Inside the restaurant, it wasn't just the members of the China Team present. O'Connell, Evelyn, and Jonathan had arrived early in the morning and were clustered around Zheng Zha.
Pulling on Zheng Zha's arm, Evelyn said, "Let's get this straight. We'll guide you to Hamunaptra to destroy the demon, and we won't take any of the gold. All I want are the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra. I just want those two ancient texts. They are treasures of history and culture, and the Cairo Museum is where they belong."
Zheng Zha gave a bitter smile. "Understood, understood. We're only going to destroy the demon, and we have no interest in anything else."
"What about the guide's fee? Besides, my brother is an expert in Egyptology, and with him here, we guarantee you'll find whatever demon this is. The reward can't be too small, you know."
Jonathan pulled on Zheng Zha's arm from the other side, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together in a universally recognized gesture.
Zheng Zha generously replied, "Take as much as you can carry when the time comes. We aren't interested in money, and I doubt the army will miss a few dozen pieces of gold. If they object, just come talk to me."
Hearing this, Jonathan's eyes lit up. He immediately threw his arm around Zheng Zha, acting like they were brothers.
Zheng Zha used to be a smooth talker who could say whatever people wanted to hear, and he hadn't lost his touch. Handling Jonathan was a breeze for him.
When the appointed time arrived, the group headed to the British military base.
The British forces had already prepared the expeditionary force for Hamunaptra: an infantry battalion equipped with one large airship and five small airships, fifteen new-style howitzers, and fifteen mortars, with a colonel assigned to command the unit.
Wen Lie and his companions didn't care how the commander had haggled with the Egyptians to secure permission for this army to march—or if they had even gotten permission at all.
Once they arrived, they simply boarded a warship at the Suez Canal and headed upstream toward Hamunaptra.
No one was foolish enough to attack a warship—the guardians of the dead weren't that crazy, let alone aware that Evelyn had boarded a British vessel.
Consequently, the entire journey from departure to the target dock was smooth sailing without any unexpected incidents, save for the fact that soldiers kept coming to the China Team members for blessings.
Armies in Europe and America had long maintained the position of military chaplains. The warships even had prayer rooms where the chaplains received the soldiers and tended to their spiritual well-being.
Because of the China Team's presence, the colonel hadn't brought any other chaplains aboard, leaving the members of the China Team to become the objects of the soldiers' prayers in their eyes.
Zhan Lan took on this role. She wasn't a Christian and knew almost nothing about the Bible, but she had magic!
Specifically, the World of Warcraft priest spell, Mantra: Endurance.
Moreover, she was a professional writer. When receiving the soldiers' prayers, Zhan Lan would casually string together a few flowery words, cast Mantra: Endurance, and leave the soldiers feeling bursting with energy.
After every prayer, each soldier would immediately drop down to do several hundred push-ups just to burn off the excess energy.
Clutching the Bible, Zhan Lan sighed, "If this keeps up, I really feel like I could go become a priest in the Christian church."
The rooms specially provided for the China Team were far better furnished than the rest. Wen Lie, Xiao Honglv, and the veteran members were gathered in one of these rooms to chat.
A white cat lay sprawled across Zhan Lan's lap, lazily swishing its tail.
Cats were guardians of the underworld, and the undead creatures of Egypt feared them, so before setting off, Zhan Lan had deliberately gone out and bought a white cat.
Originally, Zhan Lan had wanted to recruit the black cat Wen Lie had fed the day before, but unfortunately, it was a black cat, which symbolized bad luck in Christianity, so she had abandoned the idea.
"Isn't this great? Having a respectable cover identity makes it easy to get things done anywhere in a modern worldview. After all, it's the largest religion in the world."
Wen Lie held a plate of specialty desserts, using a fork to slice off a small piece of flaky pastry. Savoring the cotton candy threads and nuts on top, he bit gently into the mango filling inside, his words slightly muffled.
Zheng Zha nodded and said earnestly, "True enough. We've experienced too few horror movies, and only in the first one did God's Dimension arrange identities as Hive security guards for us; none of the other horror movies gave us any background. We need to start thinking about this issue for the future—whenever God's Dimension doesn't assign an identity, we should prepare a seamless one ourselves."
Zhan Lan stared at Wen Lie for a moment, then couldn't help asking, "...Wen Lie, do you really like eating sweets that much?"
Wen Lie shifted his gaze to Zhan Lan and replied calmly, "Want some? I put five types, ten boxes of desserts in Zheng Zha's Spatial Ring."
Zhan Lan hurriedly waved her hands and gave a wry smile. "Forget it, the calorie count is way too high. I can't handle it."
Syrup, cotton candy threads, cheese, honey, butter—she had witnessed how this dessert was made, and it had broken her out in a cold sweat while making her mouth water profusely.
"Desserts here in Egypt are really something else. Do they really produce that much sugar?"
Zhan Lan shivered. Eating a whole plate of this would make her gain at least a few pounds.
Zhang Jie said with admiration, "You really can eat that stuff."
Even women who liked sweets couldn't handle this kunafeh, yet Wen Lie, a grown man, managed to eat it every day.
"I didn't use to eat sweets, not counting bread. For twenty odd years, the number of cakes I ate could be counted on one hand. It only started in the last few years because work got too exhausting. I happened to buy a box of cream cake by chance this year, and after that, it became a habit. Now I basically spend a few bucks a week to buy two boxes of discounted cream cake to eat. Life is already so bitter, how can you not taste a little sweetness?"
Wen Lie spoke so calmly, but Zheng Zha, Zhang Jie, and the others could only hear the bitterness behind it.
"Everyone who makes it into God's Dimension has their own hardships."
Zheng Zha sighed.
Wen Lie rolled his eyes.
Before entering God's Dimension, you were a degenerate scum who was well-versed in eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling—and you're here talking to me, a working stiff, about how hard life is?
Screw you!
"Yeah, desserts are better after all."
Zhang Jie raised his head, recalling the life of the man named Zhang Jie before he entered God's Dimension, his expression turning somewhat desolate.
Zhan Lan patted Xiao Honglv on the head, a trace of pity in her eyes.
Such a young child, yet he had been living in a mental hospital being studied by others. Now he had finally escaped the asylum, only to arrive in a world accompanied by death.
"Sigh!"
"Don't pity me. In the mental hospital I had food, drink, a place to live, and even a computer to play on. At worst, I just lost my freedom and got a bit bored."
Xiao Honglv unhappily swatted Zhan Lan's arm away.
Awkwardly, Zhan Lan placed her hand back on the cat, skillfully petting it.