Lee Jia and the Three Basic Desires
A classic trait of a shut-in:
Even after waking up, I have no intention of leaving the bed.
"Nngh… haaaah… *smack*."
Since I’m all alone in the house anyway, I stretched my entire body and let out a groan that would be embarrassing to anyone else.
The race known as Fervent Follower is supposed to possess a transcendent physique. Why, then, do I still feel the urge to sleep more even after seven hours of rest? I don't even know myself. Shouldn't a Fervent Follower be perfectly fine without sleep?
There is a saying about the three basic desires. While humans are creatures with countless desires, these three are the ones instinctively prioritized above all else: the desire for sleep, the desire for food, and the desire for sex.
Of course, it’s an unscientific claim without academic backing, but it’s a kind of meme that has spread widely because the vast majority of people deeply relate to it.
I am a person—no, a Fervent Follower—with a very strong desire for sleep.
If I were an office worker, I would have been forced to wake up at a set time every single day, but I am a freelancer. There is no need for me to wake up at 6:30 AM, so it doesn't matter if I sleep in for more than nine hours a day.
If I didn't have this desire for sleep, I would have filled only the necessary hours and gotten up immediately, but… strangely enough, even though I am a Fervent Follower and not a human, my desire for sleep is incredibly potent.
When I sleep in like this, I feel as happy as if I owned the entire world.
Still, sleeping for more than ten hours a day feels like crossing a line, even to me. It wasn't until around noon that I finally rolled out of bed.
On days when I wake up this late, I don't head straight to the bathroom to bathe. Before I bathe, I must first fill my starving stomach.
Another one of the three basic desires: the desire for food.
I am a Fervent Follower with a voracious appetite. I’m the type to eat whatever is given to me without complaint, but I’m also of the belief that if I’m going to eat, I should fill myself with something delicious. Since I receive a massive amount of life allowance from the Awakened Association every month, there’s no need to pinch pennies.
In that sense, I decided on Rose Jjimdak for lunch today.
My food intake is probably a bit more than that of an average adult male. If I order one serving of Jjimdak, I eat it down to the very last scrap, along with two bowls of rice. This, too, is proof that my appetite is extremely strong.
Honestly, I’m full after just one bowl of rice, but even when I’m full, I feel like I’m 'forcing' myself to eat another bowl because I want to keep eating delicious food.
…Hmm.
In some ways, I wonder if these desires are what keep my humanity intact. The other Fervent Followers I’ve met were inhuman, mechanical things where I couldn't find a single shred of what could be called 'humanity.'
Even the 'Eyeball Monster Conduit' and 'Udon-Noodle-Brain,' who were relatively docile, didn't feel human at all. But unlike them, I am an extremely human Fervent Follower. Even though my physical specs have long since far surpassed the level of any human.
If I were a creature without these three basic desires, I wouldn't consider myself a being similar to a human. Think about it. If I were a creature with a rock-hard body, no need to eat, and no need to sleep… by now, six months into being a Fervent Follower, I would have lost half my humanity.
However, aside from my body being tough, I’m not much different from a human. Is this, too, the grace of the Shining Stars?
Yeah, I think there’s a high probability that it is. The Shining Stars is a 'Great One' who is suspiciously favorable toward humans, isn't it? Perhaps they granted me these traits out of consideration for me, a former human.
Today, too, I enjoyed a delicious lunch thanks to the grace of the Shining Stars.
Was it because I was shoveling the Jjimdak into my mouth too greedily? I had ordered Rose Jjimdak, and a drop of the sauce fell from my chopsticks, slid down my cleavage, and disappeared into the deep abyss below.
…It’s sticky. It’s uncomfortable.
I could shove some tissues down there to wipe it off, but I’m going to bathe anyway. I decided to just leave it be until I finished my meal.
Someone might look at me and ask, "Why are you so clumsy? Couldn't you just eat without spilling?" But that’s a remark that ignores how incredibly inconvenient this body is. There are one or two things I have to be careful about when eating.
