Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

It is less a ghost and more a stable energy entity, similar to a quantum phantom. It uses obsession and will as its skeleton and some kind of composite energy unit as its flesh and blood. Its only disadvantage compared to mortals is that it cannot eat because it lacks a physical body.

Because the food of an obsessive soul is energy, and it only needs energy. One standard unit of energy is enough to sustain an obsessive soul for a considerable period of time. Moreover, the structure of an obsessive soul is extremely stable, so stable that, given sufficient energy, its theoretical lifespan is infinite. Unless the heart dies, an obsessive soul typically does not perish naturally without external intervention.

This is what is known as the Chosen Immortal Species. This enhancement is less about the obsessive soul and more about the divine soul of a true god. Those who become obsessive souls, even at the initial stage of demonic possession, possess the ability to easily perform quantum tunneling and ignore low-yield kinetic energy attacks. Even when faced with specialized high-energy impacts, as long as their obsession remains, they can quickly recover and re-enter the battlefield after being shattered. And once they surpass the demonic possession level, this power increases dramatically, as if unlocking a genetic lock.

The stage beyond demonic possession is called true demonic possession, and the condition for unlocking it is simple: "unobstructed thoughts." One can reach this stage by understanding one's true nature, knowing what one truly wants to do, and carrying it out. Of course, this is easier said than done. Seeing oneself clearly is not easy, and to achieve "unobstructed thoughts"... usually, those who try to do this are the ones who are "enlightened."

Upon becoming a True Demon, one's power will be even greater. Not only can one freely unleash massive amounts of energy to create impacts at least on the level of a thermobaric bomb, but a domain-like aura will also condense around them. Beyond offense and defense, the aura will possess various unique abilities depending on the chosen path. Furthermore, at this stage, the soul can significantly enhance its various parameters for a short period by burning its aura or obsession. And if one possesses a kind of obsession-specific weapon, known as a natural weapon, it can unleash extremely powerful abilities in this way.

Above the true demon is the demon king.

..........................................

"That's about it." Zhang Jie picked up a glass of water and moistened his throat. "You're currently at the peak of the True Demon level, which, according to the main god's evaluation, is equivalent to the limit of the third stage of the Gene Lock, which is the maximum power Zheng Zha can obtain without crossing that threshold. I don't know much about the Demon King level, but I think you probably don't need it now, because you probably only have a superficial understanding of the True Demon level's abilities."

“You need to consolidate your strength at this stage. My advice is to abandon your physical body at this stage. Don’t think you can solve this problem of the spirit not being united with the body on your own. Instead, wait until you have saved enough money and then hand it over to the God of God to solve it.” He looked Alice over carefully and continued, “You can’t do it on your own.”

"...Why?" Alice frowned her beautiful brows.

"Because this isn't your first body, right?" Zhang Jie shrugged. "Using your own flesh and blood to cultivate a backup body, and then transferring your soul to it when the physical body dies, is indeed a good strategy. However, all the enhancements possessed by the previous body will be lost—"

"You haven't reached the fourth tier yet, your cells haven't awakened, and there's naturally no connection between your flesh and blood. And after your soul transforms, it naturally won't be compatible with this body... In fact, your current state is like randomly grabbing the body of a passerby on the street as a vessel. It's fine if you don't fight, but once you start a fierce battle, this body will not only hold you back, but it might even collapse during the battle."

"The choice is yours. But I think... you're not arrogant enough to believe you can crack a power system that leads directly to the extraordinary in such a short time, are you?" Zhang Jie stood up, brushing off a few specks of cigarette ash that had fallen onto his trouser leg. "That's all I have to say. I hope you can make the right decision."

..............................

An hour and a half passed in the blink of an eye. As the sun gradually set and the Nile River turned dark, the gyrocopter carrying everyone arrived at the area that Zhang Jie had detected as having been shielded from mental scanning.

“There’s no one else around, and the nearest living person is over thirty kilometers away,” Zhang Jie blinked and said to the group. “Meanwhile, my mental scan still can’t penetrate underground. I don’t think this is some kind of ancient magical protection.”

"So it's the main god's intervention. It seems this is indeed the trigger point for the second part of the story." Chu Xuan gestured to the others. "Then proceed as previously agreed. Zheng Zha, Alice, you two take Ming Yanwei down to find the Death Bracelet to trigger the plot. The rest of you stay on the gyroplane to provide support. Patchouli, how many satellites have you launched? Have you established a stable surveillance network?"

“Basically no problem,” Patchouli pointed to the box beside her. Flying a gyroplane was a piece of cake for her, and she had focused more of her energy on making these things. “I made another set of small near-Earth satellites on the way here. I’ll send them up later, and when the sun rises tomorrow morning, we can use them to search the whole of Egypt… We might not find O’Connor and his group, but finding the tomb keepers shouldn’t be a problem.”

