Falsifying history is good business

Chapter 30: Jupiter the Revivalist

(Two chapters combined into one, 4,000 words)

People's dreams often have some common features, such as blurred environmental details, distorted colors, and imbalance between time and space. It is common to step from the ground to the mountains or to enter the cabin of an airplane from the cabin of a ship.

Lin You and Jupiter were talking to each other like old friends in this bizarre dream.

An acquaintance, but not a friend.

Lin You asked calmly, "You put me here because the closer you are to the protagonist of the world, the closer you are to the center of the world, and the stronger your power will be, and the more you can block the eyes from outside the world? You have already received the help of the original power of this world, right?"

"You are very clever," said Jupiter.

"I can't say I'm smart! After so many world mergers, I should be able to understand some basic rules." Lin You looked around, "Is Set not here? Before he came, God Amon told me that his relatives and friends in Egypt miss him very much."

"According to etiquette, Set should come and thank you in person. It was you who tampered with the history of the universe and allowed him to be resurrected." Jupiter has a majestic voice that matches his appearance. "But we still need him to block the sight of Amon so that we can talk quietly, so he can't get away."

Lin You shook his head and sneered: "He should thank Chronos the most. It was the God of Time who asked the Saint Seiya stories to merge ahead of time. Perhaps He should also thank the person who was able to hide it from the Olympian gods and awaken the Ophiuchus Saint in advance; did you do that, Jupiter?"

A smug and arrogant sneer flashed across Jupiter's face, and he answered Lin You's question with silent acquiescence.

"I guessed it was you at the beginning." Lin You said with admiration, "Ancient Roman mythology and Olympus mythology are so deeply intertwined and infiltrated that you are indeed capable of interfering with the world supervised by the Olympian pantheon. I just didn't expect you to do so well that you even hid it from Chronos."

"I once told you that Mount Olympus's erosion of the Pantheon is like digging up the earth's veins with one's own hands and releasing hot magma. One day, the lava will spread over the entire Mount Olympus and reduce everything to ashes." Jupiter's words were filled with anger.

"Stop, stop!" Lin You waved his hands repeatedly. "When you first came to me, I told you clearly that I am not interested in the feud between the Pantheon and Mount Olympus, and I don't want to get involved in your disputes. You are all shareholders of the Great World Project, gods, and big shots; and I am just hired by you to work."

Just as he tried his best to distance himself from the responsibility of dealing with the Saint Seiya story world when he was in heaven, Lin You is now also trying to draw a clear line between himself and Jupiter with a clear and straightforward attitude.

Because the water is so deep, not to mention being unable to control it, if you step in, you might be drowned.

The conflict between the ancient Roman pantheon and the Olympian pantheon is, after all, closely related to the characteristics of the virtual dimension itself.

Human beings in the real dimension have mysterious creativity in their spiritual power; they have created countless wonderful stories through various art forms such as creating myths, compiling the Bible, writing plays and fairy tales, and later novels, movies and even games.

Once these stories are widely spread and recognized in the real world, corresponding small worlds will be born in another dimension - this is a projection of the collective spiritual power of mankind.

The wider it is spread and the more recognition it receives, the faster and more complete the small world will take shape.

For example, Chronos is the product of the widespread dissemination of Olympus mythology; God is the product of biblical stories and religious dissemination.

Compared to reality, this imaginary dimension can also be called the "story dimension".

The small world in the "story dimension" exists because the real dimension recognizes a certain story; correspondingly, it will be destroyed because humans forget the story.

In the real dimension, countless stories and works have been lost or forgotten due to natural disasters and man-made disasters. Correspondingly, countless small worlds in the "story dimension" have been destroyed as a result.

Therefore, the gods of the "story dimension" formulated the "Big World Plan" to escape the influence of the real dimension.

They want to merge the existing small worlds and build a big world that is least affected by the real dimension and can exist longer.

When the big world is finally formed, any story - whether it is forgotten by the real dimension or not, the world to which the story belongs and the characters in the story can continue to exist as part of the big world.

