T/N: This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and storylines in this novel are entirely fictional. Any public agencies, institutions, locations, or historical figures mentioned are used solely as fictional backdrops and do not represent their real-world counterparts.
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"What does this have to do with doing the right thing…? What does eating have to do with Amphoreus?" March 7th scratched her head and asked in confusion.
"Pfft."
Everyone was amused by her words.
Sunday merely smiled gently, but did not explain.
"By the way, where's the boss? With so many delicious dishes today, it's a shame he isn't here."
Only then did Stelle suddenly realize it. She looked around, but did not see Xia Wen anywhere.
"The boss is busy." Aventurine held a cup of tea, blowing on it as he said, "Before I came out, the boss was still inside making phone calls. Apparently, he was discussing business with some people in Europe."
"The boss works really hard too." Hearing that Xia Wen was still working overtime at a time like this, everyone could not help but feel deep respect.
But in reality, Xia Wen was merely confirming the situation in Greece with the group from Mavromi.
Inside the office.
Xia Wen hung up the phone. His face was full of relief.
"The situation is even better than I expected," Xia Wen thought to himself.
After contacting those allies, all the investigations showed that Greece's emotional connection to Amphoreus far surpassed that of any other region.
Xia Wen had already known this for some time. But he had to confirm it again and again.
Because of the plan concerning Amphoreus, Xia Wen, and even all of miHoYo, had invested a huge amount of resources.
These resources could not simply be measured in money. They were influence, cultural hegemony, and the horn sounded before victory in a war.
During Honkai: Star Rail's 1.0 and 2.0 eras, Xia Wen had never imagined that it would reach its current level of popularity.
Its worldwide success brought not only money and influence, but also the qualifications to challenge the entire media industry.
Amphoreus was undoubtedly Honkai: Star Rail's most ambitious project. Only a long storyline could contain all the ideas it wanted to express.
In the world before Xia Wen's transmigration, limitations of the medium had caused opinions on Amphoreus' ending to become sharply divided.
But there was nothing wrong with the story itself. Its philosophy, depth, the subjects it explored, and its subtle forms of expression, all of them could be conveyed completely because of its exceptionally complete story structure.
And in this parallel world, Amphoreus had elevated Honkai: Star Rail to an even greater height by being presented as a television series.
What was most important in a series?
Before Honkai: Star Rail had reached its current position, Xia Wen might have said: the script and setting, exquisite production quality, and sufficiently good acting.
But now, he had gained a new realization.
The most important thing about a series, and its ultimate form of evolution, was that it had to become a mirror.
Looking at the outstanding works of entertainment throughout history, both ancient and modern, every one of them had made itself into a mirror.
Early Honkai: Star Rail was a work on the rise. It had excellent production, a fresh worldview, and unconventional plots.
Audiences were drawn in because it was entertaining. But that was satisfaction on a material level, like a diner eating a good dish and saying that it tasted delicious.
By the time of Amphoreus, those viewers who had only been satisfied on that level had gained something else.
Just like the Greeks.
This was a mirror. A mirror reflects everything, regardless of whether it is good or bad.
When creators stop rushing to impose their values and instead calmly build a world that is real enough, complex enough, and internally consistent enough, the audience will naturally project their own experiences, emotions, confusion, and desires into that world.
What they see is no longer the characters' story, but their own.
The other big studio giants still had not figured out why they had lost. But throughout this struggle, Xia Wen had seen it very clearly.
That was the reason.
That was why they would lose.
And this theory of the mirror ultimately pointed toward the essence of empathy.
The shallowest level of empathy occurs between people with similar experiences or traits.
For example, someone who has lost a loved one will cry when they see a character lose someone dear to them.
Someone who has been betrayed will feel anger when they see betrayal. This kind of empathy touches upon universal human emotions: love and loss, worth and dignity.
Any qualified work must contain at least one of these elements.
A level deeper than that, is regional empathy.
People from a particular region share a piece of history, a culture, or a certain value system.
They will have a stronger reaction to a specific narrative. To use internet terminology, it is as though something has been awakened.
Amphoreus was currently at this level, and it was still climbing higher. That higher level was the most difficult to achieve: the deepest empathy, at the level of civilization.
This was the third stage.
Loss, confusion, desire, and hope.
When a civilization is caught in a certain collective emotion, if a work can become that mirror, then it will rise from being a mere series into a cultural event.
Under this mirror theory, Xia Wen divided all entertainment products in the modern world into three categories.
Third-rate series use plot devices to give viewers an experience.
Second-rate series use production and acting to immerse viewers.
First-rate series allow viewers to understand the series.
And above those, there are entertainment works that can truly change an era.
A super series makes viewers feel, after watching it: I am you, and you are me.
Super series are very difficult to create. Not only must they be works that transcend their era, but they also require the right time, place, and people.
The right time means that the world must stand at some kind of crossroads, in a period of enormous change.
Only then can a super series be given its most basic significance, serving as an example for the next stage.
The right place means that the series must create the necessary influence in a particular real-world region, proving to the world that it has brought enough change.
Finally, there is harmony among people.
The world is so vast. There are so many people.
As a creator, how could you resolve the conflicts between people and unite them within the world created by a single series?
This was even more difficult than having the right time and place. The right time and place depended on fortune.
This, however, depended solely on one's own ability.
