Chapter 45: Contact, Rooting

Yu Sheng's psyche was submerged in a vast and indescribable tide of darkness. The shadow projected by the hungry "Essence" was even more staggering in scale than he had imagined, and this immense scale was exactly the posture "Hunger" ought to possess—it was the greatest, most primal terror, suspended above all living beings and buried deep within the hearts of all souls.

Then, in the depths of this shadow, he perceived that slowly floating and writhing... "Entity."

It was difficult for him to say exactly what it was. It seemed to possess countless tentacles and bloated, proliferating masses of flesh; every part of its essence was constantly shifting form, even appearing to collapse into new structures or gaps in real-time as Yu Sheng watched. Its surface was pitch black, yet deep within the interlacing tentacles, there seemed to be hidden, ever-changing colors, possessing a disorienting texture that caused the mind to gradually lose its way.

The moment Yu Sheng perceived the thing, the thing perceived Yu Sheng's existence.

Before he could even react, countless new tentacles and branching structures proliferated from within the thing in the blink of an eye. Tentacles brimming with malice arrived in an instant, violently entangling Yu Sheng's psyche.

Yu Sheng felt as if ten thousand voices had exploded within his "mind." He had no way to defend or dodge; his psyche had already established an irreversible connection with something far more massive. That thing roared in the depths of his consciousness, transmitting frantic and terrifying thoughts, but in the next second, Yu Sheng realized that the thing seemed to lack true reason or thought—

It was merely a vast and wild "instinct," and the frantic ideas and enchantments he felt were merely tools mimicked by this massive instinct for the purpose of "hunting."

They originated from the living beings it had once devoured—the madness and despair at the end of their hunger, the echoes of the victims' death throes. All of this converged into the monster's total malice, allowing this entity, which was originally just a collective of instincts, to gradually grow into what it was today, even becoming a powerful "Entity" capable of actively "foraging" and actively enchanting and coercing its prey.

And it was still growing rapidly; the mental capacity that was originally just mimicked was now gradually becoming its true "thought"!

Now, it began attempting to dismantle Yu Sheng's psyche, attempting to turn this uninvited guest into its new "nourishment."

A sensation of his psyche gradually "dissolving" washed over him. Yu Sheng felt himself being rapidly "digested," becoming a part of that monster. He exerted all his strength to try and break free from the tentacles entangling him, only to find that the stronger his struggle, the stronger the tentacles became!

And just then, Yu Sheng suddenly felt something.

He jerked his gaze toward that massive, writhing entity in the darkness. In the next second, he saw countless eyes of various shapes abruptly emerge from the kaleidoscopic colors deep within the darkness, and one pair of those eyes... was his.

His vision swayed again. In the darkness, he saw countless tentacles extending forward, and at the ends of those tentacles, a struggling humanoid phantom was being entwined.

He felt the monster was digesting and absorbing him.

He felt himself devouring something.

He was feeding.

He was feeding.

Just as Yu Sheng reached the point where he could no longer distinguish where his perspective was, nor where the boundary between himself and the monster lay, Erin's startled cry drifted faintly from the depths of the darkness—

"Holy shit?!"

In the next second, Yu Sheng felt a violent sensation of falling.

The excruciating experience of the last "sudden awakening" hit him all over again in an instant.

Yu Sheng snapped his eyes open. The intense stabbing pain, the roaring in his head, and the agony coursing through his entire body overwhelmed all his senses in a heartbeat. He rolled over, clutching the nightstand and gagging violently, feeling as if he might vomit up his very heart, yet nothing came out. It took a long, agonizing ten seconds for these terrible aftereffects to finally subside.

Leaning against the nightstand, Yu Sheng struggled to push himself up. He saw the faint morning light filtering through the curtains, and saw the doll with the picture frame on her back sitting on his bed, her small face filled with great unease and tension.

"Are you okay?! Is it still you?" Erin scrambled over on all fours, grabbing Yu Sheng's arm and shaking him vigorously. "Do you remember who I am?"

"Stop shaking, stop... I'm still dizzy... damn it, why does my whole body ache..." Yu Sheng hurriedly interrupted the doll. "I'm awake, Erin. I'm fine."

Erin stared at Yu Sheng for several seconds before finally letting go. "You scared me to death! You, you, you... you suddenly acted like you were dead, your psychic response just vanished! And then you suddenly came back to life, your whole mind in a complete mess! I didn't even know what kind of thing I was waking up! You scared me to death! Scared me to death!"

