This is what I'm reading the week of 2025-02-08. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

Follow me on X https://x.com/ChaosDrifter42 to see the ones that didn't make it on the list.

**You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc

说好做免费游戏，怎么氪成首富了
 (Suppose to Make free games, How did you became the richest man through microtransactions )
 (Modern, Video Games, system, no harem)
The protagonist of this web novel is equipped with a unique system that rewards him with points whenever players spend money on micro transactions within his games. These points can then be used to purchase and replicate popular games from Earth. Leveraging this system, the main character creates free-to-play games but monetizes them through pay-to-win mechanics, a strategy that proves highly lucrative. The world he inhabits is one where gaming is dominated by either one-time purchase models or monthly subscription fees, leaving players entirely unfamiliar with the concept of free-to-play games. This creates a perfect environment for the protagonist—a former professional game designer from Earth—to innovate and capitalize on this untapped market. The story falls into the popular sub-genre of 'creating video games in another world,' a theme I find particularly engaging. Not only does it introduce me to new and intriguing games, but also evokes a sense of nostalgia when it references classic games I’ve enjoyed in the past.

美剧世界：从洛城巡警开始 (World of American TV: Starting from the Rookie)
 (urban, American TV, police, harem, system)
 
The protagonist begins his journey as a rookie officer in the American TV series The Rookie, taking on the role previously held by the character West. Equipped with a 'Detective Development System,' he earns points by performing police duties, which he can then use to enhance various skills, such as marksmanship or physical strength, among other abilities. The novel closely follows the events of the show’s first season, but with notable deviations, as the main character’s knowledge of the original plot drives him to alter certain outcomes—particularly in his efforts to save Zoe. Intriguingly, this story inspired me to start watching The Rookie, and I must say, it’s an excellent show that lives up to its reputation.

I have so much backlog of novels to keep up (as one can see from my weekly post) so I won't be adding too many new books.

Cultivate the Dao of MTL to see novels that hasn't been translated on novelupdate.

Please Consider registering an account on qidian.com and support your favorite author, here is a How to Guide (with Video) on doing in under 2 minutes and it is totally free.

https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/how-to-register-on-qidian-and-reward-your-favorite-author/

Most of the Chinese web novels, and many manhua based on them, comes from www.qidian.com. many authors publish their works on it and for lucky ones, their novel will get to VIP status and start earning them money through subscription and royalties.

These are just my rough calculation, please use only as a guideline:

TL;DR: Reward for the author (minimum 1 cent (USD) for one VIP chapters at 2000 words per chapter per subscriber)

To Support the author, either sign up on Qidian and use PayPal to buy the chapters, or add their books to your bookshelf and give them free daily votes.

See this Post here on how to Sign up in under 2 minutes:

https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/how-to-register-on-qidian-and-reward-your-favorite-author/

Now Details:

Author earnings:
The authors earn no money when they first start their work. Typically they'll write about twenty thousands words and depending on the reading stats (like how many readers added it to their shelf, how many user comments it gets, etc. etc.), the QiDian editors will walk with the author to "Get it on the shelf", meaning making the rest of the chapters VIP. This is where the author can start to earn money.

They get half the revenue from the subscription, and 1 cent per 1000 word as Royalties. So at the minimum, the author would get 14 cent (RMB) per subscriber for a chapter with 4000 words. Of course with established authors and continuous updates, the authors would earn a lot more (double or triple, or more) the revenue.

There are also other income streams like licensing for manhua/movie/TV adaptation, and there are also rewards for consistently publishing everyday for a month. But most author rely on subscription as their main income.

most of the information comes from this answer on qidian.com:
https://www.qidian.com/ask/qamkgjdtuiq

How to Support your favorite Authors:

The best way to support your favorite authors is to get on qidian.com and buy their chapters. this can be done with your phone number and PayPal.
See here on how to do that. (with pictures)

Pricing: (about $1.23 USD for 100 chapters at 2000 words per chapter)
It costs about 5 cent of RMB for 1000 Chinese characters, each chapter is typically 2-3 thousands characters, so it would cost about 10-15 cent RMB (which is about 2-3 cent USD) per chapter. Typical book could have 500-1000 or more chapters, and the first 50-100 chapters are typically free, so if you bought all the paid chapters, it would be around 40 RMB for a book with 1 million words, or about $6.15 USD. (assuming 1 USD is 6.5 RMB)

Other ways to support:
Of course, if you don't have the money, then simple register and add the book to your bookshelf, and cast your daily Recommendation Votes for the book is also a great way to support the author as it promotes the book and help it to show up in Qidian's official recommendation list which can be a big boon to the author.

Other benefits for reading on qidian.com:
Another benefits of reading on qidian.com are the in-line comments for the novel, these typically include pictures for the items and characters been discussed, and user comments that might explain things or are just funny meme s. Sometime they are more fun to read than the actual chapter......

Most Chinese web novels originates from www.qidian.com, which is the parent company of webnovel.com. If you are a fan of any Chinese web novels and would like to support the author, see below on how to sign up on www.qidian.com with your phone number (even non-chinese ones work), and either support the author by using PayPal to subscribe the paid chapters, or if you can't afford it, just show your appreciation with the Daily Recommendation Ticket for that novel.

see details of the cost and reward for author here :

https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/how-much-do-web-novel-authors-earn-on-qidian-and-how-to-support-them/

Here is the YouTube Video if you don't want to read:

What you'll need: a phone number that can receive SMS (you can get a free one by using app like TextFree), and a PayPal account if you want to subscribe.

