Autophagy

Song Lei pocketed the gem and headed towards the exit of the bathroom. He was done with this place and it was the time that he would move. When he left the bathroom, he realized that this place was really rundown. This was the basement floor of the dormitory. Seeing that there was a rundown place like this right under the elite and high-level dormitory, Song Lei was slightly disturbed.

'Let's see...'

Song Lei took his phone out and turned its flashlight on. He looked left and right to properly understand the state the hallway was in. The shadow that had passed by wasn't there. It had already left the vicinity. Breathing a sigh of relief, Song Lei started walking down the hallway.

This floor was used as a dorm, just like the others. However, this place looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago. The overall design of the floor looked to be left from the '80s with a nostalgic mix of wood and cement.

There were cracks all around the walls and the flooring was made from seemingly antique hardwood planks that occasionally creaked when stepped on. Song Lei had gotten his share of fear from these occasional creaks.

There were also spider webs scattered here and there to act as a topping for the creepy look of the hallway.

While walking, Song Lei occasionally entered the rooms to see how the floor was. Somehow, all the dorm rooms on this floor looked like the people who were residing here had met with something horrifying and left the dorms as fast as they could. All the rooms were left in a messy state with clothes and personal items thrown around. Song Lei could see some empty beer bottles too. Maybe, this place was used as a secret meeting place for some students.

Considering this, Song Lei readied himself for encountering a student. In the end, there was always the possibility of meeting one. The Night Lunatic was a known sensation in the university. But the fact that it had killed someone wasn't. This could even cause some adrenaline-seeking students to flock here at night. As there would always be people that couldn't hold themselves back from interfering in these kinds of stuff.

After looking through a few rooms, Song Lei decided that he wasn't getting anywhere by doing this. After all, he had spent more than ten minutes slowly searching through the rooms. He decided that it would be a smart idea to check out the upper floors. It was already past the sleeping hours so no one would be up. This would be his chance if he wanted to search further.

Deciding on his actions, Song Lei traced his steps back and tried to locate the stairs. He came back to the bathroom and walked left this time. After one more minute of walking, he managed to reach the stairs.

'Nice...'

Just as he was about to start climbing, the cold wind made him shiver in his place. He accidentally turned his flashlight off and dropped his phone on the ground.

'Fuck... What was that?' Song Lei thought while bending over to take his phone from the ground. 'Why would there be wind in such a place?' He thought. He was currently underground and there were technically no light sources other than the occasional night lamps. Those light lamps, however, were very scarce.

For example, the place Song Lei was currently in didn't have any light sources. As soon as he dropped his phone, everything went completely dark. Fortunately, Song Lei had managed to pick up the sound of his phone hitting the ground and bouncing a few times. This allowed him to locate the phone easily.

'Let's see...'

Song Lei picked his phone up and unlocked it. After turning the flashlight on, he looked at the stairs.

"Uh..." Song Lei muttered while looking at the cold hard wall that was in front of him. He turned his head in the other direction to see if he had been confused by the darkness. However, there were no stairs on that side too. It was still the same hallway that he had just been walking in. 'That's definitely normal.'

The stairs had just disappeared from its place inexplicably. Song Lei didn't know what to think about it. He felt like he could probably deduce what was happening if he had his mind stat points with him. Now, however, he couldn't exactly understand what was going on.

'Did it change because I couldn't see it?' Song Lei tried to guess after thinking for more than fifteen minutes. To confirm his hypothesis, he turned the flashlight of his phone off and waited for some time. When he turned it back on, he was met with the same wall, however this time, it had a small painting of a nameless artist.

'Huh...'

After confirming that he was somewhat right, Song Lei went on to the second part of his experiments. If the stairs changed their place after he had cut off his vision, that would mean that it would change when he blinked or when he was in another place.

'Maybe it has a minimum time limit..?'

Song Lei closed his eyes and waited for ten seconds. When he opened his eyes, a small drawer had appeared out of nowhere. He reduced the time by two seconds and waited for another 8 seconds. Although this experiment of him was leaving him quite defenseless, it was still very important to gather knowledge about this topic.

He repeated his actions while lowering the time he spent with his eyes closed by 2 seconds. Finally, when he reached the 4 seconds time limit, his environment didn't change.

'4 seconds it is then...'

After deducing the time he would need to get rid of his sight, Song Lei turned back as the stairs were long gone. He could always try to repeatedly close his eyes to bring back the stairs but that would be highly dependant on his luck. Song Lei chose to not depend on his luck whenever he could.

When Song Lei turned around, he realized that the whole hallway changed alongside the stairs. The doors were placed differently from before, the spider webs had changed their places, and there were decorations that didn't exist before here and there.

He walked for a little bit and sighed in relief. Fortunately, the bathroom was still in the same place as before. He went in to take a look at his escape route.

'"Fuck..."

With the whole place changing, the window Song Lei had come in from was blocked too. The whole thing had been covered with seemingly brand new bricks with bright orange color. Song Lei sighed again, this time with displeasure.

'If I want to leave this place, I have to find another way,' he thought.

He left the bathroom and started walking again. Fortunately, the place didn't seem to change just because he had cut his sight. If that was the case, the place would constantly be shifting behind Song Lei's back. That would be disastrous for him as he would have no way of having a map inside his head.

'I should be careful not to spend too much time in the dark,' he thought. 'On the other hand, I could use this to my advantage.'

After all, the hallway changing was totally random. Song Lei could use this to his advantage in the future.

Back to his starting point, Song Lei started searching for the stairs again. Because the hallways had totally changed, he had to navigate his way again from the start. This time, it didn't take much for him to find the stairs. However, Song Lei heard a lot of footsteps coming from the upper floor, slowly nearing the stairs.

'I have to hide!' Song Lei decided. He entered one of the dorm rooms and started waiting. The footsteps reached the stairs and descended them.

"Urgh... This place smells like shit," a muffled male voice said. He sounded like he was pinching his nose. The stench and the dustiness of the place must've been unbearable for them, as another person sneezed loudly.

"How can a place like this be right under the White Mountain University? We should report this to Chief Inspector," the person who had just sneezed said.

'Are they the police?' Song Lei thought.

"You're probably right. But let's first inspect this place better. Chief Inspector really likes comprehensive reports. We might even get promoted!"

"You're right. It's just that... This place feels somewhat creepy."

"Come on! Are you scared?" One of the officers said.

"Of course I am scared! Look at this place! It's literally out of horror movies. You're the weird one for not being scared."

"Well... You're probably right."

"And we may even be wasting our time you know? Investigators have already decided that the murder has happened on the upper floors. What're we even doing here?" The nervous officer said. He sounded dissatisfied with the current situation.

"Okay Okay... Let's continue and if we can't find anything in fifteen minutes, we just leave." The man said. The other officer sighed loudly.

"Sure...."