Chapter 21: The First Time Is Raw, the Second Time Is Cooked

Chapter 21: The First Time Is Raw, the Second Time Is Cooked

In fact, as early as when he learned that dangerous and widespread phenomena called the Other Domain existed in this world, and that this enormous Boundary City was itself a special place known as the Boundary Zone, Yu Sheng had already concluded that there must be people who specialized in dealing with such phenomena. Not lone wolves fighting on their own, though those certainly existed, but organizations operating at scale, perhaps even professionally and institutionally.

There were official ones, and probably civilian ones as well.

But just as Irene had said, under normal circumstances these people would never interact with ordinary citizens.

The Other Domain lay beyond common knowledge, at the end of reason. It was like countless tiny and dangerous holes scattered across the mountain of reality that appeared stable and orderly. Most people might go their entire lives without ever dealing with the sights hidden deep within those holes, but once an unfortunate soul accidentally glimpsed the fleeting lights and shadows escaping from them, there was no turning back.

This was knowledge Irene had told him from the very beginning. From those descriptions alone, Yu Sheng could tell that the people who specialized in dealing with the Other Domain would certainly do everything possible to prevent ordinary people from coming into contact with any information related to it, including knowledge of their own existence.

But if something really happened, they ought to have some sort of response mechanism as well...

Yu Sheng raised his head again and looked at the deserted street outside the window.

“Seriously, how long does it usually take for those ‘professionals’ you mentioned to react?” he asked uneasily.

“No idea, I can’t really remember... but I think it’s pretty fast,” Irene said while hugging her teddy bear and rocking back and forth in her chair, looking slightly punchable. “They have all kinds of methods for detecting abnormal situations. The entire Boundary Zone should be covered by their surveillance. It was like that before I was sealed away, and it’s definitely even more advanced now.”

Yu Sheng said nothing and simply stared at the doll inside the oil painting.

“O-of course, professionals are still people, and every group has its amateurish side. Maybe sometimes they’re a little slow to react?” Irene immediately sounded guilty. “Or maybe they just haven’t noticed the abnormal situation on your side yet... although things have already gotten pretty serious over there...”

“That doesn’t sound very reliable,” Yu Sheng frowned, then sighed. “According to you, this entire house is an Other Domain, yet nobody has shown up at my door. I’m seriously questioning the professionalism of these ‘professionals’... Sigh. In the end, I guess I’ll have to rely on myself.”

Irene blinked. “Y-yeah, I guess?”

Then she asked curiously, “What are you planning to do? From the sound of it... you’re still planning to deal with that valley and the entity inside it?”

“It’s not that I plan to deal with it. It’s that it’ll come looking for me again sooner or later. I have a feeling about that,” Yu Sheng said, tugging at the corner of his mouth. He thought about that strange freezing rain and the frogs within it. “Besides, didn’t you say it yourself? Once you’ve dealt with an Other Domain, there’s no going back. I’ve probably been in contact with the Other Domain much earlier than you imagine.”

“Well... that’s true. Quite a few people who specialize in dealing with the Other Domain started out as ordinary people who were unlucky enough to get caught up in an incident,” Irene muttered. “If I remember correctly, about one-tenth of ordinary people who come into contact with the Other Domain eventually become ‘Other Domain’ experts, either willingly or unwillingly. After all, it’s basically like getting haunted by something filthy...”

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow when he heard that. “Only one-tenth? What happened to the other nine-tenths? Did they successfully return to normal life?”

Irene lifted her chin.

“They died.”

Yu Sheng: “...”

“T-there are survivors too. Lots of people get rescued every year,” Irene hurriedly explained after noticing his expression. Then she added another sentence, “Though I think more of them die.”

“...Irene.”

Yu Sheng looked at the doll in the painting.

“Y-yes?”

“If you don’t know how to talk, you don’t have to.”

“I-is that so?”

Yu Sheng sighed and slowly stood up from beside the dining table.

“Whether I die or not doesn’t really make much difference to me. But I do need to find a way to learn more information about the Other Domain. Those ‘professionals’ you mentioned... if they can’t come to me, then I’ll have to find them myself,” he said while thinking. “After all, your memories and experience are honestly pretty unreliable.”

“Find them yourself?” Irene seemed not to care about the latter half of his sentence at all and still looked cheerful. “Then... then maybe you should actually go check the utility poles nearby and see if there are advertisements from some Other Domain security companies.”

Yu Sheng looked helpless.

“...I’m serious.”

“So am I,” Irene blinked. “They really do leave behind contact methods like that, so ordinary people like you, who have encountered an Other Domain once and survived, can seek help. It’s just that normal people usually can’t see those contact methods. They’re concealed with ‘technical means’. But people who have come into contact with the Other Domain are different. More or less, they’ll undergo a bit of ‘spiritual awakening’, and they’ll have a good chance of noticing those normally hidden ‘secret sigils’.”

