Are dead people scary? For most modern folks, corpses are pretty terrifying. It’s not just the mangled limbs or piles of bones—even a perfectly intact body laid out in a morgue can send chills down your spine and make you not want to touch it.
But in a place overflowing with primal vibes, dead bodies aren’t really a big deal. Someone dies? So what. Every time the tribes go to war, a bunch of people kick the bucket.
But here in this ancient space, inside this Sunspire Pyramid, the word 'dead' gets a little complicated.
The interior of the pyramid isn’t that big—just a stone square hall. The floor’s covered in yellow sand, and right in the middle of the room lies a corpse. Judging by the looks of it, it’s been here for ages. The body’s still mostly intact, but it’s been dried out completely, basically just a skeleton wrapped in skin.
The corpse is dressed like a classic explorer—backpack on its back, whip at its waist, even a cowboy hat on its head. The style is super old-school. For some reason, Jill Young looked at the getup and immediately thought of someone named Indiana Jones—though it probably wasn’t actually that famous adventurer professor, right?
Max Easton glanced at Jill Young for guidance, but Jill just shrugged and walked right up. No traps, no hidden mechanisms—she strolled over to the corpse without a hitch. After searching the body for a bit, Jill pulled an adventure log from the corpse’s jacket pocket. She flipped it open: the writing was in an unfamiliar script.
"It’s written in letters—European language. Can you read it?" Jill handed the log to Max.
"Let me see—it’s Spanish." Max might be a goofball, but he’s still a professor, and Spanish is no problem for him. He carefully flipped through the log, afraid he might tear the fragile pages. Muttering, Max said, "This was a Spanish explorer named... Big Wolf? Must be a nickname. 1845—Big Wolf stumbled into this place by accident, just like me, and made it all the way here. Looks like he took a different route, didn’t run into those man-eating flowers or bugs or floating rocks, but he still got hurt along the way. When he finally reached the Sunspire Pyramid, he discovered..."
At this point, Max froze and looked up at Jill Young, murmuring a single word: "Gold—en—"
Jill reached for Big Wolf’s backpack. Even the toughest fabric can’t beat time—one tug and it crumbled to dust, revealing shimmering threads of gold inside.
After brushing away the scraps of cloth, a fist-sized Golden Orb glittered in front of them, dazzling their eyes. With that much gold right there, Jill Young and Max Easton were instantly mesmerized.
"Gold—each kilo is worth about two hundred thousand RMB. Every cubic decimeter is nearly twenty kilos, so a liter of gold is worth four million RMB." Jill murmured in a daze, "Four million... What does four million even mean? That’s about the price of an apartment inside Beijing’s Third Ring... This chunk isn’t a whole liter, maybe just enough for a living room and kitchen."
"Now that you mention it, I realize none of the lab equipment I want could be traded for this." Max stared at Jill. "Suddenly, gold doesn’t seem that valuable. The bricks in this pyramid are probably worth way more."
They both let out a breath, their eyes returning to normal. Gold might look impressive, but when you think about it, its value isn’t all that great.
"Big Wolf tossed away his food and water just to grab this gold, and ended up dying here, full of regret." Max’s eyes were full of disdain. Gold’s just a little heavier than clouds—basically dust. No wonder he was an old-timer from over a century ago. A fistful of gold looks scary, but its buying power can’t keep up with today’s prices.
Max had zero respect for Big Wolf, who literally died for money.
Jill tossed the Golden Orb in her hand—whoa, it was heavy. "What else did Big Wolf write?"
"Let me read on." Max flipped through the diary, continuing, "That silly wolf said: the Sacred Altar behind the main hall of the pyramid is the holy site of this ancient civilization. There’s even more gold—way, way more..."
Before Max could finish, the two exchanged a look and bolted for the back of the hall. They dashed through a doorway, and outside on a round platform, a blinding golden glow hit them right in the face—enough to blind a dog.
Staring at the vast pile of gold in front of them, Max burst out laughing and dove right in. He grabbed a handful of gold bricks and bars, letting them slip through his fingers. Listening to the sweet clinking sound, Max howled, "I’m rich! If I die, let me die on top of a mountain of gold!"