Among the many existing mythological systems, the ancient Roman pantheon is one of the ones that is most concerned about this plan; because the spread of their mythological stories in the real dimension has gradually declined, the ancient Roman mythological world in the virtual dimension - the Pantheon - is on the eve of collapse.

This process of collapse may be long, but unless a miracle happens, it cannot be reversed. The "Big World Plan" has become the best self-rescue plan they can see.

Unfortunately, the "First Phase of the Great World Plan" failed. All the participants in the plan, including the gods of heaven, Mount Olympus and other pantheons, suffered heavy losses; the worst hit was of course the already shaky ancient Roman pantheon.

Heaven can still rely on the huge number of believers in the real dimension; Olympus mythology and Norse mythology can also rely on the profound cultural and national heritage; allowing the destroyed divine realm to slowly recover.

What else does the ancient Roman pantheon have? Their foundation in the real dimension disappeared with the demise of the ancient Roman Empire.

It must be mentioned here that ancient Roman mythology gradually developed and grew along with the conquests of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire; at its peak, it even attempted to integrate the Olympian mythology system, finding a corresponding god in Roman mythology for each Olympian god, and also invaded and transformed a large number of Olympian mythology stories and rewrote them into Roman mythology stories.

For example, Jupiter corresponds to Zeus; because many stories about Zeus are used, these two gods are rivals. They can be called two studs and a pair of bastards.

This practice of relying on force to seize culture without completely integrating it ultimately suffered a severe backlash.

First, on the religious level, the worship of ancient Roman gods was replaced by Christianity; and in people's daily life and culture, when the Western Roman Empire was destroyed by the Germanic peoples, the influence of Roman mythology quickly faded.

As for the Eastern Roman Empire, although it lasted until the 15th century, because it was close to mainland Greece and was deeply influenced by Greek culture, the Olympian pantheon made a comeback, and its influence among the people in turn overwhelmed the Roman pantheon.

In the late empire, citizens from top to bottom even called themselves "Greeks" more often than "Romans." During the Renaissance, when modern European philosophers tried to draw cultural nourishment from history, they often focused on ancient Greek culture and the myth of Olympus, relegating ancient Roman culture to a subordinate position.

Think about it, since the Renaissance, especially since modern times, how many stories, films and TV dramas have been created with Olympus mythology as the background, and how many stories have been created with Roman mythology as the background?
If it were not for the historical influence of the ancient Roman Empire itself, the name "Jupiter" would probably have been forgotten by the world long ago.

To this day, although the influence of ancient Roman mythology can still be seen in astronomy, calendar and even many cultural details, the foundation of ancient Roman mythology in terms of religious worship and cultural influence has long disappeared.

The doomsday of ancient Roman mythology in the real dimension is reflected in the precarious situation of the Pantheon in the virtual dimension.

Therefore, when the "First Great World Plan" failed, the Roman pantheon headed by Jupiter suddenly found itself in a situation where it could no longer continue.

It was at this time that the Olympian pantheon made an action that seemed well-intentioned but was actually sinister, which quickly intensified the conflict between the two pantheons.

At that time, Zeus went to the Pantheon to chat with the main gods of Roman mythology, saying that the Olympian pantheon and the Roman pantheon were close neighbors and had a deep traditional friendship since ancient times; when the Roman pantheon encountered difficulties, the Olympian pantheon would be willing to lend a hand.

How can I help?

Zeus said, "Look, didn't the Roman pantheon correspond to the Olympian pantheon two thousand years ago? Now that the Pantheon can't survive, why don't you move to Mount Olympus?"
As long as the main gods in Roman mythology are willing to make a slight concession in status and admit that they are a certain aspect of the corresponding Olympian gods, you can obtain permanent residence on Mount Olympus as a branch of the Olympian pantheon.

Simply put, the Olympian pantheon wanted to use the way the ancient Roman Empire annexed Greek culture to integrate the Roman pantheon into it; of course, compared to the past, the status of the two parties in the integration has been reversed, and the former leader has now become the one being integrated.

