Famine 119: The Abyss of Sleeplessness

Shi He: “Bro!!”

In an instant, his night-vision scope snapped into place, his hand gripping the pull ring of a grenade. Shi He’s reaction time was lightning quick—it all happened in the blink of an eye.

But in the next moment, his pupils contracted sharply.

Through the night vision, there was nothing—bullets sped through empty darkness, grenades exploded with a muffled blast, all support proved useless. It was as if nothing had ever existed there at all—as if, from the very beginning, there was only void.

In that flashing moment, Shi He realized a vital rule—

Light. The light cannot die!

Within the abyss, anything not illuminated by light would be swallowed by the dark.

It was as if another world overlapped here, unreachable even for those who might want to rescue him.

Silence fell. Even his own heartbeat vanished.

A minute passed. Five minutes…

Shi He’s face was blank. Calmly and methodically, he tried every method he could—one after another.

But nothing worked.

In the darkness, nothing remained. There was only himself, alone in heaven and earth.

—Until a single spark of flame landed by Shi He’s foot.

Boom!

A long-absent righteous wind howled forth; a blazing burst of fire exploded beside him, the dazzling flames tearing through the black shroud like a curtain rent in two, violently rending the darkness apart.

The shadows all around, together with those unknown creatures, retreated like a receding tide.

Nidhogg spread his dragon wings wide into the wind, fire blazing in his vertical pupils, his red-brown hair flaring like fire.

In his hand was a massive sword dripping with molten stone, his body bathed in blood. Even with the light extinguished for only a heartbeat, his gaze still held a wild madness leftover from fierce battle.

Just like that apocalyptic dragon of old, omen of the end.

“Ah, now this is interesting… really interesting…”
The wicked dragon’s mouth slowly twisted into a cold grin:

“A battle of this intensity at last… that’s something to be satisfied with.”

“Hide-and-seek is over, right? Then now, it’s my turn to find you.”

“I know. I know. One of you is still here…”

“Hey. Kid.”
“Do me another favor, would you?”

No further words were necessary.

Shi He pressed his lips tight, forced his trembling voice under control, lowered his head, loaded his gun, raised his weapon!

Nidhogg reversed his sword and, with its lava-dripping blade, drove it straight into his own chest!

As flesh split open, Shi He’s gun was pressed to Nidhogg.

Bang!

Nidhogg drew a sharp breath in pain, a trembling, ferocious smile twisting his mouth. He shoved his hand deep into his own chest with brutal force, digging through bone and blood, and wrenched something out!

In his iron-clawed hand, he held a living thing.

It stood on all fours, its face stretched into a grotesque mask with features melted together, emitting a piercing, shrieking scream.
On its neck, a brief flash of bright crystalline light.

It was a small shard of gemstone.

“Bingo,” Nidhogg sneered, voice thick with kill-hunger, his words tinged with gleeful triumph at the end. “Got—you—now.”

Blood sprayed across the tent, Nidhogg’s body torn and twisted, his features contorted—yet those dragon claws were like steel pincers, the fierce, bloody stench of his aura howling through, almost making it impossible to tell, for a moment, who was the anomaly and who the man.

But in the next moment, the thing exploded like a puff of black smoke and, with a bang, dissipated into the darkness.

On the ground remained a fire-red gem, about the size of a thumb.

“……”

That was it.

He couldn’t catch it. Nidhogg let out a tsk, shaking off the blood from his body.

Nidhogg’s scent still lingered in the air.

“What the hell was that?” Shi He grabbed Nidhogg’s arm, his fingertips trembling almost imperceptibly.

Nidhogg exhaled, cutting straight to the point: “My fire—a moment’s lapse, and it extinguished.”

He sat in the tent, snapped his fingers, flames flickered at his fingertips, and reached for the campfire in the center of the tent.

And something strange occurred.

There was still half a box of charcoal left in the firebox, yet Nidhogg’s flames failed to ignite it.

Nidhogg continued burning, but only after five minutes did the first spark leap up.

Staring at the fire, Nidhogg squinted and yawned, “What’s going on?”

Despite his blood-soaked, mangled form, with exposed organs and shattered bone, his expression was offhand, as if all that had happened was a little excursion… or perhaps just cleaning up some trash.

Shi He’s hands still shook. After a long effort, he finally let out a heavy breath.

“There’s a pattern to these light sources.”

He crouched down, grabbed his flashlight, and pressed the switch.

Click.
Nothing.

Shi He didn’t stop, but continued testing, relentlessly—click, click, click…

For the next several hours, Shi He conducted variable tests, careful procedures, and countless trials.

He persisted so long that Nidhogg nearly dozed off, and had to be shaken awake by Shi He.

The young man’s eyes were bloodshot; though cool and analytical, he gave off a faintly unnerving air.

…

Shi He fetched pen and paper and jotted down notes.

1. One must always remain within the light.
2. Each light source only covers a single person—different individuals cannot share illumination.
3. Light is fragile. Each light source lasts at most two hours.
4. Light is hard to acquire. No matter the means, igniting it requires careful, attentive, focused work—sustained for 5–60 minutes—before a source can be lit.
5. Once plunged into darkness, myriad hostile anomalies will immediately attack—and may enter your body.
6. Stay away from It. Never trust It. It is a crouched, elongated, twisted black shadow with a gemstone at its neck. Yet It could be anything.
7. Light will attract certain entities. Do not fear, defend against them.

…

Here, Shi He paused and continued grimly:

“This all creates a serious problem…”

His pen pressed down with force as he wrote the next rule.

8. Stay awake, do not sleep. Keep away from the abyss.

Do not sleep!

Which meant, to avoid gambling with your life, players had to remain awake and, at least every 60 minutes, rekindle the fire from the start.

