Chapter 45: Contact, Taking Root

Chapter 45: Contact, Taking Root

Yu Sheng’s mind was submerged within a vast and indescribable tide of darkness. This shadow projected by the “true body” of Hunger was even more immense than he had imagined, yet that immense scale also seemed exactly how Hunger ought to appear. It was the greatest and most primal terror, hanging above the heads of all living beings and buried deep within the hearts of all living beings.

Then, in the depths of that shadow, he sensed the slowly drifting and writhing... entity.

It was difficult for him to describe exactly what it was. It seemed to possess countless tentacles and bloated masses of overgrown flesh. Every part of its body was constantly changing shape, even seeming to collapse into new structures or openings in real time beneath Yu Sheng’s gaze. Its surface was pitch black, yet deep within the tangled tentacles, ever-shifting colors seemed to lurk, carrying a chaotic quality that gradually led the mind astray.

And the moment Yu Sheng noticed that thing, it noticed his existence as well.

There was no time to react.

In the blink of an eye, countless new tentacles and branching structures spread out from within the creature. The malice-filled tentacles arrived instantly and wrapped themselves around Yu Sheng’s mind.

Yu Sheng felt as though ten thousand voices exploded inside his “head” at once. There was no way to resist or evade them. His mind had already formed an irreversible connection with something vastly greater than himself. That thing roared within the depths of his consciousness, transmitting frenzied and terrifying thoughts.

But in the very next second, Yu Sheng realized that the thing did not truly possess reason or thought.

It was merely some enormous and savage instinct.

The frenzied thoughts and temptations he sensed were only tools this immense instinct had mimicked for the sake of hunting.

They came from the living beings it had once devoured, from the madness and despair they experienced at the end of Hunger, from the echoes of the victims’ dying cries.

All of it had gathered together to form the entirety of this monster’s malice, allowing what had originally been nothing more than a collection of instincts to gradually grow into what it was today, even transforming into a powerful entity capable of actively seeking food, tempting prey, and forcing prey into submission.

And it was still growing rapidly.

The capacity for thought that had originally been nothing more than imitation was gradually becoming its genuine consciousness.

Now, it was attempting to dismantle Yu Sheng’s mind, trying to turn this uninvited guest into fresh nourishment.

The sensation of his mind gradually “melting” spread through him. Yu Sheng felt himself being rapidly digested, becoming part of the monster. He struggled with all his strength to break free from the tentacles wrapped around him, only to discover that the harder he struggled, the stronger the tentacles became.

Then, at that moment, Yu Sheng suddenly sensed something.

He abruptly looked toward the enormous entity writhing within the darkness.

In the next second, he saw countless eyes of different shapes suddenly emerge amid the shifting colors deep within the darkness.

One of those eyes... was his.

His vision shook again.

Within the darkness, he saw countless tentacles stretching forward. At their ends, a humanoid shadow struggled continuously while wrapped in their coils.

He felt the monster digesting and absorbing him.

He felt himself devouring something.

He was feeding.

He was feeding.

Just as Yu Sheng was no longer able to distinguish where his own perspective existed, no longer able to tell where the boundary between himself and the monster lay, Irene’s cry suddenly drifted faintly from the depths of the darkness.

“Holy shit?!”

In the next second, Yu Sheng felt himself plunging downward violently.

The unbearably awful experience of suddenly awakening that he had endured last time happened all over again in an instant.

Yu Sheng snapped his eyes open.

Intense stabbing pain in his head, deafening roaring sounds, and agony throughout his entire body drowned out all other sensations. He rolled over and braced himself against the bedside cabinet while retching violently. He felt as though he wanted to vomit up his own heart, yet nothing came out. Only after a long ten-odd seconds did the terrible aftereffects finally begin to fade.

Supporting himself against the cabinet, Yu Sheng struggled to sit up.

He saw faint morning light filtering through the curtains into the room.

He saw the doll carrying the picture frame sitting on his bed, her tiny face filled with enormous anxiety and tension.

“Are you okay?! Is it still you?” Irene scrambled over using both hands and feet, grabbed Yu Sheng’s arm, and shook it vigorously. “Do you still remember who I am?”

“Stop shaking me, stop shaking me. I’m still dizzy... Holy shit, why does my whole body hurt...” Yu Sheng hurriedly interrupted the doll. “I’m awake, Irene. I’m fine.”

Irene stared at him wide-eyed for several seconds before finally letting go.

“You scared me to death! Y-you-you... You suddenly looked completely dead. Your mental responses disappeared! Then you suddenly came back to life, and your whole mind was a complete mess. I had no idea what kind of thing I’d actually woken up! You scared me to death! Scared me to death!”

She repeated “scared me to death” several times in succession. Clearly she had been genuinely terrified.

