Surviving in a Romance Fantasy Novel Chapter 48 Discussion

So. I've read the MTL'd version of this novel to c48 or so, and believe me when I say it's barely comprehensible. Like most Murim novels, there's a plethora of terms that translator algorithms struggle to interpret, so Korean-speaking interpreters are very important here. Support translation efforts if you can!

As for the novel itself - it is very focused on harem/romance shenanigans. I''ll be making a judgement based on what I've seen to date, but don't expect any thrilling plots or dungeon-crawling or such; the novel's story is almost entirely centered on the women (some manner of princesses or nobility) that grow closer to the protagonist and quickly fall in love with him after he's resolved some trouble of theirs. For now, there hasn't yet been any actual intimacy or such happening, but it may happen in the future. (In story the protagonist doesn't want to have a romantic relationship with them due to these women being part of the imperial harem, so it would be an automatic death sentence if this was discovered by the imperial court).

Summary/synopsis (No major spoilers) : Ghosts and demons exist, magic does too (taoist magic) which is primarily used to deal with such beings. There is a sickness, extremely painful with a mortality rate of some 99%, that grants the survivors superhuman powers (these can be extremely strong). Our protagonist contracted it when he was young, granting him incredible physical attributes, combat instinct and mastery over the sword. He also happens to be a transmigrated individual (of the type where he read some story then just entered it. As of the first chapter, it's already been many years since he transmigrated, so he's actually lived through the disease and actually quite the cruel past), and hence has a pretty good understanding/general idea of the future from having read the og story he's transmigrated into (beware, butterfly effect things and "hidden plotlines" that had not been known before abound). His sister (Seol Ran) shares genuine familial love with him, and is the original protagonist of a "reverse harem" story where various male figures with high positions in the country fall in love with her (She's not the focus of the story), and provides the rationale for him living in the imperial palace as a simple low-rank warrior. Yet despite his lowly position, due to luck, his incredible abilities as well as his general kindness and willingness to risk his life to help others, he becomes heavily involved with women in high positions with whom he isn't normally allowed to interact with.

Reasons to like this novel:

Harem/heroine focused. Many harem novels have a strong focus on the protagonist growing stronger/defeating monsters/saving the world, with girls only incidentally falling in love with the MC. Here instead every plot point is directly linked to a romantic interest, with many of the chapters being written from the perspective of the women or other people around him (I personally am very fond of this), and there *not yet* being an overarching plot/antagonist to fight against (some foreshadowing in the later chapters). As such, if you came here for the harem stuff specifically, you'll find more of it than in the other novels in the same genre. Not much intimacy (hugging, kissing and such) yet though.

Genuinely attractive protagonist. While certainly the heroines do fall in love a little too quickly, the protagonist is objectively a great person; he's talented, compassionate as well as idealistic, willing to risk life and reputation to help others, even without any benefits. He shows great mental tenacity and willingness to bear pain even just to stay by the side of someone suffering to give them emotional reassurance, and doesn't really care for wealth or power. In fact, Spoiler

he doesn't like wielding a real blade due to having killed many before for survival. While he'll say he's lazy and doesn't want to get into trouble, the truth seems to be instead that once he had to kill many in self-defense, and had hated both the killing and the sight of the bereaved families, bitterly wishing that he had found another method to save himself. As such, his dislike of combat is nothing more than his desire to avoid using his own incredible talent for killing, as well as a general wish to live a simple life by the side of those he cares about.

[collapse] He has a rational reason for not accepting the affection of the girls around him, and has verbatim asked them not to fall in love with him, to no avail (they're all quite aware of the danger it could cause), while still having done enough for each woman that their love for him is quite understandable.

Overall, for a harem/romance novel, this is great stuff. I don't understand why this would be rated at 4 or below when many novels in the same genre receive much higher ratings despite having far less charismatic protagonists and much weaker reasoning for the affection borne by would-be heroines.