The Villain Wants to Live

Description

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The mid-level boss of my company’s AAA-game.

Deculein, a villain who dies in 999 out of the 1000 playthroughs.

Now I have transmigrated in his body.

Associated Names
One entry per line
TVWtL
VWL
악당은 살고 싶다
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
The Main Heroines are Trying to Kill Me (15)
Academy’s Undercover Professor (13)
The Novel’s Extra (12)
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending (10)
Trash of the Count’s Family (9)
The Villain Who Robbed the Heroines (7)
Recommendation Lists
  1. KR Novels Recommended by a Picky Reader
  2. The most interesting Light Novels
  3. self sacrifice mc's [Non BL & BL]
  4. Just read this, you'll enjoy it
  5. An actual attempt at ranking

Latest Release

Date Group Release
07/20/21 Selfish Translations c13
07/20/21 Selfish Translations c12
07/13/21 Selfish Translations c11
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c10
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c9
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c8
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c7
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c6
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c5
07/06/21 Selfish Translations c4
07/05/21 Selfish Translations c3
06/29/21 Selfish Translations c2
06/28/21 Selfish Translations c1
06/28/21 Selfish Translations prologue
Write a Review
185 Reviews sorted by


Rowem
Rowem rated it
September 19, 2021
Status: c150
Spoiler

I was loving this novel. Up until I wasn't.
This novel begins to fall apart around chapter 120. And by fall apart, I mean destroying everything that you had just read for 120 chapters. The best way I can relate this feeling is if you read a romance novel, just to find out 120 chapters in that it was actually NTR.
I love the world-building in this novel, the setting, the culture, the magic system, the organizations. I loved the idea of the MC exploring all of the different death flags and escaping them. I had high expectations for this novel, and unfortunately it crashed and burned, or perhaps it was just a downward slope the entire time. At a certain point in the novel, all of this world-building, all of these death flags, they all just become tools to further the disgusting romance plot that this novel becomes. I'll first cover my problems with romance since there's where the main tragedy will be met with for those poor readers in the near future. I will then cover my other criticisms with it.

There will naturally be spoilers past this point

First and foremost, I have to introduce the "heroine" cast.

Heroine 1: Epherene, Ifrin, who even knows because the translator (s) can't seem to decide either. Anyway Heroine 1 is a student of the Villain/MC. This girl's brain only knows 3 things. 1. A revenge story because her father and the Villain/MC had beef. 2. Eating meat. ha get it? ok nvm. 3. Sleeping.
That's it. That's her character in a nutshell. And her revenge story is hardly a defining factor for her either. She's truly like a toddler and has no idea what she's doing, thinking of her revenge as more of some sort of competition and nobody takes her or her revenge seriously. Even she herself seems to forget about it half the time. So she really just has two things going on in her brain - Eating and Sleeping. It is way too easy for me to compare her to a drool-slobbering dog.

Heroine 2: Sylvia. Most readers will probably like this heroine, at least more than the dog that is Heroine 1. She is a genius student of the Villain/MC, and she doesn't seem to have any backstory that causes conflict between her and the MC. Therefore, their teacher-student relationship grows into something wholesome, as the MC helps her to grow and become a genius who can change the world for the better. Heartwarming, right? Unfortunately, it just couldn't remain that way though! She actually does happen to have a certain backstory with the MC, where the MC

Spoiler

kills her mother

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and this seems to result in a lot of mental turmoil for her once she realizes it. Now she has to question whether she should make killing the MC her life's goal, or try to understand and seek for more of a compromise between this backstory and her respected teacher. Well, given my earlier statements, the answer to this should be to hardly anyone's surprise... killing. There is of course much more context that is needed to have someone come to a proper conclusion to this on their own. I will just say that the more context you learn of, I believe makes you realize just how senseless it was for this direction to have been the one taken. And all I can imagine being the reason is because the Author wants the MC/Villain to be a tragic MC. He doesn't actually think about the individual circumstances, or what a character would actually do given the events of the last 120 chapters, he just decides that the backstory causes an inevitable life-and-death break in their relationship. Needless to say, I was not very happy with this.

Heroine 3: Julie, who is actually the main heroine, it's just that she's only shown in the story after the first two (chronologically). She is a leader of knights. As a leader, she feels that she should be cold, composed, and mature. But in actuality, her two older siblings just do everything for her, and so she instead has the emotional intelligence of perhaps a spoiled 12 year old. Unsurprisingly, given the premise, she doesn't have a very good relationship with the MC/Villain at first. But it improves with the MC not being a douche, which is great! Unfortunately, it just couldn't remain that way though! Supposedly, she is a character that was made strong because of her hate towards the Villain, as most protagonists would be like. And so the MC's conclusion, after he learned of this, was that he has to make her hate him as much as possible! I wish I was joking. It seems that there is absolutely no other way for this story to progress without the MC making her hate him. And this hate is done by the MC working with the girl's older siblings to collectively gaslight and mislead her into thinking that the MC is far worse or did things far worse than he actually did. You can probably get an idea of the rest. Needless to say, I was not very happy with this.

Heroine 4: Sophien, Sophienne, or according to one of the MTL's I read... "Jim". She's the emperor... empress... you get the idea. This girl actually had a pretty great arc. I have no qualms with her, at least up to where I dropped. Other than that she doesn't seem to be the spotlight of the heroines either, as the other heroines, that aren't exactly doing too well for my "Reader Happiness Spectrum", are in the spotlight instead.

Heroines 5, 6,...+: You barely hear about the rest. At least up to where I dropped. There's one with his sister... STEPSISTER OF COURSE TO NOBODYS SURPRISE... theres also... his ex girlfriend... who transmigrated into a little girl... but will probably join his harem in the future anyway... I really just don't care. I have nothing good to say about them though for that matter.

