Chapter 45: Contact and Rooting

Yu Sheng’s mind was engulfed by a vast and indescribable tide of darkness. The shadow cast by the ravenous “entity” was far more immense than he had imagined, yet this immense scale was precisely the posture that hunger should possess—a terror suspended above all living beings, buried deep within their hearts; the greatest, most primordial dread.

Then, deep within this shadow, he perceived a slowly drifting, writhing... “form.”

He found it difficult to define exactly what it was. It seemed to possess countless tentacles and swollen masses of flesh, with every part of its body constantly shifting shape, even collapsing and reforming new structures or gaps in real time as if responding to Yu Sheng’s gaze. Its surface was pitch black, yet within the tangled depths of those tentacles, there appeared to be ever-changing colors, imbued with a disorienting, maddening texture that slowly eroded the mind.

At the very moment Yu Sheng became aware of it, the creature also sensed his presence.

Before he could react, countless new tentacles and branching structures rapidly spread from within it. Malicious tentacles struck instantly, fiercely entwining Yu Sheng’s mind.

Yu Sheng felt as if a thousand voices simultaneously exploded inside his “head.” Helpless to resist or evade, his mind was irrevocably linked to something far greater. That thing howled deep within his consciousness, transmitting frenzied and terrifying thoughts. Yet, in the next instant, Yu Sheng realized it seemed to lack true reason or thought—

It was merely a vast and primal “instinct,” and the frantic illusions and temptations he perceived were tools this colossal instinct mimicked to “hunt.”

Those emanated from the beings it had devoured before—their madness and despair at the end of their hunger, the dying wails of its victims echoing faintly—all converging into the creature’s pure malice. This accumulation had allowed what was initially just a conglomerate of instinct to grow into what it was today: a powerful “entity” that actively “forages,” tempting and coercing its prey.

Moreover, it was rapidly evolving. What had once been merely mimicked cognitive ability was now becoming genuine “thought.”

Now, it began to dismantle Yu Sheng’s mind, attempting to transform this unexpected visitor into its new “nourishment.”

As the sensation of his mind “dissolving” grew, Yu Sheng felt himself being swiftly “digested,” becoming part of the monster. He struggled with all his might to break free from the tentacles entwining him, only to find the harder he fought, the stronger those tentacles became!

Then, suddenly, Yu Sheng sensed something else.

He snapped his gaze toward the massive, writhing entity in the darkness. The next moment, countless eyes of varying shapes abruptly emerged amid the kaleidoscopic colors deep within the shadow—and among them, one pair was his own.

His vision wavered again. In the darkness, he saw countless tentacles stretching forward, their ends entwined around a struggling humanoid shadow.

He sensed the monster was consuming and absorbing him.

He sensed he was devouring something.

He was feeding.

He was feeding.

As Yu Sheng’s perspective blurred, no longer able to discern where he ended and the creature began, a sudden cry pierced faintly from the depths of the darkness—

“Holy shit?!”

The next moment, Yu Sheng felt a violent fall.

He experienced that agonizing awakening all over again in an instant.

Yu Sheng abruptly opened his eyes. The sharp pain, roaring, and aches flooding his body overwhelmed all senses in a blink. He turned over, clutching the bedside table, violently retching, as if he might vomit out his very heart, but nothing came. Only after a long, torturous ten seconds did the dreadful aftereffects gradually subside.

Leaning on the bedside table, Yu Sheng struggled to rise, seeing the faint morning light filtering through the curtains and the doll carrying a picture frame sitting on his bed, her small face etched with great anxiety and tension.

“Are you okay?! Is that you?” Eileen scrambled toward him, using both hands and feet, shaking Yu Sheng’s arm vigorously. “Do you remember who I am?”

“Don’t shake, don’t shake, I’m still dizzy... Damn, my whole body hurts...” Yu Sheng hurriedly interrupted the doll. “I’m awake, Eileen. I’m fine.”

Eileen stared at him for several seconds before finally letting go. “You scared me to death! You—you—you just went completely dead, your mind gone! Then suddenly came back alive, your whole mind in chaos. I didn’t even know what I was waking up! You scared me to death! Scared me to death!”