Originally he wanted to recruit others, but now he was being recruited by others; Jupiter was almost furious.

Not only were he and Zeus both stallions, they also had the same violent temper; the two gods almost came to blows on the spot.

But no matter how angry Jupiter was, he could not change the objective facts; the decline of the Pantheon made more and more Roman gods accept the amnesty of the Olympian pantheon.

By the time Lin You, a lonely ghost, traveled to the virtual dimension, the once glorious Pantheon had become deserted.

When the "Second Great World Plan" was launched, although the ancient Roman pantheon was still regarded as a participant in the plan and Jupiter was also one of the forgers of the quill pen, the contempt of the various pantheons for the ancient Roman pantheon was almost visible to the naked eye.

It was also from that day that Jupiter transformed himself into a "Pantheon revivalist fighter", tirelessly seeking the revival of the Pantheon; the first collaborator he sought was the writer of the quill pen - Lin You.

Every story world in the virtual dimension relies on human spiritual power to maintain. As the material manifestation of human spiritual power, the "truth factor" is undoubtedly the most important strategic resource of the virtual dimension.

Currently, only Lin You can use this resource. It is not surprising that Jupiter would find him.

Lin You himself did not find it strange, although he sternly rejected Jupiter's recruitment at the first opportunity; today was his second time facing recruitment.

"You should have noticed that my allies are increasing, and my power will continue to grow."

Lin You smiled and said, "You have more allies and more enemies. When you choose Set as your ally, it means that all the gods of ancient Egypt may become your enemies. In fact, the moment you brought me here, you were destroying the gods' plan; they already regard you as an enemy, but they don't know your identity yet."

"Their attitude is irrelevant. Who is not considered an enemy by them? Even if I do nothing, won't they consider me an enemy?" Jupiter persuaded, "You should have understood from the seal of the quill that they regard everyone as a potential enemy, even each other."

"Your statement is quite similar to Asclepius's; are you two colluding with each other?" Lin You did not give a direct response, but instead teased him jokingly.

"Why not consider the benefits of cooperating with me?" Jupiter continued to persuade.

"Do you know my life in the big world?" Lin You was unmoved. "I was born into a noble family and have countless and inexhaustible wealth. I have the greatest degree of freedom and rights permitted by the laws of that world. This privilege even extends to some extent beyond the scope of legal permission. I am already satisfied."

“Are you so easily satisfied? Your status in the human world has not even reached the peak, but I can make you gain more. I am more tolerant than any of them. I can release more seals and allow you to gain higher power—whether in the human world or in the divine world, you can obtain a more noble status. No one in the world can make you bow your head, no one dares to ignore your words, and no one can make you speak in a low voice…”

Jupiter's passionate words were met with Lin You's numb and mechanical applause.

"Well said. I haven't heard such inflammatory words for a while since I came to this world." Lin You had an indescribable strange smile on his face, "When I was writing online articles in the real world, I especially liked this kind of meaningless text that only stimulates emotions.

Sometimes, my colleagues would write more sensational works for readers with less sound minds, so that their blood would boil and their second-year spirits would burn. Because this would stimulate them to keep giving us rewards and votes. Your current behavior is no different from mine and my former colleagues, all to deceive... to trick others into paying for you. "

Jupiter's face was livid, his eyes were wide open, and his long hair and beard were almost standing up.

Lin You continued to refuse: "Do you know my life in the real dimension? There, I am just an ordinary working-class child. The life I am living in the big world now is something I could only look up to and fantasize about in my previous life. What else am I not satisfied with? Moreover, with your current strength, it would be unrealistic for me to dare to have any ambition for this."

At this point, Jupiter was almost speechless. His figure gradually became blurred and left the dream; "You will see our greater power; there will be a day when you will change your mind."

Lin You smiled disapprovingly: "It won't be today anyway."

　It’s still two chapters combined into one with 4000 words. I was too lazy to split it yesterday, and today’s is a bit difficult to split.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)