A single egg.
A single system-rewarded random egg.
A single pure white egg that had been incubating for thirty long days—without the slightest sign of hatching.
It was also an egg that carried all of Bai Chen's hopes, dreams, and every bit of his meager savings.
He sighed, sweeping the dragon crystal dust off the soft cushion where the egg rested.
If not for the fact that the surrounding dragon crystals were being drained of energy day by day, Bai Chen might've thought the system had given him a dead egg.
As he cleaned, he muttered under his breath,
"My little ancestor… if you don't hatch soon, I'll have no choice but to sell my ass to the hunters' guild."
He placed a freshly harvested Dragon Crystal beside the egg — one he'd just pried out of a Jyuratodus' body.
Even this low-grade crystal cost him 4,000 zenny. For Bai Chen, that was a fortune.
His current collection missions barely paid 800 zenny, and even hunting smaller beasts like Great Jagras or Dodogama only brought in 1,000 zenny, maybe 1,800 total after selling materials.
There was no way he could afford to feed this egg dragon crystals every few days.
Thankfully, the egg's appetite wasn't huge — one crystal could last it around four or five days.
Bai Chen sighed in relief, setting the new crystal beside the soft cushion before dropping heavily onto his bed.
He stared up at the wooden ceiling, lost in thought.
It had already been a month since he arrived in this world.
In his previous life, he'd been an utterly ordinary wage slave — stuck in a lifeless routine between office and home, drowning in unpaid overtime.
The economy was bad, his coworkers were worse, and "not working overtime" basically meant "getting fired."
Then, one day, a truck had flattened him.
And now, somehow… he was in the Monster Hunter world.
But unlike others who'd be eaten in seconds, Bai Chen had his own golden finger—his cheat:
He opened his status window.
[Name]: Bai Chen
[Race]: Human
[Attribute]: Normal
[Level]: 14 (80/380)
[Trait]:Adaptability – Slightly enhances ability to adjust to environments.
[Weapon]: Iron Katana – Rarity ★1
[Armor]: Hunter's Set – Rarity ★1
[Skills]:
Mushroom Specialist's Scent ★1 (Proficiency 20/500)
→ The ability of a Mosswine; can detect mushrooms within 1000 meters.
Crisis Awareness ★2 (Proficiency 120/200)
→ A Great Jagras' instinct; senses hidden threats within 50 meters.
Spirit Blade Breathing (Basic) ★3 (Proficiency 180/300)
→ The foundation of all katana techniques.
Body Reinforcement ★3 (Proficiency 113/300)
→ Essential to survive in a world ruled by monsters.
Those first two skills—Mushroom Scent and Crisis Awareness—weren't human at all.
They came from his cheat ability:
He could copy an enemy's skill after defeating or taming it, and assign it to himself or his companion.
It was powerful—but not without limits.
Conditions:
To gain a skill, the target must be defeated or captured.
Copied skills start from beginner level (unless merged with an existing similar skill).
Skills must match the creature's biology—no teaching Groudon how to fly.
His skill storage was capped at five. Gaining a sixth meant overwriting an old one.
Bai Chen opened his Skill Library.
Inside were:
Paralyzing Needle ★2 (from Vespoid)
Strong Digestion ★2 (from Jagras)
Hardened Shell ★2 (from Rhenoplos)
All decent—but none usable by humans.
His eyes drifted toward the white egg again.
"Once you hatch, my little ancestor… I'll copy one of your skills, and my strength will skyrocket. Then I can finally join real hunts—no more scraping by on foraging jobs."
He didn't know what kind of creature was inside, but based on its appetite for dragon crystals, it had to be at least ★4 rarity—around the level of an Anjanath.
If that were true, he'd be set for life.
He gently patted the egg, whispering,
"Come on, little one. I've bet everything on you."
Afterward, he trained his Spirit Blade Breathing for two straight hours.
A notification finally chimed:
[Skill: Spirit Blade Breathing +10 EXP]
He nodded in satisfaction.
"At this rate, maybe in ten more days I'll reach the Proficient rank."
He wiped his sweat with a towel and fell onto the bed. Tomorrow's mission was simple—gathering mushrooms in the Ancient Forest.
As soon as his head hit the pillow, he drifted off.
But in his sleep, faint cracking sounds reached his ears.
Something heavy pressed down on his chest—so heavy he could barely breathe.
He turned over groggily, and the weight suddenly vanished.
When sunlight hit his face, Bai Chen woke with a start.
"Wait—this isn't 5 a.m. sunlight!"
He shot upright.
His alarm clock—his precious secondhand clock worth 20 zenny—was shattered to pieces.
Before he could even curse, a loud clang! echoed from the kitchen.
"Someone's in there!?"
A chill crawled down his spine.
He glanced at the cushion—only to see fragments of white eggshells scattered across it.
The egg… was gone.
"It hatched!?"
He bolted toward the kitchen, barefoot and panicked.
That egg had cost him nearly everything—his money, his sleep, his sanity.
Reaching the kitchen, he froze.
By the freezer stood a black creature, its head buried deep inside the cold storage, tail flicking lazily.
Four legs. Two wings.
Just from its shape, Bai Chen's blood ran cold.
Quadrupedal winged monsters were apex-level in this world. Rathalos, Zinogre, Tigrex—all had two legs.
He looked closer. The creature's dark body was covered in white crystalline spikes.
His mind went blank. Trembling, he activated the system's identification scan.
The result popped up.
[Species]: Nergigante – Elder Dragon Class.
Bai Chen's jaw dropped.
"Holy—holy crap! I actually hatched a NERGIGANTE!?"
He fell to his knees, laughing hysterically.
"This… this must be my reward for all that unpaid overtime in my past life!"