That's the heroine cast.

Moving on to other criticisms:

The death flag plot. I was personally excited to see how the death flags would be done. It seemed like there were so many, and they would be used to show new character, and new conflict, and so forth. Unfortunately, after maybe 30 chapters, I would say that the entire existence of death flags just completely disappears from the story entirely. They just aren't even mentioned. I personally didn't like this, especially since hardly any death flags even got actual attention during that time either. Perhaps they are shown after, but for at least another hundred chapters or so I cannot recall any mention of them at all. This also relates to the overall direction of the plot. I simply cannot find any clue on what direction everything is building up to, if there even is anything. Why Julie needs to get stronger? I have no idea. What are all of the MC's other death flags? I have no idea. Is there even an overall evil to be overcome? I have no idea. It's fine to keep readers in the dark in some ways, but for nearly 150 chapters and there's not a single hint of anything, that's starting to be a bit much in my opinion.

The lack of male characters and the abundance of female characters. I can count the number of male characters that are remotely relevant to the plot on one hand. Meanwhile, I can probably count the number of female characters who seem to be relevant to the plot on maybe a quantum computer (probably 3 hands). For example, the other teachers in the academy are lame, or more so the male teachers are pretty much comparable to lackeys of the MC. And there's just no male students that have any relevance whatsoever. Even hearing the name of a male student is a rare occurence. And it turns out that at least 1 male character... might actually...

Spoiler

be female!... why do I feel like I need to apologize for spoiling this...

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I really wish authors wouldn't form relationships just to completely destroy them but well it's their story. All I can do is give a warning to you readers out there, be prepared! I've heard many people compare this aspect to TNE, Spare Me Great Lord, or spoilers of The Demon Prince Goes to the Academy, or My Death Flags Show no Sign of Ending. I haven't read the first two, but I would say that this one does inspire similar bitter feelings that Death Flags did, through misunderstandings and a... complicated MC, but I would also say that the circumstances are also very different between the two, and so I am much more understanding and sympathizing with Death Flags in comparison to this novel, which I just can't sympathize with for the direction it took. My advice for this novel would be to, at the least, curb your expectations.

May you enjoy your future reading.

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Jastermasher 1029
Jastermasher 1029 rated it
July 9, 2021
Status: c170
The plot is basically about a videogame designer being isekai'd to the game he was developing (before he got hit by isekai lightning).
Spoiler

Deculain. He is a known early genius who lost his light. He was a person who takes the fruit of other's works, that is one of the reasons he is hated. As Kim Woojin takes possession of his body, he is a bit restrained, creating a misunderstood gap moe.

Jeriel. She is Deculain's sister, but later on, it was revealed that she is not a real Yukrain, which is their family. But, Deculain gives up the position of the head to her later on.

Yuli. She is Deculain's fiancé who works as a knight who at the same time hates his guts. She started developing feelings of genuine positivity but got ultimately destroyed for some cause. They have some agreement as Deculain knows that they will get married if they continue being engaged, so they made a goal to break that mutually. She is the only one treated as a legal love interest so far.

Ephrin. She is the daughter of the former assistant of Deculain, who committed su*cide. She assumes that the reason her father committed su*cide was because of Deculain, who was working on a study with him. She makes a personal goal of taking revenge to Deculain by revealing that Deculain's research was her father's idea and work, but later on they get along because Deculain submitted the paper on her father's name as an author. She then becomes Deculain's student. She is not officially a love interest, but it is undeniable that it is completely possible.

Sylvia. A girl from a noble family whose father, the head of the family, hates Deculain because he killed his wife and Sylvia's mother. She is a talented wizard who wishes to be taught by Deculain, but her father and Deculain are opposed to it. She then becomes rogue and on hiding. She develops a deep love-hate feeling to Deculain.

Sophieen. She was crowned as emperor as her father died of natural causes. She treats Deculain as a teacher due to their relationship that developed through chess, because of Deculain being with her in solving her problems and regression.

Yuara. She is Kim Woojin's ex-girlfriend who is also his co-worker. She was revealed to have also transmigrated/reincarnated to the game world as a female player. She is currently in her teens in the story, Deculain being 33, giving them an awkward age gap. She is also revealed to be an exact figure of Deculain's late fiance, because she is designed to her. She is also very possible to be a love interest.

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The story is a top notch story utilizing the misunderstandings. A typical Jee Gab Song scheme, like The Novel's Extra. The MC is, well the MC. He thinks logically, not some kind of maniac, but because Deculain's attitude is dominant, he can't express his feelings raw or in an honest manner. The other characters also have good mental states, not some psychopaths (aside from Yuli's sister cause she is) who changes feelings every chapter, aside from being quick to accept the MC's changes. The world building is good, with typical aristocratic and medieval cliché. The other countries wasn't elaborated much since the whole plot revolved between the academy, imperial palace, and others within the place.
Basically the plot is good for your palate if you like The Novel's Extra (aside from the ending cause it s**ked, Rachel best girl). It is also good if you like My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending because the two MCs of the works are the same unintentional tsunderes.
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SomethingSmooth
SomethingSmooth rated it
October 28, 2021
Status: c113
Jeez, I feel terrible to have to rate this so low but you have to believe me, this is so f*cking disappointing.

It is just such a treat for 100 chapters then it feels like someone else entirely started writing this story. I couldn't believe it at first, thought it might be the translators but the translator didn't change. It just became absolute garbage.

They stop the descriptive writing that made the first 100 chapters so good, they throw in one questionable turn in the plot and I think "OK, they can... more>> come back from this it's fine."

