Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Contact, Take Root

Yu Sheng’s mind sank into a vast, indescribable tide of darkness. The shadow cast by Hunger’s “true body” was even larger than he’d imagined. Yet that sheer scale looked exactly like what Hunger should be—an ancient, primal terror looming over every living thing, buried deep in every living heart.

Then, deep within that shadow, he sensed something drifting and writhing… an entity.

He couldn’t even say what it was. It seemed to have countless tentacles and bloated, overgrown knots of flesh, and every part of it kept changing shape. It was as if his gaze made it collapse in real time, splitting open into new structures and gaps. Its surface was pitch-black, yet where the tentacles tangled, shifting colors lurked beneath, carrying a warped texture that could slowly unmake a mind.

The instant Yu Sheng noticed it, it noticed him.

He had no time to react. In a blink, countless new tentacles and branching structures unfurled from within it, and those malicious feelers arrived at once—snapping around Yu Sheng’s mind.

It felt like ten thousand voices exploded inside his head. He couldn’t block or evade them; his mind had already formed an irreversible link with something far larger. The thing howled in the depths of his consciousness, hurling frantic, terrifying thoughts—

And then Yu Sheng realized it didn’t truly have reason. It didn’t truly think.

It was only a vast, feral instinct.

The seductive whispers and mad thoughts were just mimicry—tools made for hunting.

They came from the lives it had devoured: the madness and despair at hunger’s edge, the fading echo of final screams. All of it pooled into the monster’s malice, letting something that should have been nothing but an instinctive swarm grow into what it was now—an entity that could “forage,” that could lure and drive its prey.

And it was still growing. What had once been imitation-thought was slowly turning into real thought.

Now it began to take Yu Sheng’s mind apart, trying to turn this uninvited guest into fresh nourishment.

The sensation of his mind dissolving surged up. He felt himself being digested at a terrifying speed, breaking down into pieces that would become part of the monster. He fought with everything he had to rip free of the tentacles wrapped around him—only to find that the harder he struggled, the stronger they became.

And then he sensed something.

He snapped his attention toward the huge entity writhing in the dark. The next second, countless eyes of all shapes burst open within the shifting colors, and one pair…

Was his.

His vision lurched. In the darkness he saw countless tentacles stretching forward, the end of one wrapped around a struggling humanoid shadow.

He felt the monster absorbing him.

He felt himself swallowing something.

He was feeding.

He was feeding.

Just as Yu Sheng could no longer tell where his own viewpoint ended—and where the line between himself and the monster lay—Irene’s startled cry drifted faintly through the darkness.

“What the hell?!”

In the next instant, Yu Sheng felt a violent drop.

That horribly painful, wrenching awakening from last time hit him again, all at once.

Yu Sheng’s eyes flew open. Stabbing pain, a roar in his skull, and a full-body ache drowned out everything. He rolled over, braced himself on the bedside table, and dry-heaved so hard it felt like he might vomit up his heart—yet nothing came up. Only after a dozen long seconds did the aftereffects finally start to fade.

Clinging to the table, he forced himself upright. Faint morning light spilled through the curtains. The doll with the picture frame strapped to her back sat on his bed, her tiny face tight with worry.

“Are you okay?! Is it still you?”

Irene scrambled over on all fours, grabbed Yu Sheng’s arm, and shook him hard. “Do you remember who I am?”

“Stop shaking—stop shaking.” Yu Sheng raised a hand weakly. “I’m still dizzy… Why does my whole body hurt… I’m awake, Irene. I’m fine.”

Irene stared at him for several seconds before she finally let go. “You scared me to death! Y-you… you suddenly went limp like you were dead. Your mind response vanished! Then you came back all of a sudden, and your whole mind was a mess. I didn’t even know what I’d woken up! You scared me to death—scared me to death!”

She repeated it, over and over, still trembling. Yu Sheng didn’t have much strength to comfort her. The impact of linking to Hunger still pressed on his chest like a shadow that refused to fade. He leaned against the headboard and breathed until his thoughts cleared.

