Third Time's the Limit

It never happens... three times.

In the final second before death came, Yu Sheng felt an endless, incomparably heavy... "darkness," as though some viscous fluid had taken on physical form.

He felt his consciousness rapidly dissipating. He knew that the shell supporting that consciousness was swiftly losing its vitality under catastrophic injuries—once his bodily functions ceased, the thoughts carried by his flesh would sink and vanish along with them. That was the natural order.

Yet at the edge of fading consciousness, a force—or rather, a powerful... "thought," a strange obsession—seemed to firmly bind Yu Sheng's mind. In his daze, he remembered the Frog that had devoured his heart, and his previous "resurrection."

What had happened then? What had happened to him? Why was he alive?

Those questions became an obsession, keeping his consciousness braced at the edge of that endless darkness. Though it teetered on the verge of collapse, it never completely sank. He truly wanted to know... what exactly had happened, and how he had "come back" after death.

The darkness crushed down upon him. Its viscous texture gradually became cold and rough. He felt as if he were being buried beneath a thick layer of earth, his soul slowly unable to breathe beneath that immense pressure... But then, all at once, the crushing weight vanished.

In a sudden flash of insight, a thought emerged from his wavering consciousness—

Within his death, death had died before him.

Yu Sheng's death had died, and so the dead Yu Sheng once again returned from that boundless darkness toward the realm of the living—he felt his "body" suddenly grow lighter and begin accelerating away from the endless dark.

During that process, he vaguely saw something on the surface of the darkness. He seemed to be swiftly skimming past some kind of "outer layer," but before he could make it out, he abruptly opened his eyes.

The cold night wind blew in through the huge hole in the wall. Beyond the half-collapsed rooftop was a chaotic, filthy sky, while deep in the night, the hollow wind of the valley howled.

Yu Sheng sat in the corner of the ruined temple, his mind muddled. He was familiar with that feeling—he had gone through it once not long ago.

But this time, he recovered much faster. In just a few breaths, he remembered everything, including the feeling of being buried in darkness.

After steadying his breathing, Yu Sheng slowly rose to his feet.

He felt every joint in his body gradually wake from its stiffness, as though a newborn body were rapidly learning how to "live." His strength swiftly returned, his mind slowly cleared, and only then did he look outside the ruined temple, toward the place where his blood had covered the ground before.

There was nothing there now. That giant beast seemed to have left... or perhaps it was merely hiding, just as it had before.

After a moment of silence, Yu Sheng tentatively spoke in his mind. "...Eileen."

Almost the instant his words fell, Eileen's boisterous voice exploded in his heart. "Yu Sheng! Damn, are you okay?!"

Then she immediately started rambling at high speed. "You suddenly stopped responding! No matter how I called you, there was no reaction. I couldn't even sense where your consciousness was! I thought you were dead! You scared me to death! If you died, no one would come fix the TV—you really okay?"

The muscles in Yu Sheng's face twitched. "So you were only worried that no one would come home and fix the TV?"

Eileen thought for a moment. "...Not entirely. I was also worried you might really be dead..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

She had actually hesitated!

After trying hard to calm himself, Yu Sheng finally gritted his teeth and made his voice sound even. "What if I told you I really did die once just now?"

Eileen did not believe him at all. "Quit messing around. You sound lively enough right now..."

"...Right, I was just joking." Hearing Eileen's response, Yu Sheng calmly let the subject pass. After a brief silence, he suddenly asked, "How long has it been?"

"Huh? How long has what been?"

"How much time has passed since I told you I was hanging up?"

"Uh... I can't see the clock in the living room from where I am either... I'd estimate around half an hour? Not necessarily accurate. I've been sealed inside this painting for years, so my sense of time is a little dull. But the sky outside doesn't seem to have changed much. At least a whole night hasn't passed. It's not dawn yet..."

Yu Sheng: "...Isn't that a little too inaccurate? Do you know how much of a difference there is between half an hour and a whole night?!"

Eileen fell silent for a moment, but then a harsh, low snicker came from her side.

Eileen immediately explained, "Not me! It was this bear!"

Yu Sheng, exhausted in both body and mind, waved a hand. "I know."

