The Decline of Culture

Xu Chen had received feedback from Captain Chu. He searched online and indeed found no reading material about Cthulhu.

His interest piqued, he went online to look specifically for the differences between this world and his original one. In the end, he found that there really were many.

The information online made it obvious: there was very little about history, and even modern history had many things that were unclear. It was the same abroad, perhaps even worse than at home.

The most immediate impact was on tourism, and somewhat unexpectedly, on historical novels, films, and television as well.

He looked into the domestic tourism industry. Compared with his original world, cultural tourism had declined to an almost unbelievable extent. Take the Taihao Mausoleum he had excavated earlier: it did not exist in this world at all. If Xu Chen had not unearthed it, people would not even have known they had an ancestor named Taihao.

Moreover, even though he had discovered it himself and arranged for its excavation, the Taihao Mausoleum would probably struggle to match its scale in his previous life. After all, most of the stone tablets buried deep underground had been destroyed by that "Special Corrosion," with very few surviving.

Then there were the classic novels handed down through history. Xu Chen checked and found that at least half were missing. He also browsed the Four Great Classical Novels and found that they, too, had serious omissions. Generally, only restored editions were sold, not the originals.

The restored editions were reportedly the joint work of leading figures in literature and history during the cultural movement back then. Xu Chen took a look and found that, although they were very well written, they lacked the flavor of the classics.

Many famous works had also been lost abroad, including classics like Dante's Divine Comedy, which he had noted down in history class.

He also leafed through the Bible, but he had barely looked at the original and could not tell whether anything was missing. He genuinely could not tell: he did not believe in Jesus and had never read the Bible.

After going through the material online, Xu Chen propped his head on his arm and sighed wearily.

The internet in this world reflected quite a few real-world problems. It was not as though he had failed to notice this issue over the past few years, but at the time he had assumed this parallel universe was simply a little different, and that the two worlds did not necessarily have to be the same. Now, however, it seemed this universe had a much bigger problem.

Earth in this universe could be summed up simply: culture was in decline, and entertainment reigned supreme.

That was right. Whatever share culture lacked would be filled by something else. For example, this world's tourism revenue was no lower than in his original world, yet cultural tourism had not grown. So who had taken the remaining share?

That was right: the modern amusement industry.

The same went for novels, and even films and television rarely dealt with historical subjects. When they did, they leaned more toward fantasy history. If Xu Chen had to make a comparison, he felt it was like watching Indian historical films, with supermen flying all over the sky.

The effects of cultural loss were extremely widespread. Xu Chen had only checked the areas he could think of, and the consequences did not look promising. Worse still, the situation was continuing to deteriorate.

The mastermind, who might be Cthulhu, was still using "Special Corrosion" to destroy cultural relics.

Xu Chen had acted as a whistleblower and alerted people to the danger. Old Ge had been the first to discover the problem, and he had also perceptively identified the true culprit behind it.

Yet Old Ge was now being given a state funeral, which had been the biggest news story of the past few days.

It was only from the information reporters revealed that Xu Chen learned the old man had been an academician of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, mastering both theory and practice. The Osprey System he designed had ensured near-invincible dominance within the nation's territorial waters. Incidentally, on Earth in this parallel universe, it was the deterrent power of the Osprey System that had allowed the nuclear power plant to be taken over smoothly without objections being raised.

That was right. Although the island lay outside the territorial boundaries marked on the map, it was within the Osprey System's range.

Besides that, Old Ge was one of the few all-rounders in the country who studied biology, mathematics, and physics together. His knowledge was exceptionally broad.

The reason Old Ge had been able to meet Xu Chen last time was that he had actually been on leave and was interested in the matter. He had wanted to use the vast store of knowledge in his mind to understand these strange occurrences, and it had indeed had some effect.

Xu Chen sighed and felt somewhat inclined to blame Old Ge. Although he had provided a clue about the mastermind, it now seemed that the more important question was how the mastermind had accomplished all of this.

Then he realized he was judging with hindsight. Old Ge had very likely believed that information about the mastermind was the most crucial, and without Old Ge's hint, Xu Chen would probably have been completely in the dark.

He still could not understand why Old Ge had not told his students about the mastermind's methods earlier. There had clearly been plenty of time before he arrived.

Xu Chen thought there must have been some reason. Perhaps that kind of information could also be harmful, or perhaps Old Ge himself had not been certain, or... he had simply thought it unnecessary.

He might have made notes that he believed he had written down, expecting his students to learn what he had discovered when they read them. Yet the mastermind had not spared him either. With his cognition distorted to some extent, he had not realized that what he had recorded was nothing but strings of meaningless circles.

By now, the questions hanging over them were growing more numerous, while the clues were growing fewer. Even though Xu Chen considered himself easygoing and felt he had little to care about, he still sighed with emotion as he looked at this candle flame of civilization being buffeted by fierce winds.

He wanted to shield the flame from the wind with his hand, but unfortunately, he was not up to the task. The person who was had already fallen.

Xu Chen then tapped away at his computer and searched for Old Ge's funeral. By today, it should have been drawing to a close.

After all, he had been born in this country and benefited from Old Ge's kindness. Not to mention, Old Ge had also discovered the enemy behind the scenes and alerted the state authorities. That was a service to civilization, and Xu Chen ought to pay his respects, both out of feeling and out of reason.

"Old Ge, I'm a nobody, so I can't go pay my respects in person. I'll just see you off online from here," Xu Chen murmured as he watched the coffin slowly lowered into the grave on the live news broadcast.

Suddenly, a message passed across the news ticker at the bottom of the screen. It said that the United Nations was preparing to convene a meeting that would directly address the sharply increasing pressure on the current global healthcare system, as well as discuss the customs inspection system.

Seeing this, Xu Chen suddenly thought of Song Tian for no apparent reason. Frowning, he dug out the notes he had made a few days ago, before the soldiers took him away. He had left the notes in the classroom, but the thoughtful class monitor had gathered his belongings and returned them to him along with his lecture handouts.

The notes were not hard to find; they were tucked between the handouts. Xu Chen flipped through them and soon found what he had written down at the time. He glanced over it.

[Various carcinogens, including tobacco, alcohol, aflatoxin, nitrites, radiation, and so on, can also cause cancer.]

He did not know why, but a strange idea suddenly occurred to him. He could not shake the feeling that these things were somehow connected, and that perhaps the broken trail of clues could be picked up again here.