Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

Description

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Xu Beijin is an extra in the game ‘Escape.’ His usual role is to lie on the floor to be the corpse, while observing how the Missiontakers scratch their heads to figure out a way to survive.

All the other extras work extremely hard as if trying to win the next Oscar’s in order to leave this cruel, despairing world; while Xu Beijin has a simple, monotonous, tedious life.

Until one day, he picked up a streaming system…

Xu Beijin’s life has been entirely upended.

While lying on the floor as a corpse, the audience goes “AAAAAAAH Host what’s that behind you uwuwu…”

While he’s reading the script out loud, the audience goes “Hehehe Beibei’s so cute acting all serious! I want to lick!”

While he’s working hard to figure out the truth about this world, the audience goes “Today our Bei is also the hardworking Bei!”

While he’s… he’s working hard dating Lin Qin, the audience goes “?!?! This isn’t the horror game stream I signed up for!”

Associated Names
One entry per line
在逃生游戏当群演
在逃生遊戲當群演
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Kaleidoscope of Death (4)
The Earth is Online (4)
I Became a God in a Horror Game (3)
Global Examination (3)
Card Room (2)
To Be a Heartthrob in a Horror Movie (2)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Unlimited Flow BL
  2. Best BL Novels
  3. Horror/Thriller
  4. Apocalypse BL
  5. actually scary/unsettling bl

Latest Release

Date Group Release
10/15/22 Story Seedling v9c156
10/14/22 Story Seedling v9c155
10/13/22 Story Seedling v9c154
10/12/22 Story Seedling v8c153 part4
10/11/22 Story Seedling v8c153 part3
10/10/22 Story Seedling v8c153 part2
10/09/22 Story Seedling v8c153 part1
10/08/22 Story Seedling v8c152 part4
10/07/22 Story Seedling v8c152 part3
10/06/22 Story Seedling v8c152 part2
10/05/22 Story Seedling v8c152 part1
10/04/22 Story Seedling v8c151 part2
10/03/22 Story Seedling v8c151 part1
10/02/22 Story Seedling v8c150 part2
10/01/22 Story Seedling v8c150 part1
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Review
65 Reviews


boilpoil
boilpoil
Jul 20, 2021
Status: Completed
Hey, it's the translator here. This is one rare novel that I basically read through in one go. While the pace is excruciatingly sluggish in the beginning, it improves later on. The story and plot are a tad complicated, but the sluggishness actually helps you take in what's going on. The protagonist and his love interest are somewhat undeveloped, but a lot of side characters are really fleshed out. If you want to enjoy some slightly more hardcore sci-fi/drama novel with a horror twist, then I highly recommend a read.

Edit:... more>> For those asking about the seme protagonist tag - It is marked so on jjwxc, and is also hinted at by one single line in the extra that you'll miss if you blink.

Editedit: Do leave a comment on the relevant novel chapter if you believe I accidentally spoiled something in the middle of the chapter in the TL notes, or DM me on the translation team's discord. It would help me improve as a translator. If you would rather do it anonymously, there is also a red button at the end of the chapter with an exclamation mark to file a report/feedback on the relevant chapter. Thank you. <<less
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Seafall
Seafall
Jul 22, 2021
Status: Completed
Hi. First of all, I just want to say that this novel is worth reading.

The story revolves around Xu Beijin, an extra who suddenly got the called live broadcasting system. He normally had a small role in the nightmare scenes of the escape game, limiting his knowledge about the scene. However, because of the system, he now had an option to spectate the entire scene, live broadcast it and give a helping hand on the mission takers. Note that the mission takers viewed the actors as NPC. This is because... more>> the actors restrained by the game master, had too much obediently played their role as NPC, which gave the wrong impression to the mission takers even though they are also human.

So why is this important?

This is because the nightmare scenes are all truly difficult to the point where the mission takers always die a few times before they reach the true ending. It should be noted that there is no death in the scenes because the scene will just restart if a death occurs among the actors and mission takers. Unfortunately, having several restarts increases the chance of collapsing the nightmare scene and its difficulty. Furthermore, if the mission takers cannot really reach an ending of the scene, then they and as well as the actors will be continually trapped inside it. This is called the eternal collapse. Because there is no death and only restart, both sides will play their roles in the nightmare scene until the actors have completely assimilated to their role, while the mission takers will give up in finding the ending. Simply put, both sides became will become mad to the point that they cannot or do not want to escape the scene anymore.

