Morning sunlight filtered through the cheap hotel's thin curtains, casting patches of light across the floor.
Odin opened his eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Where am I?
An unfamiliar ceiling!
After a few seconds, Odin finally worked out his situation.
He was no longer in his college dorm, nor was he in the familiar twenty-first century.
This was the world of Hunter x Hunter, a dangerous world that also possessed supernatural powers.
He got up and stretched his neck and shoulders, feeling that most of last night's exhaustion had faded.
Clearly, this young body recovered better than he had expected.
Or rather, the recovery abilities of humans in this world exceeded his imagination.
Still, the spot where he had been struck on the back of the head ached faintly, reminding him that this body's previous owner had been ambushed and clubbed.
He threw off the covers, got out of bed, and went to the shared bathroom at the end of the hall to wash up.
The chilly water splashing against his face woke him completely.
Looking at the slightly pale face in the mirror, identical to his old one, he found the whole thing absurd and rubbed his face hard.
"A counterpart from a parallel world!" He tugged at the corners of his mouth as he faced his reflection. "Looks like the multiverse really does exist."
After tidying himself up, Odin left the hotel, found a breakfast shop, and polished off his meal in no time.
As he left the shop, Odin was still thinking about what he had just overheard inside.
Apparently, the thugs he had beaten down last night had been caught defenseless and ambushed by people they had robbed before. For all he knew, they might already have been buried.
"Fuck, this place is goddamn dangerous!" Odin muttered, quickening his steps away from the area.
Honestly, the streets looked completely different by day than they did at night.
Sunlight drove away the shadows and chill, making Odin feel much better.
Pedestrians hurried past and traffic flowed endlessly, filling the streets with the bustle and energy unique to a metropolis.
Roadside vendors hawked their wares, and the smell of food mingled with exhaust fumes. It was no different from the small town he had lived in during his previous life.
Odin took out his money, did a quick estimate, and hailed a car to take him to the striking tower in the distance.
It might not look far away, but walking there would take ages.
Running there with the Rabbit Talisman would only waste his stamina. There was no need.
The closer he came to Heavens Arena, the more he felt its sheer size.
Its towering structure pierced the blue sky like an enormous pillar, standing out all the more among the low buildings around it.
Before long, Odin arrived at the foot of Heavens Arena.
"It's way taller than I remembered." Odin tilted his head back, looking at the top of the tower nearly lost in the clouds, and couldn't help remarking, "Who'd believe architecture in this world doesn't involve Nen Abilities?"
Lowering his gaze, Odin surveyed his surroundings. The kinds of people here were noticeably different, too.
Before, he had seen only hurried passersby. Here, there were plenty of burly men and women with bulging muscles, along with quite a few people dressed in bizarre outfits.
He reached the arena's main entrance, which was wide enough for more than a dozen cars to drive through side by side.
Despite the early hour, the place was packed.
The hubbub, announcements, and faint cheers coming from deeper inside merged into a powerful wave of sound that battered Odin's eardrums.
"The line already stretches all the way out here this early?!" Odin marveled at the queue before him, whose full length he couldn't even make out.
Shaking his head, Odin joined the back of the line.
As Odin approached, quite a few people in the queue glanced sideways at him. Seeing nothing but a weakling, they smirked dismissively and looked away.
Time passed slowly as Odin followed the crowd through the entrance.
Inside was an exceptionally spacious, brightly lit lobby with an astonishingly high ceiling.
The air in the lobby carried a mixture of disinfectant, sweat, and a feverish excitement that felt almost like a stimulant.
After another half hour or so in line, his turn finally came.
"Name and age." The female clerk behind the counter didn't look up, her tone purely mechanical.
"Odin, eighteen."
"First time here?"
"Yes."
"Just fill out the form using the sample." The clerk handed him a thin registration form.
Odin scanned it quickly and found that it was the same one the two little kids, Gon and Killua, had received in the story. Simple, but efficient.
"Here." Odin quickly filled in his information and handed the form back.
"All right. Here's your number. Wait over there until you're called for your match." The clerk handed him a numbered tag, then signaled for the next person.
Holding his number tag, Odin crossed the noisy lobby and entered the hall containing the fighting rings.
It resembled a gymnasium, with a dozen or so square rings in the middle surrounded by rows of spectator seats.
Quite a few contestants waiting for their matches were already seated there, along with a large audience.
Even the air seemed thick with sweat and an emotion called tension.
Odin picked an empty seat at random and sat down, quietly observing his surroundings.
The place was buzzing. Spectators shouted wildly while contestants nervously watched the matches in the rings.