Then another out of character turn in the plot. And another. And another. And is this winding down towards the ending already? No way, this is just all developing so quickly! They threw like 6 different character dramas and misunderstandings in haphazardly at once! And NONE OF THEM MAKE SENSE OR SEEM TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT ANY OF THE PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?! WHY?! I THOUGHT WE GOT PAST THOSE ISSUES!

And the whole magic system falls apart into a completely incomprehensible mess just to try and make the MC more powerful/cool and just so smart and amazing at the same time.

And are all of these female characters romantic interests now? What is even happening anymore!?

Just save yourself the pain and rampant feelings of betrayal and don't read this. I've never felt so disappointed in my life. Everything was honestly fine until around chapter 100. Better than fine. The character interactions and drama felt well thought out and they made sense! The misunderstandings (although I'm not a big fan of them) felt like they served a purpose and needed to exist to progress the character relationships. And then just so suddenly the story completely falls apart.

I'm not angry anymore. Just... depressed and sad, wishing things could have been different. Dropped. <<less
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Soneka
Soneka
August 26, 2021
Status: c56
This is a good novel, let me to explain why:

When it comes to webnovels the problem with many authors is that they are 'too nice', they are afraid of putting their characters in spot they can't recover from, and if I am being honest, I can sympathize with the feeling.

That said, the best stories I've read always dared to 'go there', to put their characters in situations that made me feel tense as a reader, because in the end of the day 'tension' is a damn good spice.

I just noticed... more>> not too long ago that quite a few of these 'I transmigrated into the body of the villain/ness' stories had a setting in which the villain was an a**hole destined to be evil but who hadn't crossed the line yet.

In those stories the villain had awful reputation, they were mean to people, they were bullies, or even straight up thugs, but they weren't quite criminals.

But this story is different.

You know Deculein was really, REALLY awful before tagging out. You know he crossed the line, you just don't know to what extent he did cross that line.

And that is great.

As a reader I want to know if his past will catch up with him, and what choices the character will make, will he atone for sins he didn't commit? Will he become complicit with 'his past self' and help him hide his skeletons?

This is tension.

Sprinkle this on a story and I will read it gladly.

But 'The Villain Wants to Live' isn't tense all the time, when the MC isn't warding off death flags brought by his body's past, he is having some interesting and often wholesome moments as a teacher in a magic academy.

If you watched 'Assassination Classroom' then you have already been introduced to a story dynamic in which the teacher and the students are two forces opposing each other, and you probably know how satisfying it is to see those two opposite forces grow together despite (or perhaps because) the opposition.

This aspect of the story might not be as good as 'Assassination Classroom', but the dynamic is there, the MC is always challenging his students (mostly only two of them) and vice versa.

Those are only two aspects of the story that most stood out to me. I am not going to pretend that the story doesn't have flaws, and I can't even guarantee that the quality will remain the same until the end, but if what I wrote here caught your interest, then go ahead and give this novel a try.

Even if you don't like it, there are definitely worse ways to spend your time than reading 'The Villain Wants to Live.' <<less
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JembudCenayang
JembudCenayang rated it
October 14, 2021
Status: c105
At first, this novel is great and quite different. The first half is really intriguing and immersive, I enjoyed reading his effort and trials to tidy up the mess left by the previous deculein. This is just my opinion but I hate silent and cold MC, I think they're just boring and such a lazy writing. That's why it's a huge positive for me when he started roast people left and right, Fighting hostility with more hostility, now that's what I call a real human. He also doesn't change his... more>> personalities overnight although forced (bet he will turn into complete pushover if not for the personality lock) and he at least try interact with his surrounding and not just being a passive b*tch. Even so, the story still manages to progress in captivating way and able to keep the reader's interest.

However, it started to smell like something I absolutely loath, yeah it's the unbearably s*upid stench of TNE's drama. Just like in brainless shoujo novel, author started to make the MC dysfunctional to milk as much misunderstanding drama as possible. For transmigration story, it's very important to inherit the memories so that he can prepare and react accordingly when the previous body's past karma happen. However, author decided to makes MC not inherit deculein's memories for some reason, while probably it's just to make it easier for him to makes more misunderstanding bullshit. Author also turn the MC into a ret*rd that couldn't talk normally so the shitty drama can last for a long time. Even the building for his favorite love-hate drama is very forced and dumb as f*ck that I lost all hope for this novel immediately.

Spoiler

This author loves to create love-hate dramas, but he is absolutely suck at them. If you read his novel before you would know that he always make MC "forced" to kill the FL's family to make some drama. In this story, MC is the reason why both our super genius debudantes lost their parents, first one lost her father and the other lost her mother. He should be called "The Orphan Maker" or "Family Destroyer" or "The Parent Hunter" at this point.

When he start doing something new, it comes out even dumber than the previous one. The recent example is the drama in Julie's story, which is also the most infuriating. Why the f*ck does she will not be cured unless she hate the MC?? Just because she reconciled with MC her growth became stale?? So MC need to let go of her and make her hate him so that she can do some love-hate drama and rise into the most prominent figure in the world with the power of drama?? Maybe author failed his middle school so I will tell you this, intelligent beings cure illness by using MEDICINE not by doing some f*cking DRAMA.

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Technically, skilled author would use side characters to complement and make up for MC's flaw to make balance and synergy in the story. However, in this story MC just have so much cheat that he is certainly "perfect" which is also very common in KR novels. It's also what I don't like in KR novel, they always make MC as OP as possible that every side character is only there to make MC look even more amazing. This story is the perfect example, since MC in this story is superman from the start, author doesn't need to make great supporting characters and could focus on making some soap opera drama for the plot.

