Falsifying history is good business

Chapter 366 Fatal Pleasure and Fateful Redemption

After coming down from the top of Mount Greylock, Lin You spent several months wandering around North America; he went north across the Great Lakes to Quebec, and then turned south and crossed the United States diagonally. By the beginning of spring in 1892, he had wandered all the way to Arizona in the southwest.

This place is the main habitat of the magical creature Thunderbird, and it is also the place where Newt Scamander planned to release the Thunderbird in the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" series.

The reason why the author came here to hang out was also related to the little old man Newt. Of course, the little old man was not born in 1892, so he would definitely not meet him now; Lin Youlai came to this corner to investigate the habitat of thunderbirds and do some "preparatory work" in advance.

"Unknown" events are not something that a few gods can do at will; if you want "unknown" events to happen logically, you must follow the plot of the original story. Find an entry point in the original plot and then implant the "unknown" factor into it.

The American wizarding world is different from the European wizarding world. There are only a few things that can be directly linked to Voldemort and serve as "entry points".

The snake stick outside Ilvermorny has been handled by the writer himself and included in the target of the quill pen. If nothing unexpected happens, once this wand once used by Slytherin falls into Voldemort's hands, it will immediately trigger the trap left by the writer and become Voldemort's locator and death warrant.

Then another suitable entry point is Newt Scamander; he and Grindelwald competed with each other in New York, causing the accidental outbreak of the Obscurus, which almost exposed the Magical Congress of the United States of America. In the end, he had to use the characteristics of the Thunderbird to erase the memories of all the No-Maj in New York.

It would be strange if the Norse pantheon didn't find an opportunity to make some contribution to such a major event that could be recorded in the history of world magic. Lin You came to Arizona to make some preparations before the plot happened, and to check whether the Norse pantheon had made any moves in advance.

Anyway, I have nothing to do. The intelligence network in Europe that Irene Adler is in charge of will not be built quickly in a short time.

However, an unexpected incident caused the writer to be quite distressed.

The main reason was that the MACUSA was much stricter in keeping secrets than the European wizarding world, and all kinds of surveillance measures were almost impenetrable. Lin You had only been in Arizona for two days when someone reported to the MACUSA that a young man from Europe, who was not sure whether he was a wizard or a No-Maj, was gathering information in the habitats of magical creatures.

How should I put it? It was mainly Lin You's own fault. He did not develop the habit of casting the "Forgetfulness Spell" on people anytime, anywhere, and casually. As a result, when he saw it more and more people, those who were interested remembered his Asian face full of regional characteristics.

In order to avoid the Aurors of the Magical Congress of the United States, Lin You had to change his appearance and use the local No-Maj transportation to travel to another Thunderbird habitat. After all, he came here to stop the disorderly "unknown" events and did not want to become a catalyst for an "unknown" event himself.

As a result, Arizona in the late 19th century showed Earl Goff its wild and barbaric true face. Especially in the desert in the southern part of the state and the forest in the north, once you leave the settlements such as towns, you will enter a lawless place.

People who traveled far away had to travel in groups, and almost everyone carried a gun. The elderly, the weak, women and children used revolvers, and young men and women carried shotguns or automatic rifles; weapons were a necessity in their lives.

Even so, there were still rumors in various cities and towns from time to time that some train had been robbed. The most terrible news was not about train robberies, but about mail coaches or freight coaches; if a train was robbed, most tourists had a chance of survival, but if a coach was robbed, the fate would be much more miserable.

Those remote towns without railways could only rely on postal carriages to communicate, and freight was mostly carried out by animal power; but these carriages did not have relatively strong security forces like trains. So from time to time there would be rumors that a carriage or a group of passengers did not arrive at the destination as scheduled and disappeared without a trace.

In fact, everyone who heard the rumors knew that these disappeared carriages and passengers had most likely turned into wreckage and corpses, buried under a cactus in the desert; if the criminals were more unscrupulous, they would not even bother to destroy the evidence and would simply throw the corpses to the wild beasts to eat.

