A/N: The story will have a slower build-up, and with my limited writing skill, I will do my best to depict the Hunter world as I envision it, adhering closely to the original setting. If there are any inaccuracies, please bear with me. The protagonist is decisive and ruthless...
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Chapter 1: If You Could Travel to Another World, Which One Would You Choose?
[Do you think if Chairman Netero returned to his prime and fought the King of Ants, could he win?]
The glow from his phone screen illuminated Leo's face as his thumb swiftly scrolled through the rapidly updating messages in the group chat.
[Most likely not. With the King of Ants' terrifying physical strength and learning ability, Chairman Netero could at most inflict serious injuries, but he'd still lose in the end!]
[No matter how strong the King of Ants' defense is, he still died from poisoning. Zero poison resistance!]
[I don't think so! Strictly speaking, the King of Ants was still a premature birth. If he had fully matured, even poison might have been ineffective against him.]
[No need to argue. Only my Lord Sukuna is the strongest! One slash and they'd all die!]
[Only your Sukuna is the strongest? Then what about our Jojo?]
[Good question! If you disagree, let's fight!]
Leo's lips curled into a smile. He was all too familiar with scenes like this.
His fingers tapped on the screen.
[Sukuna? Such big talk! You're looking down on us Ultraman fans! Any Ultraman could stomp you into dust with a single kick. Do you even understand the weight of 35,000 tons?]
As soon as the message was sent, someone immediately responded.
[All of yours are too weak. Ohma Zi-O can just wave his hand and reboot the entire universe!]
[Don't make me laugh. Ohma Zi-O? A time king who can be time-stopped? Emperor Armor is the strongest!]
Leo walked down the street, headphones on, head lowered as he stared at his phone. The group chat instantly exploded, messages scrolling so fast it was dizzying.
He chuckled as he read. These guys were always like this. Once the topic turned to power comparisons, they'd drag characters from any series onto the same table to argue.
Trashing one while praising another, fighting to the death over it—this was their favorite game.
He analyzed everything from the Nen ability system in Hunter × Hunter to the Domain Expansion in Jujutsu Kaisen, then shifted to discussing Ultraman's beam skills and Kamen Rider's form changes.
[If you could travel to another world, which one would you choose?]
Someone suddenly asked in the group, instantly shifting the topic.
Some chose the world of One Piece, dreaming of eating a Devil Fruit and sailing freely across the seas. Others yearned for the Pokémon world, hoping to embark on adventures with partners like Pikachu. There were also those who wanted to go to the world of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End to learn magic and explore the mysteries of a thousand-year journey.
If he could travel to another world... Leo's footsteps didn't stop, but the answer surfaced in his mind.
He would choose the world of Hunter × Hunter.
The system Yoshihiro Togashi built was too captivating—the intricate division of the six Nen categories, the high-stakes gamble of vows and limitations, and the unfathomably deep Dark Continent.
It was the most rigorous and imaginative power system he had ever seen. Every character had their own path and choices, with no absolute good or evil, only collisions from different perspectives.
Just as he was about to elaborate in detail, a screeching brake sound tore through the air.
Leo jerked his head up. A yellow car was speeding toward him from the entrance of a 7-Eleven, its hood reflecting a blinding glare under the sunlight.
Time seemed to slow down. He could see the driver's panicked expression, his own distorted reflection on the car's hood.
The dull thud of impact.
The world spun. His phone flew from his hand, tracing a parabola through the air.
His back slammed hard against the ground, pain flooding in like a tide. The edges of his vision began to darken, the exclamations of the crowd growing distant.
"It's over… it's over, my brand-new car!" a man's voice choked with tears.
Leo's vision gradually blurred, the last thought flashing through his mind absurd yet clear.
"If only I hadn't been looking down at my phone…"
Then, darkness swallowed everything.
...
...
...
Cold.
That was Leo's first sensation as he regained consciousness.
Not the softness of a hospital bed, but something hard and rough, like stone.
He tried to open his eyes, his eyelids heavy as if filled with lead.
After several attempts, his vision finally cleared—a towering dome, mottled stone, cracks spreading like spiderwebs.
A few collapsed gaps let in daylight, dust drifting slowly in the beams of light.
"Didn't… I die?"
He found himself lying on a cold stone platform, beneath him some kind of roughly carved texture.
His voice echoed faintly in the emptiness.
Leo realized he was lying on a circular stone platform, about three meters in diameter, its surface covered in unfamiliar script.
The strokes curved like vines, occasionally sharp and angular, glowing faintly in the dim light.
This was an altar.
He rolled over and sat up, looking around.
The stone hall was vast, six thick stone pillars surrounding the altar, their surfaces embedded with glowing crystal-like minerals emitting a milky light.
But the pillars were severely damaged, the reliefs on their surfaces blurred, only the bases still showing beast-like patterns.
The air was filled with the stale smell of dust, mixed with a fresh, rain-soaked earth scent.
Memories flooded back: the argument in the group chat, the out-of-control car, the moment of impact… and another fragment of unfamiliar memory: a 17-year-old boy named Rexar, living alone in a small town, falling into a spatial rift while hunting…
"Rexar… Leo…"
The two sets of memories intertwined and collided in his mind, pain stabbing into his skull like needles.
Leo clutched his head, his nails almost digging into his scalp.
After a long while, the pain gradually subsided, and the memories began to merge.
He understood—he had transmigrated, entering the body of this boy named Rexar.
And Rexar's last memory was of falling into a suddenly appearing rift.
"..."
Leo murmured to himself, his voice echoing in the stone hall.
He carefully slid off the altar, his bare feet stepping onto the cold stone floor.
