Crash Landing

In the pure, picturesque blue sky.

A panicked, fleeing fat pigeon, a bald head shooting straight up, and shapeless, projectile chunks of flesh, the three formed a bizarre and wondrous supernatural landscape.

Li Qing was about to catch up to the pigeon, while the flesh chunks were a step faster at reaching Li Qing.

And at this moment, an uninvited guest suddenly appeared on the canvas.

It stretched its silver-gray steel wings, spewing high-temperature flames of orange-red, emitting a tsunami-like, overwhelming, fierce sonic wave, and wantonly and ostentatiously swept across the low altitude above the city.

This was an F/A-18, a supersonic fighter-attack aircraft named "Hornet."

Although this "Hornet," which was about to return to base for landing, was not in supersonic flight, even in low-altitude flight with deliberately controlled speed, its speed was faster than Li Qing using Echoes Act.

"Whoosh!"

The flesh chunks instantly became agitated.

Compared to the "slow" Li Qing, it preferred the iron eagle soaring rapidly from higher up.

Thus, this beast, acting entirely on instinct, immediately abandoned Li Qing, who was within its grasp, and erupted with a speed that was in no way inferior to a fighter jet, rushing straight towards the vast sky above.

"Hoo..."

Li Qing let out a long sigh of relief.

He knew he had survived this.

Amidst this relaxed sigh, he killed the unfortunate fat pigeon, and the flesh chunks successfully caught up to their new, delicious, and juicy prey – the "Hornet."

It clung tightly to the wing of the "Hornet," crafted with perfect design and exquisite craftsmanship, and immediately caused this top-tier handicraft, which embodied humanity's highest wisdom, to reveal its clumsy and powerless posture.

The "Hornet's" flight posture was disturbed, and its fuselage began to tilt severely.

Of course, these matters were no longer related to Li Qing.

"Sorry."

He looked up at the black shadow speeding past overhead:

"Although diverting trouble is a bit unscrupulous, I really had no other choice."

"But..."

Li Qing laughed wickedly:

"As the lighthouse of humanity and the world police, saving people is only natural, right?"

Although only a moment had passed, the high-speed fighter jet had already carried the flesh chunks clinging to its wings at least a hundred meters away.

Li Qing was completely out of the flesh chunks' perception range, and the distance between them was rapidly widening.

Then, he began to fall under the effect of gravity.

Falling from over a hundred meters would certainly not be pleasant, and Li Qing could only pray that his remaining health was sufficient to avoid a pathetic death from "jumping to his death."

And during this descent, he suddenly discovered...

"Huh?"

"I can use 'Golden Bell Shield' on that kid?"

Then, just as he was about to make intimate contact with the hard concrete ground...

Li Qing's falling body suddenly shifted horizontally, and with a strangely straight trajectory, he rapidly rushed towards Giorno on the ground.

The semi-transparent light film of Golden Bell Shield lit up on both Giorno and Li Qing, and Li Qing, using this displacement skill that was not constrained by physical laws at all, stepped onto the ground completely unharmed.

"This..."

"So you have such an ability."

Giorno curiously observed the spherical light shield around him that was gradually fading and disappearing, but he quickly regained his composure and returned to the main topic:

"But..."

"Is it really over?"

He looked up at the fighter jet continuously falling towards the low altitude, his expression solemn, and said:

"Although the fighter jet drew away that flesh chunk, we don't know if this monster can survive the crash."

"If it lands in the city alive, and rapidly grows by absorbing the energy of the fighter jet's engine, just like it absorbed the bus engine earlier..."

"Then Naples might face a disaster."

"This..."

Li Qing didn't rush to answer.

He quietly exited Digitization Mode and used his eyes to briefly observe his new "teammate":

As expected, his current Giorno, consistent with his still somewhat immature boyish voice, was a 13-year-old blonde kid wearing a junior high school uniform.

"This kid was suddenly caught up in an unjust disaster, witnessed such a terrifying scene, experienced the extremes of life and death, and yet, even now, he doesn't show the slightest bit of nervousness or lingering fear..."

"He's not even 14 years old yet!"

"Giorno Giovanna... Are there really 'protagonists' born like this in the world?"

Li Qing secretly sighed to himself before finally speaking to Giorno:

"It should be over."

"When I considered using a fighter jet as bait, I ran through all the possible scenarios that could follow—"

"A fighter jet is huge, it wouldn't be instantly devoured."

