Abandoned Experience

"Huh?" Li Qing's expression was utterly astonished. "Experience, leveling up... how do you know all that?"

"."

Giorno fell silent.

Soon, he looked at Li Qing, who was completely astonished, with an expression of observing Yitai:

"I said, Li Qing."

"What are you surprised about? You don't actually think your fabricated story can fool anyone, do you?"

"Everyone on the team, except for Mista who's watched too many movies, knows you're talking nonsense—including Narancia."

"Oh, I see."

Li Qing scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly, his expression showing a hint of disappointment.

He genuinely believed that the theory he had developed was very convincing.

After all, this world has stand-ins and vampires, so it's not surprising that mysterious Chinese Qigong exists.

Mista's performance also boosted Li Qing's confidence in this area—after hearing the story, the guy kept pestering Li Qing to become his apprentice, his attitude was extremely sincere.

But now, Giorno is forced to expose this terrible lie:

"Even if there really is such a thing as Chinese Qigong in the world, it would never be like this."

"Visualized health bars, an indestructible body, teammates who don't take damage from each other, and skills with absolutely fixed cooldown times."

"This looks like something out of a video game."

"Although I don't know where this ability comes from, I'm sure that your ability is to bring a game character to life."

Giorno immediately revealed the truth about Li Qing's abilities, and even went further in his deductions:

"Moreover, from what I've observed, just like the characters in those video games, you can gain experience by killing 'monsters,' and accumulate experience to level up and strengthen your attributes."

"Since we met, you should have already gone through two 'upgrades'."

"Once in Naples, and once in Venice."

"Both upgrades happened within just two days, and a full week has passed since the last upgrade."

"In this past week, we have faced three more challengers at our new headquarters in Rome."

"And those three teams, which together had more than a dozen Stand User, all of them ended up dying at your hands. With that much experience, you should be able to advance to the next level."

That's the downside of being friends with smart people.

Secrets can never be hidden forever; they will always be seen through.

"That's right."

Li Qing simply stopped hiding his incredible data processing abilities:

"I'm currently level 4, and I just need a little more experience to reach level 5."

"And Giorno, you should be able to guess that too."

"The rewards for killing elite monsters in the game are always more than ten times higher than those for killing ordinary monsters. In reality, the rewards for killing Stand User are also hundreds of times higher than those for killing ordinary people."

"The little bit of experience I lack would require hundreds of lives to compensate for for an ordinary person."

"But now, all I need to do is eliminate one scumbag, and I can gain enough power to crush Diavolo."

Li Qing put it very tactfully.

In fact, he is now really craving Okuyasu Nijimura's head.

He followed the principle of only killing bad guys, but eventually a drawback emerged—he killed too many people, and there weren't enough bad guys to go around.

Li Qing had been waiting anxiously for the past few days.

But the scum in the Passion Organization were really not up to par. After being killed in three waves, they became obedient and after a few days of trouble, no one dared to challenge them anymore.

We're just one kill away from leveling up, why is nobody coming?!

Now that they've finally found a villain in Morioh who is wicked, deserving of death, and perfectly fits Li Qing's killing principles, Giorno just has to step in and stop him at this crucial moment.

"Li Qing, I understand your thirst for power."

"But at least this time, I hope you'll go easy on me."

Giorno understood Li Qing's attitude, but he still refused to budge.

In his eagerness to upgrade and evolve into the humanoid Star Platinum, Li Qing suddenly had a small complaint about his close friend who had shared life and death with him all the way:

"Giorno, what do you mean by this?"

"Are you moved by the Nijimura family's plight and therefore unwilling to help? Don't be ridiculous."

"I hate the kind of plot where villains can be redeemed simply by having a tragic backstory!"

"."

Giorno remained silent.

But Li Qing became even more annoyed by her close friend's silent protest:

"Or do you think I'm just a hypocritical little person?"

"You think all those high-sounding principles I spouted were just lies, just excuses for me to kill for profit?"

"If that's the case, then it's really disappointing!"

What Li Qing said was three parts false and seven parts true; it wasn't just empty platitudes.

After all, if he really just wanted to gain experience, why didn't he just do what Jokulrat did and massacre cities?

He is a level 4 player with both strength and speed at A rank, but the system's level cap is 18.

If Li Qing really hardened his heart and charged into the city to kill for a whole day, after a period of unparalleled mowing down of enemies, probably no one in the world could stop him.

The only thing that can stop him is his own conscience.

Li Qing, however, felt that his best friend was questioning him.

Li Qing's face was extremely ugly, but Giorno remained silent in the face of Li Qing's angry questioning.

He bit his lip tightly, his nostrils twitched slightly, and his expression was extremely complicated.

Giorno remained silent.

But his usually calm eyes were now filled with a complex, human emotion.

"This"

Li Qing finally noticed Giorno's unusual behavior:

This protagonist, who was perfect from head to toe like a child of God, finally shed his untouchable divinity at this moment and became like a vulnerable person.

Some emotion was frantically tormenting Giorno, making it difficult for him to break free.

He was no longer as rational as before, but instead became impulsive like an ordinary teenager.

"I see."

Li Qing sighed softly; he realized he had been completely wrong.

This matter has nothing to do with right or wrong, or with ideological disputes, from the very beginning.

Giorno knew that Okuyasu Nijimura deserved to die, and that Li Qing desperately needed experience to level up, but he instinctively wanted to stop him.

Because of Dio, the man who gave him life.

Just now, Giorno realized the extent of the sins his father had committed.

Perhaps it was to make amends for her father's mistakes, or perhaps it was due to some more complex and difficult-to-explain psychological reason.

As Dio's son, he couldn't bear to utter the word "kill" when faced with the Nijimura family, who were suffering endless pain because of that man.

