Melone

Inside the train station.

With the heroic the Grateful Dead of those the Grateful Dead, the fog of aging that had shrouded the station finally dissipated completely.

Apart from a few poor elderly people who were already old and frail and unable to bear the effects of aging, the remaining hundreds of innocent passengers who were implicated were mostly restored to their youth.

With their bodies in good health, they finally had the strength to vent their inner fears.

Many people were terrified by the bizarre and terrifying experience, and many others screamed and cried out in alarm because their hair was disappearing due to rapid aging. For a time, the station was filled with cries and a gloomy atmosphere.

Amidst the continuous screams, Li Qing's howl stood out exceptionally loud.

Every syllable he uttered trembled violently, his voice loud, powerful, and mournful, sounding like a pig being bleed by a knife.

"Ahhh—"

Li Qing's blood-stained body convulsed in agony as if electrocuted.

"W-Why does it hurt so much?"

"How did Fugo manage to hold on back then?! Go easy on him!"

"."

Giorno's face was filled with helplessness.

Bucciarati, Abbacchio, and Jotaro, who were standing by, all looked at each other with somewhat strange expressions.

"So you're really afraid of pain, Li Qing."

Enduring pain can be considered the introductory course for Stand User. No one expected that Li Qing, who was always "not afraid of pain," would have such a poor pain tolerance.

At this moment, Gold Experience frantically pried off a piece of cement from the ground and stuffed it into Li Qing's rotten belly with a "muda muda" sound.

This process of rapidly replenishing flesh and blood and stimulating the body's self-healing is obviously extremely painful.

Li Qing immediately started whimpering and moaning.

"Hang in there a little longer."

The Gold Experience's rough movements didn't slow down at all.

Li Qing screamed in agony, but Giorno's gaze towards Li Qing held a subtle hint of emotion.

Despite being so afraid of pain, she has endured this condition until now.

You've never disappointed anyone, Li Qing.

Giorno sighed softly and intensified his treatment of Li Qing.

Soon, in Li Qing's pale face, his body, which had been almost torn to shreds, finally recovered its health.

His injuries were all healed by the Gold Experience, so he no longer had to worry about dying on the spot due to health depletion after activating his digitization.

Therefore, Li Qing couldn't wait to start the datafication process.

The lingering pain finally disappeared.

The nightmare that lasted for several minutes has finally come to an end.

After getting used to his unharmed, strong body, Li Qing felt that his previous painful experience was as unreal and blurry as a mirage—he himself could hardly believe that he had endured such excruciating pain.

"Call"

He breathed a long sigh of relief, erasing that terrible memory from his mind.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, Li Qing abruptly turned around and walked to the edge of the platform, looking down at the blood-stained tracks:

"You're not dead yet, Pesci."

Li Qing muttered something under his breath.

Giorno and the others rushed to the station to provide support immediately after their the Grateful Dead. Even including the time spent treating Li Qing, only about a minute has passed since the battle ended.

Prosciutto was naturally already dead, and since he had not been harmed by any other "characters" before his death, the head reward was still pocketed by Li Qing.

Pesci, on the other hand, suffered relatively minor injuries and has managed to survive to this day.

At this moment, gazing at the enemy who had nearly taken his life, Li Qing was filled with mixed emotions:

"It's good that you're not dead, it's good that you're not dead."

"Otherwise, Jotaro would have taken his head."

"What?" Giorno vaguely heard Li Qing's murmur, "Do you want to save this little rascal?"

"Uh, of course not."

Li Qing was slightly taken aback, and a hint of righteousness quietly appeared on his face:

"I would never save these scoundrels who treat human life like dirt."

"But as an opponent, I admire their will—"

"People with such will should not die so miserably and helplessly; they deserve a clean and swift end."

As he spoke, amidst the admiring and approving gazes of Giorno and the others, Li Qing Sin leaped off the platform.

Click—

A crisp sound of a neck breaking echoed between the railway tracks.

