The Earth is Online

Description

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Six months ago, tens of thousands of black phantom towers appeared all over the world, floating above the cities. Chemists, physicists, religious people… all of them could do nothing.

Six months later, people became used to the towers and no longer paid them attention.

One day, Tang Mo saw a flying insect crash into it instead of going through it. The next day, a sharp and clear child-like voice issued an announcement to all humans.

“Ding dong! November 15th, 2017. The earth is online.”

The black tower’s three iron-clad rules:

1. Everything is explained by the black tower.

2. 6 o’clock to 18 o’clock is the game time.

3. All players, please strive to attack the tower.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Dìqiú shàngxiàn
EO
TEIO
Địa Cầu Online
ฝ่าวิกฤตพิชิตหอคอยดำ
地球上線
地球上线
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Global Examination (26)
Card Room (25)
Game Loading (18)
The Trial Game of Life (17)
Kaleidoscope of Death (14)
Escape the Infinite Chamber (11)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Chinese Novel and Danmei
  2. The consequence of my BL binge
  3. Greatest Unlimited Flow - BL (long reviews+ratings...
  4. Unlimited Flow BL
  5. Boys Love Worth Reading

Latest Release

Date Group Release
06/22/23 Tea Novel c131
06/18/22 Tea Novel c130
06/17/22 Tea Novel c129
06/16/22 Tea Novel c128
06/15/22 Tea Novel c127
06/14/22 Tea Novel c126
06/13/22 Tea Novel c125
06/13/22 Tea Novel c124
06/12/22 Tea Novel c123
06/12/22 Tea Novel c122
06/11/22 Tea Novel c121
06/11/22 Tea Novel c120
06/10/22 Tea Novel c119
06/10/22 Tea Novel c118
06/09/22 Tea Novel c117
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406 Reviews sorted by


kalerus
kalerus rated it
September 11, 2021
Status: Completed
Rating: 5/5

Sometimes I think that giving a 5/5 is too intense, and that somehow giving a novel full ratings will prohibit me from giving another novel the same rating. But then I remind myself that 1) life is too short to not give well-deserved novels a 5/5, and 2) even if there were other novels that were more deserving of a perfect score, it doesn't change the fact that my time with this novel was 5/5.

This novel has absolutely phenomenal world-building with independent characters. The romance isn't the forefront... more>> of this story, it's truly the world and its characters. It's always such a pleasure when two characters are well-written and chose to be in love with each other versus seeming like they were forced to be just because it is a BL. What I mean by that is that their love isn't all-consuming, being their only defining personality trait. They are truly characters with their own motives and personality who happened to find each other. The game instances/situations are interesting with high stakes, where it doesn't feel like the character can just gloss over them easily. It is one of the few times that I can say that I'm reading it for the plot. I can not recommend it enough! <<less
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GaaraJunkie
GaaraJunkie
July 26, 2021
Status: c245
This novel focuses heavily on the game-based plot. So if you like puzzles and mind twisters, you'll like this novel. There are no juicy smut scenes, so read it for its plot.

The translation needs proofreading and editing as there are grammatical and vocabulary errors, but once you're introduced to it you can be prepared for it in the coming chapters.

There are a lot of dialogue and paragraphs that contain a lot of external explanations from the author (a trait that I only find in Chinese novels).

A trait that I dislike... more>> about Chinese BL novels is calling the couple "husband & wife." In a homos*xual relationship, it is either "husband & husband" or "wife & wife, " because the whole point is that it is NOT a straight relationship. This is like trying to explain which of the pair of chopstick is the fork, and which is the spoon. It just doesn't work that way.

The MC (Tang Mo) and ML (Fu Wendo) take a long time to actually be together.
Here's a very brief summary in their relationship:
Spoiler

The two get a 'push' by chapter 166 from a Black Tower informative reward, then acknowledged their interest in each other after the Eve Reward, and Tang Mo gets a revelation about his own infatuation towards Fu Wendo in chapter 205. He takes the initiative to kiss the ML in chapter 207. A hint that they went to the final base was before the Noah's Ark arch. They then come out with their relationship at the start of the final tower attack games.

