The gate between worlds opened. Thirty years ago, the first gate split open at the same time in empty lots around the world. Beyond the gates lay the Hunting Realm. With a license, anyone could enter for a four-hour trip. Hunt monsters, collect essence, trade it for gear. Anyone could go in. But while plenty entered, few returned alive with good equipment.
He Xun spent two years hauling otherworldly beast carcasses at the gate's freight depot. He could identify how a beast had died just by touch, even with his eyes closed, yet had never hunted a living monster himself. On his first trip into the realm, he saw a hook-legged reed spider. Deep in his sea of consciousness, a black stele lit up: [First Kill Drop: Reed-Stepping Shoes]. Everyone else could only hope to get a good drop from a monster. He alone could see in advance what his first kill would drop.
So while others hauled cargo, he hunted monsters; while others hunted monsters, he chose his prey. Spiders in the mud, birds in the hardwood forest, apes in shallow ditches, badgers on the red-stone cliffs. From the Misty Forest and Riverbend to the Scarlet Tide Archipelago, Hanging Branch Wilds, Land of Frozen Day and Night, and Crown Continent. Every level had a piece of equipment he wanted. And every piece, he had to win for himself.
"This one's mine."
