bit stealing game

Chapter 1 Preface Ancient Egypt It haunts me

I sat up from a coffin.

The thick darkness tightly enveloped the sarcophagus, perfectly explaining what it means to be invisible. The walls of the coffin are cool and smooth, with hieroglyphic inscriptions engraved on them. My knowledge of ancient Egyptian is not high, and I can't touch it just by touching it.

There is no way out. However, no matter who can afford the basalt coffin with such regulations, it is rich or noble. I think I am not so lucky to bear it.

The only light in the space comes from a military flashlight not far away.

The artificial light source steadily illuminated the altar standing on several stone steps and the Eye of Horus painted on the wall behind it. The appearance of the element of Horus, the god of the sky, which symbolizes imperial power, proved that I was indeed

In a coffin belonging to ancient Egypt.

Since the light of the flashlight is from bottom to top, the head of the statue on the altar is hidden in the shadow. Not only can the face be clearly seen, but it actually looks gloomy and ferocious. And the black eyeliner of the Eye of Horus itself is reflected in the strong light.

The bottom was glowing dark red, as if crying blood.

I don’t know why, but only the place where the flashlight is pointing is clearly visible, and the surrounding darkness does not get even a drop of rain or dew from the light. Coupled with the solidified silence, it looks like an ominous sacrificial place.

This doesn't help my situation.

I swallowed, held my breath and groped carefully in the pitch-black coffin. There was a flashlight on hand, and I should be from the same family as the one who was working diligently and brightly under the altar. Other than that, I was the only one in the whole coffin.

There was a very uncomfortable pillow on the place where I lay.

The fact that the coffin was not shared with other residents made me somewhat relieved.

But this is interesting.

It was a huge basalt coffin, with complicated hieroglyphic inscriptions engraved on the deep and thick coffin walls. With such a high-end configuration, apart from me and a flashlight that clearly belonged to modern civilization, there was only one pillow as a burial object, which was a bit shabby.

After temporarily clarifying the situation, I didn't bother to think about the whereabouts of the original coffin owner. I sat in the coffin and started to count the equipment on my body. Fortunately, I was wearing the uniform of the archaeological team and didn't even leave my tool vest behind, so I should have

He brought a lot of guys with him.

However, most surveying and mapping tools are useless in this situation. The hand shovel originally placed in the outer pocket of my left leg is missing. It is one of the few things that can be regarded as a weapon. It is replaced by a hard

This thing feels like a stone. I don't know why, but I think I should keep it. If I still carry it with me after I enter the coffin, it will probably be of great research value.

Finally, I took out a piece of eraser from my breast pocket and threw it into the darkness.

I waited for a while, but nothing happened, so I tentatively turned on the flashlight.

This is indeed a black sarcophagus. It is larger than expected, and the space is enough for me to lie down and do a side raise with one hand. There are brightly colored inscriptions on the coffin wall that is higher than me sitting tall.

They are all talking nonsense about the Bone of Set.

Set is the god of the desert in ancient Egyptian mythology and the younger brother of Osiris, the god of the underworld. Later, the two brothers fought for the throne. Legend has it that after Osiris was killed by Set, he was mummified with the help of his wife, the goddess Isis.

He was resurrected from the dead. Seth, on the other hand, had his blood drained by the gods, because the ancient Egyptians believed that the gods could be reborn as long as they still had blood.

It would not be surprising to see Osiris, Isis and even Horus appear in the tomb. But why are Seth, or even Seth’s bones, involved?

I didn't bother to think about this unanswered question, and instead studied the pillow that was in close contact with my head just now.

This is an ivory pillow. In the middle of the pillow is a scarab made of lapis lazuli, and the goddess Isis spreads her wings below as if to hold the sleeper's head. The overall design is actually a neck brace that makes you suffer when you lie on it.

However, this kind of pillow itself is not designed to make people sleep peacefully.

