"Hunger"

Falling, being tossed up, then falling again—this process repeated endlessly amid absolute cold and emptiness. His thoughts were churned into a tangled mess, and his confused perceptions stabbed relentlessly at his mind like sharp blades. Only when his consciousness was on the verge of cutting out did a sensation of sudden release from the brink of drowning finally wash over him, jolting Yu Sheng awake from that infinite fall through cold darkness.

He abruptly sat up in bed, then immediately lost his balance. His body tilted, nearly sending him tumbling to the floor, but at the last moment he grabbed the corner of the nightstand and barely managed to steady himself. His head spun violently.

The sharp, persistent throbbing made him wonder whether his brain was actually boiling.

Fortunately, the sensation did not last too long. Once he truly regained consciousness, those unbearable feelings in his head faded like the dream itself, leaving behind only a faintly unpleasant impression.

Yu Sheng sat on the edge of the bed and took several breaths. Looking out the window, he saw the setting sun gradually nearing the rooftops of the distant urban district, while the sky slowly darkened.

"...An entire day has passed..." he muttered in surprise. Supporting himself against the nightstand, he stood up, went to the table, poured himself a glass of water, and gulped it down. Only then did he pat his face, doing his best to recover from that far-from-peaceful sleep before leaving the bedroom and heading downstairs.

"I really didn't expect your 'violent awakening' to be this awful," Yu Sheng complained to the oil painting on the dining table as soon as he entered the dining room. "I thought you'd just feel dizzy for a while or have your heart pound a bit. Good grief, the moment I opened my eyes, I nearly threw up last year's New Year's Eve dinner..."

After he finished complaining, Eileen did not immediately respond with her usual string of beeps. Instead, she was eerily quiet. Sensing something strange, Yu Sheng turned toward the oil painting on the table, only to see Eileen sprawled limply on the chair covered with a red velvet blanket as if she had malfunctioned. Hugging her teddy bear, she stared blankly at the space above her. Every so often, her eyeballs would roll, followed immediately by her sitting up and dry-heaving.

Yu Sheng: "...How did your 'violent awakening' manage to make you this miserable too?"

Eileen looked up at him. She had just opened her mouth to speak when another wave of nausea hit—but as a doll who had been sealed away for who knew how many years, she had never eaten New Year's Eve dinner, let alone had anything in her stomach. In fact, Yu Sheng even suspected that she did not have a stomach at all. So all she could do was lean over the side of the chair and suffer in silence, retching so violently that it looked as though she might shake her head off the next second.

It took a long time before the unfortunate doll finally recovered. She looked up at Yu Sheng and said in a voice as weak as someone on their deathbed, "I wasn't the one who 'woke' the two of us up. You were."

Yu Sheng: "...Huh?"

"Your final shout scared that fox awake. I didn't even have time to react!" Eileen looked utterly aggrieved. "Why did you have to yell so loudly?"

Yu Sheng was a little dazed, but at least he understood what she meant. Somewhat awkwardly, he scratched his hair. "I didn't know. I just wanted to remind Huli. I felt like her condition was dangerous."

"Then your feeling was pretty accurate." As Eileen spoke, she leaned over the side of the chair again with a retch. After dry-heaving twice, she caught her breath and glared irritably at Yu Sheng. "Well, the good news is that you successfully woke that fox before she sank any deeper. Although she 'ejected' the two of us when she woke up, she should be able to remain conscious for a while too."

Yu Sheng walked over, pulled out the chair beside the dining table, and sat opposite Eileen. His expression gradually turned serious. "Then what's the bad news?"

Eileen did not speak for a while. After several seconds of silence, she nodded lightly. "You probably guessed it already. She won't be able to hold out for long."

Yu Sheng frowned without saying anything.

Yes, he had sensed it. He had sensed it while trapped in the valley—the hunger and madness buried deep in Huli's heart, spreading and gnawing away at her like some kind of growing malignity. He had not known what it was at first, but during his final confrontation with that flesh-and-blood monster, he had realized that the "hunger" was not as simple as it appeared.

What he had seen just now in the depths of the dream had merely given him a more accurate understanding of Huli's condition.

"If you want to help that fox, you'd better act quickly," Eileen said from the side. "The thing tempting her is trying to turn her into some kind of... 'nutrient.' Killing people isn't its goal. What it wants is the 'madness born of hunger.' That fox's will is strong enough to resist until now, which is incredible. But the longer she holds on, the greater the 'nutrients' she'll be able to provide when the 'conversion' takes place... Things will become troublesome. Extremely, extremely troublesome."

