One Word, and the Enemy Retreats

Flames engulfed the wreckage of the car, and thick smoke billowed into the sky, blackening the fresh, clean white mist in the mountains and forests.

A tall, thin man stood amidst the smoke and firelight, his face grim as he looked at Li Qing and the others several dozen meters away.

The explosion was so violent that even with Jamie's prior warning, they were not unharmed.

Apart from the agile Li Qing, everyone else had some injuries.

Mista, Narancia, and Abbacchio, who were sitting in the back row of the seven-seater SUV, were the slowest to escape due to their positions and thus suffered the greatest blast damage.

Numerous metal fragments were embedded in their backs, and the shockwave from the explosion damaged their internal organs.

Such severe injuries have temporarily rendered the three of them unable to move.

However, Sam Sand was still not satisfied.

"There were only three seriously injured, and they all survived!"

"Damn it. How could this happen? This is going to be really troublesome."

Sam Sun, the Explosion Maniac Jamie mentioned, was in a terrible mood at the moment.

Although he enjoys fighting and death, he is neither good at nor fond of direct combat.

The ability to cause a high-energy explosion in a battery is actually best suited for surprise attacks, which is precisely his usual method:

Syme usually likes to sneak up on the enemy when they are completely unprepared, then remotely detonate the battery while the enemy is on the phone, using a computer, or in a car, and finally silently enjoy the wonderful sight of the enemy dying tragically in the flames and screams.

With such perfect abilities, he carried out countless textbook assassination cases, and the victims never knew what sent them to meet God until their deaths.

The sense of surprise and terror felt by the victims when they were suddenly caught up in the explosion was exactly what Syme loved to see.

Unfortunately, this time it didn't work.

The reason for the failure is self-evident. The enemy could not possibly have the ability to foresee the future. The fact that they were able to jump out of the car and escape before it exploded means that someone must have provided the enemy with the intelligence from "Stellar Note" in advance.

Jamie Campbell

After the smoke cleared, Sam saw clearly the head that Li Qing had held in his arms, its expression forever frozen in time.

His companion's death did not move him, but rather angered him.

"This guy is just a copycat, a spineless coward."

"How much did he actually tell the enemy?"

"Could it be that my Stand ability has been completely revealed?"

Sam felt a chill run down his spine, and a layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

Meanwhile, Li Qing and the others had recovered from the explosion.

Because of Jamie's death and the terrifying explosion just now, a hint of anger quietly crept into their eyes.

"Damn it. One, two, three, four."

"Leaving aside the three seriously injured guys, there are still four people left who are fully capable of fighting!"

"If that's the case, how am I supposed to fight?"

Sam is a very self-aware guy.

He knew his abilities were limited, and that with his expertise in sneak attacks and assassinations, he was almost certain to lose a direct battle against four opponents.

Thinking of this, Sam instinctively wanted to turn around, get in the car, and run away.

However, when he turned around, all he saw was a sea of fire and thick smoke, and the wreckage of a car burning fiercely in the smoke.

Yes, when he detonated the enemy's car, Sam's own car also exploded.

Because the "Stellar Note" explosion ability actually releases a special shock wave that is invisible to the naked eye, causing all the batteries within a 50-meter radius to explode—Sem has no control over which battery explodes and which doesn't.

Once the ability is activated, his own things will also suffer.

When Syme killed, he never considered the "collateral damage": if anyone happened to be passing by, they would also become targets of the bombing.

"Ah, I acted impulsively."

Sam slapped his forehead, looking somewhat helpless.

Looking at the car, now a burned wreck, he couldn't help but mutter to himself with a hint of regret:

"If I had known that none of them would be killed, I wouldn't have taken that risk."

"This situation is really troublesome. We have no choice but to bite the bullet and fight it head-on."

Sam tried to calm himself down, and his expression became serious:

"So, the question now is..."

"How much exactly did Jamie tell those guys? How much of the 'Stellar Note' ability was revealed?"

"If the enemy doesn't know much, then I might still have a chance of victory."

Sam was observing Li Qing from his elevated position, while Li Qing was also observing him from the shallow riverbed, along with his double.

It was a humanoid stand-in, and a stand-in with a very ferocious and imposing appearance.