Spoiler

well, just look at these abilities :

    1. man of wealth : the ability to know anything that would make money. He used it at an auction to buy hidden treasures and resell them. The auction in the story is kind of incompetent tho since they didn't appraise their item before auctioning them off. It's not like MC is the only one that knows their worth as some dude at some tower also able to appraise them.
    2. Understanding : This is his most OP skill and the cheapest, unoriginal, and laziest cheat ever exist. It gives MC the ability to understand anything and everything. I should have dropped this novel after knowing this cheat.
    3. iron man body : I don't even know why he need this.
    4. Some willpower abilities that is so OP that reduces his mana consumption in the future city about 99%.
    5. some unknown bullsh*t that appear suddenly like the demon hunting buff from his bloodline. I predict that there will be more later.

Now he have money making skill, hyper galaxy brain, superman body, and ultra willpower. What else is he lacking?

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The amount of harem candidates that are introduced in the story is just pure comedic. Nobody that have important place in this novel is a man, except the MC of course. All male cast in this story would disappear into oblivion after showed up in few sentences and reappear when plot need them as fewer lines in the story. It could be said that every important roles in the story like king, best mercenary, strongest wizard, most talented student, sibling, rival professor, surviving villain, assistant, etc. All of them are women just so MC could be surrounded by women.

Spoiler

Later in the story, there is a boy who used to try copy ephrene paper and joined deculein as his pupil. To be honest, knowing this author I was quite shocked that he would bring a dude to the future-past seminar arc along with his harem gang. But of course this author never disappoint me, apparently the boy's role in that arc was just to greet future MC and then faint till the end of the arc. This author really ruthless towards male character, I even felt sorry for the dude.

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LoneDK
LoneDK rated it
October 21, 2021
Status: c111
Started out good but then got way too messy. What do I mean by this? The author got so many concurrent plot running that having to keep track of them is a chore. It also jumps in between plot points at very abrupt moment. Like when action in plot A is heating up, jumps to plot B. It just takes the wind out of all that buildup for plot A and worse, plot B is way more uninteresting than plot A so I skimmed plot B to get to plot... more>> A. Worse, the author keeps introducing new characters, new scenarios when old ones haven't finished yet. So it's a ball of confusion.

There are some character buildings, but because the author introduce so many new characters and plot points, only a few of them stand out. Other characters that felt central is just left undeveloped. The MC started out promising but ends up being this perfect Korean MC which feels more like a machine than man. Worse than that, everything seems to go his way. Oh something unexpected about to happen and the MC could be in trouble? Nope, he makes a random comment that somehow magically fit into the scenario and saves him. The MC is a villain and has done terrible things? The MC just needs to channel his real life backstory (before he got s**ked into this game) and somehow it just fit magically with game's story so the side characters that he wronged forgave him. It just feels very convenient.

Cherry on top, I felt that this novel was a bit familiar so I looked up the author and it's the same author that wrote The Novel's Extra,... Yeah so expect a flaccid ending. <<less
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Carnivalle
Carnivalle rated it
October 21, 2021
Status: c110
This novel is actualy quite good. Has steady build-up, interesting circumstances of the MC and how he evades his deathflags. But at some point you can see its flaws and once you saw them, then novel becomes irritating. My english skills is not so good to convey my thoughts perfectly but I will try and list some of the things that, IMO, is deagging it down.
    1. Active Translations. That is purely my dislike towards this site for a number of reasons, but I strongly believe that if novel goes there - it's worst thing that can happen for readers.
    1. Heroines. Or side-characters in general, since basicaly all of them are females, and if there are males, they are just decorations for MC to flex on them. Each heroine hes her defining traits.
      Spoiler

      Such as Vengeance of Euphrene, Genius of Silvia (And then Vengeance, we will comeback to this),
      Regression for Sophiene, Forced marriage for Julie and so on and so forth for basicaly any female that you can point in the novel. The only exception would be Allen, but it's not authors win, but cause she is a double-agent, and this adds a little depth to her.

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      These traits ARE ONLY things that defines character. Nothing else. You could trow in some things like Euphrenes love for meat or Sophienes cat but this is it. They are empty. And 90% of the time they either griefing for their complicated life, angry at the MC or admiring him. They are just the highlighters for the MC's image and tools for the plot progression. Their lives are tied to the MC and without him, they are just nothing. Empty shells. Even if author TELLING us that they are OP and everything, I couldn't see it.
    1. Too much of events. At some point, i'd say, after the first "school year", amount of events grows in progression. Information trown at reader like every chapter and at some point I thought "WTF is going on". Actualy, seems like I'm not the only one, cause Author lost it's grip on the events and his desire to trow as much women at MC as possible backlashed and now we stuck in the loop of MC running around all his womens, while looking ice-cold and cool, just for them to have like half-a-chapter of screen-time, and boom, event complete, go rest, I have to go to next girl.
      Spoiler

      The whole sequence of events around his sister/Euphreme/Silvia/Sophiene around chap 110 is hella hilarious, at this point they all look like poorly written idiots with too much trauma to handle.

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    1. MC's attitude. Even tho author tries to mask it with merge of 2 characters (Transmigrator and Deculein), his attitude if facepalm-inducing from the beginning and it grows worse in the long run. Author desires a edgy, cool, tragic character, but fails miserably and in the end he looks like a freaking ret*rd. Game-world, that supposed to create problems for MC is actualy incredibly forgiving. MC creates problems by himself for either no apparent reason, either poorly explained reason that looks as idiotic as it can. MC not revealing truth to heroines, that he should have revealed, just because it would have resolved ties that connected them and, subsequently, resolved couple of problems. But no, we don't want this. We want his girls to have love/hate relationships with MC, with lots of angst and shit. This infuriating method of author is killed Euphrene and Silvia's characters for me.
All in all, when I started to write this review I gave it 3/5, but now ill give 1/5. Because I hate AT and because Author killed this novel by himself. Feel free to downvote or point out mistakes, cause I'm well aware of amount od unncesessary salt in this review.
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Epythymy
Epythymy rated it
September 24, 2021
Status: c20
It makes you wonder if you're reading the same novel that's described in most other reviews.

