Autophagy

"Then something caused them to move," Song Lei said.

"Do you have any idea what that might be?"

"Maybe the monster was nearly ready to hatch?" Song Lei said, unsure of his words. "I don't think that's the case though. Toda Anzai was relatively sane when I met him."

"Then there must be something more behind this..." Aston muttered. "Unfortunately, we can't figure it out unless either we leave the apartment or the Order comes to us."

"Mhm," Song Lei nodded.

"Let's get back on topic then," Aston said. "You said that your map considered the 7th floor as the Heaven Alliance's territory, right? What does it say for the other floors?"

"They are empty," Song Lei said. "Including the one we are on and the 17th floor."

"What about the upper ones?"

"As I haven't been there before, the map doesn't show it."

"Assuming that only the 7th floor is considered occupied, there must be a prerequisite to it. Do you have any idea what it might be?" Aston asked. Song Lei went into deep thought as he tapped the arms of the chair. This silence continued for some time until Song Lei dejectedly shook his head. "We'll eventually have to figure it out. Having this place as our official territory might be something important."

"I'll ask the branch's leader about it," Song Lei said.

"Now that's resolved," Aston said. Suddenly, his calm expression got twisted with excitement. He got up from his seat and walked towards Song Lei. His imposing manner caused Song Lei to shrivel in his place unconsciously.

"Umm..."

Before Song Lei could say or do anything, Aston grabbed him by his shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

"Tell me about the future..."

...

(A/N: I'll be kindly directing you towards chapter 137 if you have forgotten what is going on.)

'He told me that Lei might be in this place called New World. He is a lunatic right..?' Jia Feng thought while looking at Liu Kun's emotionless expression. Although he was ninety percent sure that he was dealing with a lunatic, that ten percent doubt was pecking away at his mind. The possibility of Song Lei being alive was impossible after all. He had seen his corpse with his own eyes.

'There should be no harm in just taking a look...' He muttered inwardly as he stared out of the car's window. The car speeded up as the roads kept passing by. Although it wasn't that long of a car ride, Jia Feng felt like he had been there for a few hours.

"We're here," Liu Kun said. Jia Feng snapped out of his daze and looked around. Unlike Jia Feng's expectations, they were currently in the middle of the city. This was an especially crowded part of it. He was expecting to be brought to a shady place with an abandoned factory or warehouse.

"This is it," Liu Kun said as he urged Jia Feng towards the skyscraper in front of them. It was majestic. It had a rectangular shape, standing over 500 meters tall.

"This..." Jia Feng muttered. "The DIR Empire!?" He said loudly. The pedestrians in a perimeter of five meters looked at him for a few seconds and decided to ignore his scream. "You don't work for them, right?" Jia Feng asked.

"Haha..." Liu Kun chuckled awkwardly. This caused Jia Feng's frown to get deeper.

Obviously, The DIR Empire wasn't a different country that was in the middle of China. Instead, it was one of the biggest companies in it. It was known to have immense control over a few cities and countless different industries in China. In the last years, with its relative monopoly on IT, it was able to expand its influence rapidly.

All this New World talk sounded scammy to Jia Feng's ears. He felt like he was being swindled by a  scammer, however, if the one saying the words 'New World' was working for The DIR Empire, this would completely change his perspective.

As Jia Feng finished contemplating, Liu Kun led him inside the skyscraper and took him to the elevator. The insides of the building were simply mesmerizing. Although he tried his best, Jia Feng couldn't avoid looking like a peasant as he kept looking around in amazement. The subtle white and brown color palette of the place accompanied by its minimalistic decorations gave off an aura of high-class.

"Welcome back chief!" A cute girl, probably around the ages of 20-25, welcomed Liu Kun. "You have a meeting twenty minutes lat-"

"Cancel it," Liu Kun said. "We have someone more important here."

Jia Feng was confused, so much so that he couldn't give any reaction. Because he felt like he was losing his mind, he looked around to divert his attention.

Of course, being a prosperous company, a lot of employees in business suits were running around, trying to complete whatever task they had quickly. This made Jia Feng, who was wearing casual clothes, stand out even more.

Nervously, he got on the elevator with Liu Kun. Liu Kun raised his hand and pressed on the 121st button that led them to the uppermost floor.

"No need to be nervous," Liu Kun said. "If you approve the contract, you'll be much more important to the company than a few handymen."

Jia Feng didn't know what to say. He had no idea why he was being treated in such a way. This also made him nervous, as if they expected a lot from him.

The journey to the upper floor took a lot of time, after all, 121 floors were a lot. When they finally managed to reach their destination, the door of the elevator opened with a ding.

"I want to officially welcome you to the HQ of the DIR Empire," Liu Kun said as he left the elevator. Jia Feng followed along and left the elevator. They were in a reception room, neatly designed, however, devoid of any person. To his right was a curtain wall that exposed the majestic bird's eye view of the city from one of the highest buildings in it.

"Or should I say... The Heaven Alliance..."

...

"Huff... Huff..."

Song Lei gasped for air. He leaned on the table as scribbling noises resounded in Aston's room. They were now on the 17th floor. They had left Mia and Isabel to rest and come to this place to finish what they had to do.

"That's good," Aston said. "Incredible."

"Let me go..." Song Lei pleaded tiredly. He had been talking about every bit of knowledge he had about modern science. Considering that he hadn't even finished high school and worked as a construction worker for almost all of his young adulthood, it was even harder for him. He had to make connections with the outdated knowledge he gained in the Orphanage and the knowledge left from his education in Old World that he had mostly forgotten.

"Well, this is enough for now," Aston said. "I hope that you can recruit someone more knowledgeable than you about these topics. And preferably, the further future they come from, the better."

Slightly annoyed, Song Lei clicked his tongue and said, "If I can find..." As he was about to leave to go back to his room, a thought popped up in his mind.

"Hey..."

"Hm?" Aston turned and looked at Song Lei.

"Now that I realized, for some reason, I haven't seen any people that are from the far future," he said. Aston thought about it for a second.

"What do you mean?"

"We know that time works a bit different in the New World, right?" Song Lei asked to confirm. Seeing Aston nod, he continued by saying, "And we also know that some random items appear in here that can be coming from any date and time."

"Yeah?"

"Then why is it that we never see futuristic tools?" Song Lei asked. "I mean, shouldn't there be people, ghosts, and items that are from the future? Up until now, all the people that I've met are either from the past or come from a similar time to me..."

"Now that you say it, that seems weird," Aston said as he held his chin. "Assuming that Isabel comes from the 18th century and you come from the 21st century, there can be deviations up to 2 to 3 centuries." He continued. "And it also seems like all kinds of stuff come from far past. As far as one thousand years."

"Right? I thought that there would be people from the 22nd or 23rd centuries but that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe it's just that we're unlucky..."

As Aston kept thinking, a deep frown was placed on his face. He turned his back towards Song Lei and put his hands on his desk.

"What? Did you understand what might be the case?" Song Lei asked as he looked at the expression on Aston's face.

"Never mind," Aston said. "You should go back. I will try to make some research on this topic and hopefully, I will be able to figure something out."

"Uhmm... Okay?" Song Lei said. He left the room and decided to go back to the 14th floor.

'That expression,' Song Lei thought. That expression of anxiousness on Aston's face made him feel disturbed for some reason. 'What was going through his mind...?'