Autophagy

"This will be a long night," Song Lei muttered. The sound of heavy wind started hitting the window, creating a sound like the wailings of the damned in hell. Although the room was not cold by itself, Song Lei could feel the chill penetrating into his bones. Those sounds made by the wind would make him slightly shudder in his place.

This wind continued for more than an hour. However, it suddenly stopped. This put Song Lei in an even more alert state. It wasn't that just the wind was over, it was that there were no noises coming from anywhere. Anzai was living in an apartment right in the middle of the city. It was highly unlikely that this place would be so quiet at night.

*THUD

Song Lei turned his head towards the window. someone or something had just hit the window.

*THUD

Another noise came from the bathroom door. Fortunately, all the doors were already blocked by Song Lei. With time, those noises stopped too.

"Huff..." Song Lei breathed a sigh of relief. Those knockings, scratchings, bangings, and the rustling all left their places to the normal noises of the city night. There would be the revving of a car every now and then. A dog would bark occasionally and there would be people arguing. However, none of these noises actually annoyed Song Lei.

Song Lei looked at the time. It was already 1 a.m by the time the things had gone back to normal. However, just in case something happened, Song Lei decided to stay awake until the morning came. While waiting for the morning to come, he decided to browse the internet on Anzai's laptop.

At around 3 a.m. Song Lei heard some rustling coming from the entrance door. He got up from the bed and walked to the entrance without making any noises. When he got to the entrance, he realized that someone was trying to get into his house.

'Fuck!' Song Lei cursed inside his head. He went to the kitchen and took the sharpest knife he could find into his hands. He didn't know if he should call the police or not. As he was in the Remnant World, trying to get help from others could worsen the situation for Song Lei.

As he was waiting for the intruder to come in, the paper piece he had stuck onto the peephole fell off. Song Lei crouched to the ground. Just after a few seconds, something came out of the peephole.

'What the fuck?' Song Lei was speechless. A small eye had come out of the peephole. It was staring into the room, searching for Song Lei. As Song Lei was underneath the eye, It couldn't see him. However, the eye started elongating as it entered the room.

'If I don't act now, this thing will discover me eventually,' Song Lei thought. He quickly decided on his course of action and started moving. He raised his hand and held the eye with one of his hands. Suddenly being held by its base, the eye panicked and tried leaving the house. Unfortunately for it, Song Lei wasn't a person that would let possible threats off. He used the knife he had and cut the eye off in one motion.

"AH!" A scream resounded right outside of Song Lei's room. Song Lei didn't leave it there and opened the door right after cutting the eye. There was a weirdly shaped humanoid trying to escape into room 1409. There were bulges coming out from all of its body.

Song Lei frowned and quickly took a look around. Seeing that there were no other threats, he rushed to the being and grabbed it by its neck, pulling it into his room. If he let the monster go now, he didn't know what it would do in the future.

The monster tried to struggle but Song Lei stopped it by stabbing it in the shoulder. After bringing it into his room, he quickly locked the door. The monster was still shocked by what had transpired so it couldn't move from its place. Using this chance, Song Lei pulled the monster to the middle of the room and nailed it onto the ground by using more than a few knives he got from the kitchen.

The monster didn't seem to have blood as it would spurt out a gray and gooey substance whenever it was stabbed. After properly nailing the monster onto the ground, Song Lei wiped the goo on his face with his hand.

"What were you trying to do outside my room?" Song Lei asked while sitting against the monster. The monster, seemingly given up on life, didn't answer. It wasn't shouting or trying to escape. It was just lying on the ground without making any moves.

Now that he had a better look at the monster, Song Lei realized that it seemed more humanoid than it was. If it was wearing a hoodie and walking past you in the night, you probably wouldn't be able to realize that something was wrong with it.

Song Lei held the monster's hair and lifted its head from the ground.

"Fuck..."

Seeing the empty eye sockets of the monster, Song Lei quickly understood what had happened. The thing lying on the ground wasn't the monster's body, rather, it was its shell. It had somehow escaped while Song Lei was trying to restrain it, leaving a shell behind.

'This is bad...' Song Lei thought. The monster escaping meant that Song Lei would be in constant danger. The fact that the monster could leave its shell behind and run away was creepy enough, however now, Song Lei would have to keep his guard up way more than normal.

Now that the monster had escaped, Song Lei didn't have anything he could do. He just locked the door and blocked the peephole. This time, he made sure that it was much sturdier and couldn't be unblocked easily like before.

It was already 5 a.m around the time Song Lei put the monster's shell away and blocked the peephole. The sun was slowly poking its head out on the horizon, illuminating the city. The sun washed away all the evil with its might.

Finally feeling that he was a bit safer, Song Lei laid down on his bed. Although he was worried that the monster was still in the room, he didn't have much he could do. He faked sleeping for one hour to see if the monster would attack him in his sleep. Fortunately, no such thing happened.

'I should sleep,' Song Lei decided. He had a class at 2:30 p.m. He wanted to go to the university and try to figure a way out of the remnant world. He turned around in the bed and quickly went into a deep sleep...

...

Song Lei woke up and jumped out of bed. With the time he had spent in the New World, he was getting used to waking up without lazing around in the bed. His mind could wake itself up in no time from its slumber. This would help Song Lei to respond instantly if he were to meet with any dangers while asleep.

After waking up, Song Lei took out his phone to see what time it was.

11:30

Song Lei closed his flip phone and put it aside. He had slept for five and a half hours. Now that he had three more hours before class, he had to get ready quickly. After all, he didn't know the exact location of the university or the layout of it. He would have to use a map to find it.

He checked which courses he would be taking that day and found the corresponding book from his desk. Although he wouldn't be able to understand what was being told in the class, he could at least act like he did.

Song Lei searched around the room and found a small video camera in the room. as these kinds of stuff weren't that popular in Japan in 2006, Song Lei was really surprised to find such a thing.

'Anzai's family must be really rich...'

Song Lei picked up the camera and started recording. He left it in the right corner of the room to make it have a wide field of view. If someone came into his house while he wasn't there and didn't realize the camera was recording, Song Lei would be able to identify who it was and what it did in the room.

After showering, changing, and eating, Song Lei left his room. The apartment wasn't much different from normal. He looked towards room 1409 to see if the peeper was still there. Seeing the door closed, Song Lei went his own way and entered the elevator. This apartment was still empty. Song Lei hadn't seen anyone other than the father and daughter duo.

Ding!

Song Lei left the elevator and the apartment. It was 12:30 a.m. He had two more hours till the class.

'Let's see....'