The most basic thing that can be noted right from the start is that world building in this novel is extremely flawed and makes no sense. Not to mention that even the premise is not quite there. And in all honesty this novel is fcking confusing, cause author intentionally doesn't explain anything and instead adds more and more things without any explanation whatsoever.

MC transmigrated into the game's world?

Concept of levels, experience, skills etc doesn't really... more>> exist. Even stats aren't here, all we know is that he has 3300 MP.

MC has standard interface and the starting skills which he added himself before transmigrating, everything else after this is self learned (like studying magic properly from the ordinary books and exercising instead of using skill books or similar mechanics).

So you can say that VR/game-like concept was thrown out of the window.

MC is a villain whose life is full of death flags?

Well, I haven't really seen anything of the sort. Right after transmigrating in such a 'dangerous' situation, protagonist spent the whole week staying in bed and doing nothing. The next two months will not be any different. He will be slowly adapting to his new life and that's about it. No dangerous encounters at all. The most you can find is some low level foreshadowing that MC easily avoided without putting much efforts.

Half-assed confusing world building.

After transmigrating MC didn't inherit anything from previous body owner. No skills or memories.

All we know is that he was 'monarch'-level mage before. At least on papers.

What's monarch level you ask? Well, no explanation was given and author didn't introduce any other power levels either.

Mc's class is professor? What's that? Does it even mean anything? Any bonuses? What about other classes or professions? Nothing explained.

Author introduced a whole magic system! Ugh 7 classifications and 9 elements? Oh! We've got some petty introduction about 2-3 of them!? Wow! Mc's magic is rare! But why?

Well, apparently because author said so. Cause once again nothing was fully explained and MC's magic looks rather standard and normal in other novels.

Every time is the same. Readers don't even know at what time of the plot MC arrived in the game cause it was never mentioned. Is it before the start of the plot? Prologue? At the very beginning? Maybe in the middle of the game? What's the overall plot all about? In-game events? When will he finally encounter something relatively big and game-plot related?

You're not reading a novel but playing a guessing game here.

At first I thought that author will slowly introduce all the details, but no. As I've already said the first week was simply skipped in the 1st chapter, in a couple of chapters will be another small time skip, and then another one. All in the first 10 chapters. Meanwhile author will add more and more locations and random characters.

Also, you think that MC is a mid-level boss of AAA-game?

A villain who dies in 999 out of the 1000 playthroughs. An important character who has to die no matter what? A mastermind behind tons of events and conspiracies?

Hell no!

Simply put protagonist was a typical arrogant prick who bullied the weak and dreamt to make it big in field of magic despite his lack of talent so he used some puny underhanded tactics to steal or pressure others in order to achieve his dream.

It's actually unknown who the true protagonist of the original game is, whom MC offended that he has to die no matter what etc.

Maybe 200 chapters later into the story author will show his grace and finally enlighten poor readers but for now it's a - 'lol kek idk guess everything yourself)))))) 0000' attitude.

Definitely not something I've expected from novel with 4.7 rating.

Despite all the technical aspects, the story isn't too bad or too good, if it fits your taste it's still quite readable.

I simply gave it 1* to somewhat balance its overrated reviews, if not for that, 3'5* sounds about right. <<less
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bvdaf
bvdaf rated it
March 1, 2022
Status: c245
Maaan, I expected something good, since the author of this story also wrote "The Novel's Extra".
I also expected some improvement and that he will learn from his previous mistakes, but sadly I see the pattern - very good at the beginning but turns bad later on.

Where should I start my rant... The story starts with MC transmigrating into a game he was developing.
Because he became the villain of said game, we have death variables that he has to avoid, there is also system and story missions. Everything is... more>> great at that point, a few female characters and death variables are introduced. At the beginning the plot focuses on MC avoiding the death variables, which is fine.

The problem is that in later chapters authors completely forgets about this concept or focuses too much on other drama and dumb stuff which makes the story a bit boring and confusing. The game elements barely appear anymore, the death variables concept almost completely disappeared and well all the interesting stuff that was running this story is not there anymore. The story starts to focus on the drama and "development" of the female characters (there is many of them).

Sure, the development of characters is something natural in stories, but how should I say it, there is too much of it and there are too many female characters getting "the development". It's hard to describe how I feel about it, but in short - IT'S JUST SHIT.

It's boring and dumb. Sometimes the decisions made by MC are questionable and don't make any sense, sometimes the behaviour of the female characters is also unnecesarily dumb and annoying, they also behave unnaturally.

All the female characters are in the story only because "they are imoportant characters in the game and MC will need them to clear events in the game and the game itself." but bruuhhhhhh it's so badly done. In most of the events they were useless, f*cking useless, everything till now was cleared thanks to the MC. Maybe they played a part in clearing a few events, but damn it felt so f*cking forced. <<less
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katsuradesilver
katsuradesilver rated it
August 4, 2021
Status: c23
I feel like the MC is very similar to Harold (the MC of My death flag...). They both have to act rashly by the system which make the interaction between the characters more interesting.

So far there are a lot good characters who leave big impression. This novel have great potential to be my favorite one.

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starkaster
starkaster rated it
January 24, 2022
Status: c81
In brief: A story about a giga-chad frolicking through a field of flowers, trying to avoid choking on estrogen.