The stone hall had only one set of double doors, the reliefs on them worn and indistinguishable.
Leo pushed the door with force, and with a dull grinding sound, it slowly swung inward.
A broader space unfolded before him.
This was the main hall of a palace, several massive pillars that would require three people to encircle had collapsed or tilted, broken stones and shattered pillars scattered everywhere.
The floor was paved with huge stone slabs, weeds and ferns sprouting from the cracks, clearly abandoned for a long time.
Leo carefully made his way through the main hall. The walls retained large-scale murals, their colors mostly faded, only faint outlines visible: one seemed to depict a ritual scene, with people kneeling around an altar; another portrayed beasts battling humans, the style rough and full of movement.
"This place… has been abandoned for at least a few hundred years."
Passing through the main hall, ahead was the palace's main entrance. Leo pushed one of the doors open with effort.
Intense light flooded over him.
He squinted, adjusting for a few seconds, and took in the scene before him—
Outside the door was a broad stone platform with waist-high railings along the edge, many of which were broken.
The platform extended forward into dozens of steps, leading to a clearing surrounded by forest.
Further beyond lay an endless expanse of dense forest, with trees taller than one could imagine—some trunks over three meters in diameter, their canopies like green clouds blotting out large swaths of the sky.
The chirping of birds, the hum of insects, the rustling of leaves in the wind... all these sounds intertwined into a vibrant symphony of nature. The air was filled with the fresh scent of plants and earth.
Leo stood frozen for a few seconds before slowly walking onto the platform and approaching the railing.
Leaning over, he saw that the palace was built atop a hill, elevated enough to overlook the surrounding forest.
"Holy fuck, are you for real?!" he muttered with a helpless, bitter smile.
"If this is a transmigration, then which world is this?"
He recalled the discussions in the group chat before he lost consciousness: One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, Pokémon, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Hunter × Hunter... At the time, he had said he would choose the world of Hunter × Hunter.
"No way..." Leo's heart skipped a beat.
He carefully observed his surroundings once more: the ancient palace, the mysterious altar, the strange forest.
If this really was the world of Hunter × Hunter, then this place might be the ruins of some ancient civilization.
But all of this was still just speculation.
Leo decided to explore the interior of the palace first, searching for more clues. He re-entered the main hall, this time examining every detail more carefully.
In a corner on the western side of the main hall, he discovered a relatively intact room.
It seemed to be a storeroom, with several broken wooden shelves and scattered pottery shards on the floor. On the innermost shelf, Leo found two relatively intact items.
One was a fist-sized stone covered in intricate natural patterns. In the dim light, these patterns seemed to have a faint, flowing quality, as if some kind of liquid was sealed inside the stone.
The other was a rolled-up piece of animal hide, tied with some kind of plant fiber.
The hide was remarkably well-preserved, soft and flexible to the touch, with regular, serrated cuts along its edges.
Leo carefully untied the binding and unrolled the hide.
It was a map.
Drawn on tanned, dark brown animal hide, the ink had faded somewhat but was still clearly visible.
The map was marked with forests, mountains, rivers, symbols of giant monsters, and several other structures. Wavy lines along the edges likely represented the ocean.
Below the map were several lines of text, written in the same strange script as on the altar.
"Completely incomprehensible—probably some kind of ancient language."
Leo frowned. He carefully rolled up the hide, retied it, and then turned his attention to the stone.
The patterns on the stone seemed to draw him in. Leo reached out and touched it.
The moment his fingertip made contact with the stone, something strange happened.
The golden patterns inside the stone suddenly lit up, pulsing as if alive.
Immediately afterwards, the entire stone transformed into a pool of dark golden liquid, flowing down from the shelf at an astonishing speed.
Leo tried to step back in shock, but his body wouldn't move—not restrained by any external force, but paralyzed by an instinctive rigidity, like an animal freezing in the presence of a predator.
The liquid spread upward along his fingers, quickly covering his arm and shoulder before spreading across his entire body.
"This—" Leo's question caught in his throat.
The liquid had already covered his face, yet it did not hinder his breathing.
On the contrary, he felt a strange sense of clarity, as if every pore had been opened. His vision was enveloped in a dark golden hue, then gradually darkened.
Then, darkness swallowed everything.
In the silent storage room, Leo's body lay collapsed on the floor. The dark golden liquid had completely seeped into his body, leaving no trace on the surface of his skin.
The tattoo on his arm flickered faintly.
Only the animal skin map lay quietly beside him, its edges trembling slightly in the faint light seeping through the doorway.
At that very moment—
A faint glow suddenly emanated from the altar at the center of the palace.
The light seeped from the engraved patterns, initially like scattered firefly-like specks of starlight, then rapidly gathered and intensified, transforming into a slender yet solid beam of light that shot straight into the sky!
The beam pierced through the hole in the dome, shooting toward an unknown distance. The entire process lasted only a brief three seconds before quickly dimming and dissipating.
The altar returned to its original state, as if nothing had ever happened.
...
At the same moment, somewhere on the distant Yorbian Continent.
This was a bustling border town, with people coming and going on the streets. The cries of vendors, the laughter of children, and the clatter of carriage wheels intertwined into a busy symphony of daily life.
Suddenly, a faint ripple appeared in the sky.
Immediately after, a dark gray stone slab materialized out of thin air and fell from mid-air, landing with a thud in the center of the town square's cobblestone road.
Pedestrians stopped in their tracks, gathering curiously around it.
The slab was about the size of a palm, roughly a finger's width thick, its surface covered in strange inscriptions and patterns.
Someone cautiously stepped forward to pick it up and discovered that the back of the slab was engraved with a simple map and an arrow symbol.