Contact, Rooted

Yu Sheng's mind was submerged in a vast and indescribable tide of darkness, a shadow cast by the hungry "true form" that was far more immense than he had imagined. This immense scale was precisely as "Hunger" should be—the greatest, most primal terror suspended above all living beings, buried deep within their hearts.

Then, in the depths of this shadow, he sensed it, slowly floating and writhing... an "Entity."

He struggled to describe what it was. It seemed to possess countless tentacles and bloated, overgrown masses of flesh. Every part of its true form was constantly changing, as if collapsing into new structures or gaps in real-time with Yu Sheng's gaze. Its surface was pitch black, yet deep within the tangle of tentacles, shifting colors seemed to hide, possessing a disorienting texture that gradually led the mind astray.

The instant Yu Sheng perceived the thing, it perceived his existence.

There was no time to react. Innumerable new tentacles and branching structures spread from within the thing in the blink of an eye. Malicious tentacles arrived instantly, violently coiling around Yu Sheng's mind.

Yu Sheng felt ten thousand voices explode in his "mind." He had no way to resist or evade; his mind had already established an irreversible connection with something far larger. 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 some vast, wild "instinct," and the chaotic thoughts and temptations he felt were merely tools it mimicked to "hunt."

They originated from the beings it had once devoured—their madness and despair at the end of hunger, the lingering echoes of their dying screams. All of this converged to form the monster's complete malice, allowing this entity, originally just an aggregation of instinct, to grow to its current state, even becoming a powerful "Entity" that actively "hunted," actively tempted, and coerced its prey.

And it was still growing rapidly. The simulated thought capabilities it originally possessed were now gradually becoming its true "mind"!

Now, it began to attempt to dismantle Yu Sheng's mind, trying to turn this unexpected guest into its new "nourishment."

A feeling of his mind gradually "dissolving" washed over him. Yu Sheng felt himself being rapidly "digested," becoming a part of the monster. He struggled with all his might to break free from the tentacles entwining him, only to find that the harder he struggled, the stronger those tentacles became!

And at that moment, Yu Sheng suddenly felt something.

He looked sharply at the vast entity constantly writhing in the darkness. The next second, he saw countless eyes of various forms suddenly appear within the colorful patterns deep in the darkness, and among them... one pair of eyes was his.

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

He felt the monster digesting and absorbing him.

He felt himself devouring something.

He was eating.

He was eating.

Just as Yu Sheng could barely distinguish where his perspective was, unable to tell the boundary between himself and the monster, Eileen's startled cry faintly echoed from the depths of the darkness—

"Holy shit?!"

The next second, Yu Sheng felt a violent descent.

He experienced the same excruciating awakening as last time.

Yu Sheng's eyes snapped open. The intense stabbing pain, the roaring in his head, and the agony throughout his body instantly overwhelmed all his senses. He rolled over, clutching the bedside table, gagging violently, wishing he could vomit his own heart out but unable to. After a long, agonizing ten seconds, the terrible aftereffects finally began to subside.

Yu Sheng leaned on the bedside table, struggling to push himself up. He saw the faint morning light filtering through the curtains into the room. He saw the doll, carrying a picture frame, sitting on his bed, her small face filled with great unease and tension.

"Are you okay?! Is that still you?" Eileen scrambled over, grabbing Yu Sheng's arm and shaking him vigorously. "Do you remember who I am?"

"Don't shake me, don't shake me, I'm still dizzy... Holy shit, why does my whole body hurt..." Yu Sheng quickly interrupted the doll. "I'm awake, Eileen, I'm fine."

Eileen stared at Yu Sheng for several seconds before finally letting go. "You scared me to death! You, you, you... you suddenly went limp, your mental responses disappeared! Then you suddenly came back to life, your whole mind in a mess, 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 terrified. Yu Sheng, however, had little energy to comfort the little doll. The immense impact of establishing a deep link with "Hunger" still lingered in his heart, as if a vast shadow remained. Yu Sheng struggled to shake off its influence, panting heavily against the headboard for a long time before his mind finally cleared completely.