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The main novel is about the Earth Online games, and the extra chapters are about to hat would happen if the Earth never went online, then the aftermath of Earth Online <<less
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XianYiXi
XianYiXi rated it
March 30, 2021
Status: Completed
Rating: 4.75

This novel is really good. It's full of thrill, mystery and adventure with lots of complicated survival games that it would make you lose lots of brain cells on process to understand what happened. This novel scene are kinda hard to understand that if your are not very good or fluent in english than it'll be very hard for you to enjoy this. So, Get ready to whack your brain and lose some brain cell coz Earth is Online

PLOT: It has one of the most interesting and Unique... more>> plot. Love the world building. The story itself is so interesting that you'll never get bored. It even make up for the lack of Romance. The games are just wonderful and challenging but it's very complicated too. The way characters, especially MC and ML think and clear the games..... It'll will make you feel like idiot. [Before reading this novel I thought I was pretty smart and I am a gamer too but if that sh*t happen in here..... lol I wouldn't have survive even a day].
Spoiler

The most complicated game for me was the 3rd floor, truth clock game. Other games, atleast I have an idea of what's going on and the game rules and regulation but that one, it wasn't until MC explain that I realized what's going on. Well, the reward was worth it toh. The game I enjoyed the most was the six floor game with all the tower bosses. I honestly think 5th floor game was the easiest..... it would be a lie if I said I wasn't disappointed even a bit. I was expecting more.

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CHARACTER: Love our ML and MC and their ability, especially MCs. I love how MC went from normal person to Pretty good at fighting..... thanks to ML.

As for the others, Every important side character were lovable. It was pretty interesting to see their different unique abilities and how they tied up connection with our MCs. I Personally really liked Mu Huixue. It sad that I really don't know how her ability works although it might have been explained...... I only know her ability is too OP too LOL.

I actually really liked black tower bosses more than the people. I mean it's pretty interesting to see all your fairly tail character as villains. Their characteristic and interaction with each other..... it's was fun.

ROMANCE: As everyone is saying, this should be shounen-ai genre instead of Yaoi. The slow burn Romance (i actually like slow Romance but not too slow) where MC and ML doesn't meet each other till 40 chapter, they confess (that too indirectly) only after 150+ chapter and kiss in chapter 207 and s*x in chapter 210. Well, it's actually pretty understandable for the slow Romance with them being in serious situation of life and death but that's not the main reason for why it should be shounen-ai.
Spoiler

I know it all because of Chinese censorship but like seriously, you wait for a long time to see that happen but then we got only 3 sentence about it...... that heated moment we all have been waiting for (or maybe only me) it ended as soon as it started, like seriously, how can you not be disappointed. A little bit more detail wouldn't have been bad plus the censorship is made in such a metaphorical way that unless you read it properly you won't even realize they did it.

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The Romance in here is like a gem, pretty rare and hard to find. It's actually fit with the plot considering their situation. Their Romance were more about their tacit understanding between them. Well, despite the lack of Dog-food romantic moments, the story itself is very interesting and it make up for the lack of romance..... still I wanted to see Dog-food moments. Now I gotta read next novel with lots of it.

I love the extra with parallel universe if things didn't happened. It was nice to see all the character again and it kinda felt nostalgia.

The ending.... honestly I felt the explanation was a bit lacking and I am left with lots of question that's not answered or answered but I didn't found it.
Spoiler

The ability of players, is it really due to genes? then what about the previous player with same ability? Is disappearance of M civilization that MC and Huckster talk about related to black tower? What about Eve then? Since, even after tower disappeared, MCs ability didn't vanished so is it possible that Eve and those other previous player who cleared 7th floor also had their ability with them even after tower disappeared? What happened to them? Did they belong to different world like different universe? I wouldn't have thought about this but since Bai Rouyao talk about those player to our MC, making it look like an important thing, even wanted to clear 7th floor to know more about it but then it was just left like that.

