### Chapter 487 – Room 207, The Gate Room – First Trial – ‘Eternal Life and Resurrection’ (5)
—
– Kim Sanghyun
As I moved toward the royal tomb, I started sorting out the situation in my head.
The backdrop is ancient United Egypt, forged through a ceasefire between the superhuman Pharaoh Menes and the wicked god Malkab.
For a long time, the Pharaoh’s family and the forces of evil managed to maintain a balance.
However, the current Pharaoh, Omar, unable to conquer his fear of death, succumbed to Malkab, shattering that balance.
Currently, Malkab is wreaking havoc on Egypt in real-time—essentially “harvesting” it.
Aidia suggested awakening the great Menes to stop Malkab.
Doubt crept in like a wolf calling for a tiger, prompting me to open the envelope Kain gave me, which had the following message:
「Please respect the historical flow we know.」
Upon reading this, Ahri promptly decided to awaken Menes.
Why?
At the time, I didn’t understand, and neither did Ahri, who didn’t want to waste the power of the time device without explanation.
While moving toward the royal tomb with Aidia, I vaguely began to find the answer.
After experiencing a midsummer night’s dream event and understanding the situation outside, we would often talk about our respective realities.
The closer we got to modern times, the more our memories diverged, from the names of politicians down to the names of cities and historical events.
Conversely, as we went further back in time, our memories started aligning closely.
It’s hard to nail down a specific point in time, but it seems we all share similar historical knowledge about periods before the 1900s.
Ancient Egypt falls under this umbrella, naturally.
Menes, Narmer, or the Scorpion King.
He is a historically recognized figure and the first monarch to unify Egypt, practically the first Pharaoh and the founding ancestor of ancient Egypt.
On the other hand, what about Malkab?
Before entering Room 207, I had never even heard of such a god. When you think of Egyptian mythology, you think of deities like Horus, Anubis, Isis, and Osiris—not some Malkab character.
What if we treat our known history as correct and consider the ancient Egypt inside Room 207 as “twisted history”?
The Malkab cult should be buried in the shadows of history, leaving no trace behind.
In contrast, Menes’s name echoes even thousands of years into the future.
If we have to choose one, wouldn’t it make sense to help Menes and obliterate the Malkab cult?
—
“This way! Come over here! The guards will—”
“Aidia, I don’t think we need to worry about the guards.”
“… Everyone seems to be just drooling with their tongues out. Let’s go in!”
The oppressive atmosphere of Malkab’s skull symbol in the sky was too much for ordinary humans to bear, and the guards at the royal tomb were no different.
However, looking at it from another perspective, Aidia, who was keeping pace with us without any experience in hotels, was a rather unusual existence.
“Aidia, are you alright? Not feeling like you’re going to throw up seeing that symbol?”
“I’m fine.”
“Do you want to kneel down and pray?”
“Worshipping Malkab like a god is something for the commoners, not our tribe.”
“Uh-huh, that’s not what I meant… Alright. Let’s move on.”
Miro’s question wasn’t about the past worshipping but whether Aidia felt the magic emanating from that symbol “now.”
Aidia didn’t seem to understand the intent behind the question, implying she felt no pressure.
“…”
It’s clear Aidia is a remarkable individual.
She’s too adept to merely consider her a side character.
Being a descendant of a superhuman Pharaoh, isn’t that just to be expected?
No, it appears there’s more to her than meets the eye…
—
“We’ve arrived!”
The guards inside the royal tomb didn’t seem to notice Malkab’s symbol and appeared perfectly normal.
“W-Who goes there! This is the hall of the great kings—”
“It’s me!”
“Aidia? What brings you here?”
“Sorry, but get out of the way. I need to go down.”
“No matter who you are, I can’t allow that. We don’t know what’s happening outside—ugh!”
Without any hesitation, I ambushed and took them down one by one.
Aidia wore a bitter expression but didn’t stop me.
“… Let’s go down.”
Songyi asked Aidia an important question.
