Monster - Chapter 89
Chapter 89: Hunger
I just forgot to ask Pie about the calculations of time and space.
A white fog spread before her eyes, enveloping Lin Sandie's entire consciousness. She thought about this question for a moment, but quickly composed herself. Since it was a matter concerning the spiritual realm, she didn't want to be distracted by other trivial issues.
"I am Lin Sandie."
Before her vision returned to normal, Lin Sandie silently recited her own name in her mind, just as Pie had taught her, to affirm her identity.
But when she could see where she was, she immediately noticed that she had a body. It was obvious that Lin Sandie had made a mistake right from the start.
When she affirmed that she was Lin Sandie, her cognitive image of herself naturally formed in her mind, and this immediately manifested in the mental landscape.
Lin Sandie looked down at herself. She was wearing the white shirt and black suit she often wore in Disorder Land. She had always been very fond of this outfit because it was both comfortable and practical, easy to clean, and formally elegant.
While examining herself, Lin Sandie noticed that her body seemed to be overlaid with a layer of blood-red color. She looked up at the surrounding scenery and found herself in a woodland, surrounded by dense trees. Just like her, they were also overlaid with a layer of blood-red.
A gentle breeze made the leaves sway lightly, creating an interplay of deep and shallow red light and shadow. It was a scene that seemed to belong only in a dream.
Lin Sandie looked up at the sky. The sky here was also red, not because of any celestial body's light, but as if the forest she was in was enclosed by a red glass dome. The light filtered through the red glass, dyeing all the scenery within with a bloody hue.
The atmosphere here was so oppressive it felt suffocating.
After checking her condition, Lin Sandie walked slowly into the depths of the forest. For now, she saw no living creatures, only layers upon layers of dense woods. But after just a few steps, Lin Sandie realized she was hungry.
The hunger came on suddenly. Lin Sandie recalled Pie's earlier reminder: In the mental landscape of a Sentinel with mental problems, you will also be infected by their mental state.
In other words, she had now entered the mental landscape of a Sentinel who had possibly become Bedeviled due to hunger.
For Lin Sandie, hunger was a common experience. For instance, while she was dating Yan Ting, she often had to endure hunger to maintain her figure. So, apart from some weakness in her limbs and a strong craving for food, Lin Sandie felt no other discomfort for the time being.
She looked up and observed the trees. Most were non-fruiting cyatheales, and the forest floor was covered with ferns. Enduring the increasingly intense hunger, Lin Sandie walked onward, hoping to find the first living creature.
Although she hadn't been walking for long, the hunger began to make Lin Sandie feel weak all over, dizzy, and her head throbbed at the back. She could feel her calves starting to tremble.
It was hypoglycemia caused by the sudden hunger. Lin Sandie leaned against a tree, feeling cold sweat bead on her neck. She had never imagined that hunger could be so unbearable.
Lin Sandie's body trembled slightly. She forced herself to concentrate. Pie had never said that spiritual training would be easy, but Lin Sandie hadn't expected to be plunged into such a troublesome predicament the moment she pressed the confirm button on the light screen.
Once she had recovered a little, Lin Sandie continued forward until she saw a collapsed temple. In a corner, amidst the ruins, she saw a table with a black creature sitting before it, eating.
The black creature was as tall as a five or six-year-old child. It had a small head with a large mouth and protruding round eyes like some kind of animal. It had absolutely no human features, especially with its dark, glossy skin. Lumps of bone were visible protruding beneath the black skin, which was stretched taut in some places.
The little monster's neck was as thick as a human wrist and two to three times longer than that of an ordinary child, with vertebrae descending one by one. Lin Sandie saw the little monster struggling to swallow the food on the table. The bones in its long, thin neck contracted and expanded, and its famished face was taut with bulging veins. Although it ate quickly, it wasn't ravenous, as it often paused to wipe stray scraps of meat or bread from the corners of its mouth back into its mouth with its hand.
Lin Sandie saw that even though its stomach was already bulging, it continued to eat nonstop. That intense feeling of hunger reminded her of some animal documentaries she had seen before, about wild creatures living in harsh environments. They were tormented by hunger at every moment, forcing them to hunt and eat as if possessed.
That kind of hunger was not something a superficial human who had only skipped a couple of meals to lose weight could imagine. Lin Sandie felt that after she returned, she would never want to go on a diet again.
"Who are you?" A voice of indeterminate gender came from behind her.
Lin Sandie paused for a moment, then quickly imagined the appearance of a Stage 1 Leviathan monster in her mind. This caused her facial features to vanish instantly.
Turning around, she saw a raccoon dog.