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Lastly, Thanks to translator for translating this novel. It was a wonderful journey. <<less
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StarPhia
StarPhia rated it
March 25, 2021
Status: Completed
Gotta say, this is a really good novel. The story and the concept is very fascinating. Our MC and ML are lovely. The plot isn't too confusing and all the bad guys are hilarious. I agree with many other reviews that this shouldn't be considered Yaoi, but Shounen Ai. The MC and ML didn't meet in person till around chapter 40, they don't kiss till after the 200th chapter. However, due to the actual plot of the story, romance doesn't feel excessively necessary. I surprisingly felt rather patient with the... more>> MCs relationship. The story is already very good without the romance, but the cute little romance is very good. It is well worked into the story, although the story isn't dependent on it. This is a survival story, the society they find themselves in isn't very compatible for romance.

First, the story. It is very good. The black towers are very cool, the powers are great, the reveals and secrets are amazing, every single instance / game is very well written. Some things are a little hard to understand at first, either because of translation or just the difference in cultures (some games played are different from the US to China). I found the whole concept of the Earth itself becoming the playing and resting field for players in a survival type game to be very interesting. It is very reminiscent of a zombie apocalypse story in the sense of the whole world being affected, as well as the attitudes of the characters. However, it is very different at the same time. I just found it very interesting. I also liked to read all the games, I enjoyed seeing how our MC, Tang Mo, completed the games and found loop holes or discovered the truth. I began to adapt to the games myself and was able to guess how to solve some games and had a lot of fun following along. I also liked how many of the games were referencing and based off real life games or stories. It made following along and connecting the story much easier. I also very much enjoyed the abilities and their connections with the mystery of the black tower, I just wished it went more in depth and explained some more. I wish there was a definitive comparison between the MC and ML with the heartbeat thing and their ability levels!!! I also wished it went more in depth about Eve and Tang Mo's ability and how OP he could be.

Spoiler about later plot stuff, not super important because you'll probably forget, but be warned:
Spoiler

I really liked how I could guess stuff in the 6th floor of the attack game, like Noah's Ark. I'm not super familiar with the story, but I have read some manga and watched some anime that are based on it and was quickly able to connect it. I also really loved how the song that the puppets sang during the mu*der mystery part was a reference to the book "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. This connection helped me quickly guess who the monster was, it was also very cool that there was some connection between the novels. I just wished that if there was some true inspiration, the author could have had a character talk about it.

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Characters. They are all amazing. The side characters are very memorable, thought I can't remember their names, and they all have their own quirks and ties to the story. I love Bai Ruoyao and his constant harassments. I love the Russian man, Andre, he's like a big, loveable, scary, teddy bear!!! Fu Wensheng is funny, gotta love him. Jack is s*upid and I love him. The hukster (that how you spell it?) is hilarious and I love him. Though I am a little sad that we never get to meet some characters, the ones we get are all amazing. I also love the MC and ML. The ML is just amazing, he is cool, he is smart, he is a badass, and he has a cool power. I love him and his crazy / weirdness that he sometimes shows. He is very cool and is very good for our very cool and smart MC. I do like how the MC went from a normal dude to a respected player, I just wish there was a bit more of a journey. The MC is really great, he is smart and I love listening to him do the smart stuff, I also like his personality. He says he will never do something and basically does it immediately after, its funny. Although its sad that the ML and MC took so long to meet and then get together, they still knew each other before they met and we weren't that depraved since they did chat sometimes. They are so silly and there is so much other plot to read that the romance is more of a secondary thing. But as I said earlier, the romance really fits well with the plot and even the characters.

All in all, this novel could probably use another extra to explain more about the Black Towers, abilities, and the thing revealed with the abilities (I won't spoil it). But with what it does explain, the author does a good job. The novel is very interesting, well written, and very entertaining. I would very much recommend it to anyone who wants to read a fun survival story were life is always on the line, also with fun game solving (and BL). <<less
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Kyaaaaaaaaa
Kyaaaaaaaaa rated it
September 13, 2020
Status: Completed
I am not confident in my ability to explain how perfect this novel was despite some obvious flaws. To be honest, the flaws people mention are something I agree with, where some logic is so strikingly obvious that it doesn't need to be told, while other logic is based on a clue literally mentioned 69 chapters ago (I do need to mention that this only happened a few times in the 245 chapters I read).