Note, there is no useless nightmare scene. Everything is connected and has a purpose. They are the foreshadows to the greater secret behind the game.

Anyways, this is a mystery. As questions will appear on the readers, it will be eventually answered as the story reaches the ending. Here are some of the questions:

  1. Why were they playing this game anyway?
  2. Who brought them there?
  3. What happened to their earth?
  4. Who really is Xu Beijin?
  5. Who is Lin Qin?
As for the relationship of the couple, XB is like an old experienced man (actor) and LQ is a blank sheet of paper when it comes to romance (mission taker). With the mentality of his good personality and the fact that he was trapped in the escape game for several decades, XB had not thought of getting involved on someone else until LQ came to his life. Oppositely, LQ has a simple and frank personality that he always pestered XB despite whose identity is known to be an 'NPC' by others. Their interactions are like the icing of a cake in that sad game. Anyways, I like them both and their happy ending.

Beibei and little apple (LQ) really needs to take a good rest from all that. They deserved it.

Spoiler

Nightmare scenes are based on their actual experience in the earth doomsday.

They were trapped for two hundred years in the game by a certain alien lifeform who destroyed their earth.

While they are trapped inside the game, other humans that are not trapped became s*aves to this alien. Only tens of thousands were left, and they were forced to limit their reproduction by a total of hundred babies a year.

XB's role is not just a bookstore owner but also a game master without the actual authority.

LQ is the one who actually escaped the game but was forced to return inside it with erased memories.

The floor does not matter, as long as they, both actors and mission takers, all sleep, the ultimate nightmare will be triggered.

The highest floor is unknown but there is a lone surviving mission taker found at the 65th floor near the end of the story.

They were helped by a foreign alien life form that was the enemy of the one who trapped them in the end.

Mankind was able to free itself from this alien colonozation. Humanity was restored.

XB's and LQ's bodies were actually destroyed while they were in the game. But the good thing is, the foreign alien helper created new bodies for them, which looked the same as in the game and even with the same stats.

After getting out, XB and LQ are living well. XB as a live broadcaster and LQ as an no.1 athlete in all the physical competition against other alien races. Lol

[collapse]

So you should try to read this story and make their struggles not to be in vain.

Just correct me if I'm wrong especially on the spoilers, since what I've read is the MTLed version of this. <<less
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Poison
Poison
Jan 02, 2022
Status: v2c33
I'm a horror mystery, psychological lover. I can say I'm obsessed with it, one hardcore enthusiast. I watch, read and play everything related to this genre.

So, I have high hope for this novel. However, sigh. ;-; So here's my review for now

Plot : 4.5 stars (I love the concept, the settings, and the solid characters' building. This is refreshing after all those monotonous novels where MCs being op in every escape rooms.)

Writing : 4 stars (Kudos for the translator, he/she tries their best to bring light to this novel with subpar English)

Pacing : 1 stars (I may be cruel to give this kind of rating among all the good reviews, plus I'm still in 2nd arc. It's just the pacing of this novel has been rubbing me off badly. I do appreciate slowburn especially when there is greater reveal at the end.

However, slowburn can be painful if the story is obvious. Eg,
Spoiler

in Arc 1 where the identity of the doll is literally out in the open, but not any character is questioning it till the utilize card shows up. In Arc 2 where the chronological order of mu*der n escape is blatantly obvious, but someone still manage to get it wrong, I had to skip his dialogue entirely because it makes no sense.

[collapse]

Imean, the above is tolerable if the sentences are not repetitive. I should have mentioned in the writing section, but I thought I should give credit to the translator instead, since the writing pace of the author is the problem. A whole lot of para can actually be cut to intensify the story progress.

I've read alot of novels of this genre, and I know where is the unnecessary.

The repetitive dialogues with different wordings, repetitive conclusion which comes every few paragraphs, repetitive thinking of different characters.