A few seconds later, Li Qing nimbly crawled back from beside Pesci's body.

Sending off his opponent seemed to be a very pleasant thing for him.

A satisfied smile, like that of a farmer who has just had a good harvest, graced his face, while he muttered enigmatic words to himself.

"Almost there."

Before anyone could hear him clearly, Li Qing quickly turned his questioning gaze to Giorno:

"Giorno, why are there only a few of you here?"

"Where are Fugo and Mista?"

"They haven't come back yet."

"We originally thought that the only way to get help was by relying on ice, so we sent some people out to look for ice."

"However, I never expected that Mr. Jotaro would later..."

As Giorno spoke, his tone became strange again:

Back then, everyone was stuck at the station entrance. Anyone who tried to go in would instantly turn into a dying old man.

So there was nothing they could do but wait anxiously outside the station for their companion to return with the ice.

But before the ice cubes returned, Jotaro couldn't hold back any longer.

He calmly said, "Let me try," and then walked in without changing his expression, defiantly bracing himself against the fog of aging.

As it turned out, he didn't get too old to move; instead, the enemies at the station suffered a terrible fate.

"I knew Mr. Jotaro was so different from everyone else."

"In that case, we wouldn't have needed to send Mista and the others out to risk their lives."

Giorno remarked with such emotion.

Is that so?

Li Qing frowned, a sudden sense of foreboding creeping into his heart:

"They haven't come back yet?"

"Several minutes must have passed by now, right?"

"Indeed, it has been quite a while."

At this point, Giorno, Bucciarati, and the others all sounded serious.

They had just breathed a sigh of relief at Li Qing's successful escape when they suddenly became aware of the danger lurking outside the station.

Just as everyone's hearts were settling down, a flurry of urgent cell phone rings suddenly erupted on the platform.

Giorno and Bucciarati's phones rang at the same time.

"Hello?"

They both answered the phone at the same time.

After the call ended, both of their expressions became unusually serious.

"Fugo and Narancia were seriously injured."

"They are completely unable to move and are calling us for help."

Bucciarati reported the situation in his usual calm tone.

But his slightly trembling Riot Games subtly betrayed his inner unease.

"Mista too."

Giorno instinctively gripped his phone tightly.

He said he was about to die.

Upon hearing this, Jotaro's expression turned serious.

Polnareff didn't have a cell phone with him, and he didn't try to find another way to call back for help.

But since the enemy could set up ambushes and blockades on two separate routes outside the station to intercept reinforcements, they couldn't possibly have missed this route alone.

As a result, Polnareff did not call back.

It's really hard to say whether this situation is good or bad.

"There's no time to waste."

Li Qing sighed deeply:

"Let's go, let's hurry and rescue them!"

Outside the station.

A car that had come from afar stopped several hundred meters away.

Two men were sitting in the car, both of them sitting carefully and discreetly, intently observing the situation at the train station entrance in the distance.

"Melone".

Risotto Nero, the core figure of the Assassination Team and its leader, solemnly called out the name of his subordinate beside him:

"Didn't you say that Ghiaccio and his men went to ambush the enemies who were looking for ice?"

"The enemy shouldn't be able to get the ice, right?"

"Yes."

Melone nodded seriously:

"Ghiaccio and the others reported to me about two minutes ago that they had made contact with their respective targets."

"There haven't been any new reports yet. Maybe the fighting on their side isn't over yet?"

Because the time was so short, even the usually astute Melone was unable to accurately assess the situation.

Captain Risotto, however, sensed something was wrong:

"It's impossible that it's 'over' already."

"At least, the fighting inside the station is over."

He emphasized the word "end".

The current situation makes it difficult for him to judge whether the end is just the conclusion of one or two battles, or the end of their entire Assassination Team's ambitions.

"Did you see that?"

"Passengers have started to come out of the train station."

"And the enemies that Ghiaccio mentioned in his report, who were guarding the station entrance, have also disappeared."

