This is what I'm reading the week of 2024-11-09. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

You can see previous reading list Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc
or if you prefer Reddit, Part 1 2023 and Part 2 2023

https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/2024-llm-translation-survey/

I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the English translation on novelupdate or try places like app.omniread.com where they use Advanced LLM models to do MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate.
or you can use chatgpt/llama/claude with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key)

 魔王大人深不可测 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(The Demon King is Unfathomable)
Fourth Apocalypse style, no harem. fantasy.
MC is a young Demon King just out of the academy. He is assign to an underground base at the heart of the surface human world. His mission: To Spread fear. He has a system that helps him to recruit players from earth to work for him.

 系统：你找错人了 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(System, you got the wrong guy !)
xianxia, no harem, scheming.
MC has a system, but the system is actually for another version of him that has the best of lucks like the destined one while MC has the worst of lucks. Thankfully MC receives the rewards from the system that was supposedly given to the other version. He also gains a lot of insight into future events due to system operating in a different time scale than him. So the system's current remark about the MC is actually about things in the future. This is very much in the same style of the author's last novel where there are a lot of twists and turns and unexpected reversals. It can get complicated and nothing can be what it seems. It kind of gotten repetitive at the end, but could be a good read for someone who is into that kind of stuff.

 
悠闲仙旅 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Leisure Cultivation)
Science + Cultivation, xianxia, no harem, scheming, no system, dual transgression.
MC is in a xianxia world and a lot of science principles still applied. So MC is using his scientific
knowledge to help him cultivate. Doing things like making gun power from spirit infused elements that makes it much more powerful. Enhancing his "Intent" (like a magnetic wave) with antennas, doing dual cultivation with a Doll....(this one is one of the more unique take on dual cultivation). There is another transgressor who is the female MC in the novel that is this xianxia world, they do interact, but the focus is mainly on the MC.

 
植物大战修仙界 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Plant Vs Cultivation Realm)
PVZ, cultivation, no harem.
MC is in a xianxia world with low inner talent, but he has access to PVZ shops in his mind where he can get sunflowers which when planted in a spirit field would give him sunshine(purified spirit) than can help him cultivate faster. Later on he can get more PVZ items like the potato bomb, pea shooter, etc etc. and they can be upgraded to be more powerful. a fun read if you are a PVZ fan.

 大帝世家穷养我？可我悟性逆天啊 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Grand Emperor parents try to low-key raise me as a poor boy, but I've got ultimate Comprehension)
MC's family is a long line of Grand Emperors. But his parents build an entire fake village and pretended to be a lowly farming family so the MC won't grow up spoiled and arrogant. But the MC has super talent that made him able to master anything his teachers taught him very very quickly. His teachers are actually Master gurus in their own area, but pretended to be just lowly teachers. Even then they ran out of stuff to teach him quickly due to his talent.
This is yet another low-key cultivation novel where the MC doesn't know how strong he is.
so far it is ok, waiting to see new updates and for MC to start realizing his power.

If you've went this far, please also consider taking this AI translation Survey to help me find the best LLM model for MTL.

https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/2024-llm-translation-survey/

This is what I'm reading this week. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

You can see my 2023 reading list Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc
or if you prefer Reddit, Part 1 2023 and Part 2 2023

I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the english translation on novelupdate or try places like app.omniread.com where they use Advanced LLM models to do MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate.
or you can use chatgpt/llama/claude with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key)

全民修行：前面的剑修，你超速了 (Everyone Cultivating: The sword Cultivator in front, you are speeding.)

xianxia, modern world, no harem, no system

MC is in a xianxia world and was in isolation for about 1000 years after he achieved highest level of cultivation. When he woke up and re-entered the world. It has been transformed into a modern cultivating society where most people are cultivating. Story is kind of slow and blend, was reading just to see how cultivation is used in modern society. Basically order is maintained because the most powerful cultivators are there to maintain it, like a benevolent dictator.

