The Amber Sword

Description

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An RPG gamer who played the realistic VRMMORPG ‘The Amber Sword’ for years, finds himself teleported to a parallel world that resembled the game greatly. He takes on the body of an NPC who was fated to die, and with the feelings of the dying NPC and his own heartrending events in the game, he sets out to change the fate of a kingdom that was doomed to tragedy.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Heroes of Amber
TAS
琥珀之剑
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
I am the Monarch (12)
Release that Witch (12)
Night Ranger (10)
The Second Coming of Gluttony (8)
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending (7)
Sevens (7)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Masterpieces in their own category
  2. The Mt. Tai of Chinese Novels
  3. Win Life with War Strategies
  4. Western Names Part 2
  5. A Web-Novel otaku's MUST READ. (CN version)

Latest Release

Date Group Release
03/25/24 Otaku translation v1c15
03/22/24 Otaku translation v1c14
03/20/24 Otaku translation v1c13
03/18/24 Otaku translation v1c12
03/16/24 Otaku translation v1c11
03/13/24 Otaku translation v1c10
03/12/24 Otaku translation v1c9
03/11/24 Otaku translation v1c8
03/08/24 Otaku translation v1c7
03/07/24 Otaku translation v1c6
03/05/24 Otaku translation v1c5
03/04/24 Otaku translation v1c4
03/03/24 Otaku translation v1c3
02/29/24 Otaku translation v1c2
02/27/24 Otaku translation v1c1
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154 Reviews sorted by


Ixcez
Ixcez rated it
February 12, 2024
Status: Completed
Well I have to say that contrary to my first take on this story I liked it a lot. There are good sides and bad sides but overall this is a gem in hiding. First off I just wanna point out that some of the negative reviews here are kinda weird and makes me wonder if they read it before posting their reviews or not.

For instance the story is based of a dude being transported into an MMORPG with virtual reality gameplay that he has played to death. So there... more>> being game elements in the story isn't that weird, however the setting is that the MC is the only one with a "game screen" so he can see things like stats, lvls, have item drops and so on. Basically his cheat or gold finger as they like to call it is that everything has a game element to it whenever the MC is involved. This allows him to grow stronger instantly and at an impossible rate while everyone else has to work hard for it and slowly go stronger for the most part. I do however agree that the translator make the story a bit weird by using japanese terms and also editing some parts fairly heavily.

Now when it comes to the bad parts, most of it in my opinion is the fact that the author to some degree hadn't exactly decided on what kind of novel they wanted to write and instead they try to be a bit all over the place. Which can be both good or bad at points but overall I find it sort of obvious at points that the author was making an arc about something or wanted to write about something they thought would be epic and then just seemingly drop it or don't further elaborate on it enough.

For the good parts, I think there are quite a lot, for one the MC starts out very weak but uses his knowledge to his advantage and eventually becomes powerful but he isn't the be all end all that many MC's are in these kind of stories instead quite often the MC has to run away or is defeated / forced to a draw but eventually he become super powerful but at the same time so does his enemies. I also like the fact that the author included magic the gathering into the story some spoiler on MC powers.

Spoiler

Basically as previously mentioned the MC's initial cheat is that he get's a game screen and he and things he interact with work with game logic. For instance when he bandages someone they will heal 5 hp over 5 seconds which makes it seem like he's using magic since bandages doesn't work that way but in a game they do. This does have both it's ups and downs since the MC for instance can instantly lvl up a lot if he has the XP but at the same time he's limited to the amount of lvls he can get. While a native of the world would probably have the opposite problem easily reaching the first few lvls in multiple classes but having a hard time reaching a high lvl. The MC also has the downside of that with his game elements he has to find items or something to unlock a class or skill and so on while a native might not.

Also because the MC is someone who has crossed over to another world he becomes a planewalker like in magic the gathering which allows him to use cards he finds from other planewalkers in real life but also eventually create cards on his own. So he basically has two cheats, it's just that other ppl can and have become planewalkers through out history it's just that no one has a game screen and can make stuff act like the game like he can.

