Yu Sheng's mind was immersed in a vast and indescribable tide of darkness, a shadow cast by the "hunger" entity that was even more monumental than he had imagined. This vast scale was exactly the posture that "hunger" should have—hanging over the heads of all beings, deeply buried in the hearts of all creatures, it was the greatest, most primal terror.
Then, deep within this shadow, he perceived the slowly floating, writhing... "entity".
It was hard for him to describe precisely what it was; it seemed to have countless tentacles and bloated growths of flesh, changing shapes continuously, even collapsing into new structures or gaps under his gaze. Its surface was pitch-black; however, in the depths where the tentacles intertwined, there seemed to hide constantly shifting colors, carrying a disorienting texture that gradually led one's mind astray.
The moment Yu Sheng became aware of this entity, it too became aware of Yu Sheng's presence.
Without time to react, countless new tentacles and branches spread out within the entity in the blink of an eye, maliciously entwining Yu Sheng's mind.
Yu Sheng felt ten thousand voices explosively bursting inside his "mind," defenseless and unable to escape. His mind had already irrevocably connected with something much larger, roaring deep within his consciousness, transmitting frenzied and terrifying thoughts. But the next second, Yu Sheng realized that the entity might not really possess rational thinking—
It was merely a vast, untamed "instinct." The hectic thoughts and seductions he felt were just tools mimicked by this immense instinct to "hunt."
They originated from the beings it had once devoured, their madness and despair at the brink of starvation, the lingering cries of those victims. All of this converged into the monster's entire malice, a creature that initially was just an aggregate of instincts but had grown to actively "hunt," seduce, and coerce its prey.
And it was still growing rapidly; its initially mimicked cognitive ability was gradually turning into its true "thoughts"!
Now, it began attempting to dismantle Yu Sheng's mind, trying to turn this unexpected visitor into its new "nourishment."
The feeling of his mind "dissolving" came, Yu Sheng felt he was being rapidly "digested," becoming part of that monster. He tried his hardest to escape the entwining tentacles, only to discover the more he struggled, the stronger the tentacles became!
At that moment, Yu Sheng suddenly sensed something.
He sharply turned to look at the massive entity continuously writhing in the darkness. The next second, amid the colorful patches deep within the darkness, myriad eyes of various shapes abruptly appeared, and among them… one pair was his own.
His perspective shook suddenly, and in the darkness, he saw countless tentacles stretching forward, with a struggling humanoid shadow at their ends.
He felt the monster digesting and absorbing him.
He felt himself devouring something.
He was consuming.
He was consuming.
Just as Yu Sheng almost couldn't tell where his perspective was, unable to distinguish the boundary between himself and the monster, Erin's exclamation suddenly came faintly from the depths of the darkness—
"What the fuck?!"
The next second, Yu Sheng felt a fierce plummet.
That painfully intense Rude Awakening experience hit him once again.
Yu Sheng abruptly opened his eyes, his mind filled with intense pain and a roar, his body aching everywhere, overwhelmed all his senses. He turned over, holding onto the bedside table and heaved violently, trying to vomit out his own heart, yet nothing came out. After a long ten seconds, the terrible side effects finally began to lessen.
Yu Sheng held the bedside table, struggling to get up, seeing the dim morning light filtering through the curtains into the room, seeing the doll with its back to the painting frame sitting on his bed, its small face bearing great unease and tension.
"Are you okay?! Is it still you?" Erin asked, scrambling over and shaking Yu Sheng's arm earnestly. "Do you still remember who I am?"
"Stop shaking; I'm still dizzy… What the fuck, why does everything hurt…" Yu Sheng quickly interrupted the doll, "I'm awake, Erin, I'm fine."
Erin stared at Yu Sheng for several seconds before finally letting go of his hand: "You scared me to death! You, you, you... You suddenly became like you were dead, all cognitive responses gone! And then you came back to life abruptly, your mind all in a mess, I didn't even know what I was waking up! You scared me to death! Scared me to death!"
