48 Hours a Day

Soon after, the three of them left Monaco and arrived in Nice, a beautiful coastal city located in southeastern France.

Zhang Heng used the free time to check on his character panel briefly.

Name: Zhang Heng

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Player ID: 07958

Rounds played: 5

Current game points: 659

Items in possession: Infinite Building Block (B), Weather Marbles (C), Filter Lens (D), Paris Arrow (D), Evil Wall (D), Shadow Key (E), Lucky Rabbit’s Foot (E), Betty’s Shell (E ), Hunter’s Blessing (F), Water-soluble Metal (F)

Skills: Sailing (Level 3), Swordsmanship (Level 3), Language proficiency (Level 2)— Eight languages at general communications level, LEGO assembly (Level2), Archery (Level 2), Wilderness survival (Level 2), Driving (Level 2), Car tuning and repairing (level 2), Marksmanship (Level 2), Aerospace (Level 1), Piano (Level 1), Skiing (Level 1), Rock climbing (Level 1)

Assessment: Player is a LEGO master, with slightly better luck than most people, and has a higher chance of encountering enemies. He’s protected from shadows, storms, and evil thoughts, and can predict and change the weather of a particular area. In addition to extensive sailing experience, the player is also skilled at handling knives, arrows, and firearms. Player can drive cars, fly aircraft, spacecraft, and other vehicles. He is also able to adapt to the wilderness, and with his abundant skill reserves and excellent combat effectiveness, he stands out among players. Even though the new year had passed, Zhang Heng’s birthday was a month awayexplaining why he was listed as 19-years-old on the character panel. At the beginning of the fifth game, Zhang Heng had 695 game points. Then, in the Apollo Training camp, he earned another 154 points but spent some of it to identify several items. After that, when he removed the Leviathan’s egg from Peng Jiating’s body, he used up 100 points. After identifying the Infinite Building Block and exchanging 50 points with the central bank, he was left with 659 points.

In terms of accessories, he had added the Infinite Building Block, Weather Marble, Filter Lens, and Water-soluble Metal to his collection. Right now, though, Zhang Heng’s problem was no longer a shortage of game items, but an over-abundance of them, thereby cluttering up his pockets. Thank goodness most of them did not take up much space. Except for the Paris Arrow, everything else could be pocketed. If new game items were to keep coming in, he would have to give up some of them.

Similar to sailing, his engineering skills, aerodynamics, physics, and material sciences were all compounded into ‘aerospace skills.’ When he successfully piloted the lunar module, his aerospace skills had been upgraded to Level 2, but he was too focused on the task at hand to notice it then. The only thing was, this skill wasn’t exactly handy for everyday use. On top of that, he had also gone from “worthy of continuous attention” to “stands out.”

Zhang Heng’s brows furrowed. As the game progressed, he seemed to be encountering an increasing number of supernatural beings and wondered if this was in any way related to his evaluation. He couldn’t tell if it was a good or a bad thing, now that more eyes were on him.

On the other hand, Philip and Waldo finally got in touch with their team and briefly explained the situation. About fifteen minutes later, they received a reply from the other side.

Philip hung up the phone and said to Zhang Heng, “The rest of the team agree that you can join us, but…”

“But?” Zhang Heng cocked an eyebrow.

“But you must prove that you’re here to help and that you’re not our enemy,” said Waldo. “How?”

“I just got the news that one of our friends had been captured. If you can save him, we’ll welcome you to the team.”

“Edward?”

“No, no, no. Not Edward. Edward has enough experience to take care of himself. It’s another one of our friends.”

“Where is he?”

“Rodez.”

Zhang Heng looked at Philip, straight-faced. Although he knew France to a certain extent, it was limited to well-known cities like Paris, Marseille, and Lyon.

“Ah… Rodez is in the Pyrenees region. It’s the capital of Aveyron in the south. It’s quite far from here,” Philip explained.

“We’d better get there by train or plane… do you need to rest before that? It’s nearly eleven now. We can leave tomorrow morning,” Waldo said. “Oh, I can book us a hotel online-I’m an Accor member, and I still have some coupons,” Philip added. He then took out his phone and began to search for the nearest Accor hotels before booking two rooms and a suite specifically for Zhang Heng. Upon arrival, Philip and Waldo dragged their luggage into their room, then popped out to smile at Zhang Heng.

“Good night. We have a lot to do tomorrow. Better get to bed early,” Waldo added.

Just as Waldo was about to shut the door, Zhang Heng blocked it with his hand.

“You guys are in the wrong room.” “Haha, Luke, you’re too courteous. The suite is yours. This double bedroom is enough for us.”

“No, we’ll sleep together,” Zhang Heng said.

“Together?” Waldo looked surprised.

“The bed in the suite is large enough for two. The both of you can sleep in it, and I’ll sleep on the couch,” Zhang Heng replied.

“Ah, that won’t do,” Waldo scratched his head, “You are our guest. How can we make you sleep on the couch…”

Zhang Heng nodded, “You’re right…”

Waldo and Philip looked pleased, but what Zhang Heng said next dragged the corners of their mouths down.

“Then, you can sleep on the couch. Philip and I will sleep on the bed,” Zhang Heng went on.

“Huh?” Waldo grimaced, saying, “Seriously? I don’t want to sleep on the couch, either.”

There was no way Zhang Heng was going to let Waldo and Philip share the same room while he slept in a separate room. Sure, the suite was comfortable, but Zhang Heng was certain that the two would slip away in the wee hours of the morning. Especially since there was a living room in the suite, it was going to be even more difficult for Zhang Heng to hear movements in the corridor.

But it was alright if Waldo slept in the living room. He just needed one of them to keep feeding him with clues. Moreover, Zhang Heng noticed that the guy was pretty loyal. If Zhang Heng had Philip with him, there was no way Waldo would run away on his own.

In the end, Waldo spent the night on the couch, and when he woke up, he immediately regretted his decision because now, his back ached like it never ached before.