48 Hours a Day

Chapter 1013: Explosion And Fire

0 looked at the unrecognizable room 936 in front of him that was bombed. All the furniture inside had been decimated, the halved bed frame was still burning, and the windows were blown to pieces at the moment of the explosion. In the wall was also a gaping hole, of which the wind came pouring in.

The central point of the explosion collapsed half of the roof, and under the pile of cement and bricks were broken exoskeleton equipment, with some of its parts and components blown out of the room. To be cautious, 0 wouldn't let any of his men open the door. Instead, he did the same thing that Zhang Heng did, and that was to find himself a little white mouse before the explosion to explore the way ahead of him. However, 0 employed more straightforward methods, not even bothering to tell the person that he was a policeman. All he did was point his gun at a hotel guest to make him open the door.

Needless to say, this unfortunate hotel guest was the first to bear the grunt of the explosion. He was engulfed by a wall of searing flames the moment he opened the door. Moments later, he fell to the ground and stopped breathing. Even No.5, standing about seven or eight meters away from him, suffered the effects of the explosion.

And now No.2 and No.7 were busy dealing with No.5's shoulder and chest injuries. A finger-sized piece of metal shrapnel had struck No.5's right shoulder, eventually getting lodged in his shoulder blade. No.5 was now biting his shirt hard, watching No.2 gouge out the shrapnel from his shoulder. After that, No.7, on the other side, quickly disinfected the wounds, stitched, and sprayed on some medical gel. The whole procedure was so perfectly executed that they could easily be compared to hospital surgeons. These were all thanks to the emergency surgical knowledge incorporated into their memory.

Meanwhile, 0, on the other side, had walked over the corpse in front of Room 936 and entered it.

He looked around for a while before his gaze landed on the rubble. He spotted a blackened arm poking out from under mangled steel bars and some twisted metal upper limbs. 0 looked at it for about two seconds, then moved to another spot. No other corpses were in the room, proven by the explosion at the scene. Looking at the damage caused by the explosion, 0 deduced that the blast should've been caused by a meltdown of the exoskeleton's power core. Only one power core, however, had been detonated. Room 936 would've collapsed completely otherwise.

0 quickly realized that he had been tricked.

In room 936, a special operations team member decided to leave his team after his exoskeleton suffered severe damage, the reason why he chose to stay here and make his death worthwhile. 0 never considered this possibility before. He could see what Zhang Heng spotted on the wall but quickly noticed that the oil stains had been cleaned by some stain remover. Hence, his speculation was shaken.

If Room 936 was a death trap, then the person who set the trap had no reason to conceal his traces outside the room. That was because the other party's purpose was to attract someone to take the bait. Zhang Heng had also taken away the hotel staff, who happened to be the most important witness. That caused 0 to make a wrong judgment.

This was also 0's second time making a wrong judgment. This time, his wrong decision caused No.5 to be injured by the explosion. Although the injuries were not life-threatening, the latter's right arm would be out of service tonight.

Alas, a rare rumble of rage ignited in 0's heart. He had figured out the person that wiped away the stains on the wall. Although the special operations team members were disciplined and unafraid of death, they weren't capable of coming up with such a plan. There was only one person who could pull off such a move.

And that person was Zhang Heng.

Zhang Heng got here one step ahead of them, and he deliberately sabotaged the scene to cloud 0's judgment. 0's patience was almost exhausted, and he did not want to play the game with Zhang Heng anymore. He then turned around and asked No.2 beside him, "Is the thing I want here yet?"

The latter nodded.

"It's already installed on the elevator."

"Very well. Since they like to hide so much, let's allow them to continue hiding," 0 sneered.

…

Zhang Heng was the first to smell that strange smell in the air. After a quick sniff, he confirmed that it was the smell of gasoline. Immediately, he realized what 0 wanted to do. He was going to destroy the floor that they were on.

To be honest, Zhang Heng did not expect that after he tricked the emergency response team on the ninth floor, he would make 0 give up his search plan. Of course, 0 never made such a decision out of anger. Someone like him would never let his emotions cloud his judgment.

0 had actually made such a decision because both the special operations team and Zhang Heng were one step ahead of him, and they must've made all necessary preparations. Also, the emergency response team that arrived last would be the most passive.

With 0's plan to burn down the floor, he would force the special operations team and Zhang Heng out from hiding. After that, the emergency response team would be able to regain control of the situation.

This plan, however, wasn't without its price. Other than the special operations team and Zhang Heng, there were also other guests on the twelfth floor. Although it wasn't a large number, once the fire started, it would inevitably affect the innocent. That said, such a problem was something for the federal police downstairs to deal with.

0 proceeded to block the elevator and another safe passage before igniting the gasoline on the ground with a lighter. When they were about to retreat into another safe passage, something unexpected happened.

A figure wearing an exoskeleton suddenly emerged from 0's right. Holding a rifle, the person started shooting at the four emergency response team members. Following that, another exoskeleton abruptly appeared on No. 0's left side, partnering up with its ally to shoot at the four emergency response team members.

0 reacted to the attack immediately, rolling sideways into the safe passage, avoiding the first wave of bullets. After that, No.2 and No.5, who were behind him, also began to fire back. Both sides were fighting fiercely in the corridor. In the meantime, the fire that 0 ignited earlier had begun to spread. Eventually, it triggered the hotel's smoke alarm.

The emergency response teams' marksmanship was clearly better than the two exoskeleton fighters, but the exoskeletons withstood the bullets with ease, leaving no injuries on their bearer except for a spark. After that, No.7 picked up a sniper rifle and aimed at the control panel of one of the exoskeleton fighters.

Right before he pulled the trigger, the other party retreated into the room.