48 Hours a Day-Chapter 1186: The Fly
Just as the main storyline mission had changed, the players noticed that there was a countdown at the bottom right corner of the mission panel. It was exactly 12 hours, and three and a half minutes had already passed.
In other words, they had to deal with Loki’s five avatars in the remaining 11 hours and 56 and a half minutes. Only then would they be able to weaken Loki’s strength to the maximum.
This duration… was quite a tight one.
Mouse and the others were still thinking about where to start, but they didn’t expect Zhang Heng to have found Loki’s first avatar. They weren’t fools either. As soon as Zhang Heng reminded them to close the door, they immediately reacted.
—The Fly, one of the avatars of Loki in Norse mythology.
In the story of searching for the golden-haired man, Loki made a bet with the dwarf. In order to win the bet, he transformed into a fly and bit the dwarf, Brock’s hand when he pulled the bellows, but unfortunately, still lost the bet. But with Loki’s usual cunning, he escaped punishment in the end.
Kui was quick-witted. She closed the door before the first fly could fly out of the room. And this was not the end. He then used a towel to block the gap in the door. The others were not idle either. They followed suit. Someone had checked the windows, blocked the air-conditioning vent, making sure to leave all the flies in the room.
However, after all the preparation work was done, the two military trucks stopped downstairs at the Pripyat Hotel.
Zhang Heng looked out the window. If everything went as planned, the militia should have come for Scherbina, but he didn’t know if they had received the news of the Vice President’s death.
“What should we do?” Mouse asked anxiously. Originally, Sherbina’s death had nothing to do with them, but because they had to kill the flies in the room, they couldn’t let the militia break-in. Furthermore, given the current situation, if they really opened the door, even if they said that Scherbina’s death had nothing to do with them, no one would believe them.
Zhang Heng knew that this was a huge trap that Loki had set for them. If the players clashed with the militia, there might be trouble waiting. However, this kind of thing was an open conspiracy. Even if they knew that it was a trap, in order to get rid of Loki’s incarnation, they had to stop the militia at the door at this critical moment.
Therefore, Zhang Heng said, “Leave the people downstairs to me. You guys stay here and take care of these flies.”
After saying that, Zhang Heng walked to the door. After confirming that there were no flies following him, Master Kui removed the towel that blocked the door. Then, Zhang Heng quickly opened the door and left.
It was useless to reason at a time like this. Therefore, Zhang Heng skipped this step and found a room with a window facing downstairs. Then, he drew his bow and nocked an arrow.
The leader of the team was waiting for his team members to gather. However, in the next moment, an arrow flew out of nowhere and shot him in the right chest. Zhang Heng didn’t go too far. There was no enmity between them; the main reason being the wounded needed someone to take care of them, but they didn’t need a corpse.
Zhang Heng’s goal was to stall the two carriages as much as possible to buy time for the players in the room to get rid of Loki’s avatar. Therefore, it was naturally a better choice for him to wound them.
Zhang Heng’s arrow had not only made the leader lose his ability to fight but two militia members, risking being shot, dragged their leader to the back of the truck to take care of him. This meant the militia squad downstairs had lost three members.
After Zhang Heng’s successful attack, he quickly nocked a second arrow. He looked down and locked onto a squad leader from the crowd before he quickly released the bowstring.
The scene from before repeated itself. After the squad leader fell to the ground, his men also dragged him to a safe place. At the same time, the militia finally found Zhang Heng’s location and raised their guns to fight back.
However, Zhang Heng had already left the room and ran down the fire escape to the first floor. He happened to see a squad of militiamen entering the lobby under the cover of fire.
However, their luck wasn’t very good. They met Zhang Heng head-on. This time, the latter used the continuous arrow technique and shot three arrows in one go. Although they all hit the target, their accuracy wasn’t as good as before—one of the arrows hit a militiaman’s abdomen, and the other hit a militiaman’s thigh.
However, the rest of the people stopped in their tracks and started to look for cover. Zhang Heng ran to the front desk as well. After the residents of Pripyat evacuated, the power in the town was cut off. The hotel lobby, which had been brightly lit before, was now shrouded in darkness, making it easier for Zhang Heng to move.
Zhang Heng fired two more arrows in the dark and finally forced the squad that had entered the lobby to retreat.
However, at that moment, the headlights of one of the trucks lit up, illuminating the lobby as if it was daytime. Then, two more groups of militiamen took over the duties of the previous squad and charged toward the hotel lobby.
Zhang Heng did not leave immediately. Instead, he continued to lurk behind the reception desk, listening to the approaching footsteps outside.
After counting silently for three seconds, Zhang Heng drew his bow again, leaned out, and shot two arrows consecutively. The militiaman who was closest to him was shocked and subconsciously squatted down. In the end, the enemy who had never missed before actually missed this time, the two arrows failing to hit him in a row, leaving the militiaman’s heart to be instantly filled with joy.
However, his joy lasted less than half a second, and the two arrows that brushed past his body hit the target accurately—the lights of the truck. The hotel lobby dimmed again.
Then, Zhang Heng pulled out a knife and jumped out from behind the front desk.
He fell into the crowd. The militiamen outside and inside the lobby were afraid of their comrades, so they were unable to fire again. However, the knife in Zhang Heng’s hand was able to dance freely. In addition, he paid special attention to shooting the headlights of the other car. It only took him half a minute to take down the two squads that had entered the lobby. He even took a hostage.
Worried that the militia squad might be carrying large-scale explosive weapons like grenades, Zhang Heng did not retreat to the front desk. Instead, he retreated into the fire escape. Before he left, he even released the militia that he had captured. Of course, the latter was also wounded, so he could not continue fighting.
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Heng had taken down three squads. However, compared to the total number of people who had come to the hotel, the number of wounded was less than one-third. The militia outside had the strength to continue their attack but, perhaps they were shocked by Zhang Heng’s terrifying combat power, and coupled with the fact that the commander had been killed the moment he arrived, that no one dared to enter the lobby, even though they had already seen Zhang Heng retreat into the fire escape.
Zhang Heng, who was focused on stalling for time, was naturally happy to see the stalemate. He did not launch another attack.. Taking advantage of the chaotic melee earlier, he took out two rifles and successfully returned upstairs.