“You know where Menes is? I want to avoid scouring this massive place.”
“I know. He’s a half-ancestor and half-god to us—”
“Glad to hear it. That’ll do for an explanation.”
Afterward, we walked for nearly 15 minutes with Aidia.
Even though my mind was racing, the darkness and narrowness of the surroundings, coupled with dart traps installed here and there, made us tread carefully.
Moreover, just being in the royal tomb added to our anxiety.
“This is… um, does this make sense? How can a building built in ancient times….”
Songyi couldn’t hide her bewilderment, and Miro and Seungyub touched the walls in amazement.
“Ancient? What are you talking about? You guys are acting so foolish! You’re surprised by the grandeur of the ‘royal tomb,’ aren’t you?”
“…”
“I get it. Anyone who comes here for the first time behaves like you. Want to see something even cooler?”
— Click!
The moment Aidia pressed a “switch” on the wall, the entire royal tomb, which had seemed dark, brightened up.
“Ta-da~! Surprised? You’ve never seen something like this in your life, have you?”
“…”
“That round object that emits light, we call it ‘cold fire.’ Oh, it doesn’t feel cold if you touch it. It’s just cooler than real flames—”
“… It’s a light bulb. There’s even a filament.”
“What? Pyramid?”
“No, no.”
Everyone was surprised, but the cause was entirely different from what Aidia thought.
It wasn’t shock at what a “light bulb” was but shock that there were light bulbs in ancient Egypt.
“No, no… The light bulb isn’t the issue. Could it be that there’s electricity flowing here? Do you have a power plant? What is this—”
I gripped Songyi’s arm tightly as she began spouting ‘time-displaced knowledge’ in sheer surprise.
“It would be best to calm down.”
“Ah, um, I’m sorry. Aidia! Let’s not waste any time and get moving.”
“Everyone, this way!”
Fortunately, Aidia didn’t notice Songyi’s odd reaction.
Even if she did, there’s no way she could realize we were actually from the future just based on this level of response.
—
Finally, we reached the deepest part of the royal tomb where Menes lay in slumber.
“This is it! There, that’s Mr. Menes.”
“Then that coffin is the ‘immortal sarcophagus’?”
“Probably. I didn’t know the coffin itself was special until now. I wonder if my father knew…”
Aidia briefly scanned the area near the sarcophagus for traps before opening it.
“…”
Shining a light to inspect the interior of the immortal sarcophagus revealed a thick, murky liquid resembling oil and a dim figure contained within.
He must have been trapped in that coffin for hundreds of years, yet Menes preserved his human form—not a mummy or skull.
I suppose that’s why such a grand title as immortality was attached to the sarcophagus.
“Mr. Menes! I am your far-off descendant, Aidia—”
At that moment, for the first time, the great Pharaoh opened his mouth.
“Quiet, my head hurts.”
“… Yes.”
The man resting in the sarcophagus slowly raised his upper body, wincing as if suffering from a headache.
He stood at a height of around 170 cm, which is pretty tall when considered against ancient standards.
It looked like he hadn’t had a proper meal in ages because he was rather skinny.
He seemed to be in his late 50s to early 60s, with quite a rugged expression.
If you were to meet him on the street, you might think he’s just a cranky old man—
“Thanks. Quite the objective assessment. I’ve been a bit irritable.”
“…”
Being a man with various supernatural abilities, is mind reading one of them?
“You’re not surprised?”
“… My apologies.”
Thanks to the hardships faced in the hotel, everyone responded deftly.
Without blessings like ‘immutability,’ Miro and Seungyub, who struggled against mind reading, quickly backed away, while Songyi approached, her bracelet glowing.
I took three steps back to collect my thoughts.
Yesterday’s lunch was tasteless bean stew, and while a demanding patient asked me to check his sore knee under the rain falling from the sky, the dogs started barking and pooping everywhere, and pork prices had risen significantly, while the girl next door was swapping boyfriends again…
“Enough, enough. Let’s wrap it up. Have you all learned any miracle countermeasures while I was asleep? The world must have changed quite a bit while I was snoozing.”