这只巫妖，想靠文娱洗白上岸 (This lich wants to use entertainment to whitewash its reputation. )

western fantasy, early victorian, harem (succubus), entertainment

MC is in a western magic world as a lich who is about to killed in 10 years time by the hero. To prevent that, he wants to remake the reputation of the Lich from evil necromancers that slaughter people and turn the corpse into zombies, to someone who had his/her own reason to become a lich and is a tragic figure who has a heart of gold. To do that, he started making movies and TV shows to cast the Lich in a more favorable light. Like making the movie "The professional" where the MC is a lich that was wrongfully chased by the knight of the Church of Holy Lights. It is always interesting to see blend of modern culture with ancient magic world.

让你当法师，没让你培育九尾神狐 (You are suppose to be a Mage, no one wants you to cultivate a nine-tail Divine Fox )

western fantasy, dungeons, no harem (so far), gold finger(but not system)

MC is in a magical world with dungeons that everyone is focusing on progressing. He has a gold finger of been able to level up his own skill sets and his pet's skill set every week. It normally would have taken years and a lot more effort to do so. So he used to become very powerful and leveled up his fox companion into the ultimate beast, a nine-tail Divine Fox. It has some face slap, no simp MC.

成为魔女的我，却掀起工业革命 (becoming a Sorceress, but I started the Industrial Revolution)

Female MC, early victorian, no Harem
MC is a powerful Sorceress in a world set in victorian age. She has a system to trade reputation points for scientific knowledges. She is also a high aristocrat but she wants to lead a revolution to topple the kings and the old order to establish the first democracy (think French revolution)
So she uses her sorceress skills and the scientific knowledge to build factories, guns, cannons, tanks, etc. etc. to defeat the existing establishment.

If you've went this far, please also consider taking this AI translation Survey to help me find the best LLM model for MTL.

https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/2024-llm-translation-survey/

In 2023 I did a survey of various LLM models Versus Human and MTL translation to see how far AI translation has gone, Please see results in this post here:

2023 LLM model Translation Survery Results

Results from my 2023 Survey on Translation using different LLM models

混沌漫步者Chaos Driter

and now for 2024, I've updated the Survey with all new translations with all the latest models like Qwen 2.5-70b, Llama-3-70b, GPT4o, Claud, Gemini, etc. etc. I've also included a website app.readomni.com with their custom model. Please take this survey to help Science ! :) and I'll share the results once there are enough submissions for a meaningful results (probably 20).

Please do the Survey Here or follow this LINK TO SURVEY

For those that are curious, here is the prompt I used on all the LLMs. I used models from ChatBot Arena for the inference. It is the only free way to do so.

Prompt (without the actual chinese text, which you can find in the survey)

This prompt is based on this Arxiv paper about how to use hints to help LLM for translation: Exploring Human-Like Translation Strategy with Large Language Models

You are a professional novel translator. Please use the keywords and context provided to help you in your translation.
Keywords:
度仙门: Deity Crossing Sect
度厄真人: XiXuan True Daoist
灵娥: Ling'Er
五气: Five Qi
御物: Commanding Objects
法器: Magical Instruments
法宝： Magical Artifacts
符: Talisman
阵: Formation
Context:
This is a Xianxia novel about cultivation in traditional Chinese mythology
Please translate the following chapter in a novel from Chinese to English in a literary style:

<Chinese content>

In 2023 I made a survey asking netizens to rate the translation of a paragraph of an XianXia novel by different LLM models to see how they fare against the Human translation.

In total about 30 readers conducted the survey (thanks a lot !) and here are the results:

I'll probably do another one for models in 2024 with the same prompt and text, to see how much it has evolved.

survey link: https://form.jotform.com/233077764011048

Link to Google sheet with all the values and results

Hopefully there are translations or MTL for them. I'll put some comment on each one.

Previously I've excluded novels based on Chinese Entertainment industries since most western readers are not familiar with it and won't get much of the reference to songs and movies. But I've seen requests to include them so there they are, skip them if you are not interested.