The world building at the early stages of the novel is phenomenal. The MC developing his magic was interesting and engaging. The MC's reputation was in the gutter, and surely the struggle to build it back up was going to be equally thrilling. Unfortunately, it isn't long before the author completely loses interest in world building and reveals their true passion: Picking flowers.

Meaningful female characters are plentiful in this novel. The MC... more>> can't walk two steps without tripping over another new flower who abruptly steals the narrative focus so the author can smother readers with floral perfume. These flowers fall into two categories: Ones who come to admire the MC. And ones who fall in love with the MC. Of course, there may be others but don't worry they're already dead.

Meanwhile, if a male character appears they are surely a trap, a barking flower guardian, or a bit villain to be smashed.

Does it get better in later chapters? I have no idea. The smell was giving me a headache so I had to step off at chapter 81. <<less
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Joseph_Heatfield
Joseph_Heatfield rated it
August 3, 2021
Status: --
Everyone is a girl, they are the harem of the MC, nothing much to say, that magic system was lit but it just gets messed up with the cheats, MC is the good guy Korean novels are used to do a lot, ngl, its a pretty solid novel if ur into harem-MC-got it all kinda of thing, but for me was a nono. It has a very cool points like him training, learning and teaching magic but that just get under the carpet because of the girls, really, there are... more>> just GIRLS main characters, that breaks the balance of the novel. Well, check it out, pretty sure u gonna like it, don't get angry like me because of the waste potential because the girls only develop when the MC made interactions with them. Also, wtf with the traits, they are suspiciously very convenient and never make him super conflictive about himself more than "My body is feeling very uncomfy because I say kind words" and that's all, like ???. Again, just my opinion, go ahead and check it out, I'm very sure this will be 80-100% a good novel if u give the chance I dont gave it. <<less
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jch
jch rated it
July 29, 2021
Status: c150
Edit 02/08/2024:

I have to revise my original rating to a 2-3/5, since looking back on this novel, I realized it is not as good as I used to think. It starts off well, but the overabundance of female characters and constant milking of the same tired tropes lowers the story's quality.

Original Review:

It's pretty good.

Character overview below ↓ Listed below in approximate order of appearance. Some things may be incorrect due to my bad memory.

... more>>
Spoiler

Deculain Yukline - The person Kim Woojin transmigrates into. His in-game personality is based loosely on Woojin's. The original Deculain was mysophobic, elegant, adhered to etiquette, and was a real bad guy, who has feelings for no one but Julie, his fiance, and was killed off by almost every major character. When Woojin becomes Deculain, their personalities meld together, so he does still care a little about Julie. Aside from being a senior professor, he's also the head of the Yukline House, one of the 12 important families. He has anti-demon properties, like all Yuklines do. He later tries to become the next chairman of the university, and his victory is pretty much set in stone after his competitor, someone who went to school with him, sees how much he's changed and pretty much concedes the position to him. As of c150, the last trial to become chairman is approaching.

Yeriel Yukline - She's the acting lord of Yukline and initially hates Deculain because she knows she can do better than him at being the lord. Her hatred fades away a lot later on, especially when Deculain says he'll give the position to her near the start of the story. It's later found out that she's not a real Yukline.

Allen - She's Deculain's assistant professor and is introduced as male, but she's female. She's been Deculain's assistant ever since he became a senior professor. She has spatial magic (if I remember correctly) and she's very strong. She's also either a spy for the Red Cross race or works with them.

Eiphrene Luna - Her father was Deculain's assistant and was working on a research paper with him, before he committed su*cide. She hates Deculain because she (rightfully) thinks Deculain stole all her father's work and is intending on publishing the results as his, until Deculain helps her multiple times, by helping her out of an expulsion near the start of the story, sponsoring her to continue her studies, and other stuff. Then Deculain finishes the paper and includes Eiphrene's father as a co-author, giving him credit. Her hatred melts away like snow under sunlight after that, and she becomes Deculain's assistant.

Julie Fryden - She hates Deculain at first because he forced the engagement onto her and her family by threatening and a bunch of other stuff. Later, it's revealed through one of Deculain's diary notes that the reason why Deculain likes her is probably because there was a disaster when they were young and Julie was the only one who refused to give up on saving Deculain even though the situation looked hopeless. As a result, Julie got injured, and can't use aura/mana/magic/something properly, and her life has been shortened. The way to save her is for Deculain to get Julie to hate him as much as possible. After mending their relationship, he finds out about it, and pretends he's trying to destroy her knight group, the Freinheim knights, so that she can go back to her family and get married to him. She does go back to her family, with a lot of hatred for Deculain and an extended lifespan, and is assigned to an especially harsh, cold place, where she'll no doubt suffer (and hate Deculain).

Sylvia Eliade - She's the heir to the Eliade family, and initially doesn't have a bad impression of Deculain (due to Woojin using his skills to be an amazing professor) before her father, Giltheon Eliade, reveals to her that during a fight between the Yuklines and Eliades, her mother, Giltheon's wife, was killed by Deculain when she was trying to leave. Then she asks Deculain about it and he doesn't deny it so she develops love-hate feelings toward Deculain like what @Jastermasher 1029 said. Before, that, though, she wanted to be Deculain's assistant like Eiphrene, but was rejected because she can fulfill her potential better than under him.

Ganesha - She's the leader of the Red Garnet Adventurer Group, and was hired by the original Deculain to capture talented children to be magic s*aves. But she becomes attached to them, and when she tells Deculain that she won't do it, she expects Deculain to retaliate for that, but he doesn't, and Ganesha tells Deculain that Yeriel is not his real sister. The children are Lia, Leo, and Carlos, and Ganesha takes them in as apprentices

Josephine - Julie's sister (not sure if real sister or not), who loves her a lot and is willing to do like anything for her. She's very strong and has some kind of shadow magic. She cooperates in deceiving Julie about Deculain trying to destroy her knight group.

