48 Hours a Day

“I can understand how surprised you must be right now. Just give me some time, and I’ll explain everything,” Bruno continued while staring at the butter knife that was touching the skin of his throat. “If you wish to explain anything at all… I suggest you start with the plane crash.” Zhang Heng pulled the knife back.

“When did you find out about it?” said Bruno, who seemed shocked at the revelation.

“It’s a question that’s been bothering me for a long time. After that ‘accident,’ everyone looked suspicious to me. Other than you, not one else had the right motives to kill me. Let’s face it. Only three players can complete the main quest. Logically, even if there were secret partnerships, they wouldn’t have made me their first target. You’re the only one who could gain the most from my death. I have to say… you had us all fooled with your LSD. Not only did it give you a good alibi for leaving the space center at midnight, but you also managed to distance yourself out from that shit storm brewing within our team.”

Bruno grinned. “I made a mistake there. Nancy warned me that you’re most probably the hardest to deal with in the entire team. Because of your existence, my situation became even riskier. The only way for me to feel safe again is to eliminate you. That’s enough of a reason for me to kill you. After Anthony’s death, you couldn’t have expected to be next to die, not so soon anyway. Then, to my surprise, you somehow managed to escape. It was at that time; I realized that I had to come up with an alibi. Hence the LSD incident.”

“The drugs were fake?”

“No. That was real LSD. Couldn’t afford the risk. One of you might just identify it. Besides, it wasn’t easy acting like I was high. About the drugs, yeah, you’re right about me. I’m an addict. Two hours ago, I popped an LSD pill. Right now, I’m feeling a hell lot better. Before I joined this great game, I couldn’t have imagined how I would live in this boring world without the help of LSD. It’s the 60s and 70s, man! LSD swept through America. Even members of Queen, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones were users. Since I’m in this timeline, there was no way in hell I would give up the chance to taste LSD! However, the question was, how did I pass my blood and urine tests?” “Game items?”

“Oh, I almost forgot about that. You guys took away two of my game items. However, you made a common mistake. You really think those are the only items that could grant you supernatural powers?” Bruno grinned.

“What are you trying to say?”

Zhang Heng’s interest was aroused. Speaking of game items’ supernatural powers, Zhang Heng had something like that with him right now; the extra 24 hours he had every day. It was a gift from the old man he had encountered in the real world. It happened anyway, without relying on any game items. The conditions triggering and ending it seemed to be fixed.

After completing a few games, Zhang Heng had become more curious about the old man’s identity. They both had a conversation in a coffee shop where time stopped. The old man claimed that he gave him the extra 24 hours because he wanted him to play on his behalf as an agent. If he was an agent, then there must be other agents around the world as well. They too, would have had different supernatural powers being granted to them.

Bruno was in a good mood tonight. Perhaps the LSD’s effects hadn’t completely worn off. Instead of stopping, he continued blurting out everything he knew to Zhang Heng.

“I met her before at a foreign student party. I saw her walking toward me. I was pretty sure she was there for me specifically because nobody else in the room could see her.”

“Or maybe you were just high and you were seeing things?”

“Nah. She was real. As real as us. No. Hold on… she’s more real than the boring world I live in. I’ve got to admit, although I hit up quite a bit of drugs that night, I never doubted her existence. What happened after that… was proof I didn’t lose my mind.

“Among my many friends, some call themselves brothers. There was one guy who called himself my brother, but I knew he secretly hated me. I knew exactly who he was, and after all, I just snatched his girlfriend from him. I got sick of her a week later. So, to make me pay for what I did to him, he called the cops on me. At a party one night, a dozen police officers raided my room. We tried out best to destroy all the drugs we had, but we were still forced to get tested at the hospital.

“I studied in an extremely famous school in Australia. If something like that got exposed, they’d surely kick me out. After being in Australia for so long, I was supposed to graduate the year after that. My family, you know, being conservative folk, won’t be too happy if they knew I got expelled. They might just stop giving me money if they knew I’ve been on drugs. Guess what the test results were? I was the only one at the party who was clean.

was

“The funniest part was, I was so high I couldn’t stand up on my own when the police arrived. From that day on, I knew that no matter how many drugs I took, no medical equipment could trace it. Not in my blood, urine, or saliva. It was and still is a miracle! A true miracle!”

Zhang Heng was speechless. Bruno’s encounter was very similar to his. However, the way he acquired his supernatural power was rather… well, he looked charming, thankfully. This was probably the dream every addict wished for. Zhang Heng didn’t want to dwell on the topic, and again, pushed the butter knife a few centimeters into Bruno’s throat.

“You messed with my plane and tried to kill me. Now, here you stand before me. What makes you think I can’t just kill you right here?”

“No. I believe you have all the means to kill me, but I don’t think you will do it,” said Bruno, still smiling even though his neck had started bleeding. “Why?”

“You don’t want to lose a good astronaut on your team, right? Losing me will cause Apollo 11 to be delayed. By the time they get back on track, none of us will complete the main quest. Since I’m here, it means the final three astronauts have been decided…”

Before he could finish, they both heard someone knocking at the door.