Chapter 021

Chapter 21: Once Raw, Twice Cooked

In fact, as soon as he learned that the world had the dangerous and common phenomenon called the Otherworld, and that this huge Boundary City was a special place known as the Borderland, Yu Sheng had already guessed there must be people who deal with such things. Not just lone wanderers, though those exist, but organized, even professional and formal organizations.

There would be official ones and probably private ones.

But as Irene said, under normal conditions they would not make contact with normal people.

The Otherworld lies outside common sense, at the edge of reason, like countless small dangerous holes on the mountain of seemingly solid reality. Most people may never deal with the scenes hidden inside those holes, but once an unlucky person catches a glimpse of the light leaking out, there is no turning back.

This was the knowledge Irene gave him at the start. From that alone, he could judge that those who deal with the Otherworld would try to prevent ordinary people from touching any information about it, including their own existence.

[Still, if something really happened, they should have a response system…]

Yu Sheng looked again at the cold, empty street outside.

Worried, he asked: “Honestly, how long do your professionals usually take to respond?”

“I do not know, I cannot recall… but I remember it being fast,” Irene said while hugging her teddy bear and rocking in the chair, looking a bit cheeky. “They have many ways to sense anomalies. The entire Borderland should be covered by their monitoring. It was already like that before I was sealed. It must be even better now.”

Yu Sheng said nothing and just looked at the doll in the painting.

“O of course, professionals are still people. Everyone can be sloppy sometimes, so maybe they are a bit slow to react?” Irene said, suddenly unsure. “Maybe they have not noticed what happened here… even though you made quite a bit of noise…”

“That does not sound reliable,” Yu Sheng said with a frown and a sigh. “By your account, this whole building is an Otherworld zone, yet no one has come to the door. I am starting to doubt how professional your professionals are. In the end, I probably have to rely on myself.”

Irene blinked and said: “R right?”

Then she asked curiously: “What are you going to do? From what you said… you plan to deal with that valley and the Entity in it again?”

“It is not that I want to. It will come for me sooner or later. I can feel that,” Yu Sheng said with a crooked smile, thinking of the strange freezing rain and the frogs in it. “And you said it yourself: once you deal with the Otherworld, you cannot go back. I made contact earlier than you think.”

“Well… okay, fair. Many of the people who deal with the Otherworld started out as unlucky ordinary folks dragged into an incident,” Irene muttered. “From what I remember, maybe one tenth of ordinary people who touch the Otherworld later become experts, whether they choose to or not. It is like getting clung to by something dirty.”

Yu Sheng raised a brow and said: “Only one tenth? What about the other nine tenths? Do they go back to normal life?”

Irene tilted her head back and said: “They die.”

Yu Sheng said: “…”

“S some do survive. They rescue quite a few every year,” Irene said in a hurry when she saw his face, then added, “Of course, more people seem to die.”

“…Irene,” Yu Sheng said, looking at the doll in the painting.

She answered: “Eh? Yes?”

He said: “If you do not know what to say, you do not have to say anything.”

She mumbled: “Right.”

Yu Sheng sighed and slowly rose from the table.

“Whether I die or not does not matter much to me, but I do need to learn more about the Otherworld. If those professionals will not come, then I have to find them,” he said as he thought. “Your memory and experience are not very reliable.”

“Find them yourself?” Irene did not seem bothered by the last part and still looked cheerful. “Then… maybe actually check the utility poles nearby for ads from some Otherworld security company?”

Yu Sheng looked helpless and said: “I am being serious.”

“I am serious too,” Irene said with a blink. “They really leave contact methods like that, so people like you who ran into the Otherworld and came back can ask for help. Ordinary people cannot see those marks because they are hidden with techniques. But after someone touches the Otherworld, they usually awaken a bit of sensitivity and have a good chance to notice those Secret Sigils that are normally hidden.”

She paused, looked him up and down with a serious face, and asked: “Do you feel any changes in yourself?”

Changes after contact with the Otherworld? Hearing that, Yu Sheng’s heart stirred and he blurted: “By change, do you mean strength strong enough to crush stone, recovering from a cut after a few breaths, sensing others’ memories and thoughts, and maybe even resurrection…”

Irene stared at him like he was an alien and said: “What?”

He asked softly: “…No?”

She said with a sharp look: “At most you can see a few things normal eyes cannot. What you just said, is that still human? Did you switch species? Maybe do not read so many novels and watch so much anime.”

Yu Sheng said: “…” Seeing her reaction, he decisively let the topic drop.

[So it really is not normal. Even in the supernatural domain, mine seems too supernatural.]

Luckily, Irene did not think much of it. Maybe she had been sealed too long; the doll’s brain did not seem to work that well.

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

A faint struggle and hesitation flashed across his face. Then he gave a crooked smile and walked to the kitchen.

Irene jumped from her chair in the painting and asked: “Hey, are you making breakfast?”

[No idea why someone who cannot even eat gets excited every mealtime.]

He said without looking back: “I am going to deal with the local specialty I brought back.”

Irene lifted her teddy bear in one hand and waved the other: “Oh, go ahead…”

Then she froze. Her mind, dull from being sealed too long, finally caught up. [Since when does the Otherworld have local specialties?]

“Wait!” Irene screamed, almost startling Yu Sheng at the kitchen door: “What kind of local specialty is that?!”

Yu Sheng stepped into the kitchen, stopped, and looked back with a small smile: “Take a guess.”

She stared as he tied on an apron, shock rising in her crimson eyes, along with the thought: [Has he lost his mind?] She stammered: “W wait, what are you doing? You are not planning to… Is that really something you took from that Entity? How did a normal person do that? Hey, you are not actually going to…”

Yu Sheng shut the kitchen door without hesitation, blocking out her chatter.

A moment later, her voice came faintly from the dining room: “Hey, do not close the door! At least help me restart the TV! I cannot watch anything!”

Yu Sheng ignored her. He went to the sink, lifted the pot lid from the meat, and saw the severed tail was completely still. Only the cut muscles twitched now and then.

He stared silently at the tail that had once drilled into his belly and again felt that hunger that seemed to seep from his bones.

This time the hunger was not as wild as before. It only pulsed lightly, carrying a pleasant sense of expectation.

[Can I really do this? Is this normal? Am I still normal?] He thought all that, yet his hands did not slow at all.

He set out scallions, ginger, and cooking wine, took out a board and a knife, rinsed the tail clean, scraped off the scales, set it on the board, and cut down.

It was easier to cut than he expected. On the monster it had been hard as stone, but now the knife went through like firm beef.

There was no bone inside.

Yu Sheng had thought about it. The first time he felt his body strengthen was after he bit into that monster. The second time they fought, he tore at its flesh again, and afterward he felt another boost. The increase was smaller, but it was real.

That brewed a bold and… tasty idea.

[What if I cook it?] Yu Sheng worked quickly to cut the meat, and his mood lifted. Even Irene’s fussing outside the door seemed less noisy.

He did not know if what he was doing was normal. It probably was not. Even a doll sealed in a painting thought it was eerie.

But compared with resurrection, a piece of suspicious meat was no big deal.

As he sliced, he murmured: “I already ate it raw. Once raw, twice cooked.”