TWOD 01
World of the Gods – Chapter 1: Awakening
The autumn sky over Athens, Greece, was vast and blue, with long rivers of clouds flowing across it.
On an ordinary street in the craftsmen’s district, dozens of people crowded outside a gray-white house, craning their necks to peer inside.
They looked sympathetically at the unconscious boy lying on the ground.
A gleaming curved blade was pulled back from the boy’s neck, leaving behind a shallow cut from which a thin trail of blood slowly trickled. Before it could hit the ground, the blood had already clotted.
“I—I was just scaring him, I didn’t use much force… just a scratch… He’s not dead, is he?” The man holding the knife muttered to himself, holding his breath as he turned to the brown-haired man beside him, his eyes widening with creeping fear.
A scar, like a centipede, crawled across the brown-haired man’s left cheek, stretching from the corner of his mouth to just below his eye. He snorted coldly, and the centipede seemed to writhe faintly, as if alive.
Suddenly, the boy’s hands trembled slightly.
“This little bastard moved…” the knife-wielder said hastily.
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Su Ye was having a long dream.
In his dream, he lived on a planet called Blue Star. From childhood, he had been utterly ordinary, and studying was the sole focus of his early years.
If he worked hard, his grades improved. If he slacked off, they dropped immediately.
Then came a family tragedy. The Su Ye in the dream couldn’t bear the blow, lost his way, and became helpless. He stopped caring about school, muddled through graduation, and drifted through work like a man walking through a fog.
But deep inside, the flame of defiance in Su Ye never went out.
On the day his father fell gravely ill and Su Ye couldn’t even scrape together a few thousand yuan for treatment, he finally woke up.
The fog lifted.
Su Ye began working harder than ever before—even more diligently than he had as a student.
Fortunately, it was an era of explosive knowledge growth. A sea of information was at his fingertips. After a pehttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgd of self-study, the unsatisfied Su Ye joined the wave of paid knowledge subscriptions, becoming an over-anxious seeker of wisdom.
With clear goals in mind, Su Ye grew steadily through continuous learning. He became more seasoned, proactive, and sharp-minded. His performance improved, and within just a few years, he climbed the corporate ladder rapidly. He even won a lucky draw at the company’s annual party—a trip to Greece.
Upon arriving in Greece, Su Ye stood on a cruise ship, admiring the beautiful scenery while fantasizing about promotions, raises, becoming a general manager, then CEO, and ultimately reaching the pinnacle of life…
Then the tsunami came, swallowing everything.
In the darkness, Su Ye vaguely saw himself swept into the ruins of an ancient underwater city before everything faded to black. Just as despair took hold, the dream world suddenly shifted.
Now, Su Ye dreamed of being a boy in ancient Athens.
The two dream worlds were entirely different. The Su Ye of this new world had no memory of the previous one, though the names of both were pronounced the same.
This new Su Ye had also grown up in a daze.
His parents were bakers, always busy. With no one to discipline him, young Su Ye often wandered around Athens, with the city’s largest port, Lion Harbor, being his favorite haunt.
Last year, at fifteen, his parents spent their life savings to buy him a spot at Plato’s Academy, where he began studying magic.
Yet Su Ye remained as absent-minded as ever. His grades were terrible, but under the influence of the academy, he grew somewhat. As a perennial underachiever, he barely scraped through his first year before summer vacation arrived.
Just as the break was about to end and Su Ye prepared for his second year at Plato’s Academy, disaster struck.
Seven days ago, his parents and their servants were ambushed by bandits while traveling. Not even their bones remained.
Six days ago, the notohttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgus “Centipede” Lavens appeared before the tearful Su Ye, brandishing his parents’ loan agreement. He ransacked Su Ye’s home for valuables to repay the debt but found only one golden eagle coin, forty silver peacock coins, and a little over two hundred copper owl coins.
It turned out Su Ye’s parents had wanted to expand their business. They sold their old shop and mortgaged their house—worth three hundred golden eagles—to borrow a hundred golden eagles. But before they could buy a new shop, tragedy struck.
Lavens gave Su Ye an ultimatum: give up the house or die.
Today, Lavens returned—and brought someone who should have been dead.
Corro, a former servant of Su Ye’s family bakery.
No matter what Su Ye said, Corro countered with his intimate knowledge of the family’s affairs, leaving Su Ye with no choice but to surrender the house.
Su Ye, grief-stricken and fuhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgus, shouted, “You heartless wretch! You were a dying slave, and my parents bought you out of kindness, freed you, made you a citizen! And now you betray me? Why is it that when my parents and the servants went out together, they were killed, but you came back unharmed?”
“That’s a long story,” Corro replied with a grin, his face the picture of rustic honesty. “Just listen to Master Lavens and give up the house. If he’s pleased, he might even toss you a few golden eagles.”
“You—you know my family are metics! Without this house, I can’t stay at Plato’s Academy! And now that my parents are gone, what am I supposed to do?”
Corro’s expression remained simple and kind, but his eyes gleamed with malice. His yellowed, gap-toothed smile widened as he said slowly, “You could always sell yourself into slavery!”
Lavens suddenly interjected, “Old Corro, you’re not even fighting back when insulted. Still holding onto gratitude for their kindness, eh?”
Corro froze, then lunged at Su Ye, kicking and punching while laughing. “I’ve wanted to teach you a lesson, you little bastard!”
Su Ye instinctively fought back, but Corro grabbed a curved blade from one of the thugs and swung.
Su Ye stumbled back in panic, lost his balance, and fell, his head slamming hard against the ground.
Corro pressed the blade to Su Ye’s throat. Only when the edge broke skin did he realize Su Ye had passed out.
