Terror Infinity Volume 5 Chapter 1

Vol 5. The Mummy

Chapter 1
In Thebes, Egypt, 1290 BC, high priest Imhotep engaged in an affair with Ancksu-Namun,
the mistress of Pharaoh Seti I. When the Pharaoh discovered their
tryst, Imhotep and Anck-su-Namun murdered the monarch. As Seti’s guards arrive,
Imhotep fled while Anck-su-Namun killed herself.
After Anck-su-Namun’s burial, Imhotep and his priests stole her corpse and travelled
to Hamunaptra, the city of the dead. He placed Anck-su-Namun’s organs in five
canopic jars then chanted the spell on the Book of the Dead, summoning Anck-suNamun’s
soul from the underworld. As the ceremony was about to be completed,
the Pharo’s guards interrupted it and sent her soul back to the underworld.
Imhotep’s priests were all mummified alive. Imhotep was sentenced to immortal
agony, condemned to suffer the Hom Dai curse, having his tongue removed and
then being buried alive with flesh eating scarab beetles. He was buried under high
security, sealed away in a sarcophagus at the feet of a statue of the Egyptian god
Anubis, and kept under strict surveillance by warriors known as the Medjai; for all
humanity would be doomed should he resurface.
“… This is basically the story of The Mummy that happened several thousand years
ago. And until three years ago, 1923, a unit of the French Foreign Legion accidentally
found Hamunaptra. The legionnaires attempted to open up the tomb for its treasures
but they encountered an army of Tuareg warriors. In the movie, only two people
escaped alive from the attack. The main character of the movie, Rick O’Connell and
Beni Gabor, who later was consumed by scarabs.” Lan said.
“Then where are we now?”
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This was a dimly lit concealed room. Aside from a metal window, there was nothing
else. No, there was a blonde man sitting with his head down and five black haired
men and women lying on the floor.
Zero looked around and said. “This is probably a jail right? And one that was built a
long time ago. Lan, were there any jails in the movie?”
Lan touched her forehead and said. “Yes. The main character O’Connel was one
of the only two people that escaped from Hamunaptra. He obtained the key to
Imhotep’s coffin. This key could also open the Book of the Dead and the Book of
Amun-Ra, two of the most important items in the movie. However the key was stolen
by the heroine’s brother, Jonathan Carnahan when he was in a brawl in a bar. In order
to search for Hamunaptra, Evelyn came to the jail to save O’Connel. We should be
at a time when Evelyn is about to save O’Connel. Just like the previous movies, the
movie should start when other people become aware of our existence. This blonde
man is probably the main character, O’Connel.”
Zheng laughed. “It seems like we are lucky this time around. We have eleven people
including the newbies, so the difficulty of this movie should be that high. I’ve also
seen The Mummy, but this isn’t really a horror movie though.”
Lan also laughed. “Yeah, this isn’t a horror movie, but even if it isn’t, as long as the
movie is dangerous and has a high mortality rate, it will fit God’s criteria. So our
deduction is confirmed, the movie doesn’t have to be a horror movie… Eleven man
difficulty, we just have to be careful and it shouldn’t be that dangerous.”
Tengyi was very excited. “Treasures of ancient Egypt and the legendary Book of the
Dead and Book of Amu-Ra! God, I can read hieroglyphics also, even though I am not
fluent in it. I want to read the contents of these two books! This is amazing!”
As they were talking, Yinkong looked at her watch then said. “What does it say on
the watch? It’s crammed with words…”
The others then looked at their own watch. There was no countdown this time, only
words. Zheng immediately walked near the window for better lighting.
“Eliminate Imhotep! Reward each member with a rank D reward… There was also
5000 meters under it, O’Connel?” Zheng read it out.
When he read the name O’Connel, the blonde man’s body glowed.
Zheng smiled bitterly. “It seems like we are confined within a range, 5000 meters
around him. Otherwise we will get erased by God… There are more words below.”
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“After Imhotep is resurrected, Team India will enter this world. Killing a normal member
will be rewarded 2000 points and a rank C reward, killing an unlocked member
will be rewarded 7000 points and a rank B reward. Having a member killed by the
other team will deduct one point, killing a member of the other team will earn one
point. The final amount multiplied by 2000 will be rewarded by every remaining
member.”
Everyone fell into a silence as Zheng read it. Then he turned around and looked
at the five of them. No, there were also the five newbies that were getting up. He
muttered. “So… we are going to encounter another team. And judging from this
message, this fight… will be inevitable!”
Lan and the others didn’t look at the newbies. They all turned to Zheng.
“As long as the other team is even slightly stronger than us, they will want to kill us.
Once they killed one of our member, we can only kill one of them back. Otherwise
all of us will probably be erased by the end of the movie. Who has 2000 points to
spare for the negative score? So we can only fight back… Once someone opens fire,
then only one team can leave alive!”
The five newbies got up from the ground. A woman immediately screamed as she
patted her body then ran to the corner of the room. The other four people were
making a loud disturbance. There were four men and one women this time around.
A forty something muscular bald man, a thirty something gentleman with glasses, a
twenty something young man with a baby face, and a boy about eleven or twelve
years old.
The woman was gorgeous with long silky black hair, wearing a sexy long dress. She
was 1.7 meters tall. If it wasn’t that for her scared expression, she was definitely a
stunner.
Zheng sighed as he looked at the newbies, then he turned to Lan. “Explain the
situation to them…”
Lan also nodded with a bitter smile, then she began to explain God’s world and its
rules, including death, enhancements, horror movies. After she received the reward
notification, she nodded to Zheng again.
The five newbies seemed a bit bewildered. Especially since they were in a jail, there
was no way to leave. Zheng said to them in a calm voice. “Just like what she told
you, we are currently in a horror movie. Here, you can get injured and die. You
might even die in an unimaginable way. You should know if you ever watched horror
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movies. Like getting infected by a virus, or impaled by an Alien, or sucked dry by a
vampire, or… eaten by numerous scarabs!”
The five newbies shivered, even Lan pinched him. “Tell me your occupations and
abilities. I will determine if you have the qualifications to join my team by your abilities
and character. If you can’t become a member, then I will give you a weapon and a
hundred magical bullets, and also a gold bar. Of course, you can’t be 5000 meters
away from this man…”
The muscular bald man laughed. “Gold? You joking me? I am in a jail. It’s probably
that Wang betrayed me. Stop with your stories, I won’t believe one word of it.” Then
he punched the wall and left a dent on it. It seemed like he had some actual strength.
Zheng and the others looked at him coldly. The bald man suddenly turned to the
woman. He walked over to her while laughing filthily. “Shit. How could they put a me
with a woman together? Do they want me to have some fun before execution? I will
do it. This woman is probably here to make me confess right? If you want to know
where the heroin is then serve me well. Haha… Ah!”
As he reached for the woman’s dress, a hand from behind grabbed his neck. Then it
threw him to a corner.
Zheng said. “Understood. Your occupation is a criminal. Abilities are threatening
and bullying… They are useless against our team. And you are too offensive, I won’t
give you any weapon.”
The bald man got up while shaking his head. He spit out some blood then shouted.
“Fuck. Do you know who I am? How dare you attack me from behind? I am going to
beat the shit out of you…”
Yinkong who was standing there silently the whole time suddenly ran up to him and
as he lowered his head to look at her, he felt a sudden pain on his two arms. Both
his arms were cut off in that instant and before he could cry in pain, Zheng slashed
at him with his knife then he dropped to the floor.
“Ah! Murder! The criminals are murdering people…” The bald man could no longer
keep his toughness. He was crying with tears. After getting both his arms and legs
cut off, he struggled on the floor with just his body. The blood bleeding from his limbs
soaked the floor.
Zheng took out the hemostasis spray and bandage quietly and stopped his bleeding.
Then he turned to the other four newbies and said to them coldly. “I will do this to
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everyone that threatens our team. Once he get more than 5000 meters away from
this man, he will be erased by God. Don’t test my patience…”
The glasses man immediately said. “My name is Gao HongLiang (Liang). I’m a computer
programmer. I am very confident at programming. Ahem. I wish to join your
team. No, even as a test member is ok. I don’t have any requirements, you don’t
even have to give me a weapon…” Zheng interrupted him from continuing. This man
stepped to the side quietly just like he was ordered by his boss.
The young man scratched his head and said. “My name is Zhang Heng. I am a
junior in college. I am also a sub for the Olympics archery team. I am adept at using
composite bows. My endurance is also pretty good. Hoho, can I become a team
member?”
The boy was the strangest of the bunch. He was standing on the wall and was drawing
something in air with his finger. After Heng finished his introduction, he turned
to them and said calmly. “Xiao Honglu. Twelve years old. Currently living in a neurological
institute as a research subject. I have strong premonitions… I believe your
words.”
After the three of them finished introducing themselves, everyone turned to the
woman. She was still staring at the bald man in fear. When she noticed everyone
was looking at her, she screamed. “Don’t, don’t leave me behind… I am Qin Zhuiyu.
Movie, movie star. Haven’t any of you seen my movies? I, I’m good at… right, I am
talented at acting, and my singing is also great… Please don’t leave me behind…”
She started crying as she said this. Lan walked over to her and embraced her. Just
as the men was smiling bitterly at the scene, the door to the jail was opened.
Three guards came in through the door, then they grabbed O’Connel outside. They
acted like they didn’t even see Zheng’s group or even the bald man who was screaming
on the floor. The prison door was left open after they left.
Zheng said. “Good, The Mummy has officially started. The four of you wait a minute
here.” Then he turned to the others.
“Lets discuss what to do with them…” Zheng scratched his head.
Yinkong said calmly. “The best method is… cut their limbs and leave them here. We
don’t have the energy to take care of powerless newbies when we encounter the
other team… This is the most rational method.”
Jie, Tengyi, and Lan all shook their heads, but Zero said. “Right, this is the rule of
the battleground… They are still not our comrades. It’s not worth it if the six of us
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die trying to save them… And we also can’t give them to the other team. Otherwise
we will be at negative 8000 points if they all get killed. Then we will have to kill four
people to even it out…”
“Three versus two huh?” Zheng smiled bitterly, then he turned to the four newbies.
In other words, his decision determined their fate.
“If you are afraid of the other team…” Honglu picked a few rocks off the wall, crushed
them then put them together. As he was playing with the rocks, he continued. “If you
are afraid of the other team, then the four of us can act as baits.”
“Judging from the information you have given us, you veterans should be much
stronger than normal people. That is proven from the human stick on the ground…
You also wouldn’t want any of you guys to get in danger, right. If the other team has
more people than you, better equipment than you, and more powerful than you, then
why wouldn’t they want to attack you? Even if they don’t attack you in the beginning,
how can you be sure they don’t do it in the rest of the movie? Instead of risking your
lives to test them, why don’t you use us as baits instead?”
Not only were Zheng’s group shocked at his words, the other newbies were staring
at him in a daze. He continued playing with the rocks and muttered. “Instead of
being left in this jail without any hope… I would rather choose the path with only one
out of a thousand chance of living. I think this is the same for the three of you right?
Choose to become a bait or choose to die immediately.”
The other three newbies also nodded, but Zheng was stunned. Because this boy
gave them a strange feeling, it was just like… Xuan!
Zheng took a deep breath then nodded. “Ok, the three of you are now under or
monitor, as to you…” He pointed to Honglu.
“You are now a member of this team. We won’t give you any weapon in this movie
and we will monitor you. But we will also protect you. How do you think?” Zheng
looked at the others in his team and they all nodded, then he said it to Honglu.
Honglu threw away the rocks then stood up. “I don’t have any problem with it but
when we have to run, you have to carry me… Oh right, we’ve been talking for over
five minutes already, I think O’Connel is about to get released.”
Zheng then ran outside the jail with everyone. Jie picked up Honglu and said. “Have
you seen this movie? They show you movies in a psychiatric hospital?”
“It’s neurological institute, not psychiatric hospital… Have you seen any main characters
that die in the beginning of a story? That’s why O’Connel is either going to be
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released or some plot is happening. We must stay within 5000 meters of him. So if
he leaves the jail, we will be in trouble if we can’t find his location. Once he gets too
far from us, then we will probably die like that bald man.” He twirled his black hair as
he talked.
(So similar. He and Xuan both give people an ice cold feeling, but it seems like he still
has a little bit of empathy, whereas Xuan is completely apathetic…) Zheng thought.
Then he ran over to Jie. “Did you say you have a premonition ability? We can you
foretell? The future or…”
“Death! I can foretell when death is coming… Don’t worry, if any of you are going to
die, I will let you know.” He laughed coldly then pulled a string of hair. He put it on
his fingertip and blew it. The hair then flew away.
The corridor of this jail was filled with prisoners who were looking out through the
bars. The corridor formed a half circle and surrounded a stage. In the center of the
stage was a gallows. O’Connel was standing on that gallows.
Honglu suddenly asked Zheng in a rushed tone. “Can the plot be changed? Like if
we kill O’Connel now, what will happen to the movie?”
Zheng was surprised then said. “Then… something will probably change because
the plot has changed. Like Imhotep will get resurrected instantly or we will have to
follow another character, or we will have to search for the Hamunaptra ourselves…
Are you feeling anything?”
Honglu pulled the hair in front of his forehead and said calmly. “Since the plot can
be changed, everything can happen in this movie after we entered this world. I don’t
know why but I feel like O’Connel is going to die during his execution. Even though I
don’t know how he was rescued in the movie, but if you don’t want the plot to change
from the main character dying, then you can rescue him in a bit…”
Zheng was decisive and immediately turned to Zero. “Zero, you still have the pistol
with a silencer right? Can you shoot the rope used for hanging from here?”
Zero looked at the stage then nodded. “No problem. I can see everything clearly…
If it’s just the rope, I can shoot it without anyone noticing.”
The era was after World War 1 and before World War 2 started. There weren’t any
silencers in this era so they don’t have to worry about people noticing the gunshot.
They surrounded Zero from all sides so people couldn’t see what he was holding.
Then the gallows was activated and O’Connel was hanging in midair. In the original
plot, the heroine should be persuading the warden to release O’Connel but ten sec-
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onds had passed and there was no order to release him. As O’Connel’s breath was
getting weaker and weaker, the rope snapped and he fell to the ground. No one
noticed the little bullet hole on the ground.
Zheng and the others all turned to Honglu. The boy pulled a hair and put it on his
finger tip then blew it away. He muttered “… Infinite possibilities?”
Chapter 2
Zheng’s group was well dressed compared to the other prisoners. So they easily
walked out of the jail. The guards only thought of them as visitors. And this jail
wasn’t a legit jail anyway. They waited by the entrance of the jail for O’Connel to
come out.
As they were waiting, Zheng turned to Honglu. “You said you were a research subject
in a neurological institute, then you don’t have any mental disorder?”
Honglu twirled his hair around his finger. “Right. I have highly developed central
nervous system and cerebral cortex which allow me to sense some strange things…
Like an air of death surrounding us. Some of us are going to die soon.”
The others looked awkward as he said this. Of course, anyone being told they were
about to die from a twelve year old boy would be like this. They couldn’t really get
mad at a little boy.
Zheng laughed. He crouched down then looked into Honglu’s eyes. “Are there really
ESP in this world? Premonition of death can count as ESP right?”
Honglu smiled then pulled a string of hair. “Do you know about sixth sense? Everyone
is able to infer or sense their future from the all the information around them
subconsciously. It’s just that some people have a stronger sense than others. Among
all the senses, those concerning death are the strongest. The effects of my highly
developed brain are extraordinary reasoning ability and being able to accept the signals
people send out subconsciously about the death they sense. The world through
my eyes… is gray. I can see the everyone’s premonitions of their deaths. Those that
have a deeper gray color are more likely to die… Just like you, you have the deepest
color among us.”
Zheng was surprised then he forced a smile. “Inevitable death? Or can it be
changed?”
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“Just a possibility of dying. Like O’Connel who took a walk on the brink of death. He
had an even deeper gray color than you do…”
Then the movie star Zhuiyu crouched next to him with a smile and said. “Little boy,
how deep is the gray color on me?” She put out her hand to touch his head.
Honglu slapped her hand away then sneered. “Even though the gray on you isn’t as
deep as his, but I were you, I would write down my will now… You are more susceptible
to dying than anyone else.”
Zhuiyu’s face immediately turned pale white. Her hand froze there in mid air.
Honglu then crouched down then twirled his hair around his fingers. “There isn’t
enough information. I don’t even know your names and abilities so I can’t do anymore
deductions. I will continue with the deductions after O’Connel comes out and we get
in touch with him.”
Zheng looked at the other veterans then he said to Honglu. “My name is Zheng Zha,
the temporary leader of this team. I probably have the strongest close combat ability.
