### Chapter 490 – Room 207, The Gate Room – First Trial – ‘Eternal Life and Resurrection’ (8)
—
– Yu Songee
I’m so confused.
What on earth is happening in this first trial?
What on earth were those monsters we saw?
The moment Malkab’s roar echoed throughout Memphis, an unfathomable truth was revealed.
…
What do we do now?
*
“Reptilian. This is likely the true identity of the Pharaoh clan.”
After saying this, the teacher sealed his lips.
Well, isn’t the whole reptilian thing just a “conspiracy theory”?
Though there are plenty of credible materials about ancient Egyptian history to study up on in the library, there’s nothing about no stinkin’ reptilians.
Pretty sure nobody truly knows the deal, including the teacher.
Well, you hear all sorts of stories here and there.
They’re described as bipedal reptiles.
They possess strong shapeshifting abilities, allowing them to mimic humans, and they supposedly infiltrated the upper echelons of society using those powers.
That’s all there is to it.
“…”
As I reflected on the experiences from the first trial, a few more things came to mind.
After their true identities were revealed, Aidia was shaken and trembling all over.
It seems she had no clue that herself and the Pharaoh clan were reptilians.
Did Menes hide the truth from his descendants?
Maybe it has something to do with him entering that sarcophagus of immortality.
The biggest question regarding Menes just resolved itself.
Even if a time traveler were to land in ancient Egypt, that traveler would need to be a genius like a top researcher to create such robots all alone.
So that’s where the confusion stemmed from, but the answer was simple.
Menes isn’t a human from the future; he’s an alien from outer space!
Of course, he’d have a spaceship! The robots must have been built using systems from inside the spaceship.
Or maybe the spaceship converts into robots once it arrives at a “colony.”
The ship that future humanity created for interstellar travel—the one we saw in Room 203—seemed like that too.
“…”
After the reality of the reptilian beings was revealed, we hurriedly escaped Memphis.
Due to the nature of our group members, our escape speed was painfully slow, but strangely, Menes didn’t send a pursuit party after us.
“I’d think he’d send a few human soldiers to at least pretend to chase us, but he didn’t even do that.”
“Right?”
Menes must think of us as some unidentified priests of the god Horus.
Maybe he was worried that if he killed us, Horus might take revenge?
Even though Kain wasn’t one of the team members tackling this first trial, he’s been quite helpful in many ways.
“I’ve been thinking, but I doubt he’ll send anyone after us again.”
“…”
“This is the primeval era. Most of Earth doesn’t have any proper civilization. In other words, it’s barren.”
“…”
“By not sending a pursuit party, he’s conveying a message to us: Just go build your own civilization worshipping Horus elsewhere. There are plenty of places fit for living, right?”
I got it.
If I were Menes, I’d choose to go my way instead of battling us.
Why would he risk his life fighting in Egypt, which is a tiny place compared to the whole Earth when it’s a burden for both of us?
Of course, this is just Menes’ thinking.
“…”
I thought and thought again.
The hotel tends to hide hints in places that are easy to overlook.
The sudden start on a train is a good example.
The members chosen for each trial were already determined.
So if that’s the case, why did they specifically start on a train?
“…”
The train moves from the first station to the second, then from the second to the third.
There’s an order, and all the stations are simply intermediate points along one route.
All four trials exist within one world.
We are at the oldest point, followed by allies in the medieval, modern, and present timelines.
Right now, it’s probably the 3000s BC.
There’s a difference of at least 3500 to 4000 years compared to the next point in the medieval era.
Therefore, the time gap for the first trial is the widest.
What does that mean?
“…”
There’s a term called the butterfly effect.
In the current context, there are only a handful of reptilians: Menes, Aidia, and a tiny fraction of the Pharaoh clan.
What would happen if we failed to eliminate them and let 4000 years pass?
“We have to go back.”
“…”
“We have to go back and wipe out Menes, no, the whole Pharaoh clan!”
“…”
“If we don’t eliminate the reptilians completely now, what’ll happen after 3000 or 4000 years?”
“The entire ruling class could become reptilians. Or humans themselves might end up being raised as livestock!”
“So—”
“Now’s the time.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s time to check the second paper.”
With that, the teacher pulled out a piece of paper marked with ‘2’ from inside his cloak.
“2. If possible, please leave the maze for later.”
“Hmm?”
“Leave the maze behind?”
“Is this about me? Did Kain write about me?”
“How—no way, the sarcophagus of immortality?”
In that moment, I gasped, realizing something.
Kain wrote this letter before entering Room 207!
Did he foresee the existence of the sarcophagus even before starting the trials?
How can this be a human ability?
It’s like an angel straight from heaven!
“That’s unlikely. Insight is the ability to read concrete possibilities from small evidence. There was literally no evidence beforehand to predict the existence of the sarcophagus.”
“Then what?”
“There isn’t even a word like ‘sarcophagus’ in this sentence. It’s not predicting the existence of the sarcophagus, just considering that something likely exists.”
“Something?”
“A means to bring someone from our group to join us later.”
“…”
“What was the basis for that? I don’t know that yet.”
How bizarre.
The teacher felt different in some way.
He seemed like an ancient priest interpreting the will of deities with his vague yet profound words.
“Aha, the Maze of Midnight, right?”
The Maze of Midnight.
“She is, self-claiming though it may be, predicted to shine in Room 207. The hotel placed the Maze in the first trial… but Kain doesn’t believe this is the right timing.”
Kain thinks the Maze will shine not now, but in the far future—thousands of years later.
“If this letter hadn’t existed, the Maze would have been consumed in the process of fighting Menes.”
