The Novel’s Extra

Description

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Waking up, Kim Hajin finds himself in a familiar world but an unfamiliar body.

A world he created himself and a story he wrote, yet never finished.

He had become his novel’s extra, a filler character with no importance to the story.

The only clue to escaping is to stay close to the main storyline.

However, he soon finds out the world isn’t exactly identical to his creation.

Associated Names
One entry per line
TNE
소설 속 엑스트라
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
The Second Coming of Gluttony (74)
Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (26)
Trash of the Count’s Family (23)
Transcendence Due To A System Error (17)
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending (16)
The Editor Is the Novel’s Extra (11)
Recommendation Lists
  1. TOP of the toppers, BEST of the bestest
  2. Um Actually, I Read the Manhwa
  3. Novels like ORV
  4. First view point~(bl and none-bl)
  5. all of my 5/5 novels

Latest Release

Date Group Release
06/26/18 Wuxiaworld c20
06/25/18 Wuxiaworld c19
06/25/18 Wuxiaworld c18
06/22/18 Wuxiaworld c17
06/21/18 Wuxiaworld c16
06/20/18 Wuxiaworld c15
06/19/18 Wuxiaworld c14
06/18/18 Wuxiaworld c13
06/16/18 Wuxiaworld c12
06/15/18 Wuxiaworld c11
06/14/18 Wuxiaworld c10
06/13/18 Wuxiaworld c9
06/12/18 Wuxiaworld c8
06/11/18 Wuxiaworld c7
06/09/18 Wuxiaworld c6
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394 Reviews sorted by


Negiomi
Negiomi rated it
July 1, 2019
Status: c323
I'm DONE with this novel by now. The beginning was okay, interesting. The co-author part gave it a bit of originality. He has struggles and relatable feelings and such, but further on, the plot get thrown out the window. The writing style isn't something I like. This is one of those jump into a novel and one hop to OP kind of story. He is way too overpowered and too many things becomes too convenient. He conveniently knows that this will work, he conveniently knows that that will work, everyone... more>> conveniently misunderstands him to be way better than he actually is, the girls all conveniently starts loving him, etc. The misunderstandings were comedic at first, but just became an annoyance soon after. There were too many misunderstandings that twisted their views of him way too much. You could say no one really actually knows him. There are too many POV changes within a chapter and many of the POVs are about harem candidates obsessing over the protag and cuts off from the main plot. The actions of the protagonist are all too convenient as well. He suddenly does whatever he does because he conveniently know that this will work. He suddenly comes up with a solution that the readers never will think of because of some settings of the world that WE NEVER KNEW. This happens so much that I had to quit after forcing myself through, thinking that it will get better and the misunderstandings will be solved.
Spoiler

On another note, I feel that his 9+ luck stat only ever works when the author wants it to. Like when he tried to hide that he killed Chae Nayun's brother, he was unlucky enough for his sleeve to go up, but then could win every time in gambling [insert confused pikachu face]. I thought you were REALLY lucky?????

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TerraEarth
TerraEarth rated it
July 3, 2018
Status: c28
An incredibly refreshing take on a tired genre. I can't praise this novel enough - at least up until the latest chapter as of this review.

This novel is special in that you can really feel the impact of the protagonist's choices in how they cause the novel to unravel. Every decision that he makes not only affects the plot of the story but also how his character's stats will develop. It's essentially a well-executed, novel spin on the questing system (a similar example is seen in Advent of the Archmage,... more>> however AotA doesn't perform in this regard nearly as well as TNE does, in fact it doesn't even come close). Overall the gaming system is quite interesting and has a lot of potential.
A relevant (and hilarious) example of this is how the main character attempts to raise a non-upgradeable stat beyond human limits with his acquired 'bonus points' from the gaming system, only to have the moderator of the system stop him from doing so as his luck stat was becoming far too high - and too much plot armor is probably not a good thing! It shows that the author is self-aware but unlike others of his craft, he goes out of his way to smooth out those rough edges you would so often find left unattended in lesser works.

On the other hand, it also tends to rely on the 'class' system that you see perpetuated in so many novels and despite the praise I'm laying down for it, along with this tired trope and several others like it, it does have its fair share of issues that could potentially cause issues down the road. However, I will give it the benefit of the doubt and wait to see how the author plays it all out.

