Someone in LitRPG Books recommended this webnovel. The post was asking for stuff somewhat similar to the premise of Reborn Apocalypse by L. M. Kerr. To me that’s the best cultivation series right now so naturally I was very interested in everything people recommended. There’s not been a volume of Reborn I didn’t like, unlike Cradle which is the runner up imho. I just wish the next book would come out for both of those gems.
If I had to rate it compared to the, imho, the superior western litrpg out there, it would only be a decent series to sink your time in. However, rated against other eastern fantasy and litrpg it’s a very good webnovel. Oh, just fyi this isn’t cultivation. Also, it lacks many of the awful tropes you might see in other eastern fantasy series.
The only annoying thing to me is perhaps the applauded arrogance and eye for an eye mentality you always see in eastern fantasy is in there, but for the most part it’s not really chaotic evil like you might see in others. I wish I could say those elements are understated, but you at least won’t picture the mc as some punchable asshole talking with his nose cartoonishly held high like he smelled burnt hair on shit just looking at you.
Part of that distaste for arrogance in that form is certainly cultural. As here we tend to value humility a lot and think it’s not good to get too big of a head no matter how successful you get. I don’t think everyone who reads these will have a problem with it. But I feel it important to point out out none the less. I’ve already read almost a hundred chapters and haven’t seen anything like you might find in other eastern fantasy novels anyway. Which is surprising.
It’s pretty good, the writer is finished with it, and it’s fully translated so I thought why not share my impression. It’s a very good translation and the editing is British English. The main character gets a, thus far unexplained, reincarnation just before his would be death to a sniper. His consciousness gets transmigrated back ten years to his eighteen year old self. A VRMMORPG called Conviction has been out for just a week or so and he uses his experience from his former life to quickly excel. I don’t think I need to point out that he plays as a thief.
The pacing is not very good, but it’s not awful. It’s just that the writer does too much with one day of playing and you’ll find yourself wishing there were a few time jumps or timelapses here or there to go ahead a week or a month. I’ve also noticed he’s sort of been plot armored as a good leader despite not being very charismatic or much of a people’s person. He’s also not very good at teaching people, but in my experience in mmo’s and leading guilds if you’re not good that you’re unlikely to be a successful leader. It helps even more if you enjoy talking with people and teaching them about the game in question.
Despite that he’s portrayed as good at leading and sometimes teaching. Even though he often avoids teaching people. That said sometimes you might think he’s a little too greedy, but honestly he isn’t. He’s far better than most mc’s you’ll see in eastern fantasy, he’s just not a very caring person. It’s the typical tribal mindset where he only cares about his own.
Anyway, some of the basic problems I have come down to taste after everything I mentioned. In my opinion the very best VRMMORPG novel is Codename Freedom series by Apollos Thorne. Because the system in it doesn’t hold your hand for skills or anything for that matter. You have to learn to do everything and all the things you accomplish in grinding can actually carry over to the real world. Codename is a kind of western Nen cultivation series by the way.
Now in this it’s the opposite. Only movement type actions such as dodging or certain martial arts like using a skill with your foot are not handled by the system. Skills you might’ve known in reality do not carry over as they do in Ascend Online.
And finally the last thing that I didn’t like about the vr was that the npcs are merely sapient virtual interfaces at best and not sentient beings you might find in Daniel Schinhofen’s Alpha World, Apocalypse Gates, and Luke Chmilenko’s Ascend Online. This tends to take a lot of potential investment you might have out of the world. Despite that I didn’t have the urge to drop it like I did with Limitless Lands. Still all that said it’s certainly worth a read.
Sconnie Books 