Foolish Mercy

"You bastard!"

Andrew's tearful curses suddenly came from behind Li Qing. "What did you do!"

Looking at the fire rapidly spreading across the ship, seeing the flames about to ignite the fuel tank, he finally instinctively overcame his fear of the "bald madman":

"Didn't I tell you not to smoke on the ship!"

"This ship... this ship is going to be blown up by you!"

"I know."

"This ship is about to explode."

Li Qing shrugged, his face expressionless. "So..."

"So?" Andrew had a terrible premonition.

"Take care, Captain! See you around!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Qing turned and leaped into the sea.

The flames quickly followed the trail of gasoline leakage all the way to the yacht's fuel tank.

The large amount of gasoline stored in the fuel tank exploded instantly, and the thunderous roar reverberated in all directions.

The yacht, forged entirely from steel, was torn to shreds in the explosion's shockwave like fragile paper. Fireballs fueled by gasoline shot out in all directions like scattered heavenly flowers, raining down a brief, brilliant, and deadly meteor shower on the sea.

By this time, Li Qing had already escaped unharmed underwater and surfaced in a spot not covered by burning oil.

The flames on the sea burned fiercer and fiercer, the yacht, broken in two after the explosion, slowly sank into the sea.

Looking at this doomsday-like scene, Li Qing actually smiled:

"Excellent, the plan was successful."

"But I haven't gotten the experience yet, which means that guy isn't completely dead."

He turned his head and looked at Squalo, who was lying powerlessly in the speedboat's driver's seat, covered in burns and severely wounded.

"Then..."

"Let me 'give him a little help'!"

Li Qing thought this and quickly swam towards the already half-dead Squalo.

At this moment, a heart-wrenching cry came from the collapsing yacht behind him, about to sink.

"Help! Help me!"

Andrew cried hysterically, hugging the yacht's broken railing, his eyes filled with fear and despair.

The surroundings were a sea of fire with floating fuel, and the wreckage of the yacht beneath his feet was about to sink in the flames.

He had nowhere to escape and nowhere to hide. He could only laboriously move his fat body, retreating towards the bow of the ship with no way out, forced by the heat and firelight.

"Oh..."

"So he's not dead yet."

Li Qing's expression was indifferent—

He hadn't considered Andrew's life from the beginning.

On one hand, the ship ignited and exploded very quickly, and he really didn't have time to turn back and bring Andrew to jump into the sea with him.

On the other hand...

He had never treated Andrew as a "person" from start to finish.

Whether it was Amor or Diavolo encountered earlier, or Andrew and Squalo encountered now, everyone in this world, after awakening their data-like abilities and identifying themselves as game player characters, was, in Li Qing's eyes, strictly speaking, not equal to him. They were... NPCs.

NPCs are not people, so he killed them without any scruples.

People don't remember how many pieces of bread they've eaten, and for game players, who remembers how many little soldiers have died in front of them?

"You're on your own."

"I still need to go finish him off and get the reward."

Li Qing ignored Andrew's despairing wails and continued to swim towards Squalo's location.

But the heart-wrenching cries for help still echoed across the sea:

"Save me, please... save me!"

"I want to go home..."

"God... no, Mom, I want to go home..."

This middle-aged fat man, at least forty years old, yelled for his mother in a most unmanly fashion.

Under the constantly approaching flames and the increasingly scorching heat, Li Qing swam further and further away, and Andrew's cries for help grew weaker and weaker.

Then, he despairingly stopped crying.

The world fell silent, and only the roaring hot wind stirred by the flames howled across the sea.

"Damn it."

A flicker of emotion crossed Li Qing's usually placid expression:

"What's all the shouting? You're incredibly noisy!"

"You fatso, I'll shut you up when I get back!"

He suddenly stopped his retreat, turning around and swimming towards the sinking yacht.

At this moment, the yacht was already engulfed in a sea of fire.

Li Qing had no other choice. Relying on his data-transformed body, which was immune to pain, he forcefully carved a path through the flames.

