48 Hours a Day

Accompanied by a shrill shriek, the flames instantly engulfed the monster. Its burning body had stopped the people at the back from advancing. Zhang Heng took advantage of the rare opportunity, putting the rifle back into his backpack, and running toward the other side of the corridor.

There, Fabericotte had hooked the window edge with the claw hook. He was climbing down the wall slowly with both his hands grabbing the ropes tightly. When he raised his head, he saw Zhang Heng climbing out the window.

That man was so agile that he managed to climb to Fabericitte without using any ropes.

Zhang Heng looked at the group of monsters below him who were still calling out to their companions with those strange syllables. He then said to a still hesitating Fabericotte, “You’d better hurry up because I will not wait for you if the situation goes downhill.”

Wearing his backpack in front of him, Zhang Heng bent his calf slightly, exerted maximum force, and leaped to the roof opposite him. With the backpack acting as a buffer, it helped him to significantly reduce the impact of the fall.

Unavoidably, some of the items inside were damaged. When Zhang Heng checked the two Molotov cocktails inside of the backpack, he found it to be broken, though he had made very sure it was well protected.

After hearing what Zhang Heng said, Fabericotee did not dare to wait any longer. He did not have the explosive energy and excellent balance that Zhang Heng possessed. Fortunately, he could fully utilize the rope. He held on tight, and like Zhang Heng, kicked the wall hard. After three kicks, he felt that he now had enough strength to leap over to the roof opposite of him. So, with a final, decisive swing, he released the rope in his hand.

In the end, Fabericotte successfully landed on the roof, but he was not as fortunate as Zhang Heng.

He landed back-first, and his landing point happened to be a weak spot. The building had been left unmaintained for so many years, after all, and as a result, he fell right through.

Seeing that Fabericotte was about to fall through the roof of the abandoned house, Zhang Heng quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him up.

“Thank you!” Fabericotte exclaimed in shock, his breaths heavy and his eyes bulging.

“Keep up.”

The black shadows that initially gathered in front of the Gilman Hostel rushed to the side upon hearing their companions’ hail. Simultaneously, the people in the hostel seemed to have crossed the line of fire Zhang Heng created. Poking their heads out the window, they frantically looked for the two escaped men. Some of the more impatient ones even attempted to jump to the roof to pursue them.

Two monsters managed to jump on the roof. Unfortunately, one fell into the hole that Fabericotee created, and the other lost his balance when he landed, swiftly kicked off the roof by Zhang Heng.

“Here.” Zhang Heng took a quick glance around and decided to move towards the swamp.

Other than the fact that there were fewer people there, it had a more complicated terrain. To get there, they had to pass through a small area of buildings first.

“More and more seem to be coming after us!” Faberricotte yelled in panic as he ran. He also saw a figure with a golden crown in the crowd. That one had emerged from the church.

Immediately, an indescribable sensation of intense discomfort emerged in Fabericotte’s heart. He looked away as fast as he could and followed Zhang Heng to the next roof, unable to help himself from spotting those hideous beings whenever he ran. Unfortunately, they could not stay on the roof all the time. With the increasing gap between buildings, they couldn’t keep making more leaps.

Fabericotte then saw Zhang Heng changing direction and jumping off the roof. It happened that five half-human half-fish monsters were blocking them. The moment he saw them, his heart started thumping violently.

After that, he saw Zhang Heng fell on one of the monsters, stabbing its head with the chef’s knife in his hand. It was a clean kill. The four other monsters began giving chase as Zhang Heng pulled out the rifle from his backpack. Immediately, he drew two revolvers from his waist.

Having a greatly enhanced shooting and drawing speed thanks to the Western dungeon he was in, it now took him less than a second to draw the gun and pull the trigger. And like their companion, the four monsters soon ended up dead.

If it were not for the enemies nearby, Fabericotte would have screamed his lungs out.

When he first saw the hostel’s monsters, he had a strong premonition that he was no match for them. He just wanted to turn around and escape, and he had never thought that there would be someone mighty enough to go against these creatures. For Zhang Heng, on the other hand, he seemed to have exerted little strength although he had just killed five monsters.

“Come down.” Zhang Heng put away the revolvers, walked to the first monster that he killed, pulled out the chef’s knife, and wiped the blood on the monster’s body.

“What next?” Fabericotee asked as he climbed down the roof.

Unbeknownst to him, his apprehension and distrust of Zhang Heng had now switched to seeking his opinion no matter what he did. Fabericotte himself did not realize that he had now become dependent on Zhang Heng. As long as it wasn’t something insane, he would follow and do whatever he suggested.

It was a shame that there was no time to ask him about the town now. Hence, the two continued running towards the swamp.

Admittedly, Zhang Heng’s chosen route was very strategic. They did not encounter any large group of monsters along the way, where the scattered ones were quickly killed off by Zhang Heng as soon as they were in his sights. On the other hand, Fabericotte ran as fast as his legs could keep up.

Due to his passion for travel and adventure, he was a rather fit man than his peers. However, he realized that he failed to outrun those half-fish and frog monsters.

Fabericotte could feel that more and more enemies were chasing after him. They were speaking in a language that did not belong to any race on this earth, and the fishy smell was getting more pungent as well. As the slapping and splotting of their webbed feet got louder and louder, it reminded him that the enemies were getting closer.

But the good news was that they were about to leave this area and arrive at the swamp.

Zhang Heng then lit his last homemade Molotov cocktail in his hand, managing to delay the enemies’ pursuit once again. The weeds and shrubs of the swamp provided a good cover.

After Fabericotte ran into the swamp, he saw Zhang Heng in a crouching position, attempting to hide behind the tall grass. He quickly did the same too. Before they could run far, however, they heard the strange sound again, accompanied by crunching and rustling from stepping on the weeds. This also meant that those monsters hadn’t yet given up on searching for them. In fact, they had followed them into the swamp.

The worst part was that the two parties were getting closer a lot faster than when they were in the city.