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There is a lot of depth here and I really think the world in the story is for the most part well thought out and fairly original overall from what I've read on here, this story is from 2010 so there might be similar stories like it but haven't read any that came out before this. Just overall a fun read in my book.

There is harem elements in the story and while I am a bit torn on the whole harem trope I think it sort of works here since instead of just having the MC meet new girls to conquer. Here the female characters actually have some depth where you get to know them for the most part and there is some focus on them as well and to be honest I don't think the author at first wanted or planned to make this into a story with the harem trope at first but it changed after about halfway into the story.

Lastly if you like medieval fantasy stories with a game twist then this is probably up your alley if not probably not as much. <<less
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Rocky9
Rocky9 rated it
March 24, 2022
Status: --
Another good novel destroyed because author let his lower half controls him and it's a pity because it was really good.
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Thousand Vangs
Thousand Vangs rated it
February 12, 2022
Status: v5c9
  1. I wanted to give 4 stars purely because the lore in it is very good and leave you imagine a big world but I'll give it 3 after all, it's the first novel that irritate me so much, heck I even have the feel to bring it lower. It's only the first parts of the volumes that is enjoyable to read. The rest of the volume just felt convoluted for me. It's a chore to read more than anything To summarize this review

    Good parts

    - Tons of lore in this novel

    - Good fight choreography

    - artistic illustration

    Bad

    - Altered details and description in the latter part of the story

    - Too many seemingly random names of important stature popped up and went unexplained

    - Rather bad translation, names would got changed from time to time and paragraphs that doesn't feel flowing in the sentences

    - The story always got cut at the best part possible. Like, someone confessing their love, the lover about to answer but the story would cut at that point and continue at some random dude fishing. When he done fishing and back to the lover they would already dating for months and have another problem instead. It will happen hundreds of time, at every possible peak of story even when battling bosses

    - Hundreds of chapter just for a set of incessant battles. I can say 70% of. The story is about battles or annoying circumstances that led to it. - Convoluted, confusing story development

    - Badly done multiple point of view

    - Rather verbose (if you patient enough it instead depicts the scenery quite a lot). And it get worse as story went on.

    - Timeline of history is messed up.

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Poireau
Poireau rated it
May 29, 2020
Status: v2c166
This novel is quite complex to read and I understand why people rate it that high: because it is quite different from other chineese novel and closer to classical fantasy books in the description of the feodal world.

But, I think that the world's building and shemes are overly complicated: the author is going to spend several chapters and pov to described and create the background of characters that will fight with the MC... for 1-2 chapter before (1) some new random characters are introduced to make the fighting messier and... more>> (2) the MC win through an ex machina through is "card" cheat, making all previous schemes/preparations useless.

The writting can really be dense and detailed but it also feels quite fuzzy. The goals of the MC are quite clear but unfortunately, he is always dragged in the schemes of other characters over and over: "the MC needs a stele from an abandonned Elf temple" becomes "The MC fought against different factions for dozen of chapters because a mercenary chief used him as a decoy". And because the MC is not ruthless/decesive enough, these schemes last forever...

I'm also not into the "card" cheat. The MC is already OP because he knows most of the secrets of this world and the timing of the events, that adding this "card" cheat (quite complicated to understand btw) was not necessary at all as the value of his stats are forgotten quite fast.

Maybe I was not in the mood to work out my brain when reading this novel, but should you want to read this novel, make sure you will want to digest all the details thrown to your face at each chapter. This is not a novel for binge or normal reading: you'll need to take it slow. The author is also not that good to help your brain to digest all these informations: In term of similar dense world building, Lord Of The Mysteries managed to make it pleasant to read, too bad... <<less
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undyingcockroach24
undyingcockroach24 rated it
March 22, 2020
Status: v3c82
ok, so this started out great and it still is until now but one character is reallllllly getting on my nerves

Spoiler

the female lead romaine always gets them into trouble and acts like a freaking idiot and the MC still likes her and tells her that she did nothing wrong it's absolutely frustrating and I can't tolerate it anymore.