First, Download and install the immersive translate plugin for the browser that you are using at www.immersivetranslate.com

Next, navigate to www.qidian.com , and then in immersive translate plugin options, pick "Use google translate," "Always translate this site", and "Show Translation only"

Click on the Register link on top Right corner:

This should take you to the registration page, if it is showing in Chinese, just use the plugin to translate to English.

Pick the your country (USA is named as American), and enter your phone number

Click on Get the Verification, and solve the CAPCHA by dragging the puzzle piece in place to match the missing part.

enter the SMS code, make up a new password (save it in a password manager somewhere), check the "I have read and agreed Policy " Box, and hit Register now, if everything goes well, it would show Registration successful.

Once logged in, you can then go to https://my.qidian.com to setup your nicknames, and use the Safety Center link to bind an email address for login. (using immersive translate to make it English of course)

In case the password log in failed, just disable immersive translate at the login screen and use the phone SMS login instead, make sure to click the small checkbox below.

Once you are in, to support your favorite author/book, just search the Chinese Title of the book (which you can get from novel update or other places) by copy/pasting it into the search bar on top.

Then Click on Book Details to go to the book page, and click on "Join the bookshelf" to add this book to your bookshelf(or reading list), and click on Free Trial Reading to start read it with google translate, if you are ok with MTL. Would also be best to click on "Interactive Voting",

and then "Recommended Ticket", and click on "Vote now". This will help promote the book and make it more likely to be recommended and show up on Qidian's official recommendation lists.

To subscribe to the paid chapters , navigate to the first VIP chapter and click on the subscription button at the bottom, you can either just subscribe to this particular chapter, or auto subscribe the chapter as you read it, or do the bulk subscription for all the chapters, it'll show you how many points it'll cost you, and then you can click on the "recharge" button to top up your points via PayPal. (Just as a reminder, it is about $11.5 USD for 6500 points)

Congrats ! Thank you for supporting your favorite authors !

Recently QiDian conducted a net survey for the top novels to be considered as "master pieces". It was quite controversial as initially books by 辰东(Chen Dong) such as "Perfect World", "Shrouding the Heavens" dominated the chart, 7 out of 10 books in the top 10 was by him. So his fans were gloating in various on-line community about it. This angered fans of Gu Zheng Ren, whose novel "Reverend Insanity" was banned and thus ineligible to participate. So they voted for his newest novel 仙工开物(Secrets of the Eternal Puppeteer) instead as a proxy for RI. Soon such news spread on TikTok and fans of other books like cuttlefish's LoTM also joined in. It just turned into such a farce that the final list was announced without much fanfare.

details here:
https://www.163.com/dy/article/JLDPRCA90526FP3N.html

I can't find the complete List anymore, only top 20.

Here are the Top 20 (in ascending order):

《仙工开物》-- Secrets of the Eternal Puppeteer
《遮天》-- Shrouding the Heavens
《神秘复苏》-- Terror Awakening
《完美世界》-- Perfect World
《斗破苍穹》-- Battle through the Heavens
《诡秘之主》-- Lord of the Mysteries
《凡人修仙传》-- Record of mortal's journey to Immortal
《神墓》-- Shen Mu
《道诡异仙》-- Dao of the Bizarre Immortal
《吞噬星空》-- Swallowed Stars
《大奉打更人》-- Dafeng's Night Squad
《轮回乐园》-- Reincarnation Paradise
《圣墟》-- The Sacred Ruins
《全职法师》-- Versatile Mage
《我真没想重生啊》-- I really didn't want to be reborn
《夜无疆》-- Endless Night
《仙逆》-- Renegade Immortal
《全职高手》-- The King's Avatar
《超神机械师》-- The Legendary Mechanic
《惊悚乐园》-- Thriller's Paradise

Qidian Also had list of 2024's 12 heavenly Kings, see details here:
https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/the-twelve-heavenly-kings-of-qidian-2024/

Each year, QiDian asks readers to vote for the 十二天王 (12 heavenly kings), ie. Best Authors of the year. Here are the results for 2024:

https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20241224A08IMU00

in no particular order:

This is what I'm reading the week of 2025-02-01. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc
 
I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the English translation on NovelUpdate, LnCrawl or try places like ReadOMNI where Advanced LLM models are used for MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate. OR you can use Chatgpt/QWEN/deepseek/Groq with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key for the cloud LLMs)

当明星哪有飞升香 (When Stardom Pales Next to Ascension )
 (modern, Chinese entertainment, high EQ MC, slice of life, no harem)
MC is an extrovert with high EQ and savvy social skills. He'll succeed even without a cheat as he knows how to handle any social situation. read to be enlightened on how to handle conflicts, say the right things to defuse accusations, and dealing with unpleasant folks.
MC's grandpa turned into the Deity Literary Star, and will grant him incense points when people offers burning incense sticks to his painting. MC can then use the incense point to draw powerful artifacts, ability points, and other goodies. MC can also see the ability ranking of other people, so then he can be the best scout and trainer as he knows who is good at what. He later also gain an artifact that can be used to obliterate psychological demons like depression, ADHD, Schizophrenia. So he use it to help his students and other pop stars to gain money and influence.

