This novel's start was amazing, it was one of my fovourite novels, but it only got worse, everything is getting repeatable, MC goes somewhere, does impossible, gets best items, and MC goes somewhere else. It's only been 100 chapters and only a year in this story, but MC is already op, does something even top 10 of humanity can't do. Basicaly this novel isn't anything special, I can't see any character growth, no side characters (there are some, but they are bland, they are basicaly there just for MC to... more>> shine). Still going to keep reading hoping to see it get better. <<less

A pretty good read, thought not particularly amazing.

-The Plot: In the past, King Solomon set up a magical realm called the Underworld to trap the 72 demons of Ars Goetia to stop them from destroying humanity. The system periodically summons humans into the Underworld, where they have to undergo grueling trials until only the strong remained. This has gone on for more than 50 years, to the point where the humans are now controlling an entire country in the Underworld and formed guilds and clans, constantly fighting for power and... more>> artifacts. One such guild was an assassin organization called the Forest of Death, consisting of brain-washed puppets who would kill anyone their leader told them to.

The protagonist, Muyoung, was one such assassin, one of the most accomplished who killed countless heroes of humanity even as the demons were about to destroy them all. With time he overcame his brainwashing and destroyed the Forest of Death from within, dying in the process. Upon death he gets thrown back in time by 40 years, to the day he was summoned to the Underworld, and he decides to use his knowledge of the future and 40 years of combat experience to destroy the Forest of Death once again and stop humanity from tearing itself apart before the demons would even make their move.

-Characters: This is a MC-centric story, so the only character we can really speak about is Muyoung himself. He is... okay. He is not a complete monster, but he is not a hero either. Sometimes he helps people, other times he calmly watches a woman getting her head crushed even though he could have saved her without any problem. He is also a decent schemer, though a lot of his schemes rely on the fact that everyone besides him are either incredibly naive, s*upid, or just plain insane. Overall he is a decent protagonist, and while his unnecessary ruthlessness can get a bit annoying at times, he is not a psychopath (yes, I know that is damning with faint praise, but after reading a bunch of xianxia WNs recently, my bar is set pretty low).

-Writing: Generally decent. There are some repetitions every here and there (the author really felt they should remind the reader which fairy the protagonist wanted to track down for what reason every couple of chapters), but the story flows fairly well. There are some glaring inconsistencies (a system made by King Solomon gives the summoned humans smart watches to track their stats? really?) but otherwise the world-building is good and as the story proceeds it introduces new ideas at a steady pace, such as new trials and even some kingdom-building. Unfortunately the plot itself is pretty meh so far, with no real overarching plot or even a decent antagonist (even thought early on the protagonist swears to destroy the assassins ASAP, after a couple of chapters the entire subplot disappears). It's essentially just the protagonist moving from one location to the next while collecting powerful artifacts and skills on the way, rinse and repeat. No romance either.

-Recommendation: I would recommend this if you are looking for a simple read with lots of RPG reverse-abstraction throwing lots and lots of cool loot at the protagonist. There aren't any really memorable characters, but the world and the trials are fairly interesting, and while the protagonist is not exactly deep, he isn't one-dimensional either. The story also has a fairly fast but not hectic pace with short arcs, so it lends itself well for reading in short bursts. Overall I think it's an enjoyable, if slightly unpolished story. <<less

Korean novels have a lot of time travelling eii? Nevertheless, it's still an amazing read. It started with awesome beginning and now the MC tend to be a loner and stuff (kinda boring I guess) Still waiting for the current arc to end, hopefully the next arc will be better like before

I like this one, it's often rightfully compared to Reincarnator, I do like this one better however. There's a lot of deus ex machina, and the main character is gaining power ups in a ridiculously fast manner, but I still find it enjoyable, it's one of my guilty pleasures.

My only major gripe with the novel doesn't really have to do with the novel at all, but more with the translator. By that I don't mean the translations are bad, but the chapters just arrive to darn infrequently. At this pace... more>> Warlock of the Magus World will be translated before this one, despite the fact that WMW is 1200 chapters & this one is merely 270. <<less

I do not understand why someone would say it is superior to reincarnator. For me it is not.

Characters
Muyoung, the MC was an assassin and was the was the best in his field. But he ended up dying killing his ex-boss and going back in time for no apparent reason. I do not like his personality as he doesn't care if anyone survives besides him. He only save people that could help him survives and he doesn't help even if it wouldn't cost anything to him. There was a moment where he thought "I don't really care if a lot of human dies. I just want to survive with a few." It's not that it's bad in anyway it's just that I don't like it. Sure he was trained that way but when you hear about a serial killer in the news, and you hear he had a bad past and he was traumatised it is still hard to find empathy for the guy. It is the same thing for me with Muyoung.

