Fatal Shot

“God! Look, you guys!”

Egypt.

Hidden beneath a collapsed pyramid, a group of mercenary soldiers stared at the scene in front of them with stunned expressions.

On top of a staircase-like pentagon-shaped silver platform made by unknown materials with complex patterns sculpted on it, the golden coffin of the pharaoh sat quietly. However, what stunned everyone was the golden staff floating in the air beside the golden coffin.

On top of the staff was the head of a python, something used to symbolize the guardian of the pharaoh. And on the snake’s head, a green light came from its right eye, which looked like it was made from some type of gem.

“We’re rich!” mumbled a mixed Asian youngster who wore gold spectacles and held an archaeological toolbox in his hands as he looked at the golden snake staff, his eyes lighting up.

He was not a mercenary; instead, he was the assistant of an archaeologist hired by a Saudi Arabian tycoon specifically for this mission. He held two PhD degrees in Archaeology and Construction obtained from Stanford University in the United States. His mentor was a world-class authority in archaeology—a professor at Harvard, Oxford, and many other universities, Professor Smith.

The Saudi tycoon had used two million dollars and prestige to lure the professor into agreeing to this mission, and he had also hired a group of mercenaries to explore the unexplored regions in the underground areas of the pyramid.

“Professor Smith, what are you looking at?”

Feng Luo observed the entire main burial chamber while holding his gun. He confirmed that the weird snake eye staff that floated in the air had no other anomalies. However, the “authority” and “specialist” beside him was crouched in a corner of the wall with a shocked expression. The light from the torch in his hands was aimed at the blurry words and abstract pictures on the walls, eroded by the ages.

“Weird, weird…” Professor Smith mumbled to himself, his face showing excitement and confusion. “These characters, these words. Many of them aren’t even ancient Egyptian characters. Whether the structure or the glyph… Even… It’s unlike any known language on earth… Oh, there’s an ancient Egyptian explanation. Let me see… Yup, this platform is a holy relic granted to the supreme and eternal pharaoh by the gods. It grants the pharaoh immense and incomparable strength. It allows him to be immortal and forever oversee the land of Egypt…”

“Immortal! Who would believe such bullshit?” exclaimed a tall, burly Russian mercenary with a bushy beard and a scowl, speaking in broken English.

For mercenaries who constantly put their lives on the line, immortality or anything of the sort was an ironic joke.

“Oh, the immortal pharaoh has become a mummy and will be exhibited in the museum!” mocked the mercenary with the bushy beard. “Perhaps one day, it might become like the corpse in the movie Night at the Museum!”

“Ancient Egyptians believed in gods and spirits,” said Professor Smith. “They believed that the spirit would not disappear after death; instead, it would be attached to the corpse, which is why they turned the dead pharaohs into mummies, believing that this will grant them eternal life. There is even a legend that says that he could resurrect in the underworld. To prevent tombs from being raided, pharaohs would generally place evil curses in the chambers!”

Professor Smith was like most specialist scholars when talking about their specialties—passionate and very excited. As he spoke, he pointed to a sentence on the wall and translated.

“Look. This ancient Egyptian sentence means, ‘If someone were to disturb the peace of the great pharaoh, he would be sent to a faraway hell and forever be prohibited from being reincarnated’!”

However, at that moment, his peripheral vision saw his assistant, Victor, who was of Asian descent, moving step-by-step closer to the platform as his eyes shone, his gloved hands moving closer to the floating golden staff.

Smith’s expression instantly changed to fear, and he quickly screamed, “Victor! Wait, don’t touch it yet!”

******

“Oh, God! The pyramid is going to collapse!”

“We’re dead!” said the bushy beard Russian mercenary, looking up in despair at the increasingly unstable boulders overtop of their heads as the entire pyramid shook violently.

The pyramid had a depth of over 200 meters. It even exceeded the height of the world’s largest pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Giza.

200 meters underground. How could anyone escape such a situation? No one could survive it! Was this the curse of the pharaoh?!

******

“Ah!”

The Asian man called Victor—a student with two PhDs from a world-renowned university—was crushed by a falling boulder and turned into a pile of meat. He died on the side of the staircase of the pentagon-shaped platform. As for the golden cobra staff in his grasp, it fell out of his hands.

Pow!

