Miss Hebe is Slaughtering Her Way Out of the Lostbelt!

Master Craftsman—You submitted numerous design blueprints to the Temple of Thoth, drew upon the experience of those before you, and personally crafted at least one artifact.

Relieving Suffering and Calamity—You invented many ointments and potions, and combined incantations with healing to effectively ease the patients' suffering."

"Overall Evaluation: B."

"Comment: You entered the Hermanubis School to study and became a priest devoted to researching scriptures.

During your brief life, you made immense contributions to both the school and the temple! You designed numerous blueprints, helping Memphis's military aristocrats achieve considerable success in their fight against natural disasters.

The artifacts you designed could greatly improve ordinary people's chances of surviving the Calamity of the Ennead.

You secretly studied the six great rituals of the Hermanubis School and derived six more potent secret spells from them. These spells could be applied to different vessels, allowing apprentices of the 'Dawn' rank to briefly enter the 'Daylight' rank.

You also studied the knowledge of other schools and mastered everything taught by the Temple of Thoth.

You brought medical concepts from later generations and attempted to combine incantations with treatment, with excellent results. The commoners of Memphis have already begun secretly singing praises of your kindness and beauty."

Lines of golden text flashed into view, like fireworks bursting across the heavens.

"Rewards are being distributed."

"Basic Reward: 'Hermanmhat Papyrus Scroll'—A handwritten copy of a papyrus scroll blessed with six different great rituals, created by a priest deeply versed in the studies of silence, remembrance, and decay."

"The above reward is universally applicable in all Lostbelts."

Without hesitation, Hebe tapped confirm. "Claim."

Cobalt-blue starlight descended from the sky, and Hebe's hand suddenly grew heavy.

A perfectly intact papyrus scroll appeared in her hand, neatly folded, its edges bound in gold and its cover rubbed with spices.

Hebe looked at the Papyrus Scroll and ran her hand across it. The familiar texture filled her with countless emotions.

Over seven years, she had proposed many blueprints and ideas, but this was the only artifact she had truly made with her own hands. On this Papyrus Scroll, Hebe had copied the Hermanubis School's six great rituals and numerous secret spells.

The six secret spells reinforced one another, completing a cycle within the Papyrus Scroll.

While holding the "Hermanmhat Papyrus Scroll," one could more easily retain relevant knowledge while studying.

When using ancient Egyptian great rituals while holding this Papyrus Scroll, one would receive a blessing, with a chance of raising an incantation's rank to Daylight.

When someone held this Papyrus Scroll, they would automatically receive protection from undead, the dead, and resentful thoughts. Furthermore, before their lifespan reached its limit, they would be less likely to contract external epidemics.

This Papyrus Scroll was not easily damaged by external forces.

When encountering a calamity on the level of the Calamity of the Ennead, one could completely unleash the secret spells, destroying the Papyrus Scroll in exchange for releasing its protection.

In truth, once Hebe realized that she could not advance to too high a rank in this Lostbelt, she had begun crafting artifacts for herself. However, seven years had still been too short. She had not had time to put many of her ideas into practice before the Calamity of the Ennead arrived.

And rather than calling it a disaster falling from the heavens, it was more accurate to say that her appointed end had come.

At that time, Hebe had clearly felt a yearning arise within her... a yearning to welcome the end. Even though she had used the Hermanubis School's knowledge to suppress that desire, she had not delayed it for long. In the end, she could only honestly accept this identity's death.

This was the predetermined limit, an unavoidable end.

Remembering the white skeleton coiled around the pyramid, devouring flesh and blood, as well as the mournful cry circling above the pyramid, thick with regret and despair, Hebe felt a faint chill run through her heart.

Was that calamity brought about by Ozymandias's actions, or was it... Ozymandias himself?

There was no answer. No answer at all.

Hebe watched her Completion Rate rise, yet the more answers she found, the more the mystery swelled.

"One more time," she murmured to herself. Her green eyes were filled with resolve. "Until everything is ready."

Simulation begins!

"You died!"

"You encountered the Calamity of the Ennead... Current Completion Rate: 25%."

"You joined the Phoenix School and became the apprentice of Curtis, the current Saint Bennu. During your studies, you researched diligently and mastered all of the Phoenix School's secret teachings, becoming the school's foremost disciple and the most likely successor to Saint Bennu after Curtis."

"Your knowledge has grown ever more extensive, but you still know too little about the darkness behind this Lostbelt."

"You died!"

"You encountered the Calamity of the Ennead... Current Completion Rate: 25%."

"You entered the Lion Temple and fought alongside Djetia, Shesepenhe's successor. During the battles, you mastered the Lion School's closely guarded secrets... but your progress in exploring the Lostbelt nearly came to a standstill."

"You died!"

"You encountered the Calamity of the Ennead... Current Completion Rate: 30%."

"You met a scholar of the Serpent School. While following him as he repaired roads, you were taught the Serpent School's essential secret knowledge and learned why Apep had been vilified... Your progress in exploring the Lostbelt improved slightly."

"You died!"

"Current Completion Rate: 30%."

On the dark green tabletop, there were only two brief sentences.

There were no achievements, no reward settlement, not even a single comment.

The Secret History Simulator clearly had no intention of giving Hebe any opportunity to farm points. As she entered the simulations again and again, following the fixed path to study under each school, her rating grew lower and lower, while her Completion Rate remained stuck at thirty percent.

In the end, Hebe merely entered the simulation, walked straight into the desert ravaged by scorching winds, and ended her simulated life after traveling far enough.

But that was already more than enough to verify her thoughts.

