48 Hours a Day

Panda Novel

Zhang Heng stood outside his house and watched the black carriage disappear into the night. He then turned around and noticed the door was secretly opened.

“Didn’t I ask you to go to sleep?”

Zhang Heng knew who was standing behind the door without even looking at it.

“Whenever I think that you went out in the middle of the night, I just can’t sleep. I need to know what is going on,” said Anne.

“Instead of peeking at me, you should help me to figure out a way to recruit more pirates to join my ship. We will set sail in two months. I will figure out a way to purchase a sloop before that. We need at least ten pirates to operate the sloop, especially a cannoneer. Do you have any potential recruits in mind so far?”

“No.”

“….”

“When I make friends with others, I prioritize their loyalty and fighting prowess more than anything else. I don’t usually ask about their background information!” Anne said proudly.

When she saw that Zhang Heng was disappointed by her answer, she immediately made him a promise.

“I will go and ask around tomorrow. I will do it.”

After a short pause, Anne took out a dagger from her back. She then put on a bashful look. It was a rare sight! This was Zhang Heng’s very first time witnessing such a feminine emotion on her. All these while, she acted more manly than some of the men he knew. Most of the time, she would walk around the house with only her bra. Sometimes, she would even hold a beer bottle and glared at whoever that walked into the house. In this era, a girl that behaved like her was extremely rare.

“About that. I want to thank you for inviting me to join your crew. I saw the dagger that you have is broken. I got this dagger from the fight that I won two days ago. I have no use of it. So… So, I have decided to give it to you. You can use it to protect yourself.”

Zhang Heng was very surprised by her gratitude. He took the dagger and did not say a single word to her. All he did was caress Anne’s messy crimson hair.

……

Though Orff and the rest of the pirates could not wait to set sail again, the damage on Sea Lion was so severe that they had to hire the best carpenters to fix the entire ship. It took a total of fifteen days for them to fix it. In these fifteen days, Zhang Heng had made sure to not do something that would draw others’ attention.

Basically, he had been staying in his house for the past fifteen days. He even went ahead and utilized the empty land behind his house and planted some vegetables on it. During his time on the island, Zhang Heng had planted quite a number of vegetables and was pretty good at it.

As for Frazer, Zhang Heng did not place his trust in him fully. Though he had acted really sincere that night, Zhang Heng could see that he was getting impatient. That was his first time coming to visit Zhang Heng after so many months. It was not necessary for him to come all the way to Zhang Heng’s house to show his gratitude to him.

People like Frazer and Orff were extremely cunning and they were born to be leaders. They had this certain charm where they could make use of it to complete their goal. Also, they could make you believe that everything they do, was for your own good. Underneath their kind-hearted move was actually manipulation. They would continue to use you as a tool to achieve their goal if you trust in them fully.

For example, Kidd’s treasure was just a game designed by Orff. With Frazer joining the game, the whole thing would become even more dangerous. The best thing for Zhang Heng to do right was to stay calm and do nothing about it. After he was warned by Frazer, he did not go and look for the Kent, the carpenter. Instead, he did some preparations secretly.

A man that wore a wig with a lace scarf with flower designs around his neck came and looked for Zhang Heng. His name was Baal and he was a famous arms dealer in Nassau. Once he entered the house, he placed one short and one long object that were covered with tarpaulin on the table.

“This is the thing that you want. Check it,” said Baal after he took the cup of tea that Marvin had handed to him.

Zhang Heng then opened the tarpaulin and saw that it was a gun. In this era that Zhang Heng was in, guns with the flintlock mechanic were dominating Europe. Actually, rifles were invested in, in the 15th century. However, it was not as common and famous as the flintlock gun. The reason was because it was extremely troublesome to reload a rifle. While a flintlock gun could fire three shots, a rifle could only fire one shot. And, people with weaker arms might not be able to slide a bullet into a rifle. The only good thing about the rifle was its shooting range and accuracy were far better than the flintlock gun.

All these while, Zhang Heng wanted to buy one rifle as backup. During the critical moment, his LV 2 shooting skill and the rifle might help him to solve his problem. Other than that, the arms dealer brought him three blunderbusses as well. Taking into account the one that he owned right now, he now possessed a total of four blunderbusses. In other words, he would be able to fire four times at once. All the guns in this era would require to reload after they fired once. The only way for him to increase his firepower was to buy more guns.

Zhang Heng was wearing a black jacket. He placed two blunderbusses at his waist and the other two at his gun holsters in front of his chest.

“Hmph! I have to say that you look quite good right now. I wonder how you will perform in a real fight!”

Zhang Heng ignored Anne and proceed to pay the arms dealer 140 silver peso.

Baal checked the coin bag and he was pleased that Zhang Heng paid him the right amount.

“Come and look for me if you need to buy more guns.”

Seconds later, Zhang Heng heard a notification came from the system.

[You now have more than three guns. Game points +3. You can check for more information from the character panel…]

The way Zhang Heng played the game had not changed since day one. He would never go and complete those achievements on purpose. He had gained a total of seventeen game points ever since he entered this world. Eight game points were from raiding other ships. Six points were from voyaging at sea. And, the three points that he just gained were from collecting weapons. With this speed, Zhang Heng could easily collect 200 fame points by the end of the game. It might sound a lot but Zhang Heng knew that his estimation was not accurate. Usually, it was easy for the players to complete different kinds of achievement during the early game. When it came to late game, the requirement to complete those achievements would be extremely high. Technically speaking, he should be able to collect more game points than all the players. And the price that he had to pay was to stay in this world longer.

This place, Nassau would probably become part of him when this quest was over. Three days after Zhang Heng acquired his weapons, he was informed that the Sea Lion was fixed and it was ready to set sail again.

“I think everyone should know the final destination of this trip, right? I’m not going to repeat the same thing all over again,” said Orff while standing at the ship’s bow.

Everyone started to laugh after they heard Orff’s announcement.

“This time, we have a lot of new people joining us. I think it’s better for me to explain everything. I don’t care about your background and your past mistake. Once you board this ship, you are now one of us. All of you have to obey our rules. Especially during critical moment. Teamwork will allow us to overcome all kinds of difficulties that we will face in the future. If there’s someone who tries to sabotage us or do something despicable behind our back, you will become the common enemy of this ship! And, we show no mercy to our enemies!”

“Not too long ago, I’ve received news. I was told that there’s a traitor among us right now. Considering that I have fought with him in a few raids, I’m willing to offer him a chance to redeem himself. Come forward and confess your crime against the ship. If not, I can’t guarantee that the person will live to see tomorrow.”