sub extract_string {
   /\G (.) /xgc or die;
   my $length = unpack('C', $1);

   my $str = substr($_, pos, $length);
   pos($_) += $length;

   return $str;
}

sub parse {
   for ($_[0]) { # alias $_ = $_[0];
      pos = 0;

      /\G (.) /xgc or die;
      my $count = unpack('C', $1);

      my @strings;
      for my $i (1..$count) {
         push @strings, extract_string();
      }

      # Make sure there's nothing extra at the end.
      /\G \z /xgc or die;

      return @strings;
   }
}

my @strings = parse($packed);