The Unnoticed Killing Intent

If you visit a field full of flowers and leaves in spring, you might be lucky enough to witness the pollen, like clouds and mist, burning brilliantly in the sunlight.

What appears to be a spontaneous combustion phenomenon is actually a series of small-scale Dust Explosion.

In the open space of nature, such an explosion would not show any power.

However, if these seemingly harmless pollen grains are concentrated in a small, enclosed space, they can become a highly lethal weapon.

Countless fine dust particles filled the limited space, colliding and rubbing against each other, crowding out every inch of space.

Finally, an alien spark ignited.

The bullets, burning with fire, flew in from the outside, igniting the tiny pollen grains they struck along the way.

In those minute details invisible to the naked eye, in a flash of light indistinguishable to the human brain, a small portion of pollen was ignited by the flame. The heat it emitted was rapidly conducted to the surrounding area, causing more pollen to burn. This burning cycle spread uncontrollably and rapidly into a wider and more distant space.

The scattered sparks eventually transformed into a raging inferno.

And all of this happened in a single instant.

Giorno and the others didn't even have time to escape before the powerful shockwave generated by the heated and vaporized dust enveloped them from behind.

A flash of fire appeared, a fierce wind arose, and they were about to be engulfed by the flames and the storm.

"Giorno!"

Almost instantly, Mista, Narancia, Abbacchio, and Fugo made the same judgment.

They rushed forward and shielded Giorno with their bodies.

This is not only because of their camaraderie, but also because they know that Giorno is now the core member of the team.

It doesn't matter if others get hurt, as long as Giorno can be saved, he can use Gold Experience to save all his seriously injured companions.

This simple yet brutal tactic worked.

The moment the storm of fire came from behind, the first to face the attack were Mista three companions, who were willing to use their bodies as shields.

They shielded the scorching flames with their bodies, using their flesh and blood as a bulwark to mitigate the impact of the explosion.

Ultimately, the five people who were huddled together in defense were blasted several meters away by the powerful shockwave.

As the flames subsided and the impact dissipated, the toilet behind them cracked open with countless fissures, seemingly on the verge of crumbling into a pile of rubble.

At this moment, the backs of Mista and the other three were scorched black by the flames, and their mouths were bleeding crimson blood from the impact that had injured their internal organs.

They were all seriously injured in the explosion, and some were even knocked unconscious by the shockwave.

Although he could still breathe, he was clearly no longer able to fight.

Fortunately, Giorno, who was being protected by the four of them with their bodies, was still conscious.

The impact of the explosion was mitigated by his companions' bodies, and by the time the force struck Giorno through the wall of flesh, its power had been greatly reduced.

Of course, he still suffered some injuries.

His mouth was bleeding profusely, and he was quite dizzy.

When the explosion stopped and smoke filled the air, Giorno could barely stand.

Even so, he stubbornly stood in the lingering smoke, side by side with his Gold Experience, turning back to glare at Jamie Campbell, who stood far ahead.

"Can you still stand up?"

"Haha. A death throes!"

Giorno's gaze burned fiercely, but it couldn't scorch Jamie's smile, which was filled with excitement and satisfaction.

The outcome is already decided.

Having lost the help of his four companions and suffering from serious injuries, Giorno had no chance of defeating him.

Although a Stand is a limited form of mental power, matter determines consciousness, and mental power can only be concentrated by relying on a strong body.

Stand User with a physical disability is like an e-sports player with a severe cold; no matter how strong their spirit is, their strength will be greatly reduced.

"Haha. Cough cough cough cough"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Even though he couldn't stop the violent coughing fits, Jamie still laughed wildly and arrogantly, despite the burning pain in his chest and lungs:

"I won! I won!"

"Once again, I have used my power to defeat you, the so-called authentic one!"

This is a kind of obsession that is difficult for ordinary people to understand.

Jamie, once described by his school tutor as "lacking any creativity," has been searching for a sense of fulfillment he lacked since childhood through this unique method of "fighting fire with fire."

He cannot create, but he still possesses talent.

No one can deny this.

But Giorno still looked at him coldly, his eyes calm as still water, a calmness that was irritating.

That look seemed to say:

"Don't be too happy yet, you haven't won yet."

Jamie hated being looked at like that, as if his intelligence and efforts were being completely rejected.

"Go to hell!"

Jamie shouted excitedly.

