48 Hours a Day

A strange knocking sound came from the center of the hall. At the same time, millions of microscopic ash particles floated everywhere in the air. Fortunately, this was Zhang Heng’s second time coming here. Hence, he was not surprised by his surroundings.

The two security guards beside him showed no expression too, and they did not stop moving after opening the door. They stood on both sides and walked into the hall with him. It seemed like they wanted to stay until the cloning ceremony was completed.

The three of them walked into the hall and stopped before they entered the attack range of the ugly vines. After that, Zhang Heng saw his two companions lying down on the ground with their foreheads pressed against the floor and their legs spread apart, looking like a toad. At the same time, their bodies started to tremble in the same rhythm.

Their trembling frequency coincided with the knocking sound around them. Zhang Heng wondered if this was their way of communicating with the weird alien tree in the middle of the hall. Whether or not it remembered what happened last night, Zhang Heng was not planning to wait any longer. This was his limit. After that, he took out a bottle of blue-green algae.

While the two security guards were still performing their weird ceremony, he opened his handbag silently.

The guards noticed that something was not right with Zhang Heng. One of them raised his head, only to be greeted by a small wrench. Zhang Heng had smashed his forehead, rendering him paralyzed.

These things would hide in the fourth ventricle and pilot the human body, and they were usually in a very safe spot. The bodies they controlled, however, were no different than that of an ordinary human being. In other words, once a heavy blow had been delivered to the brain, they would be unable to pilot the body even though they were still alive.

The second security guard reacted very quickly. After witnessing his companion’s tragic situation, he rolled on the ground and managed to dodge Zhang Heng’s next attack. Immediately, he turned on his walkie-talkie.

Instead of panicking, Zhang Heng quickly blocked the exit to stop the guard from leaving. The moment the guard remembered that the signal could not travel out from this place, it glared at Zhang Heng and asked, “Who are you?”

“Good question. I have been looking for the answer,” Zhang Heng replied.

While talking, he walked to the second guard with a wrench.

The latter took a step back, which brought it closer to the ugly vines’ attack range. The creepers began to move like a shark that had detected blood. The second guard knew he could not move back any further, so he turned to look at Zhang Heng and growled harshly. “You know our secret. No one will let you leave this place alive.”

“I know you never intended to let me go too,” Zhang Heng said calmly, facing the security guard who leaped forward. Immediately, he swung the wrench in his hand, this time managing to hit the opponent’s cheek, smashing his teeth twice. An ordinary person would have been dead on the ground upon receiving such a severe blow and injury. But as long as Zhang Heng failed to attack the enemy’s brain or spine, the creature could still fight.

It was why the guard was still able to move. He stretched out his hand to strangle Zhang Heng’s neck, while Zhang Heng grabbed its collar with his other hand. At the same time, Zhang Heng managed to deliver a second blow to its eye accurately and destroyed it, its blood splattering all over Zhang Heng’s t-shirt. After the attack, the creature had been severely weakened. Zhang Heng immediately delivered the third blow and fourth blow. When he finally let go of the wrench, the guard’s head had already been unrecognizably deformed. There was no way he could continue his choke-hold.

Zhang Heng wiped the blood off his face. With such a brutal attack, the alien hidden in the fourth ventricle was probably squashed. Then, a system notification came in.

[Successfully found and killed an alien. Proxy war score: +5. Visit the character panel to view the related information…]

After spending so much effort, Zhang Heng finally killed his first alien in this quest. However, he did not finish off the other security guard, now paralyzed, and instead went back to where his bag was and took out the algae bottle, hidden in the deepest part of the bag.

Zhang Heng divided the algae into four portions. The first was thrown at the ugly vines, the second on the alien tree in the middle of the hall, and the third at the spot where the alien tree spit out ashes. As for the last portion, he reserved it for future use.

The blue-green algae were more effective than he thought. When he threw the third portion into the tree’s cavity, the ashes it spat suddenly increased by at least tenfold. Zhang Heng had to use his clothes to cover his mouth and nose. It was suffocating in the hall now.

At the same time, its bark also began to peel off. Previously, Zhang Heng saw how the alien tree would heal itself by shedding off its old bark. This time, it looked like it had contracted some skin disease. Zhang Heng then killed the paralyzed security guard in the shortest time possible, which garnered him five points. At that time, the ashes and fallen tree bark had flooded the hall and was up to his ankles.

Zhang Heng’s line of sight was almost completely obstructed. Even the Filter Lens wouldn’t function in this place. Rendered with little option, he was forced to find his way to the door blindly and through memory. At the same time, he noticed that the vines on the door had become very irritated. They began to climb up the steps, wanted to escape the basement.

However, since the vines were all part of the alien tree, they couldn’t leave this place. After crawling a certain distance, they could not move further. Zhang Heng leaped among the sarcomas, managing to dodge two attacks aiming at him.

And he had finally escaped the basement.

But for him, the battle had just begun!

The security guards noticed the abnormality when they saw him coming up alone, not to mention that he had bloodstains on his body. They did not say a word to each other, and they started to jump at Zhang Heng at the same time.

Zhang Heng took out a Lego mini submachine gun from his bag. The leader frowned, wondering what he was about to do with the toy gun. The next moment, he saw Zhang Heng inserting the Infinite Building Block into the gun’s last empty slot.

And the next thing he knew, he was shelled by a rain of bullets, mercilessly hitting all that stood at the front line. However, the system reminded Zhang Heng that he had only scored 5 points, which meant he had only killed an alien.

He tried to aim at their heads as much as possible, but the fourth ventricle was not that big, and the location of the aliens inside was not fixed unless he had a considerable amount of ammunition. Otherwise, attempting to kill all of them would prove to be a massive challenge.