Red Cross race - They're a group of people who are discriminated against. Deculain, as a demon-hating Yukline, used to at least implicitly support their treatment, but as Woojin, he actually spoke out in their favor. But when somewhere important (I forgot where) is bombed and there are Red Cross members among the bombers, Deculain can't support them that openly anymore and proposes for a Red Cross concentration camp to be built on Yukline land, bordering a demon-infested land, so they can suffer by defending against the demons. But Deculain obviously doesn't actually intend on punishing the Red Cross as badly as it seems like he will. The Red Cross have certain traits that allows people to identify them. One of those traits is not being able to eat a certain mushroom, but that mushroom is expensive and their reaction might not be very visible, so it's not a good way of finding them out.

Lia, Leo, Carlos - They are Ganesha's apprentices. Yuara, Woojin's ex-girlfriend, transmigrates into Lia sometime after the story starts. I can't remember much about Leo and Carlos other than that Carlos is a half-demon or half Red Cross or something like that.

Luina McQueen - She's around Deculain's age, and competed against the original Deculain when they were students (or a bit after that). They competed to become senior professor, but Deculain got the role and exiled her outside the empire, until she returns and Deculain later promises to make her a senior professor when he becomes chairman. Deculain also says that in a few years (forgot the exact number), he won't be blocking her anymore, and when she sees him coughing blood once, she thinks he has a terminal illness.

Sophene - She's the first in line to the throne, and becomes the new emperor after the current emperor dies. She's actually a regressor who returns to the start of the year whenever she's killed. Her first few regressions were when someone from the 12 families killed her with poison when she was a child. She has already regressed enough times to make her thousands of years old, which makes her lazy and bored with life. In the game, if she dies, the game is over, so Deculain tries to stop her from killing herself from boredom (he's succeeding so far). He becomes her magician teacher, and Julie is her knight teacher. Deculain uses his skills to be very good at chess, so Sophene likes to play chess with him because he's good at it. They become closer after the demon-mirror-in-the-palace-bas**ent incident.

[collapse]
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endurableflame
endurableflame rated it
July 5, 2021
Status: c13
It's ok, but I feel like the author's shamelessly retreading mostly old ground. He's the same guy who wrote The Novel's Extra, so the similarities become super apparent a chapter or two in. I've read up to chapter 13 and not much really happens. It's the same exact grinding in TNE with the MC using his game knowledge and cheat skills. He even starts training an unorthodox type of magic, similar to what Kim Haijin did in TNE with guns. What little that happens consists of misunderstandings and people being... more>> wowed by the MC's change in personality.

I actually quite liked TNE, even if it was just a fast food story. I just hope the author doesn't repeat the same mistakes this time around. <<less
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Jade.zero
Jade.zero rated it
June 30, 2021
Status: c2
So far pretty solid.

The story isn’t anything unique so to say, but it’s well written and very clear. The story progresses cleanly and it’s decently interesting to read. Though a lot of words have been thrown at you in the first couple chapters, you never feel overwhelmed with the information the author is communicating.

There hasn’t been much in terms of character development or whatever, but it’s nice to see that the MC is pretty reasonable and level-headed.

The translation too is well done, so there’s never any break in immersion from... more>> grammar mistakes and the like.

Hope this keeps getting translated, I’m excited to see how the rest of this story goes. <<less
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Zoot_Suit_Tom
Zoot_Suit_Tom rated it
October 7, 2021
Status: c60
I had a pretty good time reading this starting out. I enjoyed the MC, Deculein, and his stoic badassery, and everyone being out to kill him was an interesting premise. The magic system was actually used pretty well in some fights, and I liked that most of it was revealed and explored in the setting of a classroom. A lot of the supporting cast was, even if not that interesting, pretty entertaining, and sometimes even funny (like that dinner scenes where Julie eats the steak really messily to get to... more>> Deculein and it actually kind of works). Overall, nothing super amazing, but I was hopeful that it might get there.

But after a few dozen chapters it wasn't really going anywhere.

The MC is cool, but it doesn't really feel like he grows all that much throughout the story. Yeah, he's badass, and he has some nice one liners, but after a while it becomes a bit stale. I was really waiting for the revenge plot to come in and put him in a really tough situation, one he couldn't just cheese his way out of using system knowledge and attributes, but that moment never came. We never got to see him make a really hard decision, or suffer consequences for a bad one.

I still like the magic system, but it really suffers from a lack of depth. You hit these moments in the story where the MC pulls these super complex equations out of his ass and you're kind of supposed to be like: 'wow, how'd he do that.' But it's kind of hard to get hype over the professor busting out some insane knowledge when the reader doesn't even understand what the heck is going on, and the experience ends up having to get hard carried by the reactions of the supporting cast (which thankfully are fun to see). The one use of magic I actually really liked was the scene where Deculein uses his magneto powers to drop the train in the middle of the fight. It came off as a really clever moment because it was something the reader could have reasonably come up with given the information they had. I just wish more of the story was like that.

Finally, the side characters. I actually ended up liking a lot of them on pure entertainment value alone, but looking at how they fit into the larger narrative, very few of them (except for maybe Sylvia) end up feeling appropriate to the world they live in. There are a few instances that stand out, like Julie being that dumb despite being the head of a knight order or Epherene never investigating her father's time at the college, but the biggest problem is that very few of them seem to care much about their revenge. I mean Deculein was a real bastard to everyone, but within like 10 chapters of meeting the new him, they all kind of just forget about their hatred. Makes the story harder to care about when the characters act super conveniently like that.

