Autophagy

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"The pairs have been randomly selected. You can't change pairs. So there's no need to ask," The instructor explained. He had an unusually strict expression on his face. "Check the noticeboard in the entrance of the dorms to find out who your partner is. You'll depart the day after tomorrow. You're dismissed."

As soon as the instructor left the class. Every trainee got up from their desks simultaneously and started pacing towards the entrance of the dorms. They were incredibly excited to see who they had been paired up with for their first-ever mission. Of course, among these trainees were Song Lei and Aston. Although the probability was very low, they were hoping that they would be paired with each other.

After they reached the front gates of the dorms, Song Lei's face soured.

"This..." He muttered. The front gates were filled with countless trainees trying to see who their partner was. Song Lei and Aston were right outside the crowd. They were waiting to figure out a way that they could wave through, however, the crowd was so dense that they couldn't find any openings.

"Well... I think we should wait," Aston said. Song Lei nodded as they backed away to a corner. It took more than half an hour for the crowd to somewhat disperse. Song Lei didn't know what these people were trying to do. After all, there was no way that people could take this long just looking at a piece of paper.

"Huff... Huff... We... We made it!" Aston said with excitement. He was left gasping for air. Shortly after, Song Lei managed to pull himself out of the crowd.

"Yep... It was a bit hard but... Let's see," Song Lei muttered before lifting his head. He started reading through the list of trainees that were paired up. After looking for a minute, he wasn't able to find his name. "Hey... I can't find myself. Did you?"

"Nope. I'm checking the last page," Aston answered as he kept reading through the list. "I didn't see your name too."

Song Lei nodded and turned his head towards the last page. At the end of the last page, there were two names written side by side.

[Aston - Lewis]

After reading the names, an awkward smile appeared both on Aston's and Song Lei's faces.

"Well... That's convenient..."

...

"I've done as you ordered sir," Otto reported. Hearing his words, the department head chuckled like a third-rate villain.

"That's good. I want to see what these two are up to. For some reason, this kid called Lewis can feel the presence of our reckon units," he said. He kept tapping his fingers on the wooden table. "He is very weird and we don't know why these two are always together. If they're not dangerous, they might become very strong assets for us."

"Assets huh..." Otto muttered absentmindedly. Poison Eye didn't like these children to be treated as items, however, the department head didn't seem to agree with him on this aspect.

"Yes. Assets. After all, if we didn't take them under our wing and grant them a new life, they would still be scraping for a few pennies just to survive," the department head said. "Now look at them. How splendidly they have grown..."

"Yeah. Anyways. I'll take my leave sir," Otto said. Although the department head had a questionable morality, he had been his friend for more than ten years.

"Let's go and drink tonight. The tab is on me," the department head suddenly blurted out. Otto glanced at him for a second.

"Sure," he said before leaving the office.

...

The wind brushed past Song Lei's face. He had to block his face with his hand just to keep his eyes open. Feeling his body temperature drop, he went back to Aston's side. They were currently camping out in the wild. And they weren't in the orphanage's forest.

They had made a campfire out here in the wild because they couldn't secure a car for themselves and they had to walk to their target. The winter was getting harsher and harsher. Even though they had strong bodies, they had to be careful not to fall ill. After all, they couldn't complete their mission if they were sick.

Song Lei sat down on one of the logs they had found and placed around the campfire that they had built.

"It's really cold huh..." Song Lei said as he held his hand out towards the fire to warm them.

"It definitely is," Aston answered. He threw another small twig into the fire to make sure that it kept burning. Seeing the fire get a bit harsher as if it was angry, he sighed and picked up the bag that was next to him from the ground. "Let's go over the details once again."

Song Lei nodded without saying anything as he took out a can of marshmallows for his bag. He picked up a twig from the ground and stuck a marshmallow to it. Seeing Song Lei nonchalantly start roasting marshmallows, Aston's mouth twitched.

"Our target is Hector Hunt," Aston said. Song Lei raised his twig towards Aston so that he could eat too. Aston sighed and reached his head out to take the marshmallow. "This tastes good... Anyways. This person seems to be the head of a minor crime organization. It isn't a very big one so this will probably be an easy mission," Aston guessed. He stopped talking and looked at Song Lei.

"Continue," Song Lei said as he saw Aston staring at him. Finally understanding what Aston was trying to imply, he held out another marshmallow to him.

"He lives in Brighton. If we keep walking at our current pace, we'll arrive in less than a day," Aston continued talking. "It's a clear assassination duty. So we have to make sure this doesn't turn into a skirmish. Although we can probably win. It may anger the authorities."

"For some reason. I feel like there would be no one better than us at assassination," Song Lei commented as he closed the lid of the can and put it back into his bag. "We know that our main topic isn't that. Tell me the important bits."

"Sigh... Well. I guess you are right," Aston muttered helplessly. "There are three blacksmiths in the city. At least that's what the informant told us."

"Isn't that... Like..." Song Lei muttered.

"Too few?" Aston finished Song Lei's words. "It definitely is. This place is dirt poor. So don't expect much."

"So? How many of them are suitable?" Song Lei asked. Aston unfolded a piece of paper and held it out towards Song Lei. Seeing the paper, Song Lei took it and looked at it.

"This one actually belongs to Hector Hunt. So that is out," Aston said as he pointed towards one of the three locations that had been circled out on the map. "This one has a very grumpy old man as the owner. So he probably won't let us use his stuff. We could always try though."

"Hmm... The other one?" Song Lei urged Aston to continue.

"That one perfectly suits our need as far as the information I was able to gather goes," Aston said. "The first forge we'll try our hand at will be that one. Of course, if things come to it, we can try the other ones."

"Did your informant really give you this information?" Song Lei asked. He had thought that informants would deal with more shady stuff. He hadn't thought that an informant would have knowledge about such stuff.

"Of course. Their job is to gather information," Aston said. "It doesn't matter what you are asking for. As long as you give the money. They'll do the job without any questions."

"That seems convenient," Song Lei muttered. "Anyway. I think it's about time we went to sleep. We'll reach the city tomorrow, right?"

"Yes," Aston gave a quick answer.

"Then we'll need the energy," Song Lei said. Aston nodded as he put the papers back into his backpack. They put out the campfire and gathered their stuff before entering their sleeping bags. Song Lei felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier as he went off into his dreamland...

...

As the morning came, both Song Lei and Aston were already up. They had already gathered their tools and went off on their ways. The mornings were incredibly cold, so they wanted to keep themselves warm by moving. It would eventually get relatively warmer towards the afternoon. At that time, they would've already arrived at the city.

Their journey went on without any troubles. They were ready to fight a bear or two, however, much to their surprise, no wild animals had approached them during their journey.

'Is it because of my soul stat?' Song Lei thought. Soul was his only stat that hadn't been sealed. He knew that it had an effect of intimidation the higher it went. However, from how it looked, animals were much more sensitive to others' souls. The reason no wildlife had approached Song Lei was probably because of his incredibly high soul stat.

While Song Lei was thinking, he felt Aston tapping on his shoulder.

"We've arrived...."

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