I'm sorry, but I'm tired of the unnecessary thought process which won't stop repeating itself without moving forward after many paragraphs.)

Yes. The above are my reviews for now, and unfortunately I don't want to continue to read. Maybe, just maybe, someday, when I have all the time in the world, I will continue rereading it which might change my mind. Thank you.
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tricksyness
tricksyness
Oct 08, 2021
Status: Completed
In my opinion, this novel's strengths are also its weaknesses.

On one hand, the world-building was very interesting. There are intriguing mysteries in each arc and overall plot that the players have to solve. On the other hand, this also means you'll keep seeing the characters discussing back and forth at length in each nightmare, trying to figure out the mysteries. It gets a little tedious to read, especially if you're binging the novel.

A unique thing about this novel is how the MC is not the one running around trying to... more>> solve the mysteries because of his assigned role in the game. The side characters/"players" are the ones actively solving the mysteries, so they get more character development compared to a lot of other novels.

However, since MC is not a player, he doesn't quite feel like a novel's main character for me. The players are the ones who are actually playing the game, so we read about a lot of their actions. Meanwhile, MC is an extra who mostly just spectates the nightmares, but he does try and help them a little more as time progresses. Sometimes it just feels like you're watching the game with him rather than him actually being part of this novel, though I understand it's part of the plot.

The romance was cute and very touching near the end, but I do wish there was more meaningful interaction before one of them was convinced that they were in love with the other. <<less
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Fuchou
Fuchou
Feb 17, 2022
Status: Completed
I'm going to be honest, I've read the translation and mtl and I can give 5/5 to the translator, but the author's writing? Is a 2/5 for me. It's like a broken record, sometimes it feels like a mental attack due to the over repetition. I've read so many slow burns spanning 700 or more chapters non-stop and I had to take breaks reading this one due to frustration. I wanted it to be concise. I guess this is where one says "hating iron for not becoming steel."

Nonetheless, I read... more>> it until the end despite the constant headache because the plot? Is 10/5. It's so damn good! There's small plot holes (not all novels can be perfect so it's understandable), but the basic premise is amazing. You can clearly see that the author already thought out the end before they wrote the beginning. The nightmares' mysteries requires a brain to work too, and the plot twists are mind blowing. I've been reading it for a week straight in my free time and have been losing sleep since.

I love the ML and MC, and even how fleshed out the side characters are. The introspections and POV changes really nailed it. In the end, I even felt that it was a bit lacking (I wanted more after-stories huhu).

Spoiler

I feel like it's only XBJ and LQ who got a True End, while the rest got the Normal End. I wanted more stories of the survivors since Mu Jiashi and Su Enya are the only ones who had a few lines dedicated to them.

I feel really sad thinking about them. All the people they loved were in an era they left behind-- 200 years ago. They're all exhausted. They didn't integrate well with the new society. Aside from XBJ and LQ who had no choice, the survivors were actually also offered bionic bodies (so they could live longer than the human lifespan) but very few people took it. I think they were just glad that they could finally die in the way they wanted to, which is sad because that's a really low standard, but understandable too.

I guess it's a mercy that they weren't deposited on an Earth with only rubbles and nothing else since the Fijeka (?) at least kept 10, 000 humans outside (as s*aves, but they at least have freedom to watch XBJ's stream lol).

Also loved that bit that Detective Dalao was almost taken away by Fijeka (?) as a cannon fodder for war, but he was too sick so they eventually left him alone (This wasn't explicitly stated but I made that conjecture when the descendant of the game maker told the survivors when they just got out about the young man in passing, and the fact that Detective Dalao disappeared for two weeks).


