Reading trigger warnings:
1. The background of this text adopts Greek mythology and does not involve the original plot. It can be read as an original work. All the stories I write stem from my OC settings, and do not involve the original work! Do not involve the original work! Do not involve the original work! Important things said three times.
2. Western fantasy backgrounds can be relatively difficult to read. The author creates after reading a large number of Western books, and writes according to her own writing style and writing ability. The entire piece is easy to understand in vernacular (novice writing). If you mind, just avoid the author directly. All the works under her pen have this tone.
3. The inspiration comes from "The Legend of the Olympic Stars", but the plot concerning Hera is very little, so it is all my OC settings. Do not pull down or step on anyone. The original intention of writing this book is to help my childhood goddess wash away her stigma, have a true person who loves her, and have a HE ending.
4. Hera (younger aggressive) × Li Jia (older receptive).
Author's personal XP: likes devoted younger aggressive characters.
1V1, pure on both sides, loyal dog control.
4. As a strategy-taker, Li Jia's main purpose is to survive. She is not a perfect character. You can scold the author, but don't scold my two little sweethearts, ovo.
5. Private settings are like mountains, and the combat power levels of the gods are all decided by me. I cut my own flesh to produce rations for myself to eat (Key point: The gods in this article are all born independently! No ethical relations involved! No ethical relations involved! No ethical relations involved!).
6. There are thousands of good books, and if you don't like it, just click the cross and change to the one you like (•̀ω•́)✧ Creation is not easy, and you don't need to notify when abandoning a book. A kind word warms in three winter months, but hurtful words freeze in June.
Body:
The lingering warmth scattered by the scorching setting sun woke the girl with a start, and the scene that entered her field of vision upon lightly raising her eyelids made her jaw drop.
A park rose abruptly on the boundless grassland.
Li Jia had only seen the ruins of the Olympic Park in documentary illustrations; the skeletons of a few sparse, gigantic, towering stone pillars were enough to shock the world, as if catching a glimpse of the tip of the divine iceberg.
Yet when the complete ruins were truly replicated before her, the feeling this brought her could only be described as shock.
Wait a moment.
Let her sort through her train of thought.
First, she needed to ascertain the condition of this body of hers.
For instance, her appearance, health, and age; the only thing she could be certain of right now was that she was not inside her original body.
That original body of hers had been frail, spending long periods in a hospital ward, her slender, fair hands even somewhat withered.
Yet these hands of hers now were covered in thick calluses from prolonged, hard labor, with some old scars on her lower legs.
It seemed not to be a very well-off family.
The original owner, much like herself, was a little bitter melon.
She struggled to her feet, following the sound of the stream to the riverbank, and without rushing to wash up, she quietly looked at the reflection cast in the rippling water.
First of all, she liked this face; at least it was considerably prettier than her original face.
She had an egg-shaped face with a pointed chin, pale blue eyes without a shred of impurity, thick, dark eyelashes fluttering as her eyes opened and closed, and cute little dimples on both sides of her cheeks. Her flaxen curls were tied into a ponytail reaching down to her waist, and her white linen robe was stained with indigo ripples, the collar embroidered with water lily vines.
Though it was an old garment, one could tell the original owner liked this dress very much, as it was washed impeccably clean.
It was the appearance of a foreigner from a textbook.
It took her about two minutes to accept the fact that she was no longer herself.
Her health had always been poor; she was born with congenital heart disease, and the doctor said making it past twenty would be a stretch. Her mother had died early, and her father had a new family with a new wife and child, with everyone treating her as a burden. Dying painlessly in her sleep was not half bad.
As for that world, she seemed to have nothing to dwell on, and she was already quite content to be able to live again.
Regardless of what identity she was starting over with, at least she was a human and not some wild boar, weasel, or the like.
Could such a good thing as a free rebirth, falling like pie from the sky, happen to her for no reason?
She found it somewhat hard to believe.
Suddenly, a system prompt echoed in her mind:
"Bingo, my master, you guessed right."
"There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world."
Sure enough, she had transmigrated into a book, and of all things, she had transmigrated into that "Book of Greek Mythology" she had been reading right before falling asleep.