But I cannot stress how much this is worth reading. It just has an allure to... more>> it where you can't put it down. Just because some instances were flawed, doesn't mean that the plot was any less complex or beautiful. Dive. In. That's all I can tell you. Usually I do super detailed reviews on each element of the novel, but...I don't think that's needed when there are 100 other users doing that for me. I'm just here to confirm the positive reviews (as a very skeptical person who doesn't trust reviews till they read the novel themselves). This novel is just perfect in the weirdest manner. There are some novels I enjoyed more, yes, but this novel is still perfect in my heart—perplexing, I know.

I know for a fact, that although I won't ever reread this (I reread for the romance scenes, and though I squealed at every single one of them, they're so little of them, it would be a bit hard to reread), it doesn't make the novel any less valuable in reading— because not every 10/10 novel will be a reread, and that's okay.
Sigh, in conclusion...Read it. <<less
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daitensai
daitensai rated it
September 6, 2020
Status: c39
I don't know why so many people seem to enjoy this novel. They convinced me to give it a try. But in the end, the novel didn't seem to be making any headways. There isn't particularly any goal. The Black Tower doesn't seem to have any purpose either. Does it just want to kill off all humans? Does it want them to become strong? Seems like the Black Tower is also aimless or it doesn't care a lot about it's purpose. Either way, this novel just doesn't have anything for... more>> me to look forward to when reading it. <<less
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Jaykeepfighting
Jaykeepfighting rated it
July 12, 2020
Status: c210
This is not yaoi - this is shounen ai. Don't get me wrong. I will finish the entirety of it soon and the parts I've read so far are absolutely amazing. However, the categorization of the genres are wrong and they can't be changed for some reason. Anyways, if you're looking for something heated, this isn't the right novel. The MC and ML have a very subtle relationship that's put on slow burn until the very end of the novel. But the slow burn never gets past shounen ai even... more>> in the most passionate moments. Read it for their relationship and the fantastical elements of the novel, not for passionate love scenes. <<less
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chiakiss
chiakiss rated it
April 24, 2020
Status: c245
ok I am excited to write this review lets go

pros:

    • Amazing wordbuilding, well planned challenges; the black tower games were all interesting and clever and I liked how black tower bosses knew the characters and things would come back and influence the outcomes. I think this is the strongest point of the story, if you like these kinda of "intelligent MC solves challenges and levels up", you'll love this one
    • Unique characters - this story has a lot of characters, and I find it interesting that all of them are interesting and make an impression on you, even tho most of them are secondary. I like how the story presents them as how they are and they don't have a fixed relationship with the MCs, sometimes they collaborate in search of a common goal, sometimes they are enemies, or just neutral, or have a cold-war thing going on. I especially like Bai Ruoyao in this aspect.
    • GOOD FIGHT SCENES I cannot stress this ENOUGH i have tremendous difficulty following fight scenes, so much that when I see one coming up in a book I just go ugh and power through it. BUT no, in this novel they are really well written, simple enough to not let you get lost or confused but still dramatic and just f*cking amazing kudos to the author
    • Non - fetishized gay relationship and female characters. This sounds like a small thing and it is but it greatly improves the reading experience for me. When all the F characters personalities are linked to the protagonist thru liking him, or they are described in a s*xual way, I lose IQ. When the bottom in a gay relationship becomes s*upid and helpless because idk thats how the author thinks gay men are, or there is romanticized assault, my heart cries. None of this sh*t in here
    • Good plot twits? another strong point of this story is that I did not see a lot of things coming, and the black tower mysteries actually felt like mysteries, and it nice to see that the story answered most of the questions that the "black tower dystopian situation" raised up
    • Nice pacing thats it lol
cons:

    • Maybe this is a me problem, because I binge read this, but sometimes the story felt too dense to read. Like you know when there is an action novel or series, after a big fight scene or various fight scenes, there's a cooldown time, where they develop other things, and that can be romance, or the MCs psyque or his friendships, or something else idK, but this is good because it 1- explores other topics 2- lets you clear your mind a bit after a heavy episode. There's not a lot of those in this, its just fight fight strategy challenge fight
    • Heads up I know This is not a problem, just a personal preference, but I like my characters a bit more 3d. The story chose to focus heavily on, well, the story, and I respect that, but I like a bit more of character development and interaction. Just don't go into the novel expecting this
    • The Romance. Oh god I don't need the story to focus on romance, I don't mind slow burn (in fact I like it), i don't need nicolas sparks drama, and I don't need smut, but this story still managed to disappoint me a bit in this aspect, and I wasn't expecting much to begin with, which is sad. First of all, Fu Wenduo and Tang mo weren't emotionally developed as characters to begin with. Sad, but not really, it could still be good, since the focus isnt relationship drama, the story can progress, as they flirt and "be smartasses" confidently with each other, adding a little spice. This is also good and I think it fits the story. But these scenes were SO FEW AND FAR APART that it seemed like the author forgot they were in a relationship. And WHEN these scenarios happened they were like 6 sentences long TOPs. Second of all I like slow burn, but this slow burn isnt slow burn because things are happening and it takes a long while for them to get together; NO, the progression of their relationship is very quick, it is just slow slow, because there. arent. romance. scenes. And might I add most of the scenes

      were them just looking at each other

      and guessing things and smiling like dude it was cute when you did it the first 3 times but lets do smt else now. But the gun metaphor to represent s*x... omg

      that was the nail in the coffin. It was the worst thing I have ever read. I didn't need a s*x scene but if you are going to write one, do it properly. Don't do whatever THAT was. I'm sorry this is gigantic but I felt blue balled throughout this story. a girl can only survive on meaninful glances for so long. 200 chapters for a kiss. The end saved it a bit tho.. cute
anyways this was nice, I recommend you give it a shot
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Ghettoe
Ghettoe rated it
September 19, 2019
Status: --
I’ll admit, I don’t recall at what point I dropped the novel but for those who find themselves not particularly enjoying this because you are not thirsty over the BL element, allow me to give you as detailed a review as I can.

The Earth is Online like all dystopian novels, has a premise that makes very little sense and not something I would fault any dystopian novel on because the author simply needs to find a way to get us into the world that she wants us to focus on.... more>> Nonetheless, our main character is thrust into a scenario that requires him to play different “intelligent” games in order to survive.

The main character is breaming with intelligence than I’ve ever seen in any librarian and the various games initially seem fresh and new but you aren’t dumb, many of the games are genuinely convoluted and have a rather forced logic that ensures that the MC leaves every scenario unscathed. Essentially, the games are often based on the authors reasoning more so than any actual logic. I am not the smartest person, but I am often amazed at how the MC can narrow very arbitrary possibilities into just two options when I can think of many more. My guess here is the author did what I would do when trying to create a riddle or a game based on clues. You start from the solution and then work backwards. However, I often find myself in situations where there isn’t one solution. I won’t criticize much there because I really genuinely want to try and simulate these games before I knock the reasoning.

However, the suspense is heavily dulled down by the MC having questionable super intelligence and you knowing that the author will inevitably ensure that the MC uses the logic that gives the solution to the game. The MC will of course gain greater abilities as we go along. Although, some abilities seem to have no actual clear logic to how they work.

Nonetheless, this isn’t a dud for me because the author genuinely creates an interesting world with somewhat engaging characters. Of course, you will occasionally wonder why no one in this world showers or brushes their teeth but for the most part, the games are engaging and the characters are not terrible.

I do wish the author would break up the monotony of the characters constantly jumping into worlds by actually setting the scene with the mundane. There’s rarely moments of people just being people. Also, there are some questionable assumptions about how gay people should behave which you just let slide but sometimes, just silly stereotypes wade their way in the novel really throwing me off.

If you aren’t nit picky, you’ll enjoy this. <<less
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cleesus
cleesus rated it
September 4, 2019
Status: c26
This story is so boring and is mostly uninteresting, it seems like most of the people are giving it a high rating simply because of the gay elements in the story. But the story itself is filled with uninteresting characters, especially the main character.

The translation is full of errors and isnt the best
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Breads
Breads rated it
August 3, 2019
Status: Completed
Another good novel that is worth the read, although its a slow burn romance, it was still sweet till the end, the battle scenes and tower games were fun to read, it requires lots of brain power and attention span if you want to know and understand the clues in each games, however it doesn't take too much enjoyment of reading them, as the answers will be shown later on in the story so there isn't too much confusion.

