48 Hours a Day

The night went by uneventfully. During breakfast the next morning, Zhang Heng asked Philip if there was a commercial street near him.

“You want to buy LEGO bricks?” Philip was surprised.

It was no wonder Zhang Heng’s question surprised him. The first impression that Zhang Heng gave him was that of a typical tough guy in those action movies. He was supposed to personify a lone hero that could bring down a group of people without so much as flinch, and when he went to a bar, he would have to order the strongest spirit. Even if he was shot, he could pick out all the bullets from his body while gritting his teeth in the bathroom without frowning.

That morning, Philip saw Zhang Heng drink a glass of warm water and eating a nutritious breakfast—including meat and vegetables, and an omelet. Philip felt inexplicably disappointed, especially now that he heard that Zhang Heng wanted to buy LEGO bricks. He was unable to figure out why the tough guy wanted to buy a bunch of educational toys.

However, Zhang Heng didn’t care about what others thought about him, always being one to ignore his surroundings. In his first quest, he had to eat coconuts for three meals a day. Now that conditions had gotten better, he wasn’t going to abuse himself by starving. Maintaining a healthy eating habit was essential in keeping his body going until the end of the quest.

“For shopping, we are not far from Jinmeide Avenue. The Star of Nice department store is there. Although it is not as famous as Galleria Lafayette, it’s considered one of the best shopping malls in Nice.”

Waldo went to get himself two crepes while listening to their conversation.

Zhang Heng finished the last croissant on the plate, wiping his mouth with a tissue. “Very well, let’s go there,” he continued.

“Uhh, but I haven’t finished eating…” Waldo glanced at the crepes on the plate.

“You have eaten a total of five plates of food,” Philip said as his eyes widened.

“Because it’s free. I should take advantage of it,” Waldo replied with a wide grin.

After he finished the crepes, Waldo went on to empty another fruit platter, gulped two glasses of orange juice and milk, went to the bathroom, and reluctantly left the hotel restaurant.

It was Zhang Heng’s first time discovering that Waldo could eat so much. Philip told Zhang Heng that Waldo had always lived in his mother’s attic and rarely stepped out of the house. Judging by the way he ate, he was still a little thinner than ordinary people. Zhang Heng had to admit that Waldo’s must have had very good genes.

The three arrived at the Star of Nice at 9:42 a.m. but had to wait outside the entrance since the department store wasn’t open yet. Fortunately, it would open for business in a short while, and they didn’t have to wait too long. Zhang Heng managed to find a LEGO store as well, proceeding to buy five boxes of bricks in one go. He also made sure that all the parts and models he needed were included.

Zhang Heng finally understood the gist of the famous saying, an SLR will ruin a person’s life, but LEGO can make you poor for three generations. Earlier, he checked his bank account. Unfortunately, there was no money in it-in its place, an overdraft limit of about 2,000 Euros. The LEGO sets he bought cost him 500 Euros, which was almost a quarter of what he had.

Moreover, he ran into trouble after walking out of the store. Although mall security pretended to be patrolling, Zhang Heng was well aware that he was their target judging by their less-than-subtle movements. At the same time, Philip and Waldo were also deliberately keeping their distance from him.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Zhang Heng asked calmly as he looked at Philip.

The two were shocked and afraid, unable to understand how Zhang Heng knew what they were thinking. Waldo, on the other hand, attempted to put on his best act.

“Huh, what did you say?”

Zhang Heng opened a box of bricks, quickly picked out a handful of parts, and put them in his pocket. He then threw the remaining four unopened boxes bricks to Philip, saying, “Help me take care of these for a moment.”

Philip was confused.

“Huh?”

“Although I won’t kill you if I lose it, you’d better stop doing irrational things when I’m in a bad mood,” said Zhang Heng, leaving with them his last words of advice.

At the same time, all five security guards were walking towards him. Zhang Heng also saw two men who seemed to be plainclothes police officers entering the mall. While he was unprepared, one of the security guards reached out to grab Zhang Heng’s arm. However, he managed to dodge it easily. Immediately, the guard’s companion charged toward him. Zhang Heng did not want to fight the entire group of security guards at the same time, knowing that it would be hard for him to win if they all attacked him at once. So, after taking out one person, he ran as quickly as he could.

He sped to the elevator that wasn’t too far away, managing to get in just in time. However, as he was descending to the lower floors, the elevator suddenly stopped. After a second, it started to operate in the opposite direction, causing its passengers to be thrown to the ground and screaming in fear.

Seeing that Zhang Heng had escaped the security guards, the two plainclothes finally uncovered their identities and rushed toward their target. Meanwhile, Zhang Heng saw a bunch of shopping bags scattered on the floor. The rest of the people in the lift were still trying to stand up and get a hold of the situation. In the end, he had to give up on this route. At the same time, after this incident, he also realized that he had underestimated the team behind Philip and Waldo.

It now appeared that they could not only turn a casino’s poker machine into their ATM, but they could even hack through electrical equipment

Of course, appliances like elevators weren’t connected to the Internet, and that wasn’t how they did it. Zhang Heng remembered two elevator maintenance crew when the mall was opened just now. In other words, they must have been ready for battle since the beginning When did they start? During breakfast?

Speaking of which, Waldo had gone the bathroom halfway after he overate for breakfast. Did he use that opportunity to contact his team? No, it should have been earlier-he must have contacted his team when he was alone sleeping on the couch in the living room last night.

That meant the other party had one night to prepare for the fight. However, he only proposed to come to the Star of Nice in the morning. Waldo must have taken the opportunity to go to give his team the updated location in the toilet. The mall guards and plainclothes policemen who had suddenly targeted him were obviously on their side. Although Zhang Heng didn’t know how they did it, it wasn’t the time to think about such things.

His top priority now was to leave the mall first. While Zhang Heng was thinking hard, he quickly assembled a taser gun in his pocket with the LEGO bricks that he just bought. As he added the Infinite Building Block to it, the taser was immediately weaponized, ready to deal with the brewing trouble. At the same time, Philip and Waldo did not waste the golden opportunity, quickly running to a safe passage while the chaos ensued. It was the first chance they got to escape Zhang Heng’s control.

The two geeks mustered every last bit of stamina that they could squeeze out and ran as fast as they could.