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Steviason
Steviason rated it
April 3, 2019
Status: v3c225
The characters all throughout this book will be going "whoa like so cool how does he know these things!" "Amazing I have never seen anything like it!" In regards to the MC.

It gets explained away by him being a fan of the game and going through nearly everything he can.

Let us be honest you probably wouldn't even remember half the stuff he does even if you did what he did.

... more>> The army vs army stuff is meh. It can certainly be worse but it's not exactly good either.

Things happen way too conveniently for him. The amount of things he finds by accident is just way too convenient. Like Halan Graia being in a mine essentially, being held by a magic arena inside the mine.

Somehow he knows things that not even the most educated person knows about in his world and the "it's from the game" excuse doesn't work when the game had these people in it and centered on them. The second excuse the novel likes to throw around is its technical time travel.

O, an I would really be surprised if his not the descendant of the dragon of darkness if not the dragon himself but just doesn't remember everything because his spirit "shadow" appears to really like him. <<less
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Eriht
Eriht
November 30, 2018
Status: v4
Well, judging this novel as a whole is kinda hard. Mainly because style of writing was constantly changing. Looking back descriptions and actions of players on world very varied between volumes making the whole mess even more chaotic...

Spoiler

vol 1 - 56 chapters:

  • Pretty decent (4/5)

vol 2 - 166 chapters

Spoiler

Whole moral of 2/3 story:

Random group of town civilians is

    • faster than whole undead army that don't even need to rest (including air units and cavalry)
    • stronger: facing overwhelming armies they had absurdly low losses
      [collapse]
First 2/3 chapters were just not for me (2/5) Rest was rather interesting (4/5)

vol 3 - 392 chapters

  • Starting 1/3 about growth (5/5) of influence (3/5)
    Spoiler

    One day protagonist looked over and saw desolate, worthless and dangerous land. - My future land is "few hundreds li" from this wasteland. Yup lets just take it over.

    [collapse]
  • Another 1/3 tell us story about journey to his promised land (2/5)
  • Rest is just pure madness (1/5)

vol 4 - 171 chapters.

  • Hoped for more of influence screen time, only to get solo adventurer MC. Constantly risking his life while having many immortals (life, not strength wise) as subordinates. (0/5 drop)
    [collapse]
tldr: if we only look at first 3 vol: 3/5, then it drop down
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Archer Sterling
Archer Sterling rated it
September 12, 2018
Status: v3c171
First, hats off to the translator for their work.

As for the novel itself... it's a disappointment. The novel has great potential and it sucks to see that potential wasted. The strongest thing this novel has going for it is the world itself. It's massive, filled with deep lore and history, factions of power each with their own goals and internal strife. As a reader I couldn't wait to discover more about this world and it's inhabitants.

The bad:

The story structure gets stale pretty quickly. Either MC goes on exploring or there... more>> is a segment of world-building, MC uses "gamer" knowledge (memories) or gets lucky and finds OP item, encounter enemy who is more powerful, fight, somehow wins (?) or escape just in hairs breadth, repeat.

Other than the MC and his side chicks who takes most of the screen time the rest of the characters aren't that memorable or interesting. As you read more you'll find that the main character serves as a self-fulfillment insert who does heroic deeds due to his "gamer" knowledge. And due to these heroic deeds, side characters will always be surprise and internally praise about how great he is almost all the time. It gets annoying. The female characters are reduce to being side chicks at his side; there to fulfill an harem quota. Only one of them, Freya, have actual character development.

MC seems to have a cognitive disconnect from what is "real life" and the game he use to play. Dude dies while gaming, gets sent into the "real" world of the game and suddenly accepts it. Treats it like a game throughout all three volumes. Whether if that is his way of coping or not I haven't seen it. When he has this mentality of being the chosen one and treating it as a game, over and over again often to leading him to making some s*upid, hasty, and impulsive decisions you can't help but question why he hasn't died yet.

Game system/mechanics of the world is a little convoluted and doesn't really add anything to the story. Cultivation system... story doesn't need it. The Planeswalker card system is a cool power up but very confusing to understand.