Regarding the romance in the story, it feels more like shounen-ai instead,... more>> they do get together in the end which is sweet, however there isn't any super smutty scenes due to censorship, so if you're into that then this might not be the one for you.

The ML and MC's romance would shine more around 70-100 chapters in (cause its a slow-burn) and it's sweet when they start showing their care for each other.

While reading the story, you'll likely find yourself grown attached to a few characters, the supporting characters aren't flat in some says, some you'll find annoying but also lovable, some you'll just want them to be happy, although there were some bittersweet moments in the story, the ending was still pretty satisfying.

If you're a fan of a mellower BL novel that focus more on the plot, then this might be the novel for you. <<less
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Vicaroon
Vicaroon rated it
April 16, 2019
Status: Completed
First of all, I don't care it is a BL novel, I'm here for the story-line. And the story is written amazingly well.

Basically some towers set up on Earth and make the Earth "goes online", so every humans living on Earth become a "player". If you win a game, you live for another day. If you lose, you die. The "players" get their ability awaken and the MC ability is to steal other player's ability (a weaken version, kind of like a nerf). And together with every players, they have... more>> to attack these towers toward the 7th level.

A lot of games that the MC encountered is actually very interesting and kind of get your brain thinking about it, not just mindlessly reading chapters after chapters.

The story explains the logic of each games and the decisions behind the MC and side characters move very well, even though there are like 8-10 rules for each game, you don't feel lost at all.

Overall, a good read. If you don't mind the BL tag then this novel is recommended. <<less
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earlgreyt
earlgreyt rated it
January 30, 2019
Status: Completed
Good translation, excellent story/writing. It's a rare apocalypse/survival story that involves mysterious towers appearing around the world, forcing the entire humanity to participate in its games. Humans also start 'leveling up' and essentially gain a very varied superpowers (think X-men).

The games are a mix of different logic puzzles, psychology, and wordplay elements, inspired from fairytales and classic games like Monopoly. They're very cleverly written and the clues to figure them out are scattered in the text to enable the reader a try before the reveal!

While it's a BL story, the... more>> story mostly focuses on the puzzles and plot, with the romance being very subtle in the background. It's definitely slow burn as the MC and ML go from strangers to friends to partners through the story.

The MC is extremely intelligent and competent (as is the ML), so it's a pleasure for the reader to follow his progress. There are plenty of three-dimensional side characters and lots of interesting personalities with hidden motivations.

It was a difficult novel to put down once I started reading. I highly recommend this for a very refreshingly different survival book!

P.S. I really admire the translator (Rainbow Turtle) for making steady & super fast releases for over a year. One of the best translators we have here on NU. DO NOT read Tea Novel which is very inaccurate MTL. <<less
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darkchocolatesan
darkchocolatesan rated it
January 18, 2019
Status: Completed
I've been waiting to read till the end to leave this review, and it's been painful because I always wanted to write one and praise this novel to the heavens, but I also wanted to hold myself back so my review will be complete and show the true extent of my love for this novel. And now that the novel's been completely translated, I can finally unleash myself!!! Plot: 10/10

Premise is interesting, world building is done really well (not too much where there doesn't need to be, and good... more>> descriptions when useful), lots of suspense. It is done in a very game-like setting, and some of the games are incredibly complex, so if you are just reading this novel as something to read when you have nothing else to read and only skimming through the chapters without trying to read it (which you shouldn't do!), your reading experience drastically decreases because most of the fun comes from trying to figure out the plot and how to win the game. Another aspect that I love about this novel is that it doesn't just give all the intelligence and credit to the main character. It is very clear that both the male lead and main character cannot win against everybody. There are people that are better than them and clearer than them in some aspects and the reason they are alive is because they have really good teammates, as well as the fact that not everybody in the world is out to kill them, because most humans just want to survive. Also, the games have a mystery aspect that isn't as bullshitty as most stories. A lot of stories will just pull out a random element that never even existed to jump to a shaky conclusion of how to solve the problem that they are somehow inordinately confident about, and is somehow true even though there are thousands of other possibilities that could be just as likely. This novel is not like that at all. Almost the games have a solution that is stated in the rules, and even if they do have to guess, it is clear that they are not 100% confident in the solution, and sometimes their conclusion isn't right either, so they have to reevaluate everything. Plot Pacing/Development: 10/10

