Chapter 45: Contact and Rooting
Yu Sheng’s mind was submerged in a vast, indescribable tide of darkness—a shadow cast by the primal entity known as Hunger. It was far more immense than he had imagined, and this colossal scale embodied the very essence of what Hunger should be—the greatest and most ancient terror, suspended above all living beings, buried deep within the hearts of every soul.
Amidst the depths of this shadow, Yu Sheng discerned something slowly floating and writhing—an Entity.
He could hardly describe what it was. It seemed to possess countless tendrils and grotesquely swollen masses of flesh, each part of its body constantly shifting and reshaping, as if collapsing into new forms or gaps in response to his gaze. Its surface was pitch black, yet within the tangled depths of its tendrils, ever-changing hues shimmered—a chaotic texture that threatened to erode his sanity.
The moment Yu Sheng noticed the entity, it too became aware of him.
There was no time to react. In an instant, countless new tendrils and branching structures erupted from the creature, filled with malice, and wrapped around Yu Sheng’s mind.
It felt as though ten thousand voices exploded in his head. There was no way to resist or evade—his consciousness was irreversibly connected to something far greater. The entity howled within his deepest awareness, transmitting chaotic and terrifying thoughts. Yet, in the next heartbeat, Yu Sheng realized that the creature did not truly possess reason or thought.
It was nothing more than a massive, primal instinct, and the maddening whispers were merely tools it had mimicked to ensnare its prey. These whispers originated from the minds of beings it had previously devoured—echoes of their final moments of madness and despair—all converging into a malevolent force that had allowed this instinct-driven creature to evolve into a powerful, sentient Entity, one that actively hunted and lured its victims.
And it was still growing. The mimicked thought processes it used were gradually becoming genuine cognition.
Now, it attempted to unravel Yu Sheng’s mind, seeking to consume and digest him as it had countless others.
A sensation of his consciousness dissolving overwhelmed him, and Yu Sheng felt himself being swiftly digested, becoming part of that monstrous entity. He struggled desperately to break free from the tendrils entwining him, only to find that the harder he fought, the stronger the tendrils became.
In that critical moment, Yu Sheng suddenly sensed something.
He jerked his gaze toward the writhing mass of darkness, and in the next instant, countless eyes of varying shapes appeared amidst the kaleidoscopic colors within the blackness—one of those eyes was his own.
His vision swayed, and in the depths of the darkness, he saw countless tendrils stretching forward, entwining a struggling humanoid shadow at their ends.
He felt the monster was absorbing and digesting him.
He felt he was consuming something.
He was feeding.
He was feeding.
Just as Yu Sheng’s perspective blurred, leaving him unable to distinguish between himself and the creature, Irene’s voice suddenly echoed from the depths of the darkness—
“What the hell?!”
In the next moment, Yu Sheng felt himself plummeting.
That unbearable, nauseating jolt of awakening hit him once more, just as it had last time.
He snapped his eyes open, his head throbbing with piercing pain, his entire body aching as if being torn apart. Rolling over, he clutched the bedside table and dry heaved, desperate to expel the pain lodged within his chest, yet nothing came out. Only after several agonizing seconds did the dreadful aftereffects begin to fade.
Propping himself up against the bedside table, Yu Sheng struggled to sit upright, squinting against the dim morning light filtering through the curtains. On his bed sat Doll, her small face etched with deep worry.
“Are you okay?! Is it really you?” Irene scrambled over on all fours, grabbing his arm and shaking him vigorously. “Do you remember who I am?”
“Stop shaking me—still dizzy… Ow, my whole body hurts…” Yu Sheng cut off the Doll’s panicked shaking, his voice hoarse. “I’m awake, Irene. I’m fine.”
Irene stared at him for several seconds before finally letting go. “You scared the life out of me! You just… went dead for a moment—your mental response vanished! Then you suddenly came back, but your entire psyche was in chaos! I didn’t even know if I was waking up a person or some monster! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”
She repeated her concern several times, clearly shaken, but Yu Sheng lacked the strength to comfort her. The immense shock from his deep connection with Hunger still lingered, like a colossal shadow festering in his soul. Taking deep, steady breaths, he leaned back against the headboard, focusing on regaining his clarity.
