Awakening

Autumn in Athens City, Greece, was clear and vast, with Cloud River flowing endlessly.

On an ordinary street in the workshop district, dozens of people crowded outside a gray-white residence, craning their necks to peer inside.

They looked sympathetically at the young man collapsed on the ground.

The gleaming curved blade was withdrawn from the young man's neck. A faint line of blood slowly slid from the wound, hardening before it could even hit the ground.

"I was only trying to scare him. I didn't use any force. I just scraped the skin... He won't die, will he..." The man holding the blade muttered to himself. Holding his breath, he turned toward the brown-haired man beside him, terror slowly spreading through his eyes.

A scar like a Centipede lay across the brown-haired man's left cheek, crawling from the corner of his mouth to beneath his eye. He snorted coldly, and the Centipede seemed to come alive and writhe gently.

Suddenly, the young man's hands trembled faintly.

"This bastard seems to have moved..." the man holding the blade hurriedly said.

Suye was having a long dream.

Suye dreamed that he lived on a planet called Blue Star. He had been utterly ordinary from childhood to adulthood, and studying had been the sole theme of his early years.

As long as he worked hard, his grades improved. The moment he relaxed, they immediately fell.

Then his family underwent a drastic change. The Suye in the dream couldn't bear it. He became lost and helpless, lost all interest in studying, and eventually graduated in a daze. He muddled through work, as though he were trudging forward through a black fog.

Yet deep inside Suye, the flame of defiance never went out.

The day his father fell seriously ill and Suye couldn't even take out a few thousand yuan, he finally awakened.

The fog dispersed.

Suye began working harder than ever before, even more diligently than when he had been a student.

Fortunately, it was an age of explosive knowledge. Vast amounts of information were readily available. After teaching himself, unsatisfied Suye joined the paid-knowledge boom and became a highly knowledge-anxious chive.

With a clear goal, Suye pressed forward. Through constant study, he grew stronger, became more seasoned, acted more proactively, thought more brilliantly, and kept improving his performance. In just a few years, he received several promotions. He even happened to win a trip to Greece at his company's annual celebration.

After arriving in Greece, Suye stood aboard a cruise ship, admiring the beautiful scenery while imagining himself receiving promotions and raises, becoming general manager, taking the position of CEO, and reaching the peak of life...

A tsunami struck and swallowed everything.

Suye vaguely saw himself swept into an ancient ruin beneath the sea. He then sank into darkness. Just as despair began to rise in his heart, the dream world suddenly changed.

Suye dreamed again that he had become a young man in Athens City during the era of Ancient Greece.

The two dream worlds were completely different. The Suye of the new world couldn't remember anything about the previous one, but the names of the two Suyes were pronounced exactly the same.

The new Suye also grew up in a daze.

Suye's parents were bakers and were extremely busy. No one had disciplined him since childhood, so he often wandered around Athens City. The place he visited most often was Athens City's largest harbor, Lion Harbor.

Last year, when Suye was fifteen, his parents spent their entire life's savings to purchase a student spot at Plato Academy and sent him there to study magic.

Suye remained muddleheaded, and his grades were abysmal.

First-year students at Plato Academy mainly studied natural history, linguistics, physical education, and the arts. They wouldn't begin studying magic until their second year, so Suye still didn't know a single spell.

Even so, under Plato Academy's influence, he had grown somewhat. As a bottom-ranked student, he had safely made it through the year and entered summer vacation.

As summer vacation neared its end, Suye prepared to begin his second year at Plato Academy. Then bad news arrived.

Seven days ago, his parents and servants had been attacked by a Bandit Group while traveling. Not a trace of them remained.

Six days ago, the notorious "Centipede," Lawrence, appeared. In front of Suye, whose eyes were clouded with tears, he produced the IOU belonging to his parents. He then searched Suye's home for goods to repay the debt, but ultimately found only one Golden Eagle Coin, forty Silver Peacock Coins, and more than two hundred Copper Owl Coins. It turned out that Suye's parents had wanted to expand their business. They had sold their old shop and borrowed one hundred Golden Eagle Coins by mortgaging a house worth three hundred Golden Eagle Coins. Unfortunately, before they could purchase a new shop, the two of them met with disaster.