"Numbers 1123 and 1042, please report to ring D!" The announcement rang through the waiting area several times.
Odin stood, straightened the hem of his shirt, and headed toward ring D.
Eyes settled on him along the way, some curious, some appraising, and others dismissive.
Odin simply didn't look like a fighter. His malnourished, skinny build hardly made him seem threatening.
The referee, a middle-aged man wearing a Heavens Arena uniform, stood in the center of the ring.
Odin's opponent was already in the ring: a bearded brute two meters tall who weighed at least several times as much as him. His bare upper body was covered in thick hair and solid muscle, and he was flexing his biceps for the audience, drawing cheers.
Sure enough, men who build muscles only attract other men.
"Kid, give up. Every day, people like you come here to try their luck because they think they've learned a thing or two. They end up spending months in the hospital, sometimes the rest of their lives." The burly man bellowed at Odin, his expression somewhere between contempt and boredom.
Odin was slightly surprised. He had expected the man before him to mock him like everyone else.
His tone wasn't exactly pleasant, but he was at least relatively friendly.
Odin said nothing. He calmly walked to his position, loosened his wrists and ankles, and gave the burly man a nod.
Stepping into a ring for the first time, Odin tested the feel of its surface while adjusting to the atmosphere of being watched by so many people.
The referee briefly explained the rules. "Matches use the P&KO system. The first fighter to earn ten points or successfully knock out their opponent wins.
"Clean hit: a good attack earns one point.
"Critical hit: an excellent attack earns two points.
"Down: knocking your opponent down earns one point if they only get back up after the count begins.
"Once your score reaches ten points, you win by TKO."
With that, he swung his hand down. "Begin!"
The burly man wasted no time. With a roar, he charged toward Odin like a crazed rhinoceros, his footsteps heavy.
His enormous fist whipped through the air straight toward Odin's face.
As far as he was concerned, he had already offered a kind warning. Since Odin refused to accept it, there was no need to hold back too much.
In Odin's eyes, however, the burly man's movements had slowed down countless times.
He could clearly see the muscles twitching on the man's face as he charged, every tiny change in his fist's trajectory, and even predict how he might shift his weight next.
The Rabbit Talisman is ridiculously powerful! Odin thought.
And this was only the Rabbit Talisman's most basic form. If it could keep evolving, surpassing light speed and traveling through space and time might soon be within reach.
Odin entertained the thought excitedly for a moment, then returned his attention to the burly man, who still hadn't reached him.
Way too slow!
Though his opponent was slow, Odin didn't choose to block the attack head-on. He knew how vast the difference in their strength was.
Just before the burly man's fist reached the tip of his nose, Odin shifted his feet slightly and turned his body by the smallest, perfectly timed amount, letting the heavy punch skim past his ear.
The gust from the punch lifted a few strands of hair over his forehead.
The burly man clearly hadn't expected Odin to dodge so easily, and his forward momentum made it difficult to stop.
At the instant his initial force was spent, before he could generate any more, Odin moved.
His right hand shot out, turning to press against the burly man's muscular lower back.
It wasn't an attack, merely a gentle push that borrowed the man's own momentum.
"Whoa!" The burly man felt a force come from his side and completely lost his balance. His enormous body lurched like a rolling barrel, charging straight over the ring's boundary before crashing heavily onto the floor outside with a dull boom.
For a moment, silence fell around the ring.
The spectators seemed unable to process what had happened.
All they had seen was the burly man throw a fierce punch, then Odin dodge and push. A second later, the man had rolled out of the ring himself?
The referee paused, then quickly recovered. He blew his whistle, raised his right arm, and pointed at Odin. "1042 is out of bounds! 1123 wins!"
After a brief silence, the stands erupted into a clamor of surprise and discussion.
"What happened?"
"Did that big guy fall out on his own?"
"Did the newcomer push him? How come I didn't see it?"
"Was it luck?"
Odin stood at the edge of the ring and slowly withdrew his hand.
He looked at his palm, then at the burly man below, who had quickly climbed to his feet, looking embarrassed and angry.
"That seemed... even easier than I expected," he murmured, as though confirming something.
The Rabbit Talisman really suited someone who had crossed into another world.
It suited them better than the Ox, Dog, Pig, Horse, Rooster, and other talismans.
Of course, that was only Odin's opinion. He had no idea what anyone else thought about the matter.
The referee came over and handed him a new slip of paper. "Nice performance. You can go straight to the fiftieth floor. Complete the paperwork at that counter and collect your prize money."
Odin took the slip and nodded. Without another glance at the ring, he stepped down and headed out, planning to take the lobby elevator to the fiftieth floor to collect his prize money.
Before you continue