Li Jia majored in industrial design and minored in foreign languages and foreign history in college. With final exams approaching, the professor had given her a few thesis topics.
She selected the Greek mythology stories that interested her from among them, and the research topic she studied was how the first jealous wife, Hera, was forged.
To be reasonable, this topic sounded extremely bizarre and highly controversial. The God-King Zeus had countless romantic debts, and one could say that the entire storybook revolved around his endless, tangled romantic history. From afar it looked like the return of the gods, but up close it looked simply like little tadpoles looking for their daddy.
As the only wife whom Zeus officially married with proper ceremonies and brought in through the main front gate of the temple on Mount Olympus in Athens carried by an eight-bearer sedan chair, the controversial topics surrounding her were even more incessant.
Li Jia had reviewed a vast amount of materials and film resources, and without exception, in all Greek myths, Hera was often viewed as a jealous wife and a vindictive, aggrieved woman, with the image she projected being purely vicious.
She was even a marginalized role, and her role throughout the book served solely to punish Zeus's mistresses, thereby setting off Zeus's charismatic personality.
What was even more ridiculous was that Queen Hera was the goddess presiding over marriage and childbirth. As the dignity of marriage, the goddess of marriage defended her own marriage, yet she was called a jealous wife.
Li Jia felt indignant. It was clearly Zeus who kept cheating, yet they said Hera was jealous, which strongly carried the implication that the magistrates were allowed to burn down houses while the common people were forbidden to even light lamps.
As a twenty-first-century otaku woman, Li Jia was well-read in all kinds of transmigration strategy novels, where such a system prompt and various golden fingers were standard equipment for these kinds of texts.
Based on her understanding of the temperament of strategy novels, her task must be to conquer the male lead to achieve her goal. The only male lead running through the entire "Book of Greek Mythology" was Zeus himself.
She assumed as a matter of course that she needed to win Zeus's affections or break up his bad peach blossoms. Li Jia felt her analysis made complete sense, except that the difficulty of this task was simply too great.
Conquering Zeus...
She vaguely remembered that Zeus's last affair had been turned into a heifer by Hera.
"Moo, moo, moo."
Along with it came the bitter taste of grass being chewed on her tongue.
Sighing helplessly, Li Jia thought, Why was it so hard to be human?
The system saw what she was thinking and sighed too.
"My master, do you think your imagination is running a little wild? Your ideas really make my eyes light up-and then go dark."
"The difficulty doesn't match your abilities."
That was the system's assessment of her idea.
All right, then. If she didn't have to seduce the male lead, what was the point of bringing her here?
The system cleared its electronic throat and slowly recited:
"Your main quest is now [Spring Bud Protection Plan].
Because Hera took out her anger at Zeus's unfaithfulness on Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and sent her to the ninth level of Funnel Hell in a fit of rage, the Goddess of Spring, Persephone, cannot be born as she should. Persephone will also become the future Queen of the Underworld. She is the only one in the entire divine realm who can keep Hades in check, and the only one who can stop the War of the Gods.
Put simply, you must protect Persephone and ensure she is born.
Quest progress: 0%"
Only when the quest progress reached 100%
would the entire quest be considered complete.
Li Jia's head was already buzzing. Other people's strategy quests were all about winning over the male lead; hers was about protecting a child.
And the child of a third party, no less. She felt a headache coming on.
She even thought it would be better to try winning over Zeus instead. At least that wouldn't involve anyone else.
Just as she thought the system had finished assigning her quests, another cold system prompt suddenly rang out:
"Side quest: Stop the War of the Gods and maintain world peace.
Quest progress: 0%"
Li Jia's face fell on the spot. This lousy system really was pushing its luck.
The War of the Gods was caused by Hades. In the story, Persephone was the only one who could threaten him. Wasn't this just forcing her to be the bodyguard of the mistress's daughter?
Things had come to this. It seemed she really had no choice.
Either way, she was doomed. At least her heart was still beating for now. She'd take it one day at a time.
What would happen if she failed the quest?
Li Jia asked the system, and it answered honestly: "If your quest progress doesn't reach 100%, this world will collapse, vanish, and cease to exist. You'll disappear along with it."
