Carne

"Squalo is dead."

Diavolo impatiently dismissed Dichano, who was crying over the phone and demanding revenge for his partner, then fell silent alone.

Of course, he was not mourning his dead subordinate. He was feeling humiliated for himself:

Half an hour. More than half an hour had already passed!

Someone had actually survived for over half an hour after secretly spying on his throne!

It felt like being bitten by a filthy, lowly, treacherous, cunning hairless rat—and not only failing to crush the beast on the spot, but even letting it slip away and hide in some dark corner of the house.

It was revolting.

Killing intent blazed in Diavolo's eyes, and his rose-red hair stirred without wind in his fury:

"Kill him. I must kill that pest!"

"So what if he escaped once?"

"All of Italy is under my control. Let's see how long you can keep running!"

Although Li Qing had escaped, two pieces of good news allowed Diavolo to calm down for the moment:

First, Li Qing had been blind when he met Diavolo. He had never seen Diavolo's true face.

Second, both the yacht Li Qing had previously taken and the speedboat Squalo had driven were equipped with GPS trackers.

With the Passion Organization's near-total control over Italy, Diavolo could easily obtain real-time location data for every vessel at sea.

"The battle took place here."

Diavolo opened his laptop and pulled up the vessel tracking system:

"After the two boats met in this stretch of sea, the yacht that bald man was on never moved again."

"He must have taken Squalo's speedboat and then driven it toward..."

He studied the map of southern Italy on the screen, then roughly traced the speedboat's course from its location data points:

"Naples?"

"Is he heading to Naples?"

Because there were countless scattered islands out at sea, this conclusion could not yet be fully confirmed.

But in any case, judging from Li Qing's current general direction, his destination was indeed Naples—the ancient southern Italian port city beneath Mount Vesuvius.

"What is he going to Naples for?"

"Could he have an accomplice there waiting for him?"

There was far too little intelligence, and Diavolo could not infer Li Qing's intentions for the moment.

After thinking for a while, he decided to deal with Li Qing first:

"It will take at least six or seven hours to get from this sea area to Naples."

"And members of my Royal Guard are scattered across Italy on assignments. The ones who can reach Naples by this afternoon are..."

Though the organization had countless officers and capable people, the ones Diavolo thought of at this moment were still the Royal Guard directly under his command.

Since hunting down Li Qing concerned both his true identity and his Stand ability, he did not want the organization's officers—whom he could not fully trust and who often played their little "overthrow the superior" games—to intervene unless absolutely necessary.

Diavolo carefully recalled the whereabouts of his Royal Guard members and found that only one of them was currently carrying out a mission near Naples:

"Carne?"

"Him?"

Diavolo frowned tightly:

Carne's Stand ability was weak.

If Carne's near-insane blind loyalty had not made him a reliable tool, Diavolo would never have admitted that unremarkable fat man into his Royal Guard.

However...

Carne seemed to have told him that his Stand could only display its true power after its user died.

At that point, his Stand would be invincible.

Some unusual Stands did indeed have extremely harsh activation conditions, and Stands that could continue existing after their users died were not unheard of.

However, Diavolo had always remained skeptical of Carne's claim that it was "invincible":

After all...

You had never died before. How could you guarantee that your Stand would be invincible after your death?

Even knowing that Carne's Stand had a powerful trump card that could only be activated after death, Diavolo did not dare fully trust that his combat strength was enough to defeat Li Qing.

After weighing it over, he ultimately chose to trust himself:

"The flight from Palermo to Naples takes only an hour."

"If I depart from Punta Raisi Airport now, I should reach the Port of Naples before that bald man and intercept him when he comes ashore."

"Letting you escape last time was my carelessness. I will not make the same mistake again."

"However."

"To be safe, I should give Carne an order first."

Outside Naples, inside an inconspicuous inn.

"Mr. Carne, please..."

"Don't kill me."

A man lay limply in his own blood, his voice painfully hoarse:

"The explosives and weapons were all ordered by the boss to be moved to Naples. It wasn't a decision I made on my own."

"Believe me..."

"I secretly arranged that batch of supplies in a port warehouse in Naples. I never sold them off."

"You can go check right now. I truly haven't betrayed the organization!"

He struggled to raise his head, begging for mercy from the obese man before him.

But Carne remained unmoved:

"The boss ordered you to do it?"

"Heh heh."

"You're just a lowly grunt from logistics, yet you're already arrogant enough to use the boss's name to steal and sell the organization's supplies!"

Carne raised his thick, pillar-like leg and planted one foot on the traitor's bloodied head:

"Damn it. Damn it!"

"You think I can forgive your crimes just because you've coughed up the stolen goods now?"

"That's the boss—the supreme boss!"

"You despicable, shameless pest! How dare you use that filthy hole in your head, fit only for swallowing the raw material of shit, to profane the boss's sacred name!"

Like a fanatic watching someone disrespect the god he worshipped day and night, Carne was so furious that he nearly lost his mind.

The fat all over his body trembled with rage:

"Speak!"

"Who did you trade with? Do you have any accomplices?"

"Speak! Speak! Speak!"

Carne's voice was full of madness, and the leg pinning the traitor's head gradually pressed down harder without him realizing it.

Finally, crack!

That mortal skull could not withstand the weight of a giant bear.

"Uh..."

Carne's expression froze.

Then he abruptly lifted his foot and stomped viciously onto the now-unrecognizable thing:

"Damn it. Damn it!"

"Who gave you permission to die?"

"I haven't gotten the names of your accomplices yet! I haven't completed the task the boss gave me! How dare you die?!"

"Damn it."

"This was a task the boss personally gave me!"

Carne's furious roar echoed through the room. At that moment, his phone suddenly rang.

Carne picked up his phone and glanced at it. A feverish expression immediately appeared on his twisted fat face:

"Boss?"

"Y-you called me personally?"

At that moment, his tone was as reverent as a worshipper praying to a god:

"Reporting, Boss!"

"The parasite who used your name to steal the organization's supplies has been dealt with. Please forgive me—I failed to get the names of his accomplices. But the weapons and explosives he stole seem to be hidden in some port warehouse in Naples."

"That isn't important."

"He was only a petty thief. You do not need to investigate any further."

"I have a more important mission to entrust to you now, Carne. You must do everything in your power to carry it out."

Diavolo's oppressive voice came through the phone.

To Carne, that voice was as sacred as an oath spoken by a king while knighting a knight:

"Everything in my power... Everything in my power..."

"Boss..."

Unable to wait and filled with anticipation, he asked, "Do you mean that you're finally going to make use of my insignificant life?"

Diavolo hesitated slightly.

Though blindly loyal Carne was a useful tool, with matters having spiraled this far out of control, Diavolo had no reason to cherish a tool's life:

"Yes."

"For me, please go die."