Eileen repeated “scared me to death” several times, clearly shaken, but Yu Sheng had little energy to comfort the little doll. The tremendous shock from linking deeply with “Hunger” still lingered in his heart, as if a vast shadow remained. He struggled to shake off its influence, leaning against the headboard to catch his breath for a long while until his mind was finally fully clear.

“Eileen, that thing is very dangerous,” he said.

The little doll stood on Yu Sheng’s stomach. “Of course I know it’s dangerous! I told you from the start that thing is dangerous!”

“No, I mean it’s even more dangerous than you realize—it’s about to truly learn how to think.”

Eileen’s eyes widened in shock.

“It originally only had instinct. After devouring countless minds, it learned to coerce and manipulate,” Yu Sheng leaned against the headboard, meeting Eileen’s gaze. “Simple, brutal hunting yields limited ‘nourishment.’ Forcing a mind into madness through manipulation yields astonishing ‘nutrition.’ That thing didn’t understand this at first; it learned gradually. And now... it’s almost capable of genuine thought.”

A trace of terror finally appeared on Eileen’s face, but then she suddenly grasped something else.

“How do you know?!” The doll leaned in sharply, her face nearly touching Yu Sheng’s nose. “You...”

“I formed a deep link with that thing, deeper than we originally planned,” Yu Sheng didn’t hide it. “For a moment, I felt like I became part of that monster... So, in the darkness, I saw its most primal form and the secret of its growth.”

“Holy... holy shit!” Eileen nearly jumped up, then unleashed a torrent of frantic chatter. “I told you this wouldn’t work! It’s dangerous! Nobody knows what will happen! You just had to try it—what now, what now, what now... It’s rooted itself! You’ve been targeted! It’s gnawed into you! ‘Hunger’ has definitely taken root in your mind! Ahhh—It’s over! It’s all over!”

The little doll’s noisy outburst grew louder as she scrambled over Yu Sheng’s stomach and bed. Yu Sheng tried several times to interrupt her in vain, finally forcibly lifting her into the air to quiet her down. “Calm down, Eileen, calm down.”

“Calm my ass! ‘Hunger’ has rooted in your heart! Aren’t you even a little worried?!” Eileen wobbled in the air. “It will grow inside your mind, bigger and bigger, then ‘boom’! You’re done for! Even if you hide in the real world! Do you know your condition right now? Don’t talk about coming back to life! That thing rooted itself in your mind! Your body can regenerate, but what about your mind? Are you sure dying and coming back will get rid of this rooting?”

Yu Sheng knew all this well, but oddly, no sense of impending doom stirred within him. Even his increasingly sharp “spiritual intuition” gave no warning.

He only understood the danger logically, his heart filled with an abnormal calm.

But he knew he couldn’t show too much calm or Eileen would freak out even more.

“As long as we destroy ‘Hunger’ first... I mean, kill that ‘entity instance’ affecting me, there won’t be a problem, right?” Yu Sheng tried to divert Eileen’s attention. “The rooted part takes time to manifest. We still have time.”

“Time... right, time! Hurry, hurry!” Eileen was instantly distracted, realizing she was still being held midair. “Put me down! Put me down, we’re leaving immediately to kill that ‘entity instance,’ right, right, right? We’ll go right now while you still feel okay...”

Yu Sheng exhaled softly, setting Eileen back on the bed and preparing to get up.

But as he moved, waves of soreness surged through his limbs and body, causing him to gasp sharply.

“Ouch! Why does it hurt so much...” Yu Sheng looked down in shock. “I clearly remember last time the aftereffects faded quickly... And it didn’t hurt like this then. Why do I feel like I got beaten up...”

While he spoke, the once anxious doll suddenly quieted and crawled toward the foot of the bed, mumbling softly, “Sometimes ‘awakening’ can cause physical aftereffects...”

“No!” Yu Sheng suddenly realized and pulled back his sleeve. “I was beaten—I have bite marks on my arm!”

Eileen had reached the foot of the bed. “You grind your teeth in your sleep. You bit yourself.”

“You expect me to believe you bit yourself enough to leave marks this small?”

“I’m just trying to get you up! When usual methods don’t work, you have to try something unconventional, right?”

Eileen stood at the foot of the bed, hands on her hips, utterly confident, then turned and dashed out the door at full speed!