Also, since the time runs differently in the game than in real world with a 1 month:1 week ratio respectively (if I remember it correctly?), it at least felt like 860+ years for the suvivors inside the Tower instead of 200 years. I'd gone crazy too. The people who remained sane have outstanding mentality.
[collapse]

Still a 5/5 overall for me. Well, maybe 4.5 but rounded to 5. I still can't stop thinking about it. <<less
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nitan
nitan
Dec 22, 2021
Status: Completed
Amazing story line and build up, atmosphere is also excellent, one of the most creative and unique instances i've ever read+ good pacing near the end!! The only thing is -- reading the writing style is so tedious -- for no reason at all. It's not even complicated, but it's just so convoluted and goes round and round for about 5 paragraphs (average) about the same thing, just worded slightly different-- pointing out the obvious/emphasize it again, a tiny sprinkle of introspection but it's making exactly 0.5 point to progress... more>> the story abit + build up tension -- before we move on. And then rinse and repeat the entire progress of pointing out the obvious with 5 paragraphs, etc. etc. again. It felt like eating cardboard - you gain nothing from eating cardboard, but you will be full of paper when you're done with eating everything. Also there's literally 0 nutritional value???

(the overall build up/big picture progress is good actually, it's just the process/passages where they're progressing the story itself is so... excruciating. it's like pointing out the obvious but refusing the move on. or make any valuable contribution to add onto the story -- or even just. do something. mislead, express their reactions etc. it just. does nothing. and thats so painful because it could've been so good)

The overall novel if you look at plot, pace, build up, elements etc. are so well done so I highly recommend -- but the reading experience itself..... ah....... maybe it's just me, but I honestly felt like the idea itself is phenomenal, the way it's written definitely took some joy out of a 10/10 plot. Longer doesn't mean better, and good planning doesn't result in good writing technique. It's a good novel!!! One I'll think about later down the line - I just won't re-read it again because the experience of reading itself is the hardest pill to swallow about this novel. If you're bothered about things like this, here's your warning! Honestly you can just read the dialogue and it'll be fine. Mostly. Probably not, but god I don't want to relive the experience of reading this again even if I enjoyed what the story is about in the end. <<less
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moon-bunnies
moon-bunnies
Jun 06, 2022
Status: c135
Like other reviews mentioned, the pacing of this novel is the bane of my existence.

So, so repetitive. If an event occurred, it'd be explained by a side character, then re-interpreted by the main character, then re-evaluated by the stream watchers. And then, the whole thing would be summarized again as a recap lmao.

On top of all that, there's the info-dumps. Pretty sure the story could be slimmed down to 100 chapters flat if it was properly edited.

That being said, the world-building is great. Protagonist is interesting (though ML is flatter... more>> than recyclable cardboard), and the premises are sinister just the way horror thrillers should be. So I'll keep reading. But god, it's an uphill battle. <<less
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Glidings
Glidings
Sep 29, 2021
Status: v3c43
Something about this story just sparks my obsession. The MC is perfect. He's lazy, full of existential crisis, and has a different perspective of the world. The romance is slow but the ML is an actual character not just a reflection of our wants for validation. I did look at the completed translation of this story after getting up to date, however the quality was much worse and took away from the story, so ill be sticking with the one linked here on novel updates until it's completed (as of... more>> writing this that will be in one month). <<less
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Devrai
Devrai
Nov 01, 2022
Status: v9c156
Some people might like this kind of novel but I'm not one of them. Let me explain the main points that annoyed me and I will input a spoiler at the end about the Story.

    • Repeat, repeat, repeat...
    • Faulty background behavior and logic holes.
    • MC/ML/ stream
Let me first summarize the background since the novel description is simply wrong. MC never played as a corpse, and neither did he die. So... basically humanity is captured in a game. They do not know why, how or even when. The game hub is a rather rundown tower encased in a perpetual fog they cannot enter. The gameplay of the players is to enter the nightmares of the indogen tower residents and finish it. By archiving a true end, they can level up to a higher towerlevel. What the players/mission takers not know is that the tower residents are also human player but they have to act out the given script under surveillance of the towers AI. MC is one of those residents and regularly drawn into others nightmares as a "NPC". He is basically always a bookstore owner or manager, not leaving his station and giving out clues. Then he finds a streaming access and uses it. From then on he can switch the camera to the other locations and also see the nightmares, giving more clues and somewhat communicate with the outside world....

