- #1
Under!! (if you know you know...) Read up till 280 on MTL (it's one of the more acceptable MTL's I've read for those interested) This novel ticks so many boxes for me.Great MC, great setting and world building, great love interests, intriguing mystery and a well done power system.I'll start by saying that the first 40 ish chapters while great might lead you to believe this is a good but not very unique Action novel, but don't be mislead!The mystery real kicks in after some build up and the story becomes something I honestly didn't expect at all. A big theme here is twisted fairy tails, so taking stories like the wizard of Oz, Snow White and including their themes and morals in the story in various ways. It's honestly a level of writing that's quite rare in LN.Another thing is that while it starts off seeming like an action novel with some harem elements, it kinda turns more into a primarily harem novel with action elements. Don't be put off by that, the romance in this is great and as the overall mystery unfolds it only gets better.I say that because I know people are put off by overly perfect Korean MCs that pick up girls like pokemon while being as dense as a diamonds (I'm one such person). Thankfully I can say I never felt that way with this novel.Every love interest is likable and well developed. They all get a decent amount of time with MC before falling for him and it feels organic (the only weak relationship is Kaya imo).MC is also not dense and is aware of their feelings and his own for them. He's also honest about wanting to be with all of them and doesn't deny it (it's fine to admit you want a harem in a fantasy world, finally!!). He doesn't go about this in a douchy way trying to pick up every girl for those worried.I saw some reviews saying there are too many girls and old ones get forgotten for new ones. I half agree with that... There's really only 4 girls that are genuinely in a romantic relationship with MC and that he has feelings for. All those characters are recurring and constantly have moments with our MC. The problem is more in the fact that 80% of the cast and all the characters of importance are pretty much all female (we can't have Korean MC interact with other man too much, that's crazy...). This can grow old as to why he's always surrounded by beautiful woman, but thankfully he doesn't develop feelings for any of the side characters and their connection with him borders on a passing friendship at best (hopefully this doesn't change).Our MC is great, he's smart, funny and hardworking while having pretty good EQ. He's genuinely heroic but not too stuck in his ways of righteousness. He does dip into generic Japanese anime protagonist territory at points... Being overly kind to people that are rude to him, being easily intimidated by his lovers and such things... But thankfully those moments are few and far between.Finally this novel actually takes advantage of the fact that this is an academy life in a game world. So many novels just pick this setting and in reality make you go 'I have no idea why MC is even attending this place...' while constantly throwing plenty of filler at you. Not here, every arc feels like it matters, and the context of it being a school constantly plays into the plot. MC actually breaks down future events for us constantly. It never feels like author just wanted something to happen so now we're doing this arc or this thing randomly. We constantly get told "these are the events that happen in the next semester, I need to prepare that" (AKA, real setup). The author obviously put a lot of thought into the mystery and building the world.Highly recommend!