Just by sensing its outline, Li Qing knew that this guy was good-looking:

Tall and imposing, with sharply defined armor, carrying a huge and heavy ammunition box on his back, and a menacing "rotary grenade launcher" attached to his arm perfectly protected by gauntlets.

In terms of design, it looks a lot like a mecha infantryman from a science fiction movie.

The humanoid stand-in stood steadily in front of Sam Sand, looking like a loyal galactic crew member protecting his master.

"Everyone be careful!"

Good looks are a powerful asset, and the sci-fi design of "Stellar Note" has everyone on high alert.

Fugo, while fumbling in his pockets, nervously reminded his companions:

"Everyone, please don't carry anything with batteries on you. If it gets detonated, we're doomed."

No, don't worry about that.

Bucciarati said calmly:

"See? The enemy's own car exploded too."

"This means that the guy's ability is likely an uncontrollable, wide-range ability. When he activates his ability, he will probably detonate all the batteries within a 50-meter radius."

"It has already been detonated once, which means there probably won't be any intact batteries within this 50-meter radius."

They were all seasoned veterans; they could see through such obvious information at a glance.

Since they weren't killed in the explosion, it means they didn't have any batteries on them, so there's no need to worry about them being attacked by an explosion.

However, Fugo, looking completely bewildered, pulled a Walkman from his pocket and casually tossed it onto the ground a few seconds later.

"Is that so?"

"But my Walkman is still working fine, isn't it?"

"What?" Everyone was stunned.

Jamie only provided a short piece of information; they had to figure out the rest on their own during the battle.

And now, before the battle has even begun, the intelligence they've pieced together already contains contradictions:

If the enemy's ability is truly capable of detonating batteries over a wide area regardless of friend or foe, how could one Walkman have survived?

Is something missing?

This problem cannot be explained in the short term.

With no other option, everyone had to follow Fugo's example and carefully check themselves to see if they were carrying any batteries.

At this moment, the enemy had already begun their attack.

The tall, burly "mech soldier" tilted the grenade launcher in his hand slightly downwards, so that the muzzle was aimed at Li Qing and the others below.

Its movements weren't particularly fast, but the slowly shifting muzzle and the gradually rotating cannon barrel always gave people a powerful sense of awe.

Then, the trigger was pulled.

But there was no fire, no smoke, only a soft "whoosh" sound as it cut through the air.

"Batteries? It fires batteries from its muzzle!" Fugo was taken aback at first, then suddenly realized, "Right, Jamie said his Stand can not only detonate batteries, but also create them!"

The batteries themselves are not harmful, and those "battery projectiles" didn't hurt much when they hit you.

However, when this "battery grenade launcher" is combined with the Stellar Note's ability to detonate the battery, the effect is completely different.

These seemingly harmless batteries shot out from the "grenade launcher," tracing simple yet deadly parabolas in the air before finally tumbling down to Li Qing and the others' feet.

Soon, flames shot into the sky.

The dozen or so batteries that had rolled onto the ground exploded simultaneously, creating a wave of heat on the shallow riverbank.

The scorching flames burned the river water, and steam and mist filled half of it.

Fortunately, Li Qing and the others reacted in time before the batteries rolled over, and managed to escape with three wounded men who were unable to move.

Although he looked somewhat disheveled, he ultimately escaped unscathed.

The presence of wounded soldiers hampered their actions, and the enemy's powerful long-range firepower made it difficult for them to retaliate.

Faced with this situation, Li Qing, Fugo, Giorno, and Bucciarati, who were still able to fight, quickly reached a tacit consensus. "Get close and fight. We absolutely cannot let him continue to bombard us."

"Purple Haze!"

"Gold Experience!"

"Steel Chain Fingers!"

Fugo, Giorno, and Bucciarati sprinted forward, making the most of their time to get closer to Semi's main body.

Li Qing approached while carefully observing Sam's movements, ready to attack his main body with the Sonically Enhanced Wave at any moment.

Their teamwork was excellent.

Their offensive was incredibly fierce.

However, Sam Sand simply smiled and uttered a single sentence, effortlessly deflecting the attack from Li Qing and his three companions:

"Stop fighting, I surrender!"

Two hands were raised high.