"This means the ability to the Grateful Dead has been deactivated, the enemy has entered the station to provide support, and Prosciutto and Pesci may already be..."

"No, no way?"

Melone's heart sank.

Although he knew the captain's judgment was actually correct, he instinctively didn't want to accept such a cruel outcome:

"Perhaps Prosciutto has already obtained the inheritance, which is why he's relinquishing his powers and preparing to retreat?"

Don't deceive yourself!

"This makes no sense."

Risotto shattered Melone's illusion with a calm, icy, yet deeply sorrowful voice:

"You should know that, Melone."

"For Prosciutto, activating his ability to retreat would be a safer option."

"Prosciutto and Pesci haven't even come out of the station yet, and their the Grateful Dead has been cancelled. This can only mean..."

They are dead!

Risotto's calm voice finally began to tremble uncontrollably.

As the leader, such a loss of composure is highly inappropriate.

But Risotto was losing control, because he knew very well that there were only two situations that could make Prosciutto lose his power—either victory or death.

"."

A deathly silence spread through the car.

In the silence, Melone's emotions were on the verge of collapse:

"How so."

"The people looking for ice have clearly been stopped by Ghiaccio and his group."

"I have absolute faith that they will not allow the ice to be delivered to the station. And Prosciutto and Pesci, can they really be defeated by Li Qing alone?"

"Thinking about these things is pointless now!"

Risotto quickly regained his reassuring composure and calmness:

"Let's retreat."

"Notify Ghiaccio and his men that they should retreat if they can."

"If they were still alive."

He coldly issued a despairing order.

This order means that all their previous efforts will be in vain, and all their sacrifices will be meaningless.

But this is the most rational choice.

After all, their best chance of success has passed.

Prosciutto and Pesci clearly failed to complete their mission.

Even though everyone in the group firmly believed that they could definitely defeat Li Qing with a two-against-one advantage, they still lost.

With Prosciutto and Pesci almost certainly dead, if they want to fight for the inheritance, they will have to engage in a direct battle with a numerically superior enemy.

But the facts have proven that these guys who can beat their bosses are not just making a name for themselves.

Risotto did not believe the Assassination Team could win.

"Retreat—"

"If we continue fighting, we may be completely wiped out."

Risotto uttered these disheartening words with great difficulty.

"Retreat? Retreat?"

Melone's emotions became increasingly apparent as he broke down:

"Our ambitions have only just begun."

"It's only been a few minutes! Is it really going to end like this?!"

"Melone"

Risotto also fell silent for a moment.

Melone, however, became even more excited and said:

"I don't want to retreat!"

"If we back down this time, we'll be rats that the organization hunts down for the rest of our lives."

"I've had enough of those humiliating days, and everyone else has had enough!"

"That's why we came to Venice. So why should we leave empty-handed and dejected?"

Upon hearing this, Risotto's face grew even more gloomy.

The emotions surging within him were complex and difficult to describe.

"Team leader--"

"Let me try one more time!"

Melone said with great resentment:

"My Baby Face is a remote-controlled, automatic Stand, so it won't be affected even if I'm defeated by the enemy."

"I will never have a clear conscience if I retreat without giving me a chance!"

His voice was so excited it sounded like a madman's, but he didn't lose his rationality in his words.

Risotto could understand his logic very clearly:

Baby Face is a long-range, automated stand-in capable of fighting beyond visual range. Even if it fails, it will not harm the user and will not pose a danger to the Assassination Team.

Since there is absolutely no risk, it's never a bad thing to give it a try.

Although the probability of winning may be small, just like Prosciutto's sure-win situation might inexplicably fail, there's always that one in a million chance.

"All right."

Risotto finally made a decision:

"Melone, give it another try."

One update today. Still struggling. A mindless Euler build seems a bit too simplistic and crude, but if I follow the original plan, it feels like I'll end up writing a second-rate strategy battle. Headache.