He took a giant step forward, accompanied by his four body doubles who had been resurrected.

"Those enemies who despise me as a thief will eventually be reduced to dust before me!"

"You're no exception either. cough cough cough"

His grand pronouncements were thwarted by a violent cough.

Because of the sudden, intense pain surging in his chest and lungs, his body began to tremble and his steps began to falter.

Jamie clutched his chest, hunched over, and coughed violently, looking like a shrimp trembling in hot oil with its shell turning red.

"How... how could this be? How did my body become so weak?"

Is it because of pollen?

Jamie looked at the pinkish-red froth he coughed up, his face ashen.

"No, I shouldn't be allergic to pollen."

"Why is it so hard to breathe? Why does my chest feel like it's on fire?"

Giorno supported his battered body, his cold gaze becoming even calmer:

"Looks like it worked."

"Takes effect?"

Jamie shuddered, a chill suddenly running through him.

He forced back the pain and nausea that shot through his brain, and asked in utter shock, "What... what did you do to me?!"

"Haven't you noticed yet?"

"The smell was so strong. I originally thought the plan might fall through."

"Now it seems that the pollen you produced has also harmed you—it has clogged your nasal mucosa, causing you to lose your sense of smell and be unable to detect the murderous intent lurking in the darkness."

In this still moment, Giorno's voice rang out calmly.

"Smell?"

Did you smell anything strange just now?

Jamie carefully recalled the various smells he had caught in the bathroom earlier.

At first, because of the puddles on the floor, all he could smell in the toilet was a strong odor of disinfectant cleaning agent.

The smell was very pungent, and it was clear that the cleaning staff had used the cheapest and most common chlorine-based disinfectant available on the market.

Then, he smelled the fragrance of flowers.

In order to control the snakes, he planted a field of Impatiens around himself long ago.

The floral fragrance was so strong that it completely masked the lingering smell of disinfectant.

Then, he smelled a foul stench of animal entrails.

The smell of blood mixed with bodily fluids was extremely unpleasant.

Although he couldn't see in the dark, Jamie could still tell from the unique smell of the animal entrails that they were bait created by Giorno to distract the snakes.

Oh, right, at the same time as that stench hit, there was indeed a strong, pungent smell emanating from it.

The smell was somewhat like residual disinfectant on the floor, but much more irritating.

But by then, the "Silver Experience" had already begun to produce excessive pollen for the subsequent Dust Explosion. His nasal cavity was completely blocked by pollen, and his sense of smell became extremely dull, to the point that the pungent smell no longer attracted attention.

Immediately afterwards, he began to feel some discomfort in his respiratory tract.

At the time, he thought it was just because he had inhaled too much pollen, so he didn't take the symptoms seriously.

"Damn it."

"What exactly is that smell?!"

Jamie started to get scared.

What he feared was not accidentally contracting the virus, but rather that after contracting it, he wouldn't even realize why he had contracted it in the first place.

That means he has completely lost in the competition with the "genuine product".

Can't figure it out?

Let me tell you the answer!

Giorno's voice was like a sharp blade, piercing through his outwardly strong and competitive yet inwardly fragile and sensitive heart:

"When I distract the snakes, the animal entrails I create are cow stomachs."

"Why the stomach, and not other simpler, easier-to-create structures?"

"Because, just as you secretly stimulated the production of an excessive amount of pollen that shouldn't exist in nature when you created the Impatiens, I also secretly stimulated the production of an excessive amount of gastric secretions—gastric acid—when I created the cow's stomach."

"When the venomous snake bites the cow's stomach, the excessive gastric acid secreted by the cow's stomach, far exceeding the normal concentration, is poured onto the floor where a large amount of disinfectant remains."

"At that moment, I had my companions cover their mouths and noses with me and stop breathing."

"Stomach acid?"

Jamie was slightly taken aback, and his pupils immediately contracted.

The clues, pieced together, made him understand everything:

"The main component of stomach acid is hydrochloric acid, and the disinfectant residue on the ground can be identified by its smell; its main component should be sodium hypochlorite, which is the most common type of disinfectant on the market."

Sodium hypochlorite reacts with excess hydrochloric acid to produce Chlorine Gas!

Thinking of this common sense about life that even a junior high school student knows, his face turned completely pale.

Jamie clutched his chest, which felt like it was being scorched by fire, and muttered to himself in disbelief:

"I've been poisoned by Chlorine Gas?"