MMORPG: The Elementalist

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A salaryman by day and an Aquamancer by night. Qin Ruo might be a newbie in the popular, immersive MMORPG, “Honor and Glory”. However, that did not stop him from using his wits and battle instincts to raise money for a beloved friend’s medical fees, which eventually led him to become an elite player in the game. As Qin Ruo and his comrades progress further into the game, the trials and tribulations they face magnify. Which faction will prevail on the Mythical Battlefield? Read to find out!

Associated Names
One entry per line
Yóuxì xiǎo gōng zhī yuánsù cāokòng shī
游戏小工之元素操控师
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Reign of the Hunters (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Game System / VRMMORPG Novels I have read
  2. action novels i binged for better or for worse
  3. Survival, Games, and Esports related
  4. Novels: Virtual reality / MMORPG

Latest Release

Date Group Release
01/18/19 Webnovel c86
01/18/19 Webnovel c85
01/18/19 Webnovel c84
01/18/19 Webnovel c83
01/18/19 Webnovel c82
01/18/19 Webnovel c81
01/18/19 Webnovel c80
01/18/19 Webnovel c79
01/18/19 Webnovel c78
01/18/19 Webnovel c77
01/18/19 Webnovel c76
01/18/19 Webnovel c75
01/18/19 Webnovel c74
01/18/19 Webnovel c73
01/18/19 Webnovel c72
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CreamPuffDelights
CreamPuffDelights rated it
January 14, 2019
Status: c150
Essentially another xuanhuan story pretending, and doing terribly at it, to be a MMORPG.

Very similar to Reincarnation of the strongest sword god in that its basically a xuanhuan with some numbers and physically impossible stuff thrown in, because a game engine that can take all the sh*t they do into account so far is outright impossible to make.

Y'know, take a dash of the big ass sects with the really impressive sounding names, throw some equally impressive sounding words onto some totally random stuff like NetherspiritDemonGodSpider, give the MC terribly unbalanced... more>> and peculiar skills that defy the laws of physics that everyone else is stuck to, beautiful bouncing peach/jade/lotus/heavenly babes popping up every 5 meters and all of them getting interested in our noobie little aquamancer, who somehow stops being quite so noobie the moment the story starts because he "Feeeels" how the game works and can "control" the elements far better than any other plebian elementalist playing the same game, utterly brainless characters that immediately attempt to go on a killing spree the moment his fragile ego gets poked.

Also very draggy and long winded past chapter 100, per the norm for these kind of novels.

In other words, its a cookie cutter xuanhuan. Just so happens that it has a real life element attached that lets the MC stop being chased by bloodthirsty super handsome, super rich young masters for a moment and be a normal guy who plays the game to farm money (of course), for some vague, undefinable little sister who doesn't even appear LOOONG into the story. <<less
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UnknownUser
UnknownUser rated it
May 19, 2019
Status: c229
The novel is fun to read even though there are some missing details and holes in the story.

But I just cant tolerate was the fact that the author seems to be obsessed to make the story have romance in it to the point that he made xiaoxiao (one of the female lead) who was late to enter the game, to be so OP that it doesnt make sense at all. In less than a week, she seems to almost catch up to other characters. It would make sense if... more>> shes a pro in this game that she just reset her character. But she was a total newbie in this game and a rpg game. And she just stayed in the same hunting spot. And in daytime, she also had work. But her leveling speed was so fast that it doesnt make any sense at all. Even if she have a outstanding talent, that leveling speed was so fast for a newbie. And she was also so f*cking fast learner that even though the MC just battled once (with Goblin King), she already copied how he operate the elements in less than a day, and when she watched the MC practiced a skills in Killerbee teritory, xiao xiao can already make a powerful skill just watching the MC practiced his skills.

