Chapter 43: Live Together
The battle plan succeeded without any major problems, but Li Qing discovered a small and embarrassing problem:
It seemed that he would die here too.
A large hole was knocked out from the top of the magma chamber buried deep underground by the piece of meat. Under the action of this pressure, the massive magma stored in it rapidly surged upward from the gap at the top.
It was like a volcanic eruption with much less power.
The hot magma wave first engulfed the piece of meat, then flooded the vertical tunnel connecting the underground cavity and the magma chamber, and then poured upward into the .
The underground cavity that was empty not long ago has now turned into a magma lake filled with lava and heat waves.
But it’s not over yet.
The "water level" of the magma lake was constantly rising, and the upwelling lava quickly filled the limited underground cavity and began to flow upwards to the tunnel connecting the underground cavity and the ground.
This tunnel soon turned into a magma well with rising "water level".
And Li Qing is here now.
"It seems my luck is not that good yet..."
As he struggled to climb up the nearly vertical tunnel, he looked helplessly at the magma water surface approaching him:
"I'm not a supercomputer with precise data. I can't accurately predict the speed of the magma rising."
"And what's worse is..."
"The rising magma is getting closer and closer to me, but I can't use my skills to escape!"
According to Li Qing's original idea, he would start climbing upwards the moment the piece of meat began to dig into the magma chamber, and then climb out of the meat's perception range before the magma flowed back up.
However, the speed of the magma eruption was not something Li Qing could predict in advance.
He can only gamble.
Unfortunately, the "gamble" that Li Qing had never thought of before turned out to be a success, but the "handicap" that he had been thinking about at the moment turned out to be a failure.
The speed at which the magma was rising was far beyond his imagination.
If Li Qing continued to climb up so slowly using his hands and feet, he would soon be caught up by the magma that arrived later but was ahead of him, and would be washed into ashes by the lava that was thousands of degrees hot.
The only way is to use the two high-speed displacement skills "Golden Bell Cover" or "Echo Strike" to escape to the ground before being swallowed by the magma.
However, this skill cannot be used.
Because the magma was rising too fast, Li Qing was almost swallowed up by the magma well with rising "water level" under his feet before he could crawl out of the perception range of the meat block.
"I am now about 80 meters above the piece of meat. I still have 20 meters to completely escape its perception range."
"If I use the displacement skill to escape now, and burst out at a speed far exceeding the magma wave... it will definitely chase after me and rush to the ground with me!"
"In that case..."
"All the efforts Giorno and I have made before will be in vain!"
Li Qing clenched his fists, and a firm determination surged in his heart:
"I can't use any skills, I can only climb up slowly."
"If I can crawl out these last twenty meters, I can get rid of that lump of meat forever!"
Lava surged up and heat waves came.
This vertical tunnel that had just been opened up by the piece of meat using its body had now turned into an alchemy furnace with full firepower.
Li Qing is now the "Monkey King" thrown into this alchemy furnace, but he does not have the Monkey King's body that is immune to water and fire and indestructible - he has started to lose blood.
Even though the rising lava had not yet directly touched his body, he could not withstand the endless heat waves rushing up from under his feet.
There is no need to grill the lamb kebabs directly on the charcoal, just put them on the charcoal.
The terrifying heat rushing up from the magma will naturally heat the air to the point of distortion, turning it into a powerful invisible furnace.
“Damn it…”
Li Qing could feel that the air around him was at least hundreds of degrees Celsius.
Bathing in such scorching hot air is actually more painful than touching the soldering iron directly with your skin.
Although Li Qing was able to block out the pain that was enough to drive a person crazy, he could not ignore the huge damage caused by the scorching hot air.
“Hold on…Hold on!”
“Just the last 10 meters!”
Li Qing forced himself not to look at the rapidly decreasing health bar and climbed up with all his heart.
10 meters…9 meters…8 meters…7 meters…
It seemed that he would soon escape from the perception range of that piece of meat and be reborn.
However, the distance between life and death is often so short.
When Li Qing was only six meters away from escaping the meat's perception range, his health was burned by the high-temperature air to only 12%.
This amount of blood is not enough for him to survive for more than two seconds.
