Autophagy

Chapter 170 - Inside The Palace | 170

We wanted to figure out its composition and make it so that we didn't need to rely on Aston to reproduce it. Unfortunately, it got intercepted midway and fell into the hands of the UK government," The instructor explained.

"Sigh..." Aston sighed deeply. "You're awfully honest."

"It doesn't matter. You knew that we would try such a thing, right?" The instructor said.

"Of course I did," Aston said. He knew that the Orphanage would definitely try to figure out how to make soulvents. That was something obvious. What he hadn't expected was them losing the soulvents.

From then on, Song Lei and Aston got every bit of knowledge they could get from the instructor and left. They would need a good amount of preparation before they started the infiltration. After all, the place they were going to infiltrate was Buckingham Palace.

This wasn't a children's playground. They would first have to get all the intel they could about the place. Then they would have to figure out a plan. Most importantly, they didn't know where the solvent would be.

The biggest problem they faced was time. If they spent too much time planning things, the solvent could be transported to some unknown place to be researched. Aston and Song Lei didn't want that. If such a thing happened, they would lose all the chance they had of reclaiming the liquid.

"That's nice then," the instructor said. He turned around in his place and closed his eyes. "You guys leave now. I will continue sleeping."

Song Lei and Aston didn't waste any time and got up from their places.

"Then we will be leaving," Song Lei said before leaving the room.

'This will be hard...'

...

"Thank you, young man," The old man said as he took the glass from the silver tray. Song Lei slightly nodded his head and didn't say anything. Leaving the man's side, he walked towards the next guest that was attending the banquet.

He was currently wearing an average servant suit, carrying a tray full of drinks in his hand. He weaved through the crowd of English bourgeois skillfully, making sure that none of the drinks spilled.

After leaving the group of suited men and the fancy women, Song Lei loosened his bow tie.

'These guys really don't know when to stop drinking...' Song Lei muttered inwardly. He was currently inside the Buckingham Palace, acting as a servant boy in the ongoing banquet. It wasn't easy to pose as a servant boy. However, this task was nothing for someone like Song Lei. 'Awkward thing is, they never get drunk even though they drink so much...'

After walking for a few minutes, he managed to reach his destination. Looking around and checking that there wasn't anyone watching, Song Lei confirmed that he was unseen and slightly leaned on the door next to him.

"As I've said; The best choice is to send it to the Eastern Laboratory. The best scientists are there," A hoarse voice said. The owner of this voice sounded like he had just finished running a marathon. His breathing was so erratic and so loud that it made Song Lei disgusted. He could imagine a person sweating like crazy, trying to persuade another person.

"But they aren't exactly loyal to the queen, are they?" Another voice resounded. This one was different. It sounded gentle and noble. Amplified by the contrast between it and the disgusting person's voice, Song Lei was sure that the currently talking person was the prince.

"But-!"

"They are not loyal," The prince didn't let him talk.

"Yes, Your highness..." The voice agreed. He didn't seem like he wanted to speak anymore.

"Go," the prince said. Song Lei stepped aside and hid in a corner. He hid his presence as best as he could and watched the door of the room.

'All the information Aston figured out was true...' Song Lei muttered inwardly. The reason he knew where and when this speech would take place was thanks to Aston. Although Song Lei didn't know how he could know this, it was incredible.

Shortly after, the door of the room was opened. From the inside came out a borderline obese person. He was sweating from every pore of his body. His suit was trying to cover up his body to its best. Unfortunately, it couldn't exactly do that thanks to the person's humongous belly.

This person was called Hugh Harris. He was the vice-head of SSFUK, which corresponded to the Secret Soul Force of the United Kingdom. This was a secret agency that worked directly under the royal family. The existence of the souls wasn't general knowledge as of today. The only ones that were aware of this fact were the higher-ups of super-power level countries. Other than them, all of the knowledge related to souls solely belonged to the hidden powers.

Of course, being called 'hidden powers', Aston wasn't able to figure out who these hidden powers were.

Having lived in the Old World, learning about this stuff fascinated Song Lei. He wasn't sure if all the things related to souls were made up in the mind of the owner of this dream space, however, it didn't seem like that in any way. Almost everything was too realistic to be not real. And the most important thing to take note of was the existence of the Secret Blood Order in the Dream Space.

'Maybe they have a means of communication between the New World and the Old World?' Song Lei thought.

Seeing that Hugh was starting to get away, Song Lei followed him silently. Over the course of two and a half years he had spent in the orphanage had benefited him a lot in the aspect of sneaking around.

After a lot of turns, Hugh reached a room. He looked around and tried to see if anyone was watching him, however, he couldn't locate Song Lei. Sighing a breath of relief, he opened the door and walked into the room.

Song Lei quickly followed Hugh. Unfortunately, Hugh closed the door behind him after entering the room. This caused Song Lei to be left out. Having no other chance, Song Lei leaned towards the door and started listening. 

A lot of rustling and noises that were coming from inside. Utilizing this chance, Song Lei slightly opened the door. Fortunately, the hinges of the door were well oiled, preventing it from making any noises. Inside the room, Hugh was throwing books out of a shelf. He seemed to be frantically searching for something.

After struggling on his own for a good amount of time, he depleted almost all the books on the shelf. Only after that was he able to locate what he was looking for. He held and pulled over a red-covered book towards himself.

In an instant, the shelf turned slightly and revealed a secret passage behind it.

'God, that's so cliche...' Song Lei muttered inwardly. While doing so, he made sure to memorize which book Hugh had pulled.

After managing to find the book, Hugh sighed and wiped his head with his hand. He then proceeded to start replacing the books he had thrown out of the shelves to make them look normal.

'This is stupid...' Song Lei thought. Hugh was like a walking skit. Song Lei didn't know how this guy could become the vice-president of a huge-scaled organization such as the SSFUK.

After Hugh finished replacing the books and entered the secret tunnel, the bookshelf got back to its initial position to hide the secret passage behind it.

Making sure that he waited enough, Song Lei entered the room and closed the door behind him. He first started rummaging through the room to look for any necessary information. Finding nothing, Song Lei walked to the bookshelf and held the book.

After pulling the book, the bookshelf turned just like before and revealed the secret passage once again. Song Lei took his first step into the secret passage. As soon as he did so, the bookshelf closed behind him. He was now in a corridor made up of bricks neatly stuck to each other. All of them stood side by side, forming a beautiful and eerie atmosphere. There were gas lamps periodically hung on the corridor's two sides.

'Huh... This is interesting,' Song Lei thought. He started walking through the corridor carefully. Because of the general layout and lack of any soft object to absorb the sound, Song Lei's steps caused echoes. This considerably damaged his ability to remain stealthy. 'I hope Hugh is as clumsy as always and ignores my footsteps...'

Step after step, Song Lei felt that the passage would never end no matter how much he walked. There didn't seem to be an end to the corridor. An uneasiness settled in Song Lei's heart. Countless possibilities churned inside his head. Was he walking in circles? Was he in a time loop? Was this corridor endless?

Feeling that he was being sucked into something, Song Lei slapped himself in his cheek with all of his strength, causing his mouth to start bleeding. As soon as he did so, he found himself right at the entrance of the passage.

'What was that...?'