人在2024，系统1979？ (I'm in 2024, but the system is in 1979)
 (slice of life, harem, modern world)
 If you have a system and it'll take you back to 1979 in two days, what'll you do ? What'll you bring ? What stupid and crazy acts will you do ? the MC sold his house, got rid of all his belongings, kissed three separate women, and sent risqué pictures to another 10 girls from his WeChat account. Imagine his shock and immense embarrassment when only the system itself traveled back to 1979 and he is still in 2024, thus the title. The system thinks he is in 1979, so gives him missions like "graduate from college, be the first to open private businesses, fly in a commercial airplane". Those can be hard to do in 1979 China but easily done in 2024. The rewards are also hit and misses, like 500 RMB can seem a lot in 1979, but isn't much in 2024. But due to nostalgia factors, many ordinary items from 1979 are now worth a lot more as collector's items. Just imagine getting a first edition Pokémon card in 2024. Especially since the MC can specify the exact specification of the rewards. Of course the first thing MC needs to do is do apologize to the three woman and avoid jail time. yes, the novel is haremish, but I think some of the female characters are more developed and not purely two dimensional dolls, unlike another book I've read where the MC is a bulldozer and pretty anything that's female and moves, he'll do it.
 
 亡灵法师：从领主开始超神 (Necromancer: Ascending to Divinity from Lordship)
 (medieval, kingdom building, science, no harem, no system)
 Yes, yet another novel where fantasy magic mix with modern science. MC is a necromancer that's using zombies as factory workers to make soap. The web of magic is also the internet + amazon, allowing wizards to communicate with each other and trade. It has a bit LoTM feel as MC starts as a lowly level one necromancer, but on the magic web, people think he is a legendary wizard.

成影帝了，系统才加载完 (Already won the Best Actor, then system finished loading)
 (Chinese entertainment, system, no harem, yet)
 yes, yet another system mixup novel. at 16 MC got a system that's suppose to help him become the best actor. But it took ten years to load. the MC is already a famous actor and considered as one of the Reel Emperors(an actor who has won Best Actor in a big film festival, like Cannes or Venice). Once system finished loading, it starts giving out missions fit for an aspiring actor, like getting a speaking role in a film, or star in a small time snack commercial, etc. etc. These would be embarrassing for MC since it is a big time actor, but he does it anyway, because the punishment for failing the mission is electrical shock. The rewards are mostly songs, films, and abilities like +1 to singing, or +2 to appearance. Fortunately, the missions still helps the MC's career and life , not to mention many actresses, although so far nothing has happened.

不！这个昏君也太难当了！ (No! Being a Useless Emperor Is Way Too Hard!)
 (kingdom building, scheming, system, harem, cultivation)
 MC is the emperor of most likely the ming dynasty. He has a system that'll grant him cultivation experiences and techniques when he make the nation go into disarray. Things like appointing an eunuch to be head of intelligence agency, or enacting non-sense policies. These will reduce the providence of the nation and thus make MC cultivate better. Of course most of his attempts seems to be bad at first, and then turned out to be good for the country. you know the tropes if you've read such kind of reversal novels before. The writing isn't bad, keep reading if you like these kind of things and ancient china.

I have so much backlog of novels to keep up (as one can see from my weekly post) so I won't be adding too many new books.

Thank you for everyone who participated in the 2024 LLM translation survey, here is the results.
https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/2024-llm-novel-translation-survey-results/

stay tuned for 2025.

his is what I'm reading the week of 2025-01-25. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc
 
I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the English translation on NovelUpdate, LnCrawl or try places like ReadOMNI where Advanced LLM models are used for MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate. OR you can use Chatgpt/QWEN/Claude/Groq with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key for the cloud LLMs)

宇宙无限食堂 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ (Endless Food Court of the Universe)
 (Multiverse, delicious food, rogue-like, slice of life, no harem, no system, aliens, urban)
 
 MC saved a silicon based life form that is the cook of the universe, named Wang. He and Wang first start as a street food vendor. Wang does the cooking, MC travels to different worlds to battler various creatures and gather ingredients. The first world he has a rogue-like system that grants him different blessings when he kills a monster. The second world makes him play a real life version of battle chess with Witches. The ingredients are like monster meats, or live vegetables (think plants from PvZ). Wang cooks it on earth and they sell it as a street vendor and later upgrades to restaurant. There are also world guardians on earth that acts as like Men in Black to make sure the aliens on earth do not blow their cover. So the food Wang makes are also delicacies for the resident aliens. The book combines cooking and battling together, with a dash of sci-fi, something new and different. so far so good.

导演多拍点，我胖虎爱看 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Director Make more !, I, fat tiger, Love to watch)
(Chinese entertainment, scheming, no harem, no system, cunning MC, modern)

MC is in a world like earth, 2015. He use to be the best public relations agent, but now he is a young director just out of University. So he made knock-off movies(think Asylum ) based on popular movies. The first one is "Wasp Hero" (spider man). He then used his public relation/marketing skills to pump off the movie and draw people in to watch. It is a fun read to see how the inside of entertainment industry work, even though it starts in China, the MC later will make films in US and other places. Most of the stuff are still related to Chinese entertainment, like the female leads are all Chinese stars like 杨幂 (Mini Yang), so if you are not into that, it might not be as interesting. The in-line user comments on qidian sometime are funnier than the text, not to mention the pictures......

从口水歌开始 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ (Start with Catchy Pop songs)
(Chinese entertainment, system, no harem, urban
MC is in a world like earth, early 2000. He starts as a newly graduate of the best music school in China. His girl friend of 3 years just left him to be with a fatty middle-aged VP of an entertainment company. Then he got a system that awards him catchy pop songs to sing, and at the same time, also awards him other songs to help other singers grow and be famous. The author use to write a lot of martial art, sci-fi, cultivation novels. This is his first urban one, The writing is better than normal urban entertainment novels. The choice of songs are also not the main popular ones from Jay that everyone uses. The setup is also a bit different in that most of the songs are actually granted to other singers as well.