超神级学霸 (super god-class scholar) ***
There is no system, no harem. Just a person who is super smart (think Sheldon in BBT but smarter). It is a story about him starting from high school, to solving world-class math problems and creating AI systems in his spare time. Some face slapping as many doubt his math skills since he is only 18 years old. Some Nationalism in it but not much. I like it as just a change from the usual system based novels and I like to see super smart genius steam rolling everything.

太一道果 (Ultimate Unified Dao Product) ***
MC transmigrated into a Xianxia world. His cheat is journal that records his progress that won't be reverted. So he can only progress forward. He can also choose this Dao Path based on legendary XianXia figures in Chinese mythology and gain their special powers. The cultivation system setup is kind of fresh, and there are a lot of scheming and calculated moves in the novel.

歌土跟我有什么关系？我才几句词 (The song is corny, but I got nothing to do with it, I've just a few lines in it) ***
The MC is in a parallel world as a singer (Like the male of 凤凰传奇). He has a system that makes him have to partner with another person. He found the other half and they are couples and started a duo, singing many of the songs by that group and grew popular. Many of the plots are based on the real-life events of that group. No harem. single FMC. It is kind of fun to just reading about their stories.

我从顶流塌房了，系统才来？(I've been canceled as a Top Idol, now comes system !?) ***
MC in another world, as a Top Idol that has the looks but no talent. Just got canceled because He didn't know the name of a famous and well respected Historical figure. (Think George Washington). Just as he was avoided by everyone in the entertainment world, His system came on line and now he has the entire catalogue of songs and movies from earth to show off and support him. So he starts by writing songs and go from there to movies and other stuff. And slowly regaining his reputation back. I guess my current interests are with Chinese Entertainment novels.

主神，启动！(Lord God, activate!) ***
This is from one of my go-to authors who writes ruthless, smart MCs with interesting world building and power systems. This one is about MC who has the power to conjure people from one world to another, and whenever they gain power, he gains power + more. So he made up this Lord God system where there is a Lord God who assign missions to players and give them rewards (This is from the very famous novel 无限恐怖). There are multiple worlds. The first one is a sword intent world where there are sword zombies that if they cut you, you'll turn into a sword zombie and the MC summoned people from earth and then got the earth scientist to come up with vaccine for the sword zombie virus, etc. etc.

为了飞升，我只好去做游戏了 (To Ascend, I must make games) ****
MC is a God Tier level XianXia Cultivator. He has enough power to ascend, but lacks the full world understanding needed to do so. So to become more human and defeat his heart daemon, he starts to make games as he doesn't understand why many people find video games fun. Of course he doesn't make actual video games, He makes the game in real life in different planets and realms, and just transport player's mind to it to play it, like in VR. Some games are original, some are well known games like fall guys. There is a main thread with some evil god trying to come back in life, but I'm just there to see the games.

Adapted from my post in reddit

If there is no MTL/translation for it, just search the Chinese title in google, and click on a site that's not qidian, then use google translate. Or if you got the know-how, run a LLM like llama2 or Falcon 130B locally and use it to do the translation.

说好制作烂游戏，泰坦陨落什么鬼 (Agreed to make bad games, What the Hell is Titan Fall)

--- ***** Highly recommended.

This is interesting in that it is dual system. the MC has a system where if he makes a game and sell it well, then he'll be rewarded more games from earth. the FL also has a system where if the game she financed to make lost money, she'll get 10x back. So she thought the MC was a trash game designer and bounded her system to him. Hilarity ensues as the MC proceed to make hit after hit, including Titan Fall, Silent Hill, Sekiro, shadow die twice, etc. etc.

The novel has really good writing and flow, no harem. It is for any video game lover, certainly makes me want to play Titan fall again.

在异界开医院没有那么难吧 (It can't be that hard to open a hospital in another world, right?)