The fire consumed him, causing his remaining half-health, which was already low after the battle, to plummet.

Finally, with his health dropping to a mere 5%, Li Qing, enduring the intense flames, returned to the yacht and dragged the now despairing Andrew, who was waiting to die, to safety.

"Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Baldy!"

Andrew cried, clinging to Li Qing's leg and speaking incoherently.

Although he knew that his current predicament was entirely caused by this bald man, he also understood that Li Qing had no obligation to risk his life to save him.

For any decent person, this wouldn't be considered a good deed; instead, they would be held accountable for blowing up the ship and harming others.

However, when such an act was attributed to Li Qing, the "bald mafia boss," it became a touching story on par with "achieving enlightenment."

Thus, Andrew, as if suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, now regarded Li Qing as his savior, a revered underworld figure from the movies, a hero who was neither purely good nor purely evil.

He thanked Li Qing from the bottom of his heart, but Li Qing only responded with cold words:

"Don't waste time!"

"This ship is about to sink. There's a speedboat over there, hurry and swim with me."

"Y-yes!"

Andrew nodded gratefully, tears streaming down his face, and obediently followed Li Qing towards the speedboat where Squalo was located.

As he swam, he suddenly froze, looking at Li Qing's back:

"Huh?"

"Mr. Bald, why is there a..."

"Green box floating above your head?"

Squalo's speedboat wasn't too far away, and Li Qing and Andrew quickly covered the short distance of a few dozen meters.

Squalo, however, still hadn't woken up from his severe injuries and unconsciousness.

His entire body was covered in burns that made it difficult to distinguish black from red, and he lay slumped on the speedboat, which resembled a coffin, in a daze.

"Still unconscious?"

Li Qing cautiously stopped about ten meters away from the speedboat.

After a brief observation, he turned to Andrew beside him and instructed:

"Stay here and don't swim. I'll call you over once I confirm it's safe."

Andrew obediently nodded, and Li Qing, leaving Andrew behind, swam towards the speedboat in a matter of breaths.

But just then...

Squalo, who looked like an overcooked dead pig on the boat, suddenly opened his eyes, his eyelids scorched and blackened.

His eyes were filled with pain, and an intense killing intent, as wild as flames and as cold as ice:

"Li Qing, you finally came..."

Squalo hissed in a low, broken voice:

"You shouldn't have given me a chance."

"If you had come directly to take my life just now, perhaps I wouldn't have had the chance to resist."

"But you insisted on saving that useless fatty, not only giving me time to recover my senses but also depleting your 'life' to this extent in the sea of fire."

He looked at Li Qing's red health bar, which was less than 10%, and forced a victorious smile:

"Hahaha..."

"Because of your foolish benevolence, in the end... in the end, I won!"

"Go!"

Squalo endured the excruciating pain from his burns and unleashed the last trace of mental energy he could muster:

"This is my final Stand – 「Clash」!"

Giant Shark reappeared!

Its massive body, a full twenty meters long, instantly materialized on the surface of the sea, its arrival stirring white waves high into the sky.

In the next second, this mountain-like, heavy body would crash down upon Li Qing from above.

Under this overwhelming, large-scale attack that felt like Mount Tai crushing down, he had nowhere to escape.

And Echoes Act required first unleashing Sonically Enhanced Wave to successfully pinpoint the target before high-speed movement could be achieved. By the time he thought of using it now, it was already too late.

"I won, I won."

"I can still make it to the lunch I promised Dichano!"

Squalo's eyes widened, an indescribable brilliance flashing within them.

However, just at this moment...

Li Qing's face once again displayed that infuriatingly calm expression:

"My apologies."

"I have to correct you on one thing. My foolish mercy wasn't entirely without reward."

"At least..."

"The useless fatty you're talking about is now my 'teammate'."

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure abruptly transformed into a gust of wind and lightning, rapidly charging towards Andrew, who was far outside the attack range of Clash:

"Golden Bell Shield!"