That unlucky seagull would never know why it had died that day.
It had merely been lazily perched on a roof, cooing as it basked in the sun.
Then, a mysterious white flying object larger than its entire body suddenly smashed into its face.
Fortunately, the glowing orb did not seem particularly powerful. After flapping and scrambling about, it barely managed to steady itself and tuck its wings back in.
However, its good fortune did not last.
Just as it prepared to fly away from this troublesome place, before it had gone very far, a bald head caught up tightly from the sky behind it.
"Coo?"
With the tiny brain capacity of this lady seagull, it could no longer process information this bizarre and complicated.
It merely sensed danger instinctively, then desperately flew toward the nearby harbor and sea.
But that flying bald head was like a male bird with raging hormones during mating season, chasing relentlessly behind it at an absurd, unbelievable speed.
In the end.
When the seagull and the bald head both flew above the nearby bay, they "collided in midair."
The accident left one dead and one injured. The dead one was the seagull, while the injured one was the bald head who fell from the sky after hitting the bird.
Unfortunately, he did not fall into the harbor waters. Instead, he crashed onto a small yacht that happened to be passing beneath him.
"Whew."
"That was close. I nearly died that time."
Li Qing struggled up from the hard yacht deck, then immediately noticed that after falling from such a height, he had only 3% health remaining:
"Seriously, the difficulty got cranked all the way up right from the start."
"If Diavolo hadn't been careless and underestimated me just now, I would never have had a chance to survive."
"I escaped this time, but that guy definitely won't let me off so easily. After this, enemies will surely keep coming after me."
"The bad part is, I've only watched two episodes of JOJO. All I know is—"
"Baldy!!"
An enraged voice interrupted Li Qing's thoughts.
Immediately afterward, a pot-bellied middle-aged white man crawled furiously out of the cabin.
Since he was neither an "ally" nor an "enemy," he could not see the strange health bar floating above Li Qing's head.
He also happened not to have witnessed Li Qing's terrifying fall from the sky, having only heard a deafening crash.
To this ordinary boat captain, Li Qing was simply some street thug who had appeared out of nowhere to cause trouble:
"Damn baldy!"
"Look what you've done to my deck!"
Before he had even found his footing, he was already waving his arms and cursing:
"Where the hell did you come from?"
"An Eastern face. Are you a tourist from another country?"
"Let me tell you, this is our company's finest yacht. If you want to get aboard, you need to pay to rent it at the dock first!"
"Oh, right. The repair bill, and the cost of fixing this deck."
The captain was aggressively confrontational, but Li Qing paid no attention to his shouting.
"Too close. The distance is too close."
He muttered to himself:
"I just flew roughly three hundred meters in a straight line through the air."
"At an adult's walking speed, even accounting for all the twists and turns in the streets, Diavolo would only need a minute to catch up."
"No. I need to keep running."
"Hey, hey!"
The captain rudely interrupted his thoughts again. "Are you deaf?"
"Listen carefully. If you can't pay, I'm going to have the police come talk to you."
"Oh."
Li Qing responded softly.
When he turned to look at the captain again, his face was already filled with a friendly smile:
"Captain, I want to rent a boat. Right now."
"Captain?"
Hearing that somewhat respectful title, the man's expression immediately improved:
"You're here to rent a boat?"
"Fine, then go ashore to pay and complete the paperwork first. After that, pick one at the dock."
"No."
Li Qing said in an unquestionable tone, "I'm leaving right now, and I want this one."
"This one?"
The plump captain suppressed his displeasure:
"Don't joke around. This one won't do."
"There's a problem with its fuel tank. I was about to take it back to the shipyard for repairs."
"Can it move?"
Li Qing asked without concern, "As long as it can move, that's enough."
"I don't care if it breaks down in the middle of the sea. Get it moving now!"
"Kid, are you here to make trouble?"
The captain furrowed his brow tightly:
"Never mind that this boat has a few problems—even if it were in perfect condition, you can't just leave whenever you feel like it!"
"I told you, if you want to rent a boat, you need to pay and do the paperwork first—"
"I do have money."
Li Qing patted his bulging pocket, indicating that he had plenty of capital on him:
"Can we skip the paperwork?"
"That won't do."
"The boats belong to the company. According to regulations, the paperwork has to be completed first."
The captain instinctively refused, but then immediately put on a shrewd expression:
"Unless you give me a large sum privately. Heh heh."
He was clearly trying to make a fortune.
However, Li Qing ultimately used a very reasonable offer to swiftly conclude the business negotiation:
"Captain, your suggestion is not bad, but—"
"Sorry, I really don't have time to haggle with you."
"You want money, right?"
Li Qing pulled a pistol from his pocket and asked pleasantly, "Is this enough?"
At the dock.
Following the direction in which Li Qing had flown away, Diavolo chased all the way to the harbor.
When he arrived at the dock, he happened to see Li Qing in the distance, standing on the yacht and haggling with the captain.
Then, the boat set off.
The yacht ran at full power, carrying the mortal enemy who had just escaped Diavolo's grasp straight into the vast sea.
"Damn it!"
"He got away! I let him get away!"
"A man of unknown identity and unknown motives, who even knows my Stand ability, actually got away just like that!"
Diavolo felt frustration, and even more fury.
He knew that the veil of mystery he had painstakingly maintained for years had finally been unexpectedly lifted at one corner today.
A thousand-mile dike could collapse because of an ant hole.
If Li Qing survived like this, information about his Stand ability might spread from here.
A large part of battles between Stand Users was an information war.
Diavolo's Stand ability could indeed be called invincible, but it was not so powerful that it could not be countered.
If the information leaked, countless powerful enemies would surely challenge his position as king in the future, designing battle plans in advance based on his ability.
"I must kill him, sew his mouth shut, then throw him into the sea to feed the fish and shrimp!"
Diavolo thought bitterly.
Then, he began focusing on how to plan Li Qing's pursuit and execution:
"That bald man is out at sea on a boat now."
"Luckily, I saw that yacht in time. Otherwise, finding him would have been difficult."
"Wait. At sea?"
Diavolo had an excellent idea.
To reinforce his authority as Boss, he had specifically established a Royal Guard within the organization that answered only to his personal command.
Every member of this Royal Guard was either a powerful Stand User or possessed a special ability, and they were loyal to him. They were normally scattered throughout Italy, helping Diavolo handle the Passion Organization's various affairs.
To guard against unexpected danger, Diavolo always brought one or two Royal Guard members with him whenever he traveled.
The Royal Guard member he had brought along this time happened to be someone exceptionally skilled at naval combat.
No.
More than merely "skilled," to put it somewhat exaggeratively—
"He is invincible at sea."
"That Stand ability is simply too suited for fighting in the ocean."
Diavolo thought to himself.
Then, he immediately called that "naval combat expert":
"Squalo."
"You have a mission."
Before you continue