Erin repeated "scared me to death" several times, clearly really frightened, but Yu Sheng hardly had the surplus energy to soothe this little doll. The tremendous impact brought by establishing a deep link with "Hunger" still lingered in his heart, even casting a vast shadow, as Yu Sheng struggled to shake off its effects, leaning against the headboard and gasping for a long time before finally clearing his mind completely.
"Erin, that thing is very dangerous," he said.
The little doll stood on Yu Sheng's belly: "Of course I know it's dangerous! I told you from the start it was dangerous!"
"No, I mean it's more dangerous than you think—it's about to actually learn how to think."
Erin was stunned.
"It originally only had instincts, but after devouring countless consciousnesses, it learned the means to coerce and beguile," Yu Sheng leaned against the headboard, staring into Erin's eyes, "mere brute hunting only yields limited 'nourishment', driving a consciousness insane provides astonishing 'nutrition'. It didn't understand these from the start; it gradually learned, and now... it's almost starting to truly think."
Erin's face finally began to show a hint of terror, but then she suddenly remembered something else.
"How do you know?!" The doll suddenly leaned forward, her face almost up against Yu Sheng's nose, "You..."
"...I established a deeper link with that thing, deeper than we initially planned," Yu Sheng didn't hide, "for a moment, I felt like I even became part of that monster... So in the dark depths, I saw its most primitive form and its secrets of continuous growth."
"Holy shit!" Erin almost jumped up, followed by a torrential rage of cursing, "I told you this wouldn't work! It's too dangerous! No one knows what could happen, yet you still had to try, what do we do what do we do what do we do... It's screwed! It must have rooted! You're not just targeted, you're being consumed! 'Hunger' must have rooted in your mind—It's over! It's all over!"
The little doll became increasingly rowdy on the bed, crawling all over Yu Sheng, who tried several times to interrupt to no avail, until finally he had to forcefully pick her up into mid-air to calm her down: "Calm down, Erin, calm down."
"Calm down my ass! 'Hunger' has already rooted in you! Aren't you even a bit worried?!" Erin dangled in mid-air, "It will grow in your consciousness, bigger and bigger, and then 'boom'! You're screwed! Even if you hide in the real world! Do you even know your current condition... Don't say you can resurrect! This thing is rooted in your mind! Your body can regenerate, can your mind? Are you sure dying and coming back to life can get rid of this 'rooting'?"
Yu Sheng of course knew all this, but for some reason he felt not the slightest imminent sense of life ticking down to zero, nor did his increasingly potent "Spiritual Intuition" warn him.
He only knew rationally the situation was dangerous, but his heart was filled with an abnormal calm.
But he knew he couldn't show too much of this calm, it would only make Erin more frantic.
"Just need to eliminate 'Hunger' before then... I mean, kill the 'real instance' that's affecting me, and there will be no problem, right?" Yu Sheng tried to shift Erin's focus, "'Rooting' will take some time to manifest, we still have time."
"Time... Yes, there's still time, hurry, we have to hurry!" Erin indeed had her attention diverted and realized she was being held in mid-air, "Put me down! Put me down now, let's go immediately and kill that 'real instance', yes, yes, yes, we should leave immediately while you still don't feel much..."
Yu Sheng let out a breath, set Erin on the bed, and prepared to get up.
But as soon as he moved, he immediately felt waves of pain coming from all over his limbs, drawing a sharp intake of breath.
"Ouch! Why does it hurt so much..." Yu Sheng looked down at himself baffled, "I clearly remember that the side effects disappeared quickly after the last 'Rude Awakening'... And it didn't hurt back then, why does it feel like I've been beaten up now..."
As he spoke, the previously frantic doll suddenly became quiet, then Erin quietly crawled toward the end of the bed muttering, "Sometimes 'Rude Awakening' can cause some physical side effects too..."
"No!" Yu Sheng suddenly realized, pulling up his sleeves, "I was bitten—I still have bite marks on my arm!"
Erin had already reached the end of the bed: "You grind your teeth when you sleep, you bit yourself."
"These small bite marks, you're saying I bit myself?"
"I did it to wake you up! If regular methods don't work, shouldn't I try something unorthodox?"
Erin stood at the end of the bed, hands on hips, righteously indignant, then turned and jumped to the floor, scurrying outside!