Chapter 736: Empire’s Dusk
Naturally, Zhang Heng would not fully believe what the old man in the Tang suit said. However, the timing of the book appearing was indeed a big problem, but he decided to put this matter aside for the time being. Recently, he spent most of his energy learning to control the pair of newly acquired Shadow Wings.
In order to avoid frightening the people on the street, Zhang Heng only practiced his flying technique when time stopped for him. Unfortunately, his flying time was capped at twelve seconds a day. After two weeks of training and exploration, he had finally mastered his flying technique, no longer landing face first.
During his last practice session, he climbed onto a 405-meter-high communications tower, looked at the city under his feet, took a deep breath, and took a leap of faith. His body began free-falling under the influence of gravity, and his rate of descent accelerated. When he was only a hundred meters above the ground, he closed his eyes and pictured the crow in his mind.
Almost instantly, a pair of Shadow Wings spread out on his back, helping him to slow his descent as he flew to the distant residential building. Right before the wings disappeared, Zhang Heng landed on the roof of a building.
The moment his feet hit the concrete of the roof, the wings behind his back folded and disappeared. The whole landing process was a smooth one. He figured that he might even perform more complicated moves in the air if he carried on with the daily training. This skill could prove instrumental in evading ground attacks or even flying over extreme natural environments.
But for the time being, he had achieved his goal—spread his wings and land smoothly during an emergency fall. In other words, he no longer needed to worry about untoward falls from high places.
Other than that, this pair of wings also served as an option for him to escape the threats he would face in the future. Since he had depleted the uses of Shadow Moment and Evil Wall, Zhang Heng had no game items that would get him out of serious trouble, although he had obtained a ton of items recently—the skill set he had helped him overcome many threats of late.
But now, with this pair of wings, he was shielded by another layer of protection.
And it had to be admitted that flying to the heavens had always been humanity’s dream. There were murals that depicted flying since the dawn of civilization. Since then, the desire to take to the skies had penetrated many cultures. Whether it was Western myths or Eastern novels, the gods and demons always had a pair of wings on their backs.
With the advancement of science and technology, people had invented hot air balloons and airplanes that could take human beings into the sky. However, it was still unlike flying freely. Although the ability could last a scant twelve seconds, Zhang Heng did feel like a bird in the sky.
From up there, high above, he could see everything under his feet, free from the shackles of reality. When he looked at the familiar sights of daily life from a completely different perspective, everything became refreshing. Unfortunately, twelve seconds was not enough for him to fly to the clouds. Zhang Heng could only wish that he could reach out and touch the dark clouds.
…
After the proxy war started, the interval between the games he needed to complete had shortened. Before the war, he was required to complete one game every month. Now, he needed to complete one proxy war round in that month. Although his physique would be restored to tip-top condition after the end of the dungeon, the mental fatigue would remain.
Fortunately, it was not a big issue for Zhang Heng since he had an extra 24 hours. In fact, his resting time was twice as long as other players. Therefore, two weeks after the end of the first round of the proxy war, Zhang Heng returned to the game checkpoint and started an ordinary quest.
Prior to this, he learned that Shen Xixi’s score for her first round of the proxy war was 325. Her score was not considered low, but it was not too high either. Especially after the top three guilds had begun to exert their strength, she still qualified to participate in the game’s next round. However, she now ranked 60 on the leaderboard, and she was still falling.
Maybe Shen Xixi didnt give in everything she had to complete the quest, or perhaps other factors were affecting her. Zhang Heng had only seen Shen Xixi used her ability once during Yogurt’s kidnapping incident. The little scale she had with her could probably attack a human soul. The moment she put it to use, her words were enough to shut 1810 down.
Zhang Heng’s figured that it should be a Grade-B game item. Besides, as the agent of Justitia, Shen Xixi should have other abilities. Of course, there were limitations to these powers. She could only attack enemies with evil intentions; the reason she failed to intercept Shen Dongxing that night. However, she remained an excellent decision-maker. If her team members were there, she would find a way to maximize each of their abilities.
The current ranking did not represent her true strength. Besides, Zhang Heng had fallen from third place and was overtaken by the player in that position. The player had dived right into his second round of proxy war. He didn’t take it at heart, though. According to Miss Bartender, the rewards were similar for those who ranked first to fifty.
So, he decided to complete his ordinary quest first.
However, he was a little worried about Fan Meinan, having not heard from her since the proxy war began. Until now, she still had not replied to Zhang Heng’s message. The last time the two met was at McDonald’s.
At that time, Fan Meinan did not look too good. She looked thinner and had Zhang Heng’s offer to help as well.
“I’ve asked about your sword,” the bartender said to Zhang Heng, “The fastest you can get it back is in four days. The latest is a week. I think you should be able to get it before the next proxy war round.”
“Well, thanks a lot.” Zhang Heng sat down and took out the alarm clock. There were only less than ten minutes to midnight. It appeared that Fan Meinan’s affairs had to be put aside first. For now, he had to focus on his next quest.
After setting the time, he laid down on the deck, waiting for the dizziness to hit him as usual.
[Verifying player identity.]
[Identiity verified. Randomly selecting the ninth quest for player 07958…]
[Draw complete. You are now participating in Empire’s Dusk]
“Nerva founded the Antonine dynasty, Trajan expanded the territory, Hadrian perfected the bureaucracy, Antonine made sure that vault was always full. Aurelius wrote “Meditations,” but everything would eventually come to an end no matter how brilliant it was. Where should the empire go now…”
[Task objective: Survive for 80 days]
[Mode: Single player]
[Time flow rate: 480] (1 hour in the real world is equivalent to 20 days in the game. After 80 days, the player will be automatically returned to the real world.)
[Friendly reminder: the game will officially start in five seconds, prepare yourself!]