Unlocked the second stage of the genetic constraint, have the bloodline of a vampire
viscount, intermediate level Qi, and one blood energy spell… This is Zhang Jie. He
has survived the most movies… This is Zhan Lan. She’s weak in combat and stamina,
but her enhancements are magical abilities. She currently has two spells that can
increase a person’s speed and stamina. Her reasoning abilities are also quite good…
This is Zero. He was a professional assassin. Skilled in long distance sniping, has a
Gauss sniper rifle that has a very long range and power. Given enough distance, he
can eliminate multiple enemies… This is Zhao Yinkong, also an assassin. But she’s
skilled in close combat. She has a dagger that can burn the souls of its victims, very
effective against spiritual beings. She’s also the second member that unlocked the
genetic constraint… This is Qi Tengyi. He is an antique appraiser, very knowledgable
with antiques. His is irreplaceable in movies such as this one.”
Honglu lowered his head and thought. “What’s the genetic constraint? It seems like
the key to the battle between the teams.”
Zheng nodded. “Yes. A very talented person who was here before deduced the goal
of God’s world is to force people to evolve. And unlocking the genetic constraint
marks the evolution of the organism. Once a team accumulates three people that
unlocked the constraint, even if one or two of them died, this team will encounter
other teams in random. God set a high reward to incentivize the teams to kill each
other… Once a person is killed by the other team, then only one team can leave alive.”
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Honglu pulled another hair and stared at it quietly. “Is that so? If God’s goal isn’t to
have us survive but rather to unlock the constraint in the brink of death… then my
deductions are correct. I have been thinking if killing a member of the other team
gives points, why don’t both teams trade their newbies away? As long as both teams
kill an equal amount, then it doesn’t violate God’s goal yet you still get the rewards
to enhance yourself. Then why don’t the teams use this method? So that’s why…”
Everyone looked at him in confusion. Honglu didn’t explain anything. He twirled his
hair around his fingers quietly until O’Connel, Evelyn and her brother Jonathan came
out from the entrance. Everyone then followed behind the casts quietly. After they
walked through a few streets, Honglu muttered. “It’s about… 5000 meters.”
“Huh?” They looked at him in confusion.
Suddenly a notification appeared in their head.
“One member killed. Team China minus one point. Currently at negative 2000 points.
Members with negative points at the end of the movie will be erased…”
As everyone was shocked, Honglu pulled the hair on his forehead and said calmly.
“Once someone dies, it will minus one point, yet the other team didn’t get any points…
In other words, when I know you are trading me away, I will kill myself first. So the
team that betrayed me will lose one point and the teams can’t continue with trading
newbies. At the same time… both teams will be forced into a battle. God doesn’t
want us to farm points easily. It wants us to kill each other like Gu, until someone
evolved to the highest stage… We are the creatures in that container…”
(Gu poison involved sealing several venomous creatures (e.g., centipede, snake,
scorpion) inside a closed container, where they devoured one another and allegedly
concentrated their toxins into a single survivor. )
They were already at negative one point now which made them felt heavily burdened.
Their only choice was to fight. Either kill a person from the other team or the majority
of the group would be erased at the end. Aside from Zheng, most of them wouldn’t
be able to take the 2000 point hit.
“We’ve been thinking about how to avoid fighting the other team but who would have
guessed we have to think about how to kill someone from the other team now… It
feels complicated.” Zheng smiled bitterly.
He thought for a bit then continued. “Honglu, can you analyze the other team’s members?
And why did God put us in this world before them?”
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Honglu twirled a string of hair. “Based on the information you’ve given, as long as a
team has or used to have three unlocked member, then this team will encounter other
teams… What I want to say is, we are definitely weaker than Team India. Otherwise
God wouldn’t put us in this world first.”
Tengyi asked. “Why? Wouldn’t we have to go through more dangers since we are
here first? The desert, the tomb, the mummies, and that Imhotep. Aren’t these dangerous?”
Honglu started to pull another hair but Lan grabbed his hand away. “Stop pulling
your hair, you’re going to become bald.”
Honglu waved her hand away. “I won’t. My hair regeneration speed increased due
to my special cerebral cortex. Even if I pull out all my hair, they don’t take long to
grow back… My scalp gets very itchy when I think. It makes me watch to scratch, but
the itching will get worse the more you scratch. So I can only pulled my hair to create
a little pain… Leave me alone.”
“Tengyi, who do you think has more advantage in a battlefield. An army that get there
first or the later army? Even if the battle took place in a swamp where the environment
and organisms are deadly, the first army will have an advantage. Whether it’s setting
up an ambush, or surround, the group that’s more familiar with the environment will
have the first hand.”
“Our team has sniper, assassin, fighters, and support. We’re only missing someone
that can set traps like land mines. This team is already very strong and we also have
two members that unlocked their constraint. If God still considers us the weak side…
the the other team has a 70% chance of having some magical abilities…”
Honglu pulled another hair, but he didn’t blow it away. He twirled it around his finger
and said. “If that’s the case, then I suggest not engaging them face to face. Magical
abilities are unpredictable. And we have an advantage in long distance attacks…
Zero will be the core in this battle! Snipe them all!”
Zheng was in a daze. “I never thought you are the most violent one here. I always
thought of you as a more intelligent child… Right, how do you know all these? Even
if you are intelligent, this seem like too much information.”
Honglu smiled deviously. For a moment he seemed like a normal boy. “There are
computers in this world. Even though I am a research subject but that doesn’t mean I
am confined. I can go read on the internet when I have time. And in this age, there’s
a genre of novels called fantasy.”
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Zheng was surprised then he laughed out loud. “That’s how a kid should be like. The
you before was just like someone I knew… Maybe he can count as a friend. You were
so similar to him.”
Suddenly the main characters who were walking in front of them stopped. They
seemed to be discussing something. Then Evelyn left with her brother while
O’Connell walked into an alley.
The group looked at each other and without a word, then contintued following into
the alley. Right as they made the turn, they saw O’Connell standing there and looking
at them cautiously.
“Fellow prisoners, are you following me intentionally?” O’Connell sneered.
Zheng was shocked. He remembered it was the same in Resident Evil. God gave
them an identity in the movie world. They were security guards back then and prisoners
right now.
Zheng had an idea and laughed. “Hoho, I heard you talking about Hamunaptra…”
O’Connell immediately reached for his back but he forgot he was just released from
the jail and there was no gun on him. Then he saw Zheng took out a strange gun
and put up his hands. “Haha, you must be mistake, bro. What Hamunaptra…”
Zheng put away his gun with a smile. “Hoho, I don’t want to say anything else. I mean
no harm, just that I wish you can take us to Hamunaptra. I will be responsible for your
safety… In fact, we were the ones that saved you from before.”
O’Connell looked at him in confusion. Zheng smiled at Zero then pointed to a pointed
steel bar on top of a building. It was at least a thousand meters away, they could
barely see that bar. O’Connell also looked over then with a small buzz, the steel bar
snapped. O’Connell looked at them in shock just to see Zero putting away a strange
looking handgun.
It was just after World War 1, so there weren’t even semi automatics, not to mention
a handgun with a range of over a thousand meters. The gun Zero had was tech from
the twenty first century. Whether it was the silencer, or its range, or Zero’s ability, all
shocked O’Connell. He stood there with his mouth open wide and after quite a while,
he said. “… Don’t point the gun at me. Just don’t…”
This could be considered physical threat. Zheng smiled bitterly as he followed behind
O’Connell. In fact, Honglu was observing his actions without him noticing the whole
time. The boy showed a smile of acknowledgement after he took care of O’Connell…
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O’Connell was almost forced to accept their request and bring them to Hamunaptra.
Of course, Zheng then gave him two gold bars which made him feel better. Without
a choice, he brought Zheng and the others back to his inn.
O’Connell seemed like a regular here. He hit up a conversation with a blonde young
man as soon as he stepped inside. Basically about how he stayed in jail for a few
days and almost got hanged.
After a while, O’Connell turned to Zheng. “You guys stay here, I will go sell the gold
first… and buy some guns and ammos. Of course I don’t think you guys need any
guns right?” Then he pointed at Zero with a laugh.
Zheng also laughed. He knew O’Connell was someone that could keep his promise
in the movie. But because of the 5000 meter limitation, he took out another gold bar
from the ring and said. “Due to some reasons, we have to follow you around. But
we won’t be stingy with money. Don’t worry, we are aware of some people guarding
Hamunaptra. We will deal with them when we encounter them. I only wish to find
Hamunaptra.”
O’Connell looked at Zheng in confusion. He grabbed the gold bar and said. “Then
lets hurry. I promised that woman to meet up at Giza port tomorrow morning. It’s not
safe to enter the black market at night. Let’s go.”
The returned to the inn shortly after. O’Connell exchanged the gold bars for a large
sum of cash and coins easily. Not only did him buy himself a bag of weapons but also
new clothes and shoes. When they got back to the inn, he had opened up to Zheng
group.
The inn wasn’t too big but the rooms had everything necessary. During dinner,
O’Connell began to talk about his experience as a soldier, especially the time he
entered Hamunaptra three years ago, and how he escaped from the desert.
“… We received an order to look for the city of the dead, which had an unlimited
amount of gold… Hoho, I almost suspected you’ve found the gold from there… Anyway,
after we had eaten enough sand, Hamunaptra finally came into our sight on a
nice day. The pharoh’s tomb, the books of the living and the dead, and the large
amount of gold…”
“After we reached it, we only had the opportunity to do some simple exploration
before we were attacked by a group in black clothes. They wanted to kill all of us. I
escaped after encountering a strange event. I was going to get killed but the ground
I was standing at suddenly elevated. It was the face of a man, probably the spirit that
13
guards the tomb… Ahem, anyway, I was the only one that escaped alive. Then I was
faced with the endless desert…”
O’Connell took a gulp of his tequila then continued. “Back then I had no supplies
or clean water. And it takes three days to reach the nearest oasis from Hamunaptra.
That’s a desert, without any horse, or camel, it would take at least five days of walking.
Under the harsh temperature and conditions, any human would have become a
jerky…”
“At the third day, I started eating snakes and scorpions, using their blood to moisturize
my throat… Then at night I would dig through layers of sand for the wet sand underneath…
I didn’t know how I made it to the oasis. I probably looked like a mummy by
then. Haha…”
Even though he said it in a normal tone, but the dangers and difficulties were there.
Some of them comforted him while Zero and some others were eating their meals
with indifference.
O’Connell suddenly said. “Why do you want to find Hamunaptra? The gold that you
gave me are of the purest quality. And you don’t even seem to care that much, just
like you are filthy rich. Is the gold from Hamunaptra really that attractive to you?”
Zheng smiled bitterly as he drank his tequila. “If I say I am not there for the gold,
but rather that we will die if we don’t get there. Will you believe it? It sounds so
implausible…”
“Is it a curse? Whatever, I don’t know anything about it anyway. I will do what I
promised. We will leave for Hamunaptra tomorrow… I hope I don’t have to run away
this time.”
(That would be difficult…)
The few of them that knew the plot laughed. In the plot, O’Connell’s group unleashed
Imhotep and had to run away to Cairo. Even though they had ample supplies but
being chased by a mummy wasn’t the best feeling.
“Good! Then we will leave for Hamunaptra tomorrow!” Zheng raised his tequila to
O’Connell and nodded with determination.
Lan suddenly said with devious smile. “Right, we still need to buy one more thing.
That will be our amulet.”
“What’s it?” Everyone asked at the same time, including Zheng and O’Connell.
“A cat!”
14
Chapter 3
By noon of the next day, O’Connell brought everyone to Giza port. Evelyn and her
brother Jonathan were already waiting there. They let out a sigh of relief after they
saw O’Connell but at the same time they noticed Zheng’s group who were following
behind O’Connell and showed signs of caution.
Evelyn was rather straightforward, once O’Connell came close, she asked immediately.
“Didn’t you say you are only bringing us? Why are there so many people? Just
to make it clear, I won’t pay for their expenses. You, you’re O’Connell?”
O’Connell was covered in dirt while he was in jail but after cleaning up and getting
new clothes, he looked rather handsome. Before he had the chance to reply, Evelyn
was totally stunned. “H-hi…”
“Haha, today’s a nice day for adventures. There’s no harm in having more people…
but are they trustworthy? Of course, you know I am referring to the gold. There
isn’t enough gold to split among so many people…” Jonathan laughed as he asked
O’Connell in a low voice.
O’Connell nodded. “Yeah, the weather is suitable for adventures. As to them, they
are probably not interested in gold. Plus they will protect us in the journey… What
I am more concerned about…” He reached into his pockets and took a look at his
wallet.
Jonathan was a skilled thief. He laughed awkwardly. “Don’t worry, I won’t steal from
our own people. Hoho, you mentioned they aren’t interested in gold. Then that
means… they are rich?”
Zheng walked over to the three of them and laughed. “Hoho, I heard what you said…
My name is Zheng Zha, and these are my comrades. We are an expedition group
sponsored by an American billionaire. Our mission is to find all the possible secret
places in the world… Of course, the legendary city of the dead is one of the secret
places. We will take care of the expenses in the journey and provide you with adequate
protection. Of course you have have to listen to our advice and not do anything
that will put us in danger. That’s basically it.”
Evelyn had been staring at O’Connell the whole time and didn’t wake up until Zheng
began talking. “Wh-what! We didn’t join your expedition group! We are looking for
the city of the dead as a private individual, why do we have to listen to your advices?
We don’t need you to pay for our expenses, we can afford them ourselves…”
15
Zheng shook his head and said. “I think you’re mistaken. Our mission is exploration,
we are not interested in the gold…”
Her reaction intensified. She almost shouted with her face red. “I understand it now.
Your goal is the Book of the Dead and Book of Amun-Ra right? Impossible! Even
if such ancient literatures exist, we couldn’t hand them to some rich guy. These
literatures are historical treasures, I won’t let you have them!”
Zheng noticed people around were giving them strange looks, and even sensed
some hostility. He shook his head and said. “Fine, fine, fine. We are not taking
anything ok? Just for exploration, exploration only… Aye, women… everyone is a
paranoia.” Then he boarded the ship.
Evelyn still wouldn’t give up. She pulled O’Connell’s shirt. “Can you promise they
are saying the truth? I don’t care, you brought them here! You have to promise they
wouldn’t take those two books. Otherwise, I warn you…”
O’Connell could only smile with bitterness, especially when he saw Zheng’s group
had already boarded the ship…
Anyway, he finally took care of Evelyn and by the time he boarded the ship, Zheng
had already bought the majority of its first class rooms with his gold. And Jonathan
seemingly became best friends with him after receiving a gold nugget. Of course anyone
who had seen the movie should know to avoid him, because he was a capable
thief.
“Following this river, we will get off the ship by tomorrow noon. Then we will walk west
for about half a day and reach the biggest and only oasis on the way to Hamunaptra.
That’s also a place for merchants to exchange items. We will then buy the camels
and supplies. After that we will go south west and we should reach it after three days
and nights if there are no accidents…”
O’Connell opened up a crude map on the table and said as he pointed to the various
locations.
Evelyn asked. “Accidents? What accidents?”
O’Connell didn’t say anything. He suddenly threw his bag on the table and opened
it up. The bag was filled with handguns, rifles, and bullets. Enough for everyone of
them.
Evelyn was shocked. “I… Did I mistaken anything? We are there for expedition right?
Or are we there for a war?”
16
O’Connell didn’t answer her and loaded a handgun. “Lady, that place isn’t safe…
There’s something under the tomb and it was guarded by a mysterious group… It is
literally the city of the dead.”
Evelyn immediately turned to Zheng. “Didn’t you say you will protect us? I only want
those two books, you can take everything else… Even though my brother believes
there are treasures but I don’t think you can actually find gold…”
Zheng nodded. “I told you we were only there for exploration. We are not interested
in anything else… but you seem to be familiar with those took books.”
Evelyn replied excitedly. “Of course, the legendary Book of Amun-Ra, also called the
golden book of revival (different from the movie), and the Book of the Dead. These
two books contained ancient Egyptian spells. They made me fall in love with Egypt…”
Suddenly, Honglu interrupted her. “What time is it?”
They were taken aback for a moment. Zheng looked at his watch and said. “Ten
o’clock…” He paused and saw Honglu nodded.
Lan had told everyone the plot of The Mummy in the inn last night. Perhaps due to
her enhanced mental capacity, she had amazing memory and told them every little
detail of the plot.
Zheng then remembered that they would be attacked by the Medjai at night time,
about this hour.
“Evelyn, go get the ke-… go get the map and that puzzle box. Zero and Jie go protect
her… O’Connell, come find Jonathan with me, he should be playing poker with the
Americans. Everyone else take guard here. If anything happens, then follow Lan,
Tengyi and Yinkong’s orders… Let’s go. The story starts!”
Zheng stood up and took out his progressive knife from the ring, then headed to the
deck.
Jonathan was playing poker with the Americans. One could tell his luck by looking
at his expression. There was a gold nugget next to the American sitting in front of
him. He had obviously lost the gold nugget Zheng gave him.
“Hi guys, want to play a few rounds too?” Jonathan said as he noticed Zheng and
O’Connell. Even though Zheng was holding the progressive knife, it had such a plain
look that no one would have guessed its sharpness.