F*ck, the author just put an OP female lead late in the game so that the MC have a lovelife somewhat. The author seems to be so obsessed to add a romance in this novel, that the author s*upidly and forcefully put it in the story. Its okay to put a romance in this novel but to make the female lead so OP, so that she can easily catch up to the MC, it completely destroy the balance of the story. And in fact, the reason why the MC was fast in progressing his elementalism and other strong point is because of the help of his skill "aquamorph", talent, and hardowrk. But what about xiao xiao? Just watching once, and practicing a little, she can already somewhat imitate the MC, and also create a powerful skill. The author just destroy the game vibe and balance of the story for puting an OP character for the sake of romance, to the point of s*upidity. And in chapter 230. What the f**k author, in a week, they are already fighting side by side, the MC was also saved by Xiao xiao, what the heck with that author? F**king obsessed with romance? Im not against in you putting a romance in the story, but the way you did it so f**king irritating. F**k you. <<less
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coyotte508
coyotte508 rated it
March 24, 2019
Status: c239
So the MC is an aquamancer introduced into the game by his best friend, and a regular guy at the beginning. His initial reason for going into the game is to farm money for his friend's surgery (a bone marrow transplant I assume, @ResidentialPsycho).

In the game there are 7 major leagues made of 50000 players each, and hundreds of millions of players total. Nobody wants to offend the leagues, but it's refreshing to know that in this novel if someone from the leagues causes trouble or provokes another player they... more>> have to solve it themselves and not involve the rest of the league. It's not like in other novels where everytime the MC offends someone 1000 players come from revenge.

So far, 239 chapters in, the MC has not made enemies with any major league even if he had a few disputes with some members. And it's also realistic in the sense that clans won't mobilize a major amount of players without clear benefits involved, they won't waste the leveling / gathering resource time of so many players.

There is also, thank god, no threat from real life. MC has a regular job by day in a company and sometimes players of the company as whole do raids which he participates in, but that's it. There's no offended young master that is influential in real life that makes things difficult for him. All in all, we walk away from a lot of cliches.

Regarding skills, MC knows the best way to use his class, although it requires a lot of training. Those who read 'Max Level Newbie' might know what I'm talking about. Although, he walked on this path accidentally, and the reason why is pretty embarassing and explained by his best friend 150~200 chapters in. He also got a really good/rare skill in a pretty tough quest early in the novel, but he's not the only elementalist to have those skills.

All in all, it's a 'light' novel focused on the adventure in the game, with some office gossip, avoiding a lot of chinese novel cliches. Maybe other chinese novels set the bar too low or maybe this novel targets adults, but I really like it. <<less
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ResidentialPsycho
ResidentialPsycho rated it
March 7, 2019
Status: c200
The story development itself is the biggest problem I have with MMORPG: The Elementalist. To start with, there is no introduction at all. There isn't a chapter where we are introduced to the MC and learn more about his life and living situation. Instead, the first chapter starts off with action. His motive for playing this game is to earn money for this girl who has had like two lines in 200 chapters to supposedly pay her back to help her treat her leukemia with a surgery. I don't know... more>> what kind of surgery exists for leukemia, but I just want to let this slide because it's a minimally sci-fi series... That said, considering the nature of leukemia, surgery just doesn't make sense. Many cancers can benefit from surgery, but leukemia is not one of them. There is no explanation or details given about the surgery either. It feels like this excuse was just picked out of thin air...

Who is this chick, anyway?! Hardly any time has been spent on her, and she's supposed to be the whole reason this novel exists!

The plot is solely focused on the game and a few office moments spent chatting about the game. Outside of the game, the world is completely insignificant to the telling of this story. The plot itself is not intense at all--just action, gaming, and leveling. That's all there is to it. You know what this story is about in the first several chapters, and there are no surprises. If nothing else, it is at least very consistent.

Each character has a specified personality but hardly any depth is given to them, even to the MC. Character development occasionally occurs for side characters but is relatively minimal. The MC develops to becoming more of an arrogant jerk as he gets stronger, but he's returned to being more tolerable in recent chapters.

The setting is not well-established. The game is the whole focus, but even that is not described clearly in the beginning. The description of classes or how the game works is not given. I think it was over 100 chapters in before it was finally revealed that the characters use virtual reality helmets to play--by the way, there's still no description about these helmets or reason for how they're supposed to work. Prior to that, I was picturing them skillfully using their keyboards and mouses. Not even the number of character types or how they're chosen or anything is given! When the MC appears, his level is already in his mid-thirties. I think this novel would benefit immensely by just giving an introduction and clarifying the setting.