The worst aspect of the story is the way the author introduce strong characters and set up dire situation. These characters are always introduced in a similar manner with the MC having an internal monologue about how amazing and strong they are back in the game and how he shouldn't confront them right now; but does so anyways and is able to fight them to a stalemate or even beat them? I understand introducing strong characters to create tension but when the MC pulls an ass-pull, it's hard giving a shit. Situations such as life-and-death pans out in a similar way. Due to the fact that the MC and his side chicks often act in a way unfitting of the situation they are in. If the MC doesn't care why should the reader?

Could have been a great story if it wasn't a story about a bland overpower main character and a world that constantly revolves around him. Good enough read to hold your attention; although, the flaws become more apparent to the point where you can't help but notice them.

It's a novel with great potential and to see that potential squandered is frustrating. <<less
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ratata
ratata rated it
September 1, 2018
Status: v2c122
I must say that this is one of the best novels i've read. The tension is real. Plus I'm very grateful for the effort put in by the tl. This wouldn't have been this good if he didn't make the changes he did.
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Ramey
Ramey rated it
April 26, 2018
Status: v3c125
This novel has lore so deep that at some point you will give up remembering places and people and would just read it for shear fairytail nature of every new chapter when it gets those hard waited release.

I suggest keep buffering and do a bing that way u can connect at least cliff to cliff
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killjase
killjase rated it
April 20, 2018
Status: v2c10
Dropping this. It says Chinese novel, but it's clearly Japanese wish-fulfilment harem novel with semi-braindead MC's companions (and MC too in some cases).

Characters are 19 years old, but act like 13 who have been drugged with large amounts of aphrodisiac. Blushing while fighting life and death battles, just because of random sentence they misinterpreted (while only knowing each other for one day, I might add). Sometimes forgetting that they are even in life and death battles to start to explain character backgrounds. There is no deep fall in romance plotline.... more>> The girl side characters act like they have huge crush on MC (especially the one girl who only knows him for one day).

MC is constantly making horrible decisions. Knows huge boss battle ahead, gives explanation only when 1 min is remaining till life and death struggle, thus not being able to fully explain the fight cause of the time limit.

Honestly, read because I liked the concept and the plot, but even plot turned into sh*t because of MC's s*upid, illogical decisions.

Honestly, the translation quality is good, and was the only thing that drove me to finish the first volume, but even my patience has a limit. <<less
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EricBannen
EricBannen rated it
January 23, 2018
Status: v3c96
The story is great... The world is beautiful... The author has tendency to get lost in his own story or world... But the pace and originality is maintained... This is worth reading for a different take on a game based reincarnation story which has few game elements; but still has an interesting story.... I would definitely suggest this novel.... 4.5/5
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TheGamingNerd
TheGamingNerd rated it
November 1, 2017
Status: --
Already chapter 8092? OMG I just leave it for a second and this happens already translated chapter 8092 in the future (Just kidding Just a joke Beep Beep)

The novel overall is okay I think the plot is boring but the game elements really ruined this novel I don't know I think if it was a cultivation system Like Iron Bronze Silver Gold Diamond Jade Emperor Sovereign God (God included) Lord of Gods Or something this would be more interesting I think the game elements are just common they don't... more>> have anything good about them if this had something interesting about it's system Like Level up are RPG like super average nothing special but they're is nothing more its just a leveling system and our MC knows everything I think if the system had received extra attention from the author it could make this novel hell lot better

Another thing I think the author didn't put alot of imagination it's just grinding every day super boring if the MC had some sudden powerups (not special equipment he gets some but meh I don't like ehm he will throw them away sometime) I think the plot became boring in the moment he learned about godly items like the last boss rod (dont remember name its a staff which makes necromancers overpowered)

And lastly the author made the novel pretty small in the world building I think if you put some more things into it it would make someone wanna read it but it's a common routine Eat Romance sh*t Grind Sleep (there are some special events but I don't really think they are special classic cliches is a better definition)

