48 Hours a Day

At a moment where life hung in limbo, Zhang Heng carried Ma Wei’s imposter and ran as fast as he could. To his surprise, she was a lot lighter than he thought, weighing less than a hundred pounds. It certainly didn’t match her height. However, this wasn’t the pressing issue right now. Placing her on his shoulders, he started running toward the exit. Though he was carrying someone on him, he was still a lot faster than her when she ran.

Zhang Heng’s persistent training had given him an edge when it came to stamina, and instead of letting the woman run on her own, he figured they would be a lot quicker if he just carried her. With swift hands, he unlocked the gate within seconds. While they ran, the woman was so terrified that she almost vomited. She then started sobbing like a little child.

“You tricked me! You used me as bait to attract the creature’s attention. You even planned to get away without me, right?”

“I’m sorry. That was my item’s effect. I technically needed somebody to distract the thing while I was unlocking the gate.”

In desperation, Zhang Heng couldn’t figure out a better way to free himself other than using his Shadow Moment. Once he entered shadow form, he was able to escape his physical boundaries and ditch the concrete that had smothered him. However, it would take some time before returning as a human once he entered the shadow form, and could only watch as the woman was chased by the creature. There really was nothing he could do at that time.

Zhang Heng could have easily left her behind and move through the gate in his shadow form, the safest way for him to escape the field. However, he remembered that she had actually risked her life in an attempt to rescue him earlier. Thanks to her selfless act, Zhang Heng was willing to risk his own life to save her as well.

Of course, the woman had to hang on for three minutes until Zhang Heng’s shadow form expired. If she failed to do so, Zhang Heng would have left the place by himself. In other words, the woman had helped herself to survive the monster’s deathly grip.

After a while, Zhang Heng stopped to rest. His heart thumped so rapidly that a break was necessary if he didn’t want to collapse. The woman, on the other hand, had no intention getting off him. All she did was change positions on his shoulders and clung on tightly like a koala. He knew that virtually all her stamina had been spent trying to run away from the monster. Hence, he did not force her to get down. Suddenly, Zhang Heng felt a sharp pain stabbing his shoulder. “Oy! Can you stay put? We are still trying to get away from that creature!”

Ma Wei’s imposter harrumphed and removed her teeth unwillingly from Zhang Heng’s shoulder as she stared at her bite mark in satisfaction.

“I know that we’re running away from the monster. However, my grudges against you will never be settled if I don’t leave a mark!”

Satisfied after doing whatever she longed to do, the woman moved her attention back to the more pressing matter at hand.

“So… what the hell is that thing?”

“I have no bloody idea.”

e

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“You have no idea, huh? Whatever the thing was, you were clearly the target.”

Without having to spend any energy running from the monster, the woman think straight. Now that she carefully put some thought into it, she came up with a rather interesting conclusion.

“I’ve crossed paths with this creature once. I rescued a little kid from being its meal. Maybe, that’s why it’s targeting me.”

Zhang Heng paused for a while before continuing

“What do you mean when you said ‘its weakness’ just now?”

“Are you a new player? With your strength and stamina, you don’t seem new to me. Things like these are not secrets and most experienced players should already know. Usually, supernatural beings like these have a weakness. Once we find out what it is, we’ll just need to focus on it. Technically, even a mighty monster could be killed by a child if its weakness is exposed.”

“Weakness? Something like an Achilles Heel?”

“That’s right. We need to figure out its origins or lore before we deal with it. Sometimes their weaknesses are hidden in stories passed down from generation to generation.”

“Apart from that?”

After learning his lesson from Tapio, God of Forest, and the Lucky Rabbit Foot, Zhang Heng went online in search for information of a wall that could eat people up. Unfortunately, he found nothing particularly useful. There wasn’t any time for that now, considering they were practically knocking on death’s door.

“Usually, the most effective method to deal with most monsters is to use brute force. However… I’m not too sure about this one. Perhaps it needs to engulf you before you can start bludgeoning it to death.”

Zhang Heng knew a method like that was most probably useless against it because this creature could freely change its form. In other words, this was going to be an extremely foolhardy monster for them to defeat. While he ran, Zhang Heng tried his best to stay away from all the walls that he passed by. However, the entire city was made out of concrete, making it the best place for the monster to hunt. All it needed to do was to slip from one wall to another. It would be almost impossible to locate and destroy it. As the topic of the creature’s weakness was in discussion, Zhang Heng suddenly thought of something. Before he could say anything, though, he came across someone he knew.

Zhang Heng chose not to run on the main road because there were too many buildings around it, besides not wanting to endanger its inhabitants. So, he carried the woman and ran past a little garden located northeast of the field. The place was a favorite for pleasant and relaxing strolls, especially true for couples that were in love. Now that most students had returned to their respective hometowns, and considering it was already ten at night, Zhang Heng didn’t expect to meet someone he knew here.

It was Shen Xixi, the girl who broke up with him not too long ago. It seemed as if something was bothering her tonight, and Zhang Heng was surprised to see that she hadn’t yet returned to her dorm. Shen Xixi stood up from the bench near the lake the moment she heard rapid footsteps approaching. She too was surprised to see Zhang Heng. However, seconds after that, she heard Ma Wei’s imposter shouting at her.

“Run! Run!”

Naturally, Shen Xixi was baffled by the desperate cries. However, when she saw the black liquid chasing them from behind, she felt excited. At first, Zhang Heng thought that Shen Xixi would ask him a ton of questions about the strange thing behind him because that was what ordinary people would do. Instead, she decided to heed the advice to run.

Only after Shen Xixi had caught up with them did she bombard Zhang Heng with questions.

“Where did you guys find that thing? Have you seen its attack? Did it have something to do with the wall?!”