"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 it was dangerous from the start!"

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

Eileen's eyes widened in shock.

"It originally only had instinct. It was only after devouring countless minds that it learned the methods of coercion and temptation," Yu Sheng leaned against the headboard, looking into Eileen's eyes. "Simple, brutal hunting only yields limited 'nutrients.' Forcing and tempting a mind into madness yields astonishing 'nutrition.' That thing didn't understand these things from the beginning; it learned them gradually. And now... it's almost developed true thought processes."

A trace of fear gradually appeared on Eileen's face, but then, she suddenly realized something else.

"How do you know?!" The doll suddenly leaned in, her face almost touching Yu Sheng's nose. "You..."

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

"Holy... holy shit!" Eileen practically jumped up, followed by a rapid-fire barrage of exclamations. "I told you this was no good! This is dangerous! No one knows what will happen, and you still insisted on trying it! What do we do, what do we do, what do we do... It's over! It's definitely taken root! You're not just being targeted, you've been gnawed on! 'Hunger' has definitely taken root in your mind, ahhhhh—it's all over! It's ALL over!"

The doll's frantic babbling grew louder as she crawled all over the bed and Yu Sheng's stomach. Yu Sheng tried to interrupt her several times without success, eventually having to forcibly lift her into the air to quiet her down. "Calm down, Eileen, calm down."

"Calm down my ass! 'Hunger' has taken root in your mind! Aren't you even a little bit nervous?!" Eileen dangled in mid-air. "It will grow in your mind, getting bigger and bigger, and then, boom! You're done for! Even if you hide in the real world, it's the same! Do you even know your current situation... Don't tell me you can revive! This thing is rooted in your mind! Your body can regenerate, but can your mind? Are you sure that dying and coming back to life will get rid of this 'rooting'?"

Yu Sheng knew all of this, of course, but he also didn't know why there was no sense of impending doom in his heart, no feeling of life counting down. Even his increasingly accurate "spiritual intuition" hadn't warned him.

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

But he knew he couldn't show this calmness too much, or Eileen would go even crazier.

"As long as we eliminate 'Hunger' before that... I mean, kill the 'Entity instance' that's affecting me, there won't be a problem, right?" Yu Sheng tried to divert Eileen's attention. "The 'rooted' part will only erupt after a certain time, we still have time."

"Time... right, there's still time, hurry, we need to hurry!" Eileen was indeed instantly distracted. At the same time, she belatedly noticed that she was being held in the air. "Put me down! Hurry and put me down, we'll leave immediately to take care of that 'Entity instance,' yes, yes, let's go now, before you feel anything..."

Yu Sheng let out a soft breath and placed Eileen back on the bed, preparing to get up.

But as soon as he moved more broadly, he felt waves of soreness spreading from his limbs, and he immediately gasped.

"Hiss! Why does it hurt so much..." Yu Sheng looked down at himself in surprise. "I clearly remember the aftereffects disappearing quickly after the last 'awakening'... and it didn't hurt all over back then. Why does it feel like I've been beaten up..."

As he spoke, the doll beside him, who had been frantically scrambling a moment ago, suddenly quieted down. Then Eileen, while stealthily crawling towards the foot of the bed, muttered softly, "Sometimes... sometimes 'awakening' can also have some physical aftereffects..."

"No!" Yu Sheng suddenly realized, pushing aside his sleeve. "I was beaten up—I still have bite marks on my arm!"

Eileen had already crawled to the foot of the bed by then. "You grind your teeth in your sleep, you bit yourself."

"You're saying these small bite marks are from me biting myself?"

"I was trying to wake you up! If the usual methods don't work, don't I have to use some unconventional ones?"

Eileen stood at the foot of the bed, hands on her hips, looking righteous. Then she turned and jumped to the floor, bolting out the door!