In the end I was left with a lot of cool moments, an incredibly weak plot, and some fun characters ruined by a lack of meaningful consequences. So I hopped off the ride. Hope it gets better for those of you that stick with it <<less
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Sunny-Y
Sunny-Y rated it
December 25, 2021
Status: c220
Well, I like this novel.

The starting plot is amazing. Though it may seem to be a typical story of reincarnation in the villain (I like these novels tho), Deculein (the new body of MC, whose name is Kim Woojin) is not a villain who can live comfortably renouncing nor apologizing. He's not only the cornerstone of almost all characters's problems, but the former owner of the body used to be a real horrible person too. Others characters have real and understandable reasons for hating him to the point of wanting... more>> to kill him. He exploited people, killed people, ruined people's lifes and careers, and none of these things were misunderstandings.

Yeah, original Deculein sure has his reasons for doing these things and it's totally understandable, but he was a bad person anyway, and that's amazing. It's interesting how we discover slowly why he muted into a horrible villain who everyone want to kill, and how his personality building was his way to endure a difficult childhood. And all of it without victimizing him, whose evil deeds cannot be justified with a difficult past.

So, it's really a tough challenge for Woojin, who is a softy and pushover guy who cannot overcome a 7-years breakup and now, suddenly, everyone hates him. It's fun, but at some point one can't help but pity him, haha.

One more thing I loved of the story is, he cannot avoid some personality traits of Deculein. So, while being a softy guy inside, he's an arrogant and stoic noble in the outside. Poor thing, haha. Though, this point develop nicely with the story; surprisingly, Deculein and Woojin's personalities complements perfectly when combined, although that presents the risk of losing the sense of identity of the MC. Woojin provides the moral and feelings that Deculein lacks, and Deculein provides the mental strenght and pride that Woojin lacks. So, the mixture between them is an interesting (and cute at some point, haha) character development.

I like main characters with emotions. Truth be told, there aren't much of them these days.

I like that others characters are well developed too. They have strong and understandable emotions, are very humans, and it's easy to grow fond of them. It's a shame that almost all of them are women for some reason (though most of them aren't real love interests for obvious reasons the MC sees them as babies), what is not a bad thing at all but it results in MC not having equal friends at all. In recent chapters this is getting better with the appaerance of Ihelm (he's funny so I hope he lasts long), but we'll see.

Well, I missed the main point, but what I wanted to say is, the characters's building in this novel is amazing. The way their relationships develops is really good too. They are loyal to their principles and personalities, but they are people who can change progressively with life events and mature.

There is, anyway, one thing that annoy me about this novel, which is an habit of this damn author. Too much unnecessary drama. Drama is okay, it's understandable in this kind of plot where everyone has their own reasons to try to kill MC... but this is too much. Sometimes, there are sudden twists that ruin the developing of wholesome relationships and it's frustrating.

But these things happen when you are already immersed whith the story and fond of the characters, so there's no way back despite of being frustrating, because you want to see your babies overcoming the s*upid drama rock that the author throw them.

That's all, I think. I recommend this novel. I fear for the end, because this author is really bad at ending his stories, but for now, is an amazing reading experience!

And the translation is great. I almost forgot to say that, but it's very important. All hail Active Translations. <<less
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ReySkee
ReySkee rated it
September 21, 2021
Status: c89
Honestly the novel lacks relevant male characters which is fine but really obvious and tiring when a new female character pops and be like "wow another heroine right?". It somewhat reminds me with MHA, where female characters are introduced but doesn't have an ounce of relevancy in the story.
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Eden1506
Eden1506 rated it
September 8, 2021
Status: c212
Deculein makes for a very interesting and pragmatic character, unlike other books of this genre Deculein is/was a true villain who has already committed numerous crimes and damaged multiple for the story relevant relationships forcing our main character into quite dangerous and challenging predicaments.

His atrocities and abuse of other characters have meaningful implications inside the story which aren't easily resolved like in other books and create unique interactions.

Our MC knows the future but has to decipher the past to be able to rectify and steer the story in the right... more>> direction.

In retrospect I have come to realise that most "transmigrated into a villain" stories just don't deserve their namesake. At most they are thugs or bullies but they are not true villains they haven't done anything which can't be rectified or solved in some arbitrary way but Deculein has making him truly deserving of being called a villain.

Ps: by arbitrary way I meant like clearing up a misunderstanding, which in itself isn't a bad writing tool but if all conflict is solely dependent on misunderstanding and could theoretically be resolved at any point without much consequence it takes away all tension and stakes. <<less
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WubbaPanda
WubbaPanda rated it
March 28, 2022
Status: c320
I liked this until I disliked it. For the buddies out there that like NTR, this novel was made for you. A dream come true.

Like a lot of others have pointed out, there are six girls, immensely talented, immensely s*upid most of the time. Some arcs will showcase character development and completely revert after its over. I can only think of Sophien and Sylvia that have actually changed.

The forced hatred on the MC by all six Female Leads always keeps rotating for each other like a circlejerk of misery. The... more>> MC also has no choice as he is forced into this position due to living in Deculine's body and the inherent s*upidity overtaking the FLs into thinking MC is a terrible human being.

There is also a lack of important male characters that have a change on the worldview.

Some might say, "What about Zeit or Ihelm? Zeit is really strong and Ihelm has changed right?"

They don't offer anything at all in regards to the setting, story or the MC. Zeit is just regarded as a disaster to avoid by the MC while Ihelm is useless.

TLDR: You thought things gonna get better this arc? Nuh uh, here's a fresh serving of NTR for you dummy. Enjoy~ <<less
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