Logically speaking, if the ancient Egyptians placed pillows in their coffins, they would usually have the Book of the Dead written on them.

The Book of the Dead is a funerary text in ancient Egypt. It is often found on tomb murals, coffin walls and some funerary objects. The more well-known among them are the Doomsday Judgment that the deceased has gone through and the sun that can carry the deceased across the River Styx and return to life.

Divine gold ship.

However, on this ivory pillow, there are only religious ritual scenes outlined in black and red. The few lines of inscriptions are the same as those on the coffin wall, saying "The Bones of Seth".

I didn't give up and searched carefully again, but still found nothing new.

Nothing makes sense here.

My eyes fell on the ivory pillow that stood out in the black sarcophagus.

Is it possible that I have to lie on that pillow to find any clues? I lay down doubtfully and used a flashlight to illuminate the ceiling above my head.

That's a Senet chessboard*.

Like the Doomsday Judgment of Maat, the goddess of truth, this is a stage that every pharaoh has to go through after death. Only through this chess game with the gods can the pharaoh have a chance to get out of death and rise from the horizon again like the sun.

It's really crazy.

The combination of the altar not far away, the Senet chessboard overhead, and the coffin does not comply with any of the rules of ancient Egypt.

It was said to be a sacrifice. There were no words praising virtues, and there were no sacrifices. There was only a solitary altar on the steps.

It can be said that it is a tomb, but there are no burial objects in this coffin. Even the ivory pillow seems to have been prepared for me.

Unless I am the burial object.

Thinking of this, my whole body jumped up immediately.

I squatted in the coffin in shock and dug out all the things I was carrying. If I was really a burial object, I must have something worthy of being buried with me.

Sure enough, I took out a blue ancient Egyptian scarab and an Eye of Horus from my pocket. These were taken to the underworld by the dead to be used as amulets. Judging from the shape, they probably belong to the third generation.

The New Kingdom period in ancient Egypt more than a thousand years ago.

My hands started to tremble.

This is a cultural relic, why is it on me? Could it be that I have degenerated from an archaeologist into a tomb robber who has suffered a thousand cuts?

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. Then I took out another unattractive stone from my body. This thing took the place of the hand shovel. Grave robbers would not carry such a worthless thing.

. I luckily curled up my lips and continued to search.

The last four items were also taken out. They were a pair of gloves, a lead weight that blackened my fingers, a heart-shaped lead box, and a well-preserved but old pocket watch.

I pinned my gloves to the waistband of my trousers and threw the lead weight back into my pocket. I didn't know what was in the heart-shaped lead box, so I didn't open it because I was afraid of causing trouble.

On the contrary, the pocket watch may be of some use. However, it seems to be broken, and the hands are spinning backwards. There is also a compass embedded in the middle of the dial. However, the hands are trembling slightly, pointing persistently towards the darkness in the opposite direction of the altar.

I only glanced at the darkness and didn't dare to look again.

The sound of drums came from the depths of darkness at the right time, and the strange drumbeats seemed to urge and summon me to go and find out.

There is nothing worse than lying in a coffin. My heart skipped a beat and I jumped out of the sarcophagus.

Which way to go next becomes a question.

For some reason, I resisted the altar more than the unknown darkness from which the drums sounded. However, I had to go and have a look. After all, when I woke up from the coffin, the only thing that received special attention was the altar on the stone steps.

Already.

There are twelve steps in total, including the egg-shaped altar itself, which is thirteen steps. The golden statue overlooks the endless darkness.

Gold represents eternity and immortality in ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptians believed that the bodies of gods were made of gold and their hair was lapis lazuli. However, statues of gods were rarely made of pure gold, and more were made of stone or bronze.

But not only is the color of this statue wrong, why does the golden color on the surface seem to be liquid?

I held the flashlight with my left hand, put on a glove with my right hand and touched it gently. Sure enough, there was some gold stuff on the glove. Is the paint not dry yet?