“…”
“There, is your name Aidia?”
“Yes? M-Mr. Menes!”
“Come closer. And you, guests, if my powers discomfort you, kindly keep your distance.”
Menes began to make a clear distinction between Aidia and us, labeling us as “guests.”
“Mr. Menes, what’s happening outside—”
“Child, is there anything in this world that can be trusted?”
“…”
“Just think. There must be a reason you awoke me.”
As Menes grasped the situation, hazy letters began floating into view.
It seemed Songyi was transmitting a message while sidestepping Menes’s ear.
「The royal tomb doesn’t seem like a building from ancient Egypt no matter how I look at it.」
That’s obvious.
Although Songyi was surprised by the lightbulbs, even before that, the material of the walls was already not ancient.
「How is this even possible? Did Menes create this building with his powers?」
Do you think people in the 1990s had any notion of something resembling a ‘smartphone’?
People from the 1800s imagined scenes of doves flying at supersonic speeds carrying letters.
That’s how difficult future predictions are and how human imagination usually sticks to its temporal limits.
No matter how great Menes’s powers were, considering light bulbs, electricity, and power generation would be quite the leap.
「Could Menes have had some foresight?」
“… Foresight.”
Unlike other supernatural powers, ‘foresight’ is something entirely different.
Is it imagining future technologies or actually seeing them?
No, even if he saw it, that doesn’t add up.
I might not know about others, but I understand this story quite well.
Having gone through countless hardships while building civilizations!
I, in Room 203, was the modern man who landed in the past with knowledge of the future.
The level of civilization I managed to build over hundreds of years might as well be comparable to ancient Rome.
This much is obvious.
Just knowing about light bulbs doesn’t equate to being able to create one.
Even if you’re a university professor who has studied architectural engineering all your life, if you land in ancient times, you wouldn’t even be able to build a log cabin, let alone a modern concrete building.
Engineering and all that aside, you have to create cement and rebar first!
To discuss rebar, you’ll need to find a furnace and coal.
A requires B and C, while B demands D, E, and F.
At this point, my doubts, or rather, the hotel party’s suspicions turned into certainty.
The royal tomb is not a place built with the technological prowess of ancient Egypt and Menes is not an ancient human.
He wields supernatural abilities with knowledge of the future.
But that’s not all.
That incomprehensible being must possess some unidentified force enabling the construction of this future structure known as the royal tomb.
“Hey there, guests, come over here.”
As Songyi drew closer, her bracelet glowing, she asked,
“I hear you’re the priests serving Horus?”
“What?”
“Since we’re all busy, don’t keep things hidden.”
“Uh… Yeah, that’s right.”
Priests of Horus?
For a moment, I was puzzled, but soon it clicked.
When Yumi first met Aidia, she jokingly referred to her as “Horus’s daughter,” and it seems Aidia and Menes took that seriously.
Menes must have encountered Malkab already.
Horus could also be seen as a type of local deity in a similar light.
“Is what you want the construction of a temple for Horus?”
“Uh… Um…”
“Don’t flap your lips like a fish. Speak properly. Because of that bracelet’s power, I can’t read your thoughts.”
Such an absurd comment left Songyi utterly speechless.
For Menes, who has likely had similar negotiations with the Malkab cult, this was a perfectly reasonable assumption.
Ignoring Songyi’s confusion, I stepped in.
“Let’s postpone any negotiations for now. The critical point is dealing with Malkab.”
“Good. You’re quite refreshing. Now, shall we discuss Malkab?”
About ten minutes later, Menes woke the “Guardian of Egypt” and set off from the royal tomb.
“…”
The Guardian of Egypt.
That’s a clear reference to a robot created with sci-fi tech.
Seriously, it wouldn’t be strange if tanks or helicopters showed up at this point.
Having reached this stage, I started to grasp why even the evil god Malkab might find it difficult to face Menes.
—
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