NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Awakening
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
It was autumn in Athens, Greece. The magnificent azure sky spread far and wide, covered by a sea of clouds.
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On a normal street in the workshop sector, dozens of people crowded around the door of a gray residential building, craning their necks to look inside.
They were looking sympathetically at the unconscious young man lying on the floor.
Another man slowly withdrew the shiny scimitar from the young man’s neck, and a narrow stream of blood trickled from the small cut. The blood coagulated before it even reached the ground.
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“I was just trying to scare him, so I didn’t use any force. I barely pierced his skin! He wouldn’t die from that, would he?” the man wielding the blade mumbled to himself. There was a lingering fear in his eyes, and he held his breath as he turned to look at a brown-haired man beside him.
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The brown-haired man had a scar on the left side of his face. It was like a centipede, spanning from the corner of his lips to the base of his eye. The man let out a cold grunt, and the centipede contorted slightly as if it was alive.
Suddenly, the young man’s arms trembled gently.
“The b*stard’s still moving…” said the man holding the blade, clearly flustered.
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***
Su Ye was having a long dream.
In his dream, he lived on a planet called the Blue Star. He had always been ordinary, and his studies were the main focus of his childhood.
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He could always improve his grades by working a little harder, but they would deteriorate the moment he relaxed.
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Drastic changes occurred in the circumstances of his family, and Su Ye became lost and helpless. He couldn’t concentrate on his studies, and when he finally graduated, his grades were barely enough to pass. He entered the boring drudgery of daily work, and his life felt as though he were trudging forward through a dark fog.
However, the ember of determination within Su Ye’s heart didn’t stop burning.
One day his father became severely ill, and Su Ye couldn’t even afford to pay a few thousand yuan to help him. With that startling moment of clarity, Su Ye finally came to his senses.
The fog scattered.
Su Ye started to put in an unprecedented amount of effort, even more than when he was studying in school.
Luckily for him, knowledge was available everywhere in this era, and there was a sea of information right at his fingertips. After spending some time studying on his own, the dissatisfied Su Ye began taking classes and paying for tutorials. Acquiring knowledge became his singular focus, his obsession.
Su Ye advanced with a clear goal, and his mind developed steadily as he studied. He became more seasoned as a person, more proactive about his responsibilities, more exceptional in his mode of thought. The results he produced at work improved continuously, and he was promoted time after time in a short span of years. At the company banquet, he was even lucky enough to be chosen for a company-sponsored tour of Greece.
After he arrived in Greece, Su Ye stood on the deck of the cruise ship and admired the beautiful scenery as he imagined his future promotions and pay raises. He dreamed of becoming a general manager, a CEO, and reaching the pinnacle of life…
A tsunami hit, swallowing everything.
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In the swirling water and chaos, Su Ye could barely make out the ancient, underwater relic that he had been swept into. He then slipped into complete darkness. As water filled his lungs and despair overtook him, the dream world suddenly changed.
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Su Ye now dreamed that he was a teenage boy from the City of Athens in Ancient Greece.
The two dream worlds were different. The Su Ye in this new world couldn’t remember anything from the previous world, but the pronunciation of his name was the same.
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The new Su Ye also grew up without any notable achievement.
Su Ye’s parents were bakers, which kept them extremely busy. Su Ye was given a great deal of freedom as a kid, and he spent his time roaming around the city. His favorite place to explore was the largest harbor in Athens, Piraeus Harbor.
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The previous year, when Su Ye was fifteen, his parents had used all of their savings to buy him a place in Plato Academy, where they sent him to learn magic.
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Su Ye muddled along as usual and had exceptionally bad grades.
During their first year in Plato Academy, students were taught subjects like natural history, language, and physical education. They only started learning magic in their second year. Thus, one year into his education, Su Ye didn’t know a single spell.
However, he did grow under the influence of the Plato Academy. He went into the summer break after having spent the first year at the bottom of his cohort.