Erin repeated "scared me to death" several times, clearly having been genuinely terrified. Yu Sheng, however, had little energy left to comfort the little doll. The massive impact of establishing a deep link with "Hunger" still lingered in his heart, feeling almost like a vast shadow remained. Yu Sheng struggled to shake off its influence, leaning against the headboard and panting for a long time before his mind finally cleared completely.

"Erin, 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 was dangerous!"

"No, I mean it's more dangerous than you know—it's about to truly learn how to think."

Erin froze, her eyes wide.

"Originally, it only had instinct. It only learned the methods of coercion and enchantment after devouring countless psyches," Yu Sheng said, leaning against the headboard and looking into Erin's eyes. "Simple, crude hunting only yields limited 'nutrients.' Forcing and enchanting a psyche to the point of madness yields incredible 'nutrition.' It didn't know these things from the start; it learned them gradually. And now... it is almost on the verge of true cognitive activity."

A trace of terror finally appeared on Erin's face, but immediately after, she realized something else.

"How do you know?!" The doll lunged forward, her face almost touching the tip of Yu Sheng's nose. "You..."

"...I established a deep link with that thing, deeper than we originally planned," Yu Sheng did not hide it. "For a moment, I felt as if I had become a part of that monster... and so, in the depths of the darkness, I saw its most primal form and the secret of its continuous growth."

"Holy... Holy shit!" Erin nearly jumped out of her skin, followed by a torrential storm of rapid-fire speech. "I told you this wouldn't work! It's too dangerous! No one knows what will happen, but you insisted on trying! What do we do, what do we do, what do we do... we're screwed! It's definitely taken root! You weren't just targeted, you were gnawed on! 'Hunger' has definitely taken root in your psyche, ahhhhh—it's over! It's all o-ver!"

The little doll's frantic commotion grew louder as she scrambled all over the bed and Yu Sheng's stomach. Yu Sheng tried to interrupt her several times to no avail, eventually having to forcibly lift her into mid-air to make her quiet down. "Calm down, Erin. Calm down."

"Calm my ass! 'Hunger' has already taken root in your heart! Aren't you even a little nervous?!" Erin swung wildly in mid-air. "It will grow in your psyche, bigger and bigger, and then—BOOM! You're done! Even if you hide in the real world! Do you even realize your current situation... don't tell me you'll just resurrect! This thing is rooted in your psyche! Your body can regenerate, but can your psyche? Are you sure that once you die and come back, you can shake off this 'rooting'?"

Yu Sheng knew all of this, of course, but for some reason, he felt no sense of urgency or the feeling that his life was on a countdown. Even his increasingly sharp "spiritual intuition" had not issued a warning.

He knew the situation was dangerous on a rational level, but his heart was filled with an abnormal calm.

However, he knew he couldn't show this calmness too much, or Erin would lose it completely.

"As long as we eliminate 'Hunger' before that happens... I mean, if we kill the 'Entity Instance' that is affecting me, there won't be a problem, right?" Yu Sheng tried to divert Erin's attention. "The 'rooting' part takes time to erupt. We still have time."

"Time... right, there's still time, hurry, we have to hurry!" As expected, Erin's attention was instantly diverted, though she belatedly realized she was being held in mid-air. "Put me down! Put me down quickly, let's set out immediately to take out that 'Entity Instance,' yes, yes, let's go right now, while you don't feel much yet..."

Yu Sheng exhaled softly, placed Erin on the bed, and prepared to get up.

But as soon as he made a large movement, he immediately felt waves of soreness radiating from his limbs, causing him to gasp.

"Hiss! Why does it hurt so much..." Yu Sheng looked down at himself in bewilderment. "I clearly remember that after the last 'sudden awakening,' the aftereffects disappeared quickly... and my body didn't hurt then. Why does this feel like I've been beaten up..."

As he spoke, the doll, who had been frantic just a second ago, suddenly went quiet. Erin then began to crawl toward the foot of the bed inconspicuously, muttering under her breath, "S... sometimes 'sudden awakenings' do produce some physical aftereffects..."

"Wait a minute!" Yu Sheng reacted instantly, pulling back his sleeve. "I *was* beaten up—I have teeth marks on my arm!"

By then, Erin had already reached the foot of the bed. "You grind your teeth in your sleep. You bit yourself."

"You're telling me these tiny teeth marks are from me biting myself?"

"I did it to wake you up! If conventional methods don't work, you have to use unconventional ones!"

Erin stood at the foot of the bed with her hands on her hips, looking completely justified, before turning around, jumping to the floor, and bolting out the door!

(End of Chapter)