With a thunderous boom, the wall exploded.
Qin Ming remained motionless in the dust cloud, still holding his one-handed punching stance.
His soldiers swiftly rushed past him from both sides, weapons raised as they charged into the room.
The interior of the entire pyramid had completely mutated by now. Mummies were coming back to life everywhere.
Qin Ming and his team were methodically clearing each room as they advanced deeper.
Speaking of these mummies, they were quite unlucky. After being buried underground for over a thousand years, not only had they been dug up, but worse—some people actually believed that consuming their remains could cure diseases or even grant immortality.
Good grief! A thousand-year-old chew toy—well past its expiration date—and yet those lunatics still dared to eat it. They ate so much, they nearly wiped mummies off the market!
Now, after being exhumed, eaten, and turned into dishes, the mummies finally got a chance to flip the script and bite back.
Brushing dust off his clothes, Qin Ming led the squad forward with steady strides.
Along the way, he had encountered all kinds of mummies—humanoid mummies, mummy dogs, mummy cats—you name it.
Even the bats inside this cave had undergone severe mutations. Not only could they attack living beings, but anyone bitten by them would also be poisoned and eventually turn into a mummy.
Of course, the mummy toxin had no effect on Qin Ming and his vampire subordinates. That kind of trick just didn't work on them.
After all, they were all creatures of the dark—why should only mummies get to infect others?
Kicking away a mummy cat once again, Qin Ming frowned at the room before him.
"Dead is dead. What's the point of dragging all these animals down as burial companions? So creepy. Aren't they afraid those animals will scratch them in the afterlife?"
Hearing his complaint, Fio, standing beside him, lit up and pushed her round glasses up her nose.
"Not just anyone could become a mummy. At the time, being made into a mummy wasn't terrifying at all—it was actually considered a great honor."
"Getting turned into a giant rice dumpling is an honor? What, they felt honored to feed Qu Yuan in the underworld?"
"First of all, throwing zongzi into the river was meant to feed the fish, not Qu Yuan. People gave food to the fish to keep them from eating Qu Yuan's corpse. It represented a kind of naive but beautiful sentiment. Secondly, mummies aren't zongzi. It was an ancient Egyptian method of preservation. They believed that if they removed the organs and preserved the body properly, it could one day be resurrected."
"They took the organs out?"
"Yes, and stored them in jars."
"Then the empty body comes back to life?"
"Yes, the empty body was meant to store the soul."
"What kind of resurrection logic is that!?"
Qin Ming was dumbfounded by Fio's explanation.
Fio simply smiled and added a few more details.
"Oh right, ancient Egyptians also firmly believed that the brain was useless. So they wouldn't preserve it. Instead, they crushed it and threw it away."
"Seriously? They kept the organs but threw out the brain? That resurrection method is way too bizarre! Also, how do you know so much about this stuff?"
"Because I'm an intelligence officer. Though honestly, I just know a little—at most, a general understanding of local customs and traditions. It's not like I know everything."
As it turned out, Fio's glasses weren't just for show—she really did know a lot.
And when faced with someone who wasn't a combat-type, not good at fighting but clearly good with her brain, Qin Ming's eyes lit up with admiration.
After all, people like her were rare. He had plenty of subordinates who could fight, but smart ones? Not so much.
He thought he'd managed to recruit a few clever ones, but Mature and Vice turned out to be troublemakers, while Chizuru Kagura only looked smart—in reality, she was just a hot-blooded biker chick.
As for the likes of Mai Shiranui... let's not even talk about her IQ.
Qin Ming had long been fed up with this bunch of brute-force maniacs. He wasn't exactly a genius himself, but somehow, his underlings were even worse. How was he supposed to run things like this?
So when he looked at Fio, a spark of inspiration hit him. He immediately pulled out a small notebook from his coat and eagerly approached her.
"Hey, Fio, interested in joining our Hound Corps? We're saving the world, you know."
Fio's eyes lit up behind her glasses as she nodded vigorously. "Of course I'm interested!"
"Great! Then sign here. Once you sign, you're officially part of the team!"
"Huh? What's signing got to do with joining the corps?"
"It's got everything to do with it! This is the official officer registration form! Write your name, and you're an officer!"
"Is that so? I don't believe you. Your expression right now is practically screaming that you're scheming something. There's no way this signature leads to anything good. I'm not signing."
Qin Ming had clearly overlooked one very important detail—smart people might be great for filling the strategy gap in his team, but the problem was, smart people were harder to fool.
Unlike the others who were easily duped into signing, even eager to slap a handprint on the page like it was some "Buy One Get One Free" scam, Fio saw right through him immediately. She knew something was fishy and flat-out refused to sign.
Even when Qin Ming tried to sweeten the deal by saying the signature would make her a high-ranking officer, she was even more determined not to sign.
In fact, that offer just made her more suspicious—if there was such a good deal being dangled, it could only mean there was something seriously wrong with the document!
In the end, with no other choice, Qin Ming had to unleash his trump card—his top persuader: Kasamoto Eri, who was even better at conning people than he was, and who now had to resort to emotional manipulation.
Finally, after what felt like moving mountains, Qin Ming managed to add another name to his collection of signed profiles. He was one step closer to becoming an arcade Pokémon master.
By now, the group had reached the deepest part of the pyramid.
They stared into a vast darkness, unable to see how deep the abyss below them went, with a massive stone pillar standing in the middle. Everyone exchanged looks.
From afar, they could see that at the very top of the pillar's altar sat a treasure.
It was a golden urn-like object, still gleaming brilliantly despite being buried underground for who knows how many years.
There was no platform leading to it, and the distance made it nearly impossible for normal people to reach.
But for vampires, this was nothing.
Transforming into blood mist, the group floated to the altar. Standing before it, they glanced down at the murals below, then up at the pile of treasures surrounding the core object—the golden urn. They all looked at each other, then simultaneously turned to Fio.
The well-read officer adjusted her glasses and stepped forward to examine the mural.
"The mural's message is simple. It depicts a god descending from the heavens, granting the Egyptians the knowledge to build pyramids and achieve immortality. The Egyptians then used that knowledge to construct this place. The treasure enshrined on the altar is a divine artifact said to possess the power to grant wishes."
(End of Chapter)