O’Connell was a bit confused, he asked Zheng. “What’s happening? You’re acting
strange…”
17
Before he finished the sentence, gunshots came from across the ship and the back
of the ship started smoking. While everyone was in shock, one of the waiters fell to
the ground as blood came out of his chest.
The Americans were the first to respond. They immediately pulled out their guns and
began shooting. O’Connell wasn’t slow either, he quickly swept the gold nugget and
the cash on the table then ran toward Zheng.
Zheng held onto his knife and took out his submachine gun. “O’Connell, protect
Jonathan and meet up with the others in the cabin.”
O’Connell pulled out two handguns and muttered. “These men in black… How did
they find out we are going to Hamunaptra? And there are so many of them…”
“Yea, this is too freaking many…”
Zheng remembered in the original movie, there were only about ten assassins that
attacked the ship. Aside from lighting it on fire, there weren’t enough of them to kill
everyone. Yet perhaps the involvement of Zheng’s group made the assassins feel
threatened, there were several dozens of them and even more climbing on the ship.
The power of his submachine gun could rival the heavy machine guns of this era.
Zheng sprayed at the edge of the ship, breaking it and causing ten of the men in
black to fall off. Everyone looked at him in shock for a moment.
Since normal bullets weren’t expensive, Zheng sprayed liberally and shot a lot of the
men off the ship.
“Still good…” Zheng had been protecting O’Connell and Jonathan’s backs. “Fortunately
these problems can be solved with guns. I miss being about to solve things
this way…”
Jonathan turned around and asked. “What can’t be solved with guns?”
“Like spirits and…”
Zheng suddenly sensed danger and stepped in front of Jonathan with his knife, blocking
two stray bullets.
“… and luck.”
Jonathan was also shocked. He patted Zheng on the shoulder and said. “Nice bro.
Nice… handgun.”
It was as though stealing was an instinct, Jonathan pulled a gun from Zheng’s pocket
without thinking and began shooting. Zheng and O’Connell laughed as they shook
their heads.
18
It didn’t take long for them to reach the others. Evelyn, Zero, and Jie had brought
back the puzzle box and map. The ship was smoking at all sides by this time.
Beside the group were ten men in black lying on the floor, with a finger sized hole
in their chests. Yinkong was cleaning her nails with a napkin. No one would have
guessed this little girl just killed ten people barehanded by that indifference look of
her face.
Zheng put back his knife and gun then smiled. “Are you all ready?”
O’Connell replied immediately with a laugh. “Of course, I remember the shore is at
this direction…”
Jonathan was in a daze. “What ready? Hey, O’Connell, what did he mean by ready?”
Zheng didn’t explain anything. He threw Jonathan into the river and took back his
gun at the same time. Evelyn screamed and grabbed onto O’Connell when Zheng
reached for her. Zheng couldn’t help but took back his hand when Lan suddenly ran
into his arms. Zero and Yinkong already jumped into the river.
“Then… let’s go.”
He also jumped with a laugh. Even though this was a movie but he had already
interacted with the characters. Furthermore this movie wasn’t as dangerous as the
ones before, as least for now. So he got a little excited with the adventure.
The river wasn’t flowing too fast. The group didn’t get washed away by the stream.
They followed behind O’Connell to the shore. The ship behind them was already
engulfed in a flame. They could faintly made out another group also jumped off the
ship.
Although none of them were particularly good with water, they managed to swim to
the shore helping each other. Once they got on, Evelyn screamed. “My god! My
tools, my clothes, and all my writings are gone. God!”
Land had it at ease through the whole thing. She grabbed onto Zheng during the
swim while holding onto a black cat with her other hand. When they reached the
shore, the cat was still staying in her arm without moving much.
Suddenly, a cunning man shouted from across the river. “O’Connell! Hey, O’Connell!
Haha, it looks like you have it rough. The horses are all on this side. Haha!”
“Hey, Beni. Looks like you are on the wrong side of the river. Haha…”
They had to face reality after laughing. Without any tools for transportation, the group
19
had to walk over half a day to reach the oasis. There were some desert plants on the
way and between some chatting on the way, time wasn’t unbearable.
Zheng walked beside Honglu and asked him in a low voice. “We are getting close to
Hamunaptra. How much chance do you think we have?”
“What is victory condition? Avoid them? Kill them? Or finish this movie as fast as
possible, eliminate Imhotep?”
“Victory condition… survive. Have the majority survive.” Zheng thought about it then
nodded with determination.
“The probability would be 10%, no, 7%. It’s too difficult to keep everyone alive. Even
without an opposing team, Imhotep alone would be difficult enough. At least I can’t
think of any way to eliminate him… So, follow the original plot and use the Book of
Amun-Ra to bury him… As for the other team, to be honest, I am prepared to get killed.
You shouldn’t have too much hope. At least half our team will die…”
(At least 5 people?)
Carrying this thought, or perhaps premonition, Zheng followed O’Connell to the
largest oasis. This oasis had an abundant source of fresh water. It was just like a
mini city. It had most ordinary merchandise, especially camels.
The group didn’t take much time. After restocking fresh water and food, and buying
thirteen camels, they continued on the way to Hamunaptra. Even when they got tired,
they would only take a nap on a camel. Three days and nights passed and they were
closer and closer to Hamunaptra.
O’Connell and the other two characters had been living near the desert so they knew
how to conserve energy. But Zheng and the others had it rough. Not only was it their
first time riding camels, Jie and Zero were the only ones that had ever been to a
desert. So after three days on the camel and the hotness of the desert, even Zheng
was feeling rough, not to mention the others. Tengyi, Liang, Heng, and Zhuiyu were
stumbling after they got off the camels.
It was another midnight. Just as the group was getting accustomed to the desert, a
group of several dozen people on horses rode toward them. The leader was Beni,
another person that left Hamunaptra alive.
“Good morning, my friend.” Beni shouted at O’Connell when he was still quite a
distance from them.
O’Connell didn’t answer. He moved closer to them with the group.
20
An American standing behind Beni asked. “Why are we stopping? Didn’t you say it’s
closer to Hamunaptra? Hurry up, why stop here?”
Beni replied calmly. “My friend, be patient…”
Evelyn also asked in a low voice. “What are we doing here?”
“We wait… for our destination to appear.” O’Connell also answered in a low voice.
Then the American shouted. “O’Connell, do you still remember your promise when
gambling that day? Whoever enters the city first gets 500 bucks… Do you want to
see who enters first?”
The sun was rising as he talked. Sunlight shone on the desert and a ruin gradually
appeared. This was the legendary city of the dead.
Several days of hardship on foot. Everyone was excited when they finally saw the
destination.
However, it was more complicated for Zheng’s group. The only way they could return
was eliminating Imhotep. But in order to do that, they had to revive him. Then they
would have to face both Imhotep and another team. No, they must also kill one
member from the other team to save the majority of this team. Words could not
describe how they were feeling right now.
Zheng’s group moved over to the ruin of Hamunaptra. This was a magnificent ancient
city. One could tell its glory from the remains even after several thousand years.
Once inside the Hamunaptra, the two groups settled down together. Evelyn then
dragged O’Connell to search for the entrance to the underground. The Americans
were also looking for their entrance. Zheng discussed with his group and decided
not to go with O’Connell. In contrast, they began to explore the terrain.
“The underground tomb is only a hundred meter deep. O’Connell won’t be more
than 5000 meters away from us after he entered the underground. So it’s ok if we
don’t intervene with the plot. Let’s get familiar with the surroundings first.”
“Zero, find a place that’s suitable for sniping. Jie, Tengyi and Honglu go look for a
place suitable for fighting. Best if you can record them… The rest of you keep an eye
out at all directions. Fire your gun once you see an enemy… Then everyone, let’s
fight for our lives… At least have the majority of us go back!”
21
Chapter 4
Zheng stood on top of a stone pillar looking at the desert. The height of this pillar
was at least ten meters. It was probably once the center of support of a temple. It
had not fallen even after thousands of years.
All there was on the desert was sand and more sand. He had been standing there
for over two hours. Though he had no problem standing under sunlight for so long
with his stamina.
“Hey, how much longer are you going to stand there. You probably climbed up there
with the intention of avoiding me right?” It was a voice of discontentment from the
bottom.
Zheng was paired with Lan. The two of them were responsible for looking out the
north west side of the desert. He climbed up this pillar for convenience at overlooking
the whole area, however Lan didn’t have the ability to do as he did.
Seeing that Zheng didn’t respond to her, she stroke the cat in her arms then shouted.
“Hey! Don’t try to ignore me. You’re acting strange, ever since we came in this movie,
you’ve been acting distant from me. It was the same when we were in the river. You
could have carried me when we swam but why didn’t you do it? You know I am
carrying a cat.”
Zheng couldn’t help but crouched down then looked down to Lan. “I am not ignoring
you. It’s just that we are going to encounter another team and we are already at
negative 2000 points. If we don’t kill a person from their team, then we are at risk of
wiping… Do you think I have to mood to say, hi let’s go on a date?”
Lan looked at Zheng seriously. However she couldn’t make out his expression due
to the sunlight. She replied a little depressed. “Stop treating me like this, please…
I’ve never thought about having an affair with you even though… but I have my limits,
I won’t destroyed someone else’s relationship. You don’t have to avoid me. Really… If
it’s because of the issue with Jie and you don’t know who to trust, then you can forget
about what I said for now. Can you treat me like you used to? Just like a friend…”
Zheng was silent for a moment then sighed. “Isn’t it good enough right now? As a
comrade, I can protect you and you can support me… This is good for both you and
me, isn’t it?”
The two of them fell into a silence. It was awkward as they just stared at each other.
Then the sun set and the sky began to darken.
22
“… A mummy jumped out once we opened that coffin. For real, the mummy was still
moist after several thousand years.” Jonathan described their adventure inside the
tomb. Zheng’s group looked at each other. That mummy was probably Imhotep, just
that he hadn’t been revived yet.
During the night, everyone went back to their camp and ate a simple meal. They sat
together and discussed what happened during the day. O’Connell and the other two
characters of course talked about the tomb while Zero and the players talked about
the terrain.
O’Connell waited for the players to finished then asked. “Are you planning to have
a battle here? This seem like something the military would do, scouting the terrain
with such detail… Bro, if there’s a problem we can solve it together, how’s it?”
Zheng laughed. “This is our problem, we can’t drag you in… Also, you better not get
too close with those Americans…”
O’Connell shrugged. “The Americans weren’t lucky today. It seems like three of their
guides were… melted.”
“Melted?” Evelyn and Jonathan asked.
“Yes, with acid. They triggered ancient traps.”
Zheng suddenly laughed. “There are true curses here and maybe ghosts or spirits.”
O’Connell and the other two were silent for a bit then Evelyn yelled. “Please. There
are no ghosts or curses in the world. I only believe what I see.”
Jie came over and said. “We have seen real ghosts with our eyes. They’re so, so
scary… That ghost killed a lot of our former team members. If it wasn’t luck, we might
have died also. Haha…”
Lan said. “Jie, that’s enough… Evelyn, it will be fine. Don’t believe him. He was just
joking… Jie, do you want to lose points?”
Jie laughed then shrugged. Zheng wanted to say something then suddenly he heard
a large amount of horse footsteps, like over a hundred people were riding toward
them.
Their expressions turned and Zheng stood up immediately. “Prepare your weapons…
There’s probably going to be a battle.”
Just as he finished talking, ten knights in black robes came out from behind the pillars.
A few of the guides the Americans hired immediately fell to the ground. The knights
23
began shooting at the people in the camps and some of them even burned their
camps and supplies with torches.
Zheng was the first to respond. He took out a submachine gun and sprayed at them.
The knights in the front immediately fell off their horses. Then Jie and Zero also took
out their guns and joined. Their weapons were just so much more powerful than
the guns in this era. The knights couldn’t even get close to them. After another ten
corpses, the knights began to back out, leaving behind several dozen bodies and
some injured horses.
The guides calmed down then shouted at Zheng’s group with thanks. ocon and the
other two characters looked at them in shock. The Americans just now came out
from the tomb and didn’t know what happened. They displayed their findings in
excitement, a few glass bottles… and a book in black!
The three Americans walked over to Zheng with the glass bottles. An old professor
took the black book into his tent then tried to open the book.
“Hi, O’Connell. How much do you think these are worth? Haha, I heard you found a
moist mummy. That’s so funny. Maybe you can dry it in the sun and use it for a fire…”
One of the Americans laughed out loud.
Zheng knew that the plot was moving normally when he saw the three Americans
here. Evelyn took out a few beetle shells from her bag with a sly smile. “Look at what
this is. The remains of the scarabs. They are a meat eating insect. We found them
inside the mummy’s coffin. These scarabs can live for several years when they have
a body to consume… That mummy friend of ours was eaten by these scarabs. Oh
and he was alive when he was being eaten.”
The Americans swallowed and felt goosebumps all over themselves. But since they
were the ones that came over to initiate the conversation, it wasn’t easy for them to
leave. So they could only keep listening to Evelyn.
O’Connell understood her intentions and said. “Someone throw the scarabs into the
coffin and let him die slowly?”
“Very, very slowly. He could feel the scarabs crawling inside his body before he died…
From what I know, this punishment was called the Hom Dai curse, the most vicious
curse in Egypt. They were used on the worst sinners. I never heard of it used on
anyone in Egyptian history…”
One of the Americans asked in curiosity. “That’s quite something. Why didn’t they
use this punishment? Don’t you think it is… cruel?”
24
Evelyn rolled her eyes. “The reason they don’t carry it out is because of the consequence
from the punishment. The Egyptians used to believe that if the victim arise
from the dead, then they would bring forth the Ten Plagues of Egypt. The revived
sinner will have unparalleled strength and bring distruction to Egypt.”
The Americans suffered another round of verbal violence and went back to their
tents. Of course, Evelyn had her attention on that book in the professor’s hands the
whole time. She lay down and faked going to sleep. The other people also went to
sleep soon after. The players looked at each other, they all knew what was going
to happen. Evelyn would steal the Book of the Dead and accidentally read it out,
reviving Imhotep.
Everyone was feeling contradicted. On one hand their mission was to eliminate
Imhotep so they had to revive him first, but once he was revived, they had to face
both the mummy and the other team. This feeling of knowing they were putting
themselves in more danger yet they had no other choice was horrible.
As time came to midnight. Evelyn sneaked toward the professor’s tent, took the book
from his hand then sneaked back.
“Do you know this is called stealing?” O’Connell muttered with his eyes closed.
“But… you and my brother call this borrow.” Evelyn laughed. She took out the puzzle
box from her bag and placed it against the book.
O’Connell got up and asked curiously. “I thought the Book of Amun-Ra is gold colored…
Never expected it to be black.”
Evelyn shook her head. “The Book of Amun-Ra is gold colored but this isn’t it… This
is the other book, I think it’s the Book of the Dead…”
O’Connell became serious. “Book of the Dead? Then why are you playing with it?”
Evelyn laughed. “It’s only a book. There’s no harm from reading a book…”
Zheng suddenly said from closeby. “Then you must know how to read hieroglyphics.
Tengyi, you also know how to read it right?”
Both Evelyn and O’Connell were shocked. They immediately gestured Zheng to
lower his voice then they heard Tengyi said. “If it’s reading the characters and understanding
their meaning, then I know how to do it… as long as the characters aren’t
too uncommon.”
Evelyn roller her eyes. She flipped open the book. When she did so, a chill wind
swept through them, flickering the bonefire.
25
Evelyn didn’t pay much attention to it. She read in a low voice. “……….”
Right as she finished, Zheng, Zero, and Yinkong immediately got up. They couldn’t
calm down due to a sense of danger. This sensation was so strong it was making
them anxious. One part of the danger came from below and the other part from the
hills to the west.
The old professor also woke up and shouted. “No, you can’t read them!”
Zheng was the first to respond, he pulled out his knife and quickly climbed up a
nearby pillar. He looked out to the west and could faintly made out a bunch of people
standing on a hill. Yet due to limited vision at night, he couldn’t make out how many
people were there.
Pah!
Zheng instinctively moved the knife in front of his face and a rock hit the dagger. The
force coming from that rock numbed his arm a bit and he fell off the pillar.
Luckily he reacted in time and kicked the pillar when he was still midair. He rolled on
the ground when he landed, avoiding any injury.
The rest of the camp also woke up but before they could ask what happened, they
heard the sounds of insect wings flapping from afar. Several seconds later, they
finally saw what made the noise. It was a group of countless locusts flying toward
them. Just the sight of it was enough to give them goosebumps.
O’Connell picked up Evelyn and followed everyone else into the tomb. Zheng was
staring at the west, that sensation of danger was preventing him from even turning
his head. Fortunately Jie and Zero saw it carried him into the tomb.
Afar from Hamunaptra, that sensation slowly moved away…
This was their first time entering the underground tomb. Everyone was running in
panic. The players were separated during the running and by the time people calmed
down there were only Zheng, Zero, Jie, Heng, Tengyi, and Zhuiyu left. The others
ran into another path.
The tomb was pitch black and filled with a rotting smell. Fortunately Heng picked up
a torch before he entered the tomb. Otherwise it would be difficult to even take a
step.
