Chapter 1 The First Year of the Divine Calendar (Prologue)
[Afternoon, 15:23]
"Target No. 21 has reached the designated position. The 11th test begins."
"The disposable thermonuclear spectral fusion generator is ready. All personnel are on standby. It is now 15:23 on April 4th, 2079 AD. Begin!"
The old man with a full head of silver hair and heterochromatic eyes solemnly gave the order.
In the huge experimental field, the light suddenly dimmed, and an ultra-high-energy beam of light, tens of meters in diameter, suddenly rose and struck heavily on a cold corpse that stretched for thousands of meters.
Tens of millions of degrees of high temperature erupted, and the extreme light pressure overwhelmed everything, and the world lost its color.
In the experimental field.
At the source of the beam, the mountain peak carrying the [disposable thermonuclear spectral fusion generator], along with the generator, instantly vaporized, and
the earth began to disappear in patches, replaced by a mist-like high-temperature plasma.
"My God."
Someone groaned involuntarily, staring blankly at the enormous, unchanged corpse.
[Afternoon, 4:00 PM]
"Testing suspended."
The elderly man with heterochromia spoke hoarsely, a shiver running down his spine. This was tens of millions of degrees Celsius!
The heavily armed soldiers' throats bobbed, their faces bathed in the bluish-white light of the distant extreme light. A middle-aged man wearing a monocle clenched his fist:
"We…we are blaspheming."
The elderly man stared at the gray-black, ancient corpse floating in the ultra-high-temperature plasma, taking a deep breath:
"Do gods die?"
"They die, but for them, death is perhaps just a state of being." The
middle-aged man's voice sounded exceptionally low.
The elderly man with heterochromia suddenly turned his head:
"What do you mean?"
The middle-aged man adjusted his monocle and replied softly:
"According to the latest news, the remains of the first to third ancient gods show signs of revival!"
The elderly man with heterochromia trembled violently and exclaimed:
"How is this possible!"
"What's impossible?" The middle-aged man said in a low voice: "The Book of Omniscience, which accompanied the fall of the gods, reveals that the earlier a god fell, the stronger they are, and..."
A trace of confusion and fear appeared on his face:
"The Book of Omniscience says that gods will eventually awaken."
The elderly man with heterochromia opened his mouth, but could not speak.
After a long time,
he stared at the giant corpse that had survived nuclear explosions and high temperatures without any damage, and said softly:
"You just said that the remains of the first to third ancient gods show signs of revival, and the stronger the god, the faster they awaken, then... what about [Zero]?" Number 1 wasn't the first corpse to fall; Number 0 was.
The middle-aged man habitually adjusted his monocle and shook his head:
"No movement at all. The broken sword stuck in Number 0's head is the most mysterious thing."
"What do you mean?" the old man asked.
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment before asking, puzzled,
"That sword is contradictory. Its existence is like a paradox; it is both light and darkness, fire and water, the deepest philosophy of the universe. I cannot describe it in detail."
The old man nodded thoughtfully, then looked up at the sky, which was brightly illuminated by the blue-white light of plasma, and said,
"By the way, what does the Book of Omniscience say about God Number 21?"
"Death Titan? Panic Giant? Something like that. You know, the information given by the Book of Omniscience is always very vague."
"And what about Number Zero?"
"Number Zero. The Book of Omniscience gave four words: [Titan], [Reality], [Essence], and... [The Greatest]. "
After a pause, the middle-aged man suddenly asked,
"If the gods truly awaken, tell me, what crime should we be charged with for our blasphemy?"
The old man closed his heterochromatic golden-silver eyes and smiled:
"Wait until they awaken?" " I'm afraid I'm already dead. Although this place is far enough from the experimental site and we've taken sufficient protective measures, the ultra-high energy radiation released by the plasma can still affect this place."
He said with some melancholy,
"I may never see the day when God awakens in my lifetime." As soon
as he finished speaking, the middle-aged man seemed to sense something, gently tapping his monocle as if receiving some information. His pupils visibly contracted sharply due to the immense shock.
"What's wrong?" the elderly man with heterochromia asked, frowning.
The middle-aged man stared at the scene reflected in his monocle, a scene of infinite distance, and exclaimed in astonishment,
"Zero... the broken sword on Zero's head is loose... no, no, no, it's falling off, the sword is about to fall off!!!"
[Afternoon, 16:08]
"That broken sword... fell off." "
He had barely finished speaking when he felt a blinding light strike his face, a light far surpassing, far exceeding, the light emitted by the high-temperature plasma formed by the burning of atomic structures at tens of millions of degrees Celsius.
The middle-aged man shielded his eyes, while the heterochromatic-eyed old man stubbornly endured the extreme light, looking in the opposite direction.
'God,'
the heterochromatic-eyed old man murmured, meeting the gaze of the terrifying giant who had stood up, thousands of meters tall.
His beautiful, iconic heterochromatic golden and silver pupils were burned away by the dazzling light.
'After deliberation by the United Nations, it has been officially decided that April 4th, 2079, at 16:08 is designated as the first year, first hour, first minute of the Divine Calendar.'
The old man with heterochromatic golden and silver eyes announced from the seat of the UN Secretary-General:
'Therefore, this year will no longer be 2082 AD, but rather—' '
the third year of the Divine Calendar.'
(End of Chapter) "