I started reading this novel because I’m currently reading the author’s latest work, and I thought, “If the recent one is good, maybe this one will be too.” Unfortunately, I was wrong. I wouldn’t say this novel is bad—it’s just hard to read. The world-building is solid, the writing is good, and even the secondary characters mostly fulfill their roles well. You dislike who you’re supposed to dislike and like who you’re supposed to like.The real issue is the MC:Character improvement is slow (or non-existent):The author mentions that the MC improves after a few chapters, but how many chapters exactly? I’m at chapter 75, and he hasn’t gotten better; if anything, he’s worse.At the start, when transported to the game world, the MC is irritating, childish, and rude for no reason (even to people who could kill him instantly). He’s also indecisive, never knowing what he wants. He thinks one thing, says the opposite, regrets it moments later, then acts contrary to his own thoughts.His irrational fear of being killed:He believes everyone in this world will eventually try to kill him because he’s one of the “main villains.” However, this doesn’t make sense anymore since the original reason for him being considered a villain (joining a criminal organization and killing millions) is something he explicitly avoids.Yet, despite this paranoia, he places blind trust in his system and a goddess he made a contract with—when he really shouldn’t.The system openly admits it’s just there to monitor him and that its true master is the one who sent the MC to this world.The goddess only follows him out of necessity, and for all the MC knows, she might try to take over his body or betray him later.Acquiring the original body’s memories worsens his personality:When the MC gets the original body’s memories, you’d expect some improvement—he now knows the original was brainwashed into being the way he was. But instead, his personality worsens.He starts acting like a stereotypical young master from a Chinese novel: arrogant with no power to back it up, relying only on his family name.Ironically, he claims that the ducal family isn’t his family (since, in the original story, they helped kill him). But at the same time, he runs around yelling, “I’m the duke’s son! Do as I say!” while getting mad whenever anyone mentions his family.His obsession with the protagonist’s harem:The MC keeps insisting that the protagonist needs to build a harem to “save the world.” Why? There’s no reason other than, “That’s how it happened in the original story.”I wouldn’t mind if another character or even one of the female leads had a harem—male or female—but the MC spends all his time obsessing over making this happen for the protagonist.There’s no justification for this obsession. The female leads don’t need to be in love with the protagonist to fight against a world-ending threat. This would only make sense if the protagonist had some special ability that empowered others through relationships, but that’s not the case.Overall, there are so many flaws with this MC that it’s exhausting to read. I could go on, but these are the main issues.