Lawrence told Suye that he could either give up the residence or die.

Today, Lawrence had come again—and he had brought someone who should have been dead.

Koro, a servant from the bakery owned by Suye's family.

No matter what Suye said, Koro refuted him based on his knowledge of the Suye family, leaving Suye to realize that he had no choice but to give up the house.

Suye said furiously, "You ungrateful bastard! You were originally a slave, sick enough to die. My parents kindly bought you, helped you buy your freedom, and made you one of the Freemen! I never thought you'd turn around and harm me! Why did my parents and several servants leave together with you, yet they were killed while you came back without a scratch?"

"That story is a long one. Just listen obediently to Master Lawrence and give up the house. If Master Lawrence is pleased, he might even reward you with a few Golden Eagles." Old Koro laughed, his face becoming even more simple and honest.

"You... You know our family is foreign-born. Without this house, I won't be able to study at Plato Academy! Besides, my parents are already dead. What am I supposed to do without the house?"

Koro still wore a simple and honest expression, but intense malice flickered in his eyes. Exposing a mouthful of chipped yellow teeth, he slowly smiled. "You can sell yourself into slavery!"

Lawrence suddenly said, "Old Koro, you took those insults without fighting back. Looks like you still remember the kindness your family showed you."

Koro froze for a moment, then suddenly charged over and began punching and kicking Suye. As he beat him, he laughed and cursed, "I've wanted to teach you, you little bastard, a lesson for a long time!"

Suye instinctively fought back, but Koro reached over, drew a curved blade from one of the burly men, and hacked at him.

Suye's expression changed drastically. He hurriedly retreated, lost his balance, and fell, striking the back of his head heavily against the ground.

Koro immediately placed the blade against Suye's neck. Only after the edge cut through the skin did he realize that Suye had fainted.

Suye's head throbbed as though it were splitting apart. The two dream worlds began to merge, and he discovered more and more differences between them.

This was an ancient world where gods existed.

There were not only the gods of Greece and Rome, but also the gods of Egypt, Northern Europe, and Persia.

At this moment,

the shadow of the Titan Clan loomed over Greece.

The destroyer dragon Apophis watched the Solar Ship covetously.

Evil gods lurked between the Two Rivers.

The Doomsday Serpent and Twilight Wolf were about to awaken.

At this moment,

Heracles had already made a name for himself throughout Greece and Rome.

Gilgamesh and Darius had divided Persia between them.

Beowulf had succeeded to the position of lord of the Northern Sea.

Every few decades, the Pharaohs of Egypt's successive dynasties collectively resurrected to contend for the True King. The current Pharaoh was Ramesses II. On the day he sat upon the throne of Pharaoh for the third time, his older sister from this incarnation returned to Thebes. She was a Hero King, known as Cleopatra...

"Sophist" Socrates was not only a great philosopher but also the sole Archmage to have embarked upon the Demigod Path.

"Idealist" Plato advanced to legend after Socrates's death and founded Plato Academy. After remaining silent for many years, he seemed neither interested in advancing to hero rank nor intent on pursuing a higher demigod realm.

"Record Keeper" Thucydides served as vice dean of Plato Academy.

After "Geometric King" Pythagoras advanced to become a legendary Archmage, he devoted himself to perfecting Magic Geometry.

After "Water King" Thales met the Water Element Master, he defeated a heroic warrior while still a legend. There were even rumors that he possessed the strength of a Hero King.

"Great Prophet" Homer appeared and disappeared unpredictably, while Hesiod, the "God Seer" as famous as Homer, lived in seclusion in the Deep Mountains.

At this moment,

Aristotle was somewhat famous.

Euclid was troubled by his efforts to advance to the Holy Domain.

Archimedes had no interest in cultivation and was wasting his talents on amusements.

Alexander was working hard at cultivation, because if he didn't, he could only return home to become the heir to the throne...

Suye had never expected the heroes and famous figures scattered across different historical periods to appear in the same era.

