Live Together

The battle plan had succeeded without a hitch, but Li Qing discovered a rather awkward little problem:

He seemed to have to die here too.

The magma chamber buried deep underground had been smashed open from above by the Meat Chunk. Under the pressure, the vast amount of magma stored within surged rapidly upward through that opening at the top.

Like a volcanic eruption weakened countless times over.

The scorching tide of magma first swallowed the Meat Chunk, then flooded the vertical tunnel connecting the underground cavity to the magma chamber. After that, like toilet water backing up, it poured into the underground cavity above.

The underground cavity, empty just moments ago, had now become a lake of magma brimming with molten rock and heat waves.

But it was not over yet.

The "water level" of the magma lake continued to rise. The surging lava soon filled the limited underground cavity and began flowing toward the tunnel above that connected the cavity to the surface.

That tunnel quickly became a magma well with a steadily rising "water level."

And Li Qing was inside it.

"Looks like my luck wasn't quite that good."

As he desperately climbed toward the surface along the nearly vertical tunnel, he helplessly glanced at the magma surface relentlessly closing in beneath him.

"I'm not some supercomputer with perfect data. I had no way to accurately predict how fast the magma would rise in the first place."

"And worse still..."

"The rising magma is getting closer and closer, but I can't use my skills to escape!"

According to Li Qing's original plan, the moment the Meat Chunk began digging toward the magma chamber, he would start climbing upward. Then, before the magma backflow reached him, he would climb beyond the Meat Chunk's detection range.

However, the speed at which the magma erupted was not something Li Qing could have predicted beforehand.

He could only gamble.

Unfortunately, the gamble he had never expected before had worked out by accident, while the outcome he was desperately hoping for now refused to bloom despite his careful efforts—

The magma was rising far faster than he had imagined.

If he kept slowly climbing with his hands and feet, Li Qing would soon be overtaken by the magma that had started later but caught up first, scoured into ash by the thousand-degree molten rock.

The only way was to use either Golden Bell Shield or Echoes Act, those two high-speed movement skills, and escape straight to the surface before the magma swallowed him.

But he could not use those skills.

The magma was rising too quickly. Before Li Qing could climb beyond the Meat Chunk's detection range, he was already about to be swallowed by the magma well whose "water level" was rising beneath him.

"I'm about eighty meters directly above that Meat Chunk right now. I still need twenty more meters to fully escape its detection range."

"If I use a movement skill to escape now and burst out at a speed far beyond the magma tide, it'll definitely chase after me and rush up to the surface with me!"

"If that happens..."

"Everything Giorno and I have done will have been for nothing!"

Li Qing clenched his fists, determination surging in his heart.

"I can't use my skills. I can only climb slowly."

"Once I climb these final twenty meters, I'll be rid of that Meat Chunk forever!"

The lava surged upward, and heat waves swept over him.

The vertical tunnel the Meat Chunk had just carved out with its body had now turned into an alchemical furnace burning at full blast.

Li Qing was now the "Monkey King" thrown into that furnace, but he did not have the Great Sage Equal to Heaven's invulnerability to fire and water, his indestructible body—his health had already begun to drop.

Even though the rising lava had yet to touch his body directly, he could not withstand the endless heat waves blasting upward from below.

You did not need to press kebab meat directly against the coals. Just suspending it above them was enough.

The horrifying heat rising from the magma naturally heated the air until it warped and distorted, turning it into a powerful invisible oven.

"Damn it."

Li Qing could feel that the air around him had to be at least several hundred degrees Celsius.

Being bathed in air this scorching was actually more agonizing than touching a branding iron with bare skin.

Although Li Qing could block out the maddening pain, he could not ignore the massive damage inflicted by the scorching air.

"Stay steady. Stay steady!"

"Just ten more meters!"

Li Qing forced himself not to look at his rapidly falling health bar and focused entirely on climbing upward.

Ten meters. Nine meters. Eight meters. Seven meters.

He seemed about to escape the Meat Chunk's detection range and gain a new lease on life.

But the distance between life and death was often just this short.

When Li Qing was only six meters away from escaping the Meat Chunk's detection range, the high-temperature air had burned his health down to just 12%.

That amount of health was not enough to keep him alive for even two seconds.

