Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 274 Beyond Life and Death
Day three.

Ma Zhaodi sat motionless on the ground, his body noticeably thinner.

At this point, he was in so much pain that he was 100% exhausted, but he no longer had the strength to scream. This was probably a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.

"Dead yet?"

The Pocky that Ma Zhaodi had given him was all gone. Constantine familiarly took out a cigarette from the cigarette case, put it in his mouth, but didn't light it.

"not dead."

Ma Zhaodi's voice sounded hollow and weak; in fact, it was already quite remarkable that he could even make a sound at this point.

“You are definitely not human. It’s been three days and you haven’t even had a drink of water. Even without Namos, an ordinary person would be dead by now.”

Ma Zhaodi smiled at Constantine: "I'm more resilient."

This is no lie. Due to his enhanced intermediate-level physical abilities, Ma Zhaodi's vitality and physical strength are far superior to those of ordinary people, allowing him to withstand Namos's devouring for a longer period of time.

In all the victims' cases, it generally took about a day and a half from the swarm infiltrating their bodies, to their increased appetite and awakening, to them being completely reduced to a shell. Ma Zhaodi, however, could roughly sense that Namos couldn't devour him that quickly.

After a moment, Constantine suddenly asked, "If we go to see that old shaman, perhaps he..."

“He had no choice, otherwise he wouldn’t have made his own people sacrifices.”

Ma Zhaodi calmly replied, "Besides, didn't you already send Lester to find him?"

Constantine paused for a moment, then held a bottle of water to his lips.

"Don't drink."

"This is water."

“Drinking it will make me live longer, which will give Namos more time to torment me.” Ma Zhaodi replied, “Forget it, a short pain is worse than a long one.”

"Damn it."

“There’s nothing I can do,” Ma Zhaodi replied calmly. “The fates of Namos and the vessel are intertwined. If I don’t die, my emotions and life force will become the last bit of nourishment to sustain its survival.”

The basement fell silent again.

Fourth day.

Ma Zhaodi's body had completely withered, his skin hanging limply on his skeleton, making him look like a dried-up mummy.

"do you died?"

Constantine paused, his question remaining unanswered.

But a moment later, Ma Zhaodi's voice rang out.

"No."

Having received an answer, he shrugged and sat back down.

However, in reality, the sound did not come from Ma Zhaodi; his vocal cords were gone.

"Ten dollars a time for a system voice imitation," Ma Zhaodi thought to himself. He had used it once before, and it worked fairly well.

He tried to open his eyes to see his surroundings, but all he could see was darkness—days of dehydration and starvation had left him in such poor condition that he could barely see.

At this time yesterday, he opened his eyes and looked around. Although his vision was blurry, he could vaguely sense four pale figures praying for him beside him.

Are they still around?
Day .

The Namos within the body no longer devoured Ma Zhaodi; the head and skin marked with incantations were no match for it, and the weak life force and unwavering emotions failed to arouse its appetite.

It was nearly driven mad by its own ferocious appetite—which is not surprising, for it was Namo, a hungry spirit. Its very essence was endless greed and hunger; this was its fundamental component, and it could not possibly restrain this impulse. Just as no matter how hard a human tries, they cannot stop the flow of blood or the beating of their heart, for that is the body's instinct.

To satisfy this desire, it will eat anything.

including yourself.

The sound of eating with great relish echoed within Ma Zhaodi's body as Namos began to bite himself.

"do you died?"

"No."

Ma Zhaodi still retains a sliver of consciousness, though not much, but it's not entirely absent.

He heard the sound of Namos gnawing at himself and wanted to laugh, but moving his lips was too much effort for him to do.

So he listened silently as the life of the hungry spirit began its countdown.

Day .

The gnawing sounds of the hungry spirits grew more intense. Namos, who had begun to devour himself, suddenly realized how delicious he was. Why hadn't he thought of trying it before? So he completely unleashed his greed and appetite, gnawing even more recklessly. The buzzing sounds within his body were now a chaotic mess, no longer harmonious. Every insect was fighting and devouring each other, completely indulging in its primal desires.

Ma Zhaodi was met with complete silence.

"I can't hear anything anymore." He murmured to himself, his remaining consciousness still holding him: "System."

The familiar mechanical sound rang in its ears, and for some reason, it felt quite at ease at that moment.

【I am here】

"How many days is it?"

Day Six

"Is Constantine still alive?"

【Yes】

"If he asks, tell him I'm not dead yet."

【receive】

"By the way, there's a question I've always wanted to ask—if I really died, what would you do?"

Considering your items and assets, as well as the current mission, your actual mortality rate is 0.3%.

"What if? What if I died?"

Don't die.

Seventh day.

Ma Zhaodi's thinking was almost at a standstill.

The gnawing sounds of Namos have almost completely disappeared. Thousands of sounds have devoured each other, and the vast majority no longer exist. Now, only a few sounds remain, emitting a weak, harmless, and annoying buzzing.

The system's voice sounded again.

[As per your previous settings, the system is reminding you that today is the seventh day.]

After a long while, Ma Zhaodi's brain finally processed what the system had said. He thought for a long time with extremely slow thinking and asked, "Am I going to die today?"

According to the estimate, yes.

".water"

【learn】

The cool sensation suddenly soothed his throat and replenished the parched cells in his body. In that instant, Ma Zhaodi's mind was stimulated again, and he almost felt like he had come back to life.

"Some nutrition, please." He thought slowly, "I'm not a charlatan, I don't want to die on the seventh day. I want to die tomorrow."

【learn】

A sweet taste began to spread in my mouth. I didn't know what the system had given me, but it certainly wasn't Snickers—I no longer had a stomach.

When Ma Zhaodi regained some consciousness, he immediately became aware of the condition of Namos within his body.

Haha, you've finally met your match.

His mood improved, but then he heard Constantine light the fire.

Clearly, this guy thought he was dead, so the first thing he did was take out a cigarette and light one—after all, he couldn't choke on it anymore.

"I knew it." Ma Zhaodi was speechless. "This guy's smoking addiction will never be able to quit in his lifetime."

Just then, a wisp of smoke entered his nostril, and the guy walked towards him.

Constantine reached out, but couldn't feel a pulse. He silently lit a cigarette in the corpse's mouth.

"You can take a break now, Lao Ma."

"Hey, I'm so done! No!"

Before Ma Zhaodi could answer, he felt a thick cloud of smoke rush into his body, eroding the last bit of his fragile life force.

Meanwhile, Namos lost all its nourishment and perished completely.

Ma Zhaodi's vision blurred with stars as a tiny golden figure suddenly appeared in his field of vision and then vanished rapidly.

[The Totem of Immortality is now in effect]

[Achieving something – transcending life and death.]

(End of this chapter)