I Became a God in a Horror Game Chapter 257 Discussion

Arc 1 is underwhelming and honestly I don't include it in any kind of tier list for this novel because how different it is from other arcs. It's because this arc main intention is to introduce the world/game, how it works, and what MC's personality is. Now this novel heavily focused of teamwork, and by teamwork I mean MC's sl*ve doing whatever his command is no matter how outrageous it is, even if it will kill him. It main plot point is how MC will strategize no matter how desperate the situation is, and how he will absolutely takes a much harder path just to increase his final reward with his seemingly crazy solutions. Which is why arc 1 stick out like a sore thumb in my mind cuz it's a solo instance (and the economic manipulation can't be used anymore after this) + in this arc it really shows how the author confused/haven't decided how their story will be (imagine, at first bai liu will be a herbivore like those mainstream BL MC lol, makes me laugh for weeks).

MC is a charming devil, you know he's dangerous but willingly wants to get close to him. He's obsessed with money even it will cost him his life. He's a genius, an expert manipulator, and will do whatever he can to get that $$$. You may think with a MC like that he will be a ruthless monster, but no, he has some restrainSpoiler

though the him (s) in the other world are not

[collapse]that were put by his childhood friend. Though it's is implicitly said that bai liu is a bit autistic, nothing but money can drive him to work, if it doesn't interest him he will not do it (unless they give money), to the extent that his teammates (sl*ve) has to give him salary whether they got into an instance with physical work involved. The MC final goal is not to escape nor abolish the system and release all of the players in from it's hand. He wants to get rich and he put his eyes on a prize which is the tournament. The tournament will fill the rest of the stories after bai liu collect all the teammates he wants.

Now his dream teammates, are f*cking hard to getSpoiler

there's the one that hate him for his entire being, the one that already in other guild's team and many more

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and MC being an infamous master manipulator doesn't help. It's hard to get the trust of even the easiest person on his list. Which will lead us to well, conflict, and this is the good stuff that makes this novel interesting and pretty innovative with their plot. Side character are well written, some of their backstory and motivation even gave me goosebumps on how fascinating it is. It will also linked to the reasons why they *insert negative feeling for MC here*, and may even be used by bai liu to won over them. You may think with the rest of bai liu teammates is his sl*ve, only MC will shine in every instance, but no. This is as I said teamwork focused, they need to be flexible, and that's why in his team there's 1 or 2 vice commander. Non commander team member also has brain and can move independently even after they were separated so no, there's no one man show trope here, all member are important, the only question is which is more suitable in which instances. And uh, there's like, A LOT of inhuman geniuses other than MC. Some of them are even smarter than MC (stats wise), but this doesn't automatically mean they can outwit the MC. While their stats are higher, you see, MC utilize his manipulation and element of surprise while other geniuses

Spoiler

use their godly memory, deep wisdom, and there's even a guy so smart, it evolved into divination

[collapse] though it also doesn't mean that MC will win against them for most of the time. So yeah, balance, is not just the usual strong vs smarts that were easy to predict.

For those who want to read this, please read it until the end of rose factory arc or at least finish arc 3/loveware institute, because man, that's where the enlightenment will came and where you will realize the entire-ty AKA the actual theme that the author strive to makes, though it might be a bit hard to read for some because of the numerous reversal and deceit. It's a hard recommend to readers that likes brain burning types of novel, and beware cuz other than arc 1, the (temporary) irritation caused by MC hidden strategy and acting is innumerable. It even felt like I'm reading angst not caused by dogblood drama, but by dogblood strategy lol. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention about the ML, so uh, he's already there from arc 1, but has no sense of existence until like, 250 ish chapter. Before that just view it as a harem between bai liu and his teammates (hell, I even ships bai liu with one of the 'male lead' rather than the actual male lead lol).

In conclusion the themes for this novel are : manipulation, dogblood strategy, chaotic team with 3 brains that can somehow work, evil gods, mental illness, stockholm syndrome, trauma, conspiracy and deceit, lots of character with dark past but end up not edgy, revenge?, important past, multiple timeline, important multiple timeline, technically e-sport with the whole tournament thing in later arc ?, depiction of cruelty, allies but somehow also enemies at the same time (the reversal also works), healthy but still deadly sportsmanship, and the most common one, enemies to allies/lover Spoiler

every allies that MC gets are all enemies to allies, even MC an ML relation ship of full of gunpowder smell when they already dating, they are fighting but the next thing you know, they already making out in front of everyone lol, there also 1 or 2 allies to enemies later though not like, turned into extremely hostile enemies

[collapse] And damn, this novel still going on strong even with 550+ chapter, a novel with good plot AND 200+ chapter ? That just a guaranteed quality right there. No rushed ending definitely, usually BL with 200+ chapter is just dogblood drama or e-sport.