<div class="chapter-content">
 <div align="center">
 <script src="/d/js/ad/page_01.js"></script>
 </div>
 After that dreadful thought, Eli couldn't think of anything else.
 He laughed, sounding like he was in drunken hysterics.
 He'd lived again, only to be fated to die?
 He'd seen Earth again, only to lose it?
 So funny.
 It was so hilarious.
 Eli laughed for a long time, couldn't stop. A response to fear, to anxiety, to the incredulity of his current situation.
 He choked on tears, his lungs burned from lack of air and his stomach ached from the laughter.
 When the storm was over, he lay on his bed, staring sightlessly at the ceiling. A restlessness settled in his bones. He got up and washed his face in the bathroom, shoved his glasses on.
 His reflection stared back, face dripping water, eyes visibly red at the rims even behind the oldfashioned glasses. Dark hair, brown eyes. If he remembered correctly, 81 kilograms on a 176 cm tall frame. He got on the weighing scale and scoffed faintly at the numbers – yep, he remembered the strangest things.
 He put on clothes, pulling them absently from the closet with no care what they actually were, and slammed out the door.
 It was late morning on a Wednesday in September – the weather was fairly benign in that transition between summer and fall. Eli relished the sunlight on his skin, even if the warmth was weakened by the mass of clouds that greyed out most of the sky.
 There were few people on the pedestrian lanes, but the trams were full – it was just the end of the morning coffee break, wasn't it?
 He shook his head at himself – was he even getting nostalgic about corporate life?
 He started walking, heading in no particular direction – the streets were familiar and not – the carefully designed lanes were so different from the wild paths he'd walked for the last seven years, but these were also streets he'd walked through with his mother for years and years.
 The local neighborhood was at the edge of the slums, and so a lot of the buildings were old and rundown, but the area also had a lot of small parks that made long therapeutic walks suitably attractive.
 Eli felt himself slowly calm down as he walked.
 He let his feet guide him, cautiously going down one lane, or trying an alleyway, or turning a corner to see another morass of small streets.
 He just walked and walked, trying to empty his head of…everything.
 He succeeded and didn't, putting himself into a trance where all he could do was muse distantly, hazily, as if everything was a dream. He only came out of it when his stomach made a gurgling sound, embarrassingly loud.
 He stopped in his tracks.
 The sky was slightly clearer of clouds, enough for the sun to bathe the city in the deepening golden light of late afternoon. Eli looked around. Um?
 Where was he?
 The street was narrow and the buildings were close together – he didn't see any landmarks.
 "You coming in or not?"
 He jerked around to see an old woman peering at him from within a window. Behind her, he could see a mass of bubbling pots and sizzling pans. He leaned back slightly to look at the sign.
 Master Chef Round the World Bowls
 Eli leaned the entrance-doors beside the window, peering inside the restaurant. There was only seating for about twelve people, definitely not a restaurant large enough for the grandiose name. The inside was narrow, with seats for two-person tables against the walls leaving barely enough space for one person to traverse the aisle.
 The smell though, was certainly…he understood why his stomach demanded he stop here. It gurgled again, as if in enthusiastic response to his thought.
 He smiled sheepishly at the old woman and looked away to the menu. Whoa, he boggled as he tapped through the options. There were more than two hundred kinds of dishes, marked with the flags of at least two dozen countries.
 He glanced behind the woman again, considering the scale of the kitchen, then focused on her. "Do you have a recommendation?"
 She paused in her washing out a number of utensils and contemplated the question. "What's your favorite ingredient? Spice level? Textures? Scents? Hot or cold?"
 "Beef," he said immediately. "Wagyu."
 She nodded absently.
 "Tomatoes," he decided. There were no tomatoes in Zushkenar. Orven Norge, creator of Redlands, apparently hated them.
 Zushkenari pizza could get very creative.
 Mock-tomato was a favorite food ingredient among the transmigrators after the Quake – an inside joke that started as angry and bitter humor but later became a bonding point between people in the same situation.
 "Lots of tomatoes." Eli shoved his hands into his pockets, only half-serious with his next request. "Do you have shark?"
 To his surprise, the old woman nodded. "The South African spiced blacktip bowl is popular. Young shark, very tender."
 Eli was suddenly aware of a rather ravenous hunger. Hunger and a distinct wish for petty revenge. "Forget the beef. I'll take all your shark dishes. And whatever tomato dishes you recommend."
 The old woman lifted her head from her pots, blinking in concern. "Young man, we have four shark dishes. The food in each dish is by weight 200 to 300 grams. Can you eat all of it?"
 Eli calculated.
 "Um…yes? Yes. Nothing too strong smelling – fish sauce level and mixed spices is fine. Heat level…nothing stronger than 10,000 Scoville. Any texture, as long as it's not homogenous. Hot dishes, if possible. What's your best tomato dish?"