"And this place is only a stone's throw from the sea. Once the pilot realized the plane was out of control, they'd immediately turn it towards the ocean."

"At that point..."

"I get it!"

Giorno didn't need Li Qing to explain further; he could figure it out on his own:

"That blob of flesh is a mindless creature that targets based on 'movement speed,' and the ocean is constantly filled with surging tides."

"As long as we send it into the sea, this monster will endlessly chase the waves it can never catch, forever sealed within the endless sea spray."

"Though I do feel a bit sorry for that unlucky pilot..."

"But this was truly the most sensible course of action we could have taken."

Giorno praised sincerely.

However, as soon as the compliment left his lips, he added a "but":

"But, Mr. Bald, how could you be so sure that fighter jet would turn and crash into the sea?"

"Huh?"

Li Qing scratched his head, looking puzzled. "Isn't Naples right on the shore?"

"If you don't steer the plane into the sea, what, are you going to let it crash into the citizens?"

The pilot of the "Hornet" fighter jet was Lieutenant Sam, from the Roosevelt carrier air wing of the Navy's Sixth Fleet.

He had just returned from a joyous flight with his comrades over the Balkan Peninsula across the sea in his beloved aircraft.

Thanks to the overwhelming air superiority of the United States Empire, they had effortlessly pierced the enemy's weak aerial defenses as if flying through empty space, wantonly sowing the flames of "love and justice" over the enemy's cities.

"What a boring game,"

"Those useless guys should just surrender already. Air-to-ground missiles are expensive—this is all taxpayer money!"

The patriotic Lieutenant Sam thought to himself.

He flew his returning fighter jet at a low altitude over Naples, and amidst a deafening roar, he flew in an orderly fashion towards the aircraft carrier anchored on the distant sea.

"Jennifer always worries about my safety over here..."

Lieutenant Sam couldn't help but think of his girlfriend back home:

"Hahaha, what's there to worry about?"

"I'll call her later and tell her to wait for me to come back to Texas to propose."

He burst into hearty laughter, his neck flushing red.

However, at that very moment...

Bang!

A sudden, jarring sound of metal twisting and deforming erupted from the fighter jet's right wing.

Without even needing to look at the flashing fault indicators on the dashboard, Lieutenant Sam could tell just by tilting his head slightly:

The steel wing, forged from high-strength alloys, had collapsed and deformed in mid-air!

"Holy shit!"

"Are those damn big companies cutting corners even when building fighter jets?!"

Lieutenant Sam's face turned pale.

He struggled to stabilize the aircraft's severely tilted and descending flight path, only to discover something even more terrifying and bizarre:

The wing wasn't just deformed.

To be precise, it was as if it had been bitten by some invisible monster, being torn apart and swallowed bit by bit.

And the tentacles of this "invisible monster" were extending further and deeper, causing the abnormal twisting of metal to spread inward from the wingtip, threatening to engulf the cockpit itself.

"F***! F***! F***!"

"Motherf***!"

Lieutenant Sam let out a string of curses.

Even without seeing the Stand, he could tell that the fighter jet was about to disintegrate in the air.

"The twisted marks are spreading towards the fuselage..."

"If this continues, even the ejection system in the cockpit might be damaged!"

"I might die!"

In reality, spending a few extra seconds to change direction wouldn't necessarily mean death, but it was precisely this "might" that was the most terrifying thing.

"But..."

Staring at the chaotic mess of the instrument panel before him, Lieutenant Sam found himself in a dilemma:

"I can't bail out now!"

"I haven't turned the flight direction around yet. If I escape now, it will definitely crash into the city!"

In that moment, Lieutenant Sam thought of sacrifice.

He could foresee the glory of being buried under the Stars and Stripes after his death, and the honor of his name being sung by the media.

His beloved Jennifer and his loving parents would, while wiping away tears, deliver a beautiful eulogy for him at a funeral presided over by the community's priest:

"Sam Mallis was an outstanding soldier, a representative of the pure United States spirit."

"He came to a foreign land to spread freedom and light, inspired by justice, and ultimately sacrificed his young and beautiful life to save the innocent citizens of Italy."

"Wait a minute..."

Lieutenant Sam suddenly realized something was wrong:

"What do ordinary Italian citizens have to do with me, a U.S. citizen?"

One second later.

The cockpit canopy opened, and the ejection seat shot skyward.