The tomb keepers must have known about the Scorpion King's tomb, but they've long since disappeared after the Cairo War. And... they're very likely on O'Connor's side now.

“Okay, transfer the permissions to me later. I need to write some programs into it.” Chu Xuan nodded and looked at the remaining two. “Zhang Jie, you will be responsible for monitoring all kinds of changes within the surrounding dozens of kilometers when we launch satellites and the exploration team is operating. Even ordinary rainfall should notify us. Ba Wang, you will be responsible for controlling the fire control system on the rotorcraft. The main objective is to keep a close eye on the ruins, just in case.”

“Then let’s get started,” he said.

As soon as he finished speaking, the three people responsible for triggering the mission fell from the height of the gyroplane and crashed heavily to the ground with a 'bang'.

The only one to make a 'bang' was Zheng Zha; Ming Yanwei was slowly floated down by the scruff of her neck, being lifted by Alice. Once he stood up from the knee-deep sand pit, he immediately looked at Alice and uttered a sound of displeasure.

"Margot Royd! Why didn't you take me with you!"

“You’re more robust,” Alice tilted her head and replied, “and you won’t even get scratched if you fall, but Mingyanwei isn’t very familiar with her armor and might not be able to land perfectly.”

She placed Mingyanwei, who was thanking her, on the ground, and pointed forward with the hand holding the staff of control. Accompanied by a sudden burst of wind, the ruins that had been mostly covered by sand were stripped from the ground, and a dozen seconds later, an ancient temple, far smaller than Hamunaptra, but even more ancient and desolate, appeared before the group.

"It seems no one has been here." Zheng Zha sighed softly, gripping the greatsword in his hand tightly. He lifted his foot, about to step forward.

“Not necessarily,” Alice said, extending her cane to stop him. “The main structure of this temple is underground; there might be another way in.” Her gaze then shifted to Ming Yanwei. “You should have seen the Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. In the original movie, the most dangerous things inside this temple were just a swarm of scorpions and the water-filling mechanism connecting to the Nile. Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that the main god deliberately strengthened them or that some other accident occurred, but at least for you right now, this is a very suitable training opportunity.”

Ming Yanwei picked up the composite bow and combat dagger mounted on the armor and smiled at Alice.

"I will prove my worth."

Then, she entered the temple gates.

Then, the voice of the main god rang in everyone's mind through the mental link that Zhang Jie shared with Ming Yanwei.

"Reincarnator Ming Yanwei has prematurely unlocked the horror movie world storyline, increasing the difficulty to the maximum. Upon completion, she will receive double the number of side quests and double the reward points. The mission setting has been changed—arrive at the Scorpion King's treasure room within ten minutes. The reward will be two thousand reward points and one C-level side quest. If she fails to complete the mission within ten minutes, the tomb will collapse, and Reincarnator Ming Yanwei will have three thousand reward points deducted."

Alice raised an eyebrow.

[This isn't what the predictions said. According to Saito Hajime's records, this should be a side quest to obtain the Scorpion King's bracelet and receive 4,000 reward points and two C-rank characters. But now it's become arriving at the treasure room, and the rewards are halved... It seems the bracelet has already been taken... No, if it were just the bracelet being taken, the main god might not even have issued the quest. There must be other clues inside.]

As she pondered this, she didn't notice that Ming Yanwei, standing at the temple entrance, had turned around with a troubled expression and looked at her, along with Zheng Zha, who was still being blocked by her cane.

Hesitant to speak.

Chapter 12 - Let the pros mentor the newbies QAQ

“Margot Lloyd.” Zheng Zha tilted his head and looked at her.

"The main god's hint only mentions Ming Yanwei, so if we intervene, we probably won't gain anything extra. Or are you not confident, or do you think I'm not confident enough to turn the tide in the last few seconds?"

"You can cast spells freely now?"

“No, but I am now a soul bound by obsession.” Her cane remained in front of Zheng Zha, and she emphasized, “Don’t forget, Chu Xuan said that the two of us should ‘take’ her to get the bracelet. How difficult do you think a side quest that she triggers is only of C-level difficulty?”

Her gaze immediately shifted to Ming Yanwei.

"Is that so, Ming Yanwei? Do you think you can't handle a C-level side quest? You should know that the God's evaluation criteria for reincarnators don't change instantly. According to the God's judgment, your current combat power should still be at the same level as when you were in the world of Ju-on 2."

"And I feel like I've spent half a minute talking."

She said this, then watched as Ming Yanwei, who was standing at the temple entrance, gritted her teeth, turned around, and rushed into the temple ruins—she then chuckled, put down her cane, and followed lightly after her.