 "Then definitely the Golabki Bowl and the Wild Ratatouille Bowl. We also have a great pasta al pomodoro. Ah, the tomato and egg rice bowl is also a good one."
 Eight dishes would be 1.6 to 2.4 kilograms. Most people eat that much in a day, not in one sitting. Eli nodded, tapped the recommendations into the menu screen, then searched the shark dishes and added them.
 This time, he wasn't eating to eat.
 Mostly.
 This was about principle, about taking back himself!
 Yeah, that's right! He pressed a finger into the biometric scanner, the bill immediately being paid from his bank account.
 The woman just shook her head as the order appeared on her kitchen terminal. "Free soup, hot and fresh," was the only thing she said.
 Eli sat himself at a table, and the soup was set down by a server almost the same time he sat. He sipped the vegetable soup, which was pretty good, and looked around.
 Despite the small space, the table didn't feel that cramped. There were only a few people there, and several other tables were being cleaned up.
 He'd come in at the end of a small rush, it seemed.
 That meant the food should at least be good, right?
 The first bowl clunked on the glass-topped table before him.
 "Your golabki," the server introduced softly. "Enjoy."
 The golabki was minced meat and vegetables rolled into cabbage leaves and doused in a spiced tomato sauce. Eli leaned forward to inhale – he couldn't help it. The smell was just so alluring. The steam condensed on his glasses, whiting out the world.
 He ignored the momentary blindness for the promise of delicious food and took a bite.
 Oh.
 If the rest of the dishes were the same quality, the ache and tiredness from walking for hours would be totally gone by the time he left.
 Eli lowered his head to eat faster, as bowl after bowl appeared as soon as he finished each one, didn't even care that he couldn't see while he ate – each dish made his tastebuds sing.
 He spent two hours savoring each bowl after the first pangs of hunger were satisfied. He even ordered another of the African blacktip shark bowl – the shark meat was really tender and the mixed spice aroma invaded the nostrils as soon as the dish was put down.
 He beamed in the direction of the server every time his soup was refilled, liberally complimenting the cook.
 It was probably too much, because the old woman came out to chat for a bit, and Eli learned that her husband and son were both rated master chefs by the World Chef's Society – the reason for the name of the shop. They both died during a joint world tour with a dozen other chefs – their air-yacht blew up over the Caribbean, suspected to have been hit by a meteorite.
 The shop used the family recipes.
 By the time he left, the sun had set and the alleyways were illuminated by fairy lights and diffused light lamps – it was definitely a theme. Eli checked his geomap to mark the location of the restaurant, and discovered that he hadn't gone that far from his apartment – just a couple of kilometers away but the pattern on his personal trackware said he'd crossed and recrossed his route more than a few times in a number of places, turned around here and there by the warren of alleys and streets.
 Right now, he was deep into the oldcity slums.
 Looking at the quiet alleys lit like they were tourist streets, it definitely didn't look like the slums.
 Come to think of it, it was probably a managed street – some of the lamps were stamped with the same logo. Managed streets were protected by a person or group, and in many cases were definitely marketed to tourists.
 There were more and more people coming through. He checked his geomap and reoriented toward his apartment. He felt slightly sleepy now.
 Should he call a taxi?
 He took a deep breath of the cool air, patting his slightly bulging stomach. The chill in the air chased away some of his lethargy.
 He started walking, ambling in the general direction of his apartment.
 The large amount of food he ate needed to settle before he slept, and the dishes had blasted away his tiredness with delicious flavor and the feeling of dark satisfaction.
 He stretched as he walked, feeling light and full.
 As long as he stuck to the light-filled lanes, there won't be trouble.
 He stepped onto a more mainstream street, then stopped. On the side of a high-rise, the moving poster was advertising a very familiar game.
 An agile vargvir clashed with a roaring trollkin on the moving advertisement. The vargvir tumbling into a clawed slash, the trollkin easily twirling a massive shield as his only weapon – each of the movements something Eli had seen before, familiar.
 He hadn't expected…
 He stood there, dazed, as the advertisement for Redlands: Masters of War ran to end in an eye-catching close pan of a field battle between two large groups – showing the viewers the expressions of those on the battlefield to great detail.
 Eli turned his back on the ad-screen, his thoughts once more chaotic.
 He lifted a hand, as if to wipe away the sight from his eyes, paused when his fingers visibly trembled. He shoved his hands into pockets and walked away, tread heavier than before.
 He lost track of his steps once more, wandering in deep thought.
 Someone bumped into him, snarled, "Watch it, loser."
 "Come on guys, I see him," the words had people moving faster.
 The group of youths moved with a purpose, sliding around him with smirks and deliberate pushes. Eli, caught off guard, didn't react until they passed him like a small flock of piranhas scenting better prey.