Just as the summer holidays were about to end and Su Ye was preparing for his second year of studies at Plato Academy, he received a piece of bad news.
His parents and their workers had gone out into the city and been attacked by a gang of bandits. They had been killed, and not even their corpses had been left behind.
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The next day, the notorious “Centipede” Lawrence came to see Su Ye. He showed Su Ye, whose eyes were still hazy with tears, a loan agreement signed by his parents. Then the man started ransacking Su Ye’s house for items to pay off their debt. In the end, all he could find was one Gold Eagle Coin, forty Silver Peacock Coins, and a little over two hundred Bronze Owl Coins.
As it turned out, Su Ye’s parents had wanted to expand their business, so they had sold off their old storefront. They had also used their house, which was worth three hundred Gold Eagle Coins, as collateral to take up a loan of a hundred Gold Eagle Coins. Unfortunately, they met with misfortune before they managed to purchase the new storefront.
Lawrence told Su Ye that he could either choose to give up the house or die.
Now, six days later, Lawrence had come once again. He had brought along a person who should have been dead.
The man was an attendant of Su Ye’s family-run bakery, Koror.
Su Ye tried to argue with Lawrence to keep his family’s house, but Koror used his understanding of Su Ye’s family to find a rebuttal for everything Su Ye said. In the end, Su Ye realized that he had no other choice but to give up the house.
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“You heartless piece of sh*t!” Su Ye said in fury. “You were just a slave who was deathly ill. My parents were kind-hearted enough to buy you and grant you freedom. They gave you a life! To think that you would come and harm me! My parents died while they were out with their attendants. Why is it that they met with misfortune, while you are here uninjured?”
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“That is a long story. You should listen obediently to Master Lawrence and turn over this house. If Master Lawrence is feeling nice, he might even reward you with a few Gold Eagles.” Old Koror smiled, his expression becoming friendlier.
“You… You know that my family were outsiders in this city. Without the house, I won’t be able to study at Plato Academy! Moreover, my parents have already passed on. What am I going to do without the house?”
Koror still had a friendly expression, but his eyes shimmered malevolently. He revealed his yellowed teeth as he grinned. “You can sell yourself and become a slave!”
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Lawrence suddenly said, “Old Koror, you aren’t retaliating, even though you have been insulted. It looks like their family’s benevolence still means something to you.”
Koror froze. He pounced forward with ferocity and began raining down blows on Su Ye. As he pounded Su Ye, he shouted, “I always wanted to teach you a lesson, you little b*stard!”
Su Ye instinctively tried to defend himself, but Koror drew a scimitar from the muscular bloke beside him and brought the blade down toward Su Ye.
Su Ye was pale with shock. He frantically retreated, but he lost his balance and fell. The back of his head struck the ground hard.
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Koror immediately pressed the edge of the scimitar into Su Ye’s neck. It was only when the sharp surface sliced open Su Ye’s skin that he realized that Su Ye was unconscious.
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Intense pain shot through Su Ye’s head. The two dream worlds were starting to fuse. His mind struggled as it analyzed both worlds, comparing their differences.
This was an ancient world where deities existed.
Not only were there Greek and Roman deities, but there were Egyptian, Nordic, and Persian gods as well.
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In this world, the shadow of the Titans enveloped Greece.
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The Dragon of Destruction Apophis covetously eyed the Solar Barque.
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The God of Evil hid between two lakes.
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The Serpent of the Apocalypse and the Wolf of the Evening were about to awaken.
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At this moment, the name of Hercules had spread throughout Rome.
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Gilgamesh and Darius the Great shared Persia.
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Beowulf succeeded the title of Lord of the Northern Sea.
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The generations of Pharaohs in Egypt would resurrect once every couple of years and fight for the title of the true king. The current king of Pharaohs was Ramesses the Second. He sat on the throne of the Pharaoh for the third time, and his elder sister had returned to Thebes. She was a heroic queen, and she was hailed by the people as the most beautiful woman of Egypt.