TNE goes against many of the tropes that you'll often see in CN/JN/KN novels. The MC has to make good decisions, he's not overpowered, he does not have "plot armor" but the decisions he makes can help him power through the rough spots and side characters are given just enough development and set-up such that the readers will invest their emotional capital into them. I'm hoping that these good times continue as I would hate to be disappointed. I'm slightly concerned about the power creep accelerating out of control. The Main character, despite not being OP at the start, does seem to be developing rather rapidly - which is a double edged blade as too fast of a development turns him into a Gary Stu whereas too slow of a creep makes the read less satisfying and more boring.

To conclude, allow me to share an excerpt to show how far the author is willing to go in regards to pushing his MC to the limit:

Spoiler

[Flaw. There is no semblance of danger for the main character and others. If the story continues this way, the readers would become bored thinking, "The main character will win anyways."]

"... This crazy motherfu... "

No danger? Of course, there was no danger. Readers didn't like extreme danger! This thoughtless amateur...

However, there was another line below.

[Makeshift solution. Even if things become a mess, increase the power of antagonists.]

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JoakimIT
JoakimIT
June 15, 2019
Status: Completed
I would have given this my first 10/10 because the first half is amazing! It's down to a 7 now...

It was incredibly well written with characters developing and many interesting relationships, and a lot of well written emotional scenes. Then there's a time skip, and the author slowly forgot how to write an engaging story completely. Everything happening seems meaningless, no real hardships and I pretty much stopped caring about the story.

The MC is also getting a lot less likable, his inability to correct misunderstandings and the way he pretty... more>> much mentally crippled two girls (although one probably deserved it) makes me really dislike him.

The author seems to excel at writing good characters and character interactions, but often ignores that and instead just focuses on writing the story. And writing a good story is not one of his strengths. It might be that he just hasn't had the time to actually plan anything for a while and just writes to meet the deadline, and if that's the case it's a great shame.

I will probably come back to this review and edit it if I feel the story has gotten better because I was honestly quite invested in this novel and many of the characters. But if the author cowers before his fanbase in choosing the girl he ends up with (like he's doing now) I might come back to lower it further.

It's like Game of Thrones all over again, the author might actually have given the story over to D&D judging by the drop in quality.

The worst novel's to read are those that has so much potential but drops the ball completely after you fall in love with it. And this is definitely one of those for me.

Edit:

I wish I could unread this entire thing and never touch it again. It's my most hated novel.

But I do feel for the author, the constant deadlines and hate can't be easy to deal with.

Next time he should complete a draft of the story before starting, and stick to it. He's a great author when he can spend time on the story, and it's a shame he doesn't write normal novels instead of something that's continuously published.

Will follow whatever he writes in the future, and pray he learns from his mistakes. <<less
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pomoli
pomoli rated it
August 12, 2018
Status: c82
Awesome.

Pro

  • MC is interesting, good natured and kinda dense, while trying to scheme around knowing what's going on, resulting in people thinking he's way more amazing than he really is. The idea to make him a side character makes the whole thing actually attractive.
  • Secondary characters are all developed, as you follow what they think and understand their reasoning. I think that's really the best part of this novel.
  • The world is interesting, even if the focus on Korea being the greatest powerful country is kinda too much IMO. A balanced setting would have made things more enjoyable.
  • The secondary romances are cute, with the MC not seeing people being attracted to him.
Con

  • MC becomes the focus of various powerhouses a little too fast IMO.
  • The Dungeon system needs a little development, for now it's too vague.
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antoniomanuel10
antoniomanuel10 rated it
January 9, 2020
Status: Completed
It started decent. It became bad. It became horrible.

This one is kind of hard to review.. So, as a "book", this novel is good. The writing is good, the pace is decent, the author knows how to make cliffs and contrary to most novel's around here, it actually has a plot and a well-structured world.

But then, the author shoots himself on the foot. We are given an amazing world with some really good characters, but what is actually the story is just so bad, so boring, so underwhelming..

Everything that most... more>> people like about reading this type of novels is ignored. Cool ranks? Cool powers? Strong battles and amazing villains? Romance? Nope. It is mentioned, but the author just glosses over it. He introduces everything that we like, but then just writes about boring side-quests.

So, if you are going to read this, expect to see about an amazing complex world, but then spending 150 chapters of a 380 chapters in a boring and insignificant side quest. Expect to be presented with well written and interesting romance, but then having the MC only care about the 1D cardboard character that no one cares about. Expect the MC to be presented with the most cheat skill ever, but then him choosing the worst and most boring path possible (Guns? Really?). Expect to see a 15 chapters presentation about fishing but having the most expected and awesome battles appear off-screen.

