Chapter 13: Meeting

Ah, the familiar darkness, the familiar oppressive weight, and the familiar sensation of consciousness sinking endlessly.

Yu Sheng's thoughts floated in the depths of a chaotic darkness; rising along with the oppressive weight coming from all directions was an overwhelming sense of helplessness and exhaustion.

He had thought there might be many twists and turns before he left that "Otherworld," even considered he might have to "die" more than once, but he guessed the beginning and the end, yet not this process—during the time he drifted and sank in the darkness, he could not help but recall the final scene he saw before losing consciousness, recalling that pair of golden-red pupils that flashed into his eyes in that blurry instant, those magnificent fox tails blooming like flowers in the night sky...

And that supersonic headbutt.

So, who exactly was that Miss who headbutted herself to death? Where did she come from? And why did she appear in this Otherworld?

Besides... what was going on with the changes happening to his body while he fought that monster? That inexplicable surge of strength, agility, and...

That hungry impulse.

What exactly happened to him?

Yu Sheng felt his tangled and chaotic thoughts swirl like a vortex in his mind, and without the constraints of a physical body, these out-of-control "thoughts" even constantly manifested into various bizarre and colorful illusions before his "eyes," with many memories rising from the depths interwoven within the illusions—he saw the monster composed of countless piled-up limbs, and he saw that suddenly appeared "headbutt" Miss with fox tails and ears, but the next second, he saw an oil painting, in which Erin lay torn apart around a chair, puppet limbs connected by spiderweb-like threads, while a strange shadow stood vaguely in the depths of the painting...

Suddenly, Erin vanished, and new images surfaced from the depths of Yu Sheng's memories—crimson clouds and sky, sunlight flowing like water, dyeing the familiar old streets and alleys.

Oh, that was the place where Yu Sheng was born and raised, his familiar "Boundary City," an unremarkable small coastal city; he had left there two months ago... but for some reason, when the images from the depths of his memory surfaced, he felt they seemed like scenes from a very, very long time ago, even so distant that they felt like someone else's memories, presented coldly before his eyes.

All the images vanished, and finally only a gentle darkness enveloped the surroundings.

Yu Sheng felt his thoughts clear up slightly; after a moment of hesitation, he tried calling out in his heart: "Erin."

In the darkness, there was no response.

It seemed that in his state of "death," the connection between him and Erin would be severed.

Immediately after, Yu Sheng tried to turn his "gaze," searching for other objects in this darkness and confirming whether his limbs still existed.

He saw nothing; this place was empty, and he seemed to be nothing more than a floating, unanchored "thought" here, with no body at all.

Yu Sheng silently tried more things.

In his previous two "deaths," he had no experience, returning to the "human world" almost in a daze, but this time, he began to consciously perceive this process, testing various hypotheses.

He knew that for this period he had been in a fog, a strange world, bizarre phenomena, mysteries about himself, coming back to life after death... too many things he couldn't understand were stuffed together, leaving him with no clue.

But since Erin told him about the concept of the "Otherworld," he knew he had a goal again—he wanted to go back, to return to the "normal" side.

When the Kong Dong of the Otherworld occasionally opened to people, ordinary people, the instant they saw the scenery leaking out from those Kong Dong, crossed the edge of reason and arrived at the other side beyond the normal; this process might be because they got off at the wrong stop while riding, might be because they took one extra step down the stairs, might even be because they turned one extra page of a book, misread one character, and... opened the wrong door.

But regardless of the cause, the most critical thing is that this process is not irreversible.

According to the information Erin revealed, there are people in this world researching the Otherworld, some have summarized the laws of the Otherworld, and there are even experts dedicated to solving Otherworld problems, and even ordinary people have a chance to return after falling into the Otherworld.

This valley shrouded by the night curtain is an Otherworld, the No. 66 Wutong Road where he currently resides is an Otherworld, but Yu Sheng believes that his initial contact with the Otherworld must have been before that—

When he pushed open his front door two months ago, he perhaps fell into an Otherworld centered on himself, named "Boundary City."

Now, he wants to explore as much as possible, understand these strange things as much as possible, understand the knowledge related to the Otherworld, and then... leave this wrong world.

So, he opened his eyes.