Even so, Zhuiyu still said with dissatisfaction. “Ew, smells so disgusting. Even worse
than the last time I had to film in an old temple.”
26
The men ignored her. Zero asked. “Zheng, did you see the other team just then?
How many people do they have?”
Zheng said with a bitter smile. “I didn’t get a clear look. It was too far and dark… But
the other team should be very strong. They threw a rock at me from that distance
and I had to block it with my knife.”
He held out his hand and you could see a rupture on his hand between the thumb
and index finger. Although it didn’t seen like a big deal but to be able to rupture
Zheng with an enhanced body would require such power. Because even blocking a
bullet would not had caused this.
Zheng shook his head. “I don’t think they threw that rock. It would take someone that
has at least ten times a normal person’s strength. Furthermore it requires accuracy
as good as Zero’s… That was probably a magical skill, or some sci fi weapon. But I
can’t think of any weapon that uses rocks as bullets.”
They suddenly heard a scream as they were talking. Everyone took a look at each
other then pulled out their guns. Zheng, Zero, Jie, and Tengyi also swapped in the
magical bullets. Heng and Zhuiyu followed closely behind them and ran toward origin
of the scream.
At the same time, eleven people stood on top of a hill ten thousand meters away from
Hamunaptra. A few of them were wearing typical long robes for the desert while the
others were wearing monk clothes.
“Deserts are so much better, even though they don’t have the smell of the dead sea
but being able to touch the sands is a bless… Haha, the sea in Deep Rising can go
to hell and that octopus also.” A black, muscular giant man laughed.
Standing in front of him was a young monk. “Minima, how is the 80 Percentage
Power enhancement from Younger Toguro? Even though it’s one of the cheapest tier
B enhancements but it should be quite powerful when combined with your fighting
style. Did that rock hit the target?”
The giant laughed. “Yup, not bad. The power is almost terrifying. If we just kill a few
more people and get my reaction speed up to par when we go back, then… Haha, I
won’t be scared anymore even if I have to go face to face with an Alien.”
The monk laughed. He looked toward Hamunaptra and said. “… Be careful of that
man. The throw had enough force and Lamu’s psyche power gave you the accuracy.
Yet that man was still able to block the rock and avoided any damage from the fall.
He’s probably one of the strongest in that new team. If they have three people as
27
strong as him… Then let’s treat them as having equal power, keep a distance until
the movie ends… Shanaia, how is the three newbies doing?”
A woman with white skin and dressed in typical Indian woman’s clothes said respectfully.
“Leader, the three newbies have been hypnotized. Arot is checking their potentials.”
The monk looked behind him. There was a blonde European man in a white lab coat
holding on to the chins of two men and a woman. After a minute, he said. “Leader,
these three newbies are horrible, but one of them has an ok brain, probably worked
in an office in the real world.”
The monk moved his vision back to Hamunaptra and muttered. “Then undo his hypnosis
when we go back to God’s dimension. If he has no use then make him into a
fodder like the other two. My summoning creature is about to level up…”
Shanaia said. “Leader, what should we do now? Go into the tomb to fight them or
get in contact like usual?”
He thought for a moment. “No, Team China has just awoken. We don’t know their
power level and they probably don’t know the conventions when encountering other
teams. If we get in touch with them we may get attacked first… The plot is at unleashing
the boss of this movie. We will go to Cairo first and find a chance to get in touch
with them to make agreements… or wipe them!”
Zheng was moving deeper into the tomb. They’ve been hearing the sounds of countless
little things moving on the ground ever since that first scream. As they moved
deeper in, the sounds were getting louder.
Right as they made another turn, they saw O’Connell, Jonathan, and several Americans
running toward them. O’Connell shouted. “Run, there are a lot behind!”
(A lot? A lot what?) Zheng and the others looked beyond them and suddenly lost the
desire to ask. There were countless scarabs chasing after them. One of the guides
suddenly fell to the ground and the scarabs immediately entered his body. It only
took a few seconds before he was fully covered in a thick layer of scarabs. When he
appeared again, he had became a skeleton.
Zheng’s group of six began to run at full speed along with O’Connell. The skeleton
behind them was horrifying. It was indescribable how it feels to get eaten alive.
Zheng, Zero, and Jie were running the fastest. They quickly passed by O’Connell’s
group then suddenly they heard someone tripped. Their hearts stopped for a mo-
28
ment. Zheng turned his head to look behind with panic and saw the movie star Zhuiyu
was on the ground. The scarabs were just one meter away from her.
“You guys run!”
Zheng was getting so anxious that his eyes turned bloody red. Every team member
that died was negative 2000 points. They couldn’t afford any losses now. As Zhuiyu
was about to get eaten, he overcame his fears and sprinted toward her.
He picked her up with a hand then jumped as hard as he can while his other hand
grabbed onto a rock on the ceiling. He and Zhuiyu just hanged there in midair. The
scarabs ran passed them from just ten centimeters below.
Just then another woman’s scream echoed through the tomb.
Chapter 5
After the scarabs ran past them, Zheng released his fingers and jumped down.
Zhuiyu began to cry when she reached the ground and cursed this place and all
the men as she cried. When Zheng sighed and walked deeper into the tomb she
followed him while still crying.
“… All men are assholes, always walk away after toying with women. That stupid
director, those stupid rich people are all dogs. I just have to lift my skirt to satisfy you
and you will…”
Zheng turned around and slapped her on the face, knocking her to the ground and
silencing the complains. He said to her in a cold tone. “I don’t care what depressed
you in the real world! But this is the world of horror movies! Stop talking full of
complains, the one that just saved you is a man!”
Zhuiyu dazed for a moment. She spat out a tooth then jumped at Zheng while crying.
“So what if I am talking about men? How dare you hit me! Do you believe that I will
kill myself right now and drag you all along with me!”
“Fine!” Zheng took out his gun from the ring and pointed it at her head. “You want to
die right? Just say it and I will help you! Don’t fucking think I am joking with you. You
think we come here to play? Become strong then go back to the real world? Fuck, if
you are not determined to live and just keep complaining, if I were you I will just kill
myself! Say it, do you want to die?”
29
Zhuiyu was scared for real this time. She couldn’t say a word and tears just kept
falling down. Then she said with a trembling voice. “No… I don’t want to die. Don’t
kill me. Please don’t kill me!”
Zheng put his gun back then glanced at her. “Don’t think of yourself so precious
once you entered this world. There is only one rule to all living beings here. That is
to live… Follow close to me unless you want to be sucked dry by the mummy.”
Zhuiyu behaved herself afterward but her eyes were filled with hatred staring at
Zheng who was running in front.
After running for a while, they heard a cry around the corner. A woman’s scream
followed it shortly after. It was Evelyn’s voice.
Zheng thought ‘shit’. He could tell what was happening there. Evelyn encountered
Imhotep while he was still in his mummy form. Zheng ran toward their direction.
After they made the turn, they saw Evelyn looking into the deeper part of the path
in fear. On the opposite side of her, O’Connell just came out from around the corner
with the Americans and the other players.
O’Connell saw Evelyn then ran over and grabbed her. “Hurry, what are you waiting
here for? There are a lot of bugs behind… wah!”
They all ran over to Evelyn then followed her vision. What they saw scared all of
them.
A mummy with rotting flesh and many parts were just bones left. This mummy still
had eyes but those eyes were filled with blood vessels, looking at all the people in
front of him. Then he opened his mouth and shouted.
O’Connell and everyone else were dazed then he also began shouting and pulled
the trigger on his rifle. Zheng and the others also began firing their guns. The mummy
got shot to the ground.
After shooting the mummy away, O’Connell grabbed Evelyn and began running away.
Zheng said to his team in a hurry. “Jie, bring them outside. Zero, stay with me to check
on the mummy’s wounds… We used magical bullets just now.”
The mummy was shattered on the ground. Zheng and Zero looked at him and saw
that he was quickly recovering the parts shattered by O’Connell’s gun, just like a body
made of sand. While the wounds that were caused by the magical bullets were still
there. It wasn’t until after the bullet fell out of the wound before it slowly recovered.
30
“It’s not effective… And this is when he is still at his weakest form. After he sucked
the Americans dry then he will have enough power to summon sandstorms. Then
the magical bullets would become even less effective… Aye, tea India probably get
used to the environment by now also.” Zheng said.
Zero fired a few more rounds at the mummy then said. “Let’s leave this place first.
We probably can’t kill him until we get the Book of Amun-Ra… Let’s think about team
India first. Are they strong?”
Zheng fired at the mummy again then turned around and began to run back the way
he came. “Yes, very strong… And they didn’t come to Hamunaptra like we planned.
I can sense that they were getting farther and farther away. I don’t know if they are
waiting to ambush us in the front. Haha, Zero, do you believe that I can lead everyone
back alive?”
“Nope.” Zero was running behind him and answered calmly. “We won’t be able to all
live. Someone will definitely die… but I believe that you will keep leading us, at least
you won’t abandon anyone and run away alone.”
“Is that so? Haha, that’s disappointing… Then, let me continue to lead you guys. No
matter if we live or die, I will not abandon my comrades!”
The mummy shouted again behind the two of them…
Once Zheng and Zero exited the tomb, he instinctively raised his gun, because there
were several dozen men in black pointing their guns at the two of them. His team,
O’Connell, and the Americans were all under their control.
O’Connell laughed. “See, I told you I already killed the mummy. You are making a
fuss about nothing!”
Zheng sighed and said. “No, the mummy is not dead. He’s a monster, normal bullets
are useless against him. No, all types of bullets should be useless against him.”
No one aside from the players knew what he was saying. The leader of the men in
black, a man with a tattoo on his face, said. “All of you leave this place at once! Don’t
ever come back… This is the city of the dead. If you come back again, I don’t mind
making you dead!” Then he led his group down into the tomb.
To be honest, after what they just experienced, no one wanted to stay here. So they
went back to their camp quietly and packed their stuff. Then left on their horses and
camels.
The players followed at the back of the group. It wasn’t until now that they had a
chance to look at their watch. Usually once the plot started moving forward, their
31
restrictions would also disappear. And of course they were no longer restricted by
distance when they look at their watch.
Zheng said. “Now that we are not restricted by distance, what should be do next?
Wait here for team India? Since we are more familiar with this place… or follow
O’Connell and go along with the original plot? Honglu, do you have any suggestion?”
Honglu was riding on a camel in the center of the group. He replied calmly. “No, I
don’t have any good suggestion, but I have two questions… 1. What is team India’s
mission? Eliminate Imhotep or something else?”
“2. Does team India also know of the special effect of the Book of the Dead and want
to obtain it?”
Zheng was confused. “What do you mean by special effect?”
Tengyi said with a little embarrassment. “When I came out from the tomb, I picked up
the book and took a look. The moment I touched the book, I received a notification
from God about obtaining a quest item… It said I can learn black magic. If I know
hieroglyphs then it won’t cost any points, otherwise every spell costs 1000 points.
But I must return to God’s dimension to learn it…”
They all looked at Tengyi in surprise. Then Honglu said. “Even though I don’t know
the reason but we can also use Book of the Dead. Oh, does it take a lot of points to
learn a spell in God’s dimension?”
Lan replied. “Not only points but also lots of ranked rewards. Like I have two simple
spells that can increase your stats temporarily, yet it took me several thousand points
and rank D rewards. Offensive spells will need rank C or even B rewards to learn.
Only 1000 points for one…”
Tengyi said humbly. “I’m sorry… I can read hieroglyphs.”
Everyone fell into a silence then after a minute Zheng, Zero and Jie pulled out their
guns, Yinkong also took out her dagger. They controlled their camels to run over to
the Americans… The Book of the Dead was currently in the hands of the professor.
The Americans didn’t notice the group until Zheng moved in front of them and
blocked their way. That was when they saw the guns in shock.
“Hey, bro, this isn’t funny…” One of the Americans shouted.
Zheng sprayed at the ground in front of them and they stopped their horses. Everyone
aside from the professor also put up their hands… They had seen the power of
32
these guns, which were enough to tear them apart at such close distance.
Zheng said in a calm voice. “I don’t want to say much. Hand me the Book of the
Dead. It isn’t useful to you… And the mummy will come after you if you have it. I think
you don’t want to see that monster anymore right? Give me the Book of the Dead…
I can give you gold in exchange.”
The Americans were giving each other signs, preparing to take out their guns at any
moment. The professor held onto the book tightly, and stared at Zheng.
Once they heard the word ‘gold’, the Americans’ eyes lit up. “Gold… how much gold?”
O’Connell and the other characters also came over to the Americans, but Zheng
ignored them. He took out a gold bar from the ring and said. “Ten gold bars like this
just for a book. Do you think it’s worth it?” Then he threw the gold over.
An American catched the gold bar anxiously. It felt heavy as he held it. It was real
gold, several fingers thick.
He pinched it then bit it with his teeth then said to his partner. “Real, it’s real… this is
a real gold bar!”
The other American also took over the gold and did the same thing then he looked at
Zheng with greed. “Ten… fifteen gold bars! Give me fifteen gold bars then we have
a deal!”
“Ok, fifteen!”
Zheng didn’t care. He took out another gold bar from the ring and as he was going
to take out another one, an American suddenly pulled out his gun. However he
didn’t point it at Zheng but instead he shot the professor at once. Then the American
grabbed the book from the professor’s hand.
The Book of the Dead was stained with blood…
Zheng threw fifteen gold bars on the ground and looked coldly as they were overjoyed
with the gold bars. He took over the book with one hand. A thick and black
old book.
The book absorbed the blood within several seconds just like a sponge. Yet nothing
changed about it. It felt cold to the touch.
“Obtained quest item… Enabled learning of black magic. The user requires blood
energy, psyche force, mana, Nen, Xian energy, or faith energy to learn. Can learn
through deciphering the words or through God. Learning costs 1000 points… User
holding onto this book in the movie will be able to use the spells in the book.”
33
Zheng was standing there in a daze. He had received God’s notification and they
totally shocked him.
Enhancements were expensive, and learning skills were even more expensive. His
Red Flame spell was one of the lowest tiered spell for vampires but it still cost him
a rank C reward and 2000 points. Compared to enhancements, skills were more
effective in combats.
“How’s it?” Jie ran over to him when he saw Zheng in a daze.
Zheng didn’t know what to say and just laughed. “Shit… we hit the lottery… This book
is so thick, don’t know how many skills it has. And they’re also black magic, spells
that should be aimed at killing. Haha…”
Everyone came up to him. O’Connell and the characters were confused but also
came up. The two Americans packed their gold then carried the American that was
injured by the mummy away on horses.
Zheng let everyone touch the book. All the veterans looked shocked while the newbies
thought they were making a big deal out of nothing. Honglu asked. “Is it expensive
to learn spells?”
Zheng nodded. “Very expensive. Not only spells but anything that can improve your
combat abilities instantly is expensive… It takes both a large amount of points and
also ranked rewards. This book is equivalent to a high power level. Once we can
use the spells within it, we can instantly improve our team by several folds!”
Honglu touched the book with curiosity then he crouched down to play with the sand.
“Those blood energy, psyche force, mana… what are they?” He asked.
Zheng answered. “I don’t know about the others but blood energy came with my
vampire enhancement. It’s highly corrosive and difficult to use. Blood spells are also
very expensive…”
Honglu sighed. “I think I get it… This book is a double edged sword, at least for
now. Possessing it means danger… First, Imhotep will chase us to get back the book.
Second…”
“Do you think team India knows of its existence? Even though it belonged to the
movie world but you get a notification once you touch it. Judging by the value of the
book, team India would want to get their hands on it no matter what. They’re very
likely to go all out on us…”
34
The others looked at him in confusion. Jie asked. “Aren’t we going to fight them
already? We have to kill one of their member anyway, otherwise most of our team
will be erased at the end.”
“There are many ways to fight. Like snipe, ambush, set traps, hit and run… but if they
know of the secrets of the book already then they will probably monitor the movie
characters. Once they found out that the book is gone, they can figure out we have
the book. We won’t be able to ambush them anymore. And there’s one more thing I
am worried about…”
Honglu pulled another hair and said with a bitter smile. “… If you can learn black
magic from the Book of the Dead, then… what about the Book of Amun-Ra? What
spells can you learn from the golden book? I think it should be on the same level as
this one. If team India knows of the secrets of these two books already, I can only
think of two possibilities. 1. They plan to ambush us in Cairo then follow the original
plot to eliminate Imhotep and obtain these two books. 2. They ambush us in Cairo
and take our book then come back here to find the Book of Amun-Ra. This is is what
I am worried about the most… do they have the same mission as us?”
Honglu stood up and clapped his hands. “Our mission is to eliminate Imhotep. What
if their mission is to protect him or… kill the main characters of the movie? They might
be able to force this movie to end before we can kill one of them. What should we
do at that point when most people has negative points?”
Chapter 6
Zheng was silent for a bit then he looked around at everyone. “Let’s test the power
of the Book of the Dead first. Black magic sounds powerful enough… Evelyn, lend
me that puzzle of yours.”