Sixty minutes was an upper limit—it was rarely achievable. In practice, you had to wake up and relight after 45 minutes, in order to leave time for genuine alertness. Drowsy attempts at ignition wouldn’t cut it; only a fully awake state would suffice.

Meanwhile, even having a light did not guarantee safety.

During tests, Nidhogg and Shi He had fended off numerous ordinary anomalies.

They assaulted out of the dark—gruesome, formidable, deadlier and more numerous than those on the surface.

Thus, any player stranded in the abyss had to maintain vigilance, fight constantly, stay sharp, and light fresh sources. No sleep could exceed one hour.

And almost everyone would eventually be caught, forced to coexist with “It” inside them.

Nidhogg had ripped It out, but going by the camp survivor’s diary, It would do its utmost to create beautiful dreams, luring players into slumber.

If It took over, you would fall into a sweet, black sleep—and never wake.

Under such conditions, only a special specimen like Nidhogg could resist—able to rip out the anomaly with his bare hands. For all other players, there was virtually no solution—not even Shi He knew what to do.

This place—better named not just “Abyss,” but…

Shi He gently exhaled and titled his paper:
Precautions for the Abyss of Sleeplessness

This was an Abyss of Wakefulness.

No matter if your brain aches and your spirit frays, if your eyes bleed and your soul is exhausted, you must—must—stay awake and keep fighting.

Never succumb to sleep.

Or you die. There is no other way.

But there was one last, most important rule—

Shi He lowered his gaze and slowly wrote:

9. Light granted by the farm’s Gemmoria is not subject to these penalties.

Nidhogg’s fire lasted only two hours. Other light sources exchanged via the farm—like the headlamps Si Zhiyan got for them—could still only run for two hours.
Yet when Shi He snacked on lava cakes, his own illumination continued without fail.

……

Was there some connection between the gemstone dropped by the anomaly and the Gemmoria?

Shi He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing down a trembling breath, then reached toward the stone on the ground.

Nidhogg stopped him, holding his hand and glancing up. “Wait, slow down. Are you alright? You’ve been scribbling away here for almost ten hours now.”

Shi He replied, “Of course… I’m fine.”

Nidhogg caught his wrist and pulled him over. “You don’t have to hide when you’re upset—come here.”

“You’re angry. You’re worried about me, aren’t you?”
Nidhogg’s tone was not a question.

“You’re afraid I’ll make the same mistake. Afraid I’ll be controlled by that thing…”

Shi He stayed silent.

“I knew it,” said Nidhogg.

“Look. Here.” The wicked dragon pressed Shi He’s hand to his own bare chest. “It’s already healed.”

A few hours were enough for all those ragged wounds to mend.
Fresh scar tissue twisted through his solid muscles, rough and uneven beneath Shi He’s fingertips.

Shi He traced them one by one, looking up at him.

Like a black cat, identical to the little boy he once was, barely up to Nidhogg’s knee.

He didn’t speak. He couldn’t find the right words—could only try a little harder to catch up, to be useful to him.

Never, ever wanting to lag behind.

Nidhogg’s voice softened unconsciously. “I know you care. Trust me, I won’t let myself disappear in such a place.”

“Self-healing is my gift. I don’t hide it—if there’s something good, I use it, that’s simple. I know my limits; I won’t let any injury fester. And don’t push yourself so hard—you handle the strategy, I’ll follow the rules, but I’m not made of glass. No need to stress so much.”

He paused, stretched, lightly flicked Shi He’s forehead, and laughed at his wince, ruffling his hair.

“Besides, if I really did die here, I’d never get to soak in the hot springs and eat fruit salad with you again.”

……

Shi He’s tense shoulders finally relaxed.

His voice trembled at last: “Bro…”

Nidhogg carried on: “And I’d never get to eat roast suckling pig, cream of mushroom soup, hand-torn sausage BBQ, shredded pork burgers, pure meat sausage pizza, chocolate chip tarts, twice-cooked pork, whole roast chicken, steamed egg custard, tomato hot pot, white beancurd, seafood salad, Orleans wings, scrambled eggs with pork, nutty chocolate ice cream, vanilla-cumin grilled fish, fruit milk tea, or rabbit stewed with pork hock with you ever again.”

Shi He: “……”

So that was your real priority.

He stared blankly for two seconds, then looked down and snorted, quickly pressing his knuckles to his lips—he couldn’t suppress the growing curve of a smile.

It was at this moment he felt, vividly and honestly, just how much the farm had changed his brother—Nidhogg had become addicted to its endless food, and just as much to Shi He himself, longing for this better life and never wanting to die.

That cold, sharp, merciless dragon from the mountains had finally found the life he wanted.

…And become a hungry dragon who’d sneak over a hundred kanto skewers in one night and devour all the tarts the moment you looked away.

“Aha. There’s that smile.” Nidhogg clapped his thigh, pinched Shi He’s cheeks playfully. “That’s how it’s supposed to be. What are you, a kid? No need to frown all day.”

“Kids should play and rest, no need to work so hard.”

Shi He couldn’t help himself: “…I’m already an adult!”

Number one on the Chosen Ones’ list—【Shi Jin – Soul Hunter】，death in the eyes of all, infamous among players and anomalies. Wherever Shi He went, he led from the front. Only his brother ever treated him like a child.

Nidhogg laughed again. Shi He quickly turned away, ears flaming red.

Suddenly, everything felt much lighter.
His brother had a way—whether he meant to or not, Shi He always ended up happy.

Shi He rested for a while, wrestling free from the drowsy, gentle warmth, and returned to his tasks.

He picked up the gemstone “It” had left behind, examined it, and activated the [Eye of Insight].

Buzz! In the gray depths of his eye, layer after layer of data unfolded.