48 Hours a Day

In the game dungeon, Loki’s white mare appeared and left very suddenly.

Even with Zhang Heng’s perception, he had no idea where Loki had come from or where he had run off to. Thus, he had given up on catching up to the white mare a long time ago.

Furthermore, it was different from the situation when he was dealing with the red salmon. On land, Zhang Heng couldn’t control the water flow, so he could only try to use his gun and bow to deal with the white mare.

However, with the white mare’s mysterious and unpredictable movements, Zhang Heng had to maintain his bow or shooting posture. The white mare would’ve disappeared from his sight otherwise.

Of course, this didn’t mean that Zhang Heng was utterly helpless against the white mare. He simply hadn’t found the key to deal with it yet.

Zhang Heng now regretted not bringing the [White Horse’s Crown] into the dungeon. With that item, he could summon the White Horse Knight’s mount. Perhaps it could compete with Loki’s white mare, but he could only bring a limited number of items each time, so he had to choose from among them. The [White Horse’s Crown] was not that adaptable, and being a C-grade item, it could only be used three times.

With Zhang Heng’s current strength, it was almost impossible for the normal dungeon to force him to use the [White Horse’s Crown]. That was why he did not bring this item with him.

There was no point in dwelling on this matter anymore, so Zhang Heng shifted his attention back to the present. He recalled the story between Loki and the blacksmith, especially the details.

The mare that Loki had transformed into finally led the blacksmith’s stallion, Swaddill Farley, into the forest. This was also in line with the scene when the two first met. Zhang Heng had seen the white mare by the stream in the woods.

So the question now was, why did the white mare come to town when the two had recently met? What did the two encounters have in common?

Zhang Heng’s expression changed when he thought of this.

In Norse mythology, the white mare Loki transformed into was equivalent to a seducer. It suddenly appeared at the critical period of the construction and lured the artisan’s stallion, Svaldil Farley, away.

Of course, there was no stallion in this dungeon. In fact, according to what the hostess had said, not many families in Pripyat and the surrounding area had horses.

Then, the white mare’s appearance was obviously not to attract the stallion. Zhang Heng had met the white mare twice. The time, place, and people around him were all different. The only similarity was that he had driven a car.

Considering that the stallion, Svaldil Farley’s role in the myth was to carry the stones used to build the city for the craftsmen, it was a function that had indeed been replaced by a car in modern society.

So was a car the key to attracting the white mare?

And it was not just a car. Zhang Heng had driven a car more than once in the dungeon. However, the number of times he had seen the white mare could be counted in one hand. This meant that there should be some additional conditions.

Taking Svaldil Farley as a reference, the biggest characteristic of this stallion was not only its speed but also its strength. This was because it could drag a boat full of stones yet walk like a bird, never getting tired.

Previously, when the hostess returned to the countryside, Zhang Heng’s Lada was filled with gifts she had bought for her grandparents, brother, and sister-in-law. After all, she had earned quite a lot of money from Zhang Heng, and of course, she wanted her family to have a better life. Not long ago, when they went to the hotel, there were five people in the car who were quite heavy, but since Zhang Heng had driven fiercely before he met the white mare, the speed trigger condition should be fulfilled.

Was it acceleration by weight?

Zhang Heng thought about it and decided to find a car to try again. This time, he decided to find an SUV—a Lada Niva.

Produced by Volga, the Soviet Union’s largest car manufacturer, its first generation was released in 1977. It featured a full-time four-wheel-drive system and was considered quite powerful for its time, capable of handling extreme weather and road conditions. Upon its release, it sold like hotcakes, not to mention export to China. It was a vehicle that bore the proud symbol of socialist industrial might. Of course, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fate of the Volga car factory took a turn for the worse, almost to the point of bankruptcy.

However, the Lada Niva was still very popular at the moment. A car was hard to come by. Zhang Heng had to walk around half the city before he found one outside the gate of the youth palace.

The car’s original owner should have left in a hurry with the convoy a few days ago, abandoning the vehicle in this abandoned city forever.

Zhang Heng did not have the keys, but that did not pose a problem. Car locks in this era were easy to jack, after all. Of course, in order to save time, Zhang Heng eventually chose a simpler and more violent method. He directly smashed the car window with a stone, reached into the car, and opened the door. Then, he started the engine by connecting the wires.

Zhang Heng drove the newly acquired Lada Niva all the way to the “October” hotel. This was the second hotel under construction in the town. The rapid development of Pripyat attracted increasing numbers of tourists, and the Pripyat Grand Hotel that had been built previously was already unable to meet demand. Thus, the Pripyat city government decided to build a second hotel. However, after the explosion of reactor No. 4, the hotel was destined never to be completed.

Fortunately, Zhang Heng did not come here to stay. He parked the SUV beside a pile of bricks at the construction site and loaded them into the car to increase its weight. He didn’t carry too much, roughly estimating the weight of the bricks he had used to drive to the countryside and drive the players to the hotel. He chose a middle value and placed bricks of the same weight at the back of the car.

After doing all this, the body of the Lada Niva slightly sank.

He returned to the driver’s seat and restarted the car. The engine roared to life, seemingly showing off the muscles of the steel beast.

Zhang Heng drove the SUV to the main road of Pripyat’s city center. Because Soviet city leaders believed that the city would develop rapidly and be filled with cars soon, they had planned the streets to be very spacious at the beginning of the construction. In addition, few people were in the city now, so it was very suitable for racing.

Zhang Heng removed the annoying door on the left side of the car. He held the steering wheel with one hand and the [Pestilence Bone Bow] with the other. As for the [Paris’ Arrow], he bit it in his mouth with his teeth.. After making all the preparations, Zhang Heng stepped on the accelerator.