Overall i'll put an 3/5 cause it is readable >_< there are some novels that are unreadable and wtf at least this follows some common sense XD <<less
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TerraEarth
TerraEarth rated it
September 17, 2017
Status: v1c0
The Amber Sword is an impressive novel amongst its peers on this site. The best CN I've read to date in fact. It's lavished with originality and is a much needed breath of fresh air. I've probably read over a hundred different translations on NU and The Amber Sword has them all beat. There's no blurts about Mt. Tai, or incense sticks, vomiting blood or infinite loops of conflict with insert hilariously irrational mob character here. This work does away with all the baggage that has plagued novels of this... more>> type and not once relies on your stereotypical CN mainstay tropes. Can you name even one other CN that does the same?

The story has emotional impact and is rife with heroism throughout. The cast feels balanced and developed. Side characters aren't merely shoved to the side as what often occurs in novels in this category. Everything feels as if it has a purpose in the story and is actually thought through (surprise!). The magic (Magic the gathering inspired, or so I hear) was somewhat peculiar to get used to, but after you do it's great. I look forward to just about everything in this novel (other than the infodumps) whether it be character interactions, plot progressions, battle scenes or otherwise.

This doesn't mean that TAS is free of flaws; for example, the author will often abuse info dumping at times and that can be a bit wearisome. But these flaws are few and far in between. I can even forgive them due to the merits far outweighing any grievances. Although the infodumps can be tedious at times, the novel does a great job of building up a world complete with a unique lore and magic system. There is a -slight- abuse of powerlevel profiling as well (couldn't escape all the tropes, huh?) but it is not nearly as bad or as noticeable in some other novels.

All in all, I've spent a lot of time reading hundreds of CNs, JNs and KNs on this site and it's difficult for me to think of anything that tops this novel for me. Give it a try and see for yourself. <<less
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paradoxez
paradoxez rated it
August 30, 2017
Status: v3c19
I almost dropped it at first book because overwhelming info dumps and some female cast that I wasn't too found of.

Then I managed to read until a little bit into book 2 and holy cow, MC becomes charismatic as hell when he made those under him fall into awe. The lore is deep as hell and luckily at this point you start to be able to grasp what is what when they threw to lore info dump at you and you actually appreciates them.

So you might be like me and... more>> hate book 1 but likely like the story past book 2 and beyond, the Casts development are there! Plot also gets way better compared to book1 which at first seems somewhat rigid.

MC is a overall one of a very morally good person which is nice. Also, as noted by harem tag, there there indeed female casts who fall for/appears to develop feeling for MC. Still, it's good that even female character appears they aren't all like single depth and falls for MC if he happens to offer help along the way, rather some remains vigilant and guarded for a long time to gauge MC motives, or either kept it at respecting and admiring his chivalry which is nice. Don't misunderstand me, I personally like harem genre but it better be realistic enough that they don't always just fall for him over something like 'he saves me' in a single chapter. If not then i'd rather have it kept it respecting relationship as to not devalue the female cast into flat single dimension character.

If you like I am the monach, then you will likely like this series as well as MC are both the same morally judge kind of person. Do note that it only starts to get as good as 'i am the monach' on around ~ book2 chapter 10+ though (Not book 1). <<less
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13th Echelon
13th Echelon rated it
June 17, 2017
Status: --
Translation 4/5 - It's not perfect but it's good.

Story 4/5 - It's a little complicated story with a lot of terms, detailed description that you will not remember by the next chapter. I want to give it 3.5 but the story is still in the good side.

Action 3/5 - Not bad. A little repetitive. Speed of Update 5/5 - There's nothing I can criticize. Good work!
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scribbledoutname
scribbledoutname rated it
May 23, 2017
Status: v2c134
Dropped temporarily at volume 2 chapter 134 (which I suppose is chapter 190 overall?).

At this point I've run out of stamina. The Amber Sword starts good and continually bets better until it suddenly falls in love with itself. At that point, the story begins alternating between pointlessly detailed description, rambling exposition and completely unnecessary POV switches (which always contain the former two). Brendel's actual progress -- both in terms of strength and in terms of achieving his goals -- slows to a crawl.