At this moment, he had only two choices—

First, target Giorno directly and use Sonically Enhanced Wave or Golden Bell Shield to return to the surface. If he did that, the Meat Chunk would follow him back up.

Second, stay and wait for death, sleeping forever with the Meat Chunk in this underground hell.

Which would he choose?

"Ha ha ha."

"If I pick the second one, it's just Game Over. Any normal person would definitely choose the first, right?"

"Once you're dead, you have nothing. Once you're dead, nothing you say matters."

In that flash of an instant, countless thoughts ran through Li Qing's mind.

He had even planned out the survival measures he should take after returning to the surface.

"Even if I lure the Meat Chunk back to the surface, with this tiny bit of health I have left, I'll probably have a hard time surviving. But..."

"But there's still Giorno Giovanna, isn't there?"

"That idiot will definitely try to save me on instinct. As long as I'm ruthless enough to use him as bait, I can still survive even at low health."

"The first path is such an easy road to survival!"

"But..."

Li Qing's climbing motion suddenly halted. "I refuse!"

Maybe it was impulsiveness, maybe his reason had gone offline, but Li Qing had ultimately been unconsciously affected by the game's overly realistic environment. From that thirteen-year-old brat named Giorno, he had learned something that could get himself killed.

He gave up on escaping and chose to stay.

"If I call myself an elite player, I shouldn't make my teammate bear the consequences of my mistakes!"

"It's only one life."

"Anyway, it's just a game. Ha ha, maybe I'll respawn after I die?"

A complicated smile appeared at the corner of Li Qing's mouth.

He slowly released his grip on the rock wall, preparing to stylishly throw himself into the endless molten lava.

"Though I've only played for half a day, I have to say..."

"This was truly an amazing game!"

"Hey!"

"Climb up! I'm coming!"

Just as Li Qing smiled and gave his GG, a slightly urgent voice abruptly pulled his consciousness back from this hell.

It was Giorno's voice.

"What?!"

Li Qing's expression froze, and shock filled his face.

He had been focused on the magma's "water level" beneath him and the Meat Chunk's position. He had completely failed to notice that Giorno had climbed down from the surface at some point.

"Why did you come down here? Are you trying to die?!"

Sensing Giorno less than five meters above him, Li Qing was so angry that even his tone changed.

"I saw your battered health bar."

"You need help, don't you?"

Giorno's slightly labored voice came from above. Clearly, he had already felt the searing heat of the air in this magma well.

And Li Qing could tell from that voice that Giorno was getting closer and closer.

"Don't climb any farther down! The air below is even hotter!"

"Even my data-based body can't take it. If you climb down any farther, you'll die!"

Li Qing shouted angrily.

But Giorno still came down.

The lava was surging upward, while Giorno and his Gold Experience climbed downward.

"Li Qing, you are already a companion I acknowledge."

"I, Giorno Giovanna, will never abandon my friend!"

"Muda muda muda muda!"

Golden fist shadows blossomed within the magma well, their radiance surpassing even the magma that contained endless light and heat.

Those fists were striking the rock wall.

Gold Experience first pounded furiously at the soil in the wall, then, like a mischievous child playing with a companion, dumped all the loosened earth it had beaten into mud over Li Qing.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

Li Qing was utterly baffled.

Then, he immediately discovered that the mud Gold Experience had splashed over him seemed to come alive.

It kept growing, changing shape, and interlinking, forming into a single mass. In the span of a breath, it covered Li Qing from head to toe in a strange "armor."

Only then did Li Qing notice—

Giorno and Gold Experience's outlines were slightly different from usual. They seemed to be wearing the same kind of "armor" as him.

"This is stone coral."

Giorno, merely flesh and blood, spoke with a trembling voice inside this scorching furnace.

"This kind of coral has a natural foam structure, with countless tiny cavities inside it—even after they die in high temperatures, the calcium carbonate shell of that foam structure remains permanently preserved."

"Then it's just the simple principle of foam insulation."

"When air doesn't circulate, it conducts heat very poorly, so it can temporarily shield us from the scorching air."

"It won't last more than a few seconds, but that's enough."

"Let's go."

Giorno extended a hand toward Li Qing.

"We'll live together!"