The three movie characters were standing there in confusion. They didn’t know what
Zheng’s group was discussing. When Zheng said to them, Evelyn quickly found the
puzzle from her bag. It was the key to the book.
Zheng took the puzzle and opened the book then he handed it to Tengyi.
This man took it with excitement. He touched the hieroglyphs on the pages while
pronouncing them and explaining their meanings. It had been ten minutes and he
was still going at it.
“Tengyi! What did it say? It’s not time for research.” Zheng sighed.
35
Tengyi scratched his head with embarrassment. “Sorry, I got lost. Haha, it’s really
hieroglyphs. Some of these characters are similar to oracle bone script…”
Zheng and everyone else sighed. Then he shouted. “I am not asking you what these
characters look like. What is written on the book?”
Tengyi nodded. “Yes, yes. There are a lot of ancient spells. Like this passage is
about creating a sand man. You just have to read it aloud while mixing the ashes of a
person with sand. It will summon several mummy guards. And this passage is about
creating a storm using souls, which will turn to a tornado. This passage…”
Zheng grabbed the book from his hands and said. “Translate it to me line by line…
Read the tornado one.”
Tengyi nodded. He touched the characters on the book and said. “Souls of storm,
listen to the command of Osiris, form a tornado to tear everything apart!”
Zheng repeated the words but nothing happened. His blood energy was also intact
and the desert was calm as usual.
“No use?”
They looked at each other with disappointment, because this book was their biggest
hope in their situation. If they could make use of the powerful spells on the book,
then they would be able to rival team India. Yet this book didn’t have the power they
imagined or was it unusable at the current state?
Suddenly a thought came to his mind, Zheng said. “Read it in ancient Egyptian pronunciation.
I will repeat it.”
Tengyi took a deep breath and began reading again. Zheng also repeated the dif-
ficult pronunciations. Then he was certain that this book was real. As he recited
the words, his blood energy began to get excited. Several seconds later, the blood
energy was channeling into the book at crazy speed.
Zheng felt the book was boiling hot. He almost wanted to throw it away but the book
glued to his hand and wouldn’t move. Tengyi on the other hand was knocked away
with a scream. The book glowed in a faint red light, although it wasn’t obvious under
the sunlight.
Zheng’s blood energy was getting more and more excited until all of them went into
the book. The book then began to cool down and he could feel an air of coldness. Yet
Zheng fainted after he was depleted of blood energy. He didn’t notice the tornado
that was forming at a thousand meters away. It quickly picked up the sands and
engulfed everyone like a sandstorm…
36
Zheng opened his eyes after quite some time. There was no more sand and the sky
was sunny and clear, not even a little wind.
Zheng sat up and noticed he was tied up on the back of a camel. They were moving
along on the desert. It was as though what he saw before he fainted was just an
illusion.
When the others saw Zheng sat up, they shouted everyone to stop. Jie and Lan got
off their camels and went over to him. Jie untied him with a laugh. Lan handed him
some water.
“How long did I pass out? The sun is about to set… Was the tornado that I saw before
I fainted an illusion?” Zheng took a few gulps of water then asked.
Jie said. “You passed out for a whole day and night. This is the evening of the second
day… The tornado you said was definitely an illusion. I promise! Haha.”
Zheng looked at the other people and they all nodded. “Right, how can something
like that be created by a human… But the book still made me pass out, so it should
be real.”
Zero also drank some water and said. “Of course it’s real… You didn’t summon a
tornado but I don’t know what you did or maybe you didn’t know how to control your
energy. You summoned a sandstorm. If it isn’t for the camels leading the way, we
would have been buried in sand by now…”
“The power of the Book of the Dead exceeded our expectation.” Honglu said with
excitement. “As long as you can control your energy and not let the book suck you
dry… It will be able to let us wipe team India!”
Zheng looked at the hand that was holding onto the book. There was a very faint
symbol on his palm. The symbol that was on the cover of the book, a symbol that
represented Osiris.
In the following two days, Zheng practiced using the Book of the Dead. He was
fainting less and less until he could finally control the flow of blood energy. They had
reached the oasis by this time and restocked their food and water then continued
along the river to the next port.
“Take the boat back to Cairo from there, takes about… two days. Then we will board
the ship leaving Cairo. Don’t worry, I don’t think that monster will chase us across
water.” O’Connell laughed as he explained.
O’Connell went through so much shock these two days. The Book of the Dead was
merely an antique to them. Perhaps it was valuable as an ancient literature but they
37
never thought it would had such power to summon sandstorms or quicksands or
wither all the plants in an area. After Zheng got a hold of the book, he looked like a
mage or wizard from legends.
Evelyn also tried to read the book but unlike when Zheng did it, nothing happened.
There was no magic or anything else. She did not stop and kept at it for over an hour
before she admitted she didn’t have the talent to become a wizard.
Zheng looked at the symbol on his palm in a daze. This sigil emitted a cooling sensation
to reduce the heat during the channeling of blood energy through his hand to
the book. It had no other effect but it appeared on his palm like a birthmark.
“Zheng? Zheng!”
A voice woke Zheng up. That was when he realized Jie, Zero and everyone else
was surrounding him. It was Jie that woke him up and they were looking at him in
confusion. “Sorry, my mind was wandering. What were we up to?”
Honglu twirled his hair and said. “The magics in the book are focused around the
desert. Though if we are to use it to kill a few people in the city, they would not
be so effective. We have also tested several single target spells like corruption. It is
powerful but it takes too much energy and also twenty seconds of channeling. That’s
enough time for the enemy to run away or attack. The spell also only has a range
of 500 to 1000 meters. To be honest, if we can’t cast the spell with proficiency, it is
worse than the Gauss sniper rifle.”
“So the true value of the book isn’t on its offensive spells but rather supportive spells.
Like the one that summons the dead and gives the caster invisibility. Or the one that
mixes human ashes with sand to create several guards. These powers are especially
important and can change the tide of battle…”
Heng joined the conversation. “Human ashes? Where can we get that?”
Everyone looked at Evelyn. She didn’t give up on the book and was eavesdropping
on their conversation the whole time. Although the players were talking in Chinese,
a well learned person like her could understand the language. When they looked at
her after saying human ashes, her face turned pale and went into defensive mode.
“What, what are you trying to do? You going to turn me into ashes?”
O’Connell and Jonathan’s expressions also changed. Zheng immediately waved his
hand and laughed. “Don’t worry, how could we do that. As to human ashes, do you
still remember what the Americans said in Hamunaptra?”
38
Evelyn and the other two people said simultaneously. “Dry up the mummy and turn
it into firewood… you want to turn a mummy into ashes?”
Zheng thought it was funny that they all said it simultaneously. “Yes, yes. Evelyn you
work in a museum right? It shouldn’t an issue to steal one or two mummies. If you
can’t do it then ask the curator for us.”
Evelyn said loudly. “How is it possible? They are historical relics. Do you know how
much they are worth? Each one of them is a story…”
The greedy Jonathan quickly covered his sister’s mouth and said with a smile. “How
much are you willing to pay? If you are paying with gold, I can ‘borrow’ some mummies
for you. How’s it? Let’s discuss a price.”
Zheng and O’Connell shook their heads with a smile. O’Connell coughed and said.
“I, ahem, we can help you get the mummies but we have some terms… We don’t need
gold but you have to kill that mummy chasing us. I think it isn’t difficult for you since
you have the Book of the Dead right?”
Zheng replied seriously. “We are planning to kill it anyway whether you believe it or
not. But we need your help, like… we need the Book of Amun-Ra to kill it… We need
you to help us find the book.”
O’Connell looked at Evelyn and Jonathan. These two people kept giving him signals,
one wanted him to refuse stealing the mummies, and the other wanted him to request
gold. O’Connell smiled bitterly and moved over to Zheng. Then he held out his hand
and said. “Ok! I accept your request. We will help you get the Book of Amun-Ra and
you will be responsible with killing the mummy!”
“We will definitely do it… if we don’t die before that…”
The group finally reached the port at downstream. This was a commercial port. Most
ships were cargo ships but there were the occasional tourists leaving sightseeing
cruises. Though it was difficult to board cruise from this port. Of course, difficult was
relative.
Zheng still had two gold bars and many more gold nuggets. Just a few of those gold
nuggets got them on sightseeing cruise and even several VIP cabins. Money makes
the mare go, and if you have more money you can make the mare fly.
Following the stream, they would reach Cairo by tomorrow evening. Fate and unknown
enemies were waiting for them there… Would they live or die or struggle with
their lives for that last bit of light?
39
Zheng brought a bottle of tequila to the deck. He barely had the chance for such
tranquility since he entered this world. In order to prevent what happened last time,
he held onto the Book of the Dead himself. Even if someone wanted to see it or if
Tengyi needed to do translations for him, he would not let the book leaves his reach.
No one could win a fight and take the book from him at such close distance, not even
when Zero and Yinkong teamed up.
“You drinking?” It was Jie’s voice from the other side of the deck.
Without turning his head, Zheng took out another bottle of tequila from the ring. Jie
sat down and opened the bottle then took a gulp.
“Are you… feeling tire already?” Jie drank half the bottle at one go then lay down on
the deck.
“Uh? Yeah, tired.” Zheng sighed and also took a big gulp. The alcohol quickly made
him feel hot.
“Because death may come at any moment?” Jie asked after a moment of silence.
Zheng finished the bottle in one go then threw it off the cruise. “Everyone can die at
any moment. After being on the brink of death for so long, aside from the bonds with
people I love making me live on, life and death don’t matter that much anymore. Like
the me before couldn’t disregard someone’s life so lightly, and just take it away so
easily… What really makes me tire is having to fight on one hand and guard against my
comrades on the other hand. If I can’t even leave my back to my comrades without
worrying, that’s the real reason I am tired.”
“If… if…” Jie then also finished his bottle then muttered the words. “Bro. Have you
even wondered why team India is stronger than us? The team names are assigned
based on their regions in ancient times. Team India includes India, West Indies, and
all the land west extending to the Dead Sea and Saudi Arabia. Whereas team China
included all the land from China. We have the most land and population among all
the teams in God’s World. Then… why are we weaker than team India? Aren’t you
curious?”
Zheng took out another bottle of alcohol then said calmly. “That’s why I have been
waiting for you…”
“If… give me some time. If you can live through this time against team India, I will tell
you everything. Afterward… no, there’s no afterward. Want to take a smoke?”
Jie finished his sentence then took out a pack of cigarettes. He threw one over to
Zheng then lit his cigarette and began to smoke. Zheng caught the cigarette and
40
felt as if he was back to Resident Evil when he just met Jie. That cold man and that
cigarette…
In Cairo. Everyone’s mind changed since the first time they were in Cairo. Knowing
that team India had come, knowing that they were the stronger team, and we still
had to kill one of their team member… But the existence of the Book of the Dead had
given them hope. Describing how they felt in one word, complicated.
O’Connell said to Zheng after they got off the cruise. “According to our deal, we
will go get the mummies… and you will kill that monster. Of course, we will also be
responsible for the Book of Amun-Ra… but you must protect us in the mean time.
Ok?”
Zheng nodded. “Ok, we will protect you… from afar. After you bring the mummies
out, we will contact you. Oh, you should bring a cat. It can help you avoid getting
attacked by that mummy.”
O’Connell shouted as Zheng’s group was walking away. “Where are you going? How
do we contact you? Hey…”
“We will come find you. Don’t get too close to us, you may die… And O’Connell,
thanks for your help all this time. See you.”
Several people were sitting in a room quietly in some inn in Cairo. A girl who had her
eyes closed the whole time said. “Team China came back to Cairo. They are by the
port.”
These people were sitting with their legs crossed around a monk. The monk said.
“Who’s close by?”
A tall and slender man with pale skin took out a hand sized device and took a look.
“Minima (changed from Yinima) and Muhammad Joseph.”
The monk frowned. “Minima’s burst is too powerful and may cause disturbance.
Muhammad’s weapon is also not suitable for fighting in a city… Just have them test
team China’s powers. Also get Arot over there as soon as possible. If those two
get injured, Arot can keep them alive. It shouldn’t be a problem with his medical
abilities… Test team China’s powers, lets see whether they are preys or enemies on
equal grounds.”
41
Chapter 7
Zheng and O’Connell’s groups split up in the port. Then they moved toward Cairo
while they discussed a plan on the way.
“Just like what we planned yesterday, leaving the newbies out, the six of us will be
assigned the following responsibilities. Jie and Zero in a group. Zero will be responsible
for sniping, and Jie protect him. Yinkong and Lan in a group. Yinkong
responsible for the assassinations, Lan give her support through acceleration and
endurance spells. Me and Tengyi together. I will be responsible for close combat.
Tengyi help me with the incantations that I haven’t remembered… Any objections? If
no then this will be how we fight. We will use the communication devices that we just
exchanged. They can also show us the locations of everyone.” Zheng said.
Honglu asked immediately. “Let me see the device… If they can show the locations
of our team, what happens if they get in the hands of the other team? How you
considered this?”
Zheng laughed. “Of course. That’s why I am going to set a pass code. If someone
with the device close in on us but doesn’t know the pass code, then it’s an opportunity
to set a trap… Uh. we can’t let non team members know this pass code. We will put
the three of them in a group and we will monitor them in turns. If they do anything
that may put our team in danger… Kill them at once. Even if it means another 2000
points.”
Liang, Heng, and Zhuiyu shivered as they heard this. Honglu nodded. “Then… let
me stay with them. We don’t need the communication device but when we are not
in a battle, you need to have a group to protect us. It’s best if no one dies… but if the
team is in a desperate situation, you can use the four of us as baits. This is what we
agreed on in the beginning.”
Zhuiyu immediately yelled. “Wh-what are you joking? The six of them are so strong
and have weapons and that communication device. Why do we normal people still
have to act as baits? That’s just pushing us into hell. Hey! Why are you looking at
me like this? I’m just stating the facts.”
Honglu didn’t even glance at her. He sneered and said calmly. “Because of the lack
of power… that’s why we are the first ones to die. This isn’t the real world, where
the weak will get protected. Every action we take is for surviving. If all our major
combatants die, our chances of dying is a hundred percent. Team India won’t let the
‘living points’ get away. Understand?”
42
Zhuiyu was dazed, then her face turned red. “But you still should to choose someone
with good enough stamina as a bait. I won’t be that bait no matter what. You will get
penalized by 2000 points if I die right?”
Honglu pulled a string of hair then sneered. “Ladies first… I think the other two are
thinking the same thing. If you don’t agree, the four of us can decide it by votes.”
Zheng looked at them quietly as he sighed within his heart. This boy’s actions were
too much like Xuan, except he still had a little bit of humanness. Xuan was too rational
that he ignored everything else. They both like to place themselves on the side of
the majority. Thus making what they were doing the ‘right’ thing. This was probably
what smart people like to do.
Zheng, Zero, Yinkong, and Jie suddenly looked beyond the crowd. There was a
giant, muscular, dark skinned man and a man with a big beard standing outside the
crowd. A very unique feeling attracted their attention.
“… He’s definitely from team India. Very strong sensation of wanting to kill us… Urgent
situation. We may get sniped standing here. Not sure if there are anyone else
from their team around us. Or we may have been surrounded… Zero, lead everyone
away… Lan, give Yinkong and me buffs. Honglu, think of a way to get away from
them… Yinkong, keep the bigbeard busy. Try to kill him but don’t put yourself in
danger. I will take on the muscular man.”
Zheng made the assignments immediately. Through several movies and guidance
from Xuan, he had established himself as a leader. Even though he wasn’t too quali-
fied, he was developing the qualities of a leader.
The muscular man laughed out loud and said to bigbeard. “Joseph, their responses
are quick. I wonder how strong they are. Have you chosen your target?”
A red assault rifle suddenly appeared on his hand. There was also a dagger on the
rifle, a dagger that Yinkong threw at it. “Don’t have to choose, they have chosen it
for us… The usual rules, whoever kills their target first wins. Loser exchanges 1000
worth of stuff for the other. Seems like I have the advantage.”
“Haha, not so sure. Don’t get castrated by accident…”
The muscular man laughed then raised his fist and punched the ground, knocking
the rocks away. The flying rocks were almost as powerful as bullets, instantly killing
about ten civilians. The rocks also blocked Zheng’s vision. Right as he was using the
dagger to block these rocks, a black object blocked the sunlight on top of him. That
43
muscular man was holding a boulder several cubic meters big and crushed down on
him.
Zheng didn’t intend to go all out immediately. He jumped backward as the man
swung the boulder to the ground in front of him with a loud bang. It pressed over
half a meter deep into the ground. Not only that but he immediately lifted the boulder
up again.
Zheng raised his gun then shot at the man’s chest. At such close distance, even
Zheng himself would not be able to dodge but the muscular man stood there and took
all the shots. The bullets only barely penetrated his skin before they were caught in
between his muscles.
“Haha. Come again. Come attack me! You skinny monkey!”