Phenomenal pacing. It's really hard to build up to a climax (and to the truth of the world) so well without taking really awkward steps and forcing it, but the development to the core of the story and the relationship between all the characters was really, really smooth incredibly well done! All developments seemed really logical and the character progression is very visible and defined (not like when you look to what the character was before and go, "wait, this character at the beginning would never do this in ten lifetimes, but all of a sudden for no good reason at all he is very very willing??? What is going on here???) I would say that there is no BL novel out there that has such good pacing, especially without too much unnecessary melodrama clearly put in to just advance the plot of the story. Romance: 9.5/10

The romance, along with the story, is paced incredibly well! Some stories have the ML and MC get together so quickly that it means the rest of the novel becomes really bland. Others have the ML always secretly pining for the other but resisting because he wants the MC to grow on his/her own, but with no actual legitimate reason for him to fall in love with the MC when he could have just fallen in love with anybody. But the romance in this novel (while they do fall in love with each other beforehand through an online game, which perhaps isn't the greatest aspect since that is very sketchy, but I'll just put it on their abnormal intelligence) starts out really slow, while the MC and ML are very cautious and wary of each other. They're teammates, but they'd abandon each other in a heartbeat if they had to, which is realistic as they are living in an apocalyptic-like world. Then they slowly start to realize that they think really similarly, and work really well as a team, and finally start to develop feelings for each other. When they finally fall in love with each other, their personalities DO NOT drastically and irrationally change, and they have a really wonderful partnership both in battle and in love. And by the way, they only start putting the moves on each other at around chapter 100. As you can tell, this story is less of the plot helping the romance move forward, and more like the romance helps the plot move forward. <<less
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HanNweNyein
HanNweNyein rated it
January 16, 2019
Status: c245
This novel is really good at crushing one's confidence. Though I have average IQ points (I guess), this novel makes me doubt if it was actually negative two digits. Everything is high paced except for romance. Romance is painstakingly slow. But you could see the main leads are the best teammates out there before they get together. They look at each other and know what is going on, they nod at each other and know what to do next, sometimes, they don't even do anything and still know what the... more>> other is thinking. This kind of tacit understanding, this fan doesn't understand at all. The author is really amazing to think up such an astonishing plot setting. You can still enjoy the story even if you're uncomfortable with shounen ai and yaoi tags. You can also find some characters who seem straight. My favourite one is Bai Ruoyao by the way, whom you'd find very annoying and irritating but at the same time very dangerous and cool. I say you would definitely not regret picking up this novel. Just give it a try. The world built is amazing, the characters are amazing, even the game bosses are amazing. <<less
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Ritu
Ritu rated it
June 18, 2018
Status: c25
This is such an amazing book! Had me at the edge of my seat throughout ! So beautifully written and set in a dystopian world ! Love it !

This novel is not an easy read. If you want something that you can read through quickly this is not for you. This novel is gripping and the plot is amazing. The author did an amazing job in writing this. Sometimes I've to stop and marvel at the scenarios this author managed to create.
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fantalf
fantalf rated it
November 16, 2023
Status: Completed
(Cl**ked wrong, but I meant 4 stars not 5)

Very interesting novel! The games are wonderful and keep on the edge of your seat (I couldn't really decipher most of them, but I'm not that great with puzzles).

I, however, had a bit of difficult reading because the pace is very slow (regarding the MC and ML relationship at least), so at times it felt like I'd be reading them playing the towers games forever. Additionally, I loved the ML, he's interesting and has some quirks that made him very... more>> cool, but the MC for me couldn't cut it. Maybe because of his personality I couldn't really engage or have a lot of empathy for him?

Also, when I started reading I had high expectations, and even though it is an amazing and complex story, I couldn't help but feel the ending was a little anticlimactic (for me!).