Overall if he had the same ambition as Hansoo like saving the majority of the human race, I think he would have become much more likable.

Powers
Maybe I am weird but I don't like necromancers especially this kind of necromancers. The problem I have with this is that the undead retain all their skills and they evolve when certain conditions are met. They are not as proficient as before but because the skill to turn undead is evolving they will probably be as proficient. So I am thinking : isn't it better for Muyoung to kill all those around him and turn them into undead ? That way the undeads will retain their skills and they will obey him and he will not have to worry about betrayal. And when you have a homicidial maniac like Muyoung as a MC it would not amaze me if he turned all humans into undead. As a necromancer it is better if all lliving beings die, especially if you are a lich since you would not need to eat. So it would have been better if the MC had more self control than a homicidial maniac in my opinion.

World building :

It is just the beggining but I think the world is not varied enough. There are monsters, demons and humans and that's it. At least in Reincarnator there are the Arukons, the wolfmens/beastmen, the elfs, the demons, the darkcloud race etc. The world is better builded in my opinion. There are other little thing in my opinion like the way Muyoung obtained his class by doing the dumbest thing. He didn't take his time and never took a break by going up a mountain against strong monsters, and he almost died and got the highest reward because apparently it was better to risk his life uselessly. That means in order to get stronger you have to get dumber. I don't like this system.

A much darker version of Reincarnator I believe the two to be equally as good for different reasons. However, I do think the two should not be compared and taken for what they are.

Here we have a character who is a lot more sinister and has seen the worst side of humanity and yet is on a path to redemption to save it. I really feel the preparation arcs are what sets the tone.

For those who like skills, leveling up and antiheroes!

This has a lot of promise, but ultimately its tone and writing shows a lack of scaling the tension to compensate for the power elevation for the protag. They might TELL you that he's going to go up against x y z, in the future, but the subtle signals sent throughout the entire writing in this later section is telling you that there are no threats, that can competently handle the MC. This is why I deduct a star. Fun, decent themes, and wacky scaling fights are fun, but there... more>> needs to be that element of evolution that makes those punches hit harder. That struggle needs to mean more, and for this wacky comedic level of fighting, to hold some subtle sense of impending doom to make it sing when the protag wins.

Right now, you see the protag win, and go great now what's the arbitrary new power? Oh that? Eh cool ok. That emotional blunted response loses out on the fantastic start of the novel. <<less

The beginning is alright, it's interesting. But later on, like the MC, the story itself become chaotic, with all kind of things weirdly mixed up. Plot holes everywhere, and the story became incosistent. It feels like even the author forgot about the story, except the ending part. So like many novels out there, the later part is rushed, with many things left unanswered. Quite dissapointed.

I had quite a high hope seeing its rating is 4.1, so I don't think the rating is well deserved.

Agh, reading this is like riding on a rocket (that kind which flies into the universe). Story is full of holes, yeh I can ignore them if they are all smol holes but in fact they r big enough to hurt my IQ. The MC's attitude is quite gud, hes on the gray zone from what I have read. This novel is severely lacked of descriptions of other characters. It has a good topic but they r written awkwardly. Dang, give more effort into ur novel man. 3 stars...

The only reason this book is getting 2 stars instead of 1 is because the concept is pretty cool, but everything else is horrible. I powered through this book thinking that the translation/writing quality would get better and it took 100 chapters for it to improve slightly. This book had so much potential but it was wrote in a rush and left so many plot holes it made me want to slam my face into a brick wall. It was like reading a book written by a kid with severe... more>> down syndrome/ADHD that couldn't explain the plot properly but you gave him a gold star anyways because you know they at least tried. I feel like the author made no effort in making this a decent book and just gave you a shitty synopsis to interpret because they didn't feel like explaining anything in the book. There was zero effort in character building and any hope you had in developing side characters is a joke. They add foreshadowing to certain side characters that keep you wanting more, but in the end they let you down massively by not following through with anything other than a paragraph explaining why it was slightly relevant. It makes you feel like the author forgot certain characters even existed and give you a brief, shitty spark notes version of why they foreshadowed a decent side character plot to begin with. I know I sound like I'm ranting, but this book had so much potential, and it is written like the author did not care about making this book decent at all. <<less

I guess if I was to sum it up in 1 word it would be "meh". I'm quite surprised it currently averages as high as 4.1/5.0 but I guess early on it ticks all the right boxes.

I guess the biggest issue is that MC doesn't really have any goals, friendships or desires. All characters other than the MC are basically either underlings he exploits or enemies he'll kill/ens*ave. The MC spends a lot of time saying the rest of humanity should fight and then just does everything on his own.... more>> The romance is literally female characters chasing the MC while the MC doesn't even seem to care about their existence. All of this makes it hard to get invested in the storyline.

