Chapter 174 -174-The Battle for First Place
At this very moment, the four other powerful deities standing around Owen were all plunged into a deep state of self-doubt.
After all, they had entered this dimension at roughly the same time. Each of them had started from the humble beginnings of a Vassal God and painstakingly climbed their way up, enduring countless trials and setbacks. The difficulty of ascending on the Path to Godhood was seared into their memories—but Owen’s meteoric rise was simply too outrageous. So much so that they couldn’t help but question the very nature of reality itself.
He had grown so powerful, so fast, that it made their struggles feel almost meaningless. His strength had reached a level they couldn’t even imagine chasing, let alone catching up to.
The Path to Godhood was, by its very nature, one riddled with hardship and peril. Each step forward came with fierce resistance. And once a god broke ahead of the pack, that lead would only compound with every advancement—like climbing a mountain where the peak moved further the higher one went. To overtake such a lead was nearly impossible.
Before they had truly interacted with Owen, they still harbored the illusion that the gap between themselves and the "first place" wasn’t too wide. Their rankings weren’t far apart, after all. But now, after facing Owen up close and sensing the terrifying abyss of difference between them, they finally understood:
Owen wasn’t just ranked first—he was the very definition of first.
Their own ranks might be numerically adjacent, but in terms of true power and potential, the chasm between them was vast—so vast they could no longer see the other side.
From this moment forward, it seemed that in any divine-level competition, the one who claimed first place would be none other than Owen. The rest of them? They could only scramble for second. That was the harsh reality they had to accept.
...
Owen stood at the front, his gaze sweeping across the occupied territory ahead. He paid no attention to the Vassal Gods or devotees serving the other deities. Nor did he lift a finger to help.
Even though they were nominally "teammates," in truth, they were still competitors fighting for the same pool of points.