Bandits and road bullies are survival issues that people in this land must face, and they are also the annoying little troubles that Lin You has had to deal with in recent days.

Later, Lin You learned his lesson. He took two guns, one long and one short, from the dead bandit and put them on his body, pretending to be fully armed and looking like someone who was not to be messed with.

At least, those gangs with weaker armed forces or more careful observation would not rashly rush in and seek their deaths.

How should I put it? According to the moral values ​​and behavioral habits cultivated in civilized society, Earl Goff was not used to throwing the bodies of those gunmen and gangsters on the road. Killing a few scums is not good, and burning them will choke people; if fewer people die, there will be fewer bodies to deal with, right?

The effect of carrying a gun was immediate, and Lin You's journey became smooth. Especially when he found pleasure in the gun and shot down birds in the sky one after another while riding a horse, some sneaky figures in the distance never appeared again; some fellow travelers also became friendly.

"It's really strange. Although I don't have any expectations for the security in the American West - not even after a hundred years; but I've encountered too many gangs along the way." Lin You stood up on his horse, looking at the suspicious figure leaving in the distance. His body swayed with the ups and downs of the horse's back, and he looked like he would fall off the saddle at any time.

However, the people traveling with him would not be fooled by his appearance; the one who was riding at full speed and shooting down flying birds just now was this little guy who was swaying and unable to sit steadily on the saddle.

A slightly older voice answered Lin You's question;
"I guess it's because there's a gunfighting competition going on in the town ahead. It's said that the winner of the competition will receive a prize of $120,000. This money is like a big piece of bleeding fat meat, attracting vultures and jackals from their nests."

The person who was speaking was a middle-aged man in his fifties. His originally golden short hair was now mixed with mostly silver-white. Perhaps because he had been living in the open air for many years, he looked older than his actual age, but his speech and behavior were still elegant.

He was sitting in the driver's seat of a covered carriage, but the driver was not him but a young man of about twenty years old sitting next to him.

The caravan was not a single vehicle, but a convoy of three vehicles; the vehicles were filled with tables, chairs, benches, boxes, cages and tents, and it looked like a large family migrating together.

The middle-aged man called himself Matthews. He was originally a worker on a ranch in the northern part of the state. In the past few years, the ranch owners were forced to sell their land to the railway company to build roads. These workers lost their jobs and had to wander around, doing short-term work seasonally between farms and ranches.

Lin You didn't know whether this was true or not, but judging from the dozen or so people in the caravan, they should be used to year-round migration. Not only were all men and women equipped with guns, but there were also several adult men with fierce looks, taking turns riding horses to patrol the caravan from front to back and left to right for protection.

Perhaps, to make a living in the West, one must have this kind of toughness? Not long ago, Lin You rode his horse and shot down a flying bird; when he caught up from behind, the people in the convoy were like they were facing a great enemy, and raised their guns at the same time, and a conflict almost broke out. In the end, it was Matthews who stepped in to ease the atmosphere.

"What do you do, kid? Wandering alone in the Arizona desert is not a wise choice," Matthews asked. "Ecological survey." After Lin You finished speaking, he realized that his wording was too trendy for people of this era, so he explained in detail, "It's tracking and observing various animals, and sometimes looking for plants; recording them and compiling and publishing them in the future. How should I put it? It's like those prospecting teams, but the objects of my exploration are animals and plants."

"only you?"

"Yeah, what else?" Lin You pretended to be distressed. The image of a reluctant worker was very true to him. "Although this job pays well, it's too hard. People who are willing to earn this money often lack professional knowledge, and people who have professional knowledge in this area generally have other better options."

"You can also choose other jobs, right?" Matthews asked again.

Lin You lied without hesitation. In order to deceive the American Aurors, he put a lot of effort into making up his fake identity: "I like animals and nature... Well, actually, it's because I'm short of money. There are not many people willing to do this job, so the publishing house has to pay a lot of money to hire people."