And here starts my rant... as soon as the first 2 nightmares you will most likely getting annoyed by the ever repeating "reasoning". There is a clue and the mission takers have to rehash it lengthly, then the stream will do it again,

then a special steam guy again and then MC again.... every f*cking clue. It will shortly get better in nightmare 3 but then it starts with every single player. At times I wondered if MC and ML were even needed in this novel... well basically only at the end. If you would cut out the f*cking repeats and how every single player got enlightened by the same thing, this novel could be cut at least in half.

And this kind of writing style everyone has to insert their own brain farts is unreliable annoying to me. If you are good with this, you might like the novel.

Then there are the faulty background behavior and logic holes. The writer set rules and then bent, broke, rewrote or forget them as they seemed fit for their often forced explanations. The inherent story of the nightmares sometimes feels so forced to me that it is impossible to explain it "logically" and the ways they solve them is just... well nothing that would ever make sense. If starts with nightmare one, according to the rules a nightmares is logically solvable with a true end.... but they could not have solved it if not one of them had earlier before entering that nightmare found a card.

That card was basically the true end.

So everyone else could not have solved this nightmare.... and this is only the starter.

Sometimes the writer is really reaching faaaaaar with their "logical explanations ".

Also the whole tower itself.... riddled with logic holes. If humanity entered a game, you would bet they will build guilds and organizations in a blink but no.. the writer did ignore all normal human behavior to try and depict a more dark and somber atmosphere.... and at a later point seem to realize it does not work and somewhat awkwardly inserted some "kind of" organizations... To be honest, that whole background felt "wrong" to me and never gave me the chance to immerse myself into this novel. I still fought until the end but it wasn't worth it.

MC/ML and the stream.... well I feel like they were the real side characters and only needed for some special moments. In an exaggerated speach,

MC was a depressive little twit which mutely watched others fail while nonstop droning on in his head. ML is just a board on the wall which you take down to club someone if needed. The stream is only there to rehash the 1000st time, make it feel like MC is super intelligent and for that one moment in the end.

To be honest, the most likable was ML. Oh and do not read this for "romance" sake... there is really... well not none but close to none.

So... would I recommend this novel? No, not really but it might hit the spot for other people. At least the translation was good. If you think you can live with everything I complained about, then you please go. The story itself is rather ok... gets really nuts sometimes.

And here the promised spoiler. Please be aware to not read this if you want read the novel. I insert this spoiler because I f*cking whished there was one,

so that I would not have to read the whole book. So this spoilers the whole story, be aware.

Spoiler

What happened to humanity?

An apocalypse in 3 steps.

One year before the big endings, people started to go crazy. Some badsh*t crazy, some in really strange ways like totally addicted to their job and in some places even electronics became sentient. Death was everywhere and became the new normal. The craziness spread. One year later when humanity still was somewhat working, some hobby astronomers found something "fast" running to earth and the second step approached,

raining hellfire feel from the sky and let the world burn. Still, people further away from the impact were surviving, when step 3 came to land on the planet. A superior alien race. That race"discovered" earth and claimed humanity as their s*aves. That race is in an ongoing war and usually sent their subordinate races into a gauntlet to filter out people for their war. Since human bodies are too weak for a physical gauntlet, they have to go through a intellectual one... the tower.

Important point, all the steps are thanks to those aliens. They used their "crazy gun" on their foes but when they realized nothing happened, they found out that the shot went awry and hit earth. Then they planned to just destroy those human ants but other races then also realized there was a new species and so they couldn't just kill of the whole planet but it is OK with interstellar code that they own earth and its people... So humanity became s*aves.

The alien race is an AI race which is in war with another AI race.

The bad ones feel superior in their cars form without a body, their antagonists persist on having a (cyborg/bio engineered) body.

The tower.

The construct of the tower was based on a game that a human game company was designing. Although s*aves, they were rasked to work together wigs a game server AI to construct the tower game. They inserted minimal "possibilities " that shouldn't alert the aliens but might give humans a fighting chance.

The tower games story is, that humans built a tower with an AI manager to keep them safe after a global apocalypse. The nightmares were hints for them on how the apocalypse came to be. They later realized that the tower AI was not protecting all humans but those it deemed crazy were thrown out. Since the AI had to listen to humanity as a whole, they took over the management and left... with some in-between.

