Tower of Karma

Description

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Al was a s*ave born from a prostitute. Constantly being bullied and degraded, Al’s life was hard but as long as his elder sister, the only family he had, was with him, he felt like he could withstand anything. But one day, his older sister sold herself to a noble to obtain money to free Al. Despairing, Al was ready to give up, but with his friends’ encouragement, he started working, hoping that one day he could buy back his sister.

However, a few days later, a servant of that noble came to him and handed him a bag, claiming he was delivering the body back to its place because disposing of it was troublesome. At the very moment Al looked inside the bag, his mind broke.

“Why are we, despite also being human, being treated like tr*sh by people? We all have the same ears and same eyes, and the same color of blood, but it doesn’t matter to anyone. Are we not human?”

He needed to know. He needed to prove them. Al had decided. From now on, Al and his sister would always be together.

As he gently rubbed his belly, Al made a vow.

– The next time, it will be their turn to pay the price.

With those words in his heart, he devoted his whole life improving himself and planning for this single goal.

Knowledge, power, deceit, bribing, betrayal; everything was valid. The first step was to rise through the ranks of the military, no matter the means.

It was going to be him the one to stand at the top of this unsightly world full of madmen.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Karma no Tou
カルマの塔
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Katahane no Riku (1)
Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (LN) (1)
Dungeon Defense (1)
Fate/Zero (1)
Ouroboros Record ~Circus of Oubeniel~ (1)
The Legend of Sun Knight (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. high quality novels
  2. Evil Mc Novels or Similar
  3. Ruthless/cold/evil/neutral mc
  4. Evil/Antihero MC's
  5. Top 100 novel i read

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Review
22 Reviews


Hazery
Hazery
Jun 18, 2016
Status: c18
I will write a temporary review about this story as to make a reader who want to read this story know a little bit about the story, I will edit this review when we past chapter 50...

I am deeply shocked when I start to read the first 2 chapter, it's really different from our usual japanese novel. There is no reincarnation or transported to another world, the MC and his sister is just a s*ave born from a prostitute...

MC is really twisted, so twisted that I can't even relate him... more>> to any other character I have read/known, check the synopsis if you want to know why he is twisted, or at chapter 17 later on...

He is really smart, I can even say he is genius. But, he is really ruthless! He dare to tr*sh another person he deemed unworthy to serve as his stepping stone, even when they are good to MC! Even his plan is (almost) perfect!

The world portrayed by the author is awesome, we can see that many kingdom in area is having a constant skirmish, battle everywhere, state of the kingdom, and many more! The world building progress as the plot progress!

When we read a jp or xianxia novel, we usually seen a noble that has been portrayed as smart and strong, but usually they ended up served as a cannon fodder to MC, and usually they will make the most s*upidest move ever. Not in this novel, in fact they are smart and scary... and this is just a mere noble, can you even imagine what will the bigger noble do?

The battle really make my imagination run wild, the author successfully portrayed the battle beautifully, it makes me imagine how the battle in manga kingdom be, a duel in the middle of war, how mindblowing...

The story in this novel flow smoothly, at first 18 chapter we can see how the MC change his personality, the plot is not fast, but it's not slow either, it's just perfect!

My score in this novel : 5/5 (for now), I really recommend this if you like a really twisted and ruthless MC (not a wannabe saint ruthless MC like in usual xianxia novel) !

Oh btw, please if you didn't even read the story, please don't put 1 star just because you see the synopsis and the tag really didn't suit your taste, I really don't want this novel be like "Sister violated many times in dream and reality" novel, just because someone doesn't like the NTR doesn't mean you deem the novel unworthy and put 1 star to it. Read the novel first then put the rating later on! <<less
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baconaise
baconaise
Aug 24, 2016
Status: c46
Despite the early warning signs that this work was poorly written and its awful exposition, I continued to read Tower of Karma because there were several interesting concepts that it touched upon; battle auras, the dead influencing the living, social castes, military strategies, etc. However, the author is an expert at digging wide but shallow holes. He introduces all these different concepts without ever exploring them in detail. Rather than giving a feeling of mystery, the sheer amount of unclear information has me questioning whether the author fully understood/developed the... more>> story's world before starting to write.

Were that all, I would give Tower of Karma a three star rating. Unfortunately, the bad writing is compounded by the cardinal sin of telling a story: the protagonist is unlikeable. He is talented at everything despite his humble origins as a s*ave, and his only supposed flaw, his mental instability, never causes him to suffer any setbacks and is in fact a source of great martial strength. He also manipulates his "friends" without guilt has no real goal other than power for power's sake.