The cold night wind blew through the large hole in the wall; outside the half-collapsed roof was a turbid sky.

He sat in a corner of the ruined temple but did not get up immediately; instead, he remained motionless in the posture of just waking up, cautiously perceiving everything around him, while striving to grasp the memories and "impressions" in his mind that were rapidly slipping away.

He was trying to recall the feeling of the instant he woke up, to determine that boundary through which he returned from the darkness to the "present world."

He felt this might be the key to understanding the process of his "coming back to life after death."

At least, this could bring him a bit closer to the truth of these mysteries. Vaguely, he began to recall certain scenes he "saw" in the instant before waking up; he recalled himself rising from the darkness, crossing a blurry boundary, and then sinking towards reality... but what happened after that? Between "sinking towards reality" and "opening his eyes"? In that brief instant, what occurred?

He seemed to have seen a few fleeting images, very fast, very blurry, and among them, a few were relatively clear... including the small path near his home, the gate in front of No. 66 Wutong Road, and... this corner located deep within the ruined temple.

Yu Sheng lowered his eyelids slightly, his thoughts in his mind gradually calming; he came up with some hypotheses, then temporarily set those thoughts aside, and only then did he gently exhale, beginning to move his hands and feet in small movements.

This body was pure and strong; he could even feel the surging strength flowing in his veins, he heard very clearly, saw very far, his hands and feet were full of power—even though not long ago he had been severed from the neck down by a supersonic headbutt, now he was completely lively and vigorous again.

He got up from the corner, preparing to call out to Erin.

But the very next second, he forcibly stopped his movement.

Because there was a rustling sound coming from outside the wall.

Hearing this sound, Yu Sheng's first reaction was—that monster with the nice smell had actually followed him into the ruined temple?!

But very soon he felt something was wrong, because that monster's movements were always earth-shattering, not like this, so cautious.

Taking a light breath, Yu Sheng, with three parts caution, slowly moved to the broken hole in the wall and looked out through the opening.

The night was deep, but his eyes could see very clearly.

He saw a girl walking cautiously among the ruins of the ruined temple.

The girl wore a tattered robe and skirt; it seemed to have once been a magnificent dress, but now only dirty, ragged scraps remained; her white long hair, unattended for a long time, was messy and hanging down, covering most of her face, and on top of the girl's head... was a pair of fox's pointed ears.

!.

But compared to those furry ears, Yu Sheng's gaze fell more on what was behind the girl—those tails.

Fox tails, more than one, but from his perspective, Yu Sheng found it hard to count exactly how many tails there were—and because that Miss looked so wretched, he even suspected it was just one big tail, only matted together because it hadn't been combed or washed for too long...

By now, Yu Sheng of course had already recognized her.

It was that supersonic headbutt.

But the headbutt seemed not to have noticed Yu Sheng nearby; she was just cautiously patrolling the ruins of the ruined temple, occasionally twitching her nose as if distinguishing and searching; after a while, she seemed to have found something, her eyes lit up, and she quickly ran towards somewhere.

The sound of rustling plastic bags came through the night.

Yu Sheng widened his eyes.

That was the bag of kitchen waste he had brought with him when he was "thrown" into this valley earlier, which he had casually thrown into the ruins.

Inside were vegetable leaves and eggshells thrown away while cooking dinner, and leftover rice and dishes cleaned out from the fridge before.

He leaned against the wall, watching that girl with fox tails tear at the plastic bag with excitement yet clumsiness, accidentally spilling everything inside, and then saw her unhesitatingly grab a clump of leftovers from inside and stuff it into her mouth without a care—

As if she had been starving for many, many years.

Yu Sheng suddenly felt a sense of suffocation.

He didn't know why, but he felt very uncomfortable; he felt... people shouldn't be starved like this.

Even if she didn't look very much like a "human."

Even though she had once headbutted him—she had been trying to save him at the time.

And just then, that girl seemed to finally sense the presence of a "living person" within the ruined temple.

She crouched on the ground, a piece of rotten vegetable clamped in her mouth, twisting her head around with shock and tension.

Yu Sheng stood at the collapsed corner of the ruined temple, locking eyes with her across the rubble.

(End of this chapter)