"Then you'd better be careful. If you lose your life before you make any money, it would be a great loss." A crisp female voice came from a caravan behind; it was a charming woman, about thirty years old. She heard the conversation between Lin You and Matthews and interrupted at the right time.

"Susan, don't scare the kid." Matthews scolded with a smile.

"I mean well," Susan cried back, "but he's a really good shot. He's too good for an office boy."

"I am the champion of the shooting competition in our school." Lin You explained seemingly intentionally or unintentionally.

Matthews immediately asked, "Shooting competition, what kind of competition? Like a face-to-face duel?"

"Of course not. The school won't let students kill each other. It's just target shooting. There are all kinds of targets, static and moving. There are also shooters who are standing and moving."

"Ha, is it like hitting a wine bottle? That's so boring!" The young man who was driving next to Matthews laughed strangely, expressing his disdain for such competitions.

Matthews turned and lectured, "Don't talk nonsense, John; didn't you see Bryce just shoot down the bird? You can't do that."

"Who said that?" The young man was shy and wanted to throw away the reins and shoot the bird.

"Just sit back down and do your job." Matthews was furious. "When will you change your reckless habits?"

The young man shrank his neck and dared not face Matthews' anger. Suddenly, his eyes turned to Lin You again: "Hey, you are such a good shooter, why don't you try to participate in the shooting competition in the town ahead? That's a prize of 120,000 US dollars."

"Have you had enough of this, John? A shooting competition is not the same as a duel. People will get killed." Matthews cursed again before turning to look at Lin You. "Ignore this kid. He is always restless and willful. He is a headache."

Lin You smiled indifferently; he was only dressed as a No-Maj to avoid the American Aurors, so why would he care about the stupid words of passers-by? He even pretended not to know about the intentional or unintentional tests of Matthews and Susan. At most, in a day or so, he would part ways with this convoy.

Matthews was worried, and reminded them, "If possible, I suggest you not to enter the town of Redemption ahead. It's not even noon yet, so go around the town and let your horse run faster. It will only take half a day at most, and you will reach the next town before dark. It will be much more peaceful there."

"Redemption?" Hearing this name, Lin You's heart moved slightly, and some memories gradually emerged in his mind, "Isn't the mayor of this town called John Herold, a well-known sharpshooter?"

"You know him?"

"I've heard of this person...it seems that he has a bad reputation." Lin You remained calm, but the related memories in his mind were rapidly activated.

This town, and the name of the mayor, come from a western film from the 1990s, a star-studded but mediocre film that could even be called a bad movie. Because it had little influence in the film industry, when Lin You integrated the story, he integrated it into the big world in batches with other westerns; he didn't even bother to change a single word for it.

The production level of this movie is mediocre, and the plot is even more absurd than other westerns; logically speaking, such a story should not have the opportunity to generate a small world in the virtual dimension. The only reason why it can be remembered by movie fans is that the actors involved are indeed "star-studded".

Russell Crowe won the Oscar for Best Actor for Gladiator; Sharon Stone was a famous Hollywood porn star in the 1990s; and Leo, who was only 20 years old when he participated in the film and was at the peak of his appearance. The least famous person here is Gene Hackman, who played the villain BOSS, and he also won two Oscars.

This bad story can form an independent little world and be integrated into the big world, all thanks to the huge fame of these stars.

"Thank you for your reminder, Mr. Matthews; I'll consider it." Lin You thanked him sincerely; he really didn't intend to get involved in such a lousy Hollywood story that was disguised as a western movie, had the soul of an Italian gangster, and mixed in a father-son love and hatred drama.

As they were talking, two horses suddenly came galloping back from the road ahead.

Matthews looked up and smiled, "Ha, the people we went to the town to get information from are back. I hope they can bring some good news, and it would be best if they can find us some work; we haven't had any income for a long time."

The two horses coming towards them carried a middle-aged man and a young man respectively. When they came closer, Matthews greeted them: "Hey, Dutch, Arthur..."

(End of this chapter)