The World of Gods had originally contained only gods. Humans appeared later.

Modern humans knew only about their own era, but the "God Seer" Hesiod had made a discovery public.

It turned out that the gods had successively created different kinds of humans. The earliest were the humans of the Golden Age, followed by the humans of the Silver Age, and then the humans of the Bronze Age.

Each generation of humans was inferior to the previous one. Hesiod called modern humans "the humans of the Black Iron Age," the worst generation of all.

However, some people were born different from ordinary humans.

The blood of gods flowed through their bodies.

They were descendants of the gods.

From birth, they possessed divine power that only gods should have. Although that divine power was extremely weak, it grew stronger as they cultivated, and they might even advance to become true gods and gain the power of true gods.

As humanity continued to multiply, the descendants of the gods increased in number, but divine blood grew thinner and thinner. Eventually, no newborn could directly possess divine power.

However, humanity continued to advance. With the help of the Great Prophet Homer and the God Seer Hesiod, humans created methods of cultivating divine power, allowing them to refine it step by step and continuously increase their strength.

Hesiod believed that increasing one's strength was equivalent to tracing back to the eras of old. Thus, he named the lowest warrior rank Black Iron Warrior. As people traced back through the eras, the ranks were named Bronze Warrior, Silver Warrior, Golden Warrior...

Suye's dreams changed faster and faster.

"Cough, cough... Cough, cough..."

Suye coughed violently and suddenly woke up. When he opened his eyes, he saw a bright blue sky, with Koro, Lawrence, and the others at the edge of his vision.

Suye had trouble breathing. He instinctively rose, braced both hands against the ground, and gulped in air. After a while, he slowly stood and surveyed the area ahead.

Closest to him was Koro, holding the curved blade.

Behind Koro, Lawrence stared coldly at him with a ferocious expression.

Behind Lawrence, four burly men who stood two heads taller than Suye lined up shoulder to shoulder. They folded their arms across their chests and raised their chins high, their eyes filled with menace.

The burly men blocked his view, so Suye couldn't see the people outside the door.

Suye frowned slightly as a flood of memories surged into his mind.

The next instant, Suye lightly tapped his right thumb and index finger together twice. His body slowly straightened, his shoulders stretched back, and his arms opened to either side. He lifted his chest and head while taking a deep breath.

The others looked puzzled. Lawrence's originally cold gaze became exceptionally sharp. He noticed that after Suye straightened his body, his eyes were veiled in mist. In the blink of an eye, however, the mist dispersed, leaving his eyes clear and bright, like torches in the night.

At that moment, Suye seemed to have become a different person.

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Important Note About This Book:

After giving it a great deal of thought, to prevent Western names and terms from becoming an obstacle to readers, I will shorten names as much as possible and try not to make them exceed four characters.

For certain terms, such as "drachma," I will also try to change them into forms that are easier to remember.

For example, Hephaestus, the ancient Greek god of craftsmen and fire, has a name that is too long, so I simply cut it down to "Vulcan." Vulcan is what the ancient Romans called Hephaestus, and in this world, the Roman and Greek gods are one family—the ancient Roman gods originally used the Greek ones directly—so the name is perfectly reasonable.

No text was provided for revision.

A name like "Hermaphroditus," with eight characters and enough to make even me dizzy, will simply be shortened to "Herma."

Names like Aristotle and Pythagoras are known by everyone and truly cannot be changed.

Ancient Greeks had single names, and their names were generally quite long. The ancient Romans were even more excessive, with twenty or thirty commonly used names. Therefore, I won't deliberately use names from that era when naming characters. Simplicity comes first. (A conscientious author, giving up on padding the word count online.)

Besides, translations differ between books and can be extremely chaotic. I can only choose one.

Common knowledge about Ancient Greece does not apply to the World of Gods. For example, Athens City was actually very small, and there were no professional soldiers or people responsible for maintaining public order at that time. But it would be impossible for this book to describe things that way.

There are many similar cases, which I won't explain one by one in the future.

Compared with recreating the world of Ancient Greece, I would rather let readers finish the novel with ease.

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Finally, welcome to the World of Gods.