Someone who is an action/adventure junky like me may enjoy this novel. However, if you are looking for character depth, a dramatic plot line, or the threat of danger on the side, this is not the place to find it. The writing is very consistent, but the plot line is predictable. You will definitely know if this is a series you want to read before you reach the locked chapters because nothing really changes. <<less
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Dobromil
Dobromil rated it
February 1, 2019
Status: c112
This would be a very good story if not for the clans theme and arrogance of players. The clans are described as a group of thugs, gangsters, etc. They are portrayed as people with rules, but in reality they have only one rule: we will crush anyone who doesn't fall in line with what we want. This rule includes: every disrespect, death of a most insignificant member of clan, possession of the monopoly to every boss and resource, etc.

Let's be realist. If something like that happened in reality, then there... more>> would be big resistance from the casual player society (who are majority of a player base) and the producer of this game would also need to take measure to temper those so called clans.

When I look at the arrogance of players. There are also a rules. Everyone else is always wrong. They don't have any rights. Every player below tier 3 is a noob.

Maybe I am to harsh in my opinion but that is the feeling that I have after reading up to now.

Maybe the author planed to create a contrast between MC and a rest of the world but the bigger the contrast is, the more story becomes unrealistic and annoying. <<less
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rhianirory
rhianirory rated it
November 9, 2020
Status: Completed
I liked the leveling up parts and game play at the start and there's lots of action and in game time which should be entertaining, but like several other reviewer I found my eyes skimming pages at some point.

perhaps it's because I have absolutely no idea whats going on in the game, or if there's actually a main quest progression happening elsewhere, or the background lore of the game, or the goal of the game because they're either not mentioned for hundred's of chapters, or not mentioned at all. The... more>> whole thing mostly focused on leveling up and then even more focused on squabbling and bickering with other players/factions/clans/ leagues.

I found the second half of the story especially boring at times as I'm burnt out on politics and even though it takes place inside the game, the story has very little to do with the game itself, being all about league vs league and clan vs clan rather than game progression. the story is frustratingly lacking in basic details and any kind of background. Even the MC himself, I have no idea what he looks like other than "handsome, " how he knows the surgery chick, who or where his family is or what he does for a living other than work in a cubical. As the real world money exchange system wasn't put into place until late in the story, we never learn how he made money from the game to pay for the girls medical bills nor why he was doing it in the first place (or maybe I just blinked and missed it).

the MC's personality was normal at the start so I don't understand why, as soon as he leveled up a little, he because an attention-seeking-face-slapping arrogant prick but it's par for the course with C-novels so I'm trying to ignore it
Spoiler

there are 7 big leagues an each guild has a number of clans under them so there's a lot of "I am Goon #1 of the Fapping Clan belonging to the Whatever League, how dare you fight back?!" type introductions. By c200 he's already offended at least 4 clans the are part of 4 different big 7 leagues. Then the angel faction gets reset and after spending all that time avoiding clans he makes one of his own, which is typical C-novel progression but I was disappointed, I wanted to see him and the others remain free.

sadly, I've never seen a Chinese gaming novel where the MC doesn't either join a guild or create one so I guess the only way to be number one in a C-novel is to group together and stomp on everyone else. There never seem to be any MC like Weed in Continent of Magic who became number one on his own (yes he was a major jerk in that game, but he managed to hold the top on his own with no guild)

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the ending is very abrupt and I am assuming that the story was axed. My final score was 2.5 <<less
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Isaic
Isaic rated it
April 4, 2020
Status: c90
A decent to good novel in most aspects. I am dropping for two reasons: 1) I started finding it a bit boring and skimming chapters, and 2) The other reviews tell of an idiotic scenario in which a character catches up to the strength and capabilities of the MC in an absurdly short amount of time and I despise such situations in novels; therefore, I would rather not reach that point.

As for my review:

The novel is overall a light-hearted read with interesting game mechanics. The player capabilities seem to not... more>> be limited by the defined skills of the game, though there doesn't seem to be an explanation for why that is the case.

MC: The MC is quite good. He maintains a relative calm demeanor, is relatively clever, and observant. The only issue I have with him is that he is obviously capable far beyond others, but still thinks of himself as just slightly, above average; which should be impossible based on what he has done.

Side Characters: The side-character's personalities are decent and little to complain about, with the exception of Slayer's Heart who seems rather interesting. There have been 10 females introduced and every one of them is a beauty who has shown some interest in the MC (only one romantically so far)

Plot: Not much. The MC: 1) Logs on, 2) Meets a new group with beauties, 3) Goes to a new place and encounters a Boss, 4) Profits. Not much beyond that so far and I don't expect it to get much better, though there is a reasoning behind him playing the game that hasn't been fleshed out yet.

