Chapter 1 - New Life in God of War

Floating in the darkness was a small ball of light, and any seasoned fanfiction reader would recognize the cliché—this, my friends, was a soul.
And that soul was also a seasoned reader and had some idea of its situation.

"Hmm, it seems that the absence of a body and its chemical processes has kept my thoughts free from panic. After all, given my death, this could explain my lack of anxiety. But I can still feel sadness and joy in this soul state… so it's probably you causing this, isn't it?" the soul said, possibly looking into the empty void.

"You are correct in your assumption," a voice emerged from the void.

This voice was neither like thunder nor majestic. It was not devoid of emotion, but neither did it contain emotion.
 The voice was utterly forgettable, so forgettable that the small soul only remembered the content of the conversation but not the voice itself.

The soul began trembling like the flame of a candle about to go out upon hearing the voice, yet it still wondered if it was hallucinating, trying to remember the voice but recalling only text without sound—like reading subtitles.

"No reason, no merit, no gain, no loss, neither first nor second, nor another. I shall grant you a chance, a chance none have received from me, nor shall any other," the voice spoke once more.

"Your Excellency, please, tell me who you are?! And what is this chance??" the soul asked, trembling.

With each word from the voice, the soul came closer to vanishing, but it gathered all its willpower to ask.

"I am neither the beginning nor the end. My name cannot be heard, but should I choose to speak it, all existence would listen. Galahel is my name, and you shall have three wishes," the voice said and then continued.

"What you gain first is the last wish you desired. Second, the ability of someone you envied. And lastly, with each century lived, you shall find a new adventure to forge."

"And where you shall go will be the last game you dreamed of changing, slightly altered to satisfy you."

As the voice spoke its final words, a mighty and impossible wind blew through the void, and the poor soul, which was on the verge of dissipating, instead regained strength, solidifying as it was carried away by the winds toward an unknown destiny.

…

In a vast prairie, a young man opened his confused eyes.
 He lifted his torso and looked around, dazed.

"Where am I?" he wondered, and soon remembered the conversation he had with the voice, even though he could not recall the voice itself.

Panic set in as he reviewed everything that had happened. After a few minutes of processing, he accepted his death. Of course, he still had much to think about and face before he could completely let go of his past life, but that was something he would deal with over time. For now, he had more pressing matters.

"Okay, let's reflect on what the voice said… well, let's just call it that. It's better not to speak the true name of such an existence," he mused.

"My last wish… well, I tend to have many wishes. I just hope it’s not the wish to have a girlfriend, because right now, a girlfriend probably wouldn’t be very useful, haha…" he said, ending with a nervous laugh.

"The ability of someone I envied… damn, if fictional powers count, there are so many, I can't even imagine… damn, what should I do? The last wish only works every 100 years… I don't even think I can live that long," he said anxiously, already starting to sweat coldly. After all, the only thing he managed to deduce from what the voice granted him was where he was going.

"God of War… I'm screwed."

…

As soon as he said "God of War," a screen appeared before him, displaying:

[God of War recognized. Specify which God of War you wish to challenge.]

Upon reading those words, his eyes lit up. He finally remembered the last thing he had wished for.

A training chamber that fulfilled all his needs and had a time-adjustment function, allowing him to control the time flow rate within it.

Additionally, he wished for this chamber to let him train 100,000 times faster, and any guests he brought along would train 1,000 times faster… he was a bit selfish.

Besides infinite food and an environment perfectly suited to his needs, the chamber also allowed him to challenge characters and gain the abilities of those he defeated. Of course, he didn't want things to be too easy—the abilities he gained only gave him the potential to develop them. He would have to train those powers himself.

Although he claimed he didn’t want it too easy, a 100,000x training speed boost certainly contradicted that.

He had been thinking about writing a fanfiction when he recently made this complex wish.

"Well, I could be dumb and overestimate myself by jumping straight into a fight, or I could take advantage of the 100,000x rate and train the basics," he said, standing up from where he had been sitting.

He then looked down and thought for a moment.

"I’ll train my fists first, then my legs, and finally, I’ll connect them with some footwork… once I’ve trained well, I’ll switch to wielding a weapon—probably a shield and a spear for their reach, though I prefer the sword… I’ll decide later," he said, planning his next steps.

"Although this chamber lets me train 100,000 times faster, that’s based on each individual’s training speed. If Kratos trained at 1,000x speed as a visitor, in one day, he would receive the equivalent of about two years of training. Meanwhile, with my 100,000x speed buff, in one day, I would gain the equivalent of 273 years of training… the difference seems huge, but I’m just a normal human. And a normal human training for 300 years would be nothing compared to a single day of training for a God of War who can lift the weight of the Nine Realms—let alone two years of training."

He calculated, but there was no bitterness in his thoughts. After all, he might be a normal human now, but that wouldn’t necessarily remain true later. Besides, even if he stayed a normal human, maybe 300 years of training wouldn't mean much, but what about 3,000 years? 10,000 years? Okay, maybe even that wouldn’t compare to a god… but fortunately, he didn’t have to worry about staying a normal human forever.

"Enough thinking. Time to train…"

Just as he finished speaking, his stomach grumbled in protest.