If I had to summarize the story, it would be an author picking up a fleshed out setting and characters and thinking (I'm going to do everything in my power to ruin this) . <<less
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grandplex
grandplex rated it
August 18, 2018
Status: c45
Not many stories get a rating 4.5+ on NU that aren't Josei, I guess male readers are generally a good bit harsher with their ratings. This story deserves the rating because it is just that well written. It takes the Korean cliche of going into a world the MC know's about, then screws with him on a regular basis with the plot device of there being changes to the original story.

There is a good bit of humor, plenty of action, well-developed character's, both the MC and tons of side ones.... more>> It does not use the horrible side character alternate viewpoints that generally just end up padding the author's chapter count rather than really developing the story. All around, it has no major weaknesses. Most importantly, it is a story that makes me want to keep reading chapter after chapter, and those are rare. <<less
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yukinoluna
yukinoluna rated it
August 25, 2022
Status: c335
Loved it, but as everyone pretty much said, the romance is so bad that it drastically pulled the story down by a lot.

Things I liked about the story:

    • Hajin's personality - I liked how he behaved like a proper adult and didn't give two damns about petty bullying done by children. No, it doesn't make him a doormat - he gets annoyed too sometimes but also understands that they are almost 10 years younger than him and his priority is his mission. Overall, I love how rational and mature he is. Also, he isn't like many MCs who perpetually shits on the person he transmigrates into (aka Chundong). Other than at the start where he comments that Chundong's Gift is tr*sh (which isn't that a**holey), as far as I remember, he never criticises Chundong for his circumstances. Similarly, IIRC, he never shits on other people for having mental issues, or having certain characteristics that they are literally born with. (I've lost count of how many other novel MCs sh*t on the person they transmigrate into because of their face, their mental issues etc)
    • The side characters - their personalities are consistent and fleshed out, and their character growth is also amazing to see. TNE's side characters are possibly one of the best fleshed out side characters I've ever seen. They all have their own agency and unlike other stories where they are constantly led around by the MC and require the MC to solve all their problems, they are independent strong characters (For example, Yoo Yeonha's business sense - even though Hajin helped to bring her businesses to a greater height, she would still thrive even without his help + Rachel's growth and experience in the Tower of Wishes was also done because she was capable). None of them also fall in love with him after a few meetings and have their rationality eroded by MC just because they are potential love interests, something really refreshing after seeing other novels where the supposedly smart female leads are reduced to babbling damsels in distress after falling in love with the MC. Their identities that they have built up also don't get washed away by their status as love interests, as they continue to pursue their own goals even while being attracted to the MC.
    • Good plot and well explained details - The first 100 chapters were done really well, and MC's abilities are fairly original and well thought up. His skills are good, but not to the extent that they make him OP. The skills and thought processes also don't have any plot holes and are all accounted and explained properly to the readers - there's no "why didn't he just do XYZ?" because the author would explain it. Every chapter also covers a lot of the plot and there are almost no unnecessary dialogue (at least for the first 200-ish chapters).
    • MC doesn't do everything alone and isn't always constantly surrounded by his harem - MC often relies of Cheok JunGyeong (and sometimes Jain) for help, and even if he has some tension with a harem member, his goals are always his main focus and he will achieve them even if he has to ignore said harem member.
    • Antagonists are not entire clowns - Other than low ranked Djins with not much to show, the rest of the antagonists are well fleshed out - Bell, Jin Sahyuk etc do get their chance to shine and grow.
Things I didn't like:

    • The emotional aspects of the MC - The first 100 chapters or so were done pretty well IMO - First, Hajin was scared because obviously, he was a normal citizen on earth without any combat experience. Then, he faced a moral dilemma about killing people, which was done pretty well too. After that, the emotional aspect just faded. Rather than properly fleshing out the MC's emotions throughout the story consistently, the MC's emotions only appears at critical times, which made it seem sudden and slowly, MC's personality felt less and less well thought out. For example, the author didn't bother to show us any of MC's emotions when he hung out with the side characters - things like how he enjoyed spending time with them, how warm they made him feel, blah blah blah, none of it was mentioned. Hence, when he suddenly mentioned his conflicting emotions on killing Chae Jinyoon's brother or his affection for someone, it seemed totally sudden and kind of fake. We almost never get to see any thorough explanation of MC's emotions, thus, even though I love Hajin a lot, I find it hard to immerse myself into the story and feel sad or happy for his predicament in many situations because his emotions not shown unless at a critical juncture. This makes no sense because isn't showing a character's emotions consistently before the important scenes better because it makes the grand reveal during an important scene much more sad/exciting? For example, in chapter 200+, he mentioned that he had affection for Chae Nayun and how lonely he was, but this affection wasn't even mentioned or shown to us before that. His loneliness too - descriptions of his loneliness only seemed to manifest itself occasionally when he talked to Evandel, but neither of these emotions were written in any impactful way that made us feel sorry for him.
    • The romance - This is why I prefer reading stories without any real romantic ending, as these sorts of stories tend to have really badly written romances - the whole Nayun and Rachel thing was filled with misunderstandings, and while I like Boss as a character, I find the romance kinda weird and sudden, possibly due to the point above, where I mentioned that MC's emotions are barely even mentioned after a certain point in the story, and as a reader, I have no clue how he even ended up liking Boss (or even Chae Nayun, for that matter). Frankly speaking, at the start of the story, Kim Hajin and Kim Suho had more chemistry with each other than any other female love interest (cue them touching each other and MC wiping rice off his mouth), but maybe someone told the author that the two of them had more chemistry with each other than their respective love interests or smth because the two of them suddenly stopped interacting much and in fact started to behave weirdly in front of each other and MC started trying to avoid Kim Suho's touch, which is honestly out of character considering how MC and KSH were so touchy feely with other other prior. At this point in time, even Cheok JunGyeong has more chemistry with the MC.
    • The importance of characters are hyped by nothing much is given to us - For example, the author wasted time to explain the members of the Chameleon Troupe, but other than Jain and Cheok JunGyeong and Boss, the rest are not even given any screen time and are just relegated to being extras. What about Droon? What about Khalifa? What about the seat of Indigo??
    • Let's not talk about the ending -
      Spoiler

      it was just so badly done that I'm appalled. Why would the author use some memory loss plot device? Wouldn't it make a better ending if Kim Suho and Kim Hajin had a talk about the whole author main character thing and reinforced their friendship? What happened with Cheok JunGyeong and Rumi? Why did he suddenly have a thing with Jin Seyeon? I'm also not convinced of the reason that Hajin gave to be relegated to be a side character (logically speaking, if the co-author had not given him mercy and returned some of his possessions he wouldn't have anything - not money, not power) in a lower dimension. I'm also confused as to whether he would end up going back to his original dimension after dying of old age, because I assumed that he would end up permanently as a lower-dimension soul based on what the co-author said, but MC later on said that he would only be missing from the original dimension for about 100 days.

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      Anyway, it was evident that the author rushed the last 1/2 of the story, which is a shame.
Overall, I find many novels with male protags tend to not explore much about the MC's emotions. Maybe I just like reading about a main character emotions, idk, but if the author was going to write about the MC's loneliness, moral dilemma, romance, etc, he should certainly have showed this to us by talking more about MC's feelings, especially how he felt when he hung around with his friends, his comrades etc, to make us more sympathetic and to increase the depth of MC's personality. I don't mind that MC became OP around chapters 200+ because at that point in time he already lived for quite a while in the story and I could see that he really worked hard and strove for his goals. Lastly, I'm begging authors who can't write romance to please just not input romance into their stories anymore and if they really have to, make it a bromance at most.
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koearn
koearn rated it
October 25, 2019
Status: Completed
Personally, I find the premise of the novel extremely ironic. "The author of a fairly popular webnovel goes on a slump and ruins his story" can apply to both the MC and the author of this novel. Unfortunately for us, there is no one in our world who can send the author inside of his own novel to fix it, which is what happens to the MC in this story.

I enjoyed the first half of the story very much. The characters were well written compared to most webnovels and there... more>> was just the right amount of drama, romance, and humour in the plot with enough mystery to keep me curious and engaged. One thing I would criticize is the overuse of misunderstandings in the plot; though they were used to both great comedic and dramatic effect, sometimes they just felt unnecessary and frustrating knowing that the conflict could be solved if the characters just talked to each other. Overall though, I would easily rate the first half of the story with 5-stars.