First, the ridiculously long hair. I usually tie it up when I eat, but sometimes I’m too lazy to do that. In those cases, I absolutely must use my left hand to sweep my hair behind my ear and support it.
If I don't do this, my hair ends up covered in Rose sauce.
Next is the ridiculously large pouch of divine power. This damn lump of fat is the cause of the problems that make my daily life so inconvenient. I have to adjust the height of the table and chair just right so my chest doesn't hit the table, and if I lean forward too much to eat without spilling, my breasts get covered in food.
…Last time, I was leaning forward while slurping down ramen, and a major disaster occurred where my chest got completely submerged in the broth. Well, it’s not like the taste of the ramen changes just because my chest touched the broth… so I forced myself to eat it all.
U-uh, anyway, ever since that day, I tend not to lean forward at all when I eat. Thanks to that, I was able to avoid the tragedy of my breasts falling into ramen broth, but in this way, spilling food everywhere has become a daily routine.
Seriously, Shining Stars. It’s not too late, so if you could just shrink the size by about one cup, I swear I’ll perform 108 bows toward you three times a day. …I’ve prayed that dozens of times, but the Shining Stars is someone with very firm tastes. Well, since they have firm tastes, they must have gifted me this body in the first place.
Damn you, thank you very much.
After finishing my meal, I stripped off the clothes I was wearing to bathe and tossed them into the washing machine. Then, I turned the faucet to the left as far as it would go and began to bathe in water so hot it felt like my skin might cook.
"Hnnngh."
A pleasant groan leaked out naturally. Among the many advantages of being a Fervent Follower, the one I can feel most tangibly is that my body’s durability is transcendent. I’ve always loved bathing in hot water in both summer and winter, and since my body is so tough, I feel nothing but pleasure even when bathing in water hot enough to cook skin; no pain whatsoever.
I solved my desire for sleep by sleeping in, I solved my appetite with Rose Jjimdak and two bowls of rice, and I even bathed in hot water. On days like this, I feel great all day long.
On days like this… I really have to be careful.
The three basic human desires. Sleep, food. And… sex.
Fervent Followers feel sexual desire, too. Especially on days when I feel this good, it feels like my sexual desire rises a bit more than usual.
…Well. The fact that 'that magical day' comes once a month means that, biologically, pregnancy is possible. And the fact that pregnancy is possible means reproductive activity is possible, and reproductive activity and sexual desire are inseparable. It’s only natural that I feel sexual desire.
Fortunately, unlike the other two desires, sexual desire can be suppressed as much as I want if I try. Yeah, so even on days when I feel this good, I tend to grit my teeth and suppress it. It’s most dangerous when I’m bathing on days like this, so I need to be careful not to let my hands wander toward my chest.
Well, sometimes I feel like a fool for gritting my teeth and suppressing my sexual desire like this. No one is criticizing me, so is there really a need to go that far? What do I even gain by suppressing it?
Nothing. They say that relieving sexual desire in a 'healthy and appropriate' way is very helpful psychologically, after all. If there is one benefit to suppressing it… it’s that I keep my identity as a man… I guess.
Hmm. Well. It’s been six months since I became a female-type Fervent Follower. Insisting that I’m a man at this point is a funny thing to say, even to me. It’s the same as drawing a character that is obviously a woman and insisting, 'This character’s gender is male,' day in and day out.
Still, if I relieve it myself, it feels like I’m crossing a line. There’s also the uncomfortable feeling that the Shining Stars is watching me from somewhere. Of course, if I were a male-type Fervent Follower instead of a female-type, whether the Shining Stars was watching me or not, huh? I wouldn't have even had these useless worries in the first place.
But I’m not a man. I’m a woman. Sometimes, you have to know how to adapt to reality. So, I’m going to keep gritting my teeth and suppressing my sexual desire. I don't know if it’ll go well, though.