The Empty Fort Strategy

Prosciutto is dying.

His lower body was shredded into a bloody mess, while his upper body was twisted and stuck in the wheel. Blood surged to his throat, and the intense pain prevented him from speaking.

But even so, Prosciutto's spirit has not faded:

"Pesci, the glory of victory is entrusted to you."

"Kill him and get that box."

"I will always be here to protect you."

With a death wish, Prosciutto struggled to maintain his ability to the Grateful Dead.

For Li Qing, that box represented his companion's dream, and for Prosciutto, it was no different.

He will never give up, and he will never undo his Stand ability until the very last moment of his life.

Prosciutto's persistence soon paid off.

His expectations for Pesci were not disappointed.

The agreed-upon one-minute time limit had just passed when Pesci, sensing something was wrong, quickly rushed over from the waiting room.

Prosciutto heard Pesci's hurried footsteps and his heavy breathing, which became clearly audible after he arrived at the platform.

"It was a success!"

"Pesci didn't hesitate; he got here before the other side could come to their rescue."

"Li Qing is too old to move and he is also injured. There is no way he can break the deadlock."

Prosciutto thought to himself with satisfaction:

"Go, Pesci."

"My legacy, everyone's dreams, are all entrusted to you."

He placed all his hopes on Pesci, but Pesci's actions were not as decisive and swift as he had expected.

Because Pesci hesitated.

The train hadn't arrived at the station yet, and the ticket gates hadn't even opened when the Grateful Dead happened, so there were no other passengers on the platform.

There were still quite a few people on platform 2 across the street, but now they were completely blocked on the other side by the arriving train.

There were passengers on the train, but they were all the Grateful Dead to move, and collapsed in the carriage as soon as the train arrived at the station.

Most importantly, Prosciutto is now stuck in the wheels below, and his view is completely blocked by the towering platform.

If you don't deliberately stand at the edge of the platform, people on the platform will never see this man who is struggling in "hell".

So when Pesci rushed over, he couldn't see anyone else at all, only Li Qing.

Li Qing stood there alone, his withered body resembling a dried corpse, blood streaming down his waist and intestines spilling out of his stomach.

Especially those murky eyes that gleamed with a cold light, set in dark, sunken sockets on a skeletal head, looked terrifying.

The blood on the ground was all from his body.

It's like a classic scene from a zombie horror movie.

Pesci was immediately startled, and then, as usual, started looking for her parents:

Where is my older brother?

"Where is my brother Prosciutto?!"

"This is bad."

When Prosciutto heard Pesci calling for her mother like a lost tadpole, he already had a bad feeling.

But he was injured and unable to speak, unable to make Pesci notice his presence.

Then, Li Qing spoke.

This sentence almost made Prosciutto die of anger on the spot:

"You're asking about your older brother?"

"Haha, haven't you noticed yet? He's already abandoned you and run away!"

Li Qing said with great sarcasm.

"They... they escaped?"

Pesci's eyes widened suddenly.

Then, in the next second, an uncontrollable rage suddenly surged in his dull eyes:

"Nonsense!"

"Brother Prosciutto would never, ever abandon me and run away!"

"How dare you insult my elder brother like that?"

"You bastard, you bastard! I'm going to stab your heart right now!"

Pesci gripped the fishing rod tightly, and the hook inside Li Qing's body drilled further upwards.

Just a hair's breadth away, the fishhook would have pierced that loose flesh and torn apart that fatal heart.

"Of course you can kill me!"

Li Qing let out a loud shout with all his might.

Despite his aging and frail body, and despite the excruciating pain of his wounds, he still managed to maintain a facade of composure.

"That's right, you can take my life with the flick of your finger right now."

"But so what?"

"I've been keeping in touch with my companions by phone; they'll be here soon."

"And your brother Prosciutto was just seriously wounded in battle. He knows that if he stays any longer, he won't be able to leave alive—"

So, he abandoned you and ran away!

Li Qing was lying through his teeth, without even blinking.

You're lying!

Pesci still refused to believe that her older brother would run away out of fear of death.

But his movements unconsciously slowed down, and even his words carried a question mark:

"You're still an old man, and your elder brother's the Grateful Dead is still having an effect. How could he possibly run away?"

"He must still be nearby, still fighting somewhere nearby, he must be."

"Hehe."

Li Qing gave a disdainful sneer.

The flawless mockery on his face made one almost forget that he was just a seriously injured old man on the verge of death.

"Of course you need to use a stand-in when you're escaping, otherwise what if you get caught?"

"That guy has been on the run for a while now, if I'm not mistaken."

"Prosciutto will probably escape outside the train station within ten seconds, at which point I will be out of the Stand's influence, and the aging process will be reversed!"

