Extra Works Hard Chapter 45 Discussion

NOTE: WE GET ACTUAL CHARACTER & ENVIRONMENT DESCRIPTIONS!!! Mostly hair/eye color and simple prop object stuff, but it's definitely an improvement to most webnovels

This story gets serious props for realism. It's a transmigration story, but the person in question really didn't want to transmigrate, and the situation he's in is pretty much awful (no family, new environment, etc). He also has kind of limited knowledge of the story he's transmigrated into.

So unlike every other transmigration protagonist that freaks out for about 12 minutes before accepting their fate and deciding on a goal, This protagonist basically freaks out for 3 straight years. He's kind of an anxious wreck, afraid to talk with people because he doesn't want his identity found out but equally lonely. The real problem is that his body is a total wreck, for reasons that aren't really explained as well as terrible habits.

The problem with this is that reading chapter after chapter about someone who is just violently ill and miserable is, well, not particularly interesting or enjoyable. I found myself skipping paragraphs and missing nothing but further descriptions of nosebleeds or dizzy spells. Also, if you've got any medical knowledge, several of his fainting episodes don't make any sense, magic or no, but whatever. That being said, the story does a really good show-don't-tell method of his illness. The MC in question basically ignores it because his new body was always like this, and we don't have the thoughts of the supporting cast cooing over how pitiful and broken he is, which again makes it feel real.

Sickness aside, the plot and story is quite good. It's definitely romance, but they don't start with crushes on each other and, again, the relationship feels much more natural and realistic than most stories.

The fantasy setting, magic system, fantasy races, etc. Are there, but not really investigated in detail. The world is interesting, and the magic is more old school high magic which is nice, but there isn't a ton of worldbuilding here, especially because MC won't leave the academy for the most part.