The AI had a human brain mixed in, that was the brother of the inventor.

Basically that AI was made of 2 things and the brain part is the part which took over for humanity later.

So.... when the aliens than threw in humanity and deleted their knowledge starting from the first step of apocalypse on, every human "tower resident " got a role to play.

Our MC got the role of... the brain, so to say... here the writer went reeealy imaginative. So MC was the human actor of the human part of the ai and the server was some of the AI. The server won the struggle over the tower and threw MC down on the first level.

Since he can not kill MC because of his human part, there are other ways. MCs dream.... you could say if he ever sleeps he will succumb in his own dream. His nightmare is made up of the fog in which every crazy player is. I don't think I have the energy to detail here about the dream of the way because.... nuts and writer has obviously no idea how data and processing works.

Well it ends with MC getting part of the tower rights, people enter the ultimate nightmare where they live through the apocalypse again while MC opens the backdoor for AI race 2 to enter the cloud of the bad AI race and win the war.... in moments.

Then humanity wakes up in the game pods where they lived for 200 years, finding out they are on earth. There is still a small and hard regulated community of humans but when the war was won, all the AIs disappeared and fed them. (Still not knowing how their bodies lived 200 years in a game pod but normal humans still have normal life expectations)

MC has no living body because when he was flashed with all the AIs knowledge good brain burned out.

But thanks to alien race 2 he got a cyborg body. Same for ML, he had no body too. ML was an overachiever who actually was so good in the game that he "won" and left the tower.

He was sent to war but his body didn't make it. Alien race 1 still had his mind map, cleared all memories, gave him some special traits and threw him into the tower again as an experiment... locked on level one.

MLs memories are still in the data hub but he decides not to get them and instead make new ones.

So that's it.

[collapse]
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jtrichard
jtrichard
Jul 23, 2021
Status: Completed
The closer you are to the truth, the more you realized how horrible it is.

I can feel the dark atmosphere when I read until a certain scene ... more>>
Spoiler

before they enter Xu Bei's nightmare

[collapse]
. This novel is layered in mysteries that was slowly uncovered as the novel goes, but it's also feel slightly sluggish because it wasn't uncovered through the MC Xu Bei. It's the side character development that's brought this atmosphere to the table, while Xu Bei is the hand that's moving them behind the scenes.

When I read their journey through the last arc, I can feel the nerves, anticipation, and fear of something going wrong. Again and again until the last two chapter, I can't help but being on edge because what if they fail? Xu Bei's pessimistic attitude is actually quite in line with my attitude so I can feel the helplessness.

Warning: each chapter is like 8k to 15k words long and it's really tiring to read the last arcs because imagine you're eight chapter left but it's actually 80k words. That's almost the length of a novel.

But I have to say that this makes foreshadowing the author put before got used. The way she/he played with the plot and each scene made me think that they planned this carefully. There's hardly any holes, so I'm quite amazed.

The extra sort of like... Well extra. My feeling is a bit like... Okay, im done when I read the extra. I guess it's because I want to read about MC and ML interactions with their colleagues, but only tiny bits of them is around. It told their story afterward, but not particularly interest me like the main story does.

Well, totally recommended if you want dark/mystery/gaming/horror kinda novel. It's a great read.

Edit: hold on, why is this seme protagonists? I didn't see any scenes depicting that, neither any outward line describing that.

Edit 2: ohhh, I see. Thank you translator 👍 <<less
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BravingtheWaves
BravingtheWa
Apr 22, 2023
Status: v9c156
While I wouldn't proclaim this to be a masterpiece of any means, I have found myself thinking about it even after completion.

... more>>
Spoiler

It's not only an interesting take on the infinite flow genre, but of what the apocalypse would be like as well.

Madness.

And can't help but think about how with world and the state its in-- realistically, would we have noticed it either? I'm doubtful.

A slow trudge, humanity's mental descent, and for no particular reason other than being collateral damage in a war so beyond their plane of perception, they couldn't even fathom it.

[collapse]
<<less
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Storymonster
Storymonster
Aug 03, 2021
Status: Completed
The world building is fantastic. The whole concept is great. Really fresh, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

The execution is some aspects falls sliiiightly short. But not enough to change from five stars.

