Third Question

"Besides the tremors from the US Military convoy moving just now, I also heard a kind of 'sound of the earth.'"

Li Qing pointed at the solid ground beneath him and explained carefully:

"Because geological activity is constantly occurring within the Earth, countless extremely faint sound waves are always present underground."

"After passing through geological formations of different densities and materials, those sound waves take on different waveforms."

"Using that property, I can roughly detect the geological structure of the shallow subsurface through sound waves."

"And just now, I heard it."

"More than a hundred meters underground, there's a huge cavity—there's nothing in there, making it perfect for sealing away this Meat Chunk!"

The Earth had never been a solid ball of dirt. Finding a naturally formed underground cavity once in a while was hardly anything strange.

"I see."

Giorno understood Li Qing's intention:

"That underground cavity is more than a hundred meters beneath the surface, beyond the Meat Chunk's sensory range."

"As long as we can lure the Meat Chunk inside, it won't be able to sense objects on the surface anymore."

"Then it will be sealed forever in the darkness underground."

"However."

He could not help adding that one word.

Because Li Qing's Plan B had far too many holes in it—

How were they supposed to lure the monster more than a hundred meters underground?

The hole needed to let that monster burrow down had to be at least five or six meters wide. Once it was done, how were they supposed to seal such a huge hole within two minutes?

Of course, beyond that—

There was one most crucial issue Giorno was concerned about.

"I understand everything you're saying."

"But there's no time to discuss it further."

"Once those US Military soldiers get here, with so much interference around us, any plan we choose will fail."

Li Qing gave Giorno no room to question him.

He issued his orders decisively:

"Please create a burrowing insect first. Have it carry my Sonically Enhanced Wave mark underground."

"My movement ability can pass through obstacles and reach underground directly. As long as that Meat Chunk senses my high-speed movement, even with more than a hundred meters of earth in the way, it'll desperately dig through the ground and chase after me."

Li Qing had offered a way to lure the monster underground, answering the first question that had arisen in Giorno's mind.

"All right."

Giorno no longer hesitated.

He had already accepted Li Qing as his companion.

Since Li Qing was so resolute, he simply placed all his trust in him.

"Muda muda!"

The golden humanoid Stand emerged behind Giorno and punched a chunk of broken asphalt on the ground.

Soon, infused with life force, the broken asphalt changed shape and gave birth to an insect gleaming with an oily black luster.

"Sonically Enhanced Wave!"

Without hesitation, Li Qing placed a Sonically Enhanced Wave mark on the insect—

This journey had to cover more than a hundred meters. The Golden Bell Shield's range was insufficient, so he could only use Sonically Enhanced Wave.

However, after using Sonically Enhanced Wave on the insect, he immediately noticed that something was wrong:

"Wait. This bug..."

Li Qing sensed its outline through sound waves. "Why does its shape look kind of like a cockroach?!"

"It is a cockroach."

Giorno answered without changing expression.

"..."

As a southerner who had suffered terribly from cockroaches, Li Qing shuddered at the name that had once brought him countless nightmares:

"A cockroach... Why did you choose a cockroach?!"

"There were so many other bugs to choose from. Since when could cockroaches burrow underground?"

"Cockroaches obviously can't burrow underground."

"I created a cockroach only because these little things are tough and hard to kill."

"In fact—"

Giorno rubbed his brow helplessly.

"There isn't any insect in the world that can dig through more than a hundred meters of soil in two minutes!"

"Do you have some misunderstanding about my Stand ability?"

"I can only create organisms that already exist on Earth. I can't satisfy all your bizarre requests."

"Then?" Li Qing waited for him to continue.

Sure enough, Giorno added unhurriedly:

"Perhaps because something like a 'soul' requires an enormous amount of energy, I'm far more capable of controlling plants than creating conscious animals."

"By pouring in a large amount of life force, I can make the plants I create grow at an extremely exaggerated speed and in any form I desire."

"So—"

"Muda muda muda muda!"

