The Rules, Seeing Through the Pharaoh's World

The Mummy...

The story began in 1290 BC, with an affair between the high priest Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun, the Pharaoh's beloved concubine.

When the two were meeting in secret, their passion burning hot, they were accidentally discovered by Pharaoh Seti I.

The adulterous pair decided to go all the way. They hurriedly killed the Pharaoh, but Anck-Su-Namun, who had stayed behind, was then cornered and killed by the Pharaoh's guards.

Escorted by the priests, Imhotep managed to escape the royal city for the time being.

To bring his lover back to life, he was willing to take a huge risk. He stole Anck-Su-Namun's body from her tomb, found the sacred jars holding her internal organs, and entered the true tombs of generations of Pharaohs, where their accumulated treasures lay:

Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead.

Afterward, he successfully obtained the sacred book that controlled death and summoned Anck-Su-Namun's soul back from the underworld. The ritual was on the verge of completion.

Just then, the Pharaoh's guards broke in once more and interrupted the ritual. Anck-Su-Namun's soul was forced to return to the underworld.

Imhotep and the priests under his command were captured and severely punished. The latter were made into mummies while still alive. As the chief culprit, Imhotep got to experience the most terrifying punishment in Egyptian history—

the Curse of the Scarabs.

The punishment was so vicious that anyone devoured by scarabs who returned from the underworld would surely possess boundless magical power, becoming an unparalleled monster capable of destroying Egyptian civilization!

And Imhotep had already wielded powerful magic in life.

"That's the basic background. We're currently in the 1930s. The explorer O'Connell was hired by Evelyn, a museum employee, to unearth ancient secrets in the forgotten city of Hamunaptra."

"They and another American armed expedition team—well, that's what they call themselves. It's just a flattering description. In essence, they're no different from the foreign armies that looted mainland China and burned the Old Summer Palace."

"The two groups awakened Imhotep, a high priest who had been cursed and imprisoned for three thousand years. After that, it's the usual story of evil spirits rising again and a hero rescuing a beauty."

After he finished, Uchiha Xiu looked at Zhao Yingkong, who was obediently squatting beside a sand dune and listening attentively to his explanation.

The introductions had gone by quickly.

After all, aside from the baby-faced female assassin, the others were a bunch of insignificant newcomers. They might have potential, but that was something to assess after they returned.

Raising livestock?

His gaze passed over the three crippled thugs. The kind-hearted healer had treated them, and their bleeding had stopped.

Countless thoughts crossed Uchiha Xiu's mind:

Running this kind of operation well was a whole field of study.

First, they needed a powerful mental specialist to hypnotize and control the newcomers, preventing resistance and nipping the seeds of rebellion in the bud.

At the same time, they had to periodically use monsters from the plot worlds to weed out and eliminate those who lacked value, lowering the hidden rating the Main God assigned to the team. That would let them enter less difficult horror-movie worlds and keep acquiring resources and growing stronger.

If they found themselves in a situation where death was certain, they could still use the considerable wealth squeezed from the newcomers to purchase items like resurrection crosses and make their escape.

That would let them exploit another loophole—the team would theoretically be wiped out, its hidden rating reduced to zero and its roster replenished with newcomers. Then, using whatever extraordinary strength remained after the reckoning, they could start the happy cycle of raising livestock again and make up their losses.

"Of course... the Main God might seem dull and bound by fixed mechanisms, but it isn't just a mindless machine."

"It's basically the will of heaven."

"It'll deliberately target you. That includes, but isn't limited to, sending other teams after you, lowering the cap on items you can exchange for, withholding access to high-level bloodlines, and arranging trial worlds with few resources."

"There are pros and cons. It depends on how you weigh them."

As for the common problem among those who raised livestock—lack of life-and-death battles, slow progress with the Gene Lock, an inability to make full use of their purchases, and ultimately getting killed by a stronger person like some deflated, dried-up nobody—Uchiha Xiu wasn't worried about that sort of spoiled-kid syndrome in the slightest.

I'd been tempered by the Ninja War!

I was as solid as they came~

Unless he grew to the ceiling of the Naruto World and couldn't find anyone left to fight and sharpen himself against... Wait, those Otsutsuki in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations seemed a lot like livestock raisers. Their conceptual powers sounded godlike, but their actual combat performances were a complete mess.

Clearly, Uchiha Xiu was giving serious thought to the rules. He was tempted by the potential profits, yet conflicted about the reckoning.

In any case, the team was beginning to take shape, and they might be summoned for a team battle at any time. As their captain, he ought to establish a code of conduct for the East Sea Team.

"Forget it... the Gene Lock is a power that comes from the heart. I'll act according to my heart and choose reliable teammates who can fight by my side."

"I've made the following decisions."

At Uchiha Xiu's muttered words, everyone's expressions turned serious.

Zhao Yingkong stared intently at the heterochromatic-eyed man who had subdued her by force and seemed so methodical.