“Irene, that thing is dangerous.” Yu Sheng said.
The little doll stood on Yu Sheng’s stomach. “Of course I know it’s dangerous! I told you right from the start that it was dangerous!”
“No, I mean it’s more dangerous than you realize—it’s almost learned how to truly think.”
Irene’s eyes widened, frozen in shock.
“It only had instincts before,” Yu Sheng leaned back against the bedhead, gazing into Irene’s eyes. “But after devouring countless minds, it learned to coerce and manipulate. Brutal hunting only yields limited ‘nourishment,’ but driving a mind to madness through coercion and temptation yields astonishing ‘nutrition.’ It didn’t know this from the beginning—it learned over time. And now… it’s on the verge of genuine thought.”
A trace of fear finally appeared on Irene’s face, but almost immediately, another realization struck her.
“How do you know that?!” The doll darted forward, her face almost touching Yu Sheng’s nose. “You…”
“…I established a deep link with it—deeper than we initially planned,” Yu Sheng admitted without hiding the truth. “For a moment, I felt as if I’d become part of that monster… In the depths of the darkness, I saw its original form and the secret of its relentless growth.”
“Wh—what the hell!” Irene almost jumped up, followed by a rapid barrage of complaints. “I told you it wouldn’t work! It’s too dangerous! No one knew what would happen, but you insisted on trying! What now, huh? We’re screwed! It’s definitely taken root! You’re not just targeted, you’re being devoured! ‘Hunger’ has definitely rooted itself in your mind—oh no, it’s over! It’s all over!”
The little doll’s commotion grew louder as she crawled frantically around the bed and over Yu Sheng’s stomach. Yu Sheng tried to interrupt several times, but to no avail, and in the end, he had to pick her up and hold her in midair to get her to calm down. “Calm down, Irene. You need to calm down.”
“Calm down my ass! ‘Hunger’ has already taken root in your soul! Aren’t you even a little bit nervous?!” Irene squirmed in midair. “It’s going to grow in your mind, bigger and bigger, and then—boom! You’re finished! Even if you hide in the real world, it won’t change anything! Do you even know your own situation… Don’t tell me you’re banking on resurrection! This thing’s rooted in your mind! Your body might regenerate, but can your mind?”
Of course, Yu Sheng knew all that, but strangely enough, he didn’t feel the slightest sense of impending doom. Even his increasingly accurate “Spiritual Intuition” didn’t sound any alarm. He only understood on a rational level that the situation was dangerous, yet his heart remained eerily calm.
Still, he knew he couldn’t show that calmness too blatantly—otherwise, Irene would only freak out more.
“As long as we destroy ‘Hunger’ before then… I mean, kill that ‘Entity instance’ affecting me, it should be fine, right?” Yu Sheng tried to redirect Irene’s attention. “The ‘rooting’ process takes time to manifest—we still have some time.”
“Time… right, we still have time! We have to hurry!” Irene’s attention shifted instantly, and she suddenly realized she was being held midair. “Let me down! Put me down right now! We need to leave immediately and take out that ‘Entity instance’ before you start feeling anything…”
Yu Sheng sighed in relief and set Irene down on the bed, preparing to get up.
But the moment he moved, a sharp, aching pain shot through his limbs, and he sucked in a cold breath.
“Hiss! Why does it hurt so much…” Yu Sheng muttered in confusion, looking down at himself. “I remember last time, the aftereffects of ‘Awakening’ faded quickly… And I didn’t feel this sore either. Why does it feel like I got beaten up…”
As he spoke, the little doll—who had been frantic a second earlier—suddenly went silent. Irene subtly crawled toward the foot of the bed, mumbling softly, “S-sometimes, ‘Awakening’ can leave some bodily aftereffects…”
“No!” Yu Sheng immediately realized something and pulled up his sleeve. “I’ve been beaten—there’s a bite mark on my arm!”
By then, Irene had already reached the foot of the bed. “You grind your teeth in your sleep and bit yourself.”
“This tiny bite mark? You’re saying I bit myself?”
“It’s not my fault you wouldn’t wake up! If conventional methods didn’t work, I had to get creative!”
Irene stood at the foot of the bed with her hands on her hips, utterly justified, before spinning around and jumping to the floor—then sprinting straight out the door!