48 Hours a Day

“Cool, we’ve now recruited Vandal King into our team. I felt like our chances of winning have significantly increased,” the waiter said. “This guy is a beast… well, although he’s gotten a little fleshy now, he’s still a beast with some extra flesh! He was the one who made all the master builders run around to fix his crimes.”

“You think too highly of me,” The Vandal King shook his head. “After all, I haven’t taken apart things for many years. I’ve inevitably become rusty, and now, I’m probably less than 60% of what I was during my heyday. The old me would have never taken half a minute to tear down that mechanical spider.”

“Hahahaha, I like this guy, he can brag,” the waiter patted Vandal King on the shoulder. “Yes, I can feel that he’s starting to integrate into our team and become a part of us.”

“Now, we only have one thing left.”

The bald man wore a grave look on his face.

“What’s up?”

“It is time to give our team a cool name. Otherwise, when we meet our enemy, and they ask who we are, we will lose our momentum once we tell them our name one after the other.”

“Wow, are you talking about names like the Avengers or Task Force X?”

The waiter became interested all of a sudden.

“Don’t forget that there are also names like Watchmen and the Justice League. And yes. It’s something like that,” said the bald man.

“This is indeed a significant issue so… let me think… how about the Builders? I don’t know. It sounds like we work at a construction site or something. Or we should call ourselves Defeating Evil Scientist By Closing Space Portal And Extracting Infinite Building Block From Quantum Collider And Returning Smart Toilet Seat To Save the City And Action Team. I think this name perfectly explains what we have done to save the city. But it seems a bit too long…”

“Or perhaps we call ourselves Vandal King And His Little Team…” Vandal King proposed.

“I think the name is still open for discussion. What about Messenger? What do you think?”

Messenger: “…”

“Well, I don’t think we can call ourselves the Ellipsis Team,” said the waiter while scratching his head. “Although I somewhat like that name.”

To get rid of Evil Scientist’s bionics, all five didn’t go back to the hotel. Instead, they found a space and built a house right on the spot, even installing alarm and defense systems around it. There, they would spend their last 24 hours in preparation for the upcoming decisive battle.

The bald man and the waiter were still arguing in the living room about what to name the team. At the same time, Zhang Heng and Mei Nan were drinking black tea on the balcony on the second floor, relaxing and enjoying their limited time before the war.

“I don’t think I wished you Happy New Year,” said Mei Nan.

“Eh?”

“But it shouldn’t be too late. It should be just a few minutes past twelve in the real world, after all, and I want to say thank you. I thought I would be spending the Spring Festival alone. At a time like this, the street is empty, and the shops are closed. I don’t know what I can do. Besides, I’ve been a little down, but I’m feeling better now. I forget my sadness every time there’s something for me to do. Not to mention there are those three fools downstairs. Seems like a good way to celebrate the Spring Festival.”

Seeing that Zhang Heng was about to say something, she shook her head. “…no, there is an agreement between us. If you don’t ask me why I didn’t go home, I won’t ask how you managed to improve your LEGO assembly skills to such a high level in such a short time. Besides, how did you even know so many hidden secrets in this quest? Each of us has that secret we can never tell others, right?”

“Sounds fair enough, do you want some cookies?”

“Of course, I want Blueberry or Matcha flavor. Can I?”

Zhang Heng peeled off one of the corners of the table and skillfully put together into a cookie.

“Well, though I have accepted that your LEGO assembly skills are off the chart, I have to admit that it still feels a bit weird watching you fashion food out of nothing…” Mei Nan picked up one and put it in her mouth, “…uh-huh, it tastes unexpectedly good, and considering how we just ate steak made out of a radio just two days ago, I think I can give these seven points.”

“Where are the remaining three points?”

“I can’t help but think of the missing table corner when I ate the cookie. I’m worried that I might have accidentally eaten sawdust.”

“I’ll pay more attention next time,” Zhang Heng said.

“No, I still want to know where the food that I eat came from. If you don’t let me see it, I will start thinking about some other worst-case scenario.”

Mei Nan finished the cookie in his hand. She paused, and whispered, “Fan.”

“My surname is Fan, and my full name is Fan Meinan. Anyway, you already know something that I would never share with anyone. I thought I’d better be more generous.”

While the two were talking, the bald man and the waiter rushed upstairs, followed by Vandal King

The three looked serious.

“We now face the biggest crisis since the establishment of the team!”

“Yeah, we’ve been discussing this for a long time, but we still can’t determine the name of the team. None of us can convince anyone, so we need you to vote. We’ve come up with three names for our team up to this point. Movers, Demon Squad, and Vandal King And His Friends. These three names now have one vote each, and Messenger has abstained from voting, so please use your voting power carefully, because your vote will be decisive!”

“Or we can call ourselves the New Year’s Eve Game Team.” Zhang Heng said.

“New Year’s Eve? What New Year’s Eve? It’s only September now. Uhh… is this a sequel to of your awakening? Any damage to your cerebral cortex? Is this permanent?”

Fan Meinan nodded in agreement. “I like this name so very much. It’s so Chinese New Year-ish. Two votes, so let’s set it as our team’s name according to the rules.”

“Wait… I didn’t know that brain damage could be contagious. Confused about the dates as well? Are we really going to use this name five months in advance? We are three months away from the New Year! Oh my goodness… can you imagine a scene like this? Before the war, we stood in front of the enemy and announced each other’s names. The moment we say that we are New Year’s Eve Game Team, our opponent would definitely spare no expanse in criticism. I might even get a debuff that halves my combat power…”

“Don’t overthink about the opinions of others. Just do whatever you are supposed to do,” Zhang Heng replied as he patted the bald man on the shoulder. “Rest early; we have an important battle tomorrow.”

“No, I will continue to design the action badge, but this time it’ll be easier. I guess I’ll just have to find a bunch of Fu and put it on everyone’s backs to complete the task,” the bald man complained. “I don’t know. People might think that we are Fuwa.”