Chapter 28

Chapter 28: “Hunger”

Falling. Being thrown up. Falling again.

The cycle repeated in an endless cold emptiness, his thoughts churned into sludge. Chaotic sensations stabbed at his mind like knives, until his awareness nearly snapped. Only then did a force like a hand yanking him back from drowning crash into him.

Yu Sheng jolted awake.

He bolted upright in bed, immediately lost his balance, and nearly pitched to the floor. He caught the corner of the nightstand at the last second. His head spun violently.

A sharp, constant throbbing made him feel like his brain was literally boiling.

Luckily, it didn’t last. Once he was fully awake, the worst of it faded like the dream itself, leaving only a sour aftertaste.

Yu Sheng sat on the edge of the bed and took a few steady breaths. When he looked out the window, he saw the sun sinking toward the rooftops in the distance. The sky was already deepening into evening.

“…A whole day is gone,” he muttered.

He pushed himself up, poured a cup of water, and gulped it down. After splashing his face and forcing some strength back into his limbs, he headed downstairs.

“I really didn’t expect your ‘violent awakening’ to feel that awful,” he complained the moment he stepped into the dining room. The painting sat on the table. “I thought I’d just get a little dizzy, maybe have a racing heart for a minute. Instead, the moment I opened my eyes I nearly threw up last New Year’s Eve dinner.”

For once, Irene didn’t fire back. She was strangely quiet.

Yu Sheng looked over—and found her slumped in a chair draped with a red velvet throw, hugging her teddy bear and staring off into space. Every so often her eyes twitched, and then she lurched forward to dry-heave.

Yu Sheng blinked. “…How did your ‘violent awakening’ mess you up this badly too?”

Irene glanced at him. She tried to speak, but another wave of nausea hit. As a doll sealed away for who-knew-how-many years, she had no New Year’s Eve dinner inside her—no stomach acid, probably no stomach at all—so all she could do was hunch over the chair and retch miserably, like she might shake her head clean off.

It took a while before she finally caught her breath. She looked up at Yu Sheng, half-dead.

“I wasn’t the one who woke us up. You were.”

Yu Sheng frowned. “…Huh?”

“Your last shout scared that fox awake. I didn’t even react!” Irene said, tragic indignation thick in her voice. “Why did you yell so loud?!”

Yu Sheng stared for a moment, then scratched his head, awkward. “I didn’t know. I just… felt like she was in real danger.”

“Well, your instincts were spot-on.” Irene slumped again, dry-heaved twice, then glared at him. “Fine. The good news is you woke her up before she sank any deeper. Even though she kicked us out at the same time, she should be able to stay clear for a while.”

Yu Sheng pulled out a chair and sat across from her. His expression tightened. “And the bad news?”

Irene didn’t answer right away. After a few seconds, she nodded slightly.

“You already know. She can’t hold on much longer.”

Yu Sheng said nothing.

He’d felt it back in the valley: that hunger and madness buried in Foxy’s heart like a malignant growth, gnawing outward. At first he hadn’t understood what it was. During the fight with that flesh monster, he’d realized hunger here wasn’t just a feeling. It was something else entirely.

And what he’d just seen in the depths of that dream made Foxy’s situation horrifyingly clear.

“If you want to help that fox, you’d better act quickly,” Irene said. “Whatever’s tempting her is trying to turn her into… ‘nutrient.’ Killing people isn’t the goal. It wants madness born from hunger. Foxy’s will is strong enough to hold on this long, which is unbelievable—but the longer she holds on, the more nourishment she’ll provide when the conversion finally happens. And then it will be a huge problem. A very, very huge problem.”

Yu Sheng listened, face still, fitting Irene’s words into everything he already knew. Then he noticed something and looked up.

“Irene,” he said quietly, “do you know something? About the valley—and what’s inside it?”

Irene hesitated. She shook her head, then nodded.

“I don’t remember most things. Including what that valley really is. I don’t remember.” Her brow furrowed, as if she were digging through a heap of broken fragments. “But what that fox is facing… I think I have an impression. I probably read about it before.”

She went still for a heartbeat.

“…Entity-Hunger,” Irene said, the words landing like a stone. “I think that’s what it’s called. A highly dangerous entity with clear malice. It forms in a sealed zone. The environment gets poisoned. Hunger spreads. It’s aggressive, but what’s more dangerous is its influence. Anyone it takes interest in falls into terrifying hunger, and their will gets tested to the breaking point.”

She looked up and met Yu Sheng’s eyes.

“Hunger turns people into beasts. It devours dignity and life at the same time. Most people can’t endure it. And those who fall become part of Entity-Hunger—forever.”

Pressure settled heavy in Yu Sheng’s chest. Then another memory flashed through him.

That sudden urge to eat, during the fight with the flesh monster.

Had he been affected too?

Yu Sheng’s heart clenched. He leaned forward. “Wait. What are the main symptoms after being affected by ‘hunger’?”

Irene gave him a strange look. “…Obviously, hunger.”

“That’s not what I mean. I mean—” Yu Sheng waved a hand, scrambling for the right words. “When I saw that monster, I really wanted to take a bite. I even thought it would taste good. I came back and stir-fried two dishes. Could that have been the influence of hunger?”

Irene went blank.

In her mind, the four fragrant dishes Yu Sheng had made rose up in painful clarity.

“Y-you even ate it…” she muttered, then snapped, voice shooting up an octave. “No! Of course not! Entity-Hunger makes you go mad from hunger and chew on other people. It doesn’t make you chew on it! It lures people into madness, but it doesn’t do it by offering itself as bait!”

Yu Sheng flinched at her sudden shout, but the logic clicked. Hunger and appetite sounded related, but in an otherworld—especially with an entity that carried active malice—they were different rules entirely.

If he had truly been affected by hunger in that valley, he’d have gone after Foxy.

Not the thing that was tempting her.

Thinking it through, Yu Sheng finally exhaled. He’d also felt normal fullness after eating before bed. His nerves eased.

“Good,” he said. “Looks like I’m still pretty normal.”

Irene blinked, then muttered under her breath, “No… I think the fact you could feel appetite for that thing is already not normal…”

Yu Sheng pretended he hadn’t heard and pushed on. “So that monster—the one that looked like abstract meat but tasted pretty good—that’s Entity-Hunger, right? If we take it out, Foxy can shake off the influence. I know you can’t kill an entity for good. I mean temporarily.”

Irene hesitated. “Actually… I’m not sure. Hunger is a special kind of entity. The monster you saw is its manifestation. But as far as I understand it, the real hunger spreads through the entire valley.”

She watched his face carefully. “Do you get what I mean? What you met was just a tentacle it sends out to hunt and sense. Its true body—just like the name says—is the hunger that’s everywhere in that valley.”

Yu Sheng’s expression went blank.

Yeah. He got it.

“Damn it,” he breathed. “A rules-type…?”