Clearly concept and visuals are where this author shines. Pacing... not so much. The beginning is pretty slow, and there are several moments throughout of repetitive internal monologue that feels just a touch rehashy, and I feel like the tense moments were never quite fast enough to feel truly thrilling. It more rides at that eerie, slow pace mostly. But that’s... more>> nitpicking.

The horror is the disquieting kind. Like you feel uncomfy and skin crawly thinking about it. Not the jump scares or shocking, intense, heart palpitations kind. But it does this well.

Romance... exists and is rather blatant, but there’s absolutely no tension whatsoever. Which felt like a very deliberate choice... maybe to offset the gloomy plot? (Like subtle comedic relief I guess?) While I hate s*upid drama, a bit more push pull would’ve been nice. Of course, if you’re into big silly single-minded loyal dog types then this is your cup of tea.

As a pleasant surprise, the side characters all felt fleshed out. Enough that I kinda wish there were some extras for my favorites. And while not all their stories were blatantly tied up in your face (like the twins), the author was really clever about sliding in little mentions here and there that hinted at things.

Actually, a lot of information was handled that way too. It felt inadvertent as opposed to in your face info dumps. The MC’s close-lipped nature carried over to his inner thoughts so this felt like the author really trusted the reader to understand the subtleties and slow unraveling without feeling the need to spoon feed everything.

Yep. A bit stream of consciousness, sorry. But yeah. Entertaining, solid read. Definitely recommend and will reread. <<less
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LunaSolis070
LunaSolis070
Dec 25, 2022
Status: Completed
"Xu Beijin is an extra in the game 'Escape.' His usual role is to lie on the floor to be the corpse, while observing how the Missiontakers scratch their heads to figure out a way to survive"

NO, I though MC was lying in the corpse while live streaming and everyone just passes by. But NO! 🛑 MC is a librarian who never sleeps. He accidentally got a live broadcast. That where he got to help humans. And the story begins.
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luxe
luxe
Mar 29, 2022
Status: --
This will be an ongoing review as I go through. Currently at the second Nightmare.

So, the initial Nightmare and instance leads us to a very interesting world. They're trapped inside, but they're unable to die. The reason I'm reviewing so early is because... I gotta say, the male lead is pretty annoying so far. During the first nightmare, you're absorbed in the nightmare and the story, but there's the ML demanding "fight me!" at every other interval and doing pretty much nothing but staring at the air when he's not... more>> required to do anything. He's also in the way of Beibei talking to the viewers because he's not allowed to talk in front of the players. Like, literally everything else has been more interesting so far than the ML.

I don't mind MLs that aren't rich, tall, handsome, abusive, yandere, etc. But, I find zero appeal to a character that doesn't really bring enrichment to the story other than a bug-like powerful existence. I even found myself hoping Wu Shen's actor or Mu Jiashi was the ML as I was reading, lmao. Like, literally anyone that shows a characteristic that's a spark more interesting than "Fight Me! I'll bribe you with drinks!" (The fact that Beibei has said no x5982305320 times is... annoying; hello, listen to the 'no' and stop being a jerk).

Otherwise, the story is very engaging. Other reviewers can probably tell you. Just that the love interest is literally 1/4th of the reason one would read a BL. LOL. <<less
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Eccentricstate
Eccentricsta
Jan 09, 2023
Status: Completed
Reading this was... tedious. I really had to force myself to complete this because it became very long and repetitive. The arcs were too long, felt very similar, and frequently felt very convoluted. Frankly, the overarching plot was the same: too long and convoluted.

On paper, this really seemed like a match for me. I love unlimited flow/survival games with good mysteries to solve. This just felt like the excitement wasn’t really there? Part of the issue is that the MC is literally a background character for most of the book... more>> lol. Which was quaint at first, but after several arcs of it, became pretty boring since it never really felt like there were any stakes.

MC and MLs dynamic was pretty decent. Though their relationship progression is insanely slow. Which would have been fine, but they also went in circles for a solid chunk of the book.

