Yu Sheng awoke to a familiar sensation—the weight of darkness all around him, pressing in from every side. It felt as if his consciousness was sinking deeper and deeper, like being submerged in a thick, inky sea.


    His thoughts floated aimlessly in the dark, swirling like leaves caught in a storm. The pressure made him feel small and powerless, leaving behind nothing but a deep exhaustion.


    He had expected the road out of the “Otherworld” to be treacherous. Maybe even dangerous enough to cost him his life more than once. He had predicted a lot, but not this. As he drifted in the suffocating ckness, memories began to surface—fragments of thest thing he saw before everything went dark: a pair of golden-red eyes locking onto his, the sight of those magnificent fox tails ring like fireworks in the sky.


    And then that headbutt. That supersonic headbutt.


    Who was that girl, anyway? Where did shee from? And why was she in that strange ce? He reyed the scene over and over in his head as if he could untangle the mystery by sheer will.


    But that wasn’t the only thing nagging at him. During the fight with that monster, something had changed inside him. His strength had surged, his movements had sharpened, and… there was that overwhelming hunger.


    What was happening to him?


    Yu Sheng’s thoughts spun like a whirlpool. With no body to ground him, his mind conjured strange, shifting images that danced before his eyes. Among them were snippets of memory: the creature made of countless limbs, the fox-eared girl crashing into him with that final blow. Then suddenly, something different appeared—a painting, where Ireney shattered across a chair, her puppet-like limbs connected by delicate threads. In the background, a shadow lurked, faint but unmistakable.And then, in an instant, it was gone.


    New memories surfaced—crimson skies, sunlight that flowed like water down familiar streets and alleys. It was his home, Boundary City. He had left it just two months ago, but somehow, as these scenes drifted in front of him, they felt distant, like memories from someone else’s life.


    As quickly as they had appeared, the images faded into darkness once more, leaving Yu Sheng in silence.


    For a moment, his mind cleared, and he tried calling out, “Irene.”


    Nothing. No response.


    Of course, in this state of “death,” he must have lost his connection to her.


    Yu Sheng shifted his focus. Could he move his limbs? Was there anything here he could touch or even see? He tried to look around, but all he found was an empty void. He was just a floating consciousness—disembodied, without form.


    For a while, he experimented in silence.


    Thest two times he “died,” he had no real grasp on what had happened. Each time, he came back to life in a daze. But this time, something was different. He had some rity now, an awareness that let him test the boundaries of this strange ce.


    He knew it had all been a blur—an unfamiliar world, bizarre events, mysteries about his own body, and the fact that he had died ande back twice already. Too much had happened, and none of it made sense.


    But ever since Irene mentioned the “Otherworld,” Yu Sheng had set a new goal: to return to the normal world.


    He had learned from her that sometimes, ordinary people would identally cross into the Otherworld. It could happen in the most mundane ways—stepping off the wrong bus stop, turning an extra corner, or opening the wrong door. It didn’t matter how it happened, but the key thing was that it wasn’t always permanent. There were ways toe back.


    ording to what Irene had told him, there were even people who studied the Otherworld—experts who had mapped out some of its rules. Some people had managed to return to normal life after slipping through the cracks.


    This valley, where night never ended, was one such Otherworld. The house on Wutong Road, where Yu Sheng had stayed, was another. But Yu Sheng had a feeling that his journey into the Otherworld had started even earlier.


    Maybe the day he opened his front door two months ago was the day he first stepped into this strange reality.


    Now, more than ever, he needed to understand. He had to figure out these strange urrences, unlock the secrets of the Otherworld, and most importantly, find his way out.


    With that resolve, Yu Sheng opened his eyes.


    The cold night wind swept through the gaping hole in the wall, its sharp bite carrying through the half-copsed roof and into the dim, murky sky beyond.


    Yu Sheng sat in the corner of the ruined temple, not moving right away. He stayed perfectly still, frozen in the posture of someone who had just woken up. His senses were on high alert, carefully scanning everything around him. His mind scrambled to hold onto the memories and impressions that were slipping away, vanishing as quickly as they hade.


    He was trying to recall that exact moment when he had woken up, to pinpoint where the line was between the darkness he’d emerged from and the “real world” he now found himself in.


    Maybe, just maybe, this would help him understand what was really happening to him—the mystery of his constant “dying and resurrecting.”


    At the very least, it could give him a clue to whaty behind it all.


    Gradually, pieces of what he’d seen before waking up began to return to him. He remembered rising out of the darkness, crossing a foggy boundary, and then falling back toward reality. But after that? What had happened between the moment he descended toward reality and the instant his eyes opened? There was something important in that tiny sliver of time.


    There had been fleeting images—brief, blurry scenes—yet a few had stood out, clearer than the rest. He saw the familiar path near his home, the gate of the house on Wutong Road, and this very corner deep inside the ruined temple.


    Yu Sheng closed his eyes for a moment, letting his thoughts settle. He entertained some theories but decided to push them aside for now. Instead, he took a slow, deep breath and began flexing his hands and feet, testing his body.


    This body felt strong and powerful. He could sense the energy coursing through his veins. His hearing was sharp, his vision clear, and his limbs brimming with strength—even though he had been nearly decapitated not long ago by a supersonic headbutt. Now, it was as if none of that had happened. He feltpletely refreshed.


    Standing up, Yu Sheng prepared to call out to Irene.


    But then he froze.


    There was a sound, faint but unmistakable,ing from beyond the broken wall.


    For a brief second, Yu Sheng’s mind raced. That delicious-smelling monster… had it followed him into the temple?


    But no. Something was wrong. That creature always made a lot of noise. Whatever this was, it was moving stealthily, almost cautiously.


    Yu Sheng took a silent breath, letting his curiosity take over as he crept to the hole in the wall and peeked outside.


    The night was deep, but he could still see clearly.


    There, among the ruins, was a girl. She was picking her way carefully through the debris.


    Her clothes were tattered—a gown that might once have been beautiful but now was little more than a ragged mess. Her white hair hung in tangled knots, covering most of her face. But poking through the disarray were two pointed, furry fox ears.


    Yu Sheng’s gaze shifted behind her, and his eyes widened at what he saw: tails—fox tails, more than one. From his angle, it was hard to count exactly how many. The way her tails were tangled made it look like she only had one enormous one.


    He knew who she was, of course.


    The one who’d delivered the supersonic headbutt.


    Yet, she seemedpletely unaware of his presence. She moved cautiously among the ruins, sniffing the air as though searching for something. After a while, her eyes lit up, and she darted toward a specific spot.


    The sound of rustling stic echoed faintly in the night.


    Yu Sheng’s jaw dropped.


    It was the stic bag—the one filled with kitchen scraps. He’d brought it with him when he’d been “thrown” into this valley earlier. Without thinking much of it, he had tossed it into the ruins.


    Inside the bag were discarded vegetable peels, eggshells, and the leftovers he had cleaned out from the fridge.


    He crouched lower, watching as the fox-tailed girl excitedly tore at the stic bag, spilling its contents. Without a second thought, she grabbed a handful of scraps and stuffed them into her mouth, eating hungrily as though she hadn’t had a meal in ages.


    Yu Sheng felt a strange tightness in his chest.


    He wasn’t sure why, but it filled him with sadness. No one, he thought, should be left to starve like this.


    Not even someone who didn’t quite look… human.


    Even if she had headbutted him before. After all, she had been trying to save him.


    Just then, the girl seemed to sense that she wasn’t alone.


    She crouched there, frozen mid-bite, her eyes wide with surprise and nervousness.


    Yu Sheng stood at the crumbling corner of the temple wall. Across the ruins, their eyes met.


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