Cosmic Professional Gladiator

Description

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In 2036, humankind steps foot on Mars for the first time.

In 2052, Earth holds the first World Martial Arts Tournament, a global martial arts competition watched by the entire planet.

Top professional gladiator, “Spear Demon” Xu Jingming, retires at the prime age of 26 with a body ridden with injuries.

One day, the United Nations announces that humankind would be ushering in a new era for human evolution. Advanced technology had been found on Mars, a secret kept to this day. Research had been carried out to use science to augment human evolution.

All of humankind can now evolve themselves by partaking in this VR experience using the freely distributed VR headset.

How will Xu Jingming use this opportunity for all humankind to his advantage?

Associated Names
One entry per line
Cpg
宇宙职业选手
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Swallowed Star (2)
Martial Arts Master (1)
Complete Martial Arts Attributes (1)
Archean Eon Art (1)
Lord Xue Ying (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Novels that I have read 2
  2. The Mt. Tai of Chinese Novels
  3. Fermenting Novels
  4. Delz Recommendation List (detailed)
  5. Shadow's Gems

Latest Release

Date Group Release
01/09/22 Webnovel c40
01/09/22 Webnovel c39
01/09/22 Webnovel c38
01/09/22 Webnovel c37
01/09/22 Webnovel c36
01/09/22 Webnovel c35
01/09/22 Webnovel c34
01/09/22 Webnovel c33
01/09/22 Webnovel c32
01/09/22 Webnovel c31
01/09/22 Webnovel c30
01/09/22 Webnovel c29
01/09/22 Webnovel c28
01/09/22 Webnovel c27
01/09/22 Webnovel c26
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Review
14 Reviews


LeaningMaple
LeaningMaple
Feb 18, 2022
Status: Completed
The premise sounds similar to Swallowed Star, in that it's near future Earth which has just discovered cultivation, but it's quite different. No adventures or life-and-death battles. There's a young master, but he's never a real threat, just there to rile up readers. In fact, the setting is actually identical to A World Worth Protecting by Er Gen; it's about how Earth discovers cultivation resources due to a crash-landed ship from a cultivation civilization, and then has to race to try to create experts in order to ensure its survival/prosperity... more>> amid the broader universe.

It ultimately feels very similar to the author's last work, Archean Eon Art, in that the protagonist is slowly working his way up in the world as he accumulates insights, makes successive breakthroughs in different aspects of his cultivation, earns more resources, is confronted with more challenges, and so on, in an infinite loop. In this novel, Earth essentially harnesses alien tech to create its own massive virtual reality where martial artists can have their strength numerically judged (power levels) and compete in all-out battles since people in VR don't actually die when "killed". I'm only on chapter 117, so it hasn't yet been revealed just what the threat to Earth is that requires them to create experts ASAP, but the danger has been hinted at repeatedly. So surely at some point, the MC will face serious threats to his life, but so far, the world outside of VR has been peaceful.

There are a number of points that I like about Cosmic Professional Gladiator that make it stand out compared to Archean Eon Art. First, the MC's love interest in actually fresh, interesting, and likable; she's a pro livestreamer who jokes around a lot. The MC himself is also a down-to-earth person, with a sense of humor and a mature attitude, as well as a someone who studied physics in college and uses it to study the application of force in his martial arts. Second, there is a huge focus on martial arts, tactics, and their connection to the body, mind, and cultivation, just like in the Nine Cauldrons. The way the power levels are designed is excellent, and it reminds me of how I sometimes just wish that IET would truly flesh out the potential of the worlds he creates, rather than sustain a constant dopamine loop of breakthroughs, underestimations, reactions, minor setbacks required to maximally engage web novel readers. He even put a lot of effort into construction of side characters in the first 10 chapters to show how there were all these people with their own complex circumstances that would be solved by cultivation, yet they were quickly left behind since IET is forced to focus the plot on the MC constantly.

If you liked Archean Eon Art, and you don't mind a story where so far there's no threat to the MC's life, you will probably like this one too. In my personal opinion, it's fairly fun and somewhat fresh-feeling, and the cultivation system is neat, but the stakes are low and there's nothing especially compelling about the story yet. I would say I liked AEA significantly more. But it's still an IET novel through and through; I can't say I don't enjoy it.

