48 Hours a Day

Shen Xixi realized how precarious the situation she was in now— Not only because the enemies may have captured the faceless man and Old K, but the barber’s pole’s effect also would not last forever. After 160 seconds, the enemies would regain their freedom, and half of that time had already passed.

Shen Xixi did not intend to waste any more time talking nonsense with the enemies. She looked at Rabbit, and the two approached Xiao Bing together. The latter had no intention to put up a fight, quickly turning around to run instead. At the same time, four more teams appeared at both ends of the road, surrounding Shen Xixi and her allies. After running for a while, Xiao Bing stopped, turned around, and put on a smile. She did not know that the barber’s pole would only work for 160 seconds, running to draw Shen Xixi and Rabbit out of the pole’s area of effect and to prepare for the next battle. However, just when she thought everything was set, a flare suddenly fell in front of her. The intense light made everyone’s eyes on the street close involuntarily. When Xiao Bing opened her eyes again, Shen Xixi and her allies had disappeared. Midnight was finally here.

Thus, began the war between Arc of Light and the union in this urban village.

At the beginning of the battle, most players on the forum had accurately predicted the situation. Arc of Light displayed an overwhelming advantage right from the start. What was really surprising though was Shen Xixi’s strength— The union had collapsed within an hour of the announcement of Horizon’s withdrawal.

According to the statistical analysis from the Arc of Light’s Strategy Department, few were left on Shen Xixi’s team to help her. When the battle began, however, Arc of Light soon discovered that wasn’t the case. They seemed to have sorely underestimated Shen Xixi’s reputation and influence in the union. Not only was Shen Xixi rescued in front of the barbershop, but Xiao Bing also received news that the mysterious force had killed the strike team which captured Old K and the faceless man. But after receiving the news, she was not surprised but rejoiced. For Arc of Light, they were supposed to be undefeated, especially in this battle. Since that was the case, she didn’t mind the slight twists and turns amid the war. Now, she could highlight the importance of the Strategy Department. She could also use this reason to request more funds for the department.

In a hotel room two kilometers away from the urban village, Zhang Heng set up his CS5 on the window sill. And at the same time, he turned on the TV and turned up the volume. He did not intervene right away in the battle happening in the urban village. Besides the fact that he was confident enough that Shen Xixi would not lose the battle so quickly, he also had more pressing matters at hand.

Zhang Heng’s luck was pretty decent tonight. He managed to use the extra 24 hours to locate an Arc of Light frontline commander, obtaining a copy of the battle plan used to deal with the union. Although it was only a simplified version, the execution time, route, and personnel deployment were all recorded. Other than that, Zhang Heng also obtained the latter’s account and password used to login to the internal OA of Light Arc.

However, it seemed the Arc of Light guild had their fair share of computer experts. Zhang Heng tried to hack into the player forum jointly created by the three major guilds, and as expected, it was a failed attempt. With the USB flash drive from the Whistleblower quest, however, the three significant guilds failed to track him down.

The Arc of Light’s internal OA used the same firewalls for the player forum. It was certainly no easy hack, but with the freshly acquired account and password, Zhang Heng could now log in to the system and retrieve more information about the battle that would soon take place.

His first target was a group of elite long-range strike teams. Zhang Heng bought the CS5 with game points from Miss Bartender. It meant Arc of Light could do the same thing as well. And as one the three major guilds, there definitely had some gun masters among their players.

Arc of Light had inittially planned to capture Shen Xixi’s team alive, hence there was no need to deploy long-range weapons. But now, the tables had turned-It turned out that many were still helping Shen Xixi even after the union’s collapse. Arc of Light saw this, and feeling threatened, they wanted to obliterate them entirely.

Besides, they wanted to warn players on the forum to not get involved in this matter. Once these people rushed to the urban village, the fragile balance between would be broken. And Zhang Heng was there to make sure that this would not happen.

Not far away, Zhang Heng saw two black MPVs passing by the traffic lights from his scope. As they sped toward the urban village, two remote-control ground locks suddenly appeared on the road ahead. The driver of the first car did not expect such an obstruction to pop up smack in the middle of the road. He jammed his foot on the brakes and swerved the vehicle in another direction. Though he managed to avoid the poles in front of him, he couldn’t avoid the vehicle barelling in from behind. In the end, the car overturned and rolled twice on the ground.

At the same time, Zhang Heng pulled the trigger.

Reaper was the first name on his list.

The driver of the second car was shot in the head by a bullet that came from nowhere. It caused his right foot to slip off the brake pad, and after rammed into the back of the car in front of it, it skidded to the remote ground locks. Its passengers were tossed around like ragdolls as the vehicle hit the steel poles head on.

The people in the first car suffered the same fate as well. They did not expect an enemy ambush, thinking it must have been a traffic accident. However, the road that they were traveling on was relatively remote. Besides, it was past midnight. There were no other vehicles on the road except for them. When they heard the pettering of bullets on their cars, their question was answered.

The first person who got out of the car fell to the ground before standing up. Blood was splattered all over on the seat. The others quickly realized what had happened-all of them masters of the gun. Naturally, they knew that a sniper was attacking them. So, they promptly unfastened their seat belts and looked for cover.

In less than ten seconds, Arc of Light had lost three more men.

The two six-person teams were now left with only seven members. Fortunately, these ones seemed to be seasoned and experienced fighters. Within a few minutes, they managed to get their hands on their weapons and retreated to the back of the car. They hoped to maintain the stalemate with Zhang Heng until backup arrived.

Of course, Zhang Heng wasn’t about to let that happen. Seeing that all his enemies had retreated to the back of the car, Zhang Heng detonated a canister of tear gas hidden in the dumpster by the roadside.

The pungent chemical concoction irritated their eyes and noses, causing them to cough violently, with tears flowing out from their eyes. The white smoke from the tear gas provided them with a good cover, and they were hopeful once again. If they could take this opportunity to retreat to the closed supermarket behind them, they would no longer have to worry about their lives.

They did not know that Zhang Heng had taken out the Filter Lens from his backpack.