A Tale Of Changing Gongs Chapter Completed Discussion

Let's cut the chase as this one is ailed by multiple wounds...

At the onset of the story—and the very first superficial look—the plot seems interesting as from the pov of MC and his gang this is a post-apocalyptic world preceeded by a good old infinite-flow horror game. To make it seem fresh and compelling the author is picking from various plots and tropes, while mixing up the above, like: fight against foreordained destiny; secret ploys; self-sacrifice; weak-minded, scummy former partner; npc turned human; and an obsessive, violent puppy new love interest. But in the end, all of it comes through in a mediocre package that just falls flat. At least that's my opinion as a webnovel binger with a voracious appetite as I already read those tropes executed in a better or more memorable way. Which in itself wouldn't be that much of an issue, but surprisingly enough, this book turned out to be a plot-driven one.

And with that we come to my greatest problem with the story: the romance. I think from a book titled A Tale Of Changing Gongs I can reasonably expect it to be a bit more focused on the romantic developments, unfortunately, I was entirely and utterly wrong, because compared to the MC even a block of concrete has more emotions and I'm kind of hard-pressed to even talk about romance here, the chemistry is so lacking between the leads throughout the whole book. Although even "lack of chemistry" might not entirely be fitting as it's more about the MC not giving any sort of emotional response to the ML, but more about that in a spoiler bracket.Spoiler

From the pov of romantic emotions I find the MC kind of a mess, to be honest. I get it that he is more "reserved" in that respect both because he was raised with duty in mind and the author made him out to be a special clairvoyant of his tribe who inherits the memories of all of his predecessors, however, his actions don't really match the supposed intensity of his feelings.

He held on in the nightmare game for years due to his "love" and wish to see his lover once again, and when he finds out he was replaced and grossly betrayed there's a tiny, tiny spike then the line goes flat again? Okay, he had years to come to terms with what he might face on his return and he truly only wanted to see the man again, but still... That's not really love...

Then there's our ML whom, if not for his dedicated feelings, I'd have wished to transplant from the story because he deserved better.

Everything else has a long buildup so any kind of romantic "development" between the leads is late stage, as in maybe late 70s, c80, c82, and c90—at least those are what I can somewhat recall although I wouldn't dare to vouch for 100% accuracy—out of 91 chapters. But I'm using development here very loosely as all of those are the ML's one-sided efforts or outbursts due to him getting zero feedback from the MC on where he stands, and outside of those brief moments we are all business. Then in the closing chapter we finally get the confession of the century and the relationship confirmation since nothing screams love like telling your man that you weren't willing to say you had feelings for him before running off to commit su*cide with another due to fear of not coming back and always making him lower than your very last priority beforehand. I hope my sarcasm is apparent and this is why I'm saying they lack chemistry: MC shows a lot more care toward others while ML is taken for granted or ignored by him.

As far as I'm concerned, ML's tender affections only exist so author and an important side character would have a super OP, willing s*ave, and that the humanity saving scheme would succeed with MC alive after it. The finishing touch of MC finally responding to ML's feelings in a positive manner added just so it can be called a happy ending.

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Rating: 2 stars — Albeit the plot is nothing to write home about and the conclusion was a bit weak, it can be said that the author's initial vision was carried through and came to full circle. I also didn't run into any of my landmines.

Conclusion & Recommendation: This might be alright for newer readers or if you cannot find anything better and feel particularly bored. The emotional line is so flat that it can't be resusciated anymore, it's basically non-existent. I absolutely don't recommend the story if you are looking for romance.

Disclaimer: As always, I read via MTL, so take what I say with a grain of salt.