Chapter 28: Hunger
Falling, rising, and falling again—an endless cycle of plummeting through a void of freezing emptiness. Thoughts churned into a chaotic maelstrom, sensations like blades stabbing relentlessly through his mind. Just as consciousness seemed on the verge of collapsing, a sudden rush of release—like breaking free from the brink of drowning—tore through Yu Sheng, jolting him awake from the infinite, icy darkness.
He sat bolt upright on the bed, his balance slipping. Almost toppling to the floor, he managed to grab the corner of the bedside table, barely steadying himself as dizziness swirled within his head. A sharp, persistent pain hammered at his skull, so intense he briefly wondered if his brain was boiling.
Thankfully, the feeling didn’t linger too long. As full awareness settled over him, the unbearable sensations faded like the remnants of a nightmare, leaving only a bitter aftertaste of discomfort. Yu Sheng sat at the edge of the bed, taking a few breaths to compose himself. Looking out the window, he noticed the sun dipping closer to the rooftops of the distant cityscape, the sky deepening into dusk.
“…An entire day has passed…” he muttered in surprise, pushing himself up with the help of the bedside table. He moved to the desk, poured himself a glass of water, and downed it in one go before patting his face to dispel the lingering sleepiness. Feeling slightly more grounded, he headed downstairs to the first floor.
“I seriously didn’t think your ‘rude awakening’ would be this rough,” Yu Sheng complained as soon as he reached the dining room, addressing Irene at the table. “I figured it’d be just some dizziness or maybe a racing heartbeat. Instead, I nearly puked up last year’s New Year’s dinner the moment I opened my eyes…”
To his surprise, Irene didn’t snap back as usual. Instead, she sat there, slumped in a chair draped with a red velvet blanket, clutching a teddy bear, her vacant gaze fixed somewhere above. Occasionally, her eyes flicked upward before she abruptly doubled over, dry heaving.
Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “How the hell did your ‘rude awakening’ end up making you look even worse?”
Irene shot him a glance, but just as she opened her mouth to respond, another wave of nausea overtook her. As a Doll sealed for countless years, she had neither New Year’s dinner nor even stomach acid to throw up. In fact, Yu Sheng wasn’t even sure if she had a stomach at all. All she could do was cling to the chair and convulse miserably, as if her head might shake loose at any moment.
It took her a long time to catch her breath. Finally, she lifted her head, her voice frail as if on the verge of death. “It wasn’t me who ‘woke’ both of us. It was you.”
Yu Sheng blinked in confusion. “…Huh?”
“That last shout of yours scared the Foxy awake. I didn’t even have time to react!” Irene complained with a look of utter despair. “Why the hell did you yell so loudly?”
Feeling slightly embarrassed, Yu Sheng scratched his head. “I didn’t know… I just wanted to warn Foxy. I could tell her state was really dangerous.”
“Well, you were right about that,” Irene grumbled before groaning and dry heaving again. After a few strained breaths, she glanced up at him, irritation clear in her gaze. “Good news is, you managed to snap that Fox out of it before she sank any deeper. Sure, it also threw both of us out of the dream too, but at least she should be lucid for a while.”
Yu Sheng pulled out a chair and sat across from her, his expression turning serious. “And the bad news?”
A heavy silence settled over them before Irene finally nodded, her tone somber. “You probably guessed it—she can’t hold out much longer.”
Yu Sheng furrowed his brows, saying nothing. He’d felt it back when they were trapped in the Valley—the creeping, insidious Hunger gnawing away at Foxy’s soul like some malignant parasite. At first, he hadn’t understood what it was, but during that final confrontation with the Flesh Monster, he realized that this ‘Hunger’ wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
The vision he saw in the depths of the dream only confirmed what he had feared—it wasn’t just about physical starvation or primal desperation. It was something deeper, something that corrupted the spirit and twisted the mind.
“If you’re planning to help that Fox, you’d better act fast,” Irene said, her voice gaining a hint of urgency. “Whatever’s ensnaring her is trying to turn her into some kind of… ‘nourishment.’ Killing her isn’t the goal. It wants the madness born of Hunger—the more she resists, the more potent her ‘essence’ becomes when she finally breaks. And when that transformation happens… the mess it’ll make is going to be catastrophic—very, very catastrophic.”
