That escape and pursuit had sounded tense and intense, but in truth, Abbacchio and Mista had only run a dozen or so meters.
They had merely moved slightly deeper into the ruins from their outskirts.
At first glance, nothing had changed in the environment around them.
And aside from being overly nervous, Mista was in perfect condition compared to Abbacchio, who had taken three bullets and was bleeding profusely.
"How did I end up in a desperate situation?"
Mista could not understand.
He had no way of comprehending why the other man could still display such calm confidence and composure when the disparity between them was so obvious.
"Stop bluffing."
"You're the one with a gun pointed at your head!"
Mista, a complete rookie, had not even considered what the other man's Stand ability might be. He simply raised his gun and shouted boldly:
"Don't move!"
He even pointed at Moody Blues beside Abbacchio.
"You and that blue thing of yours, don't move!"
"Heh. Still haven't noticed?"
"Of course. I've never shown you my Stand ability before, so it's only natural that you wouldn't realize."
Abbacchio endured the pain and allowed a faint smile to appear on his face.
"My Moody Blues truly isn't suited for combat."
"Its Stand ability can only replay events. During the replay, it can only mechanically follow the target's past actions and cannot attack freely according to my will."
"However, that doesn't mean it can't be used in battle."
"Since Moody Blues can't decide its own movements during a replay, then I'll make the enemy walk into its path!"
"???" Mista wore an expression as though his entire worldview had collapsed.
He did not even know what a Stand was, so naturally, he had no idea what Abbacchio was talking about.
And Abbacchio did not care whether Mista understood. He simply continued explaining to himself.
"Brat."
"Although you only followed me a dozen meters in this direction just now, those dozen meters are enough to decide the outcome!"
"Look beneath your feet—"
"Just now, like an ignorant child, you walked straight onto railroad tracks with a high-speed train coming down them!"
"What?!"
Following Abbacchio's words, Mista lowered his head and looked at the ground beneath his feet.
"???"
"There's nothing here?"
"Isn't this just the rubble and mud left behind when that Meat Chunk passed through?"
Mista still looked utterly bewildered.
However, just one second later, that confused expression froze completely on his face.
It was replaced by an indescribable terror.
Because—
When Mista raised his head and looked at Abbacchio again, the terrifying Meat Chunk that had left such a deep impression on him twenty minutes ago had appeared right before him, alive and real!
Its enormous body stood six or seven meters tall. Its twisted, grotesque, disgusting tentacle-like limbs and its dense, nauseating flesh tumors cast a shadow that covered Mista's entire body simply by standing there.
Without a doubt, it was the Meat Chunk that had nearly destroyed half the town.
But actually—
It was Moody Blues. Moody Blues in replay mode, transformed into the form of the Meat Chunk.
"If the 'location' factor is destroyed, memories can't be read."
"But what cannot be read is only the memory of events that occurred before the terrain was destroyed."
"And this Meat Chunk itself was the destroyer. It continued moving here after the terrain had been ruined."
"That means this damaged land is the 'location' factor that carries the memory of its movements!"
Watching the terrified Mista, Abbacchio explained.
"With both the 'time' and 'location' factors in place, then—"
"Begin playback, Moody Blues!"
The moment he finished speaking, Moody Blues, transformed into a bloated Meat Chunk, immediately activated its replay ability.
It instantly recreated the ferocious posture of the Meat Chunk as it had pursued Li Qing twenty minutes earlier. Like a gigantic tank at full power, it rammed toward the vacant-faced Mista ahead.
No.
Strictly speaking, Moody Blues was not deliberately charging at Mista. It was merely mechanically recreating the Meat Chunk's movement trajectory from twenty minutes ago.
Mista himself had walked into its path and blocked the way of that colossal creature.
Abbacchio had endured the bullets and insisted on running those dozen meters precisely to lure Mista here, onto these already-laid "tracks."
"Ah!"
Mista cried out instinctively.
Having never experienced a brutal battle, he quickly lost the confidence that his awakened ability had given him when he witnessed such a shocking sight.
He began dodging to one side in terror and fired two wild shots at the Meat Chunk charging straight at him.
But it had no effect whatsoever.
The bullets struck the Meat Chunk, which was as large as a small house, and could only punch tiny holes into its soft yet resilient body, holes so small they were almost impossible to see with the naked eye.
Compared to its incomparably massive size, such minor wounds could practically be ignored.
Likewise, even if that damage were proportionally transferred to Abbacchio, the Stand User, it would feel little more than being viciously pricked by two thin needles.
Gunfire could not stop Moody Blues in "Meat Chunk mode." It continued charging forward at that terrifying speed.
And Mista's panicked attempt to dodge was equally useless.
The Meat Chunk was simply too fast. Before he had even leapt half a meter away, he was slammed hard by the mountain of flesh bearing down on him.
"Urgh!!"
Mista let out a miserable scream and was actually sent flying backward by the tremendous force.
By the time he hit the ground again, he had landed amid the rubble seven or eight meters away.
Fortunately, the Meat Chunk's body itself was bouncy, soft, and squishy. Like an airbag exploding during a car crash, it provided enormous cushioning.
But even so, the immense kinetic energy created by its extreme speed and enormous mass still inflicted a severe injury on Mista.
"It hurts... I... feel dizzy."
This tough young man, who was all muscle from head to toe, could no longer endure the successive brutal blows dealt to him.
Mista collapsed to the ground, his head lolling to one side and his gun falling from his hand as he passed out completely.
Abbacchio finally let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Whew... I finally won."
"However..."
He gritted his teeth, pressing down on his endlessly bleeding wound, then looked at Mista, who was deeply unconscious nearby.
"Is this kid really an enemy of the organization?"
"Moody Blues' charge during the replay was fast, but if he had stayed calm and activated his Stand ability in time, even if he couldn't stop Moody Blues' attack, he would have had a good chance of taking me down with him."
"But... he was scared like that."
Abbacchio furrowed his brows deeply.
Having only recently joined the gang and not yet truly witnessed darkness, he could not help falling into conflicted thoughts.
"This kid feels like a rookie who doesn't understand anything."
"Is the enemy the organization must kill really a child with no combat experience at all?"
"However..."
He muttered to himself in a self-mocking tone.
"What am I lamenting for?!"
"I'm no longer that hotheaded kid who took the police exam with ideals in his heart. I'm an evil gangster now, so why am I still worrying about that so-called justice?"
"The people driving the Meat Chunk to destroy the city are my companions, while the people risking their lives to save the city are my enemies."
Abbacchio looked at the young man unconscious before him, and his expression could not help becoming complicated.
He recalled the resolute look in the eyes of that immature, naïve, ignorant rookie, whose legs would even tremble in fear when danger came, when he had gathered the courage to lie before Abbacchio, a bad man.
Vaguely, Abbacchio seemed to see his former self. "Heh... how ridiculous."
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