Two consecutive days of relentless training, day and night.
Feng Mu nearly exhausted all his energy, collapsing on the bed like a corpse.
Even though the computer was off, it seemed as if the sound of "One, two, three, four" was still echoing in the room.
Feng Mu had dark circles under his eyes, and the dense red streaks made his pupils appear especially terrifying, as he stared unfocused into the air, adding to the eeriness.
[Iron Eater: Stage One]
[Edible Iron Types: 1]
[Extractable Metal Traits: 1]
[Currently detected edible iron type — Ordinary Pig Iron, edibility 25.5%.]
[Extracted Traits: ??]
Edibility surged by 15%, averaging 7.5% per day, showing remarkable results.
Of course, the cost was not insignificant. Apart from depleting all stored iron, leaving not even a single Iron Ball, his body was about to give way, with his heart sending waves of stabbing pain.
This was the body sounding an alarm. If he continued stacking debuffs, whether the edibility would explode was unknown, but his heart was ready to burst first.
Feng Mu realized, "Even though I eat iron, I'm not made of iron. If I continue, I'll really drop dead."
He thought, "At least I've tested the current limit of my body's load. 7.5% a day, several times what I initially estimated. At this rate, just 10 more days of exploding, and the progress bar can reach 100%."
Feng Mu was filled with anticipation, his cold chest thumping with excitement: "As long as I can get enough iron, in just 10 days, the Iron Eater will yield results."
Feng Mu wished he could get up right now to earn money and gather iron, but reason made him close his eyes and he fell into a deep sleep.
06:14 AM.
Feng Mu was awakened by an intense hunger.
His empty stomach churned, his stomach running on empty, and the overwhelming hollowness gripped each cell of his body.
The feeling was indescribable, as if his skin wanted to devour his muscles, his muscles wanted to consume his bones, his bones wanted to devour his blood, hunger driving him to consume himself.
Do I want to eat myself?
A chill ran through Feng Mu's scalp, a horrifying image flashed in his mind: "Calamity Corpses?!"
Feng Mu hurriedly climbed out of bed. Since the light wasn't on and there was no mirror in the room, he didn't know that at that moment, his pupils had narrowed into a vertical shape, gleaming a snake-like green.
He pulled out a plastic bag from a drawer.
The bag was slightly heavy. Opening it, inside were mixed leftovers.
Over the past two days, he had brought meals to his room and dumped them into the bag to wrap up, intending to throw them to a scavenger in a couple of days, but in the end, they were left to him.
Without chopsticks or spoon, Feng Mu buried his head into it, scooping it up wildly with his hands.
The cold leftovers were all mixed together, indescribably tasting, but Feng Mu ate them with incredible relish.
His mouth opened and closed exaggeratedly, teeth chewing vigorously, mouth filled with saliva, esophagus pressing madly to transport it down to that bottomless pit-like stomach.
No, not a bottomless pit.
But a churning mixer overflowing with acidity, no matter how much food fell in, it was dissolved by the stomach acid and churned by the stomach walls, then apportioned by the starving body.
Feng Mu tossed aside the plastic bag and headed to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and whatever was edible, he shoved into his mouth.
After 10 minutes.
That horrifying sense of hunger gradually subsided, Feng Mu's pupils returned to normal. Seeing the chaotic kitchen, his expression changed.
After cleaning up the kitchen, Feng Mu returned to the bedroom, sat by the bed, and fell into deep thought.
"What happened just now, what was that abnormal feeling of hunger all about?"
Just thinking about earlier when "I wanted to eat myself," Feng Mu couldn't help but feel lingering fear and horror.
"Is it because the iron is finished?"
"Or is it because..."
Feng Mu furrowed his brows tightly, suppressing the fear in his heart, carefully recalling his body's sensations from earlier.
"No, I didn't want to consume iron, I wanted to eat meat, wanted carbohydrates, so the root cause is, I've only been eating iron and not food all this time?"
"The satiety from eating iron deceived me. I actually still need to eat food?"
"Moreover, even though the first step of iron eating transforms the bones, my stomach and intestines have also significantly strengthened, or I wouldn't be able to digest iron."
After reflecting, Feng Mu concluded: "In future, iron intake must be paired with food. The more iron consumed, the more food needed as well, or else nutritional imbalance could lead to turning into a Calamity Corpse?!"
Even though Feng Mu wasn't a medical expert, that's what his body's sensations were telling him.
"Food plus iron nutrition combination, let's start by pairing them 1 to 1, like a pound of iron with a pound of food?"
Feng Mu tentatively came up with a solution, but the effectiveness could only be assessed after trying and seeing his body's feedback.
He also considered that maybe switching to a nutrition fluid plus iron combination would be more scientific, but this thought was immediately dismissed.
Sleepiness faded as he pondered. Although his body was still very tired, Feng Mu couldn't sleep.
He simply got up to take a shower in the bathroom, the warm water flowing over his skin, relaxing him completely, the coldness penetrating his bones through the skin becoming more apparent, and his thoughts clearer.
"The cold sensation has covered all the ribs and started spreading from the spine to invade the limbs."
"I can feel the bones hardening, especially the thorax, like it's embedded with a layer of iron, heavy."
"I wonder, if I cut open my chest with a knife now, what color would the ribs be? Can ordinary knives cut through my ribs?"
"Now the edibility is 25.5%, the ribs and spine are fully covered, the remaining bone regions, maybe another 20-30% in edibility, could cover it all?"
"That being the case, perhaps it doesn't need to be 100%, at a 50% threshold, the Iron Eater can unlock a stage of results, right?"