“Irene,” he said, voice rough, “that thing is dangerous.”

The little doll stood on his stomach. “Of course it’s dangerous! I told you from the start it was dangerous!”

“No. I mean it’s even worse than you think.” Yu Sheng swallowed. “It’s about to learn how to think.”

Irene froze, eyes wide.

“At first it only had instinct,” Yu Sheng said, watching her face. “After it devoured enough minds, it learned how to coerce and lure. A simple kill only gives limited ‘nutrition.’ Forcing a mind into madness gives far more. It didn’t understand that in the beginning. It learned step by step, and now…” He exhaled. “Now it’s almost developed real thought.”

Fear crept onto Irene’s face—real fear—before something else hit her.

“How would you know?!”

The doll lunged forward, her face nearly pressed to Yu Sheng’s nose. “You…”

“I formed a deep link with it—deeper than we planned,” Yu Sheng said. He didn’t try to hide it. “For a moment I even felt like I’d become part of the monster. In the depths of that darkness, I saw its most primitive form… and the secret of how it keeps growing.”

“H-holy crap!” Irene nearly jumped out of her skin, then launched into rapid-fire cursing. “I told you this wouldn’t work! This is dangerous! No one knows what could happen and you still had to try! What do we do? What do we do… We’re screwed! It’s definitely taken root now! You’re not just being watched—it already took a bite out of you! Hunger has definitely taken root in your mind! We’re done! We are done!”

She spiraled harder, crawling all over the bed and Yu Sheng’s stomach. No matter how many times he tried to cut in, she didn’t stop. In the end, he grabbed her and held her up in midair just to force a pause.

“Calm down, Irene. Calm down.”

“Calm my ass! Hunger has already taken root in your heart!” Irene dangled, wobbling in his grip. “And you’re not even nervous?! It’ll grow in your mind, bigger and bigger, and then—boom. You’re done! Even if you hide in the real world, it’ll be the same! Do you even know what state you’re in right now… Don’t tell me you can resurrect! This thing has taken root in your mind! Your body can reset, but can your mind? Are you sure dying and coming back will shake off something like this?!”

Yu Sheng knew all of that. Yet for some reason, he felt none of the urgency of a ticking clock. Even his increasingly sharp spiritual intuition hadn’t warned him.

He understood the danger rationally, but his heart was filled with an unnatural calm.

Still, he couldn’t let that calm show too much, or Irene would melt down completely.

“As long as we destroy Hunger before it gets that far,” Yu Sheng said, steering her away from the cliff, “I mean kill the entity instance influencing me, it’ll be fine, right? ‘Taking root’ needs time before it erupts. We still have time.”

“Time… right, we still have time.” Irene latched on instantly. “Hurry. We have to hurry!”

Only then did she realize she was still being held up. She kicked once in outrage. “Put me down! Put me down now—we’re leaving right away. We’re going to take out that entity instance. Yes, yes, yes, we go now, while you still don’t feel anything…”

Yu Sheng let out a quiet breath and set her back on the bed, starting to stand.

The moment he moved, a wave of soreness surged through his limbs and bones. He sucked in a sharp breath.

“Hiss… why does it hurt this much?” He stared down at himself. “Last time, after the violent awakening, the aftereffects faded fast. I didn’t ache like this. Why do I feel like I got beaten up…”

As he spoke, the doll—frantic a second ago—went strangely quiet. Irene inched toward the foot of the bed, muttering under her breath, carefully not making it obvious.

“S-sometimes violent awakening can leave physical aftereffects too…”

“No.” Yu Sheng reacted instantly and yanked up his sleeve. “I did get beaten up. I’ve got bite marks on my arm!”

By then Irene had already crawled to the end of the bed. “You grind your teeth in your sleep,” she said, too quickly. “You bit yourself.”

“With bite marks this small? You’re telling me I did that to myself?”

“I had to wake you up, didn’t I?” Irene snapped, squaring her shoulders. “Normal methods didn’t work, so I had to use something not so normal!”

Hands on hips and perfectly righteous, she turned, hopped down, and sprinted out.