Game Elements: As much as I like the idea of a game that isn't limited to pre-defined capabilities, the mechanics do feel more like a cultivation novel, in which, all capabilities are based around your understanding of the Dao.

Overall: Nothing majorly annoying or plot-holey yet. Read if you like such genres and want an easy, but not exceptional, read.

EDIT: Okay, so I kept reading a bit. At chapter 93 the "forced romantic partner" mentioned in other reviews shows up when the only mildly annoying female causes a commotion. The entire scene is s*xual harassment and that adds two more female characters that are also beauties. (100% beauties so far, need to figure out where this guy lives, so I can be jealous of him too lol)

Now I really will be dropping. :) <<less
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Konwalia
Konwalia rated it
September 11, 2019
Status: c660
So... the story starts a bit strange as it doesn't start from the lvl1. I've found that a bit strange but it didn't bother me too much. I might even prefer such a start compared to overcliched stuff like 'MC died and moved back in time".

I don't want to say that this novel has a complicated plot, but at least some of the stuff is nicely thought through and doesn't lack descriptions. There is a usual time pressure which causes MC to rush everywhere trying to do stuff on time.... more>> The original reason for playing the game is resolved pretty fast and, to be honest, I'm happy about it. I prefer MC just enjoying the game and having goals within the game rather than farming money to save the relative until the last chapter.

As mentioned by others, it's mostly action and levelling without much thrill. MC is strong, in some cases even OP and lots of situations are resolved relatively easily. Still, it's not to the point where there is no challenge at all. In most of the novels you get either of the two: OP MC plowing through everything OR tons of near-death-cliffhangers with sudden breakthroughs. This one isn't one of them and I kinda like it.

Through the most of the novel so far, large part of the plot has happened due to that one arrogant guy who totally needs to crush the MC. Further opponents are a consequence of the original guy. But it's not to the point where "there is always a larger backer from the next dimension". It was quite reasonable overall (in comparison to the usual arrogant young masters).

What I really like about this novel is that there is some depth to the description of skills and the way they are applied in combat. It's not a fully realistic description of fights but it's way better from the usual 'mountains being cut in half and oceans being flipped over'. [cultivation novels set really low standards, I know...]

At some point the author introduces a female companion and her capabilities are a bit nonsensical (without any justification apart from 'she's just so good'). I just chose to ignore it and moved on (I strongly suggest it). I guess the author just wanted to add a s*x scene and cater a bit more to 'that part of the audience'.

There are plenty of fruitful encounters but they usually aren't gamebreaking. And hey, fruitful encounters are part of the genre ;) <<less
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Demi-Chicken
Demi-Chicken rated it
April 23, 2023
Status: c418
Okay this is gonna both a review and a rant.

tldr for those who don't want to read the whole thing: could have been good but wasn't. Bland, kind of meanders about and doesn't feel like it's a coherent world with tangible rules. Just the author throwing out random events to forcefully put the story on a track that it shouldn't be on.

Alright time to start the rant:

So the novel was pretty good when it opened. Starts with the MC just mauling a bunch of wolves and another bigger wolf and... more>> the fight kind of felt involved and thrilling. Seeing how the elementalism (magic) worked in the game, I really thought we were gonna see a magic nerd just find some weird way to use the plain old spells everyone else had to bridge the gaps between levels or do some shenanigans for a bit of dumb fun.

I was wrong. Very wrong.

It quickly devolved into a typical xianxia/xuanhuan type thing pretending to be an MMORPG with a lot of antagonists just being generic prideful pricks, a lot of plot holes and just an overall weird tone to it all.

First problem, the progression. It's simplistic to the point of being vague. Kill stuff, reach max level for tier, do quest to tier up, repeat. The problem here is that it's just too vague and generic, each tier just feels so unspecial and ordinary with the spells gained from advancement being either so forgettable and useless that they might as well not exist or be used so much that you kind of gloss over it like an auto attack in a moba game. The MC also doesn't really help either because this guy, who created a spell so effective that it's useful even when he's higher tier, never even tries to change a thing with a single new spell. He's like yeah, I made one really good spell that I always use but everyone knows about it and its weakness but I am not gonna create a new one or even think about doing that. I'm also kind of pissed off at the fact that everyone thinks he's goddamn amazing when he has like two kind-of-unique spells. Even though everyone f*cking knows that they can create their own spells or techniques, there's a severe lack of anything unique with anyone else. Like out of these millions, if not billions, of players, there was not a single person who tried the feature out? Was everyone else just suffering from a severe bout of intellect deficiency? I say this because one of the female characters (love interest?, girlfriend? who knows?) just creates one out of nowhere.

