Chapter 28: “Hunger”

Chapter 28: “Hunger”

Falling, being thrown upward, then falling again, repeating the process endlessly amid extreme cold and emptiness. His thoughts were churned into a tangled mess, and the chaotic sensations stabbed relentlessly through his mind like sharp blades. Only when his consciousness was on the verge of breaking did a feeling like sudden release from the edge of drowning finally arrive, jolting Yu Sheng awake from that infinite fall through cold darkness.

He shot upright in bed, only to immediately lose his balance. His body tilted, and he nearly fell to the floor. At the last moment, he grabbed the edge of the bedside cabinet and barely managed to steady himself, feeling as though the world were spinning inside his head.

The sharp, persistent pain was so intense that he almost suspected his brain was literally boiling.

Fortunately, the sensation did not last much longer. Once he was truly awake, the unbearable feelings in his head faded away like the dream itself, leaving behind only a faintly unpleasant impression.

Yu Sheng sat on the edge of the bed, catching his breath before looking out the window. The setting sun was already nearing the rooftops of the distant city district, and darkness was gradually spreading across the sky.

“...An entire day has passed...” he muttered in surprise.

Supporting himself on the bedside cabinet, he stood up, poured himself a glass of water, and drank it in one go. Then he slapped his cheeks a couple of times, trying to recover some energy from his less-than-peaceful sleep before leaving the bedroom and heading downstairs.

“I seriously didn’t expect your ‘forceful awakening’ to be this miserable,” Yu Sheng complained to the oil painting on the dining table as soon as he entered the dining room. “I figured I’d just get a little dizzy or have my heart race for a bit. Good grief, when I opened my eyes, I almost threw up last year’s New Year’s Eve dinner...”

After he finished complaining, Irene did not immediately respond with her usual stream of chatter. Instead, she was unusually quiet.

Yu Sheng instantly sensed something was wrong. Turning toward the painting, he saw Irene sprawled in the chair covered with red velvet like a malfunctioning machine. Hugging her teddy bear, she stared blankly upward at an angle. Occasionally her eyes would move, followed immediately by her sitting up and dry heaving.

Yu Sheng stared.

“...How did your ‘forceful awakening’ manage to wreck you this badly too?”

Irene looked up at him. She had just opened her mouth to speak when another wave of nausea hit her. However, as a doll sealed away for who knew how many years, she obviously did not have any New Year’s Eve dinner inside her. In fact, Yu Sheng seriously doubted she even had a stomach.

As a result, she could only cling to the edge of the chair and suffer miserably, retching so hard it looked as though her head might shake right off her shoulders.

Only after a long while did the unfortunate doll recover enough to raise her head and look at Yu Sheng.

Her voice sounded as weak as someone on the verge of death.

“It wasn’t me who woke the two of us up. It was you.”

Yu Sheng blinked.

“...Huh?”

“That last shout of yours scared the fox awake before I could even react!” Irene cried indignantly. “Why did you yell so loudly?!”

Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned, but he eventually understood what she meant. Scratching his head awkwardly, he said, “I didn’t know. I just wanted to warn Hu Li. I felt like her condition was really dangerous.”

“Well, your instincts were pretty accurate.”

After saying that, Irene suddenly bent over the chair again and retched twice before finally recovering enough to continue glaring at him.

“Fine. The good news is that you managed to wake the fox before she got dragged in any deeper. Sure, her waking up also kicked the two of us out, but she should be able to stay clear-headed for a while.”

Yu Sheng walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat opposite her. His expression gradually turned serious.

“And the bad news?”

Irene did not answer immediately.

After several seconds of silence, she nodded gently.

“You’ve probably already guessed. She can’t hold out much longer.”

Yu Sheng frowned but said nothing.

He had indeed sensed it.

Even while trapped in the Valley, he had sensed it.

That hunger and madness buried deep within Hu Li’s heart, something that spread and eroded her from the inside like a growing abomination.

At first he had not understood what it was, but during his final confrontation with the flesh monster, he had realized that the “hunger” was not nearly as simple as it appeared on the surface.

And what he had witnessed in the depths of the dream had merely allowed him to grasp Hu Li’s condition more accurately.

“If you want to help that fox, you’d better act quickly,” Irene said from the side. “The thing tempting her is trying to turn her into some kind of... ‘nutrient.’ Killing people isn’t its goal. What it wants is the madness born from hunger. The fact that that fox’s willpower is strong enough to resist until now is incredible, but the longer she endures, the greater the amount of ‘nourishment’ she’ll provide when the transformation finally happens. It’ll become troublesome. Very, very troublesome.”

