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/

让你荒野求生，你手搓基础工业？ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(You are suppose to survive in the wilderness, Instead you built basic industries by hand ?)
no system, slice of life, modern world, survival, slow pace, no harem, no romance

MC has a simple gold finger that allows him to identify and analyze things that he touches.
Like if he touches a rock, it'll tell him its mineral composition, weight, size, that's it. He owed a lot of debt to a loan shark company to pay for cancer for his now passed away grandmother. So they got him a spot in a wilderness survival show where the five million dollar top prize is enough to repay the debt. The show is live streamed to audiences and there are many participants from all walks of life. MC has a major in manufacturing engineering and lived in a rural farm most of his childhood. So he is well versed in surviving in nature and started to use his skills to start a fire, fish, build shelter, smelt iron, etc. etc. There are also many other interesting characters in the book that's also part of the show. It is slow paced and you can learn a lot about wilderness survival skills. Read if you like that kind of slow paced nature novel.

领主又红名了 (The lord has been marked as Hostile again) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
medieval, Video Game, fourth apocalypse, farming, soul-like, no harem

MC transgressed into a game world where he is the commander of a small outpost in a dark soul like world where the humans are barely surviving. players from earth thinks they are playing a full immersive VR game and are recruited by unknown system. MC is acting like a NPC and guide the players to his advantage. So he can powered up with the resources gathered by the players as part of his "quests". I've just finished about 90 chapters and it is an OK read.

 给，主说这个好使 (Here, The LORD says this will come in handy) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cthulhu, steam punk, no harem, modern weapons

 
"Father, my wife has been acting weird lately. She keeps saying someone is calling her." "Here, "Here, The LORD says this will come in handy"
"What's this?"
"This is a divine engravings M1911 pistol. Hold it like this, aim at your wife and then pull the trigger."
...... Serious Intro:
The whispers of the ancient gods can't drown out the sound of a crisply loaded bullet.
The roar of the magical gods can't cover the thunder of a warship's cannon.
The howl of the evil gods is far from being as pleasant as the sound of a laser cannon charging.

A mercenary who was summoned and reborn in a different world by the Fire Strike Buddha (author), takes on the identity of a priest to receive contracts from the gods,
bringing a small shock of firepower to those defiled creatures that have lingered in the material world for too long!
"Here, The LORD says this will come in handy" (Pulls out a gun/rocket launcher/sniper cannon/metal storm system/satellite cannon)
(the weapons by blessed by the Gods, so they can do damage and cleanse the evil creatures)

 不会魔法的土木工程师不是好领主 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(a civil engineer who does know magic is not a good lord)

 
I just like the title. the story is ok so far, MC transgressed into a medieval world with magic and is the son of a lord with a large area. He'll be using his civil engineer degree in the new world to build roads, smelt irons and bring peace to everyone..........

 仙瘾犯了？电电就好！ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Addicted to Cultivation ? Some Electrical Shocks will fix it !)
again, lured in by the interesting title. MC has no Spirit Essence and can't cultivate. But he discovered an ancient Cultivation Technique that doesn't need the Spirit Essence but uses electrical energy to start the Qi Refinement level. So he made a cruel acid battery to start cultivation. Just another using modern technique in ancient world to cultivate story.

 修仙：我在现代留过学 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Cultivation: I studied in the modern world)
no harem, cultivation, modern.
MC is in a cultivation world, but he has a talisman in his mind that allow him to travel to the modern world as a senior in high school. so he uses the knowledge he learned in the modern world to further his cultivation in the original world. Time stops in the other world when he transgresses. So he has extra time to cultivate. This is a bit different from other novels where he also brings cultivation to the modern world by using electricity as the energy source. I might stop reading this one soon as its pacing is a bit too fast. It is kind of depressing, there is always a crisis that the MC needs to solve, kind of like many American TV shows. I read books to relax and enjoy.

This is what I'm reading the week of 2024-11-16. 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 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/qwen/claude with the chrome plugin immersive translate (just sign up and get your own API key)

 异界：革命失败以后 (Another World: After the failed Revolution):
magic, no system, no harem, revolution
MC is a native in a world where a transgressor tried to start a revolution against the church,
the aristocrats, and the Wizard Society. The revolution failed as science based army with muskets and steam engines was no match for Epic Wizards. All Science was banned as heresy. MC happened up on the notes left by the transgressor and applied the scientific knowledge to practicing magic, and became an Epic Wizards. The novel starts as the MC is trying to gain more scientific knowledge to further his own leveling beyond Epic. (The power system is loosely based on DnD). The plot revolves around MC promoting the idea of combining science and magic and in a way helping the revolution to start again. Lots of face slapping as no one believes MC is an Epic Mage. Fun so far.

 恶龙，为了赚钱选择文化胜利 (Evil Dragon, Chose Culture Victory to make money):
magic, no system, no harem, culture invasion.
MC became a red dragon in a magic world. He was an evil dragon that pillaged cities and robbed many kings and cities for treasure. But MC wants to make money the safe way. so he started to use soft power instead. He popularized Yo-Yos by adding special effects (with magic) to the ball so if you completed a sick move, it would trigger a cool mirage, like a tiger running out, or cloud with lighting. To promote the yo-yos, he then started a manga and later TV series called Blazing Teens(火力少年王), which is a real life TV anime in China in the early 2000s. It then goes from there to things like beyblades, video games, etc. etc. He is also branching out to making TVs and even bringing teas into the culture as well. A fun read as the author and the characters doesn't take themselves too seriously and there are many meme references in it as well. Might be hard for western readers as some memes are chinese specific, and MTL will probably screw up the rest.

巫师：从领主娶妻开始 (Wizard: Starting as a lord getting married):
magic, harem, system.
MC is the son of a lord in the cold northern region of the country. He did not inherit the magic beast bloodline from his father, who died in battle a while back and left him the region. Fortunately, MC can gain the bloodline and magic talent from any woman that he "communicates" with. So he first "married" a commoner who happen to have a bit of the Frost Wolf blood line. Thus he now has it. He can also level up his bloodline and talents by boosting it with points from the system. The point is earned each time he "communicates" with the women.
So yeah, harem. He has many girls with different powers. He later also has a witch girl as well. And he aligns with the witches who are hunted by the church to further develop his region and bring about changes to make the citizens have a better life.

 别胡说，我这是人皇幡 (No talking non-sense, This is a Human Emperor banner )
modern world, xianxia, slice of life, no harem, slow pace.

You say it was the Emperor's Banner, but I see black smoke billowing out of it.

Foreign Realm Demon Lord, overturned the dynasty, reaped souls, and cultivated the All Souls Banner. Under the Lightning Calamity of the Nine Heavens, his body disappeared, but the All Souls Banner protected his true spirit. Instead of possessing a body, he was possessed instead.

An apathetic young man, holding the All Souls Banner, walks among humans. Holding the All Souls Banner, yet I cultivate Golden Elixir through good deeds. In his daily life, he avoids conflicts, helps restless souls complete their wishes, earns good karma to repair the All Souls Banner, and lives a carefree life.

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 2024-11-09. 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 37 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.