The Boss's Call

After understanding the peculiar characteristic of 'unharmed teammates' as a kind of Stand ability, Orlanto finally understood Li Qing's explanation.

He instinctively wanted to do something, but it was too late.

The location marker of the Sonically Enhanced Wave had already been firmly imprinted on Giorno long before the conversation even began—no, to be precise, it was imprinted on his head.

The instant Orlanto realized the danger, Li Qing Sin had vanished from his spot.

"Echoes Act!"

There was no shockwave, no sound, only a phantom that was barely visible to the naked eye.

The phantom streaked across the air in an instant, growing larger and larger in Orlanto's field of vision at an astonishing speed.

Finally, a punch landed squarely on the brain.

Li Qing's Riot Games, powerful enough to shatter rocks, slammed into Giorno's head without reservation.

But Giorno, who suffered this heavy blow, was unharmed.

He stood there motionless, letting the immense force of the punch, like a tsunami, spread and impact his brain.

This shockwave continued to wreak havoc inside the brain, the most vulnerable and crucial part of the human body, and Orlanto's panicked roar suddenly ceased.

After a brief silence, Giorno asked:

Is he dead?

"Dead."

Li Qing glanced at the kill notification sent by the system and confirmed it:

"It seems this guy isn't as 'high-class' as he claimed."

"His brain center is just as fragile as a human's; it simply cannot withstand the direct bombardment of Echoes Act."

"But."

He glanced at Giorno with some hesitation:

Are you alright?

"Although that thing is dead, its 'corpse' seems to still be inside your body."

"It's alright."

Giorno responded calmly.

Orlanto's parasitic ability doesn't involve growing extra flesh inside the host; rather, it allows his body to merge with the host's.

Therefore, even if the 'corpse' cannot be expelled, Giorno will not have any foreign objects left in his body, nor will he get sick as a result.

On the contrary, after merging with Orlanto's flesh and blood, his body actually became much more robust.

The only thing to be careful about is...

Giorno looked at the human face that had grown on his arm with some disgust:

"This thing needs to be cleaned up."

Without hesitation, he took out a dagger and cleanly sliced off Orlanto's face, which was forever frozen in fear.

The process was naturally somewhat painful, but as a qualified Stand User, Giorno did not make any unnecessary noise throughout.

With a swift stroke of the knife, the flesh was chopped off, and then the Gold Experience helped replenish the new flesh and skin, thus completing a major surgical operation.

"You won?"

Bucciarati and the others breathed a long sigh of relief.

Fugo, however, suddenly snapped out of his long-standing shock:

"You've won, so hurry up and come over here!"

He struggled to move his head, which was perched atop a ball of flesh, and stared intently at Giorno with an intensely resentful gaze:

"My head is still attached to this ball of flesh!"

"Hurry up and create a body for me!"

"Clear."

Giorno smiled, a rare occurrence for him.

Although attaching Fugo's head to the ball of flesh was a last resort, it must be said that the guy's current appearance is indeed quite comical.

He barely managed to suppress his laughter, then ran over to the headless "corpse" Fugo had left behind and touched it:

"It's still hot."

"There's no need to create a new body. We can just cut off the face on this one and attach a head back on it."

With that, Giorno picked up his dagger, summoned Gold Experience, and focused intently on giving Fugo's headless "corpse" a makeover.

Abbacchio and Narancia, standing to the side, were dumbfounded, while Fugo's eyes twitched, wanting to curse but unable to utter a word.

Bucciarati, however, did not waste time watching the play.

He turned around and discussed with Li Qing very seriously the possible follow-up effects of this encounter.

On the other side...

In a corner that no one noticed.

Mista, leaning against the old willow tree, groggily opened his eyes.

He was left on the side of the road by Li Qing from the very beginning and never woke up, nor was he affected by the battle.

Now, Mista has finally regained some consciousness:

"It hurts so much!"

Am I still alive?

He struggled to open his eyes, his brain throbbing with excruciating pain.

There's nothing we can do about it.

The Meat Chunk that was replayed in the original Moody Blues had the weight of a truck and the speed of a motorcycle. If an ordinary person were hit head-on by such a thing, it would be a miracle if they didn't die.

Mista only remained unconscious for a few tens of minutes before waking up.

He looked around at his surroundings with his still somewhat blurry eyes:

Unfamiliar roads, unfamiliar cars, unfamiliar willow trees, unfamiliar corpses.

Ah?!

Mista was suddenly startled. "A corpse?!"

Indeed, as soon as he opened his eyes, he noticed a gruesome corpse lying on the road a few meters away.

The corpse was covered in festering sores and oozing pus, looking as if it had contracted some terrible plague.

"What, what are you doing!"

Mista instinctively shrank back.

As he pulled back, his arm, which was bracing itself on the ground, accidentally pressed against something hard:

"Cell phone?"

Who dropped it here?

Mista curiously picked up the phone and strained his eyes to look at it:

"Oops, how did the call go through? Did I accidentally press the dial button?"

"Calling... Boss?"

"Who is the boss? Whose phone is this? And where am I?"

His consciousness was spinning amidst this series of doubts, and his headache became increasingly severe.

But by then, the call had already been connected:

"Hello?"

A very imposing voice came from the other end of the phone:

"Fernando?"

Fernando was a member of the boss's Royal Guard, and he naturally consulted with Diavolo before arriving at the scene.

So, before "Fernando" could speak, Diavolo immediately asked, unable to contain himself:

"Bucciarati Team should have arrived at the scene before you, but they haven't reported to me yet."

"Tell me quickly, what exactly happened?"

"Ah?"

Mista's mind was foggy, and she answered subconsciously:

"Fernando?"

"Who is it? Oh... right, you're the 'boss'?"

I just found this phone.

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the other person's shocked, angry, and even slightly manic growl:

"You are not Fernando!"

"Who are you?!"

"I?"

Mista answered in a daze, "Guido Mista!"

"Guido Mista?"

The voice on the other end of the phone turned cold. "Are you Li Qing's accomplice?"

"Li Qing."

Mista struggled to recall, and finally remembered why she had fainted earlier:

Oh, it's that bald guy. I got attacked by terrorists because I helped him.

Before he could even speak, the voice on the other end of the phone became even more terrifying:

"Fernando was taken care of so quickly, while Bucciarati has yet to respond."

"Hateful!"

"The man who killed me dares to call me!"

You're the first guy to dare humiliate me like this!

Diavolo was furious beyond measure:

"Guido Mista, is it?"

"Wash your neck clean and wait. I'll chop you into human slices, soak you in formaldehyde, embed you in tempered glass, and then mail you back to your hometown via the world's worst express delivery service, FedEx!!"

"Ah?"

Although he wasn't very bright, Mista still instinctively felt a little angry:

Why are you yelling so loudly!

Anyone can talk tough!

"I'll kill you within three days, you hear me, I'll scatter your ashes!"

He immediately launched into a long string of vulgarities, which made Diavolo tremble with rage.

Finally, the call was abruptly ended.

But at that moment, Li Qing's voice suddenly rang out from the side:

"Huh? You're awake already?"

"Hmm"

Mista put down her phone in a daze, then looked up again:

"Li Qing?!"

His mind was foggy and his senses were muddled, so he didn't notice that Li Qing and the others were standing brightly in the distance.

Li Qing was discussing matters with Bucciarati and didn't notice Mista over there either.

"It's good that you're awake. Go to the hospital by yourself."

"It's too dangerous here, you mustn't get involved."

Li Qing casually gave a couple of instructions, intending to send Mista away directly.

But then, he suddenly felt that something was wrong:

"Etc."

"Hey kid, who were you talking to on the phone just now?"