But fortunately, no matter what, Honkai: Star Rail's story, through the medium of a television series, had already met this requirement.
Because its very birth came from a group of cultural workers with keen powers of observation and extensive experience, and, most importantly, who did not obsessively force their values onto others.
In Xia Wen's previous life, just like this world, it stood at the turning point between the old era and the post-old era.
The emotions permeating society were the same as they were now. Naturally, the Honkai: Star Rail born from this could seamlessly fit into this world.
What was even more interesting was this: The traditional studios, which truly held cultural hegemony, was obsessed with recklessly pushing its values, both in Xia Wen's previous life and in this world, while overlooking the essence of things.
A group of people with genuine ambition and ideas became game industry workers in the previous life, beginning to reclaim lost ground through the Ninth Art.
Here, they became the entertainment company MiHoYo.
Two different histories surfaced in Xia Wen's mind, yet he discerned the same underlying thread in both.
He could not help but sigh. If fate truly existed in this world, then perhaps making Honkai: Star Rail a benchmark work was the destiny that had brought him to this world.
Therefore, Xia Wen also harbored ambitions of his own.
Herdo and Cincinnati's plan to ban broadcasts in Greece did not frighten Xia Wen. Instead, it made him feel excited.
Because he saw a possibility: the possibility of recreating a grand spectacle in the modern era.
"People in today's world will no longer cry out in amazement at a building merely because it is grand."
"Because that can be replicated."
"And the reason a spectacle is a spectacle is that, in a certain era, a group of people accomplished something future generations could never do again, creating something that, even if later generations reproduced it, could never evoke the exact same feeling."
"If I can create a phenomenon in the modern era…"
"Would that phenomenon become some kind of spectacle in the records of future generations?"
Xia Wen asked himself this inwardly.
The answer made his heart race. How far could a television series go? How great could its influence become?
Xia Wen wanted to try.
Greece was the perfect stage.
There, Amphoreus had already received treatment that transcended national boundaries.
Just as some people online had said: They truly lived inside the Emperor's Scepter.
But what if the Emperor's Scepter no longer intended to let them keep living?
Would they continue to resist? Would they, like the Chrysos Heirs of Amphoreus, continue along this path, one that left them regretful and unwilling to accept defeat, a path unfinished for two thousand years?
Or would they simply allow the "Emperor's Scepter" to complete its calculations?
"No one can guess." Xia Wen smiled self-mockingly.
He looked out at the scattered lights beyond the window.
But the unknown meant possibility.
At this moment, Xia Wen thought of Amphoreus' story.
Yet he did not empathize with any of its characters. Instead, he thought of Lygus, of this avatar of Zandar.
For some reason, Xia Wen found that he could completely empathize with Zandar.
What he intended to do was different in process, but the result he wanted was exactly the same as Lygus's.
He needed more possibilities.
He needed the game between Star Rail and Olympus to tilt a little further in the direction he wanted. Only with more possibilities would there be a chance for the ending Xia Wen desired most to be born.
Next, before the other side's ban plan began, they had to prepare every contingency.
Those events that the main storyline did not have room to depict had already been planned into many Amphoreus side stories.
For example, the matter of Hyacine becoming a flattened sun in the sky. All of it had to be conveyed through these short side stories, so the audience would know.
This would further deepen the sense of sacrifice made by the Chrysos Heirs.
At the same time, their allies also had to keep exerting pressure in Amphoreus, escalating the conflict still further.
Xia Wen had also reached a certain degree of understanding with Neuvillette.
After Amphoreus was banned, France, where Neuvillette was based, would use its influence to ensure that the Greeks were placed in a situation where the authorities did not permit them to watch Honkai: Star Rail, yet they could still watch it.
Meanwhile, Wriothesley's clubs and connections would also ensure that, before MiHoYo and Hollywood fought their decisive battle in Greece, the broadcast ban would not spread to other regions.
Everyone was waiting. Waiting for the ban, and MiHoYo's response.
The victor between the two would determine the direction of entertainment products in the postmodern era; or rather, who would possess cultural hegemony.
Some hoped MiHoYo would win. Some hoped the other party would win.
But this matter was no longer something outsiders could interfere with.
Still, Xia Wen was very optimistic about it.
The old era was destined to be overturned by the new era and become a record in history.
…
Greece.
At one of its most prestigious universities, an animated lecture was underway.
Ever since the third episode ended, such lectures had become far too numerous to count.
The Greeks had also become highly active. Through Amphoreus, they seemed to have drawn vitality from some hidden well.
Topics they once did not dare raise were now being discussed under the guise of discussing Amphoreus.
Discussing Amphoreus meant discussing what they truly needed to discuss. This had already become a shared understanding.
"Students. Yesterday, we discussed the story surrounding Anaxa at great length."
"But I feel that it was still not profound enough. We have not yet touched upon the root of it."
On the stage, an elderly professor spoke eloquently.
"Reason and ignorance."
"Science and divine authority."
"In Greece, they have never been mutually exclusive choices; they are a question of integration."
"Our history is exceptionally profound and substantial. Looking across Greece's medieval era, our philosophers may have appeared to be struggling against human nature, but in truth, they were almost all confronting some things."
"Does anyone know the answer?" The old professor's question was extremely bold.
In the past, the students in the hall might have fallen completely silent.
But now, answers came eagerly.
"Divine authority, or rather, the authority of the Church."
A female student replied.