Autophagy

When he turned his head to look at the end of the corridor, he saw someone approaching him at high velocity.

"Fuck."

This human who was charging at Song Lei had several disfigurements. One of those was the fact that this person's neck had been snapped back 180 degrees. It was running backward at high speeds. Its soulless, dark eyes were staring right into Song Lei's eyes.

Compared to its erratic movement, its face was filled with calmness. For some reason, Song Lei couldn't make out any details about this person's body. Whether it was a male or female, a child or an adult, Song Lei couldn't understand it. It was as if there was a barrier that was blocking out his senses.

Seeing the monster charging at him, Song Lei turned around and ran into a room. He closed the door and closed his eyes, hoping that the relocation would happen and take him out of there. He wanted to try shouting but his voice wouldn't come out no matter what he did.

He closed his eyes and started counting.

'4...'

The monster reached the front of the room.

'3...'

It started banging at the door of the room, however, from what Song Lei could hear, the other people in the dorm didn't realize that something was going on.

'2...'

Song Lei heard a crashing sound.

'1...'

He heard loud footsteps nearing him. Just as they were about to reach Song Lei, all the noises stopped.

"Huff... Huff..."

Song Lei was left gasping for air as he crouched down on the ground. His heart was beating wildly like never before. He had thought that he had gotten used to being scared but that wasn't the case. As soon as he lost his ability to put up a fight against monsters, he got his ability to be scared back.

Opening his eyes, he realized that he was back in the rundown basement, however, for some reason, this place felt much nicer compared to the new dorms now.

'Phew... Well... I'm still alive,' Song Lei thought. Although he didn't know what would happen if he get caught by the monster, however, he knew that it wouldn't be a pleasant thing.

After getting back to the basement, Song Lei left the room he was currently in and started walking down the corridor. For now, he knew that he didn't have the chance the wander around alone anymore. He needed any help that he could get.

The two officers could be a good choice for this, however, Song Lei didn't know how they were faring so far in the basement. He knew that people that couldn't keep their calm in these kinds of situations could be very dangerous and harmful. Sugihara and Nishimura, on the other hand, seemed to be much better candidates. Although Song Lei wasn't exactly sure about them, he felt like they could be somewhat trusted.

Song Lei hadn't shown himself back when he was trying to avoid them so he would still be able to come to an agreement with them.

'How do I meet them again?' Song Lei thought. He could always try to use the relocation technique, but that would create the risk of him being relocated back into the new dorms with the monster. Song Lei didn't want to meet that thing again. Just thinking about it was enough to make him shiver.

As Song Lei couldn't figure out a way to find them, he started walking around the hallway. There wasn't much for him to do so he decided to find the stairs and try out a few different things about it.

As Song Lei was walking in the hallway. He heard solemn but loud footsteps coming from the end of the corridor. He felt piercing cold in his bones as a grim expression settled on his face. He stopped walking and quickly entered the nearest room he could find.

This was the bathroom where he had entered this place. He quickly opened one of the cubicles and entered it.

However, just as he was sitting in there, waiting to be relocated, he realized that the relocation wasn't happening and the footsteps were getting closer and closer. Although Song Lei didn't feel like he had been discovered, it was always much better to be safe than sorry.

While he was trying to understand why he wasn't being relocated, Song Lei felt something touching his back.

'Fuck!' Song Lei shouted in his mind for a second. A dark silhouette was standing right behind him in the cubicle. When Song Lei's eyes got used to the darkness, he realized that this person was someone he knew.

"Sugi-"

"Shh..." The silhouette shushed at Song Lei, cutting his words in half. Seeing the expression on her face, Song Lei didn't make any other noises and started waiting.

The footsteps of the monster reached the bathroom. It didn't bother coming in and passed by. When his footsteps disappeared. Both Sugihara and Song Lei sighed in relief.

"That thing is very sensitive to sound. Try to be silent," Sugihara whispered. Song Lei nodded.

"Why don't we just relocate?" Song Lei asked. Sugihara's face soured.

"I tried to but couldn't do so because of a certain someone," she said while looking at Song Lei. Song Lei averted his eyes. "However, Toda, I didn't think that you were the type of guy to be interested in these kinds of stuff. So much so that you would go out of your way to come here in the night," Sugihara said.

"Didn't I say that I was interested in the supernatural back in the class?" Song Lei asked while raising one of his brows.

"Yes you did but..." Sugihara said. "... I thought that you were just trying to hit on me."

Hearing her words, Song Lei facepalmed and sighed. He had actually somewhat realized that he had been misunderstood but didn't expect it to be this much.

Seeing Song Lei's expression, Sugihara suppressed the need to chuckle. She raised her hand and reached out to Song Lei. Song Lei, puzzled by her action, raised one of his brows.

"Hold it and close your eyes," Sugihara ordered. Song Lei took her hand hesitantly and closed his eyes. After four seconds passed like that, the freezing cold and the feeling of danger disappeared.

"Phew! We're out..." Sugihara said while leaving the cubicle.

Song Lei followed her out and looked around.

"Where is Nishimura?" He asked while crossing his arms.

"We got separated when that monster attacked us. If you relocate while you're not in physical contact with the other person, you can, and most likely will, get separated," Sugihara explained. Song Lei touched his chin.

"And then, I actually got relocated into an instance with the monster again. When I tried to relocate, however, I was blocked from doing so. That's where you came into the cubicle," Sugihara continued explaining.

"I see," Song Lei nodded. "How much do you know about this place?" Song Lei asked. They left the bathroom together and started walking down the hallway. By the feeling this place gave them, Song Lei instinctually knew that the monster wasn't there.

"Not much more than you," Sugihara started talking. "The most I could figure out was the relocation that is going on in this place. And you seem to have figured that out too."

"I only know that I get relocated to somewhere else when I close my eyes for four seconds," Song Lei said. Sugihara looked at him for a few seconds and then smiled widely.

"Let me explain," she said. She took a few quick steps forward, turned around, and started walking backward.

"This place makes people have macroscopic quantum traits," she said. Song Lei looked at her face with an indifferent expression. Although he wanted to ask what she was talking about, he was too embarrassed to do so.

"To put it in better words, you come into a state of quantum where you are in more than one place at the same time while you're not observing the surroundings. When you open your eyes or when you start observing, you're forced to be in one of those places," she said. Song Lei touched his chin and thought for some time. He was finally starting to understand some of the things that were going on.

"This place is really weird," Sugihara said. "There are actually more than 109 basements in the exact same place. They all look similar but have subtle differences. Whenever you relocate, you are actually sent to one of those hallways. There are two ways to travel between basement instances. One of them is to relocate and the other one is to find the stairs and ascend them."

"109? That's an awfully special number... Is there any reason to it?" Song Lei asked.

"Oh? Well, there's no special meaning behind it. It's just that I've been to 109 different basements before. There may be much more than that."

"I see... So? What are we going to do now? There doesn't seem to be a way out of this place," Song Lei said.

"You see...."