Chapter 248: The Man Who Starved to Death

Hunger.

So hungry.

A powerful sense of hunger transmitted from the stomach to the brain; a gurgling sound echoed within his body, as deafening as thunder. Even after eating so many hamburgers, his body still instinctively craved food.

The more he ate, the hungrier he became.

Why had he become so hungry?

He didn't know; his brain couldn't think. At this very moment, the hunger had almost driven Henry completely mad. When a person is starving, there is no room to think of anything superfluous; this is the instinct for survival.

Even so, when Henry's gaze swept over the post office at the street corner, his memories unconsciously surged forth.

That's right, it was the post office where he worked.

Was there once an unclaimed package?

"Package." He unconsciously murmured this word.

By now, he could no longer remember what was inside the package; he only remembered that he had opened it, and after opening it, the sense of hunger seemed to take root and sprout within his body.

But this thought only flashed through Henry's mind for a few seconds before being immediately overwhelmed by the intense hunger.

So he stumbled away from the hamburger stand and ran toward a restaurant on the side, leaving more than twenty hamburger wrappers on the ground, attracting scavenging flies.

When Ma Ma Zhaodi saw Henry rush in, a bad feeling immediately rose in his heart.

"If there isn't some 'Big Eater Hero' in the DC world that I haven't heard of, then I've damn well run into another strange incident again."

But the problem was that he was not as well-versed in DC as one might expect; regarding such a strange and nonsensical incident as "the gluttonous Mediterranean glutton," he truly had no relevant memory.

"I want fried fish and chips, steak, Yorkshire pudding, and shepherd's pie... I want it all! Serve everything on the menu!"

The fat man ordered the food eagerly, as if he were a reincarnated hungry ghost, determined to eat through the entire menu, and Ma Ma Zhaodi grew increasingly aware of the other man's abnormality.

Besides that unnaturally huge appetite, after eating so many hamburgers, the man's stomach showed no sign of bloating, as if those hamburgers hadn't entered his stomach but had gone to another dimension instead. And there were some strange insects hovering around his body; although they looked like just a few scattered specks, once noticed, one would find the smell of insects on him growing heavier and heavier.

Only corpses attract flies, Ma Ma Zhaodi thought, but this fat man clearly looked like a living person, and there was no particular rotting smell on him that would attract heat-loving insects. Why would flies, mosquitoes, and such things be attracted to him?

He tried to talk to those mosquitoes and insects, but strangely, they made no response to him at all, merely emitting a noisy buzzing sound, like meaningless static.

Animals in this world aren't very smart, but generally speaking, they wouldn't make absolutely no response at all—unless they were under control.

While he was thinking, the fat man had already sat at the dining table and began to devour the food with gusto, spoon after spoon, fork after fork. He ate so quickly and urgently that people around the restaurant couldn't help but turn and look.

"Oh my god, look at that guy; how could he possibly eat all that food on that table?"

"Jesus, that's too rude. People shouldn't torture their bodies like that."

Ten minutes later, all the dishes on the table in front of the man were completely cleared. A waiter in a suit, his face full of surprise, stood beside him, finally having the chance to try speaking.

"Uh, are you satisfied, Mr.?"

"Bring some more, I still want it. Steak, french fries, cream cake!"

"... Okay."

Watching the man who directly reached out, grabbed the steak on the table, and stuffed it into his mouth in one gulp, Ma Ma Zhaodi's expression was now very Solemn. He was one hundred percent certain that this person's physical state and mental state were extremely abnormal, and in a way that leaned toward the negative.

But since he hadn't displayed any aggression yet, this left Ma Ma Zhaodi unable to make up his mind.

Henry paid no attention to the gazes of the others in the restaurant. The more he ate, the stronger the hunger became, as if a black hole was tearing at his flesh and blood from within. Fear completely stripped away his last shred of reason, and so he was entirely swallowed by the hunger.

Until he had finished everything on his own table, he still couldn't help wanting to eat. So he turned his gaze to the neighboring table, then ran straight over, grabbing the food from their plates and stuffing it into his mouth.

"Hey! Hey! What are you doing, you guy!"

"Call the police quickly!"

"Someone do something! He's sick!"

The two people at the dining table shouted out in shock and anger. However, the next second, everyone saw the fat man's round face begin to sag, his skin becoming incredibly loose, as if the flesh and fat beneath the skin had been completely sucked away, leaving only a loose, flabby skin bag—his hands, his face, his body were all like this. In just a few minutes, he had transformed from a fat man into a skin-and-bones freak.

"No, I must keep eating, I must keep eating!"

The man grabbed a blonde woman's skirt with his oily hand. He had become so hungry that he had lost his reason; his left hand stuffed the tablecloth into his mouth while his right hand grabbed the woman's leg.

"No, please!"

However, Henry turned a deaf ear; he opened his mouth and directly bit down.

"Ahhh!"

Ma Ma Zhaodi stopped just watching. The scene before his eyes was just like Resident Evil. Marvel hadn't exactly avoided doing a Zombie Universe storyline; what if DC had a zombie virus major event too?

He took three steps in two strides, rushed forward, and immediately pinned the man to the ground. The man struggled fiercely, and at that moment, Ma Ma Zhaodi felt a tremendous force coming from his hands. Whether it was due to some virus or other thing at work, the man's strength was actually beyond that of an ordinary person.

Fortunately, Ma Ma Zhaodi barely managed to hold him down. He examined the man closely but found no signs of rot on the man's pupils, fingernails, teeth, or flesh and skin, which left him even more puzzled.

Just then, the restaurant's head waiter and waiters finally arrived. Seeing this scene, the two immediately flew into a rage.

"Send this bastard to the police station!"

"Oh my god, he suddenly turned into skin and bones!"

Amidst the crowd's anger, the fallen man was pulled aside by Ma Ma Zhaodi alone. But soon, without food to continue supporting him, he collapsed onto the ground, lost consciousness, and was completely unconscious.

Not like a zombie, Ma Ma Zhaodi thought. A zombie's endurance couldn't possibly be that poor; otherwise, humans could just hide for a few days to avoid being eaten and escape the crisis.

He could feel the man's vital signs rapidly fading, so he immediately activated the "I Didn't Kill Anyone" skill, wanting to keep him alive. But strangely, after the man was lifted onto a stretcher, his head still tilted to the side, and his soul returned to the underworld.

【Notice: Skill level insufficient; unable to block the lethal force.】

(End of this chapter)