I did enjoy the diversity of the characters. BL always falls into the pit of having a male dominated cast with few female characters. Here, there is a proportional number of female characters with good background development and aspirations.

Would I recommend this? Honestly, I’m not sure I would. It was entertaining at first but eventually became a chore to read. There are better unlimited flow novels out there. <<less
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SilverWolfHiddenInSnow
SilverWolfHi
Nov 07, 2022
Status: Completed
Reading this has been a f*ckin trip. The ending was so hype that I actually felt the same excitement as XBJ. Also, if you’re worried about the “seme protagonist” tag, it doesn’t have any real bearing in the story. I think it was just added cause the MC takes initiative later in the romance. There’s actually nowhere where it specifies or even hints at the fact that he’s a seme.
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Haigi
Haigi
Jul 30, 2021
Status: Completed
At first I thought this was gonna be a light hearted not-horror livestream puzzle mystery.. But after every arc, you see the universe slowly unfolding before you. Layers upon layers of mysteries behind the game starts to make itself know. Unlike other infinity-type stories, the arcs build upon each other, eventually leading to the ending scene.

Side characters have certain depth and I can feel the tangled emotions of the players as they play the game. Even if we're reading from MC's perspective, but I feel like one of the viewers... more>> in his stream instead. I love how the story shows itself. It doesn't tell, but lets you journey together.
While we slowly unravel the mystery of each arc puzzle, as another reviewer said:
'The closer you are to the truth, the more you realize how horrible it is.'

It's true. The more I read, the more afraid I became as I imagined what lies in the future. The plot twists are really something. You won't regret reading it! <<less
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LadyIllune
LadyIllune
Jul 24, 2023
Status: Completed
This novel is different from unlimited flow novels I'm used to reading. But it still quite a read but I probably won't be reading again.

... more>>
Spoiler

Usually unlimited flow novels I've read had fantasy / unrealistic type of elements that the characters in the story needs to solve.

This one is just purely humans acting as performers of the script (actors) and other humans trying to solve the script (missiontakers) by virtue of the clues given by the actors and things found by the missiontakers inside the scene of the play (nightmare).

There is muted gore, it's not the main focus like other unlimited flow novels but in this case u have unlimited loops that makes solving the scene harder as the time goes on.

There is also not much bloody infighting between players, and players do not truly die, they only can become insane.

I think the only similarity from unlimited flows I've read to this novel is that: they must know how they/others died to avoid the nightmare becoming harder and to give themselves more time to solve things. And lastly, they need to somehow escape or have the ability to leave the place that is keeping them from the true reality.

[collapse]
<<less
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youngmaster0
youngmaster0
Apr 05, 2023
Status: Completed
Remarkable. I've read pretty much every unlimited flow out there, and this is one of the few that stands out. MC is a VERY unreliable narrator - and in a novel that's all about how perception drives 'reality, ' it's a delightful bit of irony.

It is on the slower side; the story takes its time in unraveling, but that was part of the fun for me. It's not exactly a mystery, but it's not straightforward, either. There are scary scenes, but the real horror creeps up on you in slow... more>> increments until you're in too deep to turn back.

Nothing is as it appears; everything is as it appears. <<less
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LeniSnow
LeniSnow
Oct 14, 2022
Status: --
This novel has been great, the plot, the build up, engaging instances, and interesting MC. If this was a movie, it's the one that will keep you tightly seated and focus making you not notice that 2 hours have passed. This would have been a solid 5 without the ML, I love BL but this series would do well without romance. This would have been perfect without the ML, who is like an annoying talking parrot, comparing him to a parrot is actually a disgrace to the parrots. ML is... more>> a unecessary character and his position could easily be given to any other side character with much more use since although he is OP he is too much of a trouble and every interaction with him is tiring, just give his role to someone like the streamer which gave the chance to ML in the first place, that character is a much more interesting addition to the plot and is an actual variable but he was a real cannon fodder. I don't see any cuteness with ML just MC being tired of dealing with this guy that didn't contribute much to the plot until the end aside from his existence itself finally giving in because when you're at his position you'll crave affection and attention, that's just human nature. I don't see a couple just people seeking companionship. MC in the first place is apathetic. <<less
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