"Let him go this time."

Giorno spoke to Li Qing in a rare, weak voice.

"Hmm"

Li Qing glanced at Giorno's awkward face.

He spent half a minute suppressing his eagerness to level up, then gritted his teeth and said reluctantly:

"Alright. I won't kill them this time."

The duck I was about to eat flew away, and the ice cream I just got my hands on fell to the ground.

Like a farmer who has seen his hard-earned fat pigs swept away by a flood, Li Qing is now so heartbroken that he just wants to cry.

But he held back, out of consideration for Giorno's feelings.

Moreover, this isn't the first time Li Qing has compromised because of Giorno.

After all, according to Li Qing's principles, every scum in the Passion Organization deserved to die.

If it were up to him, he would definitely go to each member of the organization's list and start a bloody and devastating attack on them.

But Li Qing didn't do that.

It wasn't that he was afraid, but rather that Giorno's dream was to become Gang-Star—

If Li Qing killed all those scumbags and exchanged them for experience, how could Giorno, a lone commander, become a mafia superstar?

Therefore, Li Qing ultimately suppressed his eagerness to level up and instead helped Giorno recruit those scum from the Passion Organization.

Now, upon closer reflection...

Since Li Qing has already recruited those mafia thugs, there's really no reason for him to keep harping on Okuyasu Nijimura.

"Okay. Okay."

"I won't kill them. Upgrading later won't be a problem."

Despite the heartache, Li Qing stammered out her decision.

Giorno didn't say much, only sighed deeply, "Thank you."

"Fine."

Li Qing Sin responded to Giorno with a smile.

When he turned to look at Okuyasu Nijimura, his face instantly turned ashen.

"Okuyasu Nijimura, you're lucky this time."

"I've decided to let you off the hook."

"W-what?" Okuyasu Nijimura had long since given up hope and awaited death, was stunned by this good news. "I don't have to die?"

"Very good!"

Keicho Nijimura, who was already weeping bitterly while hugging his older brother, suddenly cried even harder:

"Big brother, you can survive! You can survive with me and Father!"

In an instant, the three men became even more emotional, and tears flowed freely.

The warm and touching feeling grew stronger.

Li Qing's face grew increasingly grim—the more the atmosphere became, the more he looked like the villain.

"You may be spared the death penalty, but you cannot escape punishment!"

Li Qing was ultimately heartbroken over her past experience.

To make up for the loss, he could only grit his teeth and say to Okuyasu Nijimura:

"You killed so many people, you must atone for your sins for the rest of your life!"

"What should we do?" Okuyasu Nijimura, who had deeply realized his mistake, asked very seriously.

"It's very simple."

"Atonement means changing yourself, helping others, fighting crime, and upholding justice from now on."

All that could be heard was Li Qing speaking in a righteous and righteous tone:

"It just so happens that Giorno and I Italy organization in Italia that promotes mutual assistance among citizens in terms of public safety."

"Our business is just starting out, and we have a limited number of core members and are short-handed."

This is a very serious and real problem.

The organization has more than 700 official employees, but the new boss Giorno can only truly trust a handful of partners, including Li Qing and Bucciarati.

With such a small number of people, they are in dire need of organizational and management skills, and they urgently need to recruit some reliable subordinates to assist them.

Therefore, Okuyasu Nijimura.

"You can join us and be our henchmen... cough cough, our security guards."

"Of course, since you're here to atone for your sins, not to make a fortune, don't expect a high salary."

In order to change the bad policies that made life difficult for lower-level employees during the Diavolo era, the first thing the new boss did after taking office was to directly increase the wages of formal employees tenfold.

Working as a henchman in the Mafia suddenly became a promising, prestigious, and high-paying profession.

Now Li Qing hasn't even gotten the experience he was supposed to gain, and he's being asked to pay such a high salary to this "experience baby." It's really heartbreaking to think about.

"Let's keep the salary and benefits according to the old Assassination Team standards."

Li Qing said without blushing.

Okuyasu Nijimura didn't know exactly what the "standard for the Assassination Team" meant in terms of salary, but he didn't care about the salary at all.

All he knows now is that he has truly been given a second chance at life.

"I'll follow the boss's orders!"

Okuyasu Nijimura immediately changed his tune.

I've already survived, so what's a little job compared to that?

Moreover, he resolved the conflict between himself and his father today, and his life has been completely transformed.

"No matter what kind of job it is, I will do my best."

"I will spend the rest of my life slowly atoning for the sins I have committed."

Okuyasu Nijimura expressed his opinion very seriously.

Li Qing was also shocked to discover that this kid had truly changed his mindset.

Because, just a moment ago, Li Qing suddenly realized that he could use the Golden Bell Shield on Okuyasu Nijimura —this guy genuinely regarded Li Qing as his boss, and therefore was judged by the system as a trustworthy "teammate".

"Very good, keep up the good work."

Seeing that Okuyasu Nijimura surrendered so sincerely, Li Qing's murderous intent truly faded.

"Big brother doesn't have to die!"

"I can stay with my older brother forever from now on!"

Keicho Nijimura, holding the hand of the monster father, followed Xingzhao and expressed his opinion with tears in his eyes:

"Home is wherever my brother is."

"I'll go to Italy too, and work with my brother to make money!"

The warm and harmonious family atmosphere became even stronger.

"Hmm"

Upon hearing that Keicho Nijimura had also come to pledge his loyalty and become his subordinate, Li Qing's expression turned somewhat strange.

He carefully recalled Keicho Nijimura's outstanding performance in the battle, and then earnestly and kindly admonished him:

"Yi Tai, you should go to school and study properly."

"You can't do the work at our company."