48 Hours a Day

“Oh, you people are playing this game…”

The checked baggage from first-class were the first to come rolling out on the conveyor belt, which was why Ponytail returned to them reasonably quickly. He saw Zhang Heng holding the game console in his hand and smiled. “This is a traditional game of 01. What is our highest score again?” he asked.

“697216 points,” Little Boy spelled out the numbers sternly, “Philip won it. This is not fair. He’s a piano player, and his fingers can surely move faster than ordinary people. My best score is very close to him, though.” “I can’t do it anymore. I keep comin in last. The speed of my fingers and eyesight are not my forte,” Ponytail said, “My best record is only 200,000 points, but fortunately, I have Semiprime with me. Luke has played piano before as well. He might be able to challenge Philip’s score.”

Little Boy did not say anything to bring Zhang Heng down this time, afraid that the mysterious knife would find itself under her neck again. Judging by her less-than-satisfied expression, she obviously disagreed with that statement.

To kill time, Zhang Heng had also played Tetris before when he was a kid. During the first round, Zhang Heng lost really fast. Lasting less than ten seconds, he only got himself 100 points.

However, with the help of this losing round, he started to familiarize himself with the buttons and rules. He performed much better in the second round-although lasting only 20 seconds, he got a total of 3,000 points. The score had Little Boy raising her eyebrows. Even though she didn’t like Zhang Heng, she had to admit that his results were impressive for a newcomer.

The members of 01 were good enough to compete with each other, and most of them could achieve a high score in the game. When they first started playing it, they were also confused by the game’s mechanics.

However, Zhang Heng was not satisfied with this result. His hand-eye coordination was not recognized as a skill by the system—the reason why it was not displayed on the skill panel — but it was thoroughly put through its paces and had improved greatly during the LEGO quest.

During that perioid, his speed of assembling bricks had reached an astonishing level. He now knew all the LEGO parts by feel, and could assemble simple objects with his eyes closed. The Tetris blocks, on the other hand, began to drop faster as the level increasedsimilar to LEGO, once familiar with the game, mastering it wouldn’t be too difficult. So just ten minutes later, Zhang Heng, who had only played only six games of Tetris, had a score tied to Ponytail. Zhang Heng used the most common method employed by Tetris masters

-he first stacked the blocks high enough, before clearing them all in one go. With that, he would be able to garner the highest score possible. This method greatly tested one’s speed, eyesight, and mental state.

To make matters worse, Zhang Heng’s ears were continually bombarded by system prompts as he was playing.

[Achieved 5000 points on Tetris’s highest difficulty: +3 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more…]

[Achieved 10,000 points on Tetris’s highest difficulty: +3 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more…]

[Achieved 30,000 points on Tetris’s highest difficulty: +3 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more…]

[Achieved 50,000 points on Tetris’s highest difficulty: +5 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more…]

(Achieved 600,000 points on Tetris’s highest difficulty: +20 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more…]

Zhang Heng did not expect to earn a whopping 143 game points in 20 minutes. It would have taken him at least a year in a quest to earn that many.

The reason why he borrowed the game console from the Little Boy was that his dexterity had reached an impasse when he practiced assembling LEGO. After observing the methods employed by other builders, he wanted to try it to see if it worked. Unexpectedly, he found a hidden Easter egg.

It would be hard for someone to believe that such a huge reward was hidden within a rudimentary Tetris game. This seemed to have once again confirmed the system’s peculiar reward system, something that was way beyond what an ordinary person would guess.

Zhang Heng stopped playing as the car arrived. According to his previous points, if he wanted to achieve a new high score, he had to play until he got 8 million points. It wasn’t a good time for him to do so, and he still had a lot of time for breaking records. Zhang Heng intended to practice a little bit more, challenging the highest score with 999999 points to see what kind of reward the winner would receive.

Little Boy took the game console back, but had no idea what to say about it.

After everyone got in the car, she could hold back no more. “You…how did you do it?” she asked softly.

“I practiced with LEGO,” replied Zhang Heng, having no intention to hide the method he used.

Little Boy raised her eyebrows. It was no secret that Zhang Heng carried LEGO bricks with him all the time; hence the answer made perfect sense.

Later, Zhang Heng gave her an impressive demonstration of how to assemble a panda in one minute. Of course, he didn’t use his Infinite Building Block. Little Boy was greatly moved by Zhang Heng’s demonstration, and judging by her fascinated looks; she planned to go to a LEGO store to get her own set of bricks.

“Let’s get to the hotel first, and then I will assign tasks to everyone. We need to choose a good time to execute the plan, and we will also evacuate immediately once we got what we came for. When that happens, I will book an air ticket for Leah. We also have to travel on the highway. Lastly, the team funds are now being managed by Semiprime. You can all ask him for the equipment and tools you need.”

After that, Ponytail turned to look at Zhang Heng, “Do you need anything else?”.

“I can handle myself,” Zhang Heng said.

His Infinite Building Block was enough to deal with most situations. Hence, to prevent others from suspecting him, he chose to do the remainder of the preparations by himself.

Ponytail nodded in reply.

As soon as they were done talking, everyone saw a red Ford overtaking them before abruptly slowing down with malicious intent. Semiprime, who was at the wheel, gasped in shock. Subconsciously, he tried to change lanes, only to find the steering being firmly held by someone’s hand.

As if that wasn’t enough, Semiprime realized a Citroen pulling up to their side at high-speed, drawing very close to their car. If he had changed lanes just now, his Renault would have collided with it.

The sly Ford ahead of them abruptly braked again, its rear lamps lighting up for a split second before it accelerated once more. “What is going on? Are these people from Black Nest? They have found us… how is this possible?!” Philip groaned in horror and distress.

“It’s possible that they are Black Nest, but they are not targeting us,” said Zhang Heng as he returned control of the steering wheel to Semiprime. While he spoke, the Citroen continued to speed up, chasing the red Ford.

A thrilling pursuit on the highway had begun, courtesy of the two cars.

“It seems that we are not the only ones who are eyeing Leah,” Zhang Heng said. He was mentally prepared for a situation like this, playing competitive single-player mode after all. It was about time he ran into other players.