He laughed then threw the boulder away. The muscles on his body began to expand
until he reached almost three meters tall. The bullets on his chest were pushed out by
his muscle. Then he took out a pair of chained claws (fist weapon) from his pockets.
“Chinese monkeys, come play. Too bad you are too skinny, as skinny as a monkey…”
The man laughed then threw a little rock he was holding. The rock shot by Zheng’s
side like a bullet. It had enough power but its accuracy was horrible. The two of
them were only seven meters away from each other but the rock still missed him by
at least a meter. Then it crushed the wall of a house behind Zheng, creating a cloud
of dust.
(Low accuracy? But its power…)
Zheng turned around and ran toward the cloud of dust behind him. The muscular
man was lost for a moment then he charged at Zheng while shouting. He was so
powerful that each step he took pressed several centimeters into the ground. Then
he had to pull his foot out, making he looked like he was stumbling.
Although the man’s running looked strange, his speed was incredible. Even with the
acceleration buff on Zheng, he was merely faster than the muscular man by a bit. The
two of them ran into the cloud of dust then went straight at the wall on the other side
of the house.
The muscular man hit the wall with his body then he felt a sudden pain on his left
arm. Almost instantly, he punched left with his right arm, causing a burst of air and
dispersed most of the dust in the air. On the man’s left side, Zheng jumped backward
barely scraping by the fist. Zheng was holding a knife dripping of blood.
44
As soon as Zheng landed, he felt difficulty breathing. Although that punch didn’t land
on him, the air pressure it caused was enough to feel the effect. If it were to land, he
would probably be critically injured or straight up die. He just felt lucky as he thought
of this.
The muscular man wasn’t so lucky. His left arm was almost cut off, including the bone.
Only a fifth of his muscles were still holding onto his arm. His muscle was tougher
than steel, that even bullets weren’t able to penetrate it, but the progressive knife
was able to cleave at the molecular level. As long as the object’s molecular bond
strength wasn’t strong enough, the knife could cleave through it.
But the muscular man was tough. He grabbed his left arm as he shouted then pulled
it in two. When his muscles were pulled apart, it sounded like a spring snapped.
You could imagine how tough his muscles were. Even more terrifying was that he
endured the pain and threw his arm to the ground. Then he struck the wall next to
him with his right fist.
Zheng was about to run in for an attack, yet numerous bricks and rocks flew to him
like bullets. He immediately used his knife to block them. He only blocked a few
bricks before his right hand was feeling numb.
(No, can’t tank it through… Lets test the power of Red Flame (blood magic))
Once Zheng was decided, he blocked the next few rocks then jumped backward.
The muscular man was charged at him like a madman at the same time. Zheng kept
running backward without stopping until he reached a wall and jumped up. The
muscular man was like a tank. He charged the wall, crushing it and creating a cloud
of dust. Then he punched upward, sending the bricks and rocks flying. A red light
flashed inside the cloud of dust. Zheng was descending from mid air with his knife
engulfed in blood colored flame.
The muscular man immediately rolled to the side. The knife only caught his left arm,
taking the remaining part of the arm. The flame also spread to his left shoulder. Yet at
the same time, the man’s fist struck Zheng on his right shoulder. Sending him flying
through two houses before he stopped.
It was like the muscular man went berserk. He began to charge again but a man
jumped down from a roof. This was a slender blonde European in his thirties wearing
in a doctor’s lab coat. His speed was incredible. He appeared next to the muscular
man in an instant.
The muscular man was losing his senses and struck at the doctor without thinking.
The doctor dodged to the side and with a flash of silvery light, he made a thin little
45
cut on the muscular man’s arm. Then the arm just hung there without strength. It
wasn’t until now that the muscular man saw who this was. Then he shouted. “Arot!
Why did you attack me? Go chase that dude, I already hit him!”
Arot sneered. “Stop joking. He kicked at your belly the instant you hit him and jumped
off. Even though it seemed like you caused a powerful attack, he only took thirty
percent of the damage… And do you want to die?” He moved to the muscular man’s
left side and cut off a large section of his left shoulder, including the bone.
The man was going to curse but then he saw that the cut off section was burning.
The flame consumed the flesh and bone almost instantly and turned them into ashes
before it disappeared.
“That person probably has vampire enhancement… This ability looks like Red Flame.
Do you still remember the vampire enhancer from team South Atlantic? Leave him
to leader… Also, our probe mission is over…”
“Muhammad Joseph was caught!”
When Zheng was fighting the muscular man near the port, Muhammad Joseph was
fighting Yinkong in the center of the city. The alleys were long and looked identical.
Anyone who came here the first time would get lost easily. Before he knew it, Joseph
had lost track of Yinkong.
“Don’t try to run! Allah do not forgive deserters!” Joseph shouted. He raised an arm
and faced it against a wall. The arm bent open and revealed a gun barrel. Then he
shot several mini cannons through his arm, bombing the wall into pieces.
Yinkong was sneaking behind the wall using a technique from the assassin’s clan to
hide her senses and sound and emerged as a part of the shadow. Even people in
unlocked mode couldn’t sense her existence that easily.
But when Joseph prepared his attack, she suddenly felt a strong sense of danger
and jumped toward the exit of the room. Right as she crossed the door, the whole
room was drowned in a fire. The impact from the blasts almost sent her flying. She
turned around in mid air and stepped on the wall in front of her to stabilize.
As soon as she got on her feet, she rolled away. Numerous bullet holes appeared
on where she was standing and the bullet holes followed her until she went behind
another wall.
“Haha, stop trying to run. You put yourself in this hopeless situation. You can’t even
run away in this environment. I can intercept you from these three houses using my
homing missiles and laser beam eyes. As long as you are still alive, you can’t escape
46
my vision. Don’t try to hide. Don’t try to run. Come out and fight me face to face!
Allah will protect brave warriors!” Joseph opened up his fingers as he was talking
and closed in on the house.
(Laser beam eyes? Can’t escape his vision? Did he mean…)
Looking from Joseph’s view, his left eye could see the normal colors of the world
whereas his right eye had an infrared sensor. Yinkong’s body emitted the highest
amount of heat within this area. Her muscles were burning with every action she
took. They were filled with such power as a result of her training all these years.
“It’s no use. You can’t run!” Joseph laughed out loud. He felt as if he was the hunter
chasing a little rabbit. He raised his arm and fired several more cannons, bombing
another house into pieces. A shadow jumped out from that house and he immediately
fired at it with the bullets through his fingers. For a moment, the shadow was
threw off balance.
Joseph was about to laugh again when he saw that Yinkong was running toward him
using a familiar footwork. She ran up to him while swinging left and right then slashed
on his two arms, causing two very thin cuts. After Yinkong was done, she stopped in
front of Joseph.
“You’re also from the assassin’s clan? All of you are crazy. Cutting someone’s tendons
with just a simple slash… Do you think this is effective against me? Stop dreaming!
Allah’s warrior can’t be stopped with just this!” Joseph paused for a moment then he
shouted angrily. He raised an arm and punched at Yinkong.
Yinkong was prepared for it. She moved backward using the same footwork then she
began running around Joseph in a circle. Gradually it seemed like several Yinkongs
are running around him.
Joseph looked through his right eye, yet all of them contained the same amount of
heat. He immediately fired at them with the finger guns but the bullets passed right
through the figures, as if he was shooting through an illusion.
“In the real world, they’ve already created cyborgs. The infrared sensors caused us
to lose a lot of our men during the first encounter. After that, we created this running
technique to counter it. Running at an extreme yet consistent pace, with every step
taking only several centimeters. This allows body heat to remain in the air for a
moment after every step… Even though your body has many mechanical parts but I
want to ask… do you still have a soul?”
Yinkong pulled out the Hellfire Fang (dagger). It was engulfed with a flame that could
47
burn through souls. The dagger took the shape of the fang of Cerberus.
Joseph’s mind went blank for a moment when he saw multiple daggers in the illusions.
In the meantime Yinkong had already moved next to him in an instant and stabbed
into the joint between his left shoulder. His left arm was immediately disabled and
just hung there without moving. Furthermore he felt a unique pain coming from his
shoulder. The pain was so extreme that he began to yell out loud. That feeling… was
like his soul was burning!
“Mechanical parts also have joints, as long as we find the right spot.”
Yinkong stabbed the dagger into Joseph’s other shoulder and said. “Don’t move, or
die… Don’t talk, or die… You better pray that I don’t see anyone from your team, or I
will assume you contacted them!”
Joseph’s teeth were chattering from the indescribable pain. Yet he couldn’t move
one bit. The mechanical body that had given him a sense of safety felt like a piece of
paper right now. The parts of his body with flesh could somewhat resist these flame
but the flame on the mechanical parts reached straight into his soul. He couldn’t
even open his mouth to beg for mercy or detonate himself. He watched as Yinkong
found his mechanical spine then as she stabbed into his spine, he immediately lost
his consciousness.
Chapter 8
When the muscular man punched Zheng away with an enormous force, he instinctively
kicked at the man’s abdomen. He flew away and hit struck through a house,
then the force carried him away almost a hundred meters before he stopped.
Zheng jumped up as soon as he landed. He felt a sense of pain from the shoulder
that was struck. Everyone movement was accompanied by unbearable pain, but he
clenched his teeth and ran through another house. Then merged into the crowd on
the street and slowly ran away.
After he was some distance away from the scene of battle, Zheng finally got a chance
to check his injury. He teared opened his shirt. There was a visible fist mark on his
shoulder, and the joints under the area were dislocated. Fortunately he had fairly high
toughness after the enhancements, plus he warded off some of the impact when he
was hit. Though this also demonstrated the muscular man’s power. As long as he hit
anyone, that person would most certainly lose the ability to fight.
48
“But he seems to lack control over his power… he didn’t give off a sense of danger,
otherwise I would have gone into the unlocked mode automatically…” Zheng
clenched his teeth then pushed up on his shoulder. In exchange for the extreme
pain coming from the shoulder, he pushed the dislocated joints back into place. He
moved his arm around again. Aside from a bit of pain, there was no more issue.
“You just mentioned… unlocked mode?” A cold voice came from the side. Zheng
turned around and saw a man in a lab coat standing under the shadow of a building.
(Didn’t sense him… Couldn’t even sense his existence. When did he get there?)
Zheng took a deep breath and pulled out his knife. At the same time he took out his
sub-machine gun on the other hand. Even then he still felt the pressure coming from
this blonde man. Pressure that was much stronger than the muscular man. Although
there was some distance between them, he still felt a chilling atmosphere, that was
the feeling of death.
The blonde man stared at Zheng coldly, then frowned. “Don’t worry, I don’t intend to
fight you right now. I just want to let you know… Contact your team and have them
release Muhammad Joseph. Then we will not attack each other. Also tell your leader
that as long as no one from our team dies, this deal will last until the end of the movie.”
Then he merged into darkness and disappeared in front of Zheng’s eyes.
Zheng’s palms were sweating. He didn’t know why the blonde man gave him such a
strange pressure. He had to try his best to focus, like the blonde man was going to
attack him at the next second. It wasn’t until this man disappeared that he was able
to take a few deep breaths.
“Zero? Did Yinkong catch one of their member?” Zheng took out his communication
device as he ran.
“Yes. I’ll tell you the details when you come back…”
Before Zero finished talking, the little boy Honglu’s childish voice came through.
“Zheng? We can’t disclose our location right now. You also won’t find it from your
device. Come to the square in the center of Cairo then we will tell you where we
are.”
Zheng looked at his device in confusion then adjusted the search distance to the max,
which could include about a quarter of Cairo. The devices of the rest of the team also
appeared in the search but these devices were each at a different location, forming
a circle around the center of Cairo.
“So that’s what’s happening… Good strategy!”
49
Zheng understood it almost immediately. It was probably Honglu’s plan to put the
extra devices around the square and only keep one on themselves. So when someone
who went away from the team got killed or controlled, the enemies would have
to search them one at a time. Also because the locations were in view of each other,
anyone who tries to search the locations are definitely going to die… to Zero’s sniper
rifle!
Zheng slowly walked over to the square. He focused his attention on the surroundings
and even jumped through some houses and valleys. Fortunately there didn’t
seem to be any one following him. Then he sped up and reached the square quickly.
As soon as he appeared on the square, his communication device rang.
“Zheng, go to the center of the square from where you are, then keep going straight
until you are out of the square. Don’t do anything else during this time… Yinkong will
see if there’s anyone following you. Let’s go.”
After listening to these words, Zheng took a deep breath and walked over to the
center. He felt someone was watching him from afar. Even though it made him uncomfortable,
he did not feel any danger. The device rang again after he walked out
of the square.
“We are on top of the clock tower south of the square. Come over fast, I want to
show you something interesting.” Along with Honglu’s voice was the sound of metal
tearing apart.
A few minutes later, Zheng reached the top of the clock tower. He pushed open the
door to a room and saw everyone standing around a table. They didn’t even have
much reaction when he entered the room. Zero and Jie turned around to take a look
at him then went back to staring at the table.
Zheng was about to complain of the danger he faced, like almost got crushed by a
muscular man. But the other people’s reactions triggered his curiosity. He quickly
walked over the table then almost vomited… A bearded Arabian was lying on the
table. Honglu was dissecting his abdomen and taking out rounds of mini canons and
missiles. There was a also a flaming dagger on his back.
“That’s basically it. In order to prevent him from detonating himself, we didn’t pull out
the dagger. Up until now, we have cut off the wires connecting his limbs and took out
the self detonation device in his chest. Yinkong actually cut off the wires connecting
the brain to the rest of the body in the beginning, we are just taking precautions. So
we might as well take off all his weapons” Honglu wiped the oil and blood on his
hands calmly. His eyes were fixed on the wires inside Joseph’s abdomen.
50
Zheng forced a smile. “You know this is not what I am talking about… I want to ask
why are you dissecting him? You have the skills and knowledge? And… don’t you
feel a little…”
Honglu laughed. “Disgusting? Or cruel? Don’t be naive. He’s our enemy… And I am
not doing this for fun or hentai. If he really has a way to self detonate, we are at risk
of getting wiped by just himself. Do you wish to put all of us in danger? Just for that
ideology of yours? Don’t kid me.”
Zheng nodded his head with a bitter smile then said. “Yes, I just felt a bit disgusted…
but you are right. If I ever do anything no in line with the team’s interest, please
remind me… And now? Is he still alive?”
“Of course. I am not dissecting him alive. This is just surgery to take out foreign
objects.” Honglu laughed. “He is no longer human in a sense. He’s half robot. His
bones, nerves, and some muscles have been swapped for metals and plastic. Almost
all his organs have turned into electronic devices. Only a small part is still flesh and
muscles… I grew up in a hospital after all so I’ve seen dissections several times. As
long as we take out his weapons carefully, it shouldn’t cause too much harm to the
rest of his body.”
The door was pushed open again. Yinkong walked into the room. She looked at
Joseph’s abdomen quietly. “Have you taken out the self detonating device yet?”
“Even though I am not sure, but I basically took out all the weapons. Now we just
have to wake him up, if he’s still alive…” Honglu waved his hand at her.
Zheng took a breath. He watched as Yinkong walked over to Joseph’s head and
pulled out the dagger. The moment this flaming dagger separated from behind his
head, he immediately opened his eyes and moved his neck a little. Though due to
the wires being cut off, the body below his neck was in paralysis.
Joseph seemed to realize something. He didn’t yell and just looked at them quietly.
After a while, he said. “Why didn’t you kill me? You think you can get something out
of my mouth? Stop joking me, Allah’s warrior won’t…”
Before he finished his sentence, Yinkong had stabbed his arm with the dagger. When
the flame began burning his arm, he screamed in pain. His neck was twitching nonstop.
It wasn’t until she pulled out the dagger did he calm down. His face was pale
white afterward. Yinkong sneered at him. “You know the assassin’s clan… so you
probably know that the word mercy is not in our dictionary. Tell us what we want to
know or I will make you suffer a whole day and night before killing you!”
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Joseph stared at Yinkong. His eyes were filled with hatred. Then he said viciously.
“You won’t dare to do anything to me. Your leader probably received a message from
our team. Your team is not weak, if we fight each other, it will end in a loss for both
teams. Our team has come to a treaty with your leader. Release me and we can keep
a peaceful distance from each other until the end of this movie…”
Everyone looked at Zheng. He smiled bitterly and said. “Yes, a blonde doctor from
his team intercepted me on the way and said if we release this Muhammad Joseph…
then they will keep a distance from our team until the end of this movie. If… if we
aren’t already at negative one point, we should probably accept this suggestion.”
Joseph was pleased with himself but when he heard the last sentence, his face turned
pale white. Especially when he saw that Yinkong had took out the dagger again, he
couldn’t even mutter a word. His lips were chattering violently.
Honglu clapped his hands. “Just like what you know. We won’t let you go. If you
want to die without suffering, then tell us everything including every member’s roles,
abilities, power levels, and items. When we learn of this, we will let you die peacefully.
Otherwise we will crumble you mentally with pain then we can get any secret out of
you. Think over it.”