I walked around the altar and saw an inscription on the base of the statue.

It says on it: Your blood as a sacrifice.

A gust of wind blew by and I shivered.

The wind seemed to be blowing from behind the mural depicting the Eye of Horus.

I leaned over to take a look.

There is a false door under the Eye of Horus, with a small hole similar to a cat's eye.

This shape usually appears in the sacrificial hall of a large tomb. Behind the false door is the real tomb chamber. The false door is for the soul of the deceased to pass through. The deceased himself can look out from the hole in the door and check.

Did the descendants bring enough sacrifices?

Something flashed past the hole.

I suddenly took a few steps back and almost bumped into the statue covered in golden paint.

I stumbled down the steps. The light of the flashlight shone somewhere on the left wall, and the reverse light almost blinded me.

The tireless drumbeat continued, and my heart beat faster and faster. But I still walked towards the reflective wall.

That is also a narrative mural wall. According to the above content, the place I am now in is Duat, the underworld of ancient Egypt. No wonder there are things like Senet chessboards, and some images are very like the underworld.

The rugged figure seems to be crawling out of the soil, but the half in the soil is very plump.

There is also an altar on the mural on that wall, and there is a bronze mirror embedded in the altar. It was this bronze mirror that reflected the light from the flashlight just now.

strangeness.

Judging from the style of the murals and the various scenes that appear, it should be roughly the New Kingdom period more than 3,000 years ago. However, this bronze mirror has no traces of oxidation at all. It is said to be because it is sealed.

It's tight and does a good job of antioxidants, but I'm sure I'm still panting.

And what the bronze mirror reflected was not the darkness in front of me, I could even clearly see the mural on the opposite wall.

Could it be that this is the mirror world of ancient Egypt? So darkness is light and death is life?

Co-authoring follows the rules at this time.

I moved closer. There was a golden face in the mirror.

I subconsciously took a few steps back, away from the bronze mirror, but accidentally kicked something. The sound of friction between hard objects and the ground was even more abrupt in this space. I froze in place. Except for the weird sound of drums, the place was completely silent.

, as if I was the only living thing here.

I bit the bullet and illuminated my feet with a flashlight.

Oh, it turned out to be my coffin board.

The thick wooden board that was overturned to the ground was engraved with the twelve constellations of the zodiac, which symbolized the ancient Egyptian cosmology. There were four densely packed circles of gods. In addition, there were several stars that I could not recognize. The twelve leading gods among them were

The Book of the Dead corresponds to the twelve hours of night.

I knelt down and studied it carefully. The coffin was still Lebanese cedar. It seemed that the person who built this place was either Thutmose III or Ramses II.

I don't know why, I always feel a little inconsistent.

The zodiac should have originated in Mesopotamia and was later brought to Egypt by the Greeks. But the New Kingdom was more than a thousand years earlier than that.

Unless this is a coffin that was put in later. But in that case, there is no reason why the murals are still talking about the New Kingdom.

But soon the smile could no longer be held. The one I was lying on was a stone coffin, but the one on the ground was a wooden coffin lid. If the coffin was also opened, what about the people in the coffin?

I suddenly broke out in white sweat. At this moment, during the interval between drum beats, I heard heavy and steady footsteps coming from behind me.

It seemed like something was coming down from the altar. The dedicated soldier's flashlight flashed twice and went out.

Da da da

Fuck, I am not a burial object, I am a sacrifice.

I turned off the flashlight and ran in the direction where the drum beat was getting louder and louder.

As warm-blooded animals, humans will continue to emit infrared radiation when they are alive. However, because human eyes are only sensitive to visible light in a very narrow wavelength range, they generally cannot see the light coming from other people.

But I always feel that in this ancient Egyptian underworld, in this darkness, something is watching me.

I don’t know how long I ran, but when my lungs were about to explode, I saw a beam of light suddenly lit up not far away. The little bit of light that I could see in the darkness looked like millet used to catch birds.

