The tomb felt profoundly grim, further compounded by the oppressive dampness, causing scorpions and spiders to occasionally skitter across the floor. Walking through such an environment made everyone distinctly uneasy, though Zheng Zha, running at the very front of the group, sensed nothing amiss.

After all, every second counted now. If ten minutes elapsed, the reward points—five thousand of them, a sum he couldn't scrape together even if he sold himself ten times over—would vanish without the tomb even needing to collapse.

And encountering this side mission scenario was pure luck.

Who could guarantee he’d stumble upon another one? Escape from the tomb was impossible; he had no choice but to push forward relentlessly.

Suddenly, a visceral premonition of danger pierced his core. The feeling was so violent that he instinctively rolled aside without a second thought. Just where he had been standing, a massive, long, saber-like weapon materialized. The hand gripping the weapon, however, was certainly not one belonging to a human like Xian.

As anticipated, a colossal, dog-headed humanoid monster lumbered out from the shadows behind the corridor. Standing nearly three meters tall, its entire body was an inky black, and it wielded a giant, long saber. This was undeniably one of the Reaper Army entities seen in the movies—those monstrous figures closely resembling the Grim Reaper.

This creature’s speed was terrifyingly swift.

It was far faster than the Mummy Guards they had faced earlier.

The instant Zheng Zha finished rolling, the monster swept its long blade toward him in a savage horizontal arc. The massive saber scraped against the wall as it cleaved toward him, emitting a shower of metallic screeches and sparks, clearly indicating it was a genuine metal weapon.

Zheng Zha reacted even faster. The moment he landed and looked back, he had already pulled the Zaku Beam Tomahawk from his Spatial Pouch. As he completed his roll, by the time his feet hit the ground, the colossal Zaku Beam Tomahawk was comparable in size to the monster's saber. Electricity crackled fiercely around the axe, and as he swung it, it moved like Thor’s war hammer, easily intercepting the incoming slash. Then, with a sound like shattering glass, the monster’s saber was pulverized, and the Reaper Army creature holding it disintegrated into a cloud of fine ash.

“Everyone, watch out! There are monsters in this tomb!” Before Zheng Zha could even catch his breath, he yelled back toward the group behind him. But before his words faded, he saw several figures sprinting toward him, their speed easily double what it had been before. Jonathan roared as he ran, “We don’t need you to tell us, dammit! There are tons of monsters behind us!” As expected, when Zheng Zha glanced briefly down the passage, several Reaper Army monsters were indeed in pursuit. They strode through the tomb corridors with frightening ease, huge sabers in hand, their gait and velocity clearly superior to the former Mummy Guards. Judging by their muscular frames, their combat prowess was likely much higher as well.

Zheng Zha sighed. By his own fighting standards, even without unlocking his Gene Lock, he shouldn't fear these Reaper Army monsters. However, "Main God" had only allotted ten minutes. Placing these monsters as guardians in the tomb was clearly a deliberate attempt to waste his time. (If only Zhao Yingkong and the others were here; the rear guard could be completely entrusted to them.) Zheng Zha sighed again, retrieving his micro submachine gun. He engaged his Qinggong footwork and surged to the very front. “I’ll clear the path ahead! Everyone, look out for yourselves!” As he spoke, he saw a Reaper Army monster charging toward him, saber raised.

The instant Zheng Zha finished shouting, he plunged fully into the unlocked Gene Lock state. The movements of the approaching monster instantly became crystal clear. Moreover, streams of data flooded his mind. He immediately leveled his submachine gun and fired a concentrated burst at the monster’s lower leg. The instant one leg absorbed the force, it snapped, causing the creature to tumble forward, landing directly against the sharpened edge of the Zaku Beam Tomahawk. With a single axe swing, Zheng Zha reduced it to dust.

Jonathan was only about a meter behind Zheng Zha’s frantic pace. He managed to gasp out, “Not bad, showing some real grit. Using an axe as your weapon.”

(Grit?) Zheng Zha was suddenly reminded of something he had said to the weapon’s previous owner. A bitter smile touched his lips, and he simply chose not to reply, instead running even harder. In the next stretch, he encountered three more Reaper Army creatures, nearly killing each one from a distance. Since the spiritual-type bullets seemed effective against them anyway, Zheng Zha eventually resorted to simply mowing them down with continuous fire from the micro submachine gun.

“How much time is left! Does anyone know how much time we have left?” Zheng Zha shouted urgently, running ceaselessly but daring not to look back at the group behind him.

Eve’s voice was the first to carry back. “Six—six minutes! We have six minutes left!” Zheng Zha’s anxiety spiked. He roared, “What about those guides? Aren’t they experts? Dammit, tell us which doors or walls we need to pass through inside!” Jonathan sighed from behind him, “My apologies, they probably haven’t encountered anything like this. After running for a while, their group disappeared. I suspect they took a wrong turn; perhaps they met a grim end.”

“Why didn’t you get lost in a side passage?” Zheng Zha shot back casually. Before he could elaborate, a massive saber hurtled directly toward their faces from the front. These Reaper Army monsters had become smarter this time; they stood at a distance and hurled their weapons. Since O’Connell and the others were right behind Zheng Zha, he couldn’t simply dodge aside. While taking the blow himself would be manageable, for those behind him, it would easily cost them half their lives.

“Damn it!” Zheng Zha had no choice but to raise his axe for a direct block. The sheer force of the throw, combined with the heavy mass of the long saber, slammed into him so hard that he was bodily thrown back over a meter, crashing directly into Jonathan and causing the whole group to stumble and fall to the ground.

“Get down!” Zheng Zha roared through gritted teeth. Since dying after ten minutes was a certainty anyway, he decided to fight desperately now. As he yelled the command, he immediately pulled a multi-barrel machine gun from his spatial pouch. He unleashed the cannon in a frenzy, sweeping fire into the corridor ahead and behind. The ferocious thud-thud-thud of the aerial cannon, spitting out thousands of rounds per minute, coupled with a power that deserved to be called 'ladder artillery,' cleared the area. After only two full sweeps, nearly ten Reaper Army monsters lining the passage walls were vaporized into dust. The others stared in stunned silence at Zheng Zha, effortlessly wielding such an outrageously large weapon—a multi-barrel machine gun held by a single person. The shock left them speechless.

“What are you waiting for! Run, everyone!” Zheng Zha shoved the cannon back into his pouch, yelled, and sprinted madly forward. The prone group exchanged glances, then followed Zheng Zha’s lead, plunging deeper into the tomb complex. Zheng Zha continued to dispatch about ten more Reaper Army monsters along the way, fortunately escaping each encounter with only minor peril. When only half a minute remained, Eve finally pointed at a wall and screamed, “It’s here! I have a feeling—there must be a passage right behind this wall!” In the original movie plot, Eve had recalled her past life, allowing her to find this hidden tomb. Without hesitation, Zheng Zha hefted the Zaku Beam Tomahawk and cleaved viciously into the thick wall. A massive gash instantly tore through the masonry, and peering through the opening, he could indeed see a sealed-off room.

Zheng Zha raised the Beam Axe to strike again, but before the axe descended, he spotted movement through the gap: a monstrous scorpion, easily over three meters long. This was no mere scorpion; it was the progenitor of all scorpions, and there was more than one. Zheng Zha peered intently through the fissure—there were at least seven or eight such behemoths inside. He could only roar one thing.

“‘Main God,’ I curse you!” He leaped towards...