Nice read overall though. <<less
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AmeliaRoseGreen
AmeliaRoseGreen rated it
February 18, 2023
Status: Completed
This novel was something out of this world, and by that I mean it was simply an interesting story. The love between Tang Mo and Fu Wendou was something subtle and you can see how well they work together, the games and instances were a very interesting read. Sadly, my brain comprehension is small so for most of the games I didn't understand. This novel is something that you should definitely read at least once in your lifetime, but if you find it boring I won't force you to read... more>> this masterpiece, since the games might seem boring and difficult to comprehend. The story also drags a bit, but stops at the right moment. It doesn't drag on as much as other novels I've read, and so this is something, for me, that stops at a decent time and ends good. <<less
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Jollyspices
Jollyspices rated it
June 24, 2022
Status: Completed
Saw this as a recommendation on Omniscient Reader and picked it up expecting the same kind of worldbuilding. Don't regret it ig but this could have been so much more

First floor is 9/10

2nd-5th floor is 7/10

... more>> 6th & 7th floor are just like wth happened

It had potential but the writer either got lost motivation to write or ran out of time. An extra hundred chapters of exposition and story development would probably fix it lol.

If you don't get invested in worldbuilding like I do but want a story to work your brain a little, it's pretty good. If you're the type to think about the lore then don't read it lol because there isn't any.

The BL part of it is pretty small and honestly you could edit out the scenes where they kiss and it probably wouldn't affect the rest of the story at all.

Ok here's my rant because I'm actually really sad about the last 60ish chapters lol

Characters: 6/10

I mean they're good enough. Not good enough to carry the rest of the story but the main cast is likeable. They're sometimes one dimensional and don't have clear motives (the h*ll does Bai Ruoyao wanna do, I still don't know). Also, for the vast majority of characters, we don't see their conclusion. Like all the foreign players just evaporated or sth?

Plot: 4/10

The premise is pretty simple and the novel doesn't do much beyond it. The story is extremely linear, almost going reverse in intensity as it goes on which is quite unusual and because of this it feels like the games aren't getting harder. It's really a shame because I thought the first floor was really well written and I wanted to see more big brain plays but the rest of the tower levels (7th especially) felt rather underwhelming. There isn't really a sense of danger and the difficulty levels aren't consistent, some of my favorite (which are also the hardest puzzles imo) are random instances found in the first hundred chapters. It feels like the writer ran out of ideas for tower levels and starting writing things without really thinking through them.

The writing also gets progressively more rushed towards the end and the writer starts to break some of their own rules like

Spoiler

on the sixth floor where Lena Jokel kills herself first when she gets the monster role and the gang concludes that it was simply too hard or impossible for her to win so she decided to kill herself in hopes that the others will be confused and fight each other. However, it is stated multiple times that the black tower is fair and would have balanced out the game out for the monster in this case, giving them a hidden advantage, yet Lena's case is so despairing she immediately kills herself. Nobody thinks anything is strange about this and it's never explained. Also, Mu Huixue's death is unecessary. It makes no sense that the black tower would force her into a position like this because there is always going to be more than one way to clear the black tower game. Bai Ruoyao's involvement in the last game literally only serves to kill her which makes no sense because as I said before, the black tower is fair and doesn't discriminate. The worst part about this is that Tang Mo, who always finds the third way when given two options, doesn't even try to find a different way.

[collapse]

Oh and also Tang Mo's ability is something that could be expanded on so much but it isn't which is really frustrating.

Worldbuilding: 2/10

The black tower gets like half a chapter of exposition so obviously it's a disaster. The way it explains the powers literally makes me more confused than I was before because of the clear discrepancy between ability power levels. It also doesn't explain what happens after the games which doesn't really seem important but it is kinda essential to understand the black tower's goal. <<less
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RoseAllFoster
RoseAllFoster rated it
May 31, 2022
Status: Completed
This novel is a gem for people who enjoy thrilling and unlimited flow novels like me! Anyways, there's a completed and better version of the translation. Rainbowmushroom website has already finished translating this novel since a long time ago. For those who want a more comprehensive explanation and details, you can check out rainbowmushroom website. I really love their translations. The only downside is that the website has a password lock so you need to join their discord.
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