兽医，抽象点好啊 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Vetenarian, good to be a bit abstract
 (System, slice of life, doctor, urban, streaming, no harem, funny)
Good news: MC has a system that aims to make him the best doctor !
Bad news: MC is a veterinarian.
MC is a second graduate student studying to be a veterinarian. He just entered into a streaming competition on TikTok as part of government's effort to promote veterinary. He was then granted a system that's trying to make him the best doctor(for human). His first case was a cow paralyzed after given birth. The system thinks the cow as a person, and so thinks it is about impossible to heal her. But this is easy for a veterinarian dealing with a cow. The system also grants MC medical scan abilities to help with diagnoses. From which he figured out that the owner of the cow has syphilis from hookers, and the daughter is secretly 6 weeks pregnant. All the folks watching the show was astonished how the MC can tell all that from just a glance. He later was granted master level suture skills, which he used on a cow, and all the medical students watching him was like "Oh my god, this veterinarian is doing perfect wound cleaning that even my teacher can't do ! I'm not worthy !". So it is a lot of MC treating animals, system thinks he is treating person, granting him skills for treating person, which he uses to treat animals and also person. It is much more funnier than what I describe.

I have so much backlog of novels to keep up (as one can see from my weekly post) so I won't be adding too many new books.

Thank you for everyone who participated in the 2024 LLM translation survey, here is the results.
https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/2024-llm-novel-translation-survey-results/

stay tuned for 2025.

This is what I'm reading the week of 2025-01-18. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc
 
I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the English translation on NovelUpdate, LnCrawl or try places like ReadOMNI where Advanced LLM models are used for MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate. OR you can use Chatgpt/QWEN/Claude/Groq with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key for the cloud LLMs)

系统很抽象，还好我也是 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (The system is very abstract, thankfully so am I)
 (memes, system, slice of life, funny, no harem, urban world)
 
 ok, I think I've found the start of the "system in the wrong world" type of novels. the setup is that the system think the MC is in a different world than where the MC actually is. Like this one thinks MC is in a cultivation world as a sect disciple, and later thinks MC is the only male in an all female world, etc. etc. So the missions system has are accomplished very differently from what the system expects, Like the system ask the MC to kill 10 Demon Blood crows, and it turns out swapping down 10 blood sucking mosquitos are good enough. Or system asking the MC to personally infiltrate a brothel operated by the "Joint Happiness Sect" and destroy it. So he (a middle schooler) end up going to a massage parlor, getting the "special service", gathered evidence and phoned in the police for a bust. the rewards MC gets are somewhat useful, like improved memory, more Yang essence in the body, a few low level spirit stones, and some cultivation techniques. This novel is filled to the brim with memes, and inside jokes from various gaming forums that I won't get half of it unless I read the in-line comments. I just tend to skip over the ones that didn't sound fun. I'm not sure I'll continue on, as it makes me feel old.... and out of touch.... but so far there are enough interesting tidbits and funny stuff to make for an entertaining read. your experiences might very.

废土开发日记 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Wasteland Development Diary)
(no system, fall out, kingdom building, slow pace, no harem, sci-fi)
MC transgress into a world covered with the "dead sea". A kind of dense energy that preserves non-sentient things as if in a time capsule, but will absorb any living flesh. There are pockets of regular lands where humans barely survive. MC is special in that he is actually one the "dead sea" creatures, and he can control other creatures by feeding them energies from the sea. one thing good about the book is that it starts with MC already having some power, and he commands a battalion of crab warriors to help him. His goal is to cultivate the land and restart civilization again. It is kind of slow paced, read on if you like kingdom building.

高武末世：从不修炼开始变强 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
 (High Martial Apocalypse, Getting Stronger by never practice)
 (system, slow pace, high martial, no harem, lay flat)

MC has a system that awards point for "laying flat". It means don't be too hard on yourself, don't make too much effort to practice, don't be diligent, just let things be, go with the flow. The more MC does these things, the more points and abilities he get, and the more powerful he becomes. The world is a dangerous place with aliens and monsters threatening mankind's existence, so all the resources are concentrated on the martial warriors who can fight and defend man kind. There are a lot of un-intentional face slapping as teachers and higher martial lords want the MC to practice harder and get better, but he'll be doing laying flat stuff like playing chess, fishing, video games, and yet he'll keep getting stronger. Lot of reaction like" He didn't even attend a full day of class, yet he is now level 3 in mind cultivation !". Some readers might find the book offensive as it seems MC is getting the power without earning it through hard work, sweat, and pain. Which is kind of the point of the book. The power system has several layers like mind, bloodline, body, soul, weapon intent, etc. etc. and there are myriad of levels on top of each layers. Not a lot of fighting, just a lot of other people trying to get the MC to work hard, and MC instead doing fun stuff, and yet MC still power up faster than many others who practices 12 hours a day. I don't know why I keep reading it, I guess it is just different.

I have so much backlog of novels to keep up (as one can see from my weekly post) so I won't be adding too many new books.

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 just for translating a page from a Chinese Web novel into English.

In 2023 I did a survey of novel translation quality with various LLMs, you can see the results here: https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/2023-llm-model-translation-survery-results/

I conducted a new one for 2024, see the detailed description of the survey here:
https://www.chaosdrifter.cc/2024-llm-translation-survey/

And now for the results of the 2024 survey. In total 50 netizens participated (Thanks a lot !)