He'd said he could lead her to victory in everything and kill Zhao Zhui-Kong!

"We mustn't exploit the weak, but we also mustn't use weakness as an excuse to exploit the strong. Newcomers must step up and take responsibility once they've completed their first round of enhancements. They must face life-and-death pressure, prove themselves, and contribute to the team."

"Walking time bombs who can't get along with the others shouldn't be accepted. We should abandon them without hesitation."

As he spoke coldly, everyone in the East Sea Team, old and new alike, looked toward the three thugs, reduced to living stumps.

Foul-mouthed, violent, and challenging the rules—they had clearly been classified as walking time bombs, the kind who should be abandoned immediately.

That was all.

It was also the code of conduct of the Central Continent Team in its middle and later stages.

They went to neither extreme, sticking to a sufficiently cautious approach!

In one word:

Moderation.

In Uchiha Xiu's view, there were already plenty of resources they could acquire through reasonable means: exploring side quests and hidden storylines, and even receiving various forms of preferential treatment from the Main God, such as strengthening Zhao Yingkong.

There was truly no need to take extreme measures and invite even more unpredictable negative changes.

"Very reasonable. I agree." Zhao Yingkong, who had begun to accept the team, was the first to step forward in support.

Kobayashi Yoshito pursed his lips. He felt that the captain's concern and mentorship had clearly been stolen away from him, and his old feelings from the real world left him somewhat displeased with the female assassin.

But he hurriedly raised his hand.

"I fully support it."

"That's how it should be." The healer gave a slight nod.

The newcomers looked at one another. It seemed they were being treated pretty well.

They'd receive basic protection during this mission, and the rest would be left to fate. Once they could protect themselves, they'd face life and death and embark on true evolution.

At least they hadn't been abandoned...

At that moment, the three idiots were unconscious. Before long, they would dehydrate in the desert and die in its harsh conditions.

Without going through the struggle Zheng Zha had faced with troublemakers—trying to persuade them early on, beating them midway, and killing them later, going from wanting to save everyone to protecting only those worth saving so that a savior complex wouldn't drag down the team—my East Sea Team would do better!

The next moment, the Main God's light barrier vanished.

The hot desert wind blew in.

"Move out."

"Along the way, I'll teach you a few incantations to activate the Guardian Stone Talisman."

Just as Uchiha Xiu had said, the Main God cherished the rookies it brought in more than anyone.

The talisman linked to their status as descendants of the Pharaoh's guardians wasn't just a simple token. The various runes carved into it could unleash divine power.

Among the newcomers, a half-bald old man seemed to want to say something, as if he was eager to show off.

"Nile-duat Mert, AmentiKhem."

Only then did Uchiha Xiu fluently recite the phrase, which was used to summon the River of the Underworld and briefly ward off the power of the dead.

As soon as the words left his mouth,

the cheese-shaped, four-sided talisman in Uchiha Xiu's palm suddenly trembled.

Green light glimmered across a line of ancient runes!

With the incantation, a small amount of invisible power spread around them.

"This side bears the incantation for summoning Horus."

"Wadjet Horus, Ra-Xiu, Nebt."

"Borrow the power of Horus, the falcon god, and Ra, the Sun God, to protect yourself and temporarily ward off the poison's corrosive effects."

"Khem, Shemsu, Ancestor-Wer."

"Summon the spirits of ancient Pharaohs' guards to boost your stamina and reveal the weaknesses of ordinary undead."

"The last side of the talisman bears a tomb-guarding incantation. It only works inside a pyramid."

"Set-Neb, Anubis, Kheperu, Sekhmet."

"Praise the Lord of the Desert, and grant your weapon a temporary boost that suppresses the power of the undead."

Healer Kitagawa Nacai: "..."

Was she out of a job?

No. The talisman's incantations provided an unstable boost, and their effects were weaker than those of a healer like her. Besides, its divine power would diminish with every use.

Kaguya-hime, who had kept her Byakugan active the whole time to examine their surroundings, murmured, "Before the language was spoken, I didn't see any reaction from the energy. It works by absorbing the free-floating power in the air."

"Right. Energy is widespread in this world's atmosphere. If I mastered Sage Mode, my combat strength might rise another level."

Having fulfilled his duty, Uchiha Xiu put away the talisman, whose runes had dimmed slightly, and looked toward a sand dune five hundred meters away.

"Ah—ah!"

With a series of snorts and huffs, a group of tall camels came charging over on their own.

Waterskins, Runic Scimitars—everything was provided.

Some color returned to the newcomers' faces, and they felt a little more confident. It was like entering a beginner's village with starter equipment and a guide NPC waiting for them.

"The Main God treated this batch of newcomers better than it did us on the Xenomorph ship," Kobayashi said, still acting like a seasoned veteran who'd been through hardship. "Tch, you're lucky."

