48 Hours a Day

Zhang Heng did not expect the bartender to have been to the Red Island, and not too long ago.

The mud on the latter’s hair was the best evidence. Even though there was a lot of red mud in other places, only the mud on the island was dark red, as if it had been doused with paint. Moreover, Zhang Heng had already sensed that the old man’s attitude had changed significantly.

Zhang Heng had also suspected that someone had sneaked onto the island while he was fighting the black python. In addition, this also answered the biggest question in his mind, which was why Loki’s actions were loud but it didn’t cause too much trouble.

Now, it seemed that it wasn’t that Loki didn’t pay enough attention to him, but it was because the bartender’s sudden appearance had disrupted his plan. Otherwise, after defeating the python, he would very likely have to face Jemengard’s main body.

But this caused a new problem to arise. Was that why the bartender wanted to help him?

Zhang Heng thought back to the one year he had known the bartender. All the interactions between the two were limited to the current business scope of the game point. He was the one who paid for most of it, and the bartender was the one who provided the service. There didn’t seem to be any deep friendship between them.

Furthermore, the bartender’s help this time was completely Lei Feng-style. She sneaked onto the island behind Zhang Heng’s back, and after dealing with the crisis, she quietly left. After she was done, she disappeared, hiding her achievements and fame. She didn’t mention anything about the fees at all, differing completely from her previous style of doing things.

However, her way of doing things reminded Zhang Heng of another person. That person was Kronos, who had given him the watch. The latter had always considered himself his guardian angel and often appeared when he was in trouble to help him solve his problems.

At first, it was Yamolesbee who came from Papua New Guinea. Later, when he faced the goddess of justice, Justitia, it was Kronos who stopped time to help him avoid conflict. Also, the recent incident at the bookstore, although Zhang Heng did not know what the crisis was, Kronos’appearance was obviously to help him solve it.

Zhang Heng had been guessing Kronos’ real purpose. According to the information he had, Kronos had been eyeing him since he was very young. He had sponsored his parents’ scientific expedition, but after that, there was no news, it wasn’t until he was 19 that he reappeared and signed a contract with him, making him his agent.

Kronos had given him the address of the game’s checkpoint. Zhang Heng was no longer a newbie who knew nothing. He knew that there were more than 20 checkpoints in his city, but Kronos had chosen this one. Zhang Heng wouldn’t be surprised if there was a connection between the bartender and Kronos.

However, this caused Zhang Heng to be even warier of Kronos. The other party didn’t seem as simple as he portrayed himself to be. Although he was just an ancient god who had been impacted by modern technology, at the very least, he had connections in the game’s organizing committee that weren’t of low stature. In addition, Kronos did not seem to have been idle for the past dozen years. He had unknowingly created a huge net that covered Zhang Heng’s life.

Zhang Heng did not know the relationship between the bartender and Kronos, nor did he know who else was related to Kronos. This did not feel good, as if someone in Galgame had chosen all the dialogue options for him in advance, pushing him step by step toward an inevitable conclusion.

Zhang Heng knew that his trip to Greenland could not be delayed any longer.

He planned to leave after completing the regular dungeon for the month ahead of schedule. In the next few days, he could start preparing for his visa and other preparatory work.

The other issue was Fan Meinan. With Zhang Heng’s observational skills, he could see the change in Fan Meinan’s mood after he returned from the Red Island. He then contacted Ma Lu, who had said that the latter had gone missing. Even though Fan Meinan had later explained the reason for her departure, there were actually quite a few suspicious points. It was just that Zhang Heng didn’t continue to ask.

Beta and Cheng Sihan’s disappearance also meant that their previous plan to lure the snake out of its lair had failed. It was likely that they would be unable to find Loki again in the short term. As such, they could only hope that there were other ways to cure Fan Meinan.

Zhang Heng went to the forum to look at the posts he had posted on his behalf. In just half a day, he had already received thousands of replies. It took him an hour to finish reading all the messages, and in the end, he realized that most of them were just bystanders. Only a small number of people were analyzing the possibility of a cure, and until now, no one had been able to come up with a truly reliable solution.

Despite all that, Zhang Heng still decided to make preparations nonetheless. He first called D4 to inquire about the status of the exchange of points and cash.

After the call connected, D4’s weary voice came through.

It was a transaction reward worth 200,000 points, after all, and it involved a piece of B-grade equipment. There were still many people asking about it. Not only were there messages under the post, but there were also many private messages. D4 had not done anything for the entire day, chatting with all sorts of people.

A large portion of them were people who wanted to take advantage of the situation. They were thinking about whether they could use a trade loophole or some swindling method to directly swindle 200,000 points, or at least get a deposit or something. This also gave D4 a lot of work in identifying whether it was real or fake.

“Exchange points? What exchange points?” D4’s head seemed to be stuck for half a minute. He was still stuck on his previous work, but he quickly came back to his senses, “Oh, you want to exchange 200,000 points in advance? Right now, because the year-end auction is still some time away, the exchange rate of points isn’t at its peak. However, because of the opening of the Agent War Dungeon, the various unions are engaged in an arms race, which has indeed pushed up the exchange rate to a certain extent. It’s about 39,001 points.”

D4 paused for a moment before continuing, “Normally, our trading firm would give a certain discount for large-scale exchanges. However, your scale is really too large. Our existing points reserves aren’t enough to meet your transaction needs. However, you don’t have to worry too much. We can contact a few other brother trading firms. If we pool together and purchase a portion, we’ll be able to gather this amount of points for you. However, the price might be a little higher, but it can basically be kept below 40,000… the question now is, how do you plan to pay such a large sum of money?”