Phone

"Impact" missed.

The Stand attack that had gathered Squalo's last trace of mental energy and carried all his hopes had missed.

Using the effects of Golden Bell Shield, Li Qing instantly dashed to Andrew's side, while also granting himself a shield capable of absorbing damage.

White spray shot into the sky, falling back down as a torrential rain.

Amid that drenching downpour, Impact's massive body quickly dissolved into nothingness.

"Sonically Enhanced Wave!"

Li Qing did not hesitate in the slightest.

After using Golden Bell Shield to dash beside Andrew and perfectly evade the enemy Stand's attack, he immediately spun around at high speed and fired Sonically Enhanced Wave at Squalo himself.

Squalo was already weakened to the extreme and had no way to make his Stand block the Sonically Enhanced Wave mark for him.

Soon, an indelible white marker was branded onto his chest.

At the same time, Impact's disappearance did nothing to make Li Qing lower his guard.

The next instant, Li Qing mercilessly used the Sonically Enhanced Wave mark to lock onto Squalo, who was still barely clinging to life aboard the speedboat, and shot toward him:

"Echoes Act!"

Under Echoes Act's heavy blow, Squalo violently spat out a mouthful of blood.

He collapsed helplessly at Li Qing's feet, with only the faintest trace of life left in his eyes.

"Oh? You're still alive?"

"Looks like Stand Users themselves are pretty tough too."

Li Qing casually remarked, then lowered his head and said to the dying Squalo:

"Well? Do you want to live?"

"If you do, trade me some intelligence."

"Diavolo sent you to hunt me down, didn't he? What other companions do you have, and what Stand abilities do they possess?"

A bounty hunter would never let a target already in hand go free, so his proposed deal was not sincere at all.

Still, if possible, Li Qing wanted to probe his opponent and see whether he could get any useful intelligence out of him.

"Dichano."

Squalo gave a name.

However, he was not answering Li Qing's question. He was unconsciously muttering to himself:

"Dichano..."

"Without me as your partner, that worthless Stand ability of yours must make things pretty hard for you, huh?"

"Seriously... We said we'd have lunch together."

"We fight every time we eat. Fine, I'll listen to you this time and keep it simple. Let's order a Margherita pizza."

Squalo murmured as the light in his eyes gradually faded away.

"Margherita pizza?"

Li Qing could not make sense of those overly strange final words and simply stopped wasting time.

"Forget it, forget it. You should just die."

He reached out and gave Squalo a little "help."

The experience bar on the system interface suddenly rose by a large chunk.

"All right!"

Li Qing turned around and waved toward Andrew, who was still floating some distance away on the sea. "It's safe now. Get on the boat!"

"Y-Yes..."

Andrew nodded foolishly.

After witnessing Li Qing wade through a sea of fire in the flesh, make white light flare from his hands, and move at high speed across the water, he had finally realized that Li Qing was not an ordinary bald mafioso, but a bald mafioso with superpowers.

Following Li Qing's instructions, he slowly swam over and grabbed the edge of the speedboat to climb aboard.

Before he could climb up, Andrew saw a face with unclosed eyes—

It was Squalo.

The black-red skin on his face had rotted into an unrecognizable mess, while his dull eyes carried the lifeless gleam of a dead fish. He looked horrifying in death.

"A... a dead body?"

Seeing such a terrifying sight, Andrew instinctively stopped climbing aboard.

"Don't be afraid."

Li Qing reassured him with a broad smile. "I'll throw him into the sea to feed the fish in a moment."

"Hey, hey."

"You're even scarier like this."

Andrew muttered that silently to himself, but he still obediently climbed aboard in the end.

"Sit in the driver's seat and get us out of here."

"Looking at things now, you'll probably have to give me another ride."

As Li Qing casually instructed Andrew to start the speedboat, he lifted Squalo's corpse one-handedly from the driver's seat.

However, just as he was about to toss that charred, unrecognizable corpse into the ocean with a look of disgust on his face—

A phone suddenly began ringing aboard the speedboat.

It was Squalo's phone. Someone was calling him.

"Oh?"

Li Qing stopped what he was doing and picked up the phone with interest.

He exited Digitization Mode and glanced at the caller ID, where the caller's name was displayed:

"Dichano?"

"Was he the companion Squalo just mentioned?"

Li Qing hesitated briefly before answering the call.

The moment it connected, the man named Dichano impatiently asked:

"Hello? Hello?"

"Squalo, you finished the job over there, right?"

"Once you're done, get back here quickly. Don't forget, we have lunch together at noon!"

"I'm telling you, Squalo—"

"Don't order that awful squid ink pasta again this time. That black stuff is seriously appetite-killing!"

He rattled on endlessly over the phone, but did not receive a single response.

"Hello? Hello? Squalo, why aren't you saying anything?"

"Are you playing dead?!"

"..."

There was a stretch of silence from the other end. When he spoke again, his voice had become distorted with agitation:

"Damn it."

"Even if you're my partner, I can't tolerate such a vile joke."

"Squalo, say something already—"

"At noon... what the hell are we eating at noon?!"

"Sorry, but I'm afraid he can't answer the phone right now."

After a long silence, Li Qing finally responded.

"You!"

The man named Dichano finally erupted. "Y-You killed Squalo?!"

"Hey, hey."

Li Qing sighed coolly.

"Why are you making me sound like the bad guy?"

"Since you came chasing after me like rabid dogs starving out of their minds, you should have been prepared to be beaten to death with a stick!"

"And don't bother making threats. Let me deliver that line instead:"

"Tell your boss—"

"I hope that, when he's drawing lots to buy a house in hell in a couple days, he remembers that from the moment he angered this ordinary passerby this morning, his death star had already begun to shine."

"..."

Dichano on the other end of the line fell completely silent.

But he was probably not intimidated by those meaningless threats.

Because amid that deathly silence, Li Qing seemed to hear faint, grief-filled whimpering.

It sounded like a stubborn dog standing in the middle of a road full of traffic, desperately nudging its companion's corpse with its nose, only to finally realize that it would never wake up again.

"..."

Without realizing it, Li Qing put away the victor's mockery.

"Oh, right."

"That guy named Squalo said he wanted Margherita pizza today."

With that, he hung up.

"Let's go."

Li Qing casually threw Squalo's phone into the sea, then slowly sat back down. "Start the boat and get us out of here."

"Okay."

Andrew, seated at the controls, nodded and expertly started the speedboat.

As the speedboat slowly got underway, Andrew asked:

"Sir, where are we going now?"

"Where? Well..."

Li Qing hesitated.

After thinking briefly, he abruptly asked Andrew a seemingly unrelated question: "How far is Naples from here?"

"Naples?"

Andrew was slightly taken aback. "That's on the other side of the coast!"

"Even by speedboat, it would take at least six or seven hours to reach the port of Naples from here."

"What if some other weirdo comes after you?"

For the sake of his own safety, he could not help offering a small suggestion:

"How about I take you back to the island, and you fly there yourself?"

"Oh."

"Your suggestion is good, so—"

Without even raising his eyelids, Li Qing said, "We'll do as I say. Go to Naples."

"..."

Andrew's expression shifted several times before he finally obediently followed Li Qing's instructions.

While busy steering the speedboat, he could not help turning back to sneak a glance at Squalo's miserable corpse in the rear seat:

"Um... sir?"

"Aren't you going to throw this body away?"

"No."

"Let him keep an intact corpse. It's not taking up any room anyway."

Li Qing answered expressionlessly.