48 Hours a Day

Varo felt like a spectator in the arena’s best seat.

Both battles were singlehandedly won by Zhang Heng singlehandedly. And at the same time, he managed to end the battle relatively quickly. Compared with the first round of the battle that ended almost instantly, the second rounds’ opponents were more cautious when they found out Zhang Heng and Varo was the first team that claimed the victory in the first round of the fight.

However, the opponents still could not do anything about Zhang Heng even though they knew he was mighty. The gap of strength between the two parties was simply too broad. Staying cautious would not change the fact that they would lose. Zhang Heng even conserved some of his strength to let Varo participate in the battle. Otherwise, Varo was no different from another spectator.

Even so, the fight did not last long. Shortly after that, Varo found out that they had claimed two consecutive victories. On the other side, the most popular pair of gladiators were still fighting with their opponents.

After the unexpected victory in the first round, more and more audiences began to pay attention to Zhang Heng and Varo. However, technically, most paid their attention only to Zhang Heng. After discovering that they won the fight easily in the second round of the battle, the audience was left in shock, and they began to talk about Zhang Heng’s origins.

Such an outcome had caused a lot of frustrations to Mark Reuss. The gladiator school did not anticipate that the audience would pay so much attention to Zhang Heng and were unprepared to handle the curiosity. In the end, the curious spectators found the answer that they were seeking from the previous battle schedule.

And the battle on Nasika’s side had finally come to an end. The judge ruled that his opponent could no longer fight. For the first time, the audience understood why they lost the battle. Hence, they did not ask the arena to execute them. Instead, they were sent for treatment.

And the other reason was that everyone was eager to watch Nasika’s team against Zhang Heng’s team.

The former was the star of the Victor Arena and had many supporters, while the latter was the rookie that stood and fought in this arena for the first time. No one had seen his gladiatorial performance before. To the audience, he was a man shrouded with mystery.

Within five minutes, Zhang Heng managed to claim two consecutive victories. And he finally gained his first batch of fans. Among them, most of them were women, especially the noble ladies. They seemed to be very interested in this dark-haired, dark-eyed, exotic oriental man.

And now, these new “fans” of Zhang Heng had begun to cheer for him. And some of them were virtuous and gentle ladies that could be seen on the street and at home. But now, they had changed into completely different people. They rolled up their sleeves and started to ‘greet’ Zhang Heng’s opponent, Nasika, with vulgar words.

Zhang Heng now knew the importance of a gladiatorial show to the Romans. It was said that when Sethnets’s popularity reached its peak, the audience was a hundred times crazier than it was now. It was no wonder Mark Reuss was so desperate to seek out the next Sethnets.

And now, the owner of the gladiator school was also looking at Zhang Heng enthusiastically. He was different from Gaby. Many people said that he was a cruel and unrelenting man, but this was not true. Mark Reuss only treated the people that had no value to him cruelly. On the other hand, he was always good to the people that could earn him a lot of money.

Gaby might have felt unhappy by the fact that Zhang Heng concealed his strength earlier. Mark Reuss, however, did not share the same sentiments. Just like when he found out that his daughter had an affair with Sethnets, he pretended not to know instead of reprimanding the man.

Those that did not know him well would think that Mark Reuss was a forgiving person. But Gaby, who had worked for Mark Reuss for decades, knew many things that other people did not know. After Sethnets announced his plan to retire, the gladiator school started to plan his final battle. At that time, Mark Reuss asked Gaby privately whether to let Sethnets survived from the battle to preserve his legendary status or let him die on the battlefield where it could yield Victor Arena higher profit and popularity.

Gaby felt a chill climbed to his spine. Sethnets had made a lot of contributions to the Victor Arena in recent years and made a lot of money for Mark Reuss. But Mark Reuss disregarded all of his contributions. All he could think of was profit as always.

This was the true Mark Reuss, a man that placed profit about everything else.

That was why he was so pleased to see Zhang Heng fighting well. His mysterious origin could make him a lot of money later on.

So, why hadn’t Mark Reuss noticed it? The answer was simple. It was because the gladiatorial performance was just a packaging process for the gladiators. In the end, the gladiators’ strength was the one that determined everything. Without strength, there would be no packaging. With good packaging and strength, though, a star gladiator would be born.

When Mark Reuss was still thinking about how to package Zhang Heng, the battle on the other side had already begun.

When Nasika saw Varo and Zhang Heng, he was surprised and delighted. When he found out that he did not fight them in the first round of the battle, he thought that he would never have the chance to teach the two new arrogant newcomers a good lesson. And now his chance was here. However, when he heard the judge saying that they were the only two winning teams left, he noticed something amiss.

Nasika was not stupid. He quickly realized that these two rookies might have concealed their true strengths. The ability to win two consecutive battles in such a short period of time had proven quite a few things. Not even he could achieve such an unbelievable feat. However, Nasika was not too worried because he was pretty confident in his strength.

The combat experience he accumulated over the years he fought in the Victor Arena was something they did not have.

Just when he was thinking about how to win this fight, he was surprised to hear Zhang Heng taking the initiative to speak to him. The latter asked, “Are you ready?”

“What do you mean by that?” Nasika asked subconsciously.

However, Zhang Heng did not answer him this time. He just said, “Don’t worry, it will be over soon.”

After speaking, Zhang Heng made the first move. On the other hand, Nasika did not mind checking Zhang Heng’s strength and abilities first. So, he raised his big shield in his left hand to put on a defensive posture.

And this move would also become a decision he would regret the most in this battle.

He did not expect that this would also become the only decision he could make in this battle.

In a matter of seconds, Zhang Heng dashed forward and was already in front of Nasika. This time Zhang Heng used the Battōjutsu he learned in the Bakumatusu dungeon. He fused all his strength and aura into this strike. There was nothing fancy about it. When his sword came in contact with Nasika’s shield, Nasika felt that he would not block this attack.

Nasika was horrified. One should know that his strength was excellent. Even Sethnets would not be able to defeat him at this point. However, Bach might be able to compete with him in terms of strength. Logically speaking, Zhang Heng should not be stronger than him. However, he did not know why he could not play this match to his advantage even though he had the upper hand in strength.

And all of this was just the beginning. Soon, Zhang Heng unleashed his second strike, followed by the third slash, the fourth slash… From the start to the end, Zhang Heng only did one thing in this battle.

And that was constantly slashing at Nasika’s shield.

Nasika barely managed to protect himself from Zhang Heng’s first strike. Having had to use all his strength to fight it off, he could not help but retreat. In the end, he was forced to toss away his short sword. He had to use both of his hands to hold the shield. But no matter what he did, he felt like he was sitting in a small boat in the stormy sea, unable to withstand the terrifying pressure that Zhang Heng exerted on him. All of his struggles were are useless.

Nasika even started to doubt the strength that he was once proud of.

After a while, his hands went numb, and his legs were weak. He could no longer hold the shield. So, he dropped it. And he saw a white light flashed in front of him. Nasika had already decided to close his eyes and wait for his death. Suddenly, the unstoppable sword ceased its movement and stopped less than a centimeter from his nose.