There's No Way I'll Starve to Death

After starving to death in a famine-stricken world, Lin Ting transmigrated to the resource-rich world of Shizhou, where there were no natural disasters. She was bound to a [Starvation Prevention System] and could survive only by eating designated ingredients.

The assigned ingredients were bizarre, but at first they were at least edible:

cactus, prickly nightshade, vivid blue devil mushrooms, and so on.

As the missions grew harder, the ingredients became human-faced hairy spiders, spirit-devouring beasts, merfolk fins, corpse-shell bugs, insect beast lords...

Lin Ting: Is any of this actually edible?!

Starving to death was out of the question. To obtain the assigned ingredients, Lin Ting traveled among the intercontinental floating islands. Before she knew it, she had become the finest nether official in Shizhou, uncovering one secret after another that the world was never meant to know.

Only then did she learn that after years as a hunter, she was merely a carefully placed pawn, trapped from the very beginning in a scheme tailor-made for her.

But a top-tier hunter often enters the trap willingly, just to draw out the prey lurking in the deepest shadows.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it.

Whether you're cicada or oriole is for the winner to decide.

[Alternative blurb]

Lin Ting, a mountain hunter from the Calamity Era, transmigrated to the resource-rich world of Shizhou. Her powers were bestowed by the gods in the form of cards, which determined her profession. Unfortunately, she had only one black card, leaving her no choice but to become a [Nether Official], a poorly paid, overworked job that involved facing danger head-on, and return to her old line of work.

As she traveled between the intercontinental floating islands, she discovered that the beautiful, mysterious world of Shiyuan was not as peaceful as it seemed.

Hundred-meter-tall buildings were constructed with people as expendable materials. Insects crawled across the ground floors while the powerful danced and sang above. The mastermind watched in secret as this tailor-made hunting game unfolded.

And she was one of the prey being hunted.

Surviving through blood and blades, Lin Ting gradually became the finest nether official, standing atop the skyscrapers and looking down on all living things. Beneath her feet lay a cold, arrogant civilization; in the distance were all the living beings of the world.

Randomly appearing intercontinental floating islands, half-human, half-beast corpse-shell bugs, spirit-devouring insect beasts as intelligent as humans, the lost Ninth Continent... and vanished artificial intelligence. At last, the world opened its true gates to her: welcome to Shizhou.

Question: What's it like to find yourself from the start in a game called "Hunting" for no apparent reason?

Lin Ting: Sorry, you picked the wrong person. This is my old line of work.

Never heard the saying? A true hunter often appears in the form of prey.

All Lin Ting has to say is:

Welcome to the top of the food chain.

Now...

The real hunt begins!

Reading guide:

1. There are insect beasts, but this isn't an insect-clan story. It has cosmic horror and giant creature elements. She won't actually eat anything human.

2. The world of Shizhou is a mechanical-punk setting after the destruction of artificial intelligence, with a strong focus on mechanical engineering and biotechnology.

3. The female lead has a System and special abilities, but her golden finger isn't very powerful. It's a progression fantasy with a mild power-fantasy feel (probably?).

4. Female lead Lin Ting: willpower of steel, appetite of a glutton.

5. Very little romance, with a rival-to-lover pairing. In the early stages, they really do go all out against each other.

Updates follow the ranking before signing (see the announcement for the calendar), then daily updates afterward. Usual posting time is 10 p.m.

The story is revised every 10 chapters, so there's no need to worry about earlier updates. Comments on individual paragraphs are open. Readers are welcome to chat and interact kindly.

Theme: People who love food are winners in life.