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Su Ye’s head throbbed as the two dream worlds merged. He realized more and more differences between them.
This was an ancient world where gods existed.
Not just Greek and Roman deities—but Egyptian, Norse, and Persian gods as well.
At this moment:
The shadow of the Titans loomed over Greece.
Apophis, the Devourer, eyed the Solar Barge with hunger.
Evil gods lurked within the Two Rivers.
The Serpent of the End and the Wolf of Twilight stirred toward wakefulness.
Meanwhile:
Hercules had already made his name across Greece and Rome.
Gilgamesh and Darius divided Persia between them.
Beowulf succeeded as Lord of the Northern Seas.
In Egypt, the pharaohs of past dynasties resurrected every few decades to vie for the title of True King. The current pharaoh was Ramses II. On the day he ascended the throne for the third time, his sister—a heroic king known as Cleopatra—returned to Thebes…
Socrates, the “Sophist,” was not only a great philosopher but also the only archmage to have stepped onto the path of demigodhood.
Plato, the “Idealist,” became a legend after Socrates’ death and founded Plato’s Academy. For years, he remained silent, showing no interest in ascending to heroism or pursuing the higher path of a demigod.
Thucydides, the “Chronicler,” served as the academy’s vice president.
Pythagoras, the “Geometric King,” had become a legendary archmage and was still refining magical geometry.
Thales, the “Water King,” befriended the Lord of Water Elements. As a legend, he had once defeated a heroic warhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr, and rumors claimed he possessed the strength of a heroic king.
Homer, the “Great Prophet,” appeared and disappeared unpredictably, while Hesiod, the “God-Seer” of equal fame, lived in seclusion deep in the mountains.
At the same time:
Aristotle was beginning to make a name for himself.
Euclid agonized over his inability to break into the Saint realm.
Archimedes neglected his training, distracted by trivial pursuits.
Alexander trained diligently—because if he didn’t, he’d have no choice but to return home and inherit the throne…
Su Ye was stunned. These heroes and luminaries, who belonged to different historical eras, all coexisted in the same age.
In the world of the gods, only deities existed at first. Humans came later.
Modern humans knew only their own time, but Hesiod the God-Seer had revealed a discovery to the world:
The gods had created humans in successive generations—first the Golden Race, then the Silver, followed by the Bronze.
Each generation was infehttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr to the last. Modern humans, whom Hesiod called the “Iron Race,” were the worst of all.
But some people were born different.
They carried the blood of gods in their veins.
They were the descendants of deities.
From birth, they possessed a trace of divine power—something only gods should have. Though faint at first, this power could grow through cultivation, even ascending to true godhood.
As humanity multiplied, divine descendants increased, but their bloodlines diluted. Eventually, newborns no longer inherited divine power naturally.
Yet humanity progressed. With the help of Homer and Hesiod, they developed methods to cultivate divine power, step by step refining and strengthening it.
Hesiod believed human advancement mirrored the ascent of past ages, so he named the lowest warhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr rank “Iron Warhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr,” then traced backward—Bronze Warhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr, Silver Warhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr, Golden Warhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr…
Su Ye’s dream shifted faster and faster.
“Cough… cough…”
Su Ye coughed violently and jolted awake. His eyes snapped open to a vast blue sky—and the figures of Corro and Lavens in his periphery.
Gasping for air, he instinctively pushed himself up, hands braced against the ground as he panted. After a moment, he rose unsteadily and surveyed the scene.
Closest to him was Corro, still gripping the curved blade.
Behind Corro stood Lavens, his scarred face twisted into a cold sneer.
Further back, four hulking men—each two heads taller than Su Ye—stood shoulder-to-shoulder, arms crossed, chins raised arrogantly, their eyes full of menace.
Their massive frames blocked the view of the crowd outside.
Su Ye frowned slightly as memories flooded his mind.
In the next instant, his right thumb and index finger tapped twice in quick succession. His posture straightened, shoulders pulling back, arms slightly spread, chest lifted—all while taking a deep breath.
The others exchanged puzzled looks. Lavens’ icy gaze sharpened. He noticed that as Su Ye stood tall, the haze in his eyes cleared, replaced by a bright, torch-like clarity.
In that moment, it was as if Su Ye had become a different person.
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Important Author’s Note:
After much deliberation, I’ve decided to minimize Western names and terms to reduce reader difficulty. Names will be kept as short as possible, ideally no more than four characters.
Similarly, words like “drachma” will be replaced with simpler alternatives.
For example:
- Hephaestus, the Greek god of craftsmen and fire, has a name that’s too long, so I’ll shorten it to “Vulcan” (the Roman equivalent). Since Greek and Roman gods are essentially the same in this world (the Romans borrowed heavily from Greek mythology), this makes sense.
- Names with “忒” (like “忒修斯”) will use the more familiar “特” (e.g., “Theseus” → “特修斯”).
- Extremely long names like “Hermaphroditus” will be cut down (“Hermes”).
- Names like Aristotle and Pythagoras are too well-known to change.
Ancient Greeks typically had single, lengthy names, while Romans had even more convoluted naming conventions. So I’ll phttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgritize simplicity over historical accuracy (because no one wants to read a novel that’s 50% name pronunciation guides).
Translations of Greek names vary widely across sources, so I’ll pick the most reader-friendly option.
Also, this isn’t a strict historical recreation. For instance, ancient Athens was tiny and lacked professional soldiers or law enforcement—but that wouldn’t make for a fun read.
My goal isn’t to replicate ancient Greece perfectly but to ensure an enjoyable reading experience.
With that said—welcome to the World of the Gods..
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