Joseph clenched his teeth as he looked at the flaming dagger in fear. The pain of
burning of the soul wasn’t something others could relate. Compared to death, he
was more scared of prolonged pain. It was like the worst punishment in hell.
“I accept… Let me introduce myself. My name is Shiva Gantan. Leader of team India.
Although I don’t want to admit it but my reckless team member got caught by you…
I also heard what you just said. You accidentally lost one point when disposing a
newbie because this is your first team battle. No problem. He… we will gift him to
you. But we will also erase his memory. This is good for both of us. Then we will
keep our peace until the end of this movie. Do you accept my suggestion?”
When Joseph was about to accept their request, his expression suddenly changed
and said these words. His face looked calm had a faint smile. “Of course, since we
give away a veteran, we should be the ones to finish this movie. I think you don’t
have any objections right?”
Zheng’s group was shocked. When Zheng recovered, he immediately asked. “Your
mission? Is it eliminating Imhotep? If it is then I will accept your suggestion on behalf
of my team…”
“No, our mission says it will give us the mission after Imhotep leaves Cairo…”
52
Before he finished talking, they saw meteors raining down from the sky onto Cairo.
When they looked out from the clock tower, Cairo was burning in flames. This was
the prelude of Imhotep leaving Cairo!
The watch on Joseph flashed. Honglu picked up the watch and read. “Bring back
the Book of the Dead. Revive Anck-Su-Namun… If the Book of the Dead was used
by a non movie character, kill the possessor of Osiris’s mark and seize back the right
to use the book.”
Everyone looked strangely awkward after hearing it. Jospeh also noticed this. His
eyes turned to Zheng like the others. When Zheng was about to come into his view,
Yinkong suddenly stabbed the dagger into his head. The flames burst out of his
mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. He only got a chance for a short scream before his
head was burned into a skeleton.
Everyone was shocked. Zhuiyu’s scream brought everyone’s attention back. She
yelled with a sharp voice. “God! What did you just do? How can you just killed their
member? You haven’t even given them a reply. God, what if they misunderstand us
and attack us?”
Yinkong gave her a cold smile. “Don’t be naive. Do you think this will end peacefully
if we accept their suggestion? No, because we’ve already used the Book of the Dead.
Even if you give them the book, you will not get their mercy. They will definitely attack
us first afterward…”
Zhuiyu continued yelling. “But only one of us used the book. Just trade him for
someone in the other team. It seemed like they don’t want to start a war with us
either. If you start a war with them, what happens to us newbies? Just wait here and
die?”
Yinkong looked at her like she’s retarded. Zheng said coldly. “I’m sorry. The one that
you believe should be given up… the one that used the book is me! Even though I
won’t abandon my comrades, but when I am faced with the situation, I will kill anyone
that threatens me!”
Zhuiyu immediately turned around and saw Zheng holding a knife with an ice cold
expression. She could feel his intention to kill through his eyes. As if he would attack
the moment she moves. Her whole body froze there until Zheng moved his eyes
away from her then she breathed heavily.
“Of course. We can’t abandon you. In fact, we are in the same boat. Why do you
think they want to make peace with us? Is it because of mercy? Stop joking. The
only reason is because they’re also afraid of our powers. Aside from being the leader
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of our team, you are also our crucial combatant. If you die, will team India still want
to continue with the peace? That’s not possible. Why would they when its a bunch
of free points?” Honglu pulled a hair and said to Zhuiyu in a sarcastic tone.
Zhuiyu’s face turned red but she couldn’t utter a word. Liang patted her shoulders
and smiled. “Then can we pretend to accept their terms and go get the Book of AmunRa
from the tomb in the mean time? There shouldn’t be any danger in the tomb right
now. The mummy is in Cairo, and we also know Evelyn who knows the location of
the book. Isn’t this a great chance to finish the mission as soon as possible? We are
at zero points so it doesn’t matter if we finish the movie immediately.”
Zhuiyu looked at him thankfully but before she could say anything, Lan shook her
head and said. “That’s not possible. The Book of the Dead is a critical item to reviving
Anck-Su-Namun. Not only does Imhotep wants to get it, team India also needs it to
finish their mission. Furthermore, once they learn that the Book of the Dead isn’t
in the movie characters’ hands, they will think of us… In the movie, Imhotep moves
as fast as an airplane after he recovered his powers and can summon sandstorms.
His powers aren’t something we can rival. Even if we get our hands on the Book of
Amun-Ra, we will have to fight team India.”
Zheng took a deep breath and organized these information. “Then our goal is clear.
Since we are not at negative score anymore, we should focus on obtaining the Book
of Amun-Ra as soon as possible and avoid fighting team India… Hoho, looks like we
have are going on an adventure with O’Connell and the other two characters again.
They are the only ones that can find the book easily. We don’t have the skills to
navigate through the traps and maze of the tomb.”
Honglu pulled several hairs and said as he played with them. “Then we have to
hurry. People who watched the movie should know that the Book of the Dead is
on the hands of the Americans right now. And the main characters will be the ones
that can find the Book of Amun-Ra. If I want to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun, then I will
definitely do one thing… Aside from seizing the Book of the Dead, I will kill the main
characters to prevent the Book of Amun-Ra from being discovered… In other words,
team India is probably on the way to the museum. If they kill the main characters
before we get there and find that the Book of the Dead isn’t on the Americans, then
we will be attacked by both team India and Imhotep. That would be a checkmate on
us!”
Zheng was shocked. He could not find a reason to reject Honglu’s deduction because
that’s what he would do if his mission was to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun. He
immediately said. “Zero and Jie go find a high point around the museum. Me and
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Tengyi, Lan and Yinkong will enter the museum in pairs. As for the rest of you…
Honglu come with us, let the three of them stay here.”
Zheng made it clear that he didn’t trust the three of them. If they want to die, they
could go do what they want. But he wanted to protect Honglu.
Honglu shook his head with a smile. “No need. Give me and Heng each a gun… The
four of us stay here. If you fail to save the characters then we will just suicide. We
can’t give them free points right? Of course… it would be best if you can live. I want
to see you can exchange in God’s dimension.”
Zheng took out two guns and some magazines from his ring and took a long look at
Honglu. Then said to everyone. “Then… let’s go! Go save our hope!”
Chapter 9
The distance from the clock tower to the museum wasn’t that far off. But just to make
sure, they each took a communication device then headed off to the museum.
At the same time, O’Connell’s group just left the inn. Even though they made a deal
with Zheng to steal the mummies, they went back to the inn to put down their luggage
and had lunch before leaving for the museum.
“Do you believe it? That wine tastes like blood. No, it turned into blood… I had never
had red brandy before that…” O’Connell complained.
Evelyn said. “All the rivers in Egypt turned red and all the water turned into blood. This
is one of the curses from the resurrection of the mummy. Did you see the meteors?
He has come to Cairo!”
O’Connell said. “I don’t care about anything else. Once we steal the mummies, we
will find a ship to leave Egypt. I don’t want anything to do with those mummies…
Leave the monsters to the professionals. Zheng’s group is much stronger than us.”
Evelyn blocked in front of O’Connell and yelled. “Are you saying we should abandon
our responsibilities? So we could run away? We are the ones that released that
monster! Even if Zheng’s group is helping, we can’t just run away ourselves!”
“Wait, wait.” O’Connell glared at her and shouted in reply. “It was you who released
that monster, not us! Don’t drag us into this responsibility! We don’t have the obligation
to save the world! Plus that monster is impossible to kill. You want us to fight
those bones with our mortal bodies?”
55
Evelyn immediately replied. “That’s why we need to find a special weapon. If memory
serves me right, the other book, the Book of Amun-Ra is the weapon to kill the
mummy… Don’t they already have the Book of the Dead? Let them delay the monster
with that power and we will go find the Book of Amun-Ra. We will definitely be able
to kill it!”
O’Connell scratched his head as if he had a headache. “Wait, what does that have to
do with me? Why should I do this? I am thankful that you saved me from the jail, that
was why I went to the city of the dead with you and brought you back safely! That
was what I promised you and I accomplished it. Why do I still have to help you with
your responsibility? Who was the one that read the words on the Book of the Dead?”
Evelyn was shocked and muttered. “It’s, it’s me… but am I only a promise to you?”
O’Connell pushed her away lightly and walked toward the museum. “You either
choose to stay here and save the world, or come with me and leave this place. It’s
your choice.”
Evelyn followed behind him. She clenched her teeth and said. “I choose to stay!”
O’Connell looked at her in surprise then uttered the words. “Fine. Whatever you
want!”
“Of course it’s whatever I want. I don’t need you to care!”
“Whatever…”
Jonathan shook his head. They seemed like two children in his eyes. Even though
they care about each other, yet they were acting like this.
It wasn’t long before they reached the museum. To their surprise, they saw the two
Americans approaching them with pale white faces. They jumped over to O’Connell
said hurriedly. “God, we saw him, that monster. You won’t believe it, he found the
bodies from the desert and sucked them dry. Those dried bodies are still in the inn.
Fortunately a cat walked pass by and scared it away. Or else we would’ve become
mummies also…”
It wasn’t until the two of them calmed down and repeated the words before O’Connell,
Evelyn and Jonathan understood what they saw.
After the Americans received the gold bars, they came back to Cairo and found a
ship. Although they were willing to pay generously, but the ship wouldn’t leave until
the next day. So they went back to the inn. Once they entered their room, they saw
a half rotted mummy carrying two dried bodies. The Americans’ minds went blank
56
and fired at the mummy. Yet, the normal bullets were ineffective against the mummy.
As the mummy was walking over to them and they were about to be sucked dry also.
A cat that walked by scared the mummy away and saved their lives.
“Yes!” Evelyn said with excitement. “In Egyptian mythology, cats are guardians of hell.
Mummies also belong to the dead so cats are their nemesis. Do you remember that
Zheng carried a cat along the whole time? So that’s why. They knew we were going
to encounter mummies. Can’t we also carry a cat with us?”
“Right, cats are the guardians of hell. Before he completely comes back to life, cats
can suppress him. But that’s only before he complete resurrects. Once he resurrects…
we won’t be able to do anything!” The five of them entered the museum from
the main entrance. As they were discussing the mummy, a cold voice interrupted
them. They raised their heads and saw the curator standing along side a man in
black… that man was the the one that attacked them several times!
100 Posts Milestone
It’s been 113 days since I started translations for terror infinity, and 136 days since I
began doing any translations. I never thought I would go this far. In fact, one of the
reasons I picked terror infinity is because its arcs are short so I could leave after an
arc if I choose to.
I originally wanted a more meaningful way to spend my time than gaming and reddit.
Which did somewhat helped me but I have come to realize the work is much more
tiring than gaming after the initial enthusiasm cooled off. So this isn’t something I
can just do when I want to. At a few points, I thought about quitting, but I am glad I
persisted. I noticed improvement in my ability to express my thoughts, which wasn’t
great even as a math major.
Sometimes it got stressful when I procrastinate. I never thought a hobby can be
stressful. I made it a rule to do translations for half hour to an hour a day, to discipline
myself and be responsible to the readers. But if I don’t finish it before the evening,
I am more likely to get carried away in games and readings, which are much less
demanding.
Thanks to everyone for being here with me. Knowing that someone will read my
efforts had kept me going.
Evelyn immediately hid behind O’Connell. Jonathan also wanted to hide but
O’Connell grabbed him. He and the Americans pulled out their guns and pointed
them at the man in black.
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The old curator shrugged. “Do you want to shoot or know why he’s here? Take a
seat. I will tell you what’s happening.”
They looked at each other and finally sat down. Humans will die to gunshots after all,
unlike the mummy. So they would rather sit face to face with their enemy than the
mummy.
“… That’s the situation. We belong to a secret organization that guards the city of
the dead and its secret. It has been like this for over three thousand years. We
killed anyone and any organization that attempted to lay their hands on the city. We
vowed to protect everything, using whatever means required. We wanted to prevent
Imhotep from returning to the human world at any cost!” The curator said loudly.
The man in black frowned. “Yet we failed our mission because of you!”
O’Connell and the other two looked awkward. Evelyn said in a serious tone. “So you
killed innocent people with this excuse?”
“For the organization and that monster? Let me think…” The curator met eyes with
the man, then said simultaneously. “Yes!”
O’Connell’s group were at a loss for words. After quite a while, O’Connell muttered.
“But why is he chasing us? Just because we entered the pyramid? Didn’t he betrayed
the pharaoh? Why is he still guarding the tomb?”
The man said. “He didn’t betray the pharaoh. He betrayed his responsibility as a
high priest… After he resurrected as a monster, he doesn’t kill people that entered
the tomb but rather people that opened the chest. He will regain some power for
everyone person he kills. Furthermore, he needs to recover the canopic jars to revive
Anck-Su-Namun. This is the reason he is chasing you. Of course, the Book of the
Dead is also something he needs.”
The Americans turned pale. O’Connell said. “The Book of the Dead? Zheng took it
away. Also… Zheng could summon a sandstorm using the book. Didn’t you know of
its power after guarding the tomb for so long?”
The curator and man yelled. “Impossible!” Then they looked at each other in shock
because O’Connell didn’t seem to be lying, and the book isn’t on them.
The curator stood up and said with excitement. “If this is true, maybe we can kill that
monster… Someone that can use the Book of the Dead. There were high priests that
could use the book’s power in historical records. After they used the book, a symbol
of Osiris will appear on their hands. No one else can use the book until they die,
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even the incantation that can revive the dead without using any power. So as long
as that Zheng doesn’t die, Imhotep will not be able to use the book!”
The man in black was also excited. “Not only this, they can also use the books power
to fight that monster and give us the time to find a method to kill it!”
O’Connell asked. “Do you have a way of killing it?”
“Kill it? Of course no!”
O’Connell scratched his head. The situation turned awkward until Evelyn asked.
“Isn’t there two books? The Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra. If the
Book of the Dead resurrects this monster, wouldn’t the Book of Amun-Ra be able to
kill it?”
“Even though we are the guards of the tomb, we don’t have access to these two
books. In fact, we aren’t even allowed to enter the tomb. As the descendants of the
guards of the pharaoh, the city of the dead is a holy ground, a place where the dead
rests in peace. We should not disturb their peace.”
Evelyn said. “I know, I know. But aren’t we protecting the world right now? No one
wishes that monster to resurrect completely. Isn’t it also your responsibility… to obtain
the Book of Amun-Ra and kill him?”
Evelyn suddenly recalled something. “Right, did you mention Anck-Su-Namun? That
monster called me by this name in the tomb.”
The man and curator was surprised. “According to historical records, this woman was
the cause of Imhotep suffering suffering the Hom-Dai curse… He probably thought of
you as the reincarnation of Anck-Su-Namun. If he wants to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun,
he needs the Book of the Dead and a human sacrifice. This human sacrifice…”
“It’s probably me?” Evelyn climbed the stairs to the second floor as he replied. She
stood next to a stone tablet with hieroglyphs.
“According to archaeological researches, the Book of Amun-Ra was hidden inside
the statue of Osiris. But we found the Book of the Dead inside the statue instead. So
the archaeologists were wrong. They mixed up the locations of the two books…”
“If I am not mistaken, the Book of Amun-Ra must be… inside the statue of Ra!”
“Yes! The Book of Amun-Ra is inside the statue of Ra, but… you won’t be able to see
that book!”
A voice came from above. Everyone quickly looked over and saw a dark and skinny
59
man holding an unusual curved blade standing on by the second floor window. He
jumped down while laughing arrogantly and swung the blade at Evelyn’s head!
Pah!Pah!
The skinny man was hit by a series of gunshots during midair, sending him back almost
ten meters, and knocking down several bookshelves. At the same time, Zheng
and his group broke in from a window.
“What are you waiting for! Hurry up and come down!” Zheng rushed into the museum
and shouted. At the same time, a wall on the second floor shook, cracks appeared
and began to expand. Evelyn screamed as she saw it. Fortunately she was smart
enough to run down the stairs immediately.
O’Connell and the other characters pulled out their guns but before they had the
chance to do anything, the wall on second floor exploded. A giant man of three
meters tall came in from the hole. He saw Zheng and immediately shouted. “You
weakling that only knows how to run! Come and fight me again!” He jumped down
from second floor before he finished talking.
Zheng was a bit surprised when he saw this muscular man. His arm had completely
healed. Aside from color of the skin appearing whiter, the arm was as muscular as
before. The man jumped in between Evelyn and everyone else. His feet stepped
into the concrete ground causing two dented footprints. You could tell his weight
and power of the jump.
The muscular man didn’t even take a look at Evelyn. He grabbed a bookshelf and
threw it over at Zheng. Although the throw was powerful enough, its accuracy was inversely
proportional. The shelf went over everyone’s heads and hit the glass display
shelves behind.
The curator moaned and was about to yell when O’Connell, the two Americans and
the man in black opened fire at the muscular man. Yet their bullets couldn’t even
penetrate his skin.
“Shit! Zheng, where did you lure this monster from! Is he the mummy’s subordinate?”
O’Connell shouted as he kept firing.
