48 Hours a Day

Without a second thought, Jia Lai stabbed the burning piece of wood into the coyote’s gaping mouth. Shocked and confused, the creature yelped, screaming and howling in pain thereafter. The plump man grunted, and with a frown, he flung the severely wounded animal aside.

After the threat on his side had been neutralized, Jia Lai turned to look at Zhang Heng, only to discover that he had gone up against two coyotes and that the battle had already ended. The thing Jia Lai regretted was that he allowed Zhang Heng to act too quickly. When he turned around, the only thing he saw was two coyotes with their fur burning fleeing into the darkness. Unable to witness how Zhang Heng won the battle, Jia Lai’s wish to learn more about his opponent was diminished.

It was at that time that the familiar chop of a helicopter rotor pierced the silence. After a series of accidents, NASA’s significantly improved their crisis response, including increasing their potential astronauts’ level of protection.

Within five minutes, the helicopter was already hovering above them. Right before it touched the ground, the captain jumped off and shouted, “Are you all okay?” The trio nodded over the dust clouds kicked up by the rotor wash. Even Bruno, having faced the most dangerous battle, was unscathed. At most, he was just a little shaken. The worst thing that happened to him was the coyote drooling all over his face. It smelled terrible. The captain continued, “I didn’t expect to encounter coyotes here. There have been no coyotes around here for a long time. Remind me to report to the higher-ups and see if they can throw in some coyote repellant to your emergency backpacks. Don’t expect too much, though. By the time they approve, you guys would have been to the moon twice. So… I’ll ask you again. Do you still want to continue with the training?”

Jia Lai and Bruno nodded without hesitation. Although they had just experienced a frightening incident, the trio hadn’t yet figured who the winner of this round would be. Hence, they didn’t want the training to end just like that. So, the captain turned to look at Zhang Heng. “I respect your team’s decision,” he said. The reply came beyond Jia Lai and Bruno’s expectations. Logically, Zhang Heng should have chosen to stop the training right now. Based on his previous results, he could get the final spot easily. Only one possibility remained on why he made such a decision When the opportunity arose, he would eliminate all his threats in one go. This was to prevent unnecessary trouble during the isolation period.

“Well, we’ll see you at the end, then. Oh, and safety is paramount!”

Since all three agreed, the captain said nothing more. He got back on the helicopter and flew off the campsite in another dramatic cloud of dust. Nonetheless, despite the deep animosity between the three, the atmosphere improved a little after fighting off the coyotes together. That said, all three knew in their hearts that this was just a one-time thing.

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When the number of players allowed to complete the quest was reduced to one, there would be no more compromise between them. Perhaps it was due to the coyote incident that caused Jia Lai to abandon his plan. Eventually, when the sun started rising from the east, and the air began to warm up, nothing had happened between them. The three spent the night safely by the fire.

It was in the early hours of the morning. The remnants of the smoldering bonfire were still toasty, which allowed them the minor luxury of a warm breakfast. This should be their last meal in this desert, where they were now less than 30 kilometers away from their destination. If everything went well, the group should arrive in about seven hours. Jia Lai had still not approached Bruno to discuss their plan, and thanks to that, Bruno ultimately gave up on him. He knew this meant Jia Lai never valued their partnership in the first place, deeming him useless from the start.

The thing that baffled Bruno was why Jia Lai didn’t seem to be in a hurry, especially in a time like this. He even tidied up his emergency backpack before setting off despite knowing that time was of the essence, and that the destination wasn’t too far away.

If Bruno didn’t do something about it in these last seven hours, he might never get another chance to strike at them. Among them, Bruno was now the most anxious one. There wasn’t much point for that anyway. He had lost his game items, and Jia Lai had abandoned him. Right now, he didn’t know how he could kill the other two under NASA surveillance. To execute his plan, he would have to wait for the precise moment.

Just like the day before, the three were on the road again once done with breakfast.

They chose to start their journey at the break of dawn. The sun barely peeked out of the horizon, and the desert’s temperature wasn’t too high at this time. The cool atmosphere significantly sped their pace up, enabling them to conserve stamina and energy. At the same time, they also received a notification from the system. As a reminder, the system informed them that they had just gained a “Desert Camping” achievement, earning them 2 points each.

Up until this point, game points had been the paramount goal of each player, where powerful guilds had always focused their research on its acquisition. The research results varied, but it was discovered that no matter the technique, the efficiency of earning game points could only be increased to a certain extent. Since every quest was a unique experience and was non-repeatable, it was theoretically impossible to apply one point-maximizing technique to the other.

For example, Zhang Heng once obtained 30 food achievements in the quest, Tokyo Drift. After that, the achievements didn’t occur again in another quest. No matter how many American signature foods from the 60s he ate, he could get any more points from it. But in the previous transitional quest, he did get a “Fast Food & Amp Music” achievement by eating a burger and a chicken burrito after listening to a vinyl record.

He was fascinated by the combinations as well, where certain hidden rules guided this randomness. For example, Zhang Heng discovered that the probability of getting game points after successfully surviving a mortal threat was very high. This rule, however, wasn’t very useful, for no sane players would risk their lives just to earn more game points. After all, it didn’t make much sense if the player died in the game.

That was exactly how Bruno felt right now. His anxiety completely diluted the joy of gaining prospective game points. He then wiped the sweat off his face. Three hours had passed since breakfast, and as the temperature of the desert steadily increased, they were now faced with the return of the tormenting heat. What made Bruno even more nervous, though, was Jia Lai’s inaction, unable to fathom why he gave up last night’s rare opportunity.

What better opportunity could present itself than striking hard under the cover of complete darkness? Just as those thoughts crossed Bruno’s mind, he felt the hot air around him whipping up strangely. So he raised his head to look at the distant skyline. Finally, he got his long-awaited answer.

The captain’s voice could be heard blaring over the radio.

“Attention!!! There is a sandstorm inbound! Training has been canceled. Stay where you are, and don’t go anywhere. A vehicle will be there to pick you in the shortest time possible!”