At this moment, he only has two choices -
One, directly target Giorno and use the Heavenly Sound Wave or Golden Bell Cover to return to the ground. In this way, the meat will follow him back.
Two, stay and wait to die, and sleep forever in this underground purgatory with that piece of meat.
What to choose?
"Hahaha…"
"If you choose the second one, it's Game Over. A normal person would definitely choose the first one, right?"
"When a person dies, there is nothing left. When a person dies, there is no point in saying anything."
In the blink of an eye, countless thoughts flashed through Li Qing's mind.
He even planned out the life-saving measures he should take after returning to the ground:
"Even if I lead that piece of meat back to the ground, I will probably have a hard time surviving with the little blood I have left, but..."
"But there's still Giorno Giovanna, right?"
"That idiot will definitely save me subconsciously. As long as I'm ruthless and use him as bait, I can still survive even with my low health."
"The first path is such an easy and convenient way to survive!"
"but…"
Li Qing's movement to climb up suddenly stopped: "I refuse!"
Maybe it was because of impulse, or maybe it was because of the loss of reason, but Li Qing was unknowingly infected by the overly realistic environment of this game, so that he learned some things from the 13-year-old kid named Giorno that would kill him.
He gave up escaping and chose to stay.
"If you call yourself a high-level player, you shouldn't let your teammates bear the consequences of your mistakes!"
"It's just one life..."
"It's just a game, haha... maybe I can be resurrected after I die, right?"
A complicated smile appeared on Li Qing's lips.
He slowly loosened his hands that were clinging to the rock wall, preparing to throw himself into the endless lava.
“Although the game time is only half a day, I have to say…”
“This is such a good game!”
"Hello!"
"Climb up, here I come!"
At the moment when Li Qing typed GG with a smile, a slightly hurried voice suddenly brought his consciousness back from this purgatory.
This is Giorno's voice.
"What?!"
Li Qing's face froze, and he was shocked:
He had been paying attention to the "water level" of the magma and the position of the meat below him, and did not notice at all... Giorno had climbed down from the ground at some point!
"Why are you here? Are you looking for death?"
Sensing Giorno who was less than five meters above him, Li Qing's tone of voice changed with anger.
"I saw your damaged blood bar."
"You need help, don't you?"
Giorno's slightly rough voice came from above his head. Obviously, he had felt the burning air in the lava well.
Li Qing could also hear from the sound that Giorno was getting closer and closer to him.
"Don't go any further, the air down there is even hotter!"
"Even my digitized body can't hold up. If you climb down again, you will die!"
Li Qing yelled in annoyance.
But Giorno came down anyway.
The lava is rising, but Giorno and his Golden Experience are climbing down:
"Li Qing, you are already a companion I recognize."
"I, Giorno Giovanna, will never give up on my friends!"
"Wood big wood big wood big wood big!"
A brilliant golden fist shadow bloomed in this lava well, and its light was even brighter than the magma that contained infinite light and heat.
The fist hit the rock wall.
Golden Experience first punched the mud on the rock wall fiercely, and then, like a naughty child playing with his friends, it splashed the soft mud that it had beaten into mud onto Li Qing.
"What...what are you doing?"
Li Qing was stunned and confused.
Then, he immediately discovered that the mud splashed on him by the golden experience seemed to come alive:
They continued to grow, deform, and connect with each other to form one. In just a short moment, they covered Li Qing's entire body with a layer of strange "armor".
At this time, Li Qing noticed...
Giorno and Golden Experience's silhouettes are slightly different than usual, and they seem to be wearing the same "armor" as themselves.
“This is stony coral.”
Giorno is just a mortal, and his voice trembles in this scorching furnace:
"This coral has a natural foam structure with lots of tiny cavities in its body - even if they die in the heat, this foam structure of calcium carbonate will be preserved forever."
“Then it’s just the simple principle of foam insulation.”
"The thermal conductivity of air is very low when it is not flowing, so it can temporarily help us block the burning of high-temperature air."
"Although it can't last for a few seconds, this is enough."
"Let's go..."
Giorno extended his hand to Li Qing:
"Let's survive together!"
