- #1
I agree with a lot of people in this about how it did get a little too smooth and monotonous after a few arcs. The selling point of this novel for me anyway is that it's got quite a few unique and really interesting "worlds" or tasks. Additionally the MC is not a crazy person who adapts super easily in the first world and is instead led to overachieve by the ML who doesn't settle for less. Though that's only really for the first arc because they become crazy op after said arc due to all the extra points from the beginner stage extended quests.The extended quests were really exciting at the beginning, but because they happened at every arc and you knew they were coming without fail and that the main couple would always pass, they lost traction after a while. It's just too smooth with no setbacks ever. However they were very interesting still sometimes even though I expected it and I really liked reading the progression of them like "leveling" up without the monotony that a lot of cultivation/fighting novels tend to have with boss fights and such. I was mainly reading this almost with a slice of life kind of attitude in that I was relaxed and not really expecting very much tension from this anyway so it was good. Like I didn't really mind that there was nothing much or unexpected happening because I knew it wouldn't. I liked the uniqueness of certain arcs bad how mc/ML sort of solved them and I enjoyed the way the MC broke down gaming logic as he's a game designer himself. Idk how to explain it- you have to go into this knowing that the mc/ML pair will just succeed at whatever they do. It lacks the complexity and tension of a lot of other survival games on this website so don't go expecting that. Not many returning side characters of any interest besides mc/ML couple (except for the short amount of time they had a third teammate person who was like a hacker but it wasn't very long in my opinion nor was he expanded on very much). I appreciated the fact that they sort of had to work to find each other kind of (like they didn't remember the identity of the other person after the game but the ML found him through some descriptions MC gave of his life).Romance was also ok at best. ML kind of is a little crazy (like the tiniest bit yandere without actually going there) because he doesn't really care about people excluding MC which can be argued that neither does MC, but he's like a little too ok with death and killing and stuff I guess? Idk how better to explain like he's toeing the line at being a little bit psycho. He gets pissed at people for even wanting to be friendly or just the most basic interaction with MC which sometimes is common in webnovels but that much jealousy honestly makes me personally feel like the relationship could get abusive (even though I know it won't in this) because it's such a red flag in real life. I also do agree with other reviewer about how it progressed a little too quick and was also kind of annoying to read the two of them after a while. I really hated the descriptions of their interactions after a while cuz its like the same thing over and over- like I found myself skimming so much of their relationship and other stuff going on outside the survival arcs (and that's usually some of my favorite parts like seeing them grow and the plot in the real world also progress, but on this there was basically no real world plot anyway).Spoiler
like technically the ml's family tried to mu*der him which landed him in the survival game in the first place, but literally handled in like a couple chapters. Like probably gave that plot line like 2 paragraphs between every arc and that's it. Besides that, it was entirely just mc/ML being "romantic" but with little substance IMO.
[collapse]But overall, I think this is a good novel to read if you like the survival genre and are lacking content. Its actually pretty good and I liked it, but it just couldn't live up to the better novels in the genre like Card Game and The Earth is Online. It's kind of it's own thing and not really the same as a lot of the survival/horror in that it's really not as complex or serious IMO but that could also be considered it's positive because it doesn't have a lot of convoluted logic or plot that sometimes make those novels tedious. Treat it less seriously and something to read if you're bored since it's interesting and quick. Horror tag doesn't really apply except like one arc or something.