After the man died, Luffy continued searching for his next target. Daytime was when survivors were most active. He watched as a man threw a tied-up bedsheet out of a window, attempting to climb down to the floor below.
Perhaps due to sheer nerves, the man’s hands slipped. He plummeted from the fifteenth floor, smashing into mincemeat on the pavement and becoming a hearty meal for the zombies below. The fifteenth floor of this duplex building was equivalent to the height of a standard thirtieth floor.
In another building, a group of survivors had formed a small team. They were armed with whatever they could find—knives, axes, even pots and pans. Killing them would be easy, but Luffy didn’t want to go through the hassle, so he decided against provoking them.
An entire morning passed without him finding anyone to his liking. During that time, he received another satellite call from his parents, but unable to do anything but growl, he couldn’t speak a single word. It left him feeling deeply frustrated. At one point, he even began to doubt his own existence.
"I’ve already become like this, and I’m still not the main character? Where are my romantic encounters? Where’s my hero-saving-the-beauty moment?"
Just as Luffy was on the verge of despair, debating whether to just settle for a random person, he caught sight of a window opening in the building directly ahead. A figure slipped out. Trembling, she climbed onto the windowsill and straddled it. She glanced down at the ground below and nearly fainted, hurriedly grabbing the window frame to steady herself.
Through his high-powered scope, Luffy could see clearly that the person straddling the window was a girl, around sixteen or seventeen years old. She was likely still a high school student. Her ponytail was a messy tangle, her expression haggard, and her gaze unfocused. With a dirt-streaked face and severely chapped lips, she looked utterly desolate.
Yet, despite her miserable state, it couldn’t hide her perfect facial contours. Compared to Mi Xiaoxiao, this girl possessed an even purer, more innocent beauty.
Although she had lost her usual radiance under the torment of the apocalypse, judging from Luffy’s extensive experience with women, she was definitely of "school beauty" caliber. Furthermore, being able to live in City Garden meant she had to come from a wealthy background. Before the end of the world, she must have been surrounded by admirers like the moon surrounded by stars.
Luffy suddenly felt a pang of regret. They lived in the same residential area—how had he never noticed her before? What a miscalculation!
At this moment, the girl straddling the window seemed hesitant. Her innate attachment to life and her total despair over the apocalypse were engaged in a fierce struggle within her heart. Perhaps in the very next second, she would take the leap, freeing herself from fear and hunger forever.
"You’re the one!" Luffy pulled a clown mask from his backpack and put it on to conceal his terrifying visage.
His SWAT gear paired with a clown mask made for a bizarre aesthetic, but in this post-apocalyptic world, it hardly felt out of place. He then stood up, waving his hands at the girl, followed by a flourish of his weapon. He made a gesture signaling her to climb back inside.
Since they were directly facing each other, the girl could see him without even raising her head. At first, she looked confused, but gradually, a glimmer of life returned to her eyes.
She didn’t have binoculars and couldn’t make out Luffy’s face, but his SWAT gear and weapon were incredibly conspicuous. In Country Z, police officers and soldiers held great prestige and always brought a sense of security to the public.
The girl understood the meaning behind Luffy’s gestures.
"Go back inside. Wait for me to save you!"
She then shakily climbed back through the window. Watching her made Luffy’s heart race with anxiety; he had finally found a suitable target and didn’t want her to accidentally slip and fall to her death.
Seeing that she was safe, he headed downstairs, rushed over to the girl’s floor, and knocked on her door. He waited for a moment.
A weak, feeble voice came from inside. "When you were downstairs just now... why didn’t the zombies attack you?"
Luffy was speechless. He had been so excited earlier that he had completely forgotten to camouflage his behavior.
"Why are you wearing a mask?" The girl had seen his clown mask through the peephole. "Can you take it off?"
Unable to speak and thus unable to explain, he simply shook his head. Just as he was contemplating whether to kick the door down or pick the lock, the girl’s voice sounded again. "Do you have anything to eat or drink?"
Luffy nodded. Looking down, he pulled two tins of canned meat and a bottle of mineral water from his backpack, waving them in front of the peephole.
The door clicked open immediately. In a flash, the girl snatched one of the cans and the water from his hands, retreating into the living room. Seeing this, Luffy slipped inside and casually locked the door behind him.
By now, the girl had already unscrewed the cap of the water bottle. Curled up on the floor, she guzzled it down desperately, completely abandoning any sense of ladylike poise.
Next, she looked at the can in her hand, trying to pry open the metal tab. But perhaps because she had been starving for so long, her body was completely devoid of strength. Unable to open the tin lid, she grew so frustrated that tears began to fall.
Seeing her struggle, Luffy popped the lid off the other can in his hand. Towering over her, he leaned down and offered it to her.
The scent of the meat wafted out, instantly grabbing her attention. She looked up, snatched the can, and scooped out a handful with her bare fingers, shoving it into her mouth.
She swallowed it whole, not even bothering to chew. She was simply too hungry. Her last meal had been four days ago. Her stomach was experiencing a piercing, agonizing pain, making her feel as though she could bite off a piece of her own flesh just to fill the horrific void.
After gulping it down, the girl scooped out another handful and stuffed it into her mouth. When she reached in for a third time, she found that the can was no longer in her hand.
At some point, it had been snatched away by the man standing before her!
"Please, give it to me. Whatever you want to do, can it wait until I’m full?" Luffy watched as the girl looked up at him, her face full of pleading. "You can do whatever you want. Just let me eat my fill, please, please!"
Her tears had already run dry over the past few days. She blinked her eyes but couldn’t squeeze out a single drop.
It wasn’t that Luffy wanted to maliciously take the can away. It was just that she had clearly been starving for far too long. If she devoured this entire massive can of meat all at once, she probably wouldn’t be far from death.
It was common knowledge: a person who had been starving shouldn’t eat until they were completely full, nor should they eat foods that were hard to digest. Because of this, he had prepared another type of food in his backpack: canned eight-treasure porridge.
Do whatever he wanted? Luffy certainly wished he could, but given his current state... sigh, it was complicated!
He took out the eight-treasure porridge, popped the lid, and handed it to the girl. Porridge was much easier to digest.
The girl froze for a moment before snatching it from him. She didn’t even bother using the small plastic spoon to scoop it out; instead, she threw her head back and poured the contents straight down her throat.
Luffy shook his head. "Just how starved is this kid?"
Someone who had never starved would probably never understand that feeling. Had Luffy not turned into a zombie, he would have likely faced starvation very soon. But as fate would have it, he did become a zombie, and evolved into a Tier One Zombie so quickly that he never got the chance to experience true hunger. It was an agony probably even more unbearable than an ordinary zombie’s reaction to seeing fresh flesh.
The can of porridge was quickly polished off. The girl tossed the empty tin aside, her gaze shifting repeatedly between Luffy’s face and the can of meat in his hand.
After starving for so long, how could one can of porridge and two small handfuls of meat possibly fill her up?
Luffy shook his head. He understood what she wanted, but he refused. If she ate anymore, she would eat herself to death.
The girl closed her eyes and whispered, "Whatever you want to do to me, I won’t resist!"