Yu Sheng’s face remained cold and solemn as he listened intently, occasionally supplementing Irene’s description with the information he had gathered so far. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened, locking onto the ornate oil painting frame on the opposite wall.
“Irene,” he asked with a grave expression, “do you… know something? About the Valley, and the things within it?”
Irene hesitated, first shaking her head, but then she gave a faint, reluctant nod.
“Most of it is a blur,” she admitted. “I can’t recall exactly what that Valley is or what it holds, but the situation Foxy encountered… it feels familiar. I think I’ve read about it somewhere.”
She frowned, pausing to sift through the broken fragments of her memory, as if searching for a crucial clue.
“Entity-Hunger,” she murmured after a moment, “that’s what it’s called. It’s a Dangerous Entity, clear in its malevolence and posing a high threat level. It originates in isolated and contaminated zones, where the environment becomes toxic and Hunger spreads. The Entity itself is violently aggressive, but its most terrifying aspect is its ‘influence.’ Anyone who draws its attention falls into an insatiable Hunger, facing a dire test of willpower. I can’t recall the specific incidents, but… it’s dangerous—lethal even. Many have fallen victim. And worse still…”
Irene’s words trailed off, and she lifted her eyes to meet Yu Sheng’s.
“Hunger turns people into beasts, devouring both dignity and life. Most succumb to it, and those who fall become part of Entity-Hunger, trapped in an unending cycle.”
Yu Sheng’s expression tightened, a weight settling on his chest. Then, an unsettling thought struck him—
the urge to consume during his encounter with the Flesh Monster.
Had he already been affected by Hunger?
Panic surged through him, and he blurted out, “Wait! What are the main symptoms of being affected by Hunger?”
Irene gave him a peculiar look. “…Hunger.”
“No, I mean…” He waved his hand dismissively, gathering his thoughts. “When I confronted that monster, I had this bizarre craving to take a bite out of it. It even seemed appetizing, and later I cooked a couple of dishes with it. Could that be a sign of Hunger’s influence?”
Irene’s face froze, and her mind instantly flashed to the “specialty dishes” Yu Sheng had prepared earlier—four dishes and a soup, all delectably presented.
“You… you ate it?” Doll Lady muttered, but then suddenly snapped to attention, voice sharpening. “No! That’s not how it works! Entity-Hunger’s influence drives you to devour others—not the source of corruption itself! It doesn’t tempt people by offering itself as food!”
Yu Sheng flinched at her sudden outburst but quickly realized she had a point. While Hunger and appetite seemed intertwined, in the strict rule-based logic of the Otherworld and Entities, they were distinctly separate concepts. Especially with a malevolent Entity, its influence always followed its own rules.
Put simply, if Yu Sheng had truly fallen under Hunger’s influence while in the Valley, he should have been driven to devour Foxy—not the creature that originated the corruption.
Though he vaguely remembered his first bite being somewhat reluctant, that hardly mattered now.
Relief washed over him as he confirmed he had not been tainted by the Entity. He even recalled feeling genuine satiety after his last meal, letting out a deep breath. “That’s good—at least I’m still normal.”
Irene, still visibly unnerved, whispered under her breath, “I’m not so sure… finding that thing appetizing isn’t exactly normal…”
Yu Sheng waved it off nonchalantly and moved on. “So that grotesque yet oddly flavorful monster was Entity-Hunger, right? If I eliminate it, Foxy should be freed from its influence. I know Entities can’t be killed permanently, but I’m talking about suppressing it temporarily.”
“Actually… I’m not certain,” Irene replied, her voice hesitant. “Hunger is a particularly elusive Entity. What you fought was just its ‘manifestation,’ but from what I understand, true Hunger permeates the entire Valley. Do you get it? That thing you fought was just a ‘tendril’ reaching out to sense and feed. Its core essence… as its name implies… is Hunger saturating the Valley itself.”
Yu Sheng’s face went blank as comprehension dawned on him.
“Damn it… a Rule-type?”