The Golden Spirit

Half an hour ago, at 14:55.

The fighter jet had crashed in a small town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, and Li Qing and Giorno had just formed a two-person party to challenge an epic boss.

The two ran along the road towards the crash site, desperately searching for a suitable mode of transportation.

"My god."

Li Qing tried to activate Digitization Mode, using his keen hearing to sense the activity at the crash site a few kilometers away.

"What's wrong?" Giorno heard Li Qing's involuntary exclamation. "Is the situation bad?"

"What do you think?"

Li Qing spread his hands helplessly. "I can hear that thing's movements from three kilometers away. Can the situation not be bad?"

"Judging purely by the sound waves,"

He deliberately paused, speaking to Giorno in a tone that hinted at a ghost story.

"After swallowing the airplane engine, this monster is already about five or six meters tall."

"Oh."

Giorno wasn't scared at all.

He simply sighed softly and said calmly, "The energy of a fighter jet engine is far greater than that of a school bus, so this is to be expected."

"However..."

Giorno glanced at Li Qing, whose expression was a little subtle, and asked, "You seem a bit dispirited?"

"It's not exactly dispirited..."

Li Qing was slightly surprised by Giorno's perceptiveness before saying with a complex tone, "I'm just thinking about something..."

"To save myself, I accidentally led the meat blob onto the bus; to save the students on the bus, I stayed to fight you; to save you and me, I led the meat blob onto the plane; and then the pilot, to save himself, crashed the plane into a densely populated city."

"In the end..."

"I saved some people, but more people might die because of it."

"What does this even mean? Would it have been better to do nothing from the very beginning?"

"..."

Giorno fell silent for a moment.

"That's a truly boring question."

His gaze was unwavering.

"We only did what we had to do at the time."

"We shouldn't be the ones being questioned; it should be the trash that released this kind of monster."

"This..."

Li Qing was slightly stunned and couldn't help but laugh heartily.

"Hahahaha..."

"This kind of unshakable mindset... are you really only 13 years old, kid?"

"Absolutely."

"I'm halfway through my first year of junior high."

Giorno glanced at Li Qing helplessly and said very seriously, "Stop thinking about such boring things."

"Hurry up and do what we can do next!"

With that, he began to analyze the battle situation with full concentration.

"Although the monster has gotten bigger, the situation is actually much more favorable than before:"

"Before, we were too close to the meat blob, so as soon as we moved slightly, it could immediately catch up to us."

"But now, we can maintain the maximum safe distance from it, extending the time it takes to catch up."

"That's true."

Li Qing rephrased Giorno's idea in terms that people from Dragon Country would understand more easily.

"That monster is always slightly faster than us. From my observation, its speed has always been around 1.2 times that of its prey."

"Let the distance between me and the monster be X (m), and my speed be V (m/s). Then the time it takes to catch up should be t = X / (1.2 - 1)V = 5X/V."

"Clearly, the greater the distance, the more safe escape time we gain."

He added, "And I've observed before that the monster's maximum perception range should be about 100 meters."

"This means X can be at most 100, and we can completely lure its aggro from 100 meters away from it."

"Uh."

Giorno, after slightly adjusting to Li Qing's way of understanding, added:

"That's right."

"This V, is actually the fastest speed among all moving objects within the monster's perception range, which we must maintain."

"During our movement, we will definitely be interfered with by others, but this interference is actually very limited on land."

"Even if a car passes by the battlefield, assuming it's traveling at 60km/h, we just need to ensure our movement speed V > 60km/h = 16.67m/s."

"With X taking its maximum value of 100 and V > 16.67, substituting gives t < 29.99 seconds!"

"This means as long as we maintain the maximum distance of 100 meters from the monster beforehand, even if a car traveling at 60km/h interferes, we can still secure nearly half a minute of safety time for ourselves!"

"That's more than enough time!"

Li Qing added with shining eyes:

"In that case, as long as the two of us maintain a maximum safe distance and lure its aggro from different directions, we can draw this irrational monster to where we want it to go!"

"It's like adding vectors!"

"Uh."

"I understand the logic, but..."

Giorno, still in junior high, looked bewildered and asked: "What's a vector?"

14:58.

"To implement the plan, we must ensure our movement speed is faster than all interference, including cars."

"Obviously, this requires a vehicle."

"Cars are too cumbersome and unsuitable for complex terrain, bicycles aren't fast enough to meet the requirements, so..."

"Motorcycles, combining both speed and agility, are the suitable choice."

Giorno, while explaining his intentions to Li Qing with a serious expression, skillfully began to pick the lock of a motorcycle parked by the roadside.

"Hey, hey..."

Watching Giorno's focused and serious demeanor as he picked the lock, Li Qing couldn't help but tease:

"Why are you so skilled at this?"

"Hmm?"

"You mean stealing cars?"

Giorno replied calmly without looking up, "It's a bit complicated to explain, but there's no other way."

"My stepfather and I have a bad relationship, and he wouldn't even pay for my full tuition."

"And I'm only 13 this year, and there aren't many legitimate places that would hire child labor my age."

"So..."

"Working is impossible, and I don't know how to do business, so stealing things like this is the only way to make a living."

After stating his situation without batting an eye, he added:

"Oh, right."

"Besides motorcycles, we need one more thing."

"Once the fight starts, the two of us will definitely be quite far apart."

"We can't communicate in time during the chaos with just shouting, so it's best if we each have a mobile phone to facilitate real-time communication during the battle."

"I have a phone with me, I just don't know if you have one."

"I understand."

Li Qing grasped Giorno's reasonable request for "party voice chat" and immediately nodded in agreement: "I'll figure out how to get a phone right now."

As soon as he finished speaking...

A furious voice suddenly erupted from nearby:

"You... you scoundrels!"

"What are you doing to my beloved car?!"

The speaker was a young man wearing a green shirt, jeans, and a fuzzy hat, exuding an air of idleness and looking like a good-for-nothing.

He pointed at the motorcycle, whose lock Giorno had already picked and somehow managed to start, and said in utter rage:

"Get off it right now, you shameless car thief!"

"Sigh..."

"Why do you have to speak so harshly."

Giorno didn't deign to respond. Li Qing, however, patiently offered a well-intentioned reply:

"How can saving the world be called stealing?"

"Your motorcycle has been requisitioned by us. The people of Naples will not forget the contribution you've made."

"You, you!"

The street punk's face twitched with anger:

"You shameless fellow!"

"Stop it right now, I'm calling the police!"

"Oh?"

Li Qing's eyes lit up. "Calling the police? Do you have your phone on you?"

"That's right!"

The street punk huffily pulled a brand-new Nokia from his pocket, his voice full of bluster as he threatened:

"I can call the police right now, why aren't you stopping?!"

"Oh,"

Li Qing narrowed his eyes, a gentle smile on his face. "Then thank you."