I have mixed thoughts on this novel so far. On one hand, I'm hooked. I was reading this non stop for the past week, even sneaking in chapters during work hours because I couldn't put it down. The writing is very good and suspenseful, and the author keeps the reader engaged easily without over complicating the plot. I don't really like the comment barrage from the livestreaming, because I think it's lazy writing and no online commenter is ever logical, they mostly just troll in real life. I also find the set up of the world, and the ML kind of weird.
Apparently there's over 10 000 trainees at the beginning and every instance around half gets wiped out. First it's about every man for themselves and then the next chapter apparently there's tons of organizations and etc. And every instance there's always newcomers mixed in with S-level contenders, which doesn't make sense because they all struggle the same way. I cannot see the difference between the newcomer and the S-levels besides the fact that the newcomers shiver with fear more often and seem to be brain dead while the S-levels don't freak out as much. It's also weird that the S-levels seem like idols to the whole horror instance world, when apparently thriller trainee is a special competition. Are these S-levels also the only S-levels outside of the competition too?
Also, main issue, is that I picked up this novel thinking it was BL. While it's clear who the male lead is and all that, I'm 190 chapters into a 259 chapter novel and the two protagonists are not remotely together. Not that I need them to be, but it's just lust from the ML and absolutely no interest from the MC.
Spoiler
The novel also tries to pin both MC and ML as the "same type of people" but I don't feel that way? The ML is a true antisocial psychopath. He lives off of thrills and doing what he finds "interesting" and has no care or emotions. He feels lust for MC and that drives him to be a creepy stalker, he is narcissistic and cares about himself first and only and does not give a crap about anyone else. MC is only an object of lust for him, so far. He wants to violate him in the same way he wants to destroy and hurt him. It's not romantic or beautiful in any way. It's not even the sexy kind of lust.
MC on the other hand, is just totally apathetic and seems asexual. He's physically beautiful because of his albino gene, but he literally feels no connection to anyone around him and has no emotional fluctuation beyond anger if things don't go his way. He is not psychotic, not antisocial, has no feelings of lust or romance at all. Just null. One of the characters in the novel says he is creating attachments to himself but that's not true. MC does actually care about the people around him, just not in the traditional sense. He cared about the 2 lives that were lost in the school instance, about the contestant whose love died, about how his allies are. He isn't at all the antisocial psychopath and is absolutely not the "same type" as ML. So there's not really Yin and Yang to me.
And again, I'm 190 chapters into a 259 chapter novel.. I absolutely cannot see these two characters together as a couple. I cannot even imagine them hooking up because MC is so ace.
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