"Do you think this is a good idea, Margot Lloyd?" Zheng Zha caught up with her without hesitation and asked softly, "She's a newcomer after all. Isn't it too difficult for her to be assigned a task of this level right from the start?"

"What was the difficulty of your first personal mission, Zheng Zha?" Alice asked without turning her head. Her figure had already floated into the temple entrance, and as she expected, no side quests were triggered. "Resident Evil, the laser corridor—you told me about that. A full B-rank side quest plus several thousand reward points, and all you needed to do was courage and decisiveness. Do you really think she couldn't even do a third of what you did?"

Zheng Zha remained silent.

He then followed Alice into the temple ruins, but he also did not trigger any side quests.

..........................................

Ming Yanwei felt as if her heart was on fire—no, not anger, but excitement. Like a hunter spotting his prey, or a warrior seeing a trophy, she felt her blood boiling, her modified heart pounding violently, the frequent exchange of blood pumping large amounts of oxygen and energy into every corner of her body.

She was abnormal, born that way. Unlike her ex-boyfriend Zhang Heng, who could only fight like a man with a bow, she could enter a state of extreme excitement and readiness for battle at any time—she could feel her internal organs working overtime, her glands rapidly secreting hormones that allowed her to exert her maximum strength. And along with this physical excitement, a certain innate quality, unique to her, quietly awakened.

[Jackal head, sharp blade, tall body—]

A slight throbbing pain shot through her brow, and a blurry shadow flashed through her mind. Without hesitation, she abruptly halted her charge, and in the next instant, a massive long blade emerged from the shadows, cleaving through the ground she was about to step onto!

Death Army

Ming Yanwei thought to herself, and swung the hand holding the combat dagger down abruptly. With a 'clang,' the sharp dagger pierced through the hand supporting the knife in the darkness, pinning it to the ground. She then took two steps back, and with a thought, activated all the lights mounted on her armor. At the same time, as she drew her composite bow and nocked an arrow filled with high explosives, the attacker in the shadows was fully revealed before her.

Her judgment was correct; the monsters before her were indeed the mythical creatures from the movies—with jackal heads, tall statures, jet-black bodies, clad in simple brass and gold armor, and wielding terrifying weapons. They were Anubis's army of death, residing in the mortal realm due to the pact between Anubis and the Scorpion King.

The only way to kill them is—

Cut off their heads!

The next moment, the explosive arrow pierced the jackal's head, and with a loud 'bang,' the mythical creature instantly crumbled into ashes. Even the black longsword it held shattered, leaving not a trace in the blink of an eye!

[Does blowing off the entire head count as decapitation? Then, the shockwave from a defensive grenade detonation could… No, this kind of creature, whose weapons dissipate upon death, might not have any organs. It's worth trying, but not risking it.]

There are approximately nine minutes left.

She rolled forward, grabbing her combat dagger as she dodged several slashes that emerged from the shadows. Just as she slew the first Death Soldier, more mythical creatures leaped from the shadows, and without a doubt, they had only one target.

[Is their primary objective to eliminate tomb raiders or to protect the tomb?]

Ming Yanwei thought to herself, then casually pulled the pin on a defensive grenade, tossed it at her feet, and leaped out, randomly choosing a tomb passage in her field of vision and disappearing inside. Immediately afterward, a violent explosion and shockwave propelled her from behind, and at the same moment, she heard the furious roar of the Death Army!

The tomb shook, and dust rained down from the ceiling. When Ming Yanwei stood up, she had already rolled out of the tomb passage and, using the momentum, landed in a spacious hall!

[The most important goal right now is to find the Scorpion King's treasure chamber; the obstacles from the Death Army don't need to be taken too seriously. But the chamber... where is it? In the original story, Evelyn found the entrance after awakening her past life memories, but I'm not Evelyn; I have no way of finding it!]

The instant she regained her footing, she veered to the side. The next moment, a black blade descended from the sky, slicing through her armor with a series of dazzling sparks. Without hesitation, she gripped her combat dagger and slashed upwards, disemboweling the Death Slayer who had leaped from the ceiling—she couldn't see any organs in his abdomen out of the corner of her eye. And in the next instant, the Death Slayer, whose abdomen she had cut open, leaped up, swinging his blade to decapitate her!

Without a doubt, if she were still the frail woman she was a few hours earlier, no matter how experienced she was, her weak constitution and unlocked genetic potential would have made her doomed. However, now, her reflexes and muscle strength far surpass those of ordinary people. More importantly, she is wearing a set of powered armor that provides her with additional power!