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“Sophist” Socrates was not only a great philosopher, but he was also the only Great Mage on the path to becoming a Demigod.
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“Idealist” Plato advanced to the level of Legend after Socrates died. He set up the Plato Academy and remained silent for many years. It seemed as though he didn’t wish to advance to the level of Hero, nor did he wish to head toward the higher level of Demigod.
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“Recorder” Thucydides took up the role of Associate Dean in Plato Academy.
“King of Geometry” Pythagoras had been perfecting Magical Geometry ever since he advanced to the level of Legendary Archmage.
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“King of Water” Thales acquainted himself with the Lord of the Water Element and defeated Heroic Warriors, even though he was only at the level of Legend. It was even rumored that he had the abilities of a Heroic King.
“Great Prophet” Homer was elusive, while “God Peeker” Hesiod, who had come into prominence along with Homer, retreated deep into the mountains.
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Aristotle was gaining fame.
Euclid was troubled over the issue of advancing to the level of Sagehood.
Archimedes didn’t have the heart to train, preferring to do what he enjoyed instead.
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Alexander trained hard, for he had to return to his homeland and become the successor to the throne if he did not…
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Su Ye would never have expected these famous people, spread throughout history and mythology, to appear in the same world within the same era.
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In the beginning of this world, there were only deities. Humans came later.
Modern humans only knew of the era they belonged to. However, “God Peeker” Hesiod had announced a recent historical discovery.
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As it turned out, the deities had created different kinds of humans in ages past. The earliest of them were the humans from the Golden Age, then came the humans of the Silver Age, followed by those from the Bronze Age.
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Each generation of humans was weaker than the last. Hesiod called modern humans “Humans of the Iron Age.” Modern humans were the weakest that had ever existed.
However, some were born different from the average person.
In their bodies flowed the blood of gods.
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From birth, they possessed Divine Power that only deities had once held. Even though this Divine Power was extremely weak, it could be strengthened continuously through constant training. It was even possible for such people to advance to become True Deities and gain control of True Divine Power.
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As humans proliferated, more and more descendants who had Divine Power appeared, but the bloodlines of Divine Power became weaker and weaker. In the end, it became impossible for newborns to directly acquire Divine Power.
However, humans were constantly improving. With the help of “Great Prophet” Homer and “God Peeker” Hesiod, mankind created a method of cultivating Divine Power. That allowed mankind to refine Divine Power one step at a time, continuously improving their abilities.
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Hesiod viewed the improvement of mankind’s strength as a return to past eras, and thus named the lowest level of warriors as Black Iron Warriors. He then traced back the eras and named the subsequent levels Bronze Warriors, Silver Warriors, and Gold Warriors…
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The changes in Su Ye’s dream happened faster and faster.
Su Ye coughed violently and was startled awake. When he opened his eyes, all he saw was the azure blue sky through the doorway. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Koror, Lawrence, and the rest of their thugs.
Su Ye had difficulty breathing. He sat up instinctively and supported himself with his hands as he took in big gulps of air. He slowly stood up a while later, then observed what was in front of him.
The person closest to him was Koror, who was wielding the scimitar.
Behind Koror, the fierce Lawrence looked toward at Su Ye coldly.
Behind Lawrence was a line of four muscular men, each one of them significantly taller than Su Ye. They crossed their arms and held their chins up. Their eyes conveyed their malicious intentions.
The thugs blocked his line of sight, and Su Ye was unable to see the people outside the door.
Su Ye knitted his brows as memories swarmed into his brain.
At the next moment, Su Ye gently tapped his right index finger onto his right thumb twice. His body slowly became straight, and his shoulders pulled back. His arms rose from his sides as he pushed his chest out and raised his head, taking in deep breaths.
The group in front of him was confused, while Lawrence’s already ice-cold gaze became even sharper. Su Ye’s eyes had been hazy right after he stood up, but that haze had scattered in an instant. Now, Su Ye’s eyes were as clear and bright as if they were torches in the night.
At this moment, Su Ye seemed to have transformed into another person.