Just to Compare, here is the Updated 2023 result:

here is the link to the whole result google sheet for 2024:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SVbt0FEjOCH7FtCs09zDT41CL7a5v-94ZptiZ1HZDaw/edit?usp=sharing

Some interesting findings:
LLM seems to have improved a lot in 2024, beating out even Human translations. They all beat google translate in 2024, maybe due to better prompting technique used ? There is hope that with a multi-agent approach + glossaries we'll truly be able to enjoy the Chinese Web novels.

Hopefully someone can take this as an inspiration and do a survey for Korean and Japanese light novels, and maybe translating to other languages like Tamil or Spanish. It is easy to do and completely free on Jotform.

Stay tuned for 2025 Survey with newer models, and I'll also be updating the survey through out the year as models are updated. Please watch for my posts and participate !

This is what I'm reading the week of 2025-01-11. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc
 
I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the English translation on NovelUpdate, LnCrawl or try places like ReadOMNI where Advanced LLM models are used for MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate. OR you can use Chatgpt/Gemini/Claude with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key for the cloud LLMs)

从栽下菩提树开始成神 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Becoming a God: Starting by planting the Bodhi Tree )
 (no system, no romance, no harem, High Martial, modern world, multiverse)
 Imagine you are born with a rare genetic disease that inflict you with such severe pain as if your teeth are been pulled out one by one. Imagine such pain just happens randomly through the day, making it impossible to have a normal life. Imagine been the parents and having to decide wether your 1 year old son should suffer such fate, or be peacefully put out such misery without any moral judgement or legal consequences as it is sanctions by the government. and Now image you are the baby and your parents decided to keep you alive and now you've grown up to be 16 years old. and with the help of a medicine that controls the pain to only happen between 6am to 8am so you can have a "normal life" the rest of the day. that's the MC at the start of the novel. He has suffered through hell each day for the past 16 years, and finally he is been rewarded when he was given access to a rare Martial Visualization Map of "hell on earth". The more pain one overcame, the higher power one gets. Naturally MC gets the highest reward from the Map and plants a Bodhi tree and a small plot of lands surrounded by hell fire. This world is a modern world, but it is ruled by the High martial masters. and your mental abilities are just as powerful as the physical forces. The book is about how MC progress through the martial ladders to be the best, so read on if you like power progressions. He'll work hard for each progression. There isn't much other plots. still a good read, some philosophy stuff in it, and can be inspirational at times as well. I like the power system.
 
 这个明星太有节目效果了 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (This Star has so much entertainment Show Effect )
 (Chinese entertainment, urban, system, funny, unconventional)
 MC has a system that'll grant him things like "more charisma, +1 to piano, the ability to always hold attention, a card to boost the popularity of a movie, this popular song from earth" etc. etc. The rewards are earned when he surprises people with unexpected acts or answers. and he stars in a real life dating showing, so expect a lot of unexpected interactions. Like when he finished performing a very romantic song for his partner, and people were expecting him to propose, but he just recited the lines for the show's sponsors....... There are many events and people in it that has parallel in the real Chinese entertainment world, and the songs and other stuff are not the most popular and overused ones in such novels. So far it is different enough that kept me going.

这个领主过于忠诚了 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (This Lord is too Loyal)
(no system, medieval, magic, modern technology, revolution, kingdom building, no harem)
MC is a small lord in a world set in the dark middle ages. Lords and the nobels are corrupt and treat the peasants like dirt. Priests are corrupt as well, colluding with the lords to take all the money from the poor and embezzling donations. All in the name of the Divine Goddess who just want to help everyone. MC happens to be able to communicate with the Divine Goddess through a system like interface where she rewards him for helping the poor and destroying the corrupt aristocrats. The rewards from the system is that MC can ask the Goddess to perform miracle things, like making gun powder, or enhance his knowledge of steam engines, etc. etc. basically a gold finger that allows him to start an industry revolution. Read if you like watching a small lord slowly build up to be the king of the world, and the Pope.(The Loyal in the title refers to the MC's loyalty to the Goddess as in he is the true believer of the Goddess's mission to help everyone)

家父儒圣，系统非逼我做粗鄙武夫 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
 (Father is a Confucius Saint, System forces me to be a brute martial man)
 System, Confucius cultivation, High Martial power, scheming MC. no harem
MC is in an ancient world like Ming Dynasty. He is the second son of the governor of a state, and also a Confucius Saint. MC has a system that rewards him with Abilities, enhancements, artifacts, wonders, techniques whenever he levels up. But all the rewards are related to martial arts and not the Confucius Dao. So the MC then can dual advance both the Confucius track, and the martial art track, getting double rewards along the way. The book actually has a lot of plot twists and setups, MC is intelligent, but also brute force as well. Maybe a bit too much scheming for me.

穿甲弹不相信碳基怪物 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Armor Piercing Round doesn't believe in carbon based monsters)
Post Apocalypse, sci-fi, military, no system, group
Imagine Fall out 4, but set in China. 4 elite special forces personnel found themselves transmigrated about 400 years later, to a world filled with monsters and human factions. Thankfully they still got their full military tactical weapons and gears, Like surveillance drones, Sniper Grenade launcher, rifles, pistols. And they are surprised to find archived military gears in deep buried vacuum depots that only the know how to use, as the knowledge had been lost. Again, I got lured in the by title. Most of the military equipment mentioned are Chinese made, and there are some cultural references to military memes. but over all, if you like military actions, it should still be enjoyable. Be noted that this is a new novel, so it only has like 20K words. Normally I would read such short books, but with the title, I just gotta see if it is any good.
spoiler alert They are about to detonate a tactical nuclear warhead in the latest chapter.