At that point, Irene suddenly paused and looked Yu Sheng up and down with unusual seriousness.

“Haven’t you felt any... changes happening to yourself?”

Changes after coming into contact with the Other Domain?!

Hearing the doll’s words, Yu Sheng’s heart immediately stirred, and he hurriedly spoke.

“The kind of changes you’re talking about... do you mean becoming strong enough to crush stone with your bare hands, recovering after taking a knife wound with just a few breaths, sensing other people’s memories and thoughts, and maybe even coming back from the dead?”

Irene stared at him blankly, looking at him as though he were some kind of alien.

“Huh?”

“...No?”

“At most you’d just be able to see things that normal people can’t! What you’re describing isn’t even human anymore. You’ve practically changed species. Stop reading so many novels and watching so much animation.”

Yu Sheng: “...”

Seeing the doll’s reaction, Yu Sheng decisively chose not to continue that topic.

His own condition was definitely abnormal.

Even within the realm of the supernatural, it seemed a little too supernatural.

Fortunately, Irene did not appear to have given it much thought.

Perhaps because she had been imprisoned for too long, the doll’s brain did not seem particularly sharp.

Yu Sheng let out a breath and looked toward the kitchen.

A faint look of hesitation and conflict flashed across his face.

Then he tugged at the corner of his mouth and walked toward the kitchen.

Irene immediately jumped down from her chair inside the painting.

“Hey, are you making breakfast?”

For some reason, this fellow, who could not eat at all, became excited every time a meal approached.

“I’m going to deal with the ‘local specialty’ I brought back earlier,” Yu Sheng said without turning around.

Holding the teddy bear in one hand, Irene waved with the other.

“Oh, go ahead, go...”

The doll suddenly froze.

Her mind, dulled by being sealed away for so long, finally realized something.

...What local specialties could possibly come from an Other Domain?!

“Wait a second!” Irene suddenly let out a scream that nearly startled Yu Sheng, who had already reached the kitchen door. “What kind of ‘local specialty’ is that supposed to be?!”

Yu Sheng walked into the kitchen, stopped, turned around, and smiled faintly.

“Guess.”

Irene’s eyes widened as she watched Yu Sheng begin tying on an apron. A trace of shock gradually appeared in her crimson eyes, along with an expression that clearly said, “Has this guy’s brain started malfunctioning?”

“W-wait, what are you doing? You’re not planning to... No, don’t tell me that thing really came from that entity?! You actually cut it off the entity? How did a normal person even manage that?! Hey, you can’t seriously be planning to...”

Yu Sheng decisively shut the kitchen door, blocking out the chatterbox’s voice.

A moment later, Irene’s faint shouting drifted in from the dining room.

“Hey, don’t close the door! At least come restart the TV for me first! The TV isn’t working anymore!”

Yu Sheng ignored her completely.

He walked to the sink and removed the pot lid weighing down the chunk of “meat”. The severed tail lying in the sink seemed to have finally gone quiet. Only the torn muscles at the broken end twitched slightly from time to time.

Silently, he looked at this severed tail that had once burrowed into his stomach.

Once again, he felt that sensation of... hunger.

A hunger that seemed to seep from deep within his bones.

But this time, it was not as violent as before.

It merely pulsed faintly, carrying a pleasant sense of anticipation and just the right amount of restlessness.

Could this really be done? Was this normal? Was he still normal?

Yu Sheng thought through all of those questions.

Yet his thoughts did not cause the slightest hesitation in his hands.

He prepared scallions, ginger, and cooking wine, then took out a cutting board and kitchen knife. Carefully, he washed the severed tail with clean water, scraped away the scales, placed it on the cutting board, and brought the knife down.

It cut even more easily than expected.

When attached to the monster, it had been as hard as stone.

But now, the knife passed through it with a texture that felt no different from firm beef.

And there were no bones inside.

Yu Sheng had already thought this through.

The first time he felt his body become stronger had been after he bit into that monster.

Later, during his second confrontation with it, he had also torn into its flesh and blood. Afterward, he had once again felt an increase in strength.

The improvement had clearly been smaller.

But there had definitely been a change.

This had given rise to a bold and... delicious idea.

What would happen if it were cooked?

Yu Sheng efficiently cut the meat into pieces, and his mood gradually improved.

Even Irene’s noisy shouting outside the door no longer seemed so irritating.

He did not know whether what he was doing was normal.

Most likely it was not.

After all, even a doll sealed inside an oil painting thought the whole thing was disturbingly bizarre.

But compared to coming back from the dead, a suspicious piece of meat really was not a big deal.

“I’ve already eaten it raw,” Yu Sheng murmured softly while cutting the meat.

“The first time is raw, the second time is cooked...”