The jackal's head was punched through from front to back by the several tons of force provided by the hydraulic engine. The massive blade that had been unleashed naturally vanished along with the Death God warrior's demise. She took a deep breath and unlocked her genetic lock. In her vision, at least thirty Death God warriors were approaching her location.

We absolutely have to find out where the secret room is...

..................................................................

Meanwhile, in the temple's anteroom, Alice leisurely followed Ming Yanwei deeper underground, casually incinerating a dozen Death God warriors who lunged at her from the shadows. Her speed and precision were astounding; simply raising her staff unleashed visible jets of destructive energy. Zheng Zha, standing beside her, couldn't even find an opportunity to attack, forced to watch as the mythical creatures vanished the instant they appeared.

"Seven minutes left." Bored, Zheng Zha tilted his ear slightly, feeling the ground vibrate beneath his feet. "Ming Yanwei is currently in an underground hall about 130 meters away from us. There are many disordered footsteps around her; it looks like she's facing a fierce battle."

"Is ten minutes really enough time?" Zheng Zha asked. "I can't figure out how she's going to find the tomb's location. You know, we don't have Evelyn to guide us this time. Zhang Jie can't use his mental power to scan and get the results directly either."

“Of course we have enough time.” Alice casually conjured several floating spheres that were constantly shooting out lightning, and pushed them to the entrances of several underground tomb passages to block the endless stream of Death Army warriors. “Because I have found the secret chamber, and I found it using scientific methods.”

"……What?"

Alice stretched out her hand, and a gust of wind swept away the sand covering the murals on the walls of the hall. She then pointed out the content of the murals to Zheng Zha, and began to explain it briefly and quickly.

"This mural tells the story of the origin of the Scorpion King."

“He was a warrior from an African tribe, leading an army in an attempt to conquer the world. His first target was ancient Egypt, but he was stopped at the walls of Thebes before he could even take the first step.” Alice pointed to the foreground of the mural, depicting an army besieging a city. The city was sturdy and majestic, but the army besieging it was disorganized and looked like a ragtag bunch.

"Unfortunately, Egypt was the most powerful country in the land at that time. The warrior's army was just a ragtag group of civilians and slaves. Although his army remained undefeated due to his bravery and personal charisma, after twenty years of continuous war, equivalent to two Trojans, he was ultimately doomed to defeat."

The army in the drawing vanished into thin air, leaving only one warrior being chased by chariots and horses as he fled into the desert.

“His army was destroyed, leaving him alone to flee into the sacred Amshe Desert. When he was about to die, he prayed to Anubis—that if he were spared and allowed to conquer his enemies, he would offer his soul to Death.” Alice continued, touching the drawing as she explained. “And as you know from the original film, Anubis answered his call and gave him a scorpion. After he ate the scorpion, he gained Anubis's army of Death.”

Alice shook her head, looking at the later part of the drawing depicting warriors leading their undead armies to victory after victory. "I don't quite understand why Anubis would waste so much power on a soul that was already about to fall into His hands—perhaps there are other underlying factors. But that's not the point. The point is that Anubis's sacred object is bull hide, and his symbol is the jackal. And His army doesn't actually include scorpions."

"But the Scorpion King, whose symbol is the scorpion, must have been guarded by a different kind of scorpion in his tomb, where his remains are buried or where his treasures are hidden. Just like the cobras in those ancient tombs, there are similar scenes in the original movie."

“Scorpions are cold-blooded animals and need heat. If the intention was to have a scorpion colony guard this cold underground tomb for a thousand years, then the original tomb designer would have placed a heat source near the treasure chamber to ensure that those ancient, exotic scorpions would always be there, preventing any intruders from getting close.”

She tilted her head and looked at Zheng Zha.

Do you think that the powered armor I designed wouldn't even have a thermal vision function?

..............................

In short, get the daily tasks done first.

Section Thirteen: Life is Like a Coffee Table...

Calories...

Ming Yanwei was thankful that she wasn't one of those characters in sci-fi movies who deliberately didn't wear a helmet just to look cool—she was wearing one, and while thinking intensely, she subconsciously switched the helmet's built-in detection field of view several times. Although this caused her to make several mistakes in her battle with the Death Army warriors, her genetic lock and sturdy power armor saved her, preventing her from being killed by these jackal-headed warriors due to momentary carelessness.

Since they weren't dead, and the change in their field of vision revealed the anomaly of the heat source, the rest was quite simple.

Six minutes left.

Having chosen her direction, she charged headlong into the area where the Death Army soldiers were fewer. With a violent tremor and a deafening roar, she forcefully smashed through the sturdy wall using the powerful thrust provided by her power armor! The recoil blurred her vision, and her ears rang, disorienting her. Even so, she remembered throwing several high-explosive grenades backward the instant she crashed through the wall!

'BOOM—!!!'