A raccoon dog?…
The other party was clearly startled by the faceless Lin Sandie. It stared for a long while before cautiously asking, "This is my partner's mental landscape. I can sense that you don't belong here. How did you get in?"
"Pie sent me here. She is training my spiritual power." Lin Sandie didn't hide anything, answering the brown raccoon dog truthfully.
"The Lord God sent you? Uh… or rather, Pie, the one who controls time and space. In that case, I won't ask where you came from." The furry raccoon dog remarked. Lin Sandie saw its whiskers tremble as it spoke.
"Did your partner become Bedeviled because of hunger?" Lin Sandie asked.
"We were on a mission in the Red Valley Continent, a Tower World. We encountered a very powerful witch in a swamp forest. At the time, I was using my 'Island' to scan the surroundings when the witch suddenly appeared and cast a spell. Zhao… Zhao is my partner's code name. My code name is Red. We defeated the witch then and there, but for some reason, that night, while we were resting by a campfire in the wild, Zhao suddenly became Bedeviled."
"Were you short on food?" Lin Sandie tried to figure out why the Sentinel code-named Zhao had become Bedeviled.
"Yes, we're both junior Sentinels and Guides. Our space bags aren't very big, so we don't have extra room for a lot of food. After nearly two months in the swamp forest, we were indeed running low on things to eat. You know how it is, the light screen functions in some Tower Worlds are incomplete. Even if we had points, we couldn't buy food from the online store. But it wasn't really to the point of becoming Bedeviled from hunger."
"By the way, many of the creatures in the swamp forest are poisonous. Most of them can't be eaten."
"Did you talk about anything while you were resting at night?"
"No. Zhao is a very taciturn person. She's not like many Sentinels and has never talked about herself. We're temporary partners."
Lin Sandie looked at the little black monster still eating nonstop at the table, finding it somewhat hard to imagine what she looked like in reality.
"The food on the table seems to reappear immediately after she finishes it." Despite the distance, Lin Sandie could still see the inexhaustible supply of food.
She wondered if she, currently tormented by hunger, could also eat this food, or what would happen if she did. Lin Sandie was starving and tried to distract herself.
"I've tried approaching Zhao and pulling her away from the table, but as soon as I get close, the hunger becomes even more intense, almost strong enough to drain my soul," the Guide code-named Red told Lin Sandie about her attempts. A Sentinel's mental landscape wasn't a place one could enter casually, so even though the faceless woman before her was a bit frightening, she still believed her words.
"I've tried several times. Once or twice, I managed to pull her away, but the hunger prevented me from getting very far. Besides, I didn't know what to do after pulling her away. The moment I let go, she would immediately run back to eat."
"Does she resist violently when you take her away from the table?"
"No, she's very docile. She only runs back to the table when I can no longer hold on."
"How long have you been stuck here?"
"Almost three days. If I can't bring Zhao out of her Bedeviled state within three days, I'll have to request help from a divine official, which will cause our team to lose points…" Red's words revealed that both she and Zhao were rookies who had only recently started taking missions.
"Is this your first time dealing with a Bedeviled Sentinel?"
"Yes. What about you?"
"I haven't either." The hunger was making Lin Sandie feel light-headed. The information she got from Red confirmed that approaching the little eating monster was not dangerous for now, so she started walking toward the table.
The table was laden with all sorts of food: soft bread, crispy fried chicken nuggets, a variety of steamed buns, fragrant noodles and rice… Lin Sandie's stomach let out a growl. She swallowed hard and continued to look at the items on the table, noticing there were no vegetables or fruits.
Due to extreme hunger, Lin Sandie's hand trembled as she grabbed the little monster's hand. The latter looked up at Lin Sandie's faceless face without any fear. Its thin wrist struggled a few times, and when it found it couldn't break free, it docilely lowered its head and used its other hand to grab a piece of soft cream cake and put it in its mouth.
The hunger made Lin Sandie's face turn deathly pale. Trembling, she released the little monster's hand and waved her own over the table. Following her imagination, all kinds of vegetables and fruits appeared on the table.
The little monster looked up at Lin Sandie again but ignored the vegetables and fruits, continuing to eat the things it liked.
Lin Sandie couldn't bear it any longer. She was afraid that if she stayed by the table any longer, she would faint from hunger. She quickly left the table that was intensifying her hunger. As she ran away, her legs gave out, and she collapsed to her knees.
So hungry, so hungry, so hungry, so hungry…
Lin Sandie's body, mind, and soul were all screaming. She wanted to eat. She wanted to sit with that little monster and eat together.
The thought swirled in her mind, driving her to the brink of madness.
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