I have so much backlog of novels to keep up (as one can see from my weekly post) so I won't be adding too many new books.

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 the week of 2025-01-04. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

First list of 2025 ! and thank you to the 25 folks who followed me.

You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc
 
I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the English translation on NovelUpdate, LnCrawl or try places like ReadOMNI where Advanced LLM models are used for MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate. OR you can use Chatgpt/QWEN/Claude/Groq with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key for the cloud LLMs)

北欧摆摊，带火大夏美食 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
 (Street Vending in Northern Europe, Popularizing Food from Great Xia)
 Slice of life, Chinese food, urban, no romance, no harem, slow pace, system
 
 This is similar to the previous week's food book, but set in Northern Europe so the clients are mostly Europeans and tourists (some from China). MC has a system which grant him a food cart that can be upgraded and use it to cook Chinese food for Europeans who might not have had it before. MC is actually an apprentice chef in an European restaurant during the day and later he'll incorporate some of the Chinese cooking ingredient and spices into European dishes as well. It is a chill book, no face slapping, no politics, no racism, not much jingoism(if any). just a chef making delicious food with the help of a system.

我在现实世界武道加点 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
 (I'm leveling up Martial Dao in the real world)
 system, modern world, martial art, low martial world, some jingoism
 MC has a system that allows him to level up real world Chinese martial arts like XingYi boxing(形意拳). He gain points by practicing the techniques and then he can use the points either to level up himself (by leveling up his body, mind and spirit), or level up the technique itself. There isn't much fighting yet, but later there are fighting with gangsters in other countries. In the beginning it is just slice of life of the MC going back to his hometown and start an AirBnB there while practicing his martial arts. As he gains more power, more stuff happens, some supernatural.

人在高武，系统活在玄幻 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(I'm in the High Martial world, but system lives in XuanHuan realm)
**system, cultivation, no simp MC, no harem, invincible MC **

MC is in a world where there are invasions from other realms with beasts and evil monsters so martial artists have high statures and high power. MC gets a system that thinks he is an reincarnated grand Cultivation Emperor and wants to help him regain his former level. Hilarity ensues as system is trying to adjust to reality by considering a club MC starts in the University as an actual cultivation sect since they both bear the same name. I guess I'm on a binge with these kind of novels. This one actually power up the MC a lot because of the power level difference between a high martial world and a cultivation world. Like a regular Dao comprehension pill that even a common disciple can use monthly is considered high world treasure as it can help the most powerful Martial Artists (those in the God level) advance. some face slapping, mostly just MC level up and fighting monsters and internal traitors. I like the power system.

这个神君正得发邪 (This Divine Ruler is so righteous to be Evil) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Cthulhu, ancient China, cruel, ruthless MC, no system, no harem, behind the curtain, kingdom building )
MC transgressed into a feudal world (most likely Song dynasty) where Divine beings exists and are worshipped by the people and grant them powers. Of course all of those Divine beings might appear to be holy and merciful, but are all evil Cthulhu like beings that demands blood sacrifices and twisted torture rituals. MC has both a human form, and is also one of the most powerful evil god. Although currently he is defeated and drained of most of its power so MC needs to find sacrifices and other offers to heal himself. MC, in his human form, can walk the earth and gather offerings to send to his god form, and also gather disciples. Whenever the disciple levels up, the MC levels up one level higher. Whenever the disciple learns a new technique, the MC instantly learns the full levels of such technique. So it is interesting to see MC tricking followers of other gods into offering stuff to his own god form, and later he'll be starting his own religion and setup temples, all the while advancing his position in the government to maybe become the emperor one day so there are some kingdom building involved as well. Oh, and his god form is actually imprisoned in a now defunct Jail for gods that he is trying to get out. Please be warned that this book is cruel, human sacrifices are common place, thousands of folks will die easily in a single ritual. Body mutilation is common, so are torture and twisted emotions. do no read if you have high moral hygiene or are squeamish.

I have so much backlog of novels to keep up (as one can see from my weekly post) so I won't be adding too many new books.

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 the week of 2024-12-31. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

Sorry I'm late, been playing too much POE2 EA.... Happy New Year !

You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc

I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the English translation on NovelUpdate, LnCrawl or try places like ReadOMNI where Advanced LLM models are used for MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate. OR you can use Chatgpt/QWEN/Claude/Groq with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key for the cloud LLMs)

美食：深夜摆摊，竟被全网追杀！ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
 (Delicious Food: manning a food cart in midnight, chased by the whole internet !)
 Chinese cooking, system, no harem, slice of life
 MC has a system that grants him a small food cart to start, and a visual system with timings to teach him how to cut, prepare, and cook delicious food from simple ingredients. MC has to complete missions such as sell $1000 in a night to upgrade the cart and the system. He starts selling egg dumplings near some massage parlor and many patrons instead of going for the food massage, stood in line to buy the dumplings. Then the masseuses came out to see where their customer went and got lured in with the food as well. It is kind of funny, definitely slow paced and focused on cooking food and how delicious it is. certainly brings back some memories. Might not appeal to folks who never tasted those food before and thus would be hard to relate.
 
