48 Hours a Day

Without cooperation from Bruno, it was hard for them to continue with the investigation. According to the plan, Livingston was supposed to threaten Bruno by killing him to force him to cooperate with them. Now that the LSD incident was exposed, Bruno knew that he would not be able to complete the main quest. It was no different for him to live for a few days less or a few days more. That was why he had no intention to cooperate with the investigation. At a time like this, even violence would be ineffective against him. Besides, it was now unnecessary to kill him and make it look like an accident since they caught him red-handed consuming LSD. However, if they handed him to NASA right now, they would no longer be able to question him.

After an entire night of messing around, Livingston still did not get the answer he wanted. In frustration, he stood up from the chair, went to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and started splashing water on his face.

“What now? Does that mean we have found the killer?” asked Jai Lai.

Jia Lai was waiting for Livingston to come out from the bathroom. Both his legs were getting tired after standing for so long.

“I don’t know,” Livingston replied while using a towel to dry his face.

“Uh… What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just like what you see. He could be our killer or not. We can never get him to confess. It will be a waste of our time if we carry on with the investigation.”

Livingston was exhausted after staying up for the entire night.

“So… that’s it?” asked Jia Lai with both of his eyes wide open.

“Unless you have a better idea, that is.”

Livingston took a look at his watch.

“We only have half an hour before morning training. We need to figure out a way to put an end to this.”

“Erm… What should we do now?”

“Clean up the room and hand him over to NASA. There should be some traces of LSD traces left in his blood. It’s enough to eliminate him from this round of the game.”

“What should we do with his two game items?” asked the schoolkid.

“We still don’t know their function, and we will not be able to identify them before this round ends. In other words, we can’t use them. So, let’s look for somebody to hold the items for us. We can discuss talk about the allocation right before the game ends.” “Who’s gonna take care of them? You?” asked Zhen Xiong

“Do you guys have any better suggestions?”

“The least suspicious person among us is David. I think he would be the best candidate to keep them for us.”

Initially, the schoolkid wanted to volunteer as the keeper, but when he heard Zhen Xiong suggesting Zhang Heng, he had to admit that it was still the best option for them right now. It was also the only solution that everyone could accept.

“I don’t have any opinions.”

Livingston then handed the two items to Zhang Heng. “Be careful. These two are still unidentified. There could be side effects. You shouldn’t carry them on you all the time,” reminded Livingston.

Zhang Heng nodded and used a towel to wrap the two game items carefully. All of them then waited until 6 a.m. for the captain to show up. They then handed him Bruno with his bottle of LSD. At that time, the captain was numb when he heard that a NASA astronaut was involved in drugs. For the past 24 hours, two fatal accidents had happened, and now, he was presented with a drug scandal. Such mishaps and misgivings were unprecedented throughout NASA’s entire history, and only half a month was left before they needed to launch Apollo 11.

It was too late to stop the project. The government had invested 20 billion dollars accounting for 0.57% of the American GDP at that time. 20,000 organizations, 200 universities, 80 research facilities, and 300,000 people were involved in this project as well. Anything short of a meteor crashing down on the United States, nothing would stop the project from soldering on, considering the fierce competition with the Soviet Union. So, despite the challenges, the morning’s training carried on as usual. During the break, the captain announced the results.

Without a doubt, Zhang Heng ranked first place. The worst he received was a B-. Other than that, he received A’s for another three subjects. As for this Multi-Axis Trainer and Psychological Evaluation, he received A+ for both as well. NASA commended Zhang Heng, adding that he was born to be an astronaut. He was equipped with an extraordinary mental state and relentless spirit. In terms of physical attributes, there was still space for growth. All he needed was time. For now, he was definitely getting on Apollo 11. Jia Lai’s results contrasted drastically in comparison to Zhang Heng’s. He got the last place for all training completed so far. The comment that the evaluation team gave him was pretty straightforward. Whether it was his physical or mental state, he was not ready for space. If he did not want a horrible accident broadcasted across the screens of the entire world, it was best for him not to take on any space jobs.

The others’ rankings were very much expected by everyone. Bruno was placed second, and the schoolkid came after him. Following those two was Zhen Xiong. Her mental state was excellent, but unfortunately, she wasn’t in a good physical state. Her gender was undesirable, as well.

Now that the results were released, competition between the players became even more apparent now. The team of seven was now reduced to five. In other words, chances for them to fly on Apollo 11 had significantly increased. Among them, the schoolkid was the happiest. Supposedly, his result was ranked behind Anthony and Bruno. Since the two of them were now out of the game, he had managed to enter the top three places. If he can live until the takeoff of Apollo 11, he would be able to complete the main quest.

There were only ten days left until the official launch. The schoolkid realized that he had to keep an eye on Jia Lai and Zhen Xiong since the two of them had partnered up. Under this one-versus-two situation, he wasn’t confident that he would win the fight. So, he decided that he wanted to partner up with someone as well. He could forget about Zhang Heng because no one would target him. Other than the fact that he scored well in all the subjects, he could help to increase the success rate of landing on the moon. Besides, he managed to survive the assassination and return to the base unharmed. No one knew how he did it.

Under such circumstances, he would not attack anyone as long as no one messed with him. That would mean the schoolkid was left with one final option. Whatever that Bruno said earlier had affected him a lot. He suspected that Livingston was actually the real killer, but after analyzing his current situation, he realized that Jia Lai and Zhen Xiong needed two slots but not one. That would mean they would target him and Livingston. As he stood on the same spot, the schoolkid felt that it wouldn’t be too bad a thing if Livingston was indeed the killer.