An established fate, the Maze getting used up in the first trial.
“Do you understand, Maze?”
“…”
“You cannot die now. You cannot use the Maze either. You must hold on until the very end, then enter the sarcophagus and sleep.”
“… I understand.”
Insight changed that fate.
The Maze will not appear in the first trial.
“Three days from now, the last flash will recharge.”
“…”
“Let’s strategize against Memphis then.”
*
– Aidia
Human.
Not human.
Human.
Not human.
I am…
A monster.
A lizard with pale blood flowing through it.
A reptile hiding scales beneath soft skin.
I can’t breathe.
It hurts so much, it feels like my heart is being torn apart…
I truly don’t want to live anymore.
“I’m sorry.”
The great ancestor, or perhaps the most horrible monster, spoke to me.
“Looking back now, it must have been Malkab’s trickery, but in the past, I was afflicted by an unknown pestilence. I had to hastily enter the sarcophagus to survive. So I never expected this embarrassing fate.”
As descendants of the Pharaoh, we were not human but merely monsters disguised as humans.
…
So perfect in our disguise.
When transformed into women, even the children born to us take on human form!
Our utterly ridiculous shapeshifting ability had us forget that we weren’t human to begin with.
“I’m sure I told my children… but I don’t know at what point you lost ‘our’ culture. Did Malkab interfere?”
“Ah… ah…”
“No worries that I’ve awakened. Now you must accept your fate. The primitive mammals abundant in this planet were born to serve us.”
Staring at the great ancestor, who commanded me to accept my fate while being completely vacant,
A being that refers to humans simply as “primitive mammals born to serve us.”
A being who was never human from the start, a lizard king with cold blood.
That makes them entirely different from me.
…
I retreated to my residence and lay like the dead.
I, who had lost the will to live, no, a lizard.
Even the scorching air of Egypt was far from enough to soothe my heart, which froze every moment.
I slowly decayed.
Not as a person—though I wasn’t one from the outset—but like becoming a mere plant.
I wished for everything to freeze in this state.
If I’m dreaming a nightmare, I’d like to wake up as soon as possible.
— Thud!
“Aidia!”
“…”
“Aidia! This isn’t the time!”
Taio, my long-time loyal friend.
He’s someone who wouldn’t hesitate to bring the children of Egypt for me.
Does he know?
That I’m merely a monster, not a human—
“Aidia! Please pull yourself together! Look outside!”
Unable to resist Taio’s desperate plea, I stepped outside, and what I saw was utterly unbelievable.
Burning Memphis, poles stuck in all directions.
Atop them were my brothers and relatives—familiar figures!
The great bloodline of Pharaohs was being slaughtered.
As I beheld this unbelievable sight, my melancholic mind jolted awake!
“What… what is happening?!”
“A rebellion! Suddenly, hundreds, thousands of crowds are killing the bloodline of Omar!”
A rebellion? Suddenly?
“W-what?! It might sound strange, but it’s as if someone is controlling thousands of people—”
Controlling thousands of humans with charisma.
At the moment I heard those words, I thought of someone who resembled a god, not a human.
“They’ve all gone mad! Screaming nonsense—”
As soon as Taio mentioned “nonsense,” I began to hear it myself.
“Kill all those disgusting lizards!”
“Slay all the corrupted Pharaoh bloodlines!”
My breath caught in my throat.
As my mind half-faded and I lifted my head—
I saw a single beam of light splitting the world apart.
— Boom!
*
– Cha Jinchul
“Are those the robots? I think 80% of them just disintegrated with that one flash! Hahaha!”
They’ve all turned into heaps of scrap metal, but according to Sanghyun, those were supposedly impressive robots.
That skeleton or whatever Malkab was didn’t even get a chance to fight back!
Of course, there was no way that would be the case before the final flash hit.
Even that skeleton couldn’t handle the flash, so it had to be expected.
“How lucky was that! If the robots had been scattered all over Egypt like before, we wouldn’t have stood a chance taking them down one by one.”
Songyi chimes in.
“Maybe they left the robots near the palace as a way to control public sentiment. That’d be tough now, though.”
Seungyub piped up with a voice full of hope.
“Could it be that we just took out Menes in that last strike?”
That wasn’t the case.
“Dude, you’ve been here the whole time and yet you still say that? Didn’t we establish that if the Pharaoh dies the robots stop? Just look over there.”
Off in the unsafe zone of the final flash, the Pharaoh statue was twitching and letting out strange sounds.
It looks like the final blow was ours to deliver.
“Seems like Menes is still alive.”
Burning ancient Egypt’s capital—Memphis.
The spectacle of the final flash demolishing the robots near the palace resembled an angry god crushing the minions of aliens.
Maybe that’s why?
Even more frenzied shouts filled Memphis.
“Burn all the lizard pharaohs to death!”
An enraged mob of humans can’t possibly threaten a superhuman, no, a super-lizard like Menes!
These are foolish reptilian descendants who mistakenly believe themselves to be human!
“Let’s move. Looks like we’ll need to behead that lizard’s head to end this!”
“Jinchul, be careful.”
Sanghyun brother wore a somewhat uneasy expression.
That’s likely because if I lose my blessing, my power would drop significantly.
If I summon pieces of celestial debris from another realm without my regeneration, I won’t last even a few seconds before I fall apart.
That’s why the Maze had summoned Kain or Ahri instead of me….
But since those two had nearly used up their time, they had no choice but to summon me now.
“Brother, when have we ever fought in a relaxed situation?”
“Hah, looks like you’re better than me, Jinchul. Right on the money. Let’s go kill the lizard king.”
It’s time to finish the first trial.
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