Why three stars? Because while the story itself... more>> stays good, it's so diluted that (at the point I'm at) it's become a chore to read. I've been waiting for it to get good again for some time but this is the limit of my patience. It was initially a 5 star story, hands down.

Also, a large part of my loss of patience is Romaine. I absolutely hate her as both a member of the "cast" and love interest. I wish she'd been killed off earlier in the story. It feels like the author is trying to make her this mischievous, "Oh you!"-type character, but given how she keeps f*cking around while everyone is fighting for their lives, she's just a massive pest. Enemies are trying to mu*der them and yet she's still doing dumb sh*t like
Spoiler

stealing, hiding and lying about not having Exploding Crystals when everyone could die. The only remotely interesting thing about Romaine is her aunt -- I want to see just how powerful she is as a witch.

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<<less
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Asterism
Asterism rated it
March 7, 2017
Status: c112
This story is pretty good, and the world-building is amazing; I especially liked how sword-styles are used in the game and how players were able to interact with the history of the world.

The translator modifying the text actually improves the way it reads in the English language; there is less redundant text and the meaning and sentence logic is easier to convey. His skills improve with every chapter he releases though; some of the earlier translation quality might not be as good.
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DaDeDiDoDu
DaDeDiDoDu rated it
February 26, 2017
Status: --
When I began this novel, the first chapter instantly got me. It's just a single chapter, yet it managed to properly give "life" and portray the MC??, w/c convinced me to continue reading. And so I read the story. The first parts were good, and so were the second, and so on...... other comments have already described the many good points of the story, and I also agree with them.

But then again, if you look closely, you will see that the author probably went through the story several times... more>> to add stuff in order to make it better, give it more flesh, more details. And each arc is well-done. However, if you back away just a little and look at bigger picture, it becomes really chaotic. There's nothing wrong with adding a sprinkle of danger and adventure here and there to make things more exciting, but the pace has no build-ups and lacks any "breathing room".

Also, the author's attempts at bringing emotions out during the sentimental parts sometimes feel awkward..... and it happens often. Wait, I almost forgot, I should have mentioned this before any of those I typed above. One of the biggest flaw in the novel is the memories of the "game" that the MC played. Seriously, can those goddamned realistic sh*t be called a GAME? I mean, did he play Sword Art Online, Log Horizon or a death game of some kind?? My point is, the gamer Sophie's character seems to be too well honed for a mere modern-day gamer. I know that the author obvoiusly want to give the MC his veteran status. However, the things that described his life in the game doesn't sound logical at ALL, even if it was a virtual mode. I can agree to it if he possesses vast knowledge about the game, but the matured and emotional things he experience had sound more appropriate coming from an actual battle-tempered war veteran, which he is not.

And there's the novel's so called "Mother Marsha" a.k.a. Author that keeps throwing incidents where the problems would be solved by "I've-never-seen-these-in-the-game" power-ups one after another. Well, I really don't dislike it that much, I've seen it in other Wuxia novels and I just roll with it. But the other problem is, as the story has "virtual game" and "fantasy" elements, I thought that the MC would use powers WITHIN the limits of its system. But until now, I still can't understand the complex, complicated, and convoluted system of the game (especially those damned cards). The author keeps adding so many terms and things on the system that piles up on top of each other, which is tedious and unnecessary since this is a novel and not an actual game. <<less
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tyes77
tyes77 rated it
January 10, 2017
Status: c84
This novel is a fun premise of a MC transported into a game which he failed at. He strives to solve things with his mediocre power instead relying on commanding instead. He slowly accumulate rare drops and becomes a sort of commander/knight class. The pace drops off around 50 chapter mark and seems to be written from there as if the author had been drinking. You can see the MC slowly gathering his forces and finances but to be honest even with 84 chapters he is still a wandering knight... more>> with no base. The novel is 3 stars at its current pacing and weird swap of characters as of the latest chapter dragging the story in a snail's pace.

To be honest I wouldn't recommend any newcomers to this novel because of the translation speed and pace of it as he will probably still be wandering around with no base by next year. <<less
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