Zheng shouted in reply. “… In some sense yes, he’s on the side of the mummy. Anyway
you guys hurry up and leave. This isn’t a battle that you can join. Tenyi! Take
them out of the museum!”
Evelyn yelled. “O’Connell! If you dare to leave me behind, I won’t forgive you even
if I become a mummy!”
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O’Connell shrugged as he smiled bitterly. He pulled out another gun and shouted.
“Shit, why did I ever meet a woman like you! Hurry up and come over from the side!”
Zheng saw that the muscular man turned to Evelyn. He had no choice but to take out
his knife then jumped at the man. He slashed at the man’s legs before Evelyn was
attacked.
The musuclar man immediately jumped away in response. He was already several
meters off the ground when the knife reached him. At the same time he punched
downward. The immense pressure from the punch forced Zheng to block it with his
knife. With a loud bang, the ground around them collapsed. The two of them fell into
the room below.
Everyone was shocked. O’Connell asked. “There’s a basement?”
The curator nodded. “Yes, there’s a room below for storing documents, broken
tablets, and broken mummies… Are you sure they are human?”
O’Connell looked at the second floor and said. “I don’t know if they are human or
not, but we if don’t run right now… I don’t think we can be human for any longer.”
The skinny man that was shot away was standing on the stairs on second floor. There
was no trace of gunshots on him, as if bullets were useless against him. His curved
blades were very strange, they were surrounded by a cold fog. The man jumped
down without a word then turned to Evelyn.
Right at that moment, two girls entered the museum from where Zheng entered. The
short haired girl’s hand flashed, a silver throwing knife flew at the man’s neck, forcing
him to pulled his blade back to block the knife. The impact knocked him over a meter
back. When he landed on the ground, Evelyn had already ran into O’Connell’s arms.
The two girls that entered were Yinkong and Lan. Lan frowned as she looked at the
big hole on the ground. “You guys leave first. We will talk later… Wind Spirit!”
Yinkong was already running to the skinny man while holding her dagger. Lan immediately
casted the acceleration buff on her. Her incredible speed became even
faster. The dagger came in contact the curved blade in almost an instant. As blood
dripped from the man’s left arm, one of his blade also fell to the ground.
“You, you’re also from the assassin’s clan!” His face suddenly changed. He didn’t
even try to pick up the blade and instead backed off as fast as he could.
Yinkong’s eyes looked bloodthirsty. She moved toward the man casually step by step,
but her speed was much faster than his. As she was about to enter the attack range,
61
she immediately flipped backward. Several throwing knives appeared at where she
was standing… No, not throwing knives but rather scalpels. A figure in white came
out from the second floor. A doctor like blonde European stood in front of the skinny
man.
Next to the window on the second floor, a monk and several men and women were
standing there. The monk looked down at everyone on the first floor with tease…
Just like how a cat looks at the mouse trying to run away, bloodthirsty, cruel…
Chapter 10
“Unfortunately it seems you ignored our suggestion for peace, or perhaps you believe
you can win against our team. Even if you lost a team member in the beginning…”
The monk walked in slowly.
Walking beside the monk was two women and a man, including the blonde doctor,
the muscular man, and the cyborg, team India had at least eight members.
Yinkong did not take her eyes off the blonde man to look at the new comers. The
two of them were moving in similar manners, silent footsteps, holding onto weapons
with both hands, eyes fixed onto each other, as soon as the other person lets his or
her guards down, they will attack without hesitation like a snake.
“You are the one who caught Muhammad Joseph? Then must be holding onto a
magical weapon. It takes me quite a bit of effort if I have to catch him alive… Young
assassin, snow white skin, red and soft blood vessels. Cut open your stomach and
hold onto those organs then crush them… haha!” He got more and more excited as
he talked, in the end he started laughing like a mad man. He moved toward Yinkong
like a shadow.
Yinkong immediately raised her dagger in front of her. With a clank, she felt a huge
force coming through her hand. The blonde man was holding two crystal like scalpels.
Yinkong could only see a glimpse of light from the reflection before the pain on her
right hand registered. One fifth of her thumb was cut off. Luckily she backed off
instantly and dodged the follow up attacks. Even so, her right hand was already
dripping in blood.
“Wolf doctor Arot… Aren’t you already dead? The European assassin’s clans couldn’t
have let you get away… Why are you still alive?” Yinkong didn’t even look at her
thumb. Her eyes went out of focus, she had entered the unlocked mode as she was
62
talking. Although her life was not at risk yet, the pressure exerting from Arot was too
much, as if he would cut her apart in the next moment.
Arot’s mental state was getting more crazy. He licked the blood on the scalpel, and
with a light pull of the hand, he cut off the tip of his tongue. He yelled. “Virgin blood!
Skin, vessels, muscles, organs, brain… cut open all of them. Hahahaha!”
A woman next to the monk who had her eyes closed the whole time saw his craziness
and frowned. “Leader, he’s going mad again. I can’t suppress it anymore… If he
continues, he will kill everything in his view…”
The monk looked at the first floor quietly and said. “Then let him go mad. We can
see how much power team China has. If he can kill everyone of them here, then we
will start the hunt, wipe out their team…”
Arot kept yelling, his body was convulsing like during an orgasm. Yinkong tried to run
up for an attack several times but as soon as she moved her feet, his eyes would became
fixed on her, forcing her to stop in place. Arot’s body slowly enlarged, breaking
his clothes. His body hair was growing longer until he transformed into a werewolf.
His nails were crystal scalpels instead.
The werewolf raised his head to the sky and howled. Suddenly blood splashed from
his neck, a silver throwing knife stabbed into his neck. Unfortunately its power was
only enough to penetrate his skin and didn’t even reach into his muscle. Arot pulled
out the knife then closed his hand, crushing the knife into coin like. Then he jumped
at Yinkong.
“Run!” Yinkong only had the chance to yelled a single word before she was sent
flying into the shelves. Paper and bits of wood floated in the air. For a while, the
other people could only hear the clanking sounds of metals hitting onto each other,
and the occasional moans from Yinkong.
Lan quickly took out a smoke grenade. She exchanged it before entering the movie
and never thought it would come into use. As she was about to pulled the ring, Tengyi
placed his gun on her head.
Lan yelled with shock and anger. “Qi… Qi Tengyi! You crazy? Do you think they will
let you live if you kill me? Impossible! They will just kill you… Tengyi?”
Tengyi’s eyes were filled with pain. His whole body was shivering but that gun was
fixed on Lan’s head.
The woman with closed eyes said. “The girl from the assassin’s clan had undergone
mental training, I can not control her. This woman seemed to have enhanced his
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mental capacity, it’s not easy to control her either. So I can only control the one next
to her…”
The monk laughed lightly. “No, you did a good job, Shanaia. Kill the four of them
here. The one in the basement should become ground meat by now. Minima’s close
combat is only second to Arot… Team China is only so much, we can…”
Before he finished talking, they heard a huge impact and shout from the basement.
Several seconds later, two people jumped out from the floor. Zheng’s face was full
of blood, his muscles were all puffed up, and his hand was grabbing onto the giant’s
neck. The two of them kept fighting on the ground until they heard the sound of
bones snapped. Minima’s body lost all strength. Zheng’s eyes were bloody red. He
was biting onto the giant’s shoulder, while his other hand was holding a knife next to
the giant’s neck.
“I know you have a doctor in your team. You can swap him an arm even after I cut his
arm off. I only snapped his neck… He’s still alive, but can’t last much longer. Let go
of Tengyi, let them leave the museum or we will trade losses!”
The skinny man with curved blade began moving toward Zheng, but the monk quickly
said. “Stop, Charcoal! Minima is still alive!”
Charcoal hesitated then stopped. The monk walked off the second floor as if he
could stand on air. To everyone’s surprise, he slowly walked down to the first floor.
Zheng had entered the second stage of the unlocked mode by now.

When they were in the basement, due to the lack of light, he didn’t receive much damage.
Although the giant’s strikes were extremely powerful, especially the hand with
the claw, which could crush the wall into powder with a punch. But aside from power,
his senses, vision, and control over his power were weak. While inside the basement,
only a few of his punches scratched Zheng, most of them missed. Though these few
punches still knocked Zheng to the wall. When one side’s power overwhelms by too
much, all techniques can become useless.
Zheng didn’t get too close to the Minima afterward. He attacked with his knife from
the sides. After a few slashes, the giant’s body was painted with cuts. Several of his
tendons were cut off. If it wasn’t for fear of the extreme strength, Zheng would have
probably gotten the knife into his heart.
Minima wasn’t an idiot. After several cuts he knew he would die if he continued
like this. Unable to hit his target while receiving cuts little by little. The glooming
64
realization made him shouted with insanity. He ignored everything and charged at
Zheng, letting the knife stab into his stomach and cut his intestines in half. But at the
same time he also got a hold of Zheng and enclosed Zheng’s body in his arms.
“Keep running! Chinese monkey! Run! You think you are really a monkey? Let me
made you into ground meat! Weakling that only knows how to run!” He yelled then
closed in with his arms. He could hear the sound of bones fracturing from Zheng’s
body.
“Ah!”
Zheng also began screaming like mad. The near death sensation fell upon him. This
was the first time he really experienced this sensation since he entered the movie.
The power coming from Minima’s arms were too strong that even activating his Qi
wasn’t able to help. If he let this continues, it won’t take more than ten seconds
before he gets crushed.
(I can’t die! After going through so many dangers… How I can die here!)
Zheng opened his mouth and bit the giant’s shoulder. A taste of blood rushed into his
throat. He felt a violent and blood thirsty emotion surfaced from within. His genetic
constraint finally unlocked again at this crucial moment and entered the second stage.
His muscles began convulsing, two seconds later his muscles puffed up. This was
the symbol of the second stage, the ability to control his body at will and unleashing
all its potentials!
“Go to hell! Monkey!” Minima was still yelling but before he could finish, a huge force
emerged from within his arms and knocked him away to the wall.
“You are the fucking monkey!”
Zheng’s eyes became bloody red. For some reason, he wanted to drink blood. As
soon as he knocked Minima away, he jumped at the giant. The two huge powers
clashed into each other. Endless combat instincts streamed into Zheng’s head from
the unlocked mode. When his hands clashed with the giant’s, he kicked the ground
and jumped over to Minima’s back, which twisted Minima’s arms then pah! His arms
snapped.
Minima let out a scream then Zheng knocked him to the ground and snapped both
his legs too. It still wasn’t over, Zheng grabbed onto him and jumped up to the first
floor until he finally took control over Minima’s life.

65
The monk was standing about ten meters away. He looked at Zheng and said. “The
second stage of the unlocked mode? Then you are the leader of Team China?
Shanaia… Let that Tengyi say out their quest!”
Tengyi’s body trembled then his voice forced through his mouth. “Eliminate Imhotep!”
The monk touched his forehead with a finger then said. “Eliminate Imhotep? Good,
I thought your quest was to kill Anck-su-Namun. Then… the Book of the Dead is
still on your hands? And you’ve used the book. That’s the reason you refused our
suggestion and risked your lives to save the characters. Because you probably won’t
be able to find the Book of Amun-Ra without them. Too bad that you learned of the
secrets of these two books, otherwise we could have remained in peace. But since
you know them…”
Zheng was surprised, he asked without thinking. “The secrets of the two books?
What secrets?”
“God will put some items inside the movies. These items cannot be exchanged from
God, like the spells from the two books cannot be learned from God. Especially the
Book of Amun-Ra. Even though every person only has once chance, but having it…
Remember, this is the unspoken rule when two teams meet. If both teams are on
the same level, then we will exchange information, such as how to survive a specific
movie or how to run away when the plot changed. We met a team that experienced
this movie, so we also know of the secrets of these two books… But if the powers of
two teams are unequal… Shainaia!”
The monk shouted then opened his arms. A giant serpent about a meter in diameter
and ten meters long appeared behind him. This serpent had two heads with different
colors. When the serpent appeared, Tengyi fell to the ground as if he had loss all his
strength. At the same time, Zheng felt that he lost control of his body. He dropped
Minima to the ground. One of the serpent’s heads then bit toward him.
That huge mouth looked like it was going to swallow him in whole.
The only thing left in Zheng’s mind was that death was looming in. Everything slowed
down at this moment. Tengyi slowing getting up from the floor, Lan running toward
him in panic, shredded papers and wood floating on where they were righting, and
this giant serpent head coming closer and closer. He could faintly smell the blood
coming from its mouth.
If the second stage of the unlocked mode gives absolute control over the body, does
the nervous system counts as part of the body? When you unleash the nervous
system’s potentials, then your reaction speed…
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Zheng’s whole body was violently convulsing. Because of the speed it was convulsing,
everyone could only made out his figure, but his body and face became blurred.
As the serpent was about to bit into him, Shainaia yelled. “I, I can’t… hold him with
the Psyche Chain anymore!”
As she finished her words, Zheng flashed to the side of the serpent’s head, but just
barely getting by. He struck the giant head with the fist that had the ring. And he
channeled his Qi into the ring. It was like snow came into contact with fire, a huge
hole appeared on the serpent’s head instantly. Half of its head was crushed into
powder. Then Zheng gave its head a kick and used the propelling force to fly over
to Tengyi.
“Give me the grenade!”
Though his words were meaningless as his speed was so much faster than Tengyi.
He reached Tengyi in the blink of an eye and grabbed the grenade from his hand.
He pulled the ring then threw this smoke grenade over at the monk. A thick white
smoke began to fill up the museum.
“Ok, everyone leave the the museum now… Shit, what are you standing here for?
Go!” Zheng turned to O’Connell and saw that he was standing there like an idiot.
O’Connell and the other characters came into senses after his shout and hurried
toward the exit.
“Lan, go with them, don’t let them get separated… Tengyi, hurry, help me read this
spell. These are good stuffs I found in the basement… Tengyi?”
Zheng took out a few broken pieces of the mummies, and some sand. Then he took
out the Book of the Dead. But Tengyi was standing there with no reaction until several
seconds later, he collapsed to the ground. That’s when Zheng and Lan noticed a
needle pierced into his heart.
Zheng’s face looked distorted from anger. He held onto Tengyi but he couldn’t pull
the needle out… Judging from its position and depth, as soon as he pulled the needle
out, Tengyi would lose his life…
“Zheng, give me the book. Hoho, my vision is a little burred.” Tengyi muttered, but
blood slipped through his mouth with every word he said.
Zheng held onto him tightly. “Don’t worry, you’re fine. Zero and Yinkong are skilled
at dealing with injuries. You should be fine…”
“Fuck! I told you to bring me the book!” Tengyi shouted but that only made him
vomited more blood. The cloth at his chest was stained by the blood sipping out.
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Zheng opened the book to the page of the spell. Tengyi touched the characters
with his fingers and read them out one by one. Zheng could only concentrate on remembering
these characters and pronunciations. Ten seconds later, Tengyi finished
reading. The monk still hadn’t came out of the smoke. Maybe they weren’t skilled
with close combat, though Zheng felt that the monk went back up to second floor
instead.
“I am just a grave robber. Those ancient relics and the culture of our country, a culture
more magnificent that any other country. I only wanted to bring this culture back to
the world… They lied to me and sold the relics to other countries. I am not a fucking
traitor…”
Tengyi’s voice became smaller and smaller. After his last few words, he lay back
down quietly. Blood stopped coming out of his chest and the needle came out by
itself then floated into the smoke.
“Guardians of death. Listen to my summons…”
Zheng put down Tengyi’s body. He held onto the Book of the Dead then began
chanting the spell. As his blood energy drained, the mummy pieces and sand merged
together then grew in size. Several seconds later, four skeletal mummies with swords
and shields appeared in front of him. Zheng waved his hand at the smoke and these
mummies jumped in with incredible speed.
“Lan, bring Tengyi out. Remember not to let the characters get separated…” Zheng
took a deep breath and held onto his knife.
Lan wanted to say something but when she saw Zheng face, she picked up Tengyi’s
body and ran toward the exit. When her figure went out of sight, a wolf howl came
from the other side.
The three meter tall werewolf stood up. His hand was holding onto Yinkong. Her
whole body was filled with cuts and a part of her shoulder was bitten off. Her left
arm hung there without strength but she was still alive. She looked at Zheng with her
feeble and dim eyes.
The werewolf howled again and threw Yinkong at Zheng. When Zheng caught her,
the werewolf was already sprinting toward him. The scalpels on its claw was about
to pierce through Yinkong’s body. Zheng had no choice but to turn around and take
the scalpels with his back to protect Yinkong. The scalpels penetrated into his body
and the impact pushed him into the wall. The werewolf kept pushing Zheng through
the wall and out of the museum.
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With its claw inside Zheng’s back, he howled and lifted Zheng up. His other claw
was reaching for Zheng’s neck. Yet Zheng couldn’t do anything at this point. As
he saw the monk and the other members of team India walked out from the smoke,
hopelessness began to fill his heart.
Bang!
A bullet struck the werewolf at extreme speed, penetrated him from his right lung
through the chest then knocked him to the wall. The huge force then crushed the
wall. This powerful shot came from the Gaus sniping rifle…
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