A conspicuous white parachute soon blossomed in the sky.
Immediately afterward, the battered fighter jet abandoned by its pilot completely lost control.
Carrying that bloated Meat Chunk clinging to its fuselage and constantly drawing energy from its engines, it plummeted heavily downward like a headless fly—
Not toward the ocean, but in the exact opposite direction.
Boom!
A dull explosion echoed from the foot of Mount Vesuvius several kilometers away.
Then, a plume of ominous black smoke slowly rose from that direction.
Giorno and Li Qing looked at each other, falling into an awkward silence for a moment.
"Um... Mr. Baldy?"
After a moment, Giorno was the first to break the silence:
"Didn't you say the pilot would definitely fly the plane into the sea?"
"Uh..."
Li Qing answered awkwardly:
"Well... don't the news reports mention this kind of thing every now and then?"
"Pilots and soldiers would rather sacrifice themselves than crash into residential areas... I thought that was an industry rule for them."
"What news have you been watching?"
Giorno rubbed his brow helplessly. "How come I've never heard a story like that?"
"Well..."
Li Qing looked even more embarrassed. "Anyway, it wasn't news from America."
"Fine."
At this point, Giorno had no interest in dwelling on Li Qing's misjudgment.
Rather than wallowing in the past, he preferred to solve the problem before them:
"Mount Vesuvius is a world-famous tourist attraction. The plane crashed right beside a very lively tourist town at the foot of the mountain."
"So, if that monster wasn't killed by the fall..."
Giorno's voice hardened as he said quietly:
"It'll have plenty of 'little buns' to eat."
Seeing Giorno's grave, serious, earnest expression—yet not a trace of fear in it—Li Qing vaguely realized something.
"Hey, hey... kid?"
"You're not thinking of going back to trouble that monster again, are you?"
"That's right."
Giorno's emerald eyes were filled with resolve.
"That monster can grow rapidly by devouring energy. If—just if..."
"If there is no limit to its growth, then if we don't stop it, it will definitely destroy all of Naples."
"No..."
His words began to sound somewhat alarmist.
"Maybe the whole world will be destroyed."
Guided by Giorno's forceful voice, an image gradually surfaced in Li Qing's mind.
An immortal Meat Chunk, growing without end.
It tirelessly walked across the lands of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Humanity's weapons were useless against the monster, now larger than mountains. The planes and ships sent to hunt it ultimately became nourishment for its ever-growing flesh.
It devoured without stopping, grew without stopping, and eventually consumed every living thing on the continent and reduced every city to mud.
That nauseating, foul-smelling carpet of flesh would eventually cover the entire earth.
Animals would go extinct, vegetation would die, ecosystems would undergo drastic changes, climate disasters would strike one after another, civilization would perish in war, and humanity would march toward extinction.
Just like those movies about biological crises.
All of it happened because some idiot character at the beginning of the movie failed to deal with the virus that had spread from the laboratory in time, leading to the complete loss of control that followed.
Li Qing was that idiot now.
"Cough, cough."
After thinking it over carefully, he said to Giorno:
"You have a point."
"If we don't find a way to snuff out a monster that might grow infinitely while it's still in its infancy, it'll be too late once it grows up."
"However..."
Li Qing suddenly changed the subject, his voice turning grave.
"We just went through hell and barely managed to keep our lives against that monster."
"Wouldn't going back to find it on purpose be taking our death wish a little too far?"
"..."
Giorno did not answer.
He examined Li Qing's deliberately stern expression, then actually smiled.
"Mr. Baldy, stop making such boring tests."
"I know you're not afraid of death."
"You should know that I'm not afraid either."
Giorno raised his head, lifted his chin, and placed a hand over his muscular chest.
"I, Giorno Giovanna, have a dream—"
"I want to become a Gang-star!"
The boy's golden hair fluttered gently in the wind, while the lake-like light in his emerald eyes shone without regret.
"This country has long belonged to the mafia. Only by becoming a Gang-star can I truly save this country."
"I, who carry a dream as wondrous as gold, will not fear death."
"So..."
As he spoke, he slowly extended his hand toward Li Qing.
"Mr. Baldy, are you willing to save this world with me?"
"Hahahaha!"
Li Qing could not hold back his wild laughter.
"This is incredible! It's my first time seeing someone even better at courting death than I am!"
"Going out of our way to pick a fight is incredibly stupid, but this started because of me in the first place—I, Li Qing, am not some useless trash who needs others to wipe my ass for me!"
"Giorno Giovanna, right?"
"Not bad."
He restrained his laughter and firmly clasped Giorno's outstretched hand.
"My answer is yes!"
Meanwhile.
At Naples Airport, in an unoccupied corner.
"The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please leave a message after the tone..."
"Beep, beep."
Diavolo gripped his phone tightly, his expression utterly grim.
"Damn it!"
"Carne isn't answering!"
"Judging from the speedboat's tracking records, he should have encountered that baldy some time ago."
"So..."
"Is he not answering because he deliberately activated that Stand ability that takes effect after death, or has he already been easily dealt with by that baldy?"
Thinking of Li Qing possibly escaping again, Diavolo was in a terrible mood.
He was not blaming his subordinate for being incompetent.
Carne had merely been an insurance measure he set up on a whim. Diavolo had never expected Carne to deal with Li Qing alone.
His true plan had been to use the convenient transportation of an airplane to create a time difference, arrive at the Port of Naples before Li Qing came ashore, and personally eliminate the sinner who had desecrated his throne.
The plan itself had been good.
After all, Li Qing had only escaped from his grasp that morning because of an accident. Give Diavolo another chance, and Li Qing would definitely die.
However...
Because of "air traffic control," Diavolo had first waited at Palermo Airport for a full three hours.
After finally boarding a plane, it had been ordered to clear the flight path because of a sudden military operation by the Americans, forcing it to circle in the air for another three hours.
A journey that normally took just over an hour had been dragged out for a full six hours!
"It was bad enough that they bombed other countries into oblivion every day, but now they were even treating my, Diavolo's, territory like a toilet where they could shit wherever they pleased..."
"Damn it... I'll kill those filthy thugs!"
Having been exceptionally unlucky, Diavolo could only vent his resentment on the true culprit.
Of course, he was merely talking big.
Though he called himself invincible, Diavolo, merely the head thug of Italy, would never dare provoke the truly invincible head thug of the world.
"Phew..."
He adjusted the emotions that had spiraled out of control in his fury and tried to calm himself.
"Now isn't the time to waste any more time."
"I need to hurry over there and take a look. If that baldy isn't dead, he might not have gone far yet."
Thinking this, Diavolo quickly emerged from the dark corner and headed straight for the taxi area outside the airport entrance.
At the same time, he handed control of his body over to his alternate personality, Tonio, to conceal himself as Diavolo.
What Diavolo failed to notice was that—
In the dark corner where he had just concealed himself, a round stone had somehow appeared on the ground.
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