 He frowned at their backs.
 There were no gangs in Greatcentral City; the public monitoring was too comprehensive for that. But that didn't stop people from being ruffians.
 He looked at the way they moved; not very disciplined, too open – it would be as easy to defeat them without a weapon as a group of low-level hood-morlocks. He pushed his glasses more firmly up his nose, and smiled wryly as his thin wrists came into view – he looked down at his weak arms and jiggly belly.
 He wasn't StrawmanScare anymore. He didn't want to be.
 "Oi, Rigaton!"
 The yell had obvious challenge in its tone.
 Eli, who was already walking away, hesitated. Rigaton….wasn't that the name of one of Zee's friends?
 He looked back, then carefully followed the sounds of jeering laughter. Peering around a moldy mass of packaging, he saw seven or eight youths surrounding two people, taunting.
 The two were backed against a chained gate, and one had stepped in front of the other, returning the taunts with a wide smirk and a calm voice.
 Eli peered into the semi-darkness, cursing once again his eyesight.
 Oh.
 It really was one of Zee's friends.
 Jori Rigaton, and behind him was one of Marai's numerous cousins…Helian? Harrine? Recognizable because of the blue and white dyed hair.
 Everyone mostly called her H, for some reason. Also Hellion, sometimes. Eli snorted in amusement. He could see why. She didn't look scared, and unlike Jori's general mocking, she chose her targets, returning their barbs with precisely targeted thorny words and an unchanging look of irritation, as if annoyed by the necessity.
 The group surrounding them was getting angrier.
 Which, really, what did the two think they were doing?
 Eli looked around, and saw a mass of birdseed pouches tied to a balcony railing above him. He was fairly certain there was a law against feeding wild birds due to the Pigeon Crisis in American cities some decades back, but thanks for the consideration, random lawbreaker.
 He pushed himself slowly up the pile of crates, and onto the balcony. Then started tying the birdseed pouches closed.
 There was a burst of mad malicious laughter, and Eli glanced down to see the ringleader kick Jori in the stomach viciously. "Arrogant ballsucker! You think you can take us all on? We'll make your twathole watch while we cut you open, Rigaton."
 "At least make a more credible threat," the Hellion shot back. "You think you can get away with armed assault like this, even in a place where there's no monitoring? You've already been caught on cameras heading here, idiots. And we know your faces, even though who the frak are you, is my question. If you want to get away with this, you'll have to kill us. Do you have the guts?"
 Eli stifled a laugh as he tied off the last of the birdseed pouches. Jori didn't bother and guffawed openly while using the chain-gate to hold himself up – his laughter was wheezy, likely just got his breath back.
 One of the girls with the group stepped forward, obviously going for violence, while one of the boys moved to restrain H. Eli hefted a pouch, wound his arm back, and threw as hard as he could.
 The pouch exploded on one of the group's backs, causing yelps where the birdseed shrapnel hit.
 Eli grinned, sudden.
 More effective than expected.
 He hurled three more in quick succession, causing confusion and angry yelling.
 The two slipped away, smartly.
 Two more launches, and Eli ran – flinging himself off the balcony and onto the street below like he still had his advanced physique from Zushkenar.
 "Ow." He whined for a second when the jolt of landing hit too hard. But he ran.
 "After them!" was the roar from behind.
 No footsteps trailed Eli, so he knew they meant the other two.
 Eli didn't know the streets here, so he only ran until he rounded a corner, then slowed down to a slightly fast walk, looking for a street with more people and better monitoring.
 He stepped onto a tourist street with a sigh of relief and slowed down even more, feigning interest in the booths lining the market street.
 "Oh wait," he realized. "I could've called the emergency hotline."
 That was possible on Earth.
 "Yeah, but thanks for not."
 Eli whirled, coming face to face with Jori Rigaton, who snorted.
 "I thought that was you, Crewan. What are you doing in this part of the neighborhood?"
 "…they say you have to sweat out the flu. I'm taking a walk."
 H, who'd been looking at Eli curiously, snickered. "No, you were running. That just makes a flu worse, y'know?"
 "You mean that great-grandmother's wisdom-for-the-ages netsite was lying?"
 She laughed. Jori scoffed. "Call a taxi and go home, Crewan. You can't even run twenty meters without drowning in sweat. Don't really care what you're doing in the neighborhood, but I owe you one. Don't ask for anything illegal, yeah?"
 He pushed past Eli with an almost friendly wave.
 "Bye," H smiled before falling into step beside Jori.
 Eli considered the suggestion of a taxi. His muscles were once again feeling the ache, adrenaline starting to drop. He sighed and tapped his geomap for the location of the nearest station.
 He fell asleep before he got to the apartment, waking at the gentle shake the autodrive taxi made when the biomed systems that were standard on every automated vehicle detected he was asleep.
 He yawned all the way into the apartment, didn't even stop to wash but went straight to bed.
 <div align="center">
 <script src="/d/js/ad/page_02.js"></script>
 </div>
</div>

<div class="content">
 He was weak, he was depressed, he was a loser.
 He wasn't even Lvl 10 in the game when Earth was destroyed in the Quake and the players of Redlands were transmigrated to the fantastic world of Zushkenar.
 But he lived, learned, and died again.
 Now, he was back on Earth, one year and three months before the Quake.
 Deciding to rejoin the game earlier and with greater focus, what changes would he bring with his actions?
 What life would he live?
</div>

<div class="content">
 Luya transmigrated to a strange post-apocalyptic world.
 When she woke up, she found herself trapped inside a cage at a monster’s market, ready to be sold as fresh meat.
 In this world, monsters run rampant and humans are powerless. The era of civilization is over, and the remainder of humanity struggles on the verge of extinction.
 Dragons like humans very much, similar to how humans are fond of cats. Just before Luya was about to be butchered, an actual dragon bought Luya and carried her back to his lair.
 The first gift the dragon gave Luya was the human prince who had been turned into a dog by a warlock.
 Dragon: Now go cook and eat it.
 Luya: ???
 This is a crafting and technology-focused story. The heroine transmigrates into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Starting from the dragon’s lair, she builds things from scratch, employs science, and helps mankind regain civilization and order.
</div>

<div class="content">
 The world experienced a cataclysmic change, and countless spatial gateways appeared out of thin air.
 Exotic beasts of all shapes and sizes swarmed out of those aforementioned spatial gateways, forcing the humans to face the crucial moment for their survival.
 In order to search for a chance at survival, brave warriors from the army and scientific researchers risked their lives and entered the world beyond the spatial gateways. To their surprise, they discovered that there was a chance of obtaining beast cards by killing these exotic beasts in their world.
 Those with extraordinary spiritual strength are able to utilize the beast cards, perhaps transforming the cards into the beasts’ combat bodies while they were still alive, or transforming them into weapons or defensive gears, or…
 A new occupation came into existence following the changes, known as beastmasters.
 A transcender with two souls fused into one found himself in this magnificent new world full of waves, rising step by step as he ascends into the seat of a godly beastmaster.
</div>

<div class="content">
 Blessed with unlimited mana, Noah travels the worlds and sees rampant corruption and injustice.
 Have you seen countless icebergs fall asunder?
 Have you watched a dragon despair?
 Follow one man as he overturns the order of the worlds...
</div>

<div class="content">
 Ye Qingli is the daughter of an Imperial Businessman’s first wife, wealthy and overbearing. But because of her mother’s early funeral, she suffered utter oppression and abuse under the hands of her stepmother. On the eve of her marriage, she died tragically in the hands of her stepsister and her own fiance!
 He is an overbearing, tyrannical, cold-hearted, demonic king. Grim and ruthless, only restrained by his wife and son!
 Once reborn, the weak daughter transfigured into a Divine Genius Healer. There was no intersection between the two people, yet they were bestowed a paper of marriage!
 Subdue and kill the Seven Wives?
 Very well. This daughter also wants to kill her evil, wicked stepmother and stepsisters! Do you still dare marry me?
 However, the Handsome Prince and the Divine Genius Doctor, how do you get them together?
 Ye Qingli touched her chin: “So many people, which one do I choose?”
 A furious royal highness: “Herald, continue dispatching orders. Whichever male creature dares get within three feet of the royal consort, kill him immediately!
</div>

<div class="content">
 All Things of this World, Turn to Ashes, Flowing Blade-like Flame! 
 Crossing over to the world of pirates(the one piece world) , in the era of pirates, the Roja from eleven years ago obtained a Sword Soul system that lets him strengthen infinitely and extract various kinds of skills. 
 Flowing Blade-like Flame (Ryūjin Jakka) , Mirror Flower, Water Moon (Kyoka Suigetsu), Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer (Getsuga Tensho), Thousand Cherry Blossoms (Senbonzakura)…… 
 “If this sword descend, you may be roasted to death.” Roja looked at Akainu in front of him and seriously said.
</div>

<div class="content">
 The Three Realms and Nine Regions are full of great powers. 
 Some people can slash the sun and the moon with one hand, some people tremble with a thought, and some people can cross reincarnation with a glance. 
 After endless years, the Three Realms shattered, the Nine Domains collapsed, and everything was coming to an end. 
 Only he stood up! 
 He is the northern god of the northern border, he is the first seat of the throne of the Nine Regions, he is the last general in the world to rule the country… 
 He is Qiao Ye, this era, the last legend…
</div>

<div class="content">
 In the tenth year after the new era, the world finally came to an end. Zhang Mu truefully waited for his death, but unexpectedly found that he had returned to ten years ago. With his memory about the future, he swore that he would change the calamitous history, saving the earth from being destroyed! Walking dead, zergs, evolvers, and various mutated animals… nothing can stop him! The first step is to retrieve his identity as an era merchant , then find all the treasures he can remember to enhance himself!
</div>

<div class="content">
 The extraordinary power returns, and the wizard once again descends from the dust of history. 
 Standing at the top of the wave of the extraordinary power returning, Sharan looks for the true meaning of the wizard among the dust and countless planes. 
 One day, the real wizard will return to the world.
</div>

<div class="content">
 Chu Yang, the Ninth Master of the Nine Tribulations Sword, sacrificed almost everything he had for the sake of improving his martial arts, including the love of his life. After spending three years locating the fifth fragment of the Nine Tribulations Sword, he was ambushed by all sides at that very place. Mortally injured with no means of escape, Chu Yang executed a sacrificial technique by plunging the Nine Tribulations Sword into his very own heart. “With the blood of my heart, ten thousand tribulations will collapse!”
 After witnessing the death of all his ambushers, Chu Yang’s vision began to darken. At a distance, moments before his death, he saw the mastermind who had plotted his downfall — Mo Tian Ji. With that, his eyes finally closed.
 However, with a start, Chu Yang once again awoke to find that he had returned to when he was sixteen years of age! Furthermore, the Sword Spirit of the Nine Tribulations Sword now resided within his Dantian, the energy center of his body! From that very moment, Chu Yang would then begin to right all of his past regrets, and carve his very own legend by fulfilling his destiny as the final Master of the Nine Tribulations Sword, and defeating the Heavenly Devils beyond the realm of the Nine Heavens Continent.
</div>

<div class="content">
 In the magical Uvern continent, the ignorant guy pursues the explorer’s secrets.
 Witches, politicians, careerists and other people of all colors have squeezed into the guy’s wonderful journey because of a rock.
 But none of these have anything to do with monsters…
 The monster, the one-eyed monster broke into the boy’s journey like a lightning, and he was confused and uncovered another secret of the Uvern continent for the boy.
 Monsters, fruits, stones, money, power… The guy is walking on a complicated journey, and the things that should and shouldn’t be encountered make the whole story suddenly complicated.
</div>

<div class="content">
 Feng Ci pacified the Four Seas, created the Six Sects, single-handedly rescued all life under Heaven, and was regarded as the Grandmaster of Salvation.
 Later on, he grew tedious and randomly found a cave to seal away all of his magic items and a small, skinny black snake that was unable to change form no matter what. Manipulating the boundaries of the realms with Dao, his spirit left to wander the great cosmos.
 This abrupt journey lasted 3 thousand years.
 3 thousand years later, Feng Ci’s divine consciousness returned. Not only had his little black snake and the magic items disappear, even his physical body vanished without a trace.
 Feng Ci settled into the body of a youth who just lost his life. Forced to leave the mountains, coincidentally, the Immortal Alliance just happened to be accepting disciples.
 Sitting above on a high cloud terrace, with black silk covering his eyes, the legendary coldblooded and merciless Leader of the Immortal Alliance, Pei QianYue, said coldly: Terrible innate constitution. You can go sweep the floors of the outer sect.
 Feng Ci: …… Who talks to their Master like this???
 After that day, a new disciple arrived in the outer sect.
 Good-looking in appearance, cultivation hard to describe in words, and exceptionally lazy. A salted fish who did nothing but eating, sleeping, and waiting for death all day.
 Everyone joined in the wager, betting how long it would take for the Leader to sweep him outside the door.
 Until the Immortal Alliance turned traitor and the rebellion army marched straight up LinXian Terrace.
 Feng Ci casually broke off a branch from the cold plum tree. With a light wave, the sword light shook the Heavens.
 Then after that—
 It’s said that the Leader knelt in front of the room of that outer disciple for three days and three nights, but still didn’t manage to enter the door.
</div>

<div class="content">
 When he woke up, Ye You found that he had traveled to the world of learning war city.
 Opening Awakening God level selection:
 “Option 1: Join’Star Guide Hall Academy’. Reward: dnf world, the swordsmanship inheritance of the sword god Liangyue.”
 “Option 2: Join the ‘St. Carletovas Academy’. Reward: One Piece World, Natural Frozen Fruit.”
 “Option 3: Join the ‘Jielong Seventh Academy’. Reward: King of Fighters World, all the fighting power of Iori Temple.”
 “Option 4: Join the ‘Alicante Academy’. Reward: Moonworld, the treasure of the Great Iskandar, the army of the king.”
 “Option 5: Join’Kui Enwei Children’s Academy’. Reward: Hokage World, write round eyes.”
 “Option 6: Join the’Leywolf Black Academy’. Reward: Date Fight World, God’s Prestige Apparel·Shifan”
 “I choose the system…”
</div>

The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

Chapter 3 - Encounter

You'll Also Like

NovelsNook - Explore Fan-Fiction Novels Online Free!

The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

Chapter 3 - Encounter

You'll Also Like