Zheng Zha sighed, looked over at Xiao Honglv, and just as he was about to speak, he turned his gaze to Wen Lie.
"Xiao Honglv, and Wen Lie, analyze this for me: what kind of strength does the India Team possess, and why did the China Team have to enter this horror film first?"
Zheng Zha was starting to take an interest in Wen Lie.
Someone who could deduce the rules of God's Dimension and the discrepancies in how veteran members perceived them right from the start—this person's intelligence might even surpass Xiao Honglv's.
Besides, his self-introduction at the very beginning had been utterly bizarre, rambling on about being some miserable exploited worker. Zheng Zha didn't buy it for a second; perhaps, much like Chu Xuan, Ling Dian, Bawang, and Zhao Yinkong, he possessed some special, hidden identity.
Wen Lie said calmly, "They're strong. Extremely strong. Probably at a level where their strongest member's power equals our entire team combined. If we aren't careful, we'll suffer a total wipeout."
The India Team's biggest flaw was their low IQ.
In terms of sheer power, had the India Team gone to war with the China Team on the very first day they entered the horror film, they would have achieved a one-hundred-percent total wipeout of the China Team. If the Little Monk hadn't let his subordinates throw away their lives, if the Brahma Cobra hadn't deactivated its invisibility, if the Werewolf doctor hadn't canceled his transformation while getting stuck...
There were simply too many ways the India Team could have wiped out the China Team! The only reason the China Team won was because the members of the India Team were all morons.
With one Grade A enhanced combatant and at least three Grade B enhanced combatants, the China Team's victory was genuinely thanks to the India Team having their intelligence forcibly reduced by the author!
If the India Team had even standard human intelligence, they wouldn't have ended up completely wiped out by the China Team.
Zheng Zha, Zhan Lan, Qi Tengyi, and the others exchanged blank stares.
"Are you joking? You're exaggerating a bit, aren't you? What is the India Team's actual level?"
Zheng Zha forced an awkward smile. He had read *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, where strategists presenting plans would constantly say: "My lord, you're doomed! If you don't listen to me, you're about to finish!"
Yet in reality, when was it ever that dramatic?
Zhan Lan agreed, "That's right. God doesn't issue unwinnable missions."
Zhang Jie didn't reply immediately. Only after Zhan Lan finished did he chime in hastily, "Exactly. The India Team is so strong—how did you figure that out?"
"The mission God assigned is very simple. Without special conditions set, it's quite easy for us to complete. If a member hadn't already died, we could have avoided fighting the India Team entirely, not losing a single person, and returned straight to God's Dimension."
Wen Lie spoke first to Zhan Lan, explaining that unwinnable missions simply did not exist.
Just as he was about to explain how he had figured it out, Xiao Honglv interrupted.
"Because God made us enter the horror film first, the India Team must be stronger than us."
Xiao Honglv pinched a strand of hair on his forehead and pulled slightly, plucking it out.
Qi Tengyi asked with a puzzled expression, "Why is that? Since we entered the horror film before the India Team, don't we face more difficulties than they do? For instance, the traps in Hamunaptra—won't we end up clearing the mines for the India Team?"
The hair Xiao Honglv had blown away fluttered in the air. As he reached his fingers toward his forehead again, Zhan Lan hurriedly grabbed his wrist.
"Stop pulling your hair out all the time. You'll turn into a little bald guy."
Xiao Honglv jerked his hand free from Zhan Lan's grip and said coldly, "I won't. My cerebral cortex has mutated, and my hair grows back very fast. Even if I shaved it all off, it would grow right back."
Qin Zhuiyu asked with a grin, "Has any hair-growth tonic company approached you to shoot a commercial? With a condition like yours, you could make a fortune."
Xiao Honglv rolled his eyes and ignored Qin Zhuiyu.
"My scalp gets terribly itchy when I'm thinking—so much so that I want to scratch it raw. I can only suppress it with the pain of pulling out my hair, so mind your own business."
With that, Xiao Honglv continued, "As for the advantage of entering first, let's use a military exercise as an analogy. In a military exercise, do the people who enter the venue first hold the advantage, or the ones who enter later? That's easy to figure out, isn't it? The army that enters the battlefield ahead of time always claims the initiative because they have ample time to familiarize themselves with the terrain and traps beforehand."
"It's not just something that can be summed up with a simple phrase like 'ample time.' After Imhotep resurrects, the India Team will enter the world of *The Mummy*. Imhotep's resurrection happens because Evelyn reads the incantation from the Book of the Dead. In other words, as long as we get our hands on the Book of the Dead, we dictate when Imhotep resurrects and when the India Team enters the horror film."
Wen Lie raised his right hand and tapped his wristwatch, reminding Zheng Zha and the others what the conditions for the India Team's entry actually implied.
"This advantage is truly massive—so massive that it actually scares me a little. Furthermore, we can even hire the British military. By the way, do you guys have any gold? Without control-type skills, we'll have to rely on a combination of coercion and enticement."
"I have seventeen gold bricks right here."
Zheng Zha quickly retrieved a gold brick—about three fingers thick when placed side by side—from his Spatial Ring. Wen Lie took the gold brick, weighed it in his hand, and tossed it back to Zheng Zha.
"That's about right. Britain finished fighting World War I about eight years ago and was forced to abandon Egypt in recent years; they're short on money right now. Gold bricks like this can serve as bait to hire the British army to go to Hamunaptra."
Zheng Zha, Ling Dian, Zhang Jie, and the others looked at each other, a chill running through them.
This guy had kept a low profile all along, hadn't uttered a peep when they were ready to abandon the newcomers, and had only acted a bit strange during his initial self-introduction. Who would have thought that in this short span of time, he had already grasped the entire big picture?
Impressive!
Zheng Zha thought of Chu Xuan.
Except that these two didn't really seem alike at all.
Wen Lie didn't look like some proper strategist. He hadn't made a sound when he was supposed to be abandoned to die, nor did he speak up when his own interests were threatened.
Yet whenever he offered opinions, every single point he raised was something the others had either failed to think of or overlooked.
"Prison mates, I imagine you probably aren't tailing me on purpose, are you?"
At that moment, O'Connell, who had been walking in front, stopped, turned around to face the group from the China Team, and flashed a wary, sneering smile.
Zheng Zha was taken aback. He hadn't expected O'Connell to mistake them for fellow prisoners.
However, recalling how God had also assigned them the identities of Umbrella Corporation security guards in the world of *Resident Evil 1*, he relaxed.
Zheng Zha produced a submachine gun and some gold nuggets, wearing a smile as he relied on his formidable personal charisma to hit it off with O'Connell.
Touched by Zheng Zha's friendliness, O'Connell insisted on making friends with the China Team and led them to book rooms at an inn in Cairo.
Following that, the group left the inn and, trailing O'Connell as their local guide, headed to the Khan el-Khalili market to exchange their gold for currency and procure some weapons and clothing.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to look around Cairo," Wen Lie said to Zheng Zha just as they were stepping out of the Khan el-Khalili market and preparing to head back. "Even though this is my first time here, I've heard a great deal about Cairo for a long time."
Zhang Jie frowned with displeasure, unable to help himself from blurting out, "You seem to be out of it all the time! What do you think this place is? A tourist attraction? Or some kind of reality game?"