--- ***** Highly Recommended

This will appeal to the medical students or doctors as it can be heavy in medical terms and procedure.

It is about an ER doctor transmigrated into a magical world, and trying to use his medical knowledge to save people's life as the medical standard is like Medical level. Some magic spell like healing helps but can't deal with cases like cancer, or bone breaks because the lack of medical knowledge and of the human body. There is no harem, no system. The only "cheat" MC get is the knowledge of the earth. Oh, His girl friend is a silver dragon in human form. The way MC gets power is by finding ways to do medicine through magic, like how to use blood control spells to deal with excessive blood in surgery, and use druid power to control tiny but tough vines as surgical instruments, etc. etc. The medical part can be dense at times, but just skim over it and read along. the MC is actually rare in that he doesn't really fight much at all (even though he is powerful). It is mostly about world building and solving problems, there are fighting of course, but mostly against evil folks.

天阿降临 (Descend from Above) --- ****

This one also has no system, no harem. MC is the result of a super secret project to produce the most advanced soldier possible through nano-tech and genetic modification. He is super smart, super strong, but still learned to love and hate. The plot resolves around him escaping from the lab and start to develop his own empire among the war of the two giant galaxy level Federations (one of which started the project that made him). good plot, good sci-fi stuff.

从肉体凡胎到粉碎星球 ---- (From mortal flesh to smashing planets) ***

This has no system, no harem. MC was the top martial artists in earth, and when he died trying to break through to the next level. He transmigrated to another world where martial arts can achieve higher energy level, so he used the techniques he mastered in earth to advance. The writing is ok and can be repetitive at times. I liked the author's previous books so I just followed along, might drop soon.

这游戏也太真实了 --- (This game is too realistic !) ***** Highly Recommended

No harem, maybe a system ? Basically MC wakes in a world much like fall-out where humans had advanced technology but lost most of it due to in-fighting and also fungus invasion from another planet. So now MC is in charge of a fall-out shelter, but with the residents been players he recruited from earth. the Players think they are playing a highly realistic VR game through a helmet, but in reality their mind is transported into a clone body in another world. The plot revolves around the MC, along with the players attempting to rebuild civilization on earth's ravaged surface while fighting mutants, beasts, giant fungus infested machinery, and other factions. If you ever played fall-out, the world will seem very familiar.

从低魔世界归来，先做人工智能 ---- (Return from low-magic world, start with making AI)

no system. MC was a legendary wizard in a low-energy magic world, then he returned to earth in the year 2010 ? He found that earth has magic elements but they are very inert and hard to use. He still managed to utilize it to make super conducting materials and combing ghost spirits with super computer to produce Artificial General Intelligence to help him make more magic+technology stuff and eventually become global leader of the earth, and start conquering on other dimension(worlds).

Be Warned, he sleeps with a lot of women, and the story has anti-american stuff (but not pro-chinese, the MC has his own corporation that eventually become his own nation, like Umbrella). stuff mentioned in the story are how American soft drink companies bought out all the fresh water in Mexico, so coke is cheaper than water in Mexico, leading to many folks there to have diabetes. How IMF using the loan to south Korea in the 1990s to hollow out its financial industry and control the finance in that country, etc. etc. I just treat it as a story.

我打造了科学魔法 --- (I made Scientific Magic) ****

Kind of like Throne of the Arcane (奥术神座). MC use science knowledge to improve magic spells. He has a biological chip in his brain to help him calculate and remember stuff. no system.

修仙就是这么科学 --- (Cultivation is really that scientific) *****

no system, no harem. MC transmigrated into a cultivation world with an IBM super computer in his brain as his soul-bound artifacts, so He can use the computer to research and improve Cultivation techniques. It is by one of my favorite author whose novel are very similar, it can get repetitive at times as MC keeps getting threatened/kidnapped by powerful cultivators for his secret, and he finding ways to power up and escape and take revenge.