Update - Around two thirds of the way through the story now. My overall assessment is the same.
Spoiler

As expected, it became a little more generic after the initial few arcs passed, and the MC's talent was recognized by a powerful faction who started to carefully nurture him. No setbacks at all. Less focus on the VR world in recent arcs, and the MC has shouldered a tiny risk of death for the first time, but even then he can be resurrected if he doesn't let himself be captured.

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Update again - A little while later, IET finally threw his first real curveball of the novel. It's not one I've seen him use before, either. Not mind-blowing in any way, but a little excited to read new chapters now.
Spoiler

The MC experiences a major setback. Of course, I'm confident he'll inevitably turn it to his advantage... It's more than simply being subjected to lowered expectations and forced to act low key, too; the entire tone of the narrative changes. It's just what the novel needed to stop feeling like the MC already had his entire life planned out.

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Last update - Finished all chapters. The curveball was resolved after a little while, and there were no more real surprises. The ending was a little different from the usual ones, though. This novel had a few high points, but overall I'd say I rank it slightly below IET's previous novel AEA, and thus, technically it's my least favorite IET novel, albeit I like all that IET has written. IET himself commented that this novel didn't turn out quite like he'd planned, and also claimed he'll take a break now, so I can only hope he recharges properly so that his next novel is even more enjoyable. <<less
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Ryuugen
Ryuugen
Jun 04, 2022
Status: c200
I Eat Tomatoes (IET) is an author who has been around for a very long time. I have also read most of his novels, and the reason for that is I enjoy his descriptions of MC constantly training and progressing. In a lot of other novels, MC will usually obtain some distinct powerup or go through some hellish "training", but IET knows how to write a very realistic feeling of progression and the slow-but-steady mentality it takes reach the peak.

After ending Archean Eon Art, IET said he is preparing for... more>> his next novel to be his magnum opus. Whether he was just hyping it up or being serious, I don't know. But this new novel does have some changes from his other ones. The problem is that I don't know if that's a good thing.

For one thing, MC doesn't have any pressing goal like in IET's other novels. Either revenge, survival, or to protect someone, IETs other MCs always had some urgent matter that would force him to progress. However, in this novel, MC's motivations come from his father's passed down love of martial arts. Humanity is not in danger, the only 'villain' of the series was never really any threat to MC, and his family members are all alive and healthy. It does make for a more realistic story, but I think having a clear goal is more interesting. In replace of that, the conflicts in this novel are more on the petty side, like minor annoyances you usually meet in a large circle of friends.

Something IET does give us is a very detailed description of martial arts and weapons. Many chapters are completely full of these descriptions of the different martial arts schools. And it's not just normal traditional martial arts that you see in wuxia, the MC tries to combine modern scientific theory into it. While interesting, it can get exaggerated at times. IET has also put a lot of thought into MC's training sessions, which is something I do really like.

Just like his characters, IET is also constantly progressing. Some of the issues I had in his other novels, like side character development, have been smoothed over. In his writing, you can definitely feel the accumulation of experience.

Basically, the core of this novel is a 'what if'. "What if the entirety of a technologically advanced humanity suddenly started practicing martial arts, to become younger and to obtain fame?" If that sounds like something that catches your eye, you will enjoy this novel. <<less
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kroshka
kroshka
May 03, 2022
Status: c2
the novel is based all around fighting and this is how
he depicts the fights.
Spoiler

The former’s spear then turned into a blur and suddenly erupted with terrifying explosive power.

Bang!

A deep, dull collision sound rang out—it was the sound of a spear shaft colliding with something.

The spear in Feng Yu’s hand was sent flying.

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0/5
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mitre27
mitre27
Feb 21, 2022
Status: c125
So I honestly hate this novel, the writing style and translation are solid, but it's just so boring, so far we've had 125 chapters of nothing but VR training and VR battles, there's mention of a greater universe but there's no real tension, no enemies in the real world, nothing, it's just so freaking boring to read, by far the worst IET novel i've ever read, which I didn't think was possible after archeon aeon art was just so bad.

Literally no IET novel has been this boring and uneventful for... more>> over 100 chapters. <<less
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Heller
Heller
Sep 24, 2023
Status: Completed
For me this was the weakest of all IET novels so far...90 % of Wu Ming's journey is too smooth even the war arc of the novel was just meh

This novel for me was a low version of swallowed star
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ziki
ziki
Feb 26, 2023
Status: c513
It's another one of "I eat tomatoes" and he is a writer who has been around for a very long time and all this time his writing style and theme of his novels never really changes.

We start with a talented protagonist in "the low level area" and slowly build up from there. MC grows stronger at fast rate, and alongside his improvement he enters higher and higher level areas until eventually (1000 chapters in) he reaches the very top.

This is long and tried formula and for the most part, if... more>> you like one of the author novels, you will probably like all of them. If not, then you will find it hard to like them.

It's easy to say that those novels are generic and standard cultivation novels but to start with, it's pretty much "I eat tomatoes" who set this standard.

Of course each novel is it's own journey and has it's own unique journey, and this one is no different. On a glance it's very similar to Swallowed star with both of them starting on earth and both of them having virtual reality being an important part of the storyline. But compared to Swallowed Star, this one practically doubles, triples and quadruples down on virtual reality as pretty much all of the story happens inside it.

In Swallowed Star, the virtual reality became "the story" after the first arc and continued for in it's mid portion. In this one, so far it's 100% virtual reality and now that I think about it, to put it in perspective, MC didn't have a single combat situation that happened in real life so far! (Though the current next arc might be changing it soon)

It's crazy when you think about it. Does it take away a suspense. Sure, but in general this is another one of "I eat tomatoes" thing where one way or another he makes his MC can't really die. It's usually happens with some sort of clone technique, lord of the realm, that kind of thing. He embraces the plot armour trope and gives the MC some sort of it's representation in actual story.

With virtual reality it makes it easiest. And with that MC doesn't always have to win, and the battles can be as bloody as they need be without making all the character mu*der psychopaths.

But going back to the story. First of all we have the Earth arc. And unfortunately I have to once again compare it to Swallowed Star in which the actual first Earth arc is one of the best piece of writing that I eat tomatoes ever produced. In comparison the cosmic profession gladiator first earth arc is rather week.

Mainly MC just getting stronger and having virtual battles against other people from earth. By the time he becomes strongest on earth, the first arc ends.

Nothing to deep I'm afraid. That said if you are looking for interesting and deep storylines, this author isn't really for you. What good I can say about this arc, is that it's an easy read and time sure flies while you read it.

Now after the first arc, things get a lot more interesting and it's clear that the revisit of intergalactic virtual reality storyline was made for the sake of the story from then on. In the Shallowed star, this portion was just one giant tournament arc. Here however, MC travels to various virtual worlds each with it's own flavour and storylines. It's really well made.

Most surprisingly, while there is virtual world where MC just 1vs1 people, there is just no more tournament arcs.

In any case this was very solid early-mid portion after earth arc. Overall it's been a while since I just sat down and read 500 chapters in a week. And looking forward, it definitely has a lot of promise moving on.

I eat tomatoes novels usually fell off towards it's later portion simply because when the story gets to the massive "highest level zone" there is not enough set up and though given into creating the massive operating world but in this one the massive world building has been set up properly.

I really looking forward to the future, though this author novels aren't something to read weekly. So only once there are 1000 chapters or so will I come back.

Though really, reading those 500 chapters made my appetite for even more reading. Maybe I should reread Swallowed star again. <<less
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Liero Dirlewanger
Liero Dirlew
Jan 04, 2023
Status: c30
Really bad worldbuilding, because it doesn't make sense at all. Somehow the "Earth Alliance" discovered something 40 years ago, produced several billion VR headsets, literally one for every person older than 6, gave them away all for free, and nobody, not a single person, not even the rich and powerful knew about it before the distribution started. Fantasy is about making something that isn't true in real life, not something that doesn't make sense at all.

I still gave it a try, trying to ignore the bad worldbuilding, but I couldn't... more>> get into it, his family gets in the way and just acts annoying, it feels like some slice of life novel. The first villain of the novel literally btfos himself without any input from the hero <<less
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sxmeero
sxmeero
May 28, 2022
Status: 250ish
This is my favourite novel at the moment. Just a warning though, this review is bias because I'm an IET fan but have to state that this is one of his better works, based on what I've read so far

Although there seems to be a lack of conflicts and struggles, it's just that they are not action based but rather an inner struggle towards goals.
Spoiler

The way the MC deals with conflicts are logical and there is no brain-dead revenge or petty conflict types of situations. Most action/fights are based in the virtual worlds. This could be a positive or negative, however the way IET sets up the environment of the virtual worlds, make it seem like a world hopping genre, causing it to be thrilling (for me at least, have been enjoying this genre as of late). The FMC is also a unique aspect that makes this novel even more interesting.

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What drives this novel might not be exquisite writing styles but rather, the unbreakable will and determination/emotions that IET is able to express through the MC and various characters.

Review is based on what I've read so far, will update and make changes accordingly.
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Dogelands67
Dogelands67
Apr 24, 2022
Status: --
I won't comments too early about this novel, but as a fan of IET I'll rate it as 5 star.

Do you guys think there some of connection about this novel and Qin Yu's world created (Stellar Transformation MC).

Didn't his son end going to Earth after being upset or something cuz of his mediocre talent near the end of the book?

I do hope it to have connection with the Qin Yu's created world tho!
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Poireau
Poireau
Apr 01, 2022
Status: c712
Edit at chapter 700 ish:

The first 500 chapters are really boring if you have already read several cultivation novels, as explained below in the spoiler, and the true interesting part is between chapters 500 and 700, where all the "happening" is no more in the VR and where the story and character development is much more thrilling. But after chapter 700, the author shift the plot completly, with an anew setup, and it's quite frustrating, and I gave up!

Through reading this novel, it feels the Author does not know what... more>> to do with his too perfectly made MC. Defenitely not the best IET novel, but still worth reading compared to other novels if you go up to chapter 700.

Review before chapter 187:

Spoiler

It's difficult to rate a novel from IET with less than 200 chapters, but there are quite some differences with his other novels.

As mitre27 said, there is nothing, no enemy to put some pressure on the MC or the plot, although, as a reader you know that a new shift in the story will happen at some point.

Thus, the first 150 chapters have a very slow pace, a bit boring, especially because the fights, and there are a lot of them, do not feel exciting enough: only the values and percentage describing the cultivation levels are what make the fights different from each other, but the descriptions of the attaks feel the same.

Although adding all these numbers makes the cultivation system very detailed, the plot is very boring. "Swallowed Star" 200 first chapters were much better because there was no virtual reality part yet, and much more deadly real life situations.

Also 90% of the plot of this novel is made of tournaments, the "bane" of all chineese novels, thus several chapters are also entirely describing the fights of secondary characters... This was also an issue in Swallowed Star.

This is clearly not the best first 200 chapters among all IET novels, and while reading it, I almost wished for some Er Gen - like drama/tragedy to happen !

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<<less
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kirtil
kirtil
Feb 14, 2024
Status: Completed
I had fun reading this, but it is pretty vanilla.

I liked the MC, the FL was interesting and fun, there is no or very little unreliable narration, and the story never turns ridiculous all the way to the end.

My problem was that it was too.. Linear. The MC starts cultivating and keeps getting better as time goes by. There's only 1 life and death battle in the story, all the rest of the time, everything is pretty safe for the MC. He just gets better in an infinite loop of... more>> cultivation. As the story progresses, the author keeps buffing the time (1 month studying becomes year, then 100 years, then 4million years, then several hundred millions etc) and not much else.

It's not bad, it's just boring. <<less
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Eccentric lezmier
Eccentric le
Jul 12, 2023
Status: Completed
He’s done it again and delivered another good piece of work. It was good from start and the way the beginning is structured begins to make sense as you read more till the very end.

Happy to have come across this novel. Take your time and enjoy this great story in its entirety, no need to rush through and fatigue your mind.
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Kassandra
Kassandra
May 26, 2023
Status: c514
The novel is quite good, there's no nonsense and s*upid plots. The vibe of the novel is similar to the author's other novel, Archean Eon Art.

This is still ongoing, so l'll probably come back to finish my review when it's completed.

Overall, I like this novel. You should give it a try if you'll love it or hate it.
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Daresan
Daresan
May 18, 2023
Status: c550
Its very unrealistic and bad. The whole plot is soo forced. 40 years ago earth alliance found something on mars and after 40 years they bought it out to public. Don't know why they waited 40 years. And Earth alliance council members are bunch of machines and Angels and Mary sues.


I didn't like where it was going and after reading 500 chapters there was no tension at all, Everything is too smooth for MC and it is for absolutely no reason at all, Author didn't even bother to... more>> name any cheat, He just nakedly and shamelessly made deus ex machina MC without any justification. <<less
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