"Not really. Back then, it also arranged for us to have a nearby gun locker, flamethrowers, and a captain."

Nacai didn't care for that way of talking. She stated the facts fairly, and deep down she had a vague premonition: the more thoroughly the Great Light Sphere prepared them, the harder the challenge would be.

Like their captain, the Main God had never been the sort to play nanny!

As the two spoke, Uchiha Xiu closed his eyes and pointed a finger toward the desert—

Kaguya-hime had gathered the root Brahmin bloodlines of the Ninja World into herself, expanding the precision and range of the Byakugan's perception to fifty kilometers around her.

Not enough!

Even if he awakened the Mind's Eye of the Kagura, it wouldn't be enough. It could only detect abnormal energy within a radius of ten or several dozen kilometers, precisely determine a target's location, direction, numbers, traits, and speed, lock onto a specific target's aura and track its changes, and judge whether it was lying.

To maximize his range, he needed to learn from Senju Tobirama.

The old ghost didn't need Hand Seals to perceive the life force and chakra levels of any target thousands of miles away.

In his private notes, Tobirama claimed he'd had exceptional sensory abilities since childhood. He'd often managed to tail his older brother Hashirama and personally watched him cross the line to meet Uchiha Madara in private.

From that, he had developed a secret technique based on his physique.

As the Fifth Hokage, who wielded unlimited power and was close to Tsunade, Uchiha Xiu had naturally read the relevant notes.

As it happened, Tobirama's diary rarely contained his private thoughts. Instead, it focused on guiding future readers to follow his reasoning and learn how to activate the corresponding power.

Putting aside his prejudice against the Uchiha Clan, Senju Tobirama was undeniably unique when it came to developing ninjutsu.

If the concept of the Gene Lock hadn't been unknown in the Ninja World before him, one might have suspected that he'd developed a third-stage brain domain. How else could he have created all those astonishing abilities?

"Third-stage simulation. Begin."

Before long, threads of chakra spread rapidly through the layers of sand like an invisible tide. They were countless unseen scouts, piercing the vast desert.

They extended in every direction, farther and farther.

This foreign land, sunk in an ancient curse yet favored by the gods, was now being surveyed by Uchiha Xiu.

His vision and consciousness rose and fell along with his perception. First, he swept across the rolling dunes within a hundred-mile radius, then the ancient cities buried beneath the sand, their protection long gone. Their divinity had faded, the gods' protection had vanished, and they held little value.

Then the outlines of several towering pyramids came clearly into focus. Beneath the stone-built tombs, the Pharaohs' dormant souls and thousand-year-old curses were sealed away, with a chill deathly aura lingering in the underground chambers.

A barrier was also preventing his perception from penetrating them.

The strongest presence inside... was roughly equivalent to Kakashi?

Someone had made the Ninja World's "fifty-fifty" man into a unit of measurement.

Not much value.

His perception continued onward.

At the edge of the desert, Cairo, home to an ancient civilization, came into view!

Dark clouds covered the sky.

Swarm after swarm of flies buzzed through the air. Frogs leaped from the Nile River, and the drinking water in the wells turned to blood.

A rain of blazing meteors fell from the sky!

The prelude to destruction had begun.

The revenge curse cast by the high priest had twisted every native in the city with ancient Egyptian blood into a living-dead servant.

They chanted Imhotep's name, set houses ablaze, brandished scimitars, and attacked foreigners who had no Egyptian blood.

The Americans, British, and French—the traditional great powers—had brought revolvers and shotguns, set up their Maxim guns, and dreamed they could run wild in an ancient civilization and seize its precious artifacts. The high priest shattered those dreams mercilessly.

Monsters weren't afraid of bullets piercing their hearts or brains. You had to physically smash their entire bodies.

As Uchiha Xiu watched, the gunfire grew fainter and fainter, fading into screams.

"Imhotep!!"

"Im—ho—tep!"

"Im—ho—tep—"

Amid the flames, countless natives cried out in a frenzy. Black smoke poured from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, forming thousands of weeping faces in the air.

Outside the city,

Britain, still holding on to its role as the Blue Planet's troublemaker and not yet handing it over to its little cousin America, had stationed an aviation squadron there.

Sixteen Handley Page 0/400 bombers and their pilots had been transformed by Imhotep, belching thick black smoke.

This celebrated piece of equipment, which had made a name for itself in the First World War, could carry 750 kilograms of bombs and had a range of 1,200 kilometers.

Magic and primitive technology had combined to create a bizarre sight.

"Whew, I found it."

Uchiha Xiu shifted his focus away from Cairo and located the City of the Dead, hidden in the deepest part of the desert:

Hamunaptra!

Its sinister, peculiar energy stood out. It was far more than the equivalent of one Kakashi. The bald high priest Imhotep sensed something and looked across the distance toward the sea of sand where the East Sea Team stood, grinning lecherously.

Well, that was how Uchiha Xiu chose to interpret it.