The second half of the story was an absolute mess. I would say the
Spoiler

tower

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arc is where the story began to fall apart. The character that the MC wrote as the MC for his own novel was way too under-powered even though he was supposed to be one of the strongest characters. The plot went off in weird directions that either made no sense, or into completely unnecessary and boring fillers. I ended up just skimming through the final arc due to how messy and boring it was.

The author also admitted that he changed
Spoiler

the main heroine

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midway through the novel despite having absolutely no idea how he was going to adapt the plot to fit around that, resulting in certain characters
Spoiler

such as Rachel and Evandel

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having no significant importance in the story despite being led to believe so. I think the fact that the author said he "didn't think that he was in his right mind" when he was writing pretty much sums up the second half.

The worst part of the novel by far was its ending. (Spoilers for "A Monster Who Levels Up" ahead)
Spoiler

The author used almost the exact same ending "A Monster Who Levels Up". To be fair, I thought the ending to "A Monster Who Levels Up" was acceptable, if a bit unsatisfactory. The way it's used in this novel though is complete bullsh*t. Instead of the MC getting amnesia, all the other characters forget about the MC instead and he loses all his powers. The baffling part is that he CHOOSES for this to happen. At the end of the novel, the MC is given a choice between returning to his own world, or to stay in his novel world without his powers and no one remembering his existence. Aside from how frustrating this is to watch from a reader's viewpoint, the decision makes no sense plot-wise. The MC's motivation during the novel is to get to the novel's ending so that he can return to his homeworld and see his parents again, but he throws all of that away so that he can live in a world with literal devils and monsters without any sort of power or connections. I can kind of see where the author was trying to go with the world being the MC's creation and him being reluctant to destroy his own creation by leaving it, but the execution is just terrible and makes me feel more exasperation rather than empathy for the MC.

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A LOT of the character development and relationships between characters go to waste in the ending as well.
Spoiler

Despite the fact that many of the important characters do end up remembering the MC again by chance, none of their relationships and conflicts are truly resolved. For example, the love/hate relationship Chae Na Yun had for the MC that made up a significant part of the drama in the first half of the story is concluded in one lackluster conversation in the epilogue where the MC implies he will not see her again

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The author ended up lying about fixing the ending too. Though he said the "The Novel's Extra" would have side/extra chapters to elaborate on the lackluster ending, he later backtracked and said that he didn't even remember saying that. Essentially, he lied about fixing the ending later so he could temporarily avoid criticism about the ending. Funnily enough, he's already done this twice before in two of his previous works, which are not on this site. In fact he, changed his pen name after those two works so that he could get rid of the bad reputation he built up except he ended up doing the same thing for the third time and people found out who he was anyway. Considering his history, the chances of extra chapters coming out is basically zero.

With how the author acted and with how disappointing the second half and ending was, I really wanted to give this a 1-star rating, but I couldn't bear to do so considering the excellence in the first half. In the end, I give this a 3-star rating overall while resenting the author for wasting so much potential. <<less
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laneofmagic
laneofmagic
July 18, 2019
Status: c339
Started off pretty good. I've read a lot of isekais on characters falling into game worlds.. This is the first time, reading a novel where a character falls into a novel world, so I found it really interesting. Although the story has quite a bit of plot holes here and there, it was still an interesting read nonetheless.

However around the 250+ chapter mark, it becomes glaringly obvious that the author's running out of ideas fast. The female MC is changed to a different character all of a sudden, a lot... more>> of stuff doesn't make sense at all and the plot starts going haywire.

Things somewhat recover at the beginning of the final arc but imo, the phase between the end of the Tower and beginning of the Demon Gate, remains a total flop. Otherwise, it is a somewhat decent novel. <<less
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dp2413
dp2413 rated it
April 8, 2019
Status: c220
Giving this a 1 star solely on the MC. Total scumbucket.

Hate MC's that have sh*t personalities and sh*t logic and reasoning.

Also the levels and skills and weapons system is so convoluted and complicated it makes no sense.

... more>> Also don't like how Korean nationality is shoved constantly into the readers face just because the author is Korean; like we get it you are Korean and you are biased but it make it more believable.