Yu Sheng listened with a dark expression, combining Irene’s description with everything he had learned so far.

Then he suddenly noticed something.

Looking up at the painting frame opposite him, he spoke seriously.

“Irene... do you know something? About that Valley, and whatever’s inside it?”

Irene hesitated.

She first shook her head.

Then she nodded.

“I don’t remember most things anymore, including what exactly that Valley is. But the fox’s situation feels familiar. I think I saw records about this sort of thing before.”

As she spoke, she frowned and paused briefly, clearly searching through the fragmented ruins of her memory for anything useful.

“...Entity, Hunger. I think that’s what it’s called,” Irene said while recalling. “It’s a highly dangerous entity with clear malicious intent. It forms inside sealed zones. The environment within the zone becomes contaminated, and hunger spreads throughout it. It’s extremely aggressive by itself, but its influence is even more dangerous. Anyone who attracts its attention falls into terrible hunger, and their willpower is subjected to severe trials. I can’t remember the specific incidents anymore. I only remember... it was very dangerous. It harmed a lot of people. And even worse...”

Irene fell silent.

She raised her head and looked directly into Yu Sheng’s eyes.

“Hunger turns people into beasts while devouring both dignity and life. Most people probably can’t withstand it. And those who fall become part of Entity, Hunger as well, forever and without end.”

As Yu Sheng listened, his expression gradually tightened.

A heavy sense of oppression settled over him.

Then, all at once, he remembered something else.

The urge to eat that had surged within him during his battle with the flesh monster.

Could he also have been affected by Hunger?!

His heart tightened immediately.

“Wait,” he said quickly. “What are the main symptoms of being affected by Hunger?”

Irene gave him a strange look.

“...Being hungry, obviously.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Yu Sheng hurriedly waved his hands. Then he reorganized his thoughts. “For example, when I saw that monster, I really wanted to take a bite out of it. I even thought it looked pretty tasty. Then I came home and cooked two more dishes. Could that reaction have been caused by Hunger too?”

Irene visibly froze.

Her mind instantly jumped to the “local specialty” Yu Sheng had brought home, along with the delicious four dishes and one soup they had eaten.

“R-right, you did eat it...” the doll muttered.

Then she suddenly realized something, and her tone changed immediately.

“No! Of course not! The influence of Entity, Hunger makes you go crazy from starvation and start chewing on other people. It doesn’t make you chew on it! It lures people into madness. It’s not baiting its trap with its own body!”

Irene’s outburst startled Yu Sheng.

But he immediately realized she was right.

Although hunger and appetite were closely related, within the strictly rule-based framework of the Other Domain and entities, they were two completely separate concepts.

Especially when dealing with an entity possessing active malice, its influence would inevitably operate according to strict rules.

To put it simply, if Yu Sheng had truly fallen under Hunger’s influence inside the Valley, then he should have wanted to bite Hu Li.

Not the monster that was serving as the source of the temptation.

Of course, the first time he bit the monster, there had admittedly been a certain amount of reluctance involved, but there was no need to dwell on that.

Thinking this through, Yu Sheng relaxed.

He had confirmed that he had not been corrupted by the bizarre entity.

He also remembered clearly that after finishing dinner before going to sleep, he had experienced an entirely normal feeling of fullness.

His mind immediately settled.

Letting out a long breath, he said, “That’s good. Looks like I’m still pretty normal.”

Irene stared at him blankly for a moment.

Then she muttered quietly, “No, I think the fact that you can feel hungry while looking at that thing is already pretty abnormal...”

Yu Sheng waved dismissively and moved on to the next topic.

“So that monster with the extremely abstract appearance but surprisingly good taste was Entity, Hunger, right? If we take it down, Hu Li should be freed from its influence. I know entities can’t be completely killed. I mean temporarily take it down.”

“Actually... I’m not sure,” Irene replied hesitantly. “Hunger is a rather special entity. The monster you saw was its manifestation. But according to my understanding, the real Hunger permeates the entire Valley. Do you understand what I mean? What you saw was merely a tentacle it sent out to feed and gather information. Its true body... just like its name, is the hunger that exists everywhere throughout the Valley.”

Yu Sheng listened.

His expression gradually became vacant.

Yes.

He understood.

“Damn it, a rule-based one?!”