Finally, I should mention the reason why I dropped this series today. Tower of Karma's tone fluctuates between a serious drama and that of an awful anime. Some works can smoothly combine the two genres into one. This one can't. I barely tolerated the abrupt shift in tone as anime-ish scenes made random appearances until chapter 44, at which point, I had to abandon ship. An adult man speaking in cutesy third-person as he gropes several women's breasts in the middle of a serious war counsel meeting? What the heck?!

In conclusion, this is one of the worst works I have read in a long time. It has lots of mediocre qualities without any strengths. It does not get better as time goes on. Instead, it gets worse. Skip this one. <<less
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Asf
Asf
Oct 27, 2016
Status: c516
Spoiler

This is a story about a s*ave boy bent on revenge, gaining social standing, going to war, and walking the path to become the king of the country, and eventually, the world.

The settings are in the middle ages where knights and nobles rule the country. Where the poor civilian dies from hunger and where s*aves are treated like tools.

This isn't your usually happy go lucky story. The MC is warped and corrupted beyond redemption. He is ambitious, he works harder than anyone, and he is a cold blooded mu*derer. He kept piling up sins to gain power. The more you read the more you will somewhat hate the MC. Because all the bad stuff he did from here on out. He does become stronger than anyone, smarter than anyone and more ambitious than anyone. He eventually holds power in both the economy and politics. He is more like a villain than a protagonist.

He is comparable to lelouche but a more warped version of him.

But its a very interesting story for me to read. It made me laugh, sad, and all other feelings in one go. I recommend it strongly...

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Lonlyking2345
Lonlyking234
Jun 18, 2016
Status: c18
Awesome novel tells the story of how an innocent boy was transformed by his sadistic world into a calculating young psycho reminds me of kaneki from Tokyo ghoul love the novel and I recomend it if your into something a bit darker than the usual oh and I need more chapters
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Albus
Albus
Jun 18, 2016
Status: c20
This is great!

After I read the synopsis I expected something much darker with senseless slaughter of innocents but the MC is very cool-headed (at least when he is planning his rise to the top), and I like the whole split personality thing.

This novel remind me a bit Kingdom (the manga, I don't know if there is a novel).
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TheJudge
TheJudge
Jul 10, 2016
Status: c8
This is not a anti-hero novel. The MC is psychopath, no matter how kind others treat him, he'll kill or backstab them when their guard is down. MC has no special powers, avg power/stats, but has a bit of book smarts because some husband and wife that owns a book store took him in and raised him, who are now both dead, killed by the MC. Aside from all the backstabbing, this book has nothing going for it.

Read if you enjoy watching a psychopathic MC kill/eat anyone and everyone to... more>> further his goal, which is to avenge the dead sister he ate brutally. <<less
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Novelupdatesaccount1
Novelupdates
Dec 29, 2017
Status: c20
I wanted to like this. I really did. Unfortunately the story suffers from extremely poor writing and world building.

The story jumps from scene to scene with no description of the inbetween,

e.g. I'm leaving town, it will be difficult to do X. next scene I did it, X was hard. I won't do X again.

... more>> there are battles but the descriptions of the fights are almost impossible to comprehend - mostly because there is a battle system that isn't really fleshed out at all,

Temporary characters are introduced and are pretty much clones of one another,

e.g. army chief of enemy army 1 & 2, both have names, both laugh all the time, both are strong. army chief of ally army - strong, named, laughs... Enemy 1 & 2 Taunt MC, Stronger than MC, Interested in MC - No other traits

EVERYONE f*ckING LAUGHS ALL THE f*ckING TIME!

"HOHOHO, an enemy!", goes misc character 1

"HE HE HE, How interesting?", goes misc character 2

For a crapsack world all the characters are too kind. There is a class system but everyone after ch2 basically ignores it....

Basically the author had an idea for a grim dark edgy series and this is what came out after he pushed it through every cliche Japanese trope he could find. <<less
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Soma
Soma
Jun 28, 2016
Status: --
Warning this novel is for adult, I warned you. There are many antihero novel, but in this novel they take antihero to different level. Here you'll find betrayal, betrayal, and more betrayal Nah don't worry, MC is the one who does it. MC is basically broken. He view people in 2 different kind; usable, and unusable, and treat them as a tool which purposes is to be used and discarded to achieve his goal, except for his two friends. But I got the feeling that he will end up betray them too just like he did to other people that can be considered close to him.

