48 Hours a Day

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Growing up with eccentric materialist parents, who left him in the care of his grandfