The moment Xiang Nan snapped back to reality, it all became clear.
Right now, what he was seeing inside his mind was footage from the Hunter x Hunter anime—
including illustrations from the original work.
He wasn't super familiar with anime and mostly watched domestic animation in his past life.
But since he'd ended up in the Hunter x Hunter world, he needed to cram as much related lore and setting info as possible.
He couldn't afford to miss a single piece of plot or detail because he definitely wouldn't have time to rewatch it over and over.
This was his one and only chance.
With that in mind, he cleared away all distractions and focused intently on watching.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed—maybe hours, maybe an entire day. He couldn't tell the flow of time in this place.
By the time he snapped out of it, the video in his head had vanished.
Just as he expected, the world info only played once.
How much of it he could retain depended on him alone.
His consciousness returned to his body, but everything in front of him was still pitch-black.
After a bit, that strange sense of weightlessness finally faded, and light returned to his field of vision.
Right then, it looked like he was sitting at a dining table, with freshly cooked food set out by a woman. Next to him was a little girl with her hair in a ponytail.
Xiang Nan immediately noticed the hand holding his chopsticks. It wasn't his hand… or rather, it wasn't the body he had back on Earth.
He really was in the Hunter x Hunter world.
His soul had randomly taken over someone else's body in this world.
"Hubby?"
Wearing an apron, the woman came over with a plate of sushi, placing it on the table. The man who'd been eating suddenly got up and walked to a nearby mirror.
Reflected back at him was a brown-haired man in his late twenties, wearing rimless gold glasses and looking quite refined.
"This body's in decent shape," Xiang Nan said calmly, flexing his limbs a bit.
"Honey… What's going on?"
The wife came closer, obviously concerned.
"Daddy… c'mon, let's eat!"
The little girl at the table piped up, urging him to sit back down.
Xiang Nan took a moment to get used to this new body, then closed his eyes, scanning its memories.
He was an orthopedic surgeon—no wonder his physical condition was good.
Ignoring his "wife" and "daughter," he glanced around the room and could tell this family was fairly well-off.
"The Republic of Padokea, Wesera City…"
He walked over to the window, looking down at the bustling street below.
This small coastal city was famous for its fishing and commerce, and with a thriving tourism industry, it was actually quite prosperous.
"The Republic of Padokea…"
He sifted through his newly acquired memories.
The two most famous things about this country were the Sky Arena and the Zoldyck Family.
"What is it, honey? Are you all right? Don't scare me like this," the woman asked, watching him uneasily.
"Nothing. You guys go ahead and eat. I'm just thinking about something," Xiang Nan answered in a monotone, his eyes still on the street outside.
So, he had arrived in the Hunter x Hunter world… and now what?
Since they were "players," this so-called "game" must mean—
That line of thought got cut off as a virtual screen suddenly appeared in front of him.
Xiang Nan instinctively glanced at the woman beside him. She didn't seem to notice anything unusual, so she probably couldn't see the screen.
That eased his mind a bit.
[Current World: Hunter x Hunter]
[Progress: Story not yet in motion (No player with "Extinction Level 10" present)]
[Player Level: Extinction Level 0]
[Total Players in Current World: 1,000]
[Highest-Level Player Right Now: Extinction Level 8]
[Overall Power in This World: Human Power (85,610), Non-Human Power (???).]
[World Ranking (Current): Highest record was 16th place ever; currently 55th.]
[Highest Player Power in This World: 512]
[Number of Players Who Have Cleared This World Before: 2]
[Number of Extinction Games Held: 57,734]
Xiang Nan stared at the text on-screen, his mind racing.
"Story not yet in motion" might mean that Gon (the protagonist) hadn't even been born yet. Or maybe it meant something else.
But what exactly were these "Extinction Games" and "levels"?
As he was pondering, the screen changed, flashing a bright red exclamation mark, followed by a digital countdown timer.
Exactly one day—24 hours.
[Attention: A new round of the Extinction Game will begin in 24 hours. All players, please pass the first trial!]
"So, there are rounds, huh?" Xiang Nan thought, fully grasping the message.
It was coming so quickly, giving players almost no time to adapt or get a proper feel for this world.
He remembered what that blond jerk had said, the serious look on his face. That likely meant these "game rounds" were extremely tough—
probably a devastating blow to newbies, wiping out a ton of people.
"You die in the real world and then suddenly get sent to a crossover anime world, forced into a life-or-death challenge. Anyone who just died won't be able to process this right away. On top of that, we're basically resurrected into another life, which might lull people into thinking they can just 'live normally' here, fully immersed in a different reality. Plus, I'll bet these transfers are random—some might end up dirt-poor, while others could drop into the body of a tycoon or someone powerful. With that kind of jarring difference, not everyone will be willing to follow the game's rules."
"Plenty of people are bound to get complacent."
"Also, I'm guessing not many players had the sense to thoroughly cram the anime's plot and details right after they arrived."
"In other words, even without these game rounds, a lot of them might be as good as dead just from their own mindset shifts."
Xiang Nan frowned slightly as he weighed everything.
Just then, the virtual screen (or system) displayed another message:
[Please create your own talent!]
Talent?
Xiang Nan read over the text and its description carefully.
Basically, he got to create his own "cheat"—like a golden finger or hack.
The purpose was to give them at least some chance to survive and make it through these "Extinction Games."
"At least they're not trying to kill us outright. We get a bit of a head start."
He let out a sigh of relief.
So, he could decide on his own "golden finger," huh?
"I want the ability to use Nen," he thought immediately.
[Sorry, cannot comply.]
The system's response doused his hope.
Maybe he'd shot too high.
It made sense—if you could show up in this world and instantly become a Nen user, that'd be way too easy.
No wonder that blond guy took it all so seriously.
"I want the power of aura," Xiang Nan tried again, testing the system's limit.
[Sorry, cannot comply.]
"I want the conditions to unlock Nen."
[Sorry, cannot comply.]
"…."
Xiang Nan fell silent.
So he couldn't slip by with anything related to Nen. That meant no shortcuts.
"I want a positive relationship with someone who already has Nen."
[Sorry…]
"I want to obtain the ability to pass the Extinction Game."
[Sorry…]
The same response played over and over, but Xiang Nan wasn't discouraged.
Thanks to this back-and-forth, he was figuring out the upper limit of what the system allowed.
In other words, any attempts to directly cheat or gain a huge advantage were impossible.
It seemed the system's baseline required you to pick something that stemmed from your current, realistic situation—nothing too over the top.
"I want to boost my combat capabilities."
After a pause, Xiang Nan tried that.
[Ding! Confirm creation of this talent?]
"No!" he immediately refused.
He was certain now—the golden finger could only be "ordinary."
You could raise basic stats, maybe get yourself some guns or a pile of cash, or possibly gain intel or social connections—but only common stuff.
Anything tied to story characters or Nen was off-limits.
That was the gist of the 30+ dialogues he'd gone through with the system so far.
The timer on the screen was ticking down—now it read 23:14:27.
Nearly an hour had passed while he tinkered with these talent-creation rules.
"Money, guns… those don't help much. The world only looks peaceful on the surface; the underworld is unbelievably chaotic. Even the Phantom Troupe alone proves that. In a place without strict rule of law, it's not that hard to get firearms or cash. And since I can presumably only create this talent once, I definitely can't waste it on something superficial. It could determine my entire future in this world."
"I sure hope nobody's dumb enough to pick something so trivial," Xiang Nan mused.
"Combat ability? Mastery in some specific field? Or maybe setting up some personal backstory so I start out in a certain faction—like joining a mafia group? That's probably doable. But all that really just helps in the short term. If the goal is to reach the end of this game, short-term conveniences won't get me there. Otherwise, with so many players having come here before, you'd expect more than just 2 winners to date."
Stay alive.
That phrase from the blond guy suddenly echoed in his mind.
He had a few ideas.
Luck?
He could ask the system for a massive luck boost, some kind of hidden stat. That would likely be allowed. But then his survival would hinge on chance. Who knew how that'd turn out if his luck "ran out" or went haywire? At that point, he'd be putting his fate in something totally unpredictable.
"How about super-powered regeneration?"
He considered, but again dismissed it.
Like luck, strong regeneration only gave him a better shot at staying alive. But the system's buffs had a ceiling, and he knew Hunter x Hunter had insanely overpowered fighters. Even random mafia henchmen with machine guns could shred a normal person to bits—regeneration wouldn't help if you were turned into Swiss cheese.
He cycled through several more possibilities, rejecting each one.
The timer was already closing in on 22 hours left.
Finally, with parched lips, he silently formed a plan:
"I want the best and most wide-reaching learning ability possible within your power!"
[Ding! Confirm creation of this talent?]
"No!" Xiang Nan refused, squinting and then tweaking his wording.
"I want the best and most wide-reaching perfect comprehension possible within your power!"
[Ding! Confirm creation of this talent?]
"Confirm!"