In a panic, I ran into it and fell on a black sarcophagus. My left hand without gloves was bruised, and the blood that flowed out was red with a hint of gold.

I raised my head.

This space seemed to be immersed in water, with all four walls painted dark blue. The bottomless water color spread all the way to the ceiling, as if the golden stars were also submerged.

This is the afterlife of ancient Egypt. In their belief, the world after death is full of water. It is like the vast sea, where the sun cannot guide the direction. Therefore, the dead have to walk between the stars full of fear.

Pass.

The sarcophagus beneath my feet symbolizes the only earth in this watery world.

I squeezed the wound worriedly, and this time it was bright red blood that came out. It seemed that I had been blinded just now.

With the light that I didn’t know where it came from, I saw that the front of the sarcophagus was actually full of lotus flowers. Along the lotus flowers on both sides, I walked into a more open space. When I got closer, I realized that those lotus flowers were actually

It was carved from stone by ancient Egyptian craftsmen who were good at using light and shadow. As the footsteps move, the changing light and shadow sway and bloom like a lotus.

There is a wide bridge at the end of the Echeveria Trail. A huge banyan tree extends its branches from both sides of the bridge and continues to grow staggered above the bridge.

The bridge passes between the trees, as if it is wrapped in the arms of a banyan tree.

According to ancient Egyptian legends, the banyan tree can give birth to gods. Is it possible that by walking over it, you can shed your mortal body and become one of the gods?

There was empty darkness on both sides of the bridge, and the banyan trees seemed to grow out of the ground.

I cautiously stood at the edge of the abyss and looked around.

There was a sound of drums coming from the opposite side. I raised my eyes and looked along the wide bridge deck. There was a man in white priest robes beating a bronze drum on the other side. He also wore a double crown belonging to the Pharaoh.

He is both a priest and a pharaoh. It can only be Thutmose III. Next to this brave and skilled pharaoh, there is an egg-shaped altar, which is also poured with golden liquid and is glowing darkly. Different from what I just said.

Seen in the dark, the egg on this altar seemed to have broken its shell.

But is he just starting to play now? I have already come out of the coffin. This drum is not played for me, it is because I am too sentimental.

As the drum beat became deeper and deeper, the ground behind me, symbolizing water, began to tremble. In the gap, there were footsteps that could not be ignored, getting closer and closer to me.

Could it be that the ghost on the altar followed here?

Compared with the unknown danger, the fear of being used as a sacrifice prompted me to walk on the suspended bridge in front of me. There was endless emptiness on both sides, and it felt like I was walking on the road to hell.

I took a few cautious steps, and the bridge began to tilt subtly. My whole body was tense and frozen in place, and I didn't dare to breathe.

It seemed like something was watching me from above my head. I raised my eyes and saw a creature with a crocodile head, a lion's forelimbs and a hippo's lower limbs leaning out towards me maliciously. I looked at this suture monster and screamed in my heart.

.Isn’t this Amit who is responsible for eating the hearts of losers in the Doomsday Judgment?

Sure enough, in the towering darkness, the dog-headed and ape-bodied god Thoth looked down at me calmly.

So what I stood under was not a bridge. It was a scale that straddled the realms of Yin and Yang. I gritted my teeth, and I had no choice but to go on, whether it was the Underworld or the Judgment. But the person waiting for me on the way was not Po Meng.

, but Maat

Before I had even taken two steps, a feather landed lightly on the opposite side of me.

The sound of the drums still continued. The scales and the entire space began to collapse with the piece of feather. Pieces of starry sky were approaching me.

As I fell, I remembered:

It turned out that I was the one who lay in that black sarcophagus.

This is an adventure novel about the history, mythology and conspiracy of prehistoric civilization in ancient Egypt. I hope you will like it. Please leave messages and suggestions.

* Senet board: a customs clearance game that often appears as a funerary object in Egyptian tombs.

(End of chapter)