What if she completed the quest?
"Then you can return to your own world and receive a reward."
"The reward isn't limited to gold, silver, and jewels. It could also include a way to bring the dead back to life, or even a healthy body with no illnesses."
A healthy body.
Those words held far too much allure for Li Jia.
"One more thing to note: to protect your safety, you must not reveal anything about the plot of the book. If you tell your targets about the plot, the information will be blocked, and you'll suffer a backlash penalty."
What kind of penalty?
"Sorry, master. We don't currently have the authority to find out. Any section related to this is automatically scrambled, and no Strategist has ever risked their own safety by joking around."
"You won't either."
"But don't worry, master. The system is designed with people in mind. I'll help you complete your quests smoothly by providing suitable hints and walkthrough tips."
At least it had some humanity.
Li Jia patiently asked about the current situation, and got two useful pieces of information.
The good news: Hera was still young and hadn't married Zeus yet.
The bad news: Her temper was just as bad as ever, and no one dared go near this goddess even by the slightest bit.
Li Jia's plan to protect the child was clear and simple:
As long as she kept Hera from marrying Zeus and becoming his wife, Demeter wouldn't be the mistress. If she got Demeter married to Zeus legitimately and had her give birth to the Goddess of Spring, Hades wouldn't start the War of the Gods, and her quest would be completed just like that.
Hera was the key to the quest.
Then what was my identity now?
Just as Li Jia was about to ask another question, a sturdy, rough arm wrapped around her. It belonged to an old woman holding a rolling pin.
The old woman used all her strength to knock Li Jia to the ground, then rasped, "Miss Lijia, as a good girl and a lady, you mustn't lose your temper by the river. Miss Melina only meant well."
At the mention of Melina, scattered fragments drifted into her memory.
The original owner of this body was also named Li Jia, but her full name was Lijia Fans, a homophone of her own name.
She had led a pitiable life, if you thought about it.
Her parents had died when she was young, and she'd been sent to live with a distant uncle. Lijia's uncle was a fallen noble, a miser like Grandet, with a son and a daughter of his own.
To put it nicely, Lijia lived under his roof. In reality, she was treated worse than a maid. Her uncle figured that a couple of meals a day would keep her alive, and agreed to take her in because it would save him the considerable expense of hiring another maid.
That way, he could preserve his reputation for not mistreating his late elder brother's orphan while also saving on maid service.
It had all begun because the gods were choosing attendants for themselves. To put it nicely, attendants served the gods. In reality, they occupied the very bottom rung of the slave system. Noble families usually provided a list of candidates, from which the divine envoys made their selections.
If a god chose an attendant, then everything that attendant had belonged to the god.
Their life and death were in the god's hands. They had no further ties to their birth family and had to remain in the divine residence until they died.
This time, ten noble families were submitting candidates for the attendants' selection, and the Vance Family was one of them.
Melina didn't want to become the lowest of slaves. She discussed it with her mother, and they added Lijia to the list of candidates. After all, she was nothing but an insignificant little bug.
After her parents died, the original Lijia suffered years of physical exploitation and emotional abuse, eventually developing depression. When she learned she'd be taking Melina's place and going to that bitterly cold land, she took a lethal dose of mandrake. She sat quietly beneath a laurel tree, gazing at Mount Olympus, and died with a smile.
What's more, Lijia had died at exactly the same time as she had in the modern world, and even their birth months were identical.
The system had chosen her, and she had come back to life in Lijia's body.
Compared with the original heroine, she'd had a fairly happy life in modern society. But now that she was occupying someone else's body, she didn't feel she could say much about it.
Li Jia calmly helped the old woman to her feet, then stood and brushed the dust off her clothes. She blinked her big eyes and said with a smile, "Madam Anna, you've misunderstood. I know I've been chosen for tomorrow night's Night Banquet, and I'm bound to be happy. I came out to talk to my departed parents, so they can bless me and help me be chosen by the God Lord."
Death was the refuge the weak chose for themselves. That was the ending the original heroine had chosen for herself.
But living wasn't a privilege reserved for the strong. She didn't believe in fate. She would take a chance and fight for herself.