The cobra staff bounced on the ground a few times. The left eye that emitted the green light flew out of the staff and flew directly at Feng Luo, who was crouched in a corner, trying to hide from the falling rocks. Feng Luo grabbed it without thinking.

After that, the green light in his vision expanded. Stars moved, and things changed.

******

Feng Luo’s awareness and thoughts were complete chaos.

In reality, something just as amazing also happened to his body inside the game capsule. The originally silverish-white insides of the game capsule were suddenly lit up by a light-green luster that made the insides as bright as day.

To be more precise, the source of the green light was the necklace hanging on his neck. In particular, it was the pendant of the necklace, an item that was about the size of a knuckle.

******

When Feng Luo opened his eyes, he was already on the ship, Hui Yi Hao. Moreover, he was inside the laboratory of the ship.

The shirt he’d been wearing had been removed, and he was only wearing underwear while lying on the metal experiment table, his body connected to several instruments.

“F*ck! Old Feng, you’ve finally woken up!”

Big Pineapple, who sat beside him, initially had his gaze fixed firmly on Lin’s 34-D chest while she was focused on analyzing data. He turned around after hearing Feng Luo’s groan as he woke up.

“What happened to me?” Feng Luo looked at Big Pineapple, confused.

“It’s due to the interaction between the Evolution Virus and the gene agent. It probably produced some stimulus. So, your body fainted as a self-preservation mechanism.”

The one who had answered was Lin. She and Aike wore entire sets of protective gear while looking at their experiment data with happy expressions.

“Moreover, your body really exceeded our expectations,” said Aike. “The cells actually integrated perfectly with the mutated Evolution Virus. This must be the effect of the WM-2 Gene Agent that Lin injected you with during the adventure. However, more importantly, it’s due to the unique characteristics of your cells.” His tone revealed great excitement.

“Your data will definitely help me move the W-series Evolution Virus research to the next stage!” Lin pushed her black spectacles. Her tone also indicated uncontainable excitement.

“W-series Evolution Virus?” Feng Luo said.

He remembered that in the hidden mission he seemed to have received, there had been mention of helping Lin complete the W-series virus research work.

Does this mean that my fainting was due to the virus integration? he thought. But this isn’t right. Players do experience fainting, sleeping, and other situations due to the requirements of story developments, but, in reality, players don’t actually faint in such situations. It’s just that the character cannot move. In reality, the players can choose to get on to the forum or watch a movie, like when they are on a transport vehicle.

But my memory about the game from then until now is zero. It’s clear that I really blacked out. I think I even vaguely remember some of the things that happened before I was sent to this world… Isn’t this a bit weird?

“Old Feng. How are you feeling right now?” Big Pineapple asked Feng Luo quietly through the party channel. “It looked like you really passed out just now!” They had found out earlier through the party condition that Feng Luo hadn’t just fainted inside the game. “I checked on the forum and found that it is because the game stimulates the human nervous system to achieve 100-percent realism, so some players faint in the game while playing. However, most do not experience any side effects. It’s just a matter of adaptability.”

Looking at Big Pineapple’s concerned expression, Feng Luo replied, “I… should be fine!”

Although Big Pineapple sometime said unreliable things—being the sweet and smooth talker that he was—as a friend, he was excellent. He was no phony. However, his explanation was probably the more reasonable one for his situation. Feng Luo had also heard similar explanations from the official game company, stating that it was due to the player’s adaptability.

This was akin to people getting dizzy from 3D games back on Earth with keyboard and mouse games, but, after playing for a while, one would get used to it. And these types of VR games stimulated the nervous system of the human body through all kinds of methods and frequencies on the most fundamental level, so perhaps the virus integration process in the game had coincidentally stimulated a particularly sensitive nerve of his?

It was a good thing this sort of stimulation really did not have any side effects. Right now, in fact, Feng Luo felt much better than ever before. Things looked even clearer than before! Perhaps it was just because two consecutive days of missions and battles were really tiring. So, after fainting and sleeping for a while, his mind and spirit had recovered.

As he thought about that, Feng Luo did not listen to the “scientific conclusion” in the game, which the two NPCs were talking about beside him; instead, he looked at his system log. Then, involuntarily, his eyes grew as big as they could get.

Congratulations! You’ve awakened your second talent: Evolution.

Evolution (Talent)

Throughout the game, you can permanently increase some physical stats of the body under certain unique conditions. The increase can only occur once under similar conditions.

Overall Evaluation: S!