Spoiler

He kill both his benefactor and his wife that kindly treated him as their own child. He stab a young man in the back that treat him as a best friend then steal his identity, which made him known as William.

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Reading this novel made my heart ache for him, what a pitiful child.
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BeautifulSuicide
BeautifulSui
Jun 18, 2016
Status: --
AI was a s*ave, and his sister got bought by some noble and was gruesomely killed and returned because it was too bothersome to get rid of the body. (Don't ask me why this way would be easier)

He goes mad, because his sister was all that he had, and he decided to eat his own sisters' dead body. (I don't see why you would eat your dead sister whose body has been completely destroyed)

I should have read the summary before starting this just because the title had "karma"... more>> in it.

Personal enjoyment 2/5, but this just isn't my cup of tea, so I'm not gonna lower the score just because I don't like this, since others seem to enjoy this. Just give it a chance urself, maybe u will like it. <<less
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NaM
NaM
Jun 22, 2016
Status: --
Honestly I only read this because The Novel summary and title caught my attention.

I mean cannibalism? I was all "Pssh.. What a joke". Then after I read it, my face gone blank (0_0).

Al was just a simple child. Unfortunately he was born in an Era where power and position in the society was everything. With only a older sister as his life line and hope. When her older sister died. The final string connecting him with his sanity was finally cut. Then POOF he finally lose his mind. (Huhu poor... more>> child. Anyway I dont want to associate myself with him if he was real, since his kinda (really) scary when he finally lost it.)

Honestly for a child who experience such sort of thing. It was only a matter of time before insanity occur, so who can blame him.

I don't really know how to rate such novel.. I mean it was well translated and written and all. But such theme should really be rated in a different view. So I guess 4/5 shall suffice. <<less
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C104
Aug 02, 2019
Status: c69
Ever wanted to read about a s*ave rising to power in a strictly structured society only with his wits and own strenght?

Ever wanted to read about military strategys and cool fighting scence without totally going crazy and remaining realistic (kind of) ?

Ever wanted to read about a clever protagonist who absolutly has no morals?

Then this might be the novel for you.
A Protagonist who is`t OP or unrealisticly smart and raises to the top only trough his on finess makes this an intresting and gripping read.
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Mahesvara_
Mahesvara_
Apr 11, 2021
Status: c16
I'll just make this short. The protagonist here is very edgy. If you doesn't get goosebumps reading very chuuni lines and still thinks it's cool then this novel is for you, otherwise, stay away because this is one hell of a chuuni novel.

I gave ratings base on my enjoyment, just because I gave it 1 doesn't mean it's bad. So it's still on your age/preferences/mood.
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Sosseres
Sosseres
Oct 02, 2016
Status: c59
This is a pretty good novel. The main character is a sociopath with a lot of patience and a long term goal. It shines in the way combat strength is gained among the strongest people and many good military actions. The different MC compared to most other stories really makes things interesting to read.

One of its weak points is the translator that has sentences missing words and text untranslated. Another is that while the combat is good it is missing some hard to define spark, most likely due to the... more>> MC having to make do with the conscripts he is working with. The underside of the world also feels stronger than what seems likely in most cases, there aren't even rumours about people that strong... <<less
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feiFaifeiFai
feiFaifeiFai
Sep 11, 2016
Status: --
I get a few Kingdom vibes from this story, so I like it :D

There was some guy in the reviews saying that the story opens a lot of shallow holes, so I had to make this review.

Most of the "shallow holes" are long-term development holes actually. All of them are things that would need to take a few years in the story before you get anything new from them. Well, I don't know, maybe people would find annoying the amount of things the story still doesn't explain. The MC is... more>> still in the build-up phase, so it might take a bit longer. At least I didn't find myself bored with the way the development is going. Either way, there are still about 370 released chapters, so chill out dude.

One flaw of this story maybe would be the MC. He has a crooked personality and is very arrogant. You might grow to hate him if you can't stomatch how he acts sometimes. At least he hasn't eaten anyone else up to where the translation is xD

I like the way the other characters don't feel like they are meaningless. It feels like each of them have their own style of fighting based on their personalities, which once again gives off the Kingdom vibes. The way the world is developing seems interesting too because of how the situation of the major countries is explained and also because it looks like there is something behind the scenes back in the past.