Spoiler

And the spell she creates is literally just [Compressed frost bullet]. Like really, no one thought let's 'make ball harder'? And then the MC uses it like 10 chapters later and it's so effective that it makes everyone crazy. They're like 'Hahaha, frost bullet? Dumb guy not smart, why use low spell' in their usual s*upid dumb brains and act all surprised a second later lol. (This is actually even funnier when you get to a chapter where a monster boss just casually uses it like it's something everyone knows lol. How to dig a plot hole 101.)

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And continuing with this female character, she just breaks everything that has ever been established in the novel. She just comes into the game about half a year or so late and she just catches up to everyone and is almost an elite player now for some reason? There's no reason given other than she's a genius, in an mmo game with a level-based progression. She's an interesting character to be honest. More interesting than the blander than water MC we already have here anyways. She knows what she wants, tries to get it and succeeds to a respectable extent. In a perfect world, the author would have just written story about her and it would have been so much more interesting lol.

She's, of course, not the only character with a missile on her foot. There's this not-too-important side character the author adds in who reset his character over a dozen times and is still leveled higher than the MC showing how pathetic he is.

Second, the skills, I've mentioned that the MC has about two unique spells. One of them was self-made at the start and hasn't been improved at all except for the improvement cause of the stats. The other one was something he got from a quest and it's so crazy and powerful and he's like Imma hide this cause it's gonna like save my life some day. Fair. Awesome. So something that you put your life on should be really impressive and be prioritized, right?

Spoiler

Well apparently not, because the skill reach the second level (intermediate) 200 chapters after he got it. He got his random shield and attack skills to grandmaster so easily so there's no reason why it's this way. He just couldn't be bothered to practice his ace deliberately so it just has to raise whenever he needs to use it desperately. Was the skill so hard to raise? It was supposed to be a tier two (maybe three) support spell so I don't understand why it's gotta be so hard to practice. Maybe the difficulty scales inversely with intelligence. *shrug*

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Third, the awful, awful pacing. Like typical MMORPG fashion, the faction that MC is part of is so sh*t and full of infighting because there would not be anyone to face-slap otherwise and of course they're naturally the worse of the two factions. And sh*t is always going down and they're always losing. The events are just happening one after the other with no rest and no conclusion to anything. It felt real and gritty with every level at the start but after the 100 chapter mark, everything just feels like a poorly written cultivation novel's obligatory demon war arc. The game is so big and popular but everything's just happening now at the same time because the author realized they f*cked up the pacing by making MC progress to a point where he'll be above everyone else in a month if he keeps going at the same rate. But writing past that point would require good ideas (for spells, interesting fights and god forbid character growth) and things to do so that the novel wouldn't just feel like a exp hacked run of the easiest pokemon game.

Conclusion, I'd recommend this novel... if you only intend read the first 50 chapters and opt to imagine the rest.

Spoiler

Also, there's a hilarious thing that I noticed. The author is like subtly racist? They like to mention the nationality of random characters for no reason like the Caucasian Canadian girl introduced in an arc. It didn't add anything to her character or give her like a defining trait. It's just there to be there and I find that kind of funny. (Also, one of the main antagonists of the infighting against the MC is a non-Chinese character who belongs to a clan of non-Chinese that might as well be cloned. And the classic Egyptian Clan named Pharaoh Clan who is their underling.) The characters speak like Earthian, too? Everyone just has google translate built into their headsets/gears, I guess.

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sadboyislonely
sadboyislonely rated it
November 18, 2021
Status: --
the MC doesnt feels like the main character, he is capable and smarter than others in the story but there is nothing special about him, the author give little development and background to the story

although the MC is bland, the game mechanic and action is not that bad as the author put quite a bit of work describing it

if only he could give more effort to the plot and development this story could be much better
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