He still couldn't get over how weird Earth was. Even now, as Zarun looked down, he could see grass and forests up ahead, even though he had just flown from a snowy valley. What was with this place? Most planets he'd been to (not that it was many) were the sort of places that had one pretty consistent climate throughout. He liked it that way, he knew what to expect. Here, though? Who even knew what you were going to get? You could be running up a grassy hill, reach the top and look over, only to see Diablo Desert or some kind of weird jungle looking back at you. Even if he wasn't planning to make this a permanent stay (he'd been here more than long enough, longer than he had originally intended to), he had determined that he was gonna try to at least visit every little weird nook and cranny of the Human home planet.

For now though, Zarun was happy to be getting back to the lush, green areas of the planet, where the weather was temperate and there were more people around. Not least because he was hungry. He was starving, actually. He hadn't eaten in about an hour or so, so it was a lot to deal with right now. Not that he couldn't eat animals up in the snowy regions, but he didn't really like killing them himself. If they were already dead and maybe even already prepared though; hey, food was food either way! He wasn't picky when it came to that. Certainly not. Zarun felt like he could eat a whole house. A house made of meat. Or maybe a house that was like....some kind of pastry. Yes, he could definitely eat that. He had to satisfy what cravings he had, and he had to do it now.

The Saiyan touched down the ground outside of a pretty large town, though he had no clue of the name. Earthling names were hit and miss, so he found them pretty hard to predict. He was positive he'd seen a...Ginger town, maybe? Was there a Ginger town? Maybe he just made that one up. Whatever the case, it wasn't the name of the town that caught him, nor the oddly round buildings that seemed to more resemble mounds coming up from the Earth made of concrete and glass than a real living space, for any sentient creature. Seriously, they were so odd looking.

What caught his eye was a large, bright banner in the middle of the street. Speed Eating competition. Zarun's eyes narrowed as he zoomed in on his target, noticing the arrows giving directions. He rushed through the streets of the town, fast enough that most people didn't even see him hurtle past, rocketing himself as fast as he could towards the direction of food. He could smell it from here, and it was driving him nuts. He hadn't eaten in so long, now, and it had been so little that he'd even gotten to have! How was he supposed to not enter this competition?!

As he approached, he heard someone on a podium, maybe a mayor or an official, explaining the competition. It didn't matter who he was. Zarun was suddenly within the crowd of competitors, as though he'd been there the entire time. He wished he'd known abotu this earlier! As he looked to the banners around, he noticed that it was actually the 78th Speed Eating competition, or at least that was what it said. They'd had 77 of these things?! Maybe Earth wasn't so bad, after all. This was awesome! He'd never seen one of these on other planets. What even was the Speed part? Did you just eat fast? He could do that!

The announcer's yell of "GO" was almost pointless. Zarun was already rushing one of the tables, as all the other competitors tried to do the same. There were various judges gathered around, watching the competitors and cameras recording for the sake of picking out a winner. Admittedly, this was one of those times where Zarun wasn't really feeling competitive, and didn't really want to win. He was just happy to take part! Yes. More than happy. He began to tear into meat, eggrolls, vegetable and fruit, anything he could get his grubby Saiyan hands on and shoving it into his mouth, with ridiculous amounts of it being repeatedly consumed, the young man gorging himself on an entire table's worth in front of the equally shocked (and slightly disgusted) competitors and judges.

Zarun was undeterred. After finishing off that table, the Saiyan simply slammed down a plate, letting out an almighty belch as he did so. He supposed that was okay for starts, but he was still so hungry! He could subsist on that for a little while - no sense in fasting in the meantime, though! He quickly pounced on and began stuffing himself from the other table, not noticing that everyone had cleared out. In fact, as he looked up, everyone was sprinting out of there. Had he won that decisively?

Turning towards another street that lead into the large square where the competition was taking place, bullets bounced off the side of Zarun's face, a man having fired a burst from a crowd of soldiers. A small man with a megaphone stepped forward, yelling angrily into it as he approached. "Attention, citizens! Your town is now under the control of the Hodogga Devils!" Zarun tilted his head, immediately noticing the military uniforms and clear formation of the crowd sweeping in. He heard more booted feet in other directions, walking up towards the main crowd in front.

He could feel through his energy that there were some strong guys, ki users, entering along with these goons. As he pondered that, he easily moved out of the way of some low-level soldier rushing forward to swing at him, causing him to trip over and land on his face. He kept his gaze on the crowd, asking in a genuinely curious tone. "So...are we gonna fight, or-" He was cut off the noise of a war cry, as the crowd of soldiers, though low in power, charged at him en masse, forcing him to ready himself into a fighting stance. Okay, so they were. He couldn't be the only guy dealing with this, right?

Why could he never just eat in peace?

WC: 1,070