I like the story the way it is until now, so I give it a 5

Cheers~ <<less
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Albedos_Ahoge
Albedos_Ahog
Aug 11, 2016
Status: c41
I was first disturbed when I read the synopsis, but after reading the novel, I find that it's actually a pretty good LN. The quality of writing is great & keeps the reader interested.

If you have a soft heart, then I suggest
Spoiler

skipping the second half of chapter 2. Only that part gets you feeling sad from the way the sister was killed.

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So if you are bored of the regular another world Hero novels and want something Dark and interesting, then do read this~
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123jbster
123jbster
Aug 07, 2016
Status: c39
I'm going to start this review off with a quick comparison. If you have read The Girl Who Ate a Death God then I have a confident feeling you will enjoy Tower of Karma, and vice versa of course.

Now onto the review: If you like characters who have development, logical reasoning, and human-like emotions that are actually fitting for a human being. Then this is already a ++ as it hits that nail on the head.

If you like a deranged/psychotic main character who actually fits that role to a T... more>> and is believably psychotic. Once again, ++.

Going from there. The author is making great use of fore-shadowing from the very get go. To the point that this work feels more along the lines of a professional novel writer. The character interactions are enjoyable, make sense to a degree, and are not forced.

Currently, the primary detriment of the series is the portrayal of 'aura', or 'killing intent' or 'demeanor' or however you want to describe it, as a characteristic. It is convoluted making it rather hard to understand what this 'aura' (I will go with that for now) actually is or why it is so frequently made known/seen. That, and I'll just chalk it up to being the stories unique take on this 'aura', also takes away from the human aspects
Spoiler

or lack there-of

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that it feels like the author has been trying to portray. <<less
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renkinjutsu0
renkinjutsu0
Jun 18, 2016
Status: c18
4/5 try to get back and give a better review after some more chapters.

My scaling is pretty bad but it's an interesting story enough that I can't wait for the next 1.

Translation is good with maybe a few grammer that I noticed (StarryDawn u do a great job keep it up, not complaining u really do a great job)

... more>> Chapters are at a reasonable length doesn't feel like just a block of text and not too short, gets to the action at a good pace

It's not your generic story of MC getting revenge cause he got betrayed, but more of "his fall from grace" and his path to his justice.

Spoiler

as of chapt. 18 only person he ate is his sis

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<<less
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cpzombie
cpzombie
Sep 18, 2022
Status: c69
Not much is translated yet but it's pretty great so far, MC went insane after (first few chapters spoiler) ... more>>
Spoiler

being given his sister's mutilated corpse and being told it was a worthless broken toy, which he then eats to stay together forever.

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He then turns totally ruthless and broken to the point that he mu*ders people that were kind to him for convenience, and does basically anything to gain power. So far not much has been revealed about the power system and what not, but I assume that's because it's still the beginning. I'd definitely recommend reading it if you like dark worlds, and hopefully somebody translates the rest <<less
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Redmoon2
Redmoon2
Aug 16, 2021
Status: c60
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes right back at you... could basically sum up the entirety of this story. This is about the journey of Al and his slow rise to power for revenge after losing his sister to the unfair and unjust society that he lives in.

Al did slowly rose to power but at what cost? The death of his sister broke him so much that he's willing to anything to gain power...

If you're a fan of antihero protagonists that's not bound by any moral code... more>> then this novel is for you. If you like novels like Reverend Insanity then you will definitely like this novel too. <<less
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Asphyxia778
Asphyxia778
Oct 21, 2020
Status: ---

It's 2021 now and since I can't change my previous stars so I've edited here - Story is 1/5 stars. Not worth it. Just dump it like the hot tr*sh it is

I remember reading this back in 2016 and thinking that this is an awesome novel and the rise of a villain who would destroy themselves and the world.

... more>> Now a bit older and more sensible I do realize the glaring plot holes and forced writing in the story. But this still is a 3/5 for me.

Al basically wants to watch the world burn and he's given up his humanity and morals to do it. He'll use anything and everything for his revenge and even kill and betray people who trust him.

When I summarize it like this it seems like an awesome story about a psychopathic villain but well the plot holes keep me from enjoying everything. (Mainly that bit how he's book smart cause of working in a bookstore which he destroyed)

The good thing is that the MC's enemies are not fools. They're competent and thus MC needs to work hard to outsmart them.

Well and the war aspects are also great.

Honestly I would definitely read it if it's completely translated.

I really do wish that more authors write dark stories like this. I love them. (Yes I love dark stories like these and am also writing one)

It's 2021 now and since I can't change my previous stars I' <<less
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