King Crimson

Amor's gaze instantly went vacant.

The next instant.

The commentary ended, and time resumed flowing.

Before Li Qing could fire, Amor took advantage of having raised his gun first and pulled the trigger in an instant.

The bullet whistled out and struck Li Qing in the forehead.

But Li Qing was still alive.

A bullet to the leg could only deal around 13% damage to him, while one to the forehead produced a doubled "critical hit" effect.

Even so, he was still alive.

As long as his health bar was not empty, Li Qing could counterattack at full strength:

Bang!

The gun in Li Qing's hand fired as well.

His marksmanship was not particularly good, but at a distance of merely five or six meters, it was more than sufficient.

The bullet struck Amor in the chest, blasting through his ribs and lung, robbing him of his last ability to resist.

The gun fell to the ground, and Amor collapsed with it.

"Phew... I won."

Li Qing knew that he had finally won.

An unprecedented sense of delight surged through him.

This was gaming—the truly thrilling kind of game.

He walked closer and looked down at Amor, who had only one last breath left, then sighed in satisfaction:

"Not bad, you."

Li Qing's gaze settled on Amor's severed arm:

"You truly were a worthy opponent."

Amor heard Li Qing's sigh, but used his last strength to mock him:

"Hahaha... Baldy, you still haven't seen enough."

"You think I'm terrifying? Behind me..."

"There is a whole organization full of monsters waiting for you!"

"Hm?"

Li Qing furrowed his brow tightly. "What did you say?"

"You and your four lackeys have all been dealt with by me. From now on, no one will know I exist, or what I look like."

"Even if those organization executives are powerful, they..."

"Heh."

Amor painfully forced out a sneer:

"Baldy, have you forgotten..."

"What was I doing when you suddenly appeared in front of me earlier?"

"What were you doing?"

"You seemed to be making a pho—"

Li Qing frowned, as if he had suddenly remembered something. "Could it be?!"

He hurriedly exited Digitization Mode, returning to a normal flesh-and-blood body and regaining his vision.

Then he abruptly bent down and reached into Amor's bulging suit pocket:

Sure enough, there was a phone inside:

Li Qing recognized it. It was a Nokia 5110, the kind his father had used in his youth before keeping it at home to crack walnuts instead of throwing it away.

The brand did not matter. What mattered was—

At this very moment, the phone screen displayed: --Call in progress.

"Hahaha."

Amor burst into wild laughter:

"Baldy, you guessed right."

"I never hung up that call."

"The entire battle, the effects of your abilities, your physical features—my boss heard all of it!"

"Just wait."

"Sooner or later, you'll die in the sewers like a gutter rat cornered and hunted by a pack of cats!"

"..."

Li Qing fell silent.

Then, his body began to tremble slightly.

"What?"

Amor gave him one final glance and sneered:

"Are you scared?"

"No."

Li Qing shook his head.

The old him might have instinctively feared for his life, but now that he completely regarded himself as a "player," he could not feel fear at all.

Thus, under Amor's puzzled gaze, Li Qing instead smiled:

"This game..."

"It's getting more and more interesting."

Ding!

Successfully killed Amor, leader of the 'Cleaners.' Experience gained.

You have reached Level 2. Health automatically restored to 100%.

You have gained a new skill point. Please allocate it as soon as possible.

With Li Qing's tiny bit of help, Amor soon breathed his last.

At the same time, the Nokia phone that had been displaying "Call in progress" suddenly emitted the busy tone of a disconnected call.

Naturally, it was not Amor, already dead, who had hung up. It was the mysterious person on the other end of the line—the boss Amor had been talking about.

"He won't even give me a chance to talk?"

Li Qing had already prepared himself mentally:

"It seems that 'Boss' is determined to get rid of me."

He quickly realized that he would soon face the Passion Organization's endless pursuit.

Moreover, the people coming after him would most likely not be ordinary people like Amor, but superpowered assassins with Stand abilities.

"This game really is difficult."