"Now, I am capable of stepping onto the stage and becoming a player who commands the pieces."

Hebe rose with a smile.

The girl clasped her hands behind her back, her toes lightly tapping the ground like a swan leaping across a lake.

Now, within the Egyptian Lostbelt, no one's intentions could remain hidden from Hebe's eyes. Even Ozymandias, whom she had never met, was no exception.

Hebe sat back down at the table.

"Choose to enter the Lostbelt," the girl said softly.

"Importing rewards."

"Creating identity..."

"Secret History Simulator welcomes your login, The Knower."

"Current Lostbelt—Golden Truth Dream: Lost Sand Sea Kingdom. Current progress: 30%."

"Current progress permits the carrying of rewards from other Lostbelts. True Name release is permitted."

"Please record your story. We shall eventually journey to the far shore of the Sand Sea."

Great Pharaoh Pepe

The sky was a dark blue, and low, flat-roofed houses surrounded her.

Hebe stood in the middle of a broad road as people came and went around her.

"As expected, everything has become more real." She smiled knowingly, then raised a hand and snapped her fingers.

The water stains dripping from a corner of the wall suddenly twisted, forming words that only Hebe could see.

Hebe Stanton/Imhotep

Path: Priest (Lostbelt-exclusive). Priests are scribes who govern silence, inscribe monuments of stillness, and pay homage to the approaching final limit.

Principle: Winter (Lostbelt-exclusive). A Principle representing silence, endings, and that which has not entirely passed away.

Rank: Enlightenment (Lostbelt-exclusive). The first rank of the Path of Ascension.

When Hebe saw her identity within the Lostbelt, she nearly laughed aloud.

"I never expected it to be ancient Egypt's sole sage who achieved great deeds as a mortal and was worshipped by later generations until he became a god." Hebe tilted her head slightly upward. "Fine. That makes it even more challenging."

More words gradually appeared.

"Ozymandias seeks a 'brighter' rule, and he is by no means a king willing to bow beneath another. He is plotting for a grander future, even if the price is all of Egypt."

As a Priest, you may freely choose your future. You may aid Ozymandias in ascending higher, or cast the foundation of his ascension into the night. Either choice can increase the Lostbelt's Completion Rate.

She turned around. Rather than fleeing north toward Memphis, she headed south.

This time, Hebe had no need to go to Memphis to sound the alarm.

A messenger's merits could at most make her a low-ranking priest, while the new round of competition for the Hermanubis School's honored seat would reach its conclusion within the next few days.

The two candidates competing for the current seat of Hermanubis had been put forward by the military aristocrat faction and the temple priest faction respectively. No matter which side she warned... it would make no difference.

Hebe continued southward. Her strides were broad, yet they carried an exceptionally graceful beauty. Each time her wheat-colored legs stepped forward, it was like a lion racing across the earth—swift and unstoppable.

This was a secret teaching of the Lion School, capable of increasing one's traveling speed during the day.

When the villagers saw Hebe's heroic bearing, every one of them lowered their heads in reverence and knelt in worship.

Hebe paid them no heed. She kicked off the ground with both feet and, as though riding a gale, lightly leapt over the flat-roofed houses before landing on the main road at the village's outer edge.

The instant she landed, the heavens abruptly darkened. Boundless night pressed in like a wall, carrying an indescribable malice as it sought to swallow her whole.

"I, who stand upon time's reverse side, can still see."

"Ah! This man ceases, yet turns without end."

"My lost heart, too, cannot be seen, Amun!"

Hebe's lips moved, but her voice roared like a violent wind, blocking the approaching "Osiris Plague" several meters away!

Through repeated experiments in her previous simulations, she had learned the range and potency of the secret incantation, as well as how to briefly restrain and drive back the Calamity of the Ennead through it.

The girl stretched out her right hand and grasped at empty space.

Hebe pulled out an obsidian scepter nearly as tall as a person, coiled by twin serpents and crowned with flamboyant outspread wings.

—This was an artifact she had personally crafted in a previous simulation: the Staff of Apep.

During that simulation, Hebe had joined the Apophis School and used the Serpent School's techniques to forge this weapon, which could directly tear open the phenomenon of the "Calamity of the Ennead."

Although Hebe had been unable to bring out rewards from the later simulations due to her low ratings, this time, she had entered the Lostbelt with her True Name unleashed and brought in what she had gained from the previous Lostbelt.

She possessed magecraft—so long as she understood something well enough, she could use magecraft to construct its form and reproduce its functions.

And what could be more familiar to Hebe than something she had once crafted with her own hands?

Hebe gripped the Staff of Apep and, as if wielding an oar, casually lashed it across the surface of the Osiris Plague!

Sizzle!

Like fingers burned by hot coals, the Osiris Plague swiftly shrank back!

It retreated nearly two hundred meters in one go.

Hebe stepped forward and continued swinging the long staff.

The Osiris Plague retreated once again, disgorging the village and soldiers it had swallowed earlier!

These people were barely breathing—at the instant the Osiris Plague left their bodies, they escaped "death" and came back to life in an instant, though they were far from being in good condition.

But they were not blind. They could see the girl before them, a papyrus book in her left hand and a staff in her right, driving back death like some great deity from legend.

They could see that whenever the green-eyed girl swung her long staff, the darkness that greedily devoured all life receded like the ebbing sea.

Everything whose life had been taken was "brought back from the dead" in the process.

And in the blink of an eye, Hebe had already passed through the small village and continued south.

Hebe had calculated things clearly. Whether compared to the military aristocrats or the representatives chosen by the temple priests, she had no standing to compete.