Chapter 135: Continue the Deception (Part One)

Rogers’ eyebrow twitched slightly.

Physically frail, he might be winded after running a hundred meters, yet he felt a sudden, impulsive urge to punch this guy in the face.

When it came down to it, his faith was deeply rooted.

Sixty percent of Americans are religious, and the most powerful among them is Christianity, with roughly 72 million followers. Otherwise, why would the catchphrase of the American President be "God bless you"?

As a Christian, Rogers possessed an inherent resistance toward other denominations. The core of Christian doctrine is exclusive; essentially, it posits that outside of Jesus, all others are false gods.

Rogers was an orphan, yet he possessed a good upbringing and refined manners. While he rejected other sects in his heart, he maintained at least a minimum level of respect.

Rogers shook his head. "Thank you, but I don't need it."

To his surprise, the man's next sentence piqued his interest once again: "No, no, sir, you might have a slight misunderstanding. The Silver Holy Order is just our internal designation; in truth, we also belong to the great Jesus."

"Hmm? Protestant? Catholic? Orthodox?" Rogers countered.

"Christianity" is actually a broad term, and the divisions between its three major branches are strictly delineated. Say the wrong thing, and you become an enemy. It is much like shouting "Long live England!" in Scotland—you would be beaten half to death by the Scots in a matter of minutes.

Mixing up the three major branches of Christianity might not result in loss of life, but whether you can gain someone's trust depends entirely on your affiliation.

Originally, Christianity was a single sect. Following the split of the Holy Roman Empire into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires in 1054, ecclesiastical authority fractured as well. After the bishops and popes on both sides had exchanged "kind regards" regarding each other’s ancestors for eighteen generations, they mutually excommunicated one another.

Subsequently, the group in the Eastern Roman Empire declared themselves the orthodox of the East, becoming the Eastern Orthodox Church. Those in the West became the Roman Orthodox Church, commonly known as the Catholic Church.

Then, in the 16th century, the Protestants emerged, refusing to acknowledge the Pope as God's representative and ignoring the Roman Curia. This was largely because the Roman Curia, in a bid for wealth, was selling "indulgences"—essentially tickets to salvation for those with money.

Protestantism itself was later subdivided due to doctrinal differences into Lutheranism, Calvinism, the Anglican Church—established by King Henry VIII specifically to facilitate his habit of killing his wives to marry new ones—and so on.

The grudges between these various sects, accumulated over a thousand years, would be enough to fill ten million words.

At this moment, the one attempting to hoodwink young Rogers was, of course, Mei Jiecao, who had arrived here via time reversion. When Rogers asked his question, the young lady assistant popped up a massive amount of data for Mei, leaving him momentarily stunned.

Damn it!

If I get the faction wrong, won't the con fall apart?

Salesman Mei did not answer directly, but instead changed his approach: "Have you heard of the Knights Templar, the Hospitallers, or the Teutonic Knights?"

"Of course I have, but..."

"The Order of the Silver Hand is actually the fourth great knightly order. It is just that the scope of its responsibility is not the superficial civil wars of humanity, but a far grander goal: dealing with even more terrifying enemies."

"Uh, you mean..."

"Let’s step aside for a moment." Mei Jiecao dragged and pulled Rogers into a back alley. "Do you believe that the monsters of mythology actually exist?"

"Of course not!" Rogers answered instinctively.

"No, you are wrong. In fact, many things in myths are real. It is just that these monsters cannot be perceived by mainstream society yet. Scientists have not grasped the true evidence. Take Northern Europe, for example; the Aesir, to which the famous Thor belongs, truly exist. Of course, we earthlings can call them—aliens."

Rogers felt like throwing a punch. He had already been rejected by the recruitment office and was in a foul enough mood; he had no interest in listening to this mysterious man’s nonsense. "Sorry, sir, I have things to do. I must be leaving."

"I will show you the evidence right now!" Suddenly, Mei raised his hand, and a beam of azure light shot from his glowing palm into Rogers' brain, recklessly invading his mental sea.

"You..."

Suddenly, the world spun. Rogers discovered that everything before his eyes had undergone a heaven-shaking transformation.

He found his perspective elevated to a thousand meters in the air. The sensation of looking down from such a height, as if sitting in an airplane, made him subconsciously try to wave his arms to maintain his balance.

He grasped at nothing.

He had no control over himself. He could only watch the scene below, wide-eyed:

It was a tide—a green tide rapidly covering the entire land!

What was this? Had a flood broken out?

Steve Rogers had not yet managed to react in that first instant.

Like a long, cinematic shot, it began with a vast, distant view before immediately bringing the true nature of that tide into focus.

It was hundreds of thousands of hulking, green-skinned, half-human creatures. They stood roughly eight feet (2.43 meters) tall, possessed incredibly robust limbs, and were "monsters" with long tusks protruding from their mouths!

They were like the most terrifying army ants in a dense forest, blanketing the hills and plains, covering the vast landscape.

From the undulating mountain lines in the distance to the river closest to his sight, they were so numerous that even though Steve was "high" in the air, he had to struggle to turn his "neck" and shift his field of vision to even attempt to take in the hundreds of thousands of green-skinned half-humans.

They were more numerous than locusts, and far more terrifying.

In front of a large castle, thousands of human soldiers in medieval armor were crushed by a single charge. When the melee began, although the greenskins were poorly equipped—many wielding only wooden clubs made of tree trunks—they relied on their more terrifying physiques and savage strength to easily overwhelm the crowd.

It was a one-sided slaughter.

Heavy hammer blows easily shattered the iron-clad wooden shields of the humans. In the face of such inhuman, titanic strength, a six-foot-tall man was as fragile as an infant. The human arms that Steve considered quite sturdy were snapped like matchsticks, easily broken by the overwhelming force.

Sturdy armor could not withstand the primitive impact; the bodies encased within were pressed into biscuits along with their armor.

The counterattacks of human swords and spears inflicted a certain amount of damage on these creatures, but unfortunately, there were too few humans.

Human architecture in the medieval style was fragile in the face of these green monsters. They used their heavy clubs to forcibly shatter stones weighing over half a ton, triggering collapses.

It was this unreasonable green tide that destroyed one town after another; soldiers and women and children alike were all cruelly slaughtered.

Seeing this, Steve could not help but ask himself: Who in this world could possibly stop such a terrifying tide of monsters?