As for Jill, her right hand flashed with golden light as she pulled out clothes, food, and all sorts of stuff from her Pocket Vault. Clothes were tossed aside, arrows strapped on. She viciously peeled a Man-Eater Bloom fruit and chomped down, mouth full. "Food and water? Who cares! I’m clearing out my storage—I'm taking all the gold I can haul!"
Now I get why those movie explorers go nuts when they find gold after all the hardships. Cheering, laughing, fighting each other for the loot—it’s that wild rush, that urge to hog it all. I finally understand, and I don’t judge—because I’m just as greedy!
Jill and Max rolled around and played on the sea of gold. Jill’s Pocket Vault doesn’t care about the shape or weight of items, only volume. She emptied it out and packed it full of gold—who knows how much, but it was stuffed to the brim.
"Know what I’m thinking? When I get out, I’ll be filthy rich. I’ll buy a beach villa, get the best research equipment, and—" Max swam across the gold, grinning like an idiot. "I’ll swim in a sea of beautiful women! I’ll drown in waves of hips and boobs!"
This chapter isn’t over ^.^, click next page to keep reading!
"Want to know what I’m thinking?" Jill glanced at the leftover gold, pinching her chin. "If I could actually take all the gold, I’d seriously consider knocking you off and keeping it for myself."
"Uh..." Max’s face twitched, and he gave a nervous laugh. "Your Majesty, you’re joking, right? You are joking, yeah?"
"Yep," Jill nodded, but her face was shadowed, and beneath those shadows, her eyes flashed a red, icy light. "Totally joking."
"Your Majesty—!" Max immediately hugged her leg and groveled. "I’ve worked like a horse the whole way, if not for merit, at least for effort—if not for effort, then for sheer exhaustion, Your Majesty!"
After a while, the two sat around the pile of gold. It was a lot, but not enough to make your heart explode. Forget the neat stacks of ten-ton gold bars in Operation Eagle, or the treasure in the City of the Dead from The Mummy. The pyramid’s ancient folk worshipped gold, but their productivity wasn’t nearly as magical as in the movies.
Jill’s Pocket Vault probably snagged about a third of the gold. The rest, well, hauling it out by hand or shoulder wouldn’t get you much. With the way space and time shift, you never know what’ll come along for the ride, so Jill stopped worrying—her Vault was already packed.
Max was the real headache.
Max had been living here so long, his clothes vanished along with his dignity. What’s a grass-skirted bearded dude supposed to carry? Not much gold, that’s for sure. Max was running around in circles, totally frantic.
Then Max’s eyes landed on the women’s clothes Jill had tossed aside. "I think... I know how to haul this stuff..." Max’s expression was downright suggestive.
"No way..." Jill figured it out, squinting at him suspiciously.
A moment later, Max finished suiting up, and Jill had the sudden urge to scream, "My poor eyes!" and cover her face.
Max wrapped and tied Jill’s clothes all over himself, stuffing gold everywhere. But the real showstopper was the bra he wore, perfectly in place!
"I’ve always appreciated your support, but—" Max hefted two fist-sized Golden Orbs in his chest, his beard twitching as he flashed a dazzling smile. "Today, I appreciate your support in a whole new way!"
"I can’t really judge your cross-dressing, and I always knew you were shameless, but—" Jill rubbed her forehead, fighting off a throbbing vein. "Today, I’ve got a whole new reason to want to kill you."
"What’s wrong? Shamelessness isn’t so bad. How many grams of gold is dignity worth?" Max scratched his animal-hide underwear, where he’d stashed two quail-egg-sized gold nuggets. "This—this is my dignity."
This guy’s life is really heading down a wild path.
Just then—boom, like summer thunder—a deep, rumbling roar echoed through the space. The ground trembled, the whole pyramid shook, and dust rained down everywhere. The temperature shot up, and the air stank of sulfur, so bad it made you want to puke.
The two exchanged a look, faces serious. Jill stuffed Big Wolf’s diary into Max’s 'golden cleavage.' "Let’s focus on surviving first—check the log for any clues." (Big Wolf, as a reward for guessing the backstory, gets his box lunch. I should do more of these events—wrap up with a death roster and hold a poll to see whose demise was the most fun~)