裂天空骑 --- (Sky Splitting Spacer Rider) *****

no harem, no system. MC is in a world where folks have mutant power, he killed a metal dragon from the magic world and gained the power to manipulate metal, so he advances mainly as a pilot of fighter jets in a defense mercenary company in search of evil mutants who wants to destroy the world.

I liked author's previous novel which is also about MC with fighter jets.

人生扮演游戏 --- (Life playing game) *****

This is by the author of 亏成首富从游戏开始, one of my favorite novels. This one is a bit different, the MC has a system where he get games from earth if he create good games, and he has to cosplay some aspect of the game. Like if he is making a game like sifu(martial art game), then in real life he has to act like a martial art master. Or if he is making a parkour game, then in real life he'll have to be a parkor expert as well, and later not just him, his company employees also needs to participate.

It is slow going, and not as fun as the previous one, but interesting enough for me to continue.

no harem.

我只想好好当个反派 --- (I just want to be a proper villain ) ****

Very interesting premise/setup. MC is a villain in a novel world, however this world is messed up with 10 different stereo MC with system inside, each with his own FL and plot line. Example MC like the super rich system where if you spend 1 dollar, you get 10 dollar back. Or the system that grants you literatures from earth to show off and plagiarize to gain fame and fortune, or the MC that's the dragon king of the underworld in another country, but coming back to find his wife/daughter been mistreated, or the MC that's the medical healer, and gets rewarded with jade beauty because he saved her grandpa, etc. etc. Think of the top 10 cliche MC/plot line/system, it is included. MC has his own anti-MC system where if he thwarts the other MC's system like prevent them from getting fame or advancing their plot line, then he takes their providence from them and become stronger. The MC actually just want to play out his plotline as a villain (thus the title) and enjoy life, but with 10 MC in the same world, the plot lines intertwine with each other and MC fight with each other so nothing goes as planned. On top of that, the FL of the various plotlines can hear the MC's inner thoughts, so they are now also aware of their own destiny and horrified about been forced to love MC due to how the story is written, so some of them team up with MC to fight the other MC to gain control over their own life, some fall in love with MC, and others just want to have their own life.

quite interesting plot and setup, but author isn't good enough to control how the story goes so it can get messed up at time, just leave your brain at the door and enjoy all the anti-cliche stuff.

火力为王 ----- (FirePower is King) ***** HIghly recommend

no harem, no system, the only cheat is that the MC is very talented at using a gun, but nothing super human. very good writing, and plot. MC is a college student vacationing in Mexico where he got caught up in a secret American mission to deal with the cartels, and he learned that he is actually pretty good with a gun and joined the private military company that saved him from the cartels and started to taking over the PMC and grow into an arms dealer. the first 1000 chapters are very good, but once it advanced to where he met his "teacher/mentor" and how he got his american passport, it kind went off a bit, but eventually it comes back to just doing missions and making it as an international arms dealer. I actually considered doing a translation of it myself, but just don't have the time.

虫族就是这样子的 --- (This is how the Zergs are) ***

MC has control over a Zerg Mother Nest and will travel through different worlds in different times, in each world, the MC would control the Zergs to integrate into the world secretly by producing zergs that's based on the native population.

Adapted from my reddit post in /r/noveltranslations

I'm native Chinese so I can read the raw. I've been reading web novels since 1995 when there was no original web novels, just scanned copy of actual published physical books.

I typically have 20-30 novels that I keep track of at a site booklink.me , and every week or so I would go to qidian and find new books to add. I would also drop books that I've lost interest, or just forgotten the plot of. For me, If I forgot about a book's plot/charater, it means they weren't interesting enough for me to remember, so why bother reading more.

Here are my reading list, Hopefully there are translations or MTL for them. I'll put some comment on each one.

从解析太阳开始 (start from analyzing the sun) ----- Highly recommend ****

harem, unique power system, the cheat is an all-knowing eye. cunning MC, no simp.

我能超越空间 (I can transcend space dimension) --- ***

no harem, unique power system, the author's previous novel was better.