Yet Yu Sheng had little energy left to comfort the little doll.

The tremendous impact left behind by establishing a deep connection with Hunger still lingered within him. It even felt as though an enormous shadow still remained in his heart.

He struggled to shake off its influence.

Only after leaning against the headboard and breathing heavily for a long time did his mind finally become fully clear again.

“Irene, that thing is very dangerous,” he said.

The little doll stood on Yu Sheng’s stomach.

“I know it’s dangerous! I told you from the very beginning that it was dangerous!”

“No. I mean it’s even more dangerous than you realize. It’s almost learned how to think for real.”

Irene froze, staring at him.

“It originally possessed only instinct. After devouring countless minds, it learned methods of coercion and temptation,” Yu Sheng said, leaning against the headboard and looking into Irene’s eyes. “Simple and brutal hunting can only obtain limited nourishment. Driving a mind into madness through coercion and temptation yields astonishing nutrition. It didn’t understand these things from the start. It learned them gradually. And now... genuine thought is almost beginning to emerge within it.”

Fear finally appeared on Irene’s face.

Then, almost immediately, she realized something else.

“How would you know that?!” The doll suddenly lunged forward until her face was nearly pressed against Yu Sheng’s nose. “You...”

“...I established a deep connection with it, deeper than we originally planned,” Yu Sheng admitted. “For one brief moment, I felt like I had actually become part of that monster. So, in the depths of the darkness, I saw its most primitive form and the secret of its continued growth.”

“H-holy shit!”

Irene nearly jumped into the air.

Then came a torrential barrage of rapid-fire chatter.

“I told you this wouldn’t work! It’s dangerous! Nobody knows what could happen, but you just had to try it! What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? We’re screwed! It’s definitely taken root! You weren’t just targeted, it actually chewed on you! Hunger has absolutely taken root inside your mind! Aaaaah! We’re finished! Totally finished!”

The little doll became increasingly agitated, scrambling all over the bed and across Yu Sheng’s stomach.

Yu Sheng tried several times to interrupt her without success. In the end, he had no choice but to grab her and lift her into the air to make her calm down.

“Calm down, Irene. Calm down.”

“Calm down my ass! Hunger has already taken root in your heart! Aren’t you nervous at all?!” Irene dangled in midair. “It’ll grow inside your mind, bigger and bigger, and then Boom! You’re done for! It won’t matter even if you hide in the real world! Do you even understand your current situation? Don’t tell me you’ll just resurrect! This thing is rooted in your mind! Your body can reset, but can your mind? Are you sure dying and coming back will get rid of something that’s taken root like this?”

Of course Yu Sheng understood all of that.

Yet for some reason, deep down, he felt none of the urgency of a life counting down toward its end.

Even his increasingly sensitive spiritual intuition had given him no warning.

He knew the situation was dangerous on a rational level.

But his heart was filled with an abnormal calm.

Still, he knew he could not show too much of that calm.

That would only make Irene panic even more.

“As long as we destroy Hunger before then... I mean, kill the entity instance that’s affecting me, there won’t be a problem, right?” Yu Sheng attempted to redirect Irene’s attention. “The rooted part needs time before it erupts. We still have time.”

“Time... Right, we still have time. Hurry, we have to hurry!”

As expected, Irene’s attention was instantly diverted.

At the same time, she finally noticed that she was still being held in midair.

“Put me down! Hurry and put me down! We need to leave immediately and kill that entity instance. Right, right, let’s go now, before you start feeling anything...”

Yu Sheng let out a soft breath and set Irene back on the bed before preparing to get up.

But the moment he made a larger movement, waves of soreness surged through every part of his body.

He immediately sucked in a breath.

“Hiss! Why does it hurt so much...” Yu Sheng looked down at himself in confusion. “I clearly remember the aftereffects disappearing pretty quickly after that sudden awakening last time. And my body didn’t hurt then. Why do I feel like I’ve been beaten up...”

As he spoke, the doll, who had been frantic only a moment ago, suddenly fell silent.

Then Irene quietly crawled toward the foot of the bed while muttering under her breath.

“S-sometimes sudden awakenings can leave physical aftereffects too...”

“Wait, that’s not right!”

Yu Sheng suddenly realized something and pulled back his sleeve.

“I really was beaten up. There are bite marks on my arm!”

By this point Irene had already crawled to the foot of the bed.

“You grind your teeth in your sleep. You bit yourself.”

“Those bite marks are that small and you’re saying I bit myself?”

“I was trying to wake you up! If normal methods wouldn’t wake you, then I had to use abnormal methods, didn’t I?”

Standing at the foot of the bed with her hands on her hips, Irene spoke with complete confidence.

Then she turned, jumped to the floor, and bolted for the door!