Simply telling lies is not enough to gain people's trust. The key point is that Li Qing confidently stated the time when Prosciutto "escaped from the station" while telling his lies.

Ten seconds isn't a long time.

Whether or not Li Qing's aging condition has been resolved will be very clear by then.

Pesci unknowingly fell into Li Qing's trap:

He began to wonder unconsciously, had Brother Prosciutto really escaped?

Should we wait these ten seconds and see if the aging process on Li Qing's body will be reversed?

If, as Li Qing said, the aging process really did resolve itself within ten seconds, and his older brother truly abandoned him and ran away, then...

Do you still want to persist?

Li Qing tried his best to maintain a calm demeanor.

A wavering look appeared on Pesci's face as he pressed his advantage, saying:

"Killing me is easy, but what happens after you kill me?"

"You will be captured on the spot by my soon-to-arrive companions, and then die a painful death under their wrath!"

"Oh right, I forgot to mention."

"Although my friends are all good people, that doesn't mean they weren't cruel in their methods of killing."

Despite the pain, Li Qing used a chilling voice to deliver a strategic intimidation:

"Take Bucciarati for example. When he gets angry, he likes to chop people into pieces. Your body will probably be so shattered that even the best jigsaw puzzle player can't put it back together."

"For example, if Fugo were to use his Purple Haze, your body would rapidly decay under the onslaught of the virus, eventually melting into a sticky, wet mess."

"And Giorno, don't think that being killed by Gold Experience will make things easy—"

"He will cut your body in half and turn it into rats, then let them eat your remaining half alive."

"."

As these horrific scenes were described, Pesci couldn't help but shudder.

With his older brother gone, he gradually became fragile without any emotional support.

Li Qing, however, was well-versed in negotiation skills. He first explained the consequences of not cooperating, and then began to shower Pesci with sweet talk:

"Pesci, you're called Pesci, right? I heard your name from your conversation."

"I can see that you are still very naive and should be different from those incorrigible villains."

Even though blood was gushing from his waist and abdomen, and his face was as pale as paper, Li Qing was still able to deliver a declaration of surrender without changing his expression:

"You have great potential and a kind nature, like a blank sheet of paper that has not been stained. Why do you stubbornly remain trapped in darkness?"

"There is an old saying in my hometown: those who follow God's will will prosper, while those who resist the guidance of the light will perish."

"My companions, a group of eight, are not far from here. They are all seasoned veterans and formidable in strength."

"Right now, you're like a firefly wandering in a rotting meadow, your light dim. How dare you compare yourself to the goddess Luna, whose energy is limitless in the sky?"

"I advise you to put down your fishing rod, reel in your line, and stand on the side of justice in time. You can still get the opportunity to be appointed as an organizational cadre."

"Giving up the rebellion and staying safe—isn't that a wonderful outcome?"

Li Qing's "patient and persuasive" voice echoed on the platform.

Pesci actually stopped what she was doing for the time being and waited in silence.

Neither intimidation nor deception truly swayed him; he was still waiting for those ten seconds to end, waiting for the answer to a crucial question:

Did Prosciutto abandon him and run away?

"I see."

"Li Qing, so you didn't give up after all."

Unseen by Pesci, Prosciutto, trapped in the wheel, felt a surge of emotion:

"I can't speak or move my body now, so it's almost impossible for Pesci to notice me."

"And given Pesci's timid and coquettish nature, he would lose the courage to fight if I were 'not there'."

"But that's not enough."

"So, Li Qing, you're gambling."

"You're gambling with your life, betting that I, severely injured like this, will die in these ten seconds!"

"Once I die, my the Grateful Dead will be proven true."

"Pesci will believe that I abandoned him and ran away. His mental support will collapse, and he will give up like a coward."

Prosciutto understood Li Qing's Empty City Stratagem.

This is pure gambling; on one hand, it's gambling on Pesci's psychology, and on the other hand, it's gambling on his life.

"In that case, I'll take your bet!"

"The aging process in your body can never be reversed—"

"I will live on, live through these ten seconds, live until Pesci fulfills my last wish!"

Prosciutto's broken body stubbornly lives on.

On the platform, Li Qing was rambling on and on, trying to sway others, while he was just barely holding on to his last breath.

Ten seconds passed quickly.

Prosciutto still alive.

The Grateful Dead continues to operate silently.

He was the winner; he survived those ten seconds and prevented Li Qing's scheme, which was supposed to be a get-rich-quick scheme, from succeeding.

Prosciutto was thinking this when...

A gasp of surprise came from Pesci on the platform:

"Aging has been eliminated?!"