异界妖僧系统，但我没穿越啊 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Alternate Realm Evil Monk system, but I didn't transmigrate ! )
system, no harem, urban life, slice of life
MC is a high school student that was suddenly granted the "Evil Monk system" which seeks to make the MC the most powerful, and evil monk in the realm. The only issues is that the system thinks MC is in an alternate realm with spirit energies and cultivation society. But MC is actually in the current modern world so 90% of the system awards, like the Heavenly Devil dual cultivation Sumatra is useless since there is no spirit energy at all. System tried its best to adjust to such reality, like thinking the high school is a cultivation sect, the library is a technique collection temple, asking girls to help with math is making them do unspeakable acts. etc. etc. The premise is kind of funny and I'm curious to see how the author use it. So far it is ok, too much slice of life stuff like first love, college entrance exam, etc. etc. there are some magical stuff happening but not much, hopefully it gets better later.

我在亡灵学院造军火 (I'm making weapons in the Lich Academy) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
 no system, no harem, no simp MC
 MC transmigrated into a world where the True Axiom of Death has been broken into many pieces.
 So the proper order of life and death is now out of balance, MC is tasked with retrieving all the pieces from the various evil gods and abyss lords that stole it and put things back to norm. He inherited from power from what's left over of the Axiom so he use it to make Modern weapons. the one thing I like about it is that the book starts with MC already possessing such power so we see he summons elite skeletons with full military gears like a Navy Seal and use it to fight monsters. Tanks, Helicopters made of bones and flesh are also present. It is an interesting concept, I got lured by the title, so far so good.

I have so much backlog of novels to keep up (as one can see from my weekly post) so I won't be adding too many new books.

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 the week of 2024-12-19. I only included the ones I've added to my bookshelf to continuous reading.

Sorry I'm late, been playing too much POE2 EA....

Man, POE2 EA is hard ! Thankfully I just take a break to read webnovels whenever the boss kills me yet another 20 times....

You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc

I'm native Chinese speaker so I read the raw from Qidian. you can try finding the english translation on NovelUpdate, LnCrawl or try places like ReadOMNI where Advanced LLM models are used for MTL that should be more understandable and consistent than google translate. OR you can use Chatgpt/QWEN/Claude/Groq with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key for the cloud LLMs)

荡尽妖魔我为仙 (I'll be immortal after wiping out all the demons) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
 (Please note this book was originally named # 觉醒神通后，妖魔皆薪柴)
 no system, regular cultivation, no harem, ruthless MC, progressionLit
 
 MC has book that records all his cultivation results, and he can draw wonders from it that'll grant him super abilities like been able to devour anything to turn into energy for his cultivation. Or a special sword intent that's much more powerful than his current level. MC uses that to his advantage to progress his cultivation level higher and higher. This is mostly a pure power progression novel. MC just get more powerful, learn new techniques, new cultivation wonders, new Dao Fruits, new Intents and break to higher realms when he gets too powerful. Some modern concept are also involved like he established a Virtual World for all the cultivators based on his own Mind Wonder. etc. etc. The cultivation system in this novel is a bit different, there is a lot more focus on providence, Dao Fruit, and theurgical wonders.

硬扛一发导弹后，我无敌了 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
 ( After I withstood a cruise missile, I became invincible)
 no system, no harem, high powered martial arts, sword, progression, urban
 
 MC was the best, most talented sword master in the modern world. After a cruise missile struck the helicopter with him in it, He transgressed into a new modern world where Spirit energy exists so he can advance his sword techniques to even higher level. MC starts as a high school kid at a very low level, but due to all his experiences on earth and his talent, he can utilize the spirit energy much more efficiently than other kids and can advance very fast and beat out more powerful martial artists. Some face slapping, much progression, I got lured by the title and stayed for the story and the somewhat ok writing.

旧神之巅 (Zenith of the Ancient Gods) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
no system, no harem, divine gods, urban

This was a recommendation from a fellow reader (Thanks !). I've actually started reading it before and dropped it after a few chapters. This time I started again and just kept reading.
MC transgress into a modern urban world where Various divine gods exists and they'll grant powers to its believers so they can fight off the inviting demons.

机甲纪元，拳爆天星 (Age of the Armored Mechs, exploding stars with a punch) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
no system, class struggle, no harem, sci-fi, giant Mechs, fantasy

MC comes from a poor background, but he has a special talent that while dreaming, he can draw various experiences from a parallel world and make it his own skills. He can kind of control what he gets as it relates to his environment and current situation. So he learned advanced fighting skills, cooking, event planning, etc. etc. As he gradates from high school, he then has a chance to command a Mech, so he used his talent to get experiences for doing so and thus get ahead. kind of rags to riches as he comes from a lower class and has to fight off many young masters that has been learning powerful inherit skills.

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/

 神魂觉醒：无限深渊种青莲 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Divine Soul Awakening: Planting Turquoise Lotus in the endless Abyss)
no harem, no system, modern cultivation, Abyss, Progression

MC Awoke in the Divine Soul Land world where everyone can be awakened with a Divine Soul to travel to Abyss Worlds and power up. He awoke with a seed for Turquoise Lotus, which is considered Grand Dao Level (Highest). The seed will spawn into a Turquoise Lotus which can be planted into the Abyss fragments and drain all of its essence and destroy the world. So while others are trying to survive the Abyss worlds, He is sucking it dry. It is a pretty average over powered progression novel. MC will level up fast, conquer more worlds, and change maps whenever he gets too strong for the current one. make for good mindless reading. Can get boring for folks who likes some depth to a novel.

 华娱及时雨，她们逼我做顶流 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Best Samaritan for Chinese Entertainment, The women forced me to be top Idol)
Chinese Entertainment, harem galore, system, smart MC.