Yu Sheng listened with a grim expression, supplementing Eileen's description with everything he had learned so far. Then he suddenly realized something and raised his head to look at the frame opposite him.

"Eileen," he said solemnly, "do you... know something? About the valley, and the things inside it?"

Eileen hesitated. She first shook her head, then immediately nodded lightly.

"I don't remember most of it, including what exactly happened to that valley. I've forgotten all of it. But Huli's situation feels vaguely familiar. I think I've seen information about this before."

As she spoke, she frowned and paused briefly, as if trying to rummage through her broken, fragmented memories for anything useful.

"...Entity—Hunger. I think that's what it was called," Eileen said as she recalled. "It's an entity with clear malice and a high Danger Level. It forms within a sealed-off area, where the environment becomes toxic and hunger spreads. It's highly aggressive, but what's more dangerous is its 'influence.' Anyone noticed by the entity will fall into terrifying hunger, while their willpower is put to an immense test. I can't remember the specific incidents involving its victims. I only recall that... it was very dangerous, had harmed many people, and even worse..."

Eileen stopped and looked into Yu Sheng's eyes.

"Hunger turns people into beasts while devouring their dignity and lives. Most people probably can't withstand it, and those who fall will also become part of Entity—Hunger, endlessly and without end."

As he listened to Eileen's account, Yu Sheng's expression gradually tightened. A heavy sense of oppression settled over his heart. Then, at that very moment, he suddenly thought of something else—

That urge to feed he had felt while fighting the flesh-and-blood monster!

Could he have already been affected by "hunger" too?!

Yu Sheng's heart clenched, and he immediately spoke rapidly. "Wait. What's the main 'symptom' after being affected by 'hunger'?"

Eileen gave him a strange look. "...Hunger, obviously."

"That's not what I mean. I mean..." Yu Sheng hurriedly waved his hands, then organized his thoughts. "For example, when I saw that monster, I really wanted to take a bite out of it. I even thought it tasted pretty good, and after I came back, I stir-fried two dishes with it. Could that reaction also have been caused by the influence of 'hunger'?"

Eileen's expression visibly went blank. Her first thought was of the "local specialty" Yu Sheng had brought back, along with the four dishes and one soup that had been both fragrant and appetizing.

"Right, right, you ate it too..." the doll murmured. But then she suddenly realized something, and her tone changed. "No! Of course not! Entity—Hunger's influence makes you go mad with hunger and gnaw on other people, not gnaw on it! It tempts people into madness by using itself as bait? That's not how this works!"

Eileen's outburst startled Yu Sheng, but he immediately understood the logic. Although hunger and appetite were closely related, when applied to the "Otherworld" and "entities," which were based on strict rules, they represented two entirely distinct definitions. Especially when an entity possessed active malice, its influence would certainly operate according to its rules.

Put more simply, if Yu Sheng had truly been affected by "hunger" while in that valley, he should have been gnawing on Huli—not the monster that was the source of the temptation.

Of course, he had been somewhat unwilling the first time he bit into that monster, but that was beside the point.

At that thought, Yu Sheng relaxed. After confirming that he had not been eroded by that strange entity, he also recalled that he had felt normally full after eating before going to sleep. His heart finally settled, and he let out a long breath. "That's good. Looks like I'm still pretty normal."

Eileen stared blankly after hearing that, then muttered quietly, "No, I think the fact that you could feel an appetite for that thing is already abnormal..."

Yu Sheng waved dismissively and immediately changed the subject. "So that incredibly abstract-looking but surprisingly tasty monster was Entity—Hunger, right? Killing it would free Huli from its influence. I know entities can't be killed completely. I mean temporarily killing it."

"Actually... I'm not sure." Eileen's reply was hesitant. "'Hunger' is a relatively special entity. The monster you saw was its 'manifestation,' but as I understand it, true 'hunger' actually permeates that entire valley. Do you understand what I mean? What you saw was merely a 'tentacle' it sent out to hunt and sense the situation. Its true body... just like its name suggests, is the hunger present everywhere in the valley."

Yu Sheng listened, his expression gradually turning blank.

Yes, he understood.

"Fuck, it's a rule-based entity?!"