Autophagy

"Wait wait... So you're not only a magician but a transmigrator?" Sugihara asked with an awe-struck expression on her face.

"Yes," Song Lei said while inspecting the wall that was in front of him. He was knocking on the different parts of the wall from time to time, listening to the sound it made. He had told Sugihara and Nishimura some things about himself, just so that he could keep them satisfied. He had held back the information about the New World and just told that he was a transmigrator with magical abilities.

"T- Then... You're not Toda Anzai?" Nishimura asked. There was a nervous expression on her face. "Since when?"

"Hmm..." Song Lei stopped knocking on the wall pondered for a moment. "Two days..?"

"It's understandable," Sugihara said while touching her chin. "After all, Toda Anzai hadn't spoken with anyone in our class before. I was really surprised when you tried to talk to us out of nowhere."

"Mm," Song Lei nodded. His attention was still on the wall. Being ignored seemed to have made Sugihara a little bit angry as she felt her temples throbbing.

"Then let me ask this. What is your name?" Sugihara asked. Song Lei turned around and looked at her.

"Song Lei, " he said. The two girls looked at each other for a brief second and silently agreed on not saying anything about him not being Japanese.

"So? How will we leave then?" Sugihara asked while her arms were crossed in front of her chest.

"Oh yeah! About that..." Song Lei said. He turned around and looked at the wall that he had been checking for some time. He took out a pen and marked a certain place. "You guys may wanna go a little bit farther away."

Taking his advice seriously, both Sugihara and Nishimura walked away and kept watching him. After seeing that they had gone to a safe distance, Song Lei took a deep breath.

"Keep your eyes closed!" He said. He then raised his fist and punched the place that he had just marked using all of his strength. As soon as he did so, small cracks started to appear and spread. Song Lei, too, closed his eyes.

Shortly after, they were relocated into a different sub-space.

"What was that!?" Sugihara asked. Because her eyes were closed, she didn't exactly know what had transpired. The noises were enough to alarm her though.

Song Lei smiled widely.

"I destroyed the subspace," he said.

"And how did you exactly do that?" Sugihara asked while raising one of her brows.

"Well... Let's say that I used brute force," Song Lei said. He didn't wander around any longer and looked around to see what he was searching for. Sugihara and Nishimura didn't question further and followed him around.

After searching for a few minutes, they found a dead-end.

'This must be it,' Song Lei thought. In every sub-space, there would be a wall that would be almost completely empty with no decorations on it. Because of the weight distribution of the floor, this wall would be detrimental to its stability. As long as he could damage this wall, he would be able to completely bury that sub-space under the rubble. When he did that, the sub-space would be out of the random list of sub-spaces.

'As long as I keep doing this, I will reach the end at some point.'

"Get ready for the relocation again," Song Lei announced. Nishimura and Sugihara heeded his words and closed their eyes. Song Lei, who had regained his body stat, now had a very high amount of strength. As long as he could find the weak point of the wall, he would be able to crack it with his punch. Of course, the walls already being weak because of how old and badly built they were made Song Lei's job easier.

Destroying the wall and relocating once again, Song Lei kept repeating the same process again and again. The two girls and he didn't talk anymore. Although the silence was a bit awkward, Song Lei still appreciated the company. Normally, he would be totally alone in these kinds of situations.

After relocating to another sub-space, Song Lei felt his soul tingling. His sixth sense was telling him that something was wrong. He frowned deeply.

"Stay behind me," Song Lei said while walking down the hallway. Nishimura and Sugihara looked at each other briefly with confused expressions as Song Lei was acting a bit weird.

While walking, Song Lei took the cursed knife into his hand and gave his backpack to Sugihara for her to hold. When they turned the corner, at the end of the long corridor, a human silhouette was slowly inching towards them. Song Lei saw this as a wide smile settled on his face.

'Was it fun bullying me while I didn't have my powers with me?' He questioned the monster inside his head.

The twisted monster, becoming aware of the trio's presence. Went into a crazed mode and started charging at them mindlessly.

"Uhh... Aren't you going to use that holy book?" Sugihara asked. She was about to open the backpack to look for it, however, Song Lei signaled her to stop.

"There's no need to waste my energy," Song Lei said. Sugihara sighed deeply at his words and zipped the half-opened backpack closed.

The twisted monster was screaming and charging at them. Its erratic motions would awaken the primal fear inside people's hearts. However, it wasn't that effective against Song Lei. He was a bit disturbed but it was nothing more than that. 'Maybe it's an effect of my soul stat being so high,' Song Lei thought while briefly glancing at his stat sheet.

Song Lei got into a sprinting position and tensed all of his muscles. His eyes locked onto the twisted monster.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Nishimura asked Song Lei. They couldn't understand Song Lei's purpose. "Don't tell me..."

Song Lei released all the tension he had gathered up in his muscles and launched himself forward as if he was an arrow that had just left its bow, leaving behind a small dust cloud. The distance of measly five meters that were left between him and the monster was closed instantly as Song Lei appeared beside the monster.

The monster, not expecting Song Lei's movement, couldn't respond to him as Song Lei swung the cursed knife horizontally. His knife slashed through one side of the monster's neck and left from the other one. Somersaulting with his leftover momentum, Song Lei clumsily landed on the ground.

[Congratulations! You've managed to exorcise a "Twisted Monster". You've gained Exp!]

Song Lei sighed a breath of relief. He was happy that he was able to judge his own abilities properly. He didn't want to use up his soul power for no reason. After all, the calculus book that he used via his soul power could very well become his much-needed ex Machina in a dire situation.

He calmly walked back to the side of Sugihara and Nishimura.

"Let's continue," Song Lei said. The two girls, however, were still staring at him with confused eyes.

"That was kinda cool," Sugihara muttered in a daze. Song Lei didn't answer as he didn't know what to say. However, he was definitely flattered because of her compliment.

After the whole ordeal was over, they started destroying sub-spaces one by one again. The awkward silence was still continuing. Although Song Lei wasn't bothered with it. Sugihara and Nishimura seemed to be a bit uncomfortable.

By the time Song Lei destroyed more than seventy sub-spaces and killed four more twisted monsters, they were all starting to get a bit tired. However, Song Lei felt like he didn't have the time to rest anymore.

While searching the new sub-space for the weak wall, Song Lei realized something weird.

'It isn't here...'

No matter how much they searched the floor, they couldn't find the weak wall of this floor.

'This can only mean one thing...' Song Lei thought. "We're out!"

Hearing his words, both Sugihara's and Nishimura's faces lit up with happiness. Song Lei started running at a pace that the two girls could keep up with him. Shortly, they arrived at the bathroom that Song Lei had entered through. Song Lei rushed to the last cubicle and looked at the small window. Fortunately, although his body had gotten muscular, he would still be able to fit through the window.

Being the strongest one out of the trio, Song Lei helped Nishimura and Sugihara climb the window and go out. However, just as he was about to follow them outside. His whole world started swirling, as his escape path was once again closed by orange bricks.

"Fucking hell..." Song Lei muttered with anger. Things were getting incredibly frustrating. 'Do I have to search all that place again?' He thought.

Briefly closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Song Lei felt his sixth sense crying out for him to escape. It was acting like it was trying to tell Song Lei that whatever was going on in this sub-space, Song Lei had to avoid it.

Heeding its call, Song Lei tried to relocate, however, just like he expected. It didn't work.

'Let's face this head on shall we...?'