The ending is also rushed to such an extent that it's almost an open ended ending where you assume the MC won. <<less

• So the good point is the MC is not really OP from start and slowly builds up power. The story overall is good but there are some serious confusing with our MC's origin and the truth pops out of nowhere and by "nowhere" I mean literally NOWHERE right in the final battle with absolute no leading up, no forementioning.
• The story has a good start from the beginning til mid but after that the Author rushs it like there is no tomorrow. It's like the Author stop giving a f*ck about the whole story and my friend let me tell you, like any others rushed Novel there will be ofc loose ends, great potential characters got abandoned, MC initial growth potential or was planned at one point from the start got cancaled and changing like crazy during the story, KEY characters description are so vague or turns into some sort of side disks during the process. New chars or story developing keeps getting introduced then left dried out.
• The romance part is nonexisting beside one sentence of making love pops out of nowhere, ONE SENSTENCE in the whole story then done, it is s*upid af.
• The wrapping up at the end is just total bullsh*t with no thought no cares, the last two chapters is the evidence truly show us the rush and the Author totally stop giving a f*ck about the whole thing.
• I give this 3 stars purely because I like the concept and the bold MC with stuggles along the way, might as well throw in the laments of how great this novel could have become if we have a better writter.
• Whoever the Author is, he/she has a good mind for writting but not the patience and decision to back up that writting. What a shame, what a shame !!!.

It's a good story. The ending was quite rushed. Nothing that makes it stand apart from the usual webnovel that I read.

Aww, this has been a really thrilling read. I could have read this for another 270 chapters lol. Muyoung, our MC, is so proactive, he literally does EVERYTHING. I honestly really love him. I also like how there's no romance heheh this is really really good, I read the first chapter and never paused (like read another novel or skipped a day or smthng) it was so exciting, I don't really know much about cliche's but Muyoung worked so hard that he deserve all the cliches in the world ahhahha... more>> the the side characters were also given the right amount of screen time, not so much but not so little.

Spoiler

I would have liked it more if there was a chapter where humans where recognizing Muyoung cause I think it's sad that they don't know or not given the chance to express their respect for Muyoung, altho Muyoung probably doesn't really care about that. I'm really really happy for him cause he lived such a sad life. I never expected him to be 'the man' in the flashback, I really though he was the emotionless number 0. It was a bit sad that they didn't get to reunite but it probably wouldn't have mattered cause number 0 doesn't remember him. It was also quite nice to know that he was 'the man' who enjoyed drawing, I really treasure their relationship sighh.

[collapse]

Reread? I honestly could! But that's if I have REALLY forgotten the story. I love our MC, he deserves everythinggg. <<less

I don't think I have stopped reading a Korean webnovel this fast but why waste time on a novel that I come to dislike. The premise of the novel is pretty standard, a ruthless, stoic protagonist given a second chance in life. What irks me is the translation, which makes an already confusing novel become even more confusing. The author fails to describe the details that matter like talisman, skill proficiency, etc. Imagine my surprise when his skill suddenly becomes C or D from F and getting an A ranked... more>> equipment in the tutorial stage-equivalent. The plot armour is also kinda overused. That Taehwan dude got his ass saved at least twice in the same "Ah, am I about to die?" situation just in the tutorial stage-equivalent. If you are able to stomach all the inconsistencies and overused cliches, you would probably be able to proceed with this novel. A 2-star for me. <<less

The guy is running through trials while killing people and monsters non-stop. That's all.

Like the entire world was created just to make him kill more. Illogical and gruesome. He literally cannot make a step outside of trials, and there are many bloody trials inside of bloody trials. They even turned "choose a skill from the library" event into a deathmatch.

I started reading, and thid novel is pretty s*upid, I'm not talking about the story, story is sub-par so far, but the lack of details is so annoying that I'm dropping it after reading around 40 chapters.

One of the greatest "return to the past" type of novels, similar to Reincarnator or Master Hunter K, just more of an open world instead of having only certain parts of their respective world's open to them. A great read, I really enjoyed it, the only thing I'm a little sad about is the rushed ending, but except for that, the story flowed nice and well.

A good story, it has similar issues to other stories of the same type in that with multiple translators, the story seems really chaotic but once you get past that, it is a decent story. Give a it a try.

An impressive story for something so short, while it may not be a unique story the elements make it very entertaining as the MC attempts and successfully walks his own mixed path of good and evil, without care of what others thought and often times using false impressions to his advantage.

Even with so many different powers, the attempts to balance it in my opinion seem really successful, when it went out of balance it was later fixed.

Greatly enjoyed the story.