"Muda muda muda muda!"

Gold Experience began pummeling the ground frantically, its golden fist afterimages filling the eye.

They were still within the Meat Chunk's sensory range.

That ceaseless barrage of high-speed punches quickly drew the attention of the huge mass of flesh dozens of meters away.

However, the path leading underground had already opened before the Meat Chunk arrived:

Under that vast amount of life force, a chunk of asphalt rapidly transformed into a tiny sapling.

The sapling's roots wrapped around the cockroach bearing the Sonically Enhanced Wave mark, then grew rapidly toward the depths of the earth like a drill that could extend and spread without limit.

"A fig tree."

Giorno explained at the right moment:

"Near the Boesmansgat Sinkhole in South Africa, there is a plant with the longest and deepest root system in the world."

"Its roots can reach 120 meters underground—enough to deliver that cockroach carrying your ability mark into the underground cavity."

"Uh..."

Li Qing's expression turned incomparably ugly.

"What?" Giorno asked in confusion. "Are you scared?"

"Of course I'm scared."

The Meat Chunk's enormous shadow had already enveloped Li Qing. The disgusting, horrifying sound of flesh squirming was almost right beside him.

Li Qing's face had gone pale with fright.

"That's a fucking cockroach!!"

He summoned every ounce of his courage and forced himself not to imagine the awful feeling of his fist making close contact with a cockroach in a moment:

"E-Echoes Act!"

Li Qing's body abruptly became an insubstantial phantom, following the path that his cockroach brother had just burrowed through and plunging straight into the solid earth.

The Meat Chunk immediately went wild with excitement.

Li Qing's swift speed in the Echoes Act state was precisely the fatal switch that activated its berserk mode.

This completely mindless monster ignored the layers of rock and soil altogether, crashing into the ground after Li Qing with violent, ferocious force.

The impact made the earth shake and the mountains tremble.

It seemed to exist entirely outside the rules of the world. No—it might itself have been a "rule of the world."

That rule was:

Its speed had to forever exceed that of its prey—regardless of what stood in its way.

The solid earth was effortlessly parted by the Meat Chunk's unreasonable power, and buildings and trees within a hundred-meter radius shook violently.

It forced its way through the more than hundred-meter-thick layer of soil with pure brute strength, its speed not hindered in the slightest.

Finally—

The towering waves of earth subsided, and the monster that devoured everything disappeared underground.

The world fell silent.

Giorno walked to the enormous tunnel the Meat Chunk had dug with its body and looked down into the bottomless darkness below:

Li Qing was down there, and so was the Meat Chunk.

"The plan succeeded."

"But—"

Giorno's expression was incomparably grave.

Li Qing had answered the first question in his heart through his actions.

As for the second question—how to fill the hole—Giorno had also come up with an emergency solution:

First, he would stimulate a great mass of plant roots to form a several-meter-long giant "wooden cork" and completely seal the entrance. Then he would cover it with a thick layer of dirt. Once the US Military investigating the plane crash had left, road maintenance workers would naturally come and repair this hole.

Those two questions had answers now.

But the third—and most crucial—question remained unresolved.

"You said there was nothing in that underground cavity."

"That means there is nothing underground that can help draw its aggro away from you."

"As soon as you try to climb back up, the Meat Chunk will climb up after you. And if you don't climb up, you can only remain trapped underground with the Meat Chunk and wait to die."

"Li Qing."

Giorno pressed his lips tightly together and murmured the third question:

"How are you going to survive?"

Thanks to Kill Billy, Ice Feather Twins, Natsume Ziling, Star Platinum's Fist, The Man Who Wants to Become Pirate King, Long Kong DragonSky, Mumu Mountain Peak, That Was Too Much, Molting Chicken, Tianhai Egg, black_dragon, Copper Wall Iron Barrier MT, Bad at Running, Snow Street, The Other Shore of Success, Facing the Enemy, 124162, and the other readers for their support and tips.