48 Hours a Day

Chapter 718: Unraveling The Secrets Of Set-Items

Everyone had secrets. Zhang Heng never asked how Shen Xixi acquired the Justice Scale and what sort of agreement she had made with the goddess of justice, Justitia. Shen Xixi, too did not ask Zhang Heng how he came to know about the location where Yogurt and 1810 would meet.

She and Black Swan had followed Zhang Heng here, subsequently managing to prevent two tragedies from happening during the critical moment.

Zhang Heng had two Grade-B game items with him, second only to those major guilds’ highest-ranking members. However, his biggest secret was the extra 24 hours that he had every day. To Shen Xixi, Zhang Heng investigated Yogurt’s disappearance with her the whole night, but the truth was that he had left Shen Dongxing’s apartment after midnight. Using the tracking skill he learned from the Deductive Reasoning quest, it took about four hours to find the two. Instead of tying them up, Zhang Heng implanted Trojan horse malware in their mobile phones to monitor and pinpoint their locations.

If 1810 had arrived here to accept the result, the investigation of this matter would end here. If 1810 refused to accept the outcome, Zhang Heng could locate Yogurt and Shen Dongxing faster than him.

Anyway, this matter was resolved peacefully in the end. 1810, however, had to pay the price of his team getting disbanded. As they went their separate ways, Black Swan hinted to Zhang Heng that if he were willing to team up with her, she would surprise him with something pleasurable. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng declined her request.

From the beginning of this game, Zhang Heng had never thought of teaming up with anyone else. Although the difficulty of the Proxy War quest had increased, he could handle it alone for now.

Zhang Heng had also asked 1810 to pay him the remaining game points he owed. However, the latter did not have enough points, and since his Feign Death was now exposed, he decided to give the Grade-C game item with one use left to Zhang Heng.

After a little deliberation, Zhang Heng agreed to take the item in place of the game points. Feign Death was a unique game item, a perfect trump card he could put to good use. However, it had its shortcomings. If his enemies found out about the item, using it would be pointless. Zhang Heng wasn’t too bothered, as long as it could be used in the quest. In the real world, however, he would never think of using Feign Death to help him to save his life.

In total, Zhang Heng received three game items in just one night. After bidding Black Swan and Shen Xixi farewell, he headed to the game’s checkpoint to look for Miss Bartender since he had acquired the last Shadow Set piece.

“Interesting. You actually managed to complete the entire Shadow Set. That’s efficient of you,” commended the bartender lady after seeing the four items on the table.

“You said that when I find them all, I can inherit part of the original owner’s power?”

“Yes, that’s right. But I also mentioned that you’d need to go through some form of test.” The bartender lady picked up Shadow Key. “You can only use this item once more. Once you decide to inherit its power, whether succeed or fail, you won’t be able to use it anymore.”

“I know, but it doesn’t matter.”

Shadow Key and Shadow Foot were both Grade-E and Grade-F game items. Their values were limited, and they had been used before. Shadow Key had only one last use left in it. So after giving it a little thought, Zhang Heng decided he wouldn’t wait any longer to go through the test. After all, he had a ton of items with him, and he would not be able to use them all.

Whenever he entered a dungeon, he would need to consider which item he should bring with him. This was as painful as thinking about what to eat and what to wear every morning. It was better if the game items were converted into an ability.

“Since you are fine with it, when do you want to be tested?” the bartender lady shrugged and asked.

“Do we need to complete any rituals?”

“Of course, but it is a very simple ritual. You can complete it now if you want.”

“Let’s begin,” Zhang Heng said.

...

It took less than 15 minutes for the bartender to complete all the preparations. Zhang Heng watched on simultaneously, and he felt that she was just doing what she usually did. Except this time, she used some weird ingredients like lizard tails and mouse skulls. She then put all of them into a blender to grind them and made a homemade cigar filled with some suspicious tobacco.

Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.

“Yes, I know it looks very old-fashioned, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Those old-timers like it a lot. As early as the BCE era, the Mayans and Indians had started smoking tobacco, believing that it allowed them to communicate with their gods. The Mayans left behind this blend’s recipe,” Miss bartender said. “Don’t underestimate this thing. It’s not easy to get these materials in the modern world. So you’ll have to pay me whether you fail or succeed. It will cost you 50 game points.”

“What should I do?” Zhang Heng asked and grabbed the cigar.

“Just bring those four game items with you. It’s best to allow all of them to contact your body. Once you’ve made sure of that, go ahead and light the cigar. By the way, do you have any other game items with you now? Pass them to me first, or they might interfere with the communication, especially the more powerful ones. The original owner of this Shadow Set has passed away for some time. Hence, not much power is left in them. You better not expect too much.”

“Okay.”

Miss bartender thought for a while and decided to explain more. “If the original owner of this set-item is still alive, it’d be nearly impossible for you to gather them all. After all, if not for special reasons, no one would want to divide their power to others. Giving out part of their power would speed up the owner’s deterioration process. As an agent, you should know about this. This set of items should belong to some very ancient existence.”

Zhang Heng nodded and temporarily stored all his game items at the game point. After that, he sat cross-legged on the deck and put the four Shadow set items on his lap. Once that was done, he lit the cigar and took a deep breath.

The taste... was not as disgusting and strange as he initially thought. Zhang Heng even tasted a strange scent from it.

It seemed like the Mayan’s ritual was not too difficult for him to accept.

Zhang Heng took a small puff first, and then two long drags after that. The white smoke rose in front of his eyes. Strangely, the smoke did not spread to other places but hovered around him, becoming thicker over time.

At the same time, Zhang Heng also fell into a half-awake, trance-like state. He became completely oblivious to the existence of time and where he was. When he finished smoking the cigar, the smoke had disappeared as well.

Zhang Heng looked at the scene in front of him and frowned deeply.