Chapter 107: Spacious Sidewalks
In the car.
Li Qing and others were horrified to find that they had entered a hell on earth.
Light green fluff was everywhere, scarlet body fluids were flowing all over the ground, screams and groans were heard continuously, mixed with many heartbreaking weak sobs.
"These guys..." Bucciarati's eyes were burning with anger.
"Really..." Giorno's blond hair fluttered without wind.
"Angry..." Apaki and Narancia's faces were as gloomy as ink.
"It's my turn!" Even the most cowardly Fugo and the youngest Mista couldn't hold back their angry roars.
For them, Naples is home.
They are familiar with every street here, and every corner holds memories of their past.
And now, this hometown, famous all over the world for its beauty, has been ravaged into this state.
"They must be killed!"
Everyone reached a consensus.
"Li Qing."
Everyone turned their attention to the humanoid radar in the team: "Please find the whereabouts of the enemy as soon as possible."
"must."
Li Qing was also angry about this inhumane scene.
He closed his eyes tightly, concentrated his mind, and used his whole body to perceive all the sounds around him.
During this short search, Giorno and his team also took the time to study the characteristics of those killer fungi:
"Real fungi should be spread through the air and can also absorb nutrients from blood and flesh to rapidly multiply and expand."
“Damn it…”
Fugo endured the pain of his feet being eaten by fungi and said with gritted teeth:
"This is not something that exists in nature at all. It is the enemy's Stand ability."
"If we don't find the enemy's true form quickly... I'm afraid we will be eaten by the fungus before we kill him!"
"That's right."
Giorno nodded, but quickly found a place that everyone had overlooked:
"But, have you noticed..."
"The fungal flora on our bodies is growing slower than the fungi on Fugo's body?"
"Fugo's feet were eaten away in seconds, while the fungi on our bodies are only a small patch."
"And the pedestrians on the road just now..."
"I saw a driver who was almost intact in his car, but he just got out and walked a few steps, and his legs were bitten off."
"Why can the rates of fungal proliferation vary so much?"
"why is that?"
Everyone fell into deep thought and no one could answer this question.
Giorno suddenly had an idea and said to Fugo, "Fugo, lift your feet a little higher and see."
"Um?"
Fugo was puzzled, but he still followed Giorno's instructions and lifted up his feet that were almost eaten away by fungi.
Just a slight lift...
The light green fungal carpet that was rapidly proliferating at a speed visible to the naked eye just stopped expanding.
"why is that?"
Fugo's eyes widened.
He was just confused, but Giorno pressed his knees again and pushed his raised legs down.
“Ahhhh!”
Fugo let out a piercing scream.
Although the pain sensation has become extremely dull due to fungal erosion, you can still see it with your eyes:
He just lowered his legs slightly, and the green fungal mats that were originally only around his ankles quickly spread to his calves like a gushing tide.
In just a short moment, his calves were almost eaten by the fungi.
"As expected..."
After some minor experiments with Fugo's legs, Giorno had his answer.
He ignored Fugo's resentful look and said calmly:
"These fungi can sense the height of the place."
“I once saw this in a miscellaneous book…”
"It says there are some fungi that want to move [downward] all the time, but they can't walk on their own."
“So, they first parasitize the insect, and then when the insect moves [down], the fungus starts to multiply and kill the host!”
“That’s how the so-called Cordyceps sinensis was born.”
"The reason why Fugo's feet were bitten off so quickly just now was actually because he was moving his limbs up and down, which activated the fungus's reproductive ability."
"I see."
After hearing this, Fu Ge, a top student, immediately reacted:
"With this habit, the host will only become ill and die after moving to a lower place."
"The fungus takes advantage of this to take advantage of the moving host and continue to expand the infection area to further distances."
Diseases that are fatal in a short period of time will not become infectious diseases that people are afraid of.
However, those viruses with an incubation period are the real demons that are difficult for humans to stop.
At this moment, this carnivorous fungus spreading in the city is just such a lurking killer.
"But it's just instinct after all."
"As long as we make sure we don't forget to go [down] and go [up], we can stop the growth of fungi and slow down their erosion of the body."
Fugo explained while trying his best to lift his legs.
After lifting my legs a little higher, the carnivorous fungi indeed quickly subsided.
At this time…
Li Qing suddenly opened his eyes and gave everyone the information they wanted:
“Found it!”
"I just carefully ."
"Although it's hard to distinguish the sound from a distance, the distribution of the screams is enough to tell..."
"The infection area of this fungus is as large as two or three kilometers!"
At this point, he couldn't help but clench his fists tightly:
"And in this circle of death with a diameter of several kilometers... there are constant screams from the outer circle, which means that those people have just been infected and have not yet died."
“But in that inner circle, there was no sound at all.”
"The people there had long been killed by the fungus. There were no screams or wails. It was as quiet as the middle of night."
This time, the fungal outbreak clearly spread from the enemy's Stand user.
That is to say …
The center of the circle of death is where the enemy's body is.
"There are no living people in the inner circle of that 'center' anymore."
"But I heard a voice in that deadly place..."
Li Qing stretched out his hand and pointed at a small black dot in the distant sky:
"That's a helicopter."
"Our enemy is on that helicopter!"
Everyone simultaneously turned their gaze towards the sky in the distance.
In a rage, Mista stepped on the accelerator hard.
"etc."
“Don’t drive on flat ground.”
Giorno promptly ordered: "The fungus on our bodies is already beginning to spread."
"Although the speed is still slow, I'm afraid it will be able to chew us up and make us unable to move before we reach the enemy."
"ah?"
Mista asked in a panic, "What should we do? Should we evacuate first?"
"No."
"If we delay for one more second, countless innocent people will die."
"Keep going, but be careful and drive the car to a higher ground."
"Just like Fugo's raised foot, if we raise the height a little bit, the fungus can be temporarily stopped from spreading."
Giorno reminded him.
But Mista was still completely confused:
"The roads around here are all flat, how can I drive the car to a higher place?"
"Don't even mention raising it a little bit, I can't even raise it a centimeter..."
"this…"
Giorno looked out the window:
On the side of the flat road is a sidewalk that is about ten centimeters higher than the road surface.
And on the sidewalk...
The pedestrians were long gone, and all that remained were the festering corpses.
"well…"
Giorno sighed deeply, a hint of pity flashing in his green eyes:
"Go ahead. The sidewalk is quite wide."
※※※
PS: Stand-in panel.
Alternate name: Green Day
The main body - Chocolat
Destructive power: A
Speed: C
Range: A
Sustainability: A
Movement precision: E
Growth: A
Ability: A wide-range indiscriminate attack stand.
It emits flesh-eating fungi, which can spread through corpses and expand indefinitely.
Because human bodies that descend to lower places will cause decay, the only way to avoid mold attacks is to keep going to higher places.