Eileen sounded delighted. "Ah, you're finally willing to believe me..."

Yu Sheng could no longer be bothered with the person in the painting. He was too embarrassed to tell her that he did not believe her explanation at all. He simply felt that—if she really wanted a beating, she did not even need to laugh. Just talking was enough to make people want to hit her.

The facts proved that compared to Eileen's sharp tongue, that bear's cheap snickering could at most add fuel to the fire...

With useless thoughts spinning through his mind, Yu Sheng walked out of the ruined temple again.

He did not know whether it was an illusion, but he felt even stronger than before he had died. His steps were light, his movements powerful, and even his eyesight... seemed to have improved a little.

He seemed to be adapting to this place—to its darkness, its rugged ruins, and the malice and hungry gazes everywhere within it.

He walked toward the clearing before the ruined temple, toward the woods across from it, toward the deeper reaches of this "Otherworld."

He knew that he might die again, perhaps with his very next step, perhaps in the very next second.

"Yu Sheng," Eileen's voice sounded in his mind again. "Are you really okay?"

"I'm fine. Just a minor injury. It's already healed."

"Well, maybe you should stay where you are for now, or find somewhere safe to hide. I'll try to remember. Maybe I've encountered that 'valley' you mentioned before..."

"Then go ahead and remember. I'll keep looking around here," Yu Sheng said casually.

"Huh? That might be kind of danger—"

"Eileen," Yu Sheng directly interrupted her. He had already reached the clearing. Taking a deep breath of the valley's cold air, thick with a strange stench of blood, he looked at the shadowy, sinister forest in the distance and suddenly grinned. "You know, I've been muddling through life these past few days."

Eileen clearly could not keep up with his train of thought. "Uh... should I know that..."

But Yu Sheng did not care about Eileen's reaction. He simply continued, "...Just now, you mentioned the 'Otherworld,' and incidents involving people accidentally entering the Otherworld. Do you know what my reaction was?"

"What reaction?"

"Happiness."

"Huh?"

"Happiness. I'm extremely happy." Standing in the night, Yu Sheng could not suppress his smile. "You said that some people accidentally open the wrong door, or merely step onto the wrong floorboard at a particular moment under incredibly unlikely circumstances, and then fall into a hellhole called the 'Otherworld,' right? And you also said that if people who fall into the Otherworld are lucky enough to find its rules, they still have a chance to return..."

"That's what I said..." Eileen replied hesitantly. "But it really depends on luck. Professional investigators are one thing, but ordinary people basically fall into the Otherworld and wait to die if they haven't been trained..."

Yu Sheng murmured softly, "It's fine. Die enough times and I'll figure it out..."

Eileen: "...What?"

"Nothing. I just suddenly found something to do." Yu Sheng let out a soft breath, as though he wanted to exhale in one go all the stale air he had been holding inside through two muddled months in this world. "I'll start here. It may take more time, but I'll definitely get out of this place."

"I don't know what's going on over there, but it feels like you're... fired up?" Eileen said uncertainly. "Well, that's a good thing, at least. Good luck? Try not to die... I'm still waiting for you to come back and fix the TV... and find me a body or something..."

"Fine. Once I get back, I'll find a way to deal with your body problem," Yu Sheng said casually. "I've had some exposure to sculpture and model-making before. I should be able to give it a try."

This time, Eileen was genuinely thrilled. "Huh? You have experience as a dollmaker?! Why didn't you say so sooner? How good are you? What level of dolls or models can you make?"

Yu Sheng hesitated, then honestly confessed, "About the level where I watch some expert sculpt clay in an online video, and afterward my brain tells my hands they've learned it, but my hands don't believe it."

Two seconds later, Eileen cursed him viciously.

But Yu Sheng's mood had completely relaxed. A sense of ease that he himself did not know was quite right spurred on his confidence. He walked forward, then looked up into the night again, intending to glance toward the mountain to one side.

A gigantic beast of flesh, several meters tall and seemingly formed from countless twisted predator limbs fused together, was staring at him from the roadside.

Yu Sheng stopped, thought for a moment, and called out in his mind to the person in the painting who was still swearing. "Eileen."

"What is it?"

"...Nothing. I'm about to hang up again."

"Huh?"