Autophagy

Song Lei and Damien descended the floors together. Having a companion wasn't something Song Lei was used to in the New World. Especially someone friendly like Damien was a refreshing experience for him.

It didn't take too long for them to reach the 7th floor. The hallway was still covered in ghost repelling talismans just like before. Song Lei took a deep breath and waited for Damien to lead the way. For some reason, Damien had stopped walking.

"What happened?" Song Lei asked. He raised one of his eyebrows and kept looking at the unusually silent Damien.

"Nothing... It seems that the floor is empty. Everyone must be on their respective floors," Damien answered. Song Lei saw a faint light shining in Damien's eyes for a second.

'Am I seeing things..?'

Damien started walking again towards the end of the hallway. Song Lei discarded his thoughts.

"Didn't you say that the floor was empty? Don't we have to go to another floor to see Old Wolf?" Song Lei asked. He thought for a second and asked another one, "and how did you even know that the floor was empty?"

Damien smiled at him.

"This floor is under Old Wolf's care. As the leader of the branch, he gets some privileges that commoners like us can't," he said.

"That sounds nice..." Song Lei answered. He wasn't actually jealous. Having a safe floor all for himself wasn't that appealing for him. He could even say that he preferred staying in his small room where he felt the safest.

Damien knocked on the door of room 710. There weren't any answers for a long time.

"Are you sure that he is here?" Song Lei asked while frowning. It had been more than ten minutes since they started waiting.

"Old Wolf almost never leaves this floor," Damien said. He closed his eyes for a second and continued, "He must be showering or something."

Damien knocked on the door again. This time, the door was opened after a few seconds

"Oh? You're already back?" Old Wolf said while drying his hair with a towel. "Come in."

Song Lei and Damien stepped inside and walked to the middle of the room. The room wasn't that different from Song Lei's. A kitchen, a bedroom, and a small table were all stuffed into the same place.

For some reason, however, this room seemed to be a bit livelier than Song Lei's room. There were different kinds of antique items neatly lined up on glass shelves.

Damien sat down on a chair while Song Lei walked up to the antiques to inspect them closely.

"You have good eyes," Old Wolf said. He stopped beside Song Lei. Song Lei turned his head towards Old Wolf.

"How did you manage to gather all these?" Song Lei asked.

Old Wolf slightly chuckled and answered. "With time, a lot of things can appear here in the New World. I first started gathering these back when I was alone. It became a habit as time passed."

He pulled Song Lei by the arm and made him sit on a chair.

"Anyways... You guys probably didn't come here to check out my antique collection right? Did you come here to get more information about the spirit guardian before challenging it?" Old Wolf asked while looking at Song Lei. He pulled and sat down on another chair. "You should know that it will be impossibly challenging if you want to beat it."

There was an awkward smile both on Song Lei's and Damien's faces.

"Well... You see..." Damien started talking. Song Lei gave the backpack to Old Wolf and gestured him to open it.

"He has already beaten the 16th-floor guardian," Damien said while pointing his finger at Song Lei. The backpack fell from Old Wolf's hands and a few red blood beads scattered on the ground.

"What did you say?" Old Wolf asked with creased brows. "I think I misheard. I'm getting old..."

"You didn't mishear. He has really beaten the floor guardian. Look at the backpack. It's filled with red blood beads."

Old Wolf quickly grabbed the backpack and looked inside it. As soon as he saw the number of red blood beads, he froze.

"Did you really gather these from just one floor? This much would be hard to gather from even two or three floors," Old Wolf asked.

"Yes. The hell floors are very different from the heaven ones," Song Lei said. He then proceeded to explain the situation the floor was in. He didn't talk about Mia and Isabel while doing so.

'I'm not sure if I should tell them that I've become friends with a ghost...' Song Lei thought.

"I would ask you if you were hallucinating or not but these blood beads can't be explained in any other way," Old Wolf said. He sighed and put his palm on his forehead. "Well... We'll have to hold a meeting with all the members now... This is a big announcement. Now that we have such a surplus of blood beads, we can even build a second shelter floor on the upper floors."

Song Lei raised one of his brows. "Why would we build a second shelter?" He asked. "Isn't it a waste of resources? We already have a shelter."

"Not so much," Old Wolf said. "We have a good amount of blood beads. Having another shelter on the upper floors would create a new foothold when we try to conquer the higher floors. We can even have one or two people staying there at the same time if we have enough manpower."

"I see..." Song Lei said while resting his chin on his hands.

"You two..." Old Wolf said. He got up from his chair and pointed at Damien and Song Lei. "...Go to the other floors and invite the members for a meeting. Here, take this." Old Wolf said while giving Song Lei a paper. There were some names and numbers on the paper.

"These are the members and their floors. You don't have to invite the ones that are crossed off. I will reach out to them using a walkie-talkie," Old Wolf explained.

"You have walkie-talkies here?" Song Lei asked.

"Yes. Yes, we do. Now go and do your job. And Damien, make sure that Song Lei is okay. He is our new star after all," Old Wolf said with a wide grin on his face. Damien nodded at him and pulled Song Lei out of the room.

"Let's go...!"