Chapter 028

Chapter 28: Hunger

Falling, tossed up, then falling again, repeating without end in a cold, empty void, his mind churned like soup. Wild, broken senses stabbed his brain like knives until his awareness almost went dark. At the last second, a feeling like breaking free from drowning rushed in and shocked Yu Sheng awake from the endless, freezing drop.

He shot up in bed, then lost his balance. His body tilted and he almost fell to the floor, but he grabbed the corner of the nightstand and barely held himself up as the room spun around him.

A sharp, steady throb made him wonder if his brain was boiling.

Luckily, it did not last long. When he truly woke, the unbearable feelings in his head faded like the dream itself, leaving only a few unpleasant traces.

Yu Sheng sat on the edge of the bed, took a few breaths, then lifted his gaze to the window. The sun was slipping down toward the rooftops of the far city. The sky was growing darker, bit by bit.

“…A whole day is gone,” he muttered in surprise. He pushed up with a hand on the nightstand, stumbled to the desk, poured a glass of water and downed it, then slapped his cheeks to chase off the fog of that unrestful sleep. He left the bedroom and headed downstairs.

As soon as he stepped into the dining room, he complained to the Painting on the table: “I really didn’t think your ‘sudden wake-up’ could be this awful. I figured I’d get dizzy or my heart would pound for a minute. Instead I opened my eyes and almost threw up last year’s New Year’s dinner.”

This time, Irene did not answer with her usual stream of beeps and chatter. She was oddly quiet. Yu Sheng felt something was off and turned to the Painting. Irene lay slumped in the red velvet covered chair like a broken machine, hugging a teddy bear, staring blankly up and to the side. Sometimes her eyes rolled, then she jerked up and dry heaved.

“You mean your ‘sudden wake-up’ can wreck you too?” said Yu Sheng.

Irene looked up at him. She tried to speak, then another wave hit and she gagged again. As a Doll sealed who knew how many years, she did not even have stomach acid, and Yu Sheng doubted she had a stomach at all. So she could only hang over the chair and suffer, retching so hard it looked like her head might shake loose.

After a long while, the unlucky Doll steadied herself. She glanced at Yu Sheng, her voice thin as if near death: “It wasn’t me who ‘woke’ the two of us. It was you.”

“…Huh?” said Yu Sheng.

“You yelled at the end and scared that fox awake. I didn’t even have time to react,” Irene said with a wounded look. “Why did you shout so loud?”

Yu Sheng blinked, then got her point and scratched his hair, embarrassed: “I didn’t know. I just wanted to warn Foxy. I felt like her state was dangerous.”

“Well, your feeling was right,” said Irene. She gagged again, dry heaved twice, caught her breath, then gave Yu Sheng a look. “Good news is you woke that fox before she sank deeper. She woke and ‘kicked’ both of us out along the way, but she herself should stay clear for a while.”

Yu Sheng pulled out the chair across from Irene and sat. His face grew serious: “And the bad news?”

Irene did not answer at once. After a few seconds of silence, she nodded lightly: “You can probably guess. She will not hold out much longer.”

Yu Sheng frowned without a word.

Yes. He had already felt it while trapped in the Valley. Buried deep in Foxy’s heart, something grew like a nasty spawn, creeping wider. It was Hunger and madness. At first he did not know what it was, but during his last face off with that Flesh Monster, he sensed that this Hunger was not simple at all.

What he had just seen in the depths of the dream only made Foxy’s state clearer.

“If you want to help that fox, you should act soon,” Irene said. “The thing tempting her is trying to turn her into some kind of ‘feed.’ Killing is not its goal. It wants the madness inside ‘Hunger.’ That fox’s will is so tough she has held out to now. That is amazing. But the longer she resists, the bigger the ‘nutrients’ will be when the ‘change’ happens. That would be bad. Very, very bad.”

Yu Sheng listened with a stony face and filled in details he had learned so far. Then a thought struck him. He looked up at the frame.

“Irene,” he said, serious, “do you… know something? About the Valley and the things in it?”

Irene hesitated. First she shook her head, then gave a tiny nod. “Most of it is gone. I don’t even remember what the Valley really is. But the fox’s situation rings a bell. I think I read material about this before.”

She frowned and paused, fishing for scraps of memory.

“Entity-Hunger. I think that was the name,” Irene said as she recalled. “It is an Entity with clear malice and a high danger level. It forms in a Sealed Zone. The area turns toxic and Hunger spreads. It can attack with force, but its ‘influence’ is even worse. People it notices fall into terrible Hunger, and their will is pushed to the limit. I don’t remember the exact cases. I only remember it was very dangerous and hurt many people. And the worst part is…”

Irene stopped and met Yu Sheng’s eyes.

“Hunger turns people into beasts. It eats both dignity and life. Most people cannot bear it. Those who fall become part of Entity-Hunger, without end.”

As Yu Sheng listened, his face tightened. A heavy pressure settled on his chest. Then he suddenly remembered something else.

When he fought the Flesh Monster, that urge in his heart to eat.

[Did I already get affected by Hunger?] His heart jumped. He spoke fast: “Wait. What are the main ‘symptoms’ after someone is affected by Hunger?”

Irene gave him a strange look: “Hunger, of course.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Yu Sheng said, waving his hands and trying to find the right words. “Like when I saw that monster, I really wanted a bite. I even thought it might taste good. When I got back I cooked two dishes. Could that reaction be Hunger’s influence too?”

Irene’s face went blank for a second. She thought of the ‘local specialty’ Yu Sheng had brought back, and the four dishes and one soup that looked, smelled, and tasted great.

“Right, you even ate it…” Miss Doll muttered. Then she snapped to attention, and her tone flipped. “No. Of course not. Entity-Hunger makes you so starving you bite people, not it. It does not bait you with itself.”

Her outburst made Yu Sheng flinch, but then he understood. Hunger and appetite are linked, but in a world ruled by strict rules like the Otherworld and its Entities, they are clearly different definitions, especially when an Entity has active malice. Its influence must run by its own rules.

To put it plainly, if Yu Sheng had really fallen under Hunger’s sway in that Valley, he would have gone for Foxy, not the monster that caused the temptation.

To be fair, the first time he bit that monster he had not exactly wanted to. Let’s not count that.

Thinking this through, Yu Sheng let out a breath. He was sure he had not been corroded by that weird Entity. He also remembered the normal feeling of fullness after dinner before he slept. That settled his heart. He exhaled: “Good. Looks like I’m still normal.”

“I don’t think getting hungry for that thing is normal at all,” Irene murmured.

Yu Sheng waved it off and moved on: “So that very abstract looking but pretty tasty monster is Entity-Hunger, right? If I take it down, Foxy is free of the influence. I know you cannot kill an Entity for good. I mean take it down for now.”

“I’m… not sure,” Irene said, unsure. “Hunger is a special kind of Entity. What you saw is its ‘manifestation.’ But the real ‘Hunger’ fills the whole Valley. Do you get me? What you met was only a feeler it sent out to feed and sense things. Its body, like its name, is the Hunger everywhere in the Valley.”

Yu Sheng listened, going a little blank.

Yes. He got it.

“Crap, a rules type?!” he said.