都赛博年代了，还在当传统反派？(It is the era of cyberpunk, still been a traditional villain ?)---- ***

harem, cyberpunk, cunning MC, Villain MC

MC transmigrated to a novel world where he is one of the small villains that was was loot delivery for the novel's MC. Knowing the plot, he fought the MC and got all of his girls and power.

法力无边高大仙 (Deity Gao of the Infinite Arcane power) --- ****

harem, ruthless MC, system

Same style as the author's previous novels, Super Handsome MC, very powerful MC, and keep getting stronger and kill to the top. good for mindless reading.

只想让玩家省钱的我却被氪成首富 (I just want to save money for the players, but they made me the most rich person) --- ***

no harem, reverse play, system.

MC has a system where the less players spent in a game, the more money he gets. Of course when he tried to not get player to spend money, they spent more.

霸武 ( Marshal hegemony) -- ****

cunning MC, harem(maybe), system

MC has a system that the more people think he is powerful, the more powerful he gets. Intriguing plot and ok writing, I liked the author's previous novels so just kept going.

苟在异界研究科学 (low-key in other world researching science) ----- ***

no harem

MC transmigrated to a magical world where magic are done through cards, has cheat where his handgun and cellphone became his life-bound artifacts with great power. He also uses science + magic to advance.

谁家顶流摆成这样 (Whose Top Celebrity are so laid back) ？ ---- ***

MC transmigrated into a world as a Top celebrity whose only good quality is his handsomeness. But MC has system that grants him actual talents. He just want to earn enough money to retire, but end up making a lot more even though he tried to just do the minimum. This is in Chinese entertainment industry, so probably not relatable to westerners.

说好吹牛，你咋真有大帝之资？(We agreed to Boast, why you actually have god talent) --- ****

harem (maybe), xianxia

MC transmigrated in a xianxia world, has a system that grants him power/talent whenever someone is boasting around him.

电磁暴君 (Electromagnetic Tyrant) --- ***

no harem

MC in another world, with an powerful artifact in his eye as cheat that gives him super observability

国民法医 ( The people's National Pathologist) ---- ****

no harem

MC has a system that grants him skills in forensics and one random skills from dead body allowing him to solve complex crimes. He is also very rich and handsome, but low key.

反派就是这样子的 (This is how villains are ) ---- ***

xianxia, harem

kind of similar to the other villain novel, but in a xianxia world. the MC became one of the small villains in a novel and use his knowledge to fight MC and get all the girls and power.

你怎么又把副本搞坏了 (How come you broke the world instance again) -- ****

no harem

MC is in a world where there are virtual instances of dungeons appear and needs to be solved, or it becomes real and the monster inside come out and kill people. MC is smart and kept breaking rules of the virtual world(instances) and getting more powerful, original setup, kind of funny at times.

女帝：陛下请自重，臣不想升官 (Female Emperor: Your Majesty please respect yourself, the minister does not want to be promoted) --- ***

no harem.

MC in an old chinese dynasty world where if he was demoted by the emperor or killed in the line of duty, he'll transcend to the upper realm and be very powerful and immortal, so he tries to get himself demoted and killed, of course it back fires to make him stronger and promoted.

This book is about a student that transmigrated into a fantasy world. His cheat is an all-knowing eye, with it he can scan objects/person/concepts and get knowledge from it. With the knowledge, it'll enable him to gain power through something calls the Xuan Seal. The MC is smart, cunning, ruthless, and has many womens. It is more about power progression. I like it because of the power system and the MC is OP, always wins.

Update in 2024, I read through most of the novel, but didn't end finishing it as I was getting tired the always expanding plots against the darkness. Still a good read though.

Chinese Name: 从解析太阳开始

Book Link: https://www.qidian.com/book/1035313493/

Author: 竹围月色  (Bamboo Moon Light)

Tags: Xuanhuan, fantasy, harem, OP MC, no system, transmigration