 
MC reborn back to 2013 as an aspiring actor in the TangRen Entertainment Company. He retains only knowledges related to the entertainment industry, and has a system that grants hints of opportunities to help other people that can also help him advance. He unlocks the grants by acting memorable roles in movies/TV. The good part is that the system just gives a time, location, and maybe an object to bring, it is up to the MC to figure out what the actual event could be, and how best to proceed with it. Best enjoyed by folks who enjoyed Chinese culture (movie/TV) starting at 2013 or so. The first event is MC providing sanitary pads to needed actress to gain Second Male lead in the TV series XuanYuan Sword. so if you don't know much about it, it would be much less enjoyable.

 御兽飞升 (Commanding Beast to Ascend) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Beast Taming, no harem, no system, smart MC
This is by the same author as 不科学御兽 (Unscientific Beast Taming), which I think was a fairly popular web novel in 2022 ?.

MC has an Immortal attribute Body, kinda like TangShen in Journey to the West. His flesh and blood are like super food to the Beasts and Monsters as it'll help them advance their bloodlines and refine their body. He joins the Beast Taming Sect as it allows the Host to be boosted by the Beast. So MC can use his blood to boost the beast, which in turn will boost his level. As one of the weakness of the immortal attribute Body is that it cultivates very slowly. His first beast is a squirrel that loves to hoard and dreams of owning a Dimensional Sack to hold all its stuff.
Fun reading so far.

噬龙修仙 (Devouring Dragon to Cultivate) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Modern cultivation, no harem, no system, power progression

the latest novel from one of my favorite authors. I've read most of his novels. They are not the best, but good enough to read. Mostly about a single person's advance to most powerful through some kind of advantage. This one is no exception. MC took over the body of a 12 year old who was reforged with the body and soul of a slain young Chaos dragon. So he has a dragon heart who can devour Spirit Materials to gain and improve different elemental spirit essences so the MC can cultivate faster. The dragon heart also offers built-in storage dimension and the ability to draw in any nearby spirit materials or artifacts without a trace. Of course then MC uses it to steal/take high level spirit artifacts from the bad guys and level up. This book is more slow paced than his previous novels, and the first 100 chapters are kind of slow going, I'll continue on to see it picks up the pace as the MC gains more power. Read if you like power progression novels.

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/

巅峰学霸 (Peak Genius) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Smart MC, no system, no harem, slice of life, super genius, no isekai

MC is just very talented in math, especially spatial and dimensional. He is also very street smart as he had to support his family since fifth grade. His father left while the mother was pregnant, and he was raised by his grandfather who passed away when he was about 12. Think "good will hunting" except he is just a middle school kids. It is mostly slice of life about how he was discovered by the math teacher in middle school and went on to with CMO (Chinese Math Olympiad), publishing papers in top tier journals, solving hard practical problems in a glance. etc. etc. Some face slapping, but not too obvious, some romance, but not much. Some math stuff but I just skip over it. It is a bit different from the author's last novel about a genius as this MC also possesses great social skills in dealing with teachers, class mates, the media, etc. etc. many can learn a lot from that :).

修仙弃徒，回乡种田唱歌 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Rejected Cultivation Disciple, back to country side farming and singing)
slice of life, no harem, no system, slow pace, farming.

MC was picked by a Sec. due to his dual spirit root, but he was rejected after 4 month due to not doing so well. So he went back to earth as level qi refine stage reject. earth has very little spirit energy, and his spirit root is plant and earth. So he quitted his city job and went back to his village where his parents have a few acres of farm land. He then use what he learned from the cultivation world to setup Qi gathering formations around the farmlands, which makes the plants inside of grow extra healthy and tasty. He sells some of it for profit and just making a life on earth. Very much slice of life, slow paced farming novel, No system, no bad guys, not much face slapping, if any, just a guy at a farm.

两界：我早晚成仙帝 (Dual world, I'll be Immortal Emperor eventually) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
dual world, no system, ruthless MC, no harem, modern cultivation

MC is a student in a modern world where anyone with talent can cultivate. He also have a jade talisman that allows him to travel to an ancient cultivation world. The modern world has much refined cultivation techniques, enhanced with technology, but not much Qi as there are too many cultivators. Ancient world has much more Qi but also ancient cultivation methods. MC can then combine the best of both world by using the advanced cultivation techniques in the ancient world that has a lot more Qi, so he can advance his cultivation stages much faster.

啊？这不是探险种田游戏吗？ (Ah ? Isn't this a farming adventure game ?) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
 Video game system, farming, no harem, modern world.

MC can go to a cultivation game world where he has a plot of land that he can farm and get fruits. As rewards he'll gain cultivation levels, artifacts, and more land. He can bring stuff from the cultivation world to the real modern world(no cultivation), so he sells the stuff that he farmed for high profit since those are delicious and have fun nutritious value. Main plot is him exploring the gaming world, helping the locals to fight off the evil monsters.

CS：才16岁，让我老登逆袭？ (CS: Just 16 and I'm an old guy reclaiming his glory days ?)
 system, Counter Strike, no harem.
 MC is 16, and he got a system that thinks he is already 35 and wasted all his talent and retired from playing pro CS to just been a YT streamer. The system wants him to restart his training and be the best CS player in the world again. So MC starts a noob, learns quickly, and is rewarded by the system with skills from top CS players like Hunter's ECO round, or Niko's pre aiming. He does have to practice it to get the skills though. I don't really play CS and doesn't understand a lot of the maps and special vocabs, but it still makes for a fun read. I'm sure CS players will enjoy it a lot more with all the in-jokes and gaming arounds.

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/