Li Qing helplessly shrugged, then did his utmost to recall the mere two episodes of JOJO he had watched, gathering every piece of potentially useful information:

The story took place in Naples, Italy, in 2001.

The protagonists were the delinquent teenager Giorno Giovanna and the small-time gangster boss Bruno Bucciarati.

Both possessed a special ability called a "Stand," allowing them to summon humanoid manifestations condensed from their spiritual energy and wield vastly different, distinctive superpowers.

Their enemy was a Mafia gang called Passion, which ruled Italy's underworld.

Right...

Although he had not continued watching the anime, Li Qing had once happened to see netizens discussing it in the comments:

The boss of the Passion Organization possessed an invincible Stand ability that could "erase time."

"Erase time?"

"What an incomprehensible thing."

Li Qing could not figure out the organization's Boss's true ability for the moment, so he stopped wasting time on memories.

He immediately crouched down and searched Amor's corpse for everything that might be useful to him:

First, weapons:

The power of firearms went without saying, while the sharp dagger capable of severing Amor's arm in one blow could also greatly enhance Li Qing's current combat strength.

Second, money:

The Italian Mafia seemed to be quite a profitable profession.

Amor's wallet was stuffed full. Upon a cursory look, there were even quite a few large-denomination lira notes printed with paintings by masters such as Raphael and Caravaggio.

With a quick count, the lira added up to a staggering 800,000.

This official Italian currency had an exchange rate of roughly 255 to 1 against RMB.

The money Amor carried on him could be considered no small fortune in that era.

"Not bad."

Li Qing gladly accepted the income, then carefully examined Amor's few remaining belongings:

A phone?

Nokia phones were valuable items in these days, but movies had shown too many scenes of phones being tracked. Li Qing did not dare keep such a deadly thing on him.

A watch?

That was useful.

Li Qing vaguely remembered that the discussion he had seen in the JOJO comments went like this:

"Having your fingers cut hurts so much. Why doesn't the protagonist wear a watch?"

"As long as he checks whether the second hand has jumped, he can tell whether the Boss has activated his 'time erasure' ability."

After recalling this detail about the "second hand," he could not help making a further deduction:

"Watch the second hand..."

"Could this so-called 'time erasure' literally mean 'erasure'?"

"Whenever the Boss activates his ability, does the timeline 'fast-forward' by several seconds?"

Li Qing did not quite understand.

Still, he instinctively focused his attention on the constantly moving second hand.

Then Li Qing reached out to unfasten the watch still worn on Amor's hand, intending to put it on his own wrist.

At that moment, the watch showed:

7:58:32.

At the same time, Li Qing heard a seagull cry in the distance.

The seagull was at his three o'clock, roughly 150 meters away.

Then.

The next instant, just the next instant.

More precisely, the next instant in Li Qing's perception.

The seagull, which he had just been able to locate by sound, suddenly seemed to teleport. It inexplicably "disappeared" from Li Qing's perception before abruptly appearing at his three o'clock, roughly 180 meters away.

The watch Li Qing had just reached for had also eerily vanished from Amor's corpse and appeared on his wrist in the blink of an eye.

The process of removing and fastening the watch had been directly "erased," leaving only the result of Li Qing wearing it.

At that moment, the watch showed:

7:58:37.

"The second hand... jumped forward five seconds?!"

In that flash of lightning, Li Qing was struck by indescribable shock.

Then.

He detected breathing—a steady, powerful breath.

It was not far away. It was right...

"Someone's behind me?!"

Li Qing was even more shocked:

After reaching Level 2, all of his physical functions had evolved with his level to nearly the limits of human capability.

Of all those physical functions, the one most greatly enhanced was Li Qing's already extraordinary perception.

Although he was not currently digitized, and his perception was far weaker than in Blind Monk mode.

Even so, Li Qing in the flesh could never possibly be so "deaf" that he failed to hear the distinct footsteps constantly approaching from behind him.

Then...

How had this person, who had suddenly appeared behind him, done it?

Li Qing no longer had time to consider that question.

He instinctively tried to leap aside and break free from the mysterious person's pursuit, but it was too late:

"King Crimson!"