By around chapter 200 the MC is so OP from his unlimited amount of different powers that he is practically unkillable. There is no more excitement in battles because nothing can happen to him. <<less
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Seraphim222
Seraphim222 rated it
July 4, 2018
Status: c26
This novel about a novel is truly novel. The first time in a while I am actively anticipating the release of each chapter. It's fun creative and tackles the well-loved light novel tropes in new and creative ways that draw the reader in.
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Blazeflare
Blazeflare rated it
June 15, 2019
Status: --
The beginning of TNE was a pretty good read, but I personally lost interest somewhere in the second half of the tower arc. To be fair, it's kinda normal that everyone's losing their interest halfway through the novel as this drop-off in interest does tend to happen often for stories with the "Weak to Strong" tag, so I can't bring myself to be too harsh on it.
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Elgon
Elgon rated it
April 30, 2019
Status: c295
Story was really good until chapter 130 or so (where most of the 5 star ratings likely occurred). Unfortunately, after they all graduate, it all went downhill and then eventually fell off a cliff with the tower arc.

Through the Tower arc, the MC just becomes blatantly overpowered very quickly & the power level system just blows up spectacularly. Game elements are introduced, most notably with gear and the MC quickly becomes one of the strongest beings in existence. A lot of the main characters kinda devolve into side characters, and... more>> it become all about how amazing the MC is.

In the past 100 chapters, it more or less devolved into a combination of MC stomping everything and getting lucky, receiving even more skills or equipment. Sometimes he gives some gear to another character & make them op too. There's NO tension as the MC is practically omniscient & invincible (he quite literally cannot die...) and the only reason I hung on this long
Spoiler

was to see how the drama with Chae Nayun played out

[collapse]
.

TL;DR : Was really good until graduation (first 130 chapters or so is a 5/5), then MC became horrendously OP & it became really, really boring (2/5) <<less
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Baller
Baller rated it
August 17, 2022
Status: Completed
I made an account just for this. The ending was shit, so annoyingly s*upidly bad that even though I liked the story, the flow, characters, the plot, everything, It just ruins it all. I won't do spoilers but even if it was a cliche ending, I'd still like it more. They also tried so hard with the romance, they were hinting at these ever since the 40th chapter then they would just throw it away, kinda like how you grew a tree then burnt it once it was fully grown.... more>> In all fairness, I think the author had some trouble racking his brain for actual good story ideas because of maybe some personal probs or etc. Even still, the ending is shit, I'm the type of guy who likes endings, and this is certainly one of the lower ones. <<less
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Nuage
Nuage rated it
March 20, 2019
Status: c276
Short version: it's a very entertaining, original, weak-to-strong story, with fleshed out characters and a decent plot for once. I really think this is a gem on many points, and if it weren't for a few annoying weaknesses it'd be a splendid 5/5.

(edit: dropped the series as it feels more and more like a train-wreck. It's a matter of opinion, but I don't agree with either all the shortcuts the author makes or the pseudo-philosophy.)

Indeed... this novel has sins, not quite unforgivable but profoundly damageable at least. This... more>> is one of those HAREM stories that try not to look like one: don't be deceived. The protagonist is very... smart usually, but with women? He acts cool, flirtatious, taking hands and inviting them to his bedroom, and gets surprised that girls love him. Dumbass.

Then, there's the rampant Korean nationalism in filigrane to the story. Forget about the US and the EU and NATO. Every country now needs Korea and Korea only. You've got billions of people on Earth, but the few in Korea manage to make everybody envious. They've got the best of everything (schools, technologies etc..). The worst is, the author might be conscious of that (as the latest chapter quickly suggests (one sentence, that's all). But the nationalism rolls on.

I could mention the ethnocentrism of the author, but does it really matter when you've got a decent story? Well, I want this story to reach its full potential, so pardon me if I criticize this too. An English Princess born and raised in England can't fit this perfectly to the Asian generic girl stereotype. When you have foreign names, please do some research. Laclace is not a French name. Lovellrock is not Russian. Though it is comical...

My point here is, the international scale of the story utterly lacks realism. The author make himself look like a mindless Korean sheep, instead of taking distance like you can see in any literature of quality. If he could do that, then he'd definitely have created another Harry Potter.

This novel is definitely worth it. But I just wish the author was less ethnocentric and actually made an effort to make his novel legitimate enough to be called literature. <<less
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ninthlite
ninthlite rated it
January 31, 2019
Status: c230
The plot is decent, the main character is incredibly f*cking op so other characters are almost pointless. The female heroine is so f*cking annoying, she just pops up over and over and over. Then she always has to be the center of attention because shes selfish and apparently heartbroken by some random guy she knew for barely any time at all. Another one of my problems with the novel is with how women are falling in love with him everywhere he goes, basically for no reason at all.

Its better than... more>> a lot of novels on this website, but thats not saying much. 3/5 stars <<less
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Hasenpfote
Hasenpfote rated it
January 10, 2019
Status: c143
Pretty cool in the beginning but after the first 100 of chapters it got pretty stale and boring. There are a lot of events but it feels extremely rushed and almost nothing got explained yet. You cant just hold the carrot stick in front of us without ever giving anything.
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Hemu
Hemu rated it
September 26, 2018
Status: c116
Okay, as of Chapter 116 I have not been made to feel disappointed. Its 4.8 stars rating fit it almost perfectly (it's 4.7 imo) at least for now.

Now, let me talk about this novel just a little bit.

The MC isn't that kind of MCs I usually came across (meaning put the "extremely" word before any words that follow it). He's just like real person we come across in our life. Not extremely good not extremely bad, could change his mind, could lost his determination, could be scared, could be brave.

About... more>> the side characters, they're nice too.

The only complaint I would have is probably that reading it 1 chapter/day isn't enough for me.

This novel and Overgeared translated by the team in Wuxiaworld are like drugs to me, I'm addicted to them <<less
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DragonFr
DragonFr rated it
March 26, 2019
Status: c123
Mmm.. The novel has its positive aspects but also negative aspects and very serious.
1-The author is very nationalistic, classifying inferiorly to other countries like Korea the number 1, I in my case I do not complain about this, but it causes a lot of trouble.
2-The cube academy is the "TOP 1" but always infiltrates enemies constantly, which these enemies are faced against the protagonists, they are defeated, the academy does an investigation they do not find anything or give results, the enemy infiltrates again, they confront the protagonists,... more>> and the process repeats itself. If the academy "TOP 1" suffers from these problems always, which will be from the lower academies? The security of this is crap? A hole in the plot.
3-On the other hand has many chances, as enemies always infiltrate and meet the protagonists the rest is counted alone.
4-Almost all the relationships of the characters are misinterpreted, and are unnecessarily elongated causing fillers and unnecessary dialogues.

I lost the interest since chapter 100, try to give it a try and get to 123 but likewise, the cliche process repeats itself.

For now I will continue reading to see how it goes, but I am about to discard the novel. <<less
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pbretz
pbretz rated it
January 3, 2019
Status: c202
I've read ~100 novels from Novel Updates. A lot have been terrible, most have been mediocre, and a few have been great. TNE, however, is the best one I have read and the first that made me want to write a review to share why.

I picked this novel up two days ago and couldn't put it down. TNE blew me away in every aspect.

First, the characters. Most novels suffer from one dimensional tropey side characters, usually a harem that flocks to the MC for no discernible reason. And, to be... more>> honest, I usually don't mind. But in TNE, the characters are complex, enjoyable, and written so that I could truly empathize with them. My favorite story line came from watching MC and one of the characters slowly fall in love, and then the crushing heartbreak of an inevitable event. I can't describe how real that felt; you'll just have to read it for yourself.

Second, the powers/pacing. These two go hand in hand. Most novels I've read, especially ones where the MC has some form of advance knowledge has one big problem. Power creep: the MC becomes too powerful and this takes away all sense of tension. However, while this MC has a unique and strong ability, it comes with strict limitations. While he is sometimes able to compete with powerful people, his strength is limited and even at the latest release there are still plenty of people that could curb stomp him. Moreover, the MC's advance knowledge is not always correct and there are many things about the world that he does not know. All this leads to an MC with fun, powerful abilities who still has very real struggles.

Next, the setting. This is a truly interesting and complex world. One of my favorite things in a novel is slowly uncovering some of the mysteries of a vast and mysterious world. TNE has that in spades. From the well fleshed out Cube (the school) of the first arc to the Tower of Wishes of the latest, I greedily read through all the details. The depth reminds me of the world of Hunter x Hunter (which, for me, is high praise). You can tell how much loving thought the author put into the creation of the characters and world. In fact, one of my other favorite parts of TNE is seeing the world through the eyes of the MC, and his love for the novel that he created.

So, thank you to TNE for finally getting me up off my bu*t and forcing me to finally contribute a review. Please give it a try. <<less
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