The year 2075.
The outskirts of the city.
An uncharted zone now known to citizens as the Badlands.
A May morning.
A warm air current from the ocean swept inland, carrying a heavy load of moisture into this desolate expanse.
Looking out across the dust-blown wilderness, vegetation was sparse.
Only scattered cacti, Joshua trees, and a few unidentified low shrubs dotted the landscape.
At this moment, these green organisms were using their needles and fine thorns to draw moisture from the air, condensing it into water droplets before storing it in their trunks and roots through bark grooves and stomata.
On land suffering from such severe desertification, survival required special adaptations.
Only these resilient, drought-tolerant plants could endure.
A branch airfield.
A logistics airport forgotten in this remote corner of the Badlands ever since the Fourth Corporate War had finally welcomed new visitors after half a century.
Lin Ke poked his head out through a breach in the perimeter wall, cautiously inspecting the environment inside.
The scene before his eyes was dilapidated and desolate, looking like a scene straight out of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
“What is this, post-apocalyptic style?”
A few broken sections of wall enclosed an area of several thousand square meters.
Under the gentle morning light, yellow dust danced in the breeze.
Wild grass and shrubs had cracked open the concrete floor, growing stubbornly to endure the alternating wash of sunlight and acid rain.
The hulks of several abandoned cars sat in the distant open space, half-covered in moss.
Nearby stood a Syrian-war-damaged building with a massive footprint.
Through the holes in its walls, Lin Ke could glimpse parts of the interior.
Broken pipes, idle machinery, and various piles of trash.
By all appearances, it had been abandoned for a long time.
Outside the building lay several red-and-green shipping containers.
Spray-painted with various bizarre graffiti of unclear meaning, it was impossible to tell if anything was inside—though since they had been left here, they were likely empty.
Nobody should be living in this godforsaken place.
Drawing a hunting knife from his backpack, Lin Ke cautiously stepped into the long-silent, abandoned factory grounds.
Instead of searching the surroundings first, he walked straight up to a shipping container with its door half-open.
By the dim morning light, Lin Ke checked inside.
Apart from the dust blowing through the cracks, it was completely empty.
He stepped into the container and pulled the door shut behind him.
The sunlight vanished, and darkness swallowed everything inside.
In the dark, Lin Ke rubbed his hands together, opening the system screen with a face full of excitement.
[Name: Lin Ke] [Age: 20] [Identity: Player] [Dimensional Backpack: 1 m³ (Hunter’s Notes…)] [Equipment Slots: 0/3] [Universal Talents: Civilization, Eye of Truth, Learning]
[Physical Attributes] Strength: 6 Agility: 7 Constitution: 6 Spirit: 7
[Class generated.
Player, please confirm whether to take the job.]
In this world, his status panel did not list his Hunter class from the Monster Hunter world.
However, he could acquire a new class—one entirely different from a Hunter.
It could be said that the Lin Kes of both worlds shared a single status panel.
A change on the status panel would simultaneously reflect on Lin Ke in both worlds.
A class, however, belonged solely to the individual in the current world and was unique.
Rubbing his hands, Lin Ke confirmed taking the class.
In truth, the system had already generated the class over an hour ago.
It was just that it had been before dawn, and he was out in the open wilderness without much cover.
He feared that the commotion of loading a class might draw the attention of something dangerous.
[Player confirmed.
Loading Chef class…]
“Couldn’t the class have a slightly cooler name?
Even ‘Demon Chef’ would be fine, I wouldn’t complain…”
Lin Ke didn’t even want to criticize it anymore.
A light ignited in the dark, illuminating every detail of the container’s interior.
But it wasn’t sunlight—it was silver flames burning across Lin Ke’s body.
His consciousness floated in midair.
Even though he had seen his translucent form once before, seeing it again was still a bit nerve-wracking.
Experiencing the class load once more, Lin Ke’s consciousness returned to his body.
The moment his awareness returned, he immediately felt his body change again.
His strength had grown once more.
Clothes that used to fit comfortably now felt tight; the outlines of his muscles showed clearly against his cotton short-sleeve shirt.
The same went for his pants, leaving a large gap of bare calf between the hem and his ankles.
He had originally been 1.7 meters tall, placing him on the shorter side compared to his peers.
Judging by his pants legs now, he had grown at least 10 centimeters taller.
He was finally a tall, 1.8-meter guy.
Haha!
Moreover, his skin had become remarkably smooth.
He touched his face—not a single pimple or crater remained, completely clear and slick.
He was taller, built bigger, and probably better looking too.
If he had a mirror, he would definitely admire his current appearance.
Inside the container, Lin Ke opened his status panel with curiosity.
[Name: Lin Ke] [Age: 20] [Identity: Player] [Dimensional Backpack: 1 m³ (Hunter’s Notes…)] [Equipment Slots: 0/3] [Universal Talents: Civilization, Eye of Truth, Learning]
[Physical Attributes] Strength: 8 Agility: 7 Constitution: 8 Spirit: 7
[Peak of Human Physical Fitness]
An increase of four attribute points had pushed his lowest stats straight to the top.
His physical foundation in Strength and Constitution had more than doubled compared to before.
Three times the Constitution and Strength of an ordinary human.
Fierce!
With this kind of physical conditioning, if he could return to his original world, he could make a thousand a day just moving bricks and carrying supplies.
Dealing with those blonde-haired hooligans had gone from “one punch makes them howl” to “one punch knocks them silent”—all within half a day of obtaining the extraordinary system.
[Class: Chef] [Level: 1] [EXP: 0/100]
[Class Talent] Super Tonic (Unique): Cooking food grants special buff effects to dishes.
The quality of ingredients determines the intensity of the effect.
Completing a dish grants Class EXP.
[Class Skills] Current: None
[Generated Quest] [Chef’s First Meal] Description: Cook a meal to begin your career as a chef.
Rewards: 10 EXP, Chef Class Skill Crystal
The Chef class and the Hunter class actually complemented each other perfectly.
A Hunter hunting could acquire Bloodstones and Soul Crystals, growing stronger while securing various ingredients, while a Chef could level up the class by cooking the ingredients provided by the Hunter.
Pretty great.
Did the system do this on purpose?
No point dwelling on it—thinking about it wouldn’t change anything anyway.
Lin Ke pushed open the container door and stepped out into the sunlight.
The path of the extraordinary began here.
Stepping out of the container, Lin Ke hadn’t forgotten that his hunter partner was still freezing.
Now was the time to search this abandoned factory for cold-resistant supplies.
“Let’s start with the closest one.”
Walking into the large building nearby, Lin Ke examined the interior layout.
Although the building covered a massive footprint, there were no interior dividing walls blocking the line of sight besides the four exterior walls.
It was a single massive hall of over a thousand square meters, allowing everything inside to be seen at a glance.
Aside from standing water on the concrete floor, there was trash strewn everywhere, most commonly aluminum cans and plastic bags.
Just then, a drop of water fell from above.
Lin Ke raised his head to look.
In the roof, which stood roughly seven to eight meters high, several large holes were torn between the steel girders—large enough to fit an elephant through.
“No way this was done by hail, right?”
“A war?”
“A factory abandoned in war, surrounded by chemical-polluted land…
looks like this world isn’t so safe.”
Lin Ke searched the building top to bottom.
Aside from trash, there was only trash—nothing useful at all.
The machinery inside was just hollow shells.
It seemed predecessors had already visited and stripped away anything that could be disassembled and reused.
Finding nothing useful in the building, Lin Ke walked back out to search the surrounding containers.
However, they were basically empty.
One container was even filled halfway with decaying domestic garbage.
Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, sulfur gas—visible vapors drifted out.
The nauseating stench nearly knocked him out on the spot.
It really was toxic!
The same went for the scrapped cars—only iron shells remained.
Rims, tires, window glass, engines, and steel parts had all been stripped.
Not a single piece of junk held any value for him.