- #1
I don't know if this counts as an accomplishment but this was the first story to actively make me angry in all my years of reading. I have a weak spot for entertainment/sports stories so when this had combined the two genres, I desperately tried to like this story and even continued reading beyond my annoyance out of sheer stubbornness to see if it would improve. Alas, I just ended up infuriated and my last thought was "I want a damn refund".The beginning was honestly quite good and I didn't mind the OP MC from the start. In fact I was excited, who doesn't love a track prodigy who pursued another career and then came back to excel in his original field? Up until chapter 60 or so, I genuinely had a fun time reading. The problem is that the longer it went on, the more grating the story became. The OPness of the MC isn't handled very well, he's able to do too many things (running, hurdles, group relay) in such a short amount of time and like how other pointed out, all the minor characters are just there to gloat/point out how great or good-looking MC was to an unnatural, over-the-top degree (the entirety of Japan calls him Snow Leopard Boy?? Ultra famous fashion designer makes him his muse??). There are also pointless plot points like the system having him train shooting skills or ice skating for no real reason except to make him look good in a few minor scenes. Even the romance aspect is lacking, because ML just likes him from the start and then they literally interact less than a handful of times in all 143 chapters and only get together in a chapter in one of the extras.When you're reading a story, you will always run into the question of "why am I reading this" or "why do/should I care about MC", with the answers being things like plot, characterization, mystery, etc etc. But this story almost kills every reason you could have. Plot? MC got his running/hurdling skills from the system so it's really monotonous with no build up there, ML and MC have little to no interaction, so romance is almost nonexistent. Even the whole entertainment part can be thrown away because it focuses 99% on running with the MC himself having no clue why he even entered the entertainment industry in the first place. He didn't want to be an actor or a singer, he didn't even care about being famous, and he's even as stumped as we are as to why he switched industries in the first place, so why was he even in the entertainment industry in the first place?? Characterization is also the same from beginning to end, so even character development is nonexistent.I genuinely wanted to like this story, even in my annoyance I still kept buying the next chapter in hopes of improvement and I can even see that the author did try her best at writing it; but in the end it just wasn't that good for me. The more I read the more I was absolutely bored to death by the sheer amount of repetition because every race went: MC runs race —> everyone else: omg he's so fast, so gorgeous, who is he, I adore him, Omg he's like a snow leopard! An Elf! A gorgeous creature! —≫ MC wins/breaks a record —> MC adored by the masses. Maybe track stories aren't my thing, maybe the whole rebirth extra is better, unfortunately I can't find anymore patience to read after finishing the main story and the 10 extras and will have to stop here. I do want to clarify something though, after chapters 1-153, that's the end of the main story with the rest being an "If" story, where MC decided to go down a figure skating path instead of running.