kill the monster. Old Wolf's shockwave skill was very good at dealing with ethereal beings. Though, it didn't work that well with physical beings. He could still probably kill a normal human but that was it.

"*GROWL"

The monster who had stopped shook in its place and made weird noises. Damien couldn't understand where those noises were coming from. The monster's whole face was covered in darkness and its mouth was blocked off. So it would've been impossible that they were made from its mouth.

After staying in its place for some amount of time, the monster threw itself on the ground face down. Its body cracked and twisted around, becoming longer. After it was done, it started slithering towards them at incredible speeds.

A humanoid being slithering towards them would make any normal person pass out from fear. Fortunately, that wasn't the case for Damien, Fu Ah, and Old Wolf. They were somewhat calm while dealing with such scenarios as they had a good amount of experience in the New World.

Seeing the monster rushing towards them, Fu Ah stepped forward, knelt down, and slapped the ground with her hand. As soon as her slap connected, the ground around them sank in a little bit. Instantly, a spike one meter long appeared from beneath the monster and stabbed it in the abdomen, pinning it in its place, blocking it from advancing any further.

"Good job!" Damien said. "Are you okay?" He asked with concern. Fu Ah seemed to be very tired after using her ability.

"Yeah, no problem... It's just that... My ability uses a lot of energy," Fu Ah answered weakly.

The monster, who had been locked into its place by the spike was still flailing around. The spinning of its head was much slower. Old Wolf went closer to the monster to cast another shockwave.

When he did so. The monster suddenly stopped moving. The darkness on its face started bloating and leaving its body. It quickly came out and jumped towards a near vent. Old Wolf, who wasn't ready for such a thing couldn't react in time and let the dark blob escape.

"It escaped..." Old Wolf muttered while facepalming. Damien stood next to him and patted his back.

"It's fine," he said. "There's probably a lot more where that came from."

"I see..."

Just as they were talking, they felt the whole apartment shaking.

"What was that?" Damien asked with a frown on his face.

"I have no idea," Old Wolf answered.

While waiting, they went to look at the corpse the monster had left behind.

"It's Yao Mu," Old Wolf muttered. This person was a branch member and he had been around for a long time. Although he didn't talk that much or participate in anything, he still did his tasks and was somewhat pleasurable to talk to. Seeing one of his comrades fallen like this was a saddening experience for Old Wolf.

"By the way, which branch members did you meet until now?" Fu Ah asked. "Where is Song Lei?"

"He went upstairs by himself," Old Wolf said. They entered the safe room of the floor to rest for a little bit.

"What!? How could you send him to his death in such a way?" Fu Ah suddenly lashed out. Seeing her behavior, both Old Wolf's and Damien's mouths were wide open.

"I've never seen you being so concerned about someone other than yourself," Old Wolf said with concern in his eyes. "What's the matter? Did using your ability tire you out?"

"I still had a lot of questions to ask him and a lot of experiments to do on him," Fu Ah said. She adjusted her glasses and crossed her arms. "If you were going to send him to his death, you could've given him to me. I would make him useful," she said while chewing on her finger.

"That's so like you..." Damien sneered. Having someone talk about his friend as a laboratory rat wasn't something he wanted.

"Nevermind that," Old Wolf started talking. He had gotten used to Fu Ah's way of thinking. "I sent him there because he could deal with it by himself, there's no need to be so pessimistic," he said.

Fu Ah sighed and changed the topic by saying, "And now? What are you guys doing here?"

"We sent Lu Peng and Gao Jing to the lower floors while we went upwards. But then, we heard a gunshot from the lower floors," Old Wolf said.

"Yeah. I heard that too," Fu Ah commented.

"Hearing that, we separated our ways with Song Lei and came down. The apartment is under attack by outsiders," Old Wolf continued. "They're trying to take over the apartment."

"Really? Well, I had already guessed it," Fu Ah said with a smug smile.

"Yes yes. You are very smart. We're here to meet up with Gao Jing and Lu Peng," Old Wolf quickly changed the topic.

"I see... And where's Xu Chang? Is she dead?" Fu Ah continued asking.

"She-," Damien and Old Wolf looked at each other. "Has been kidnapped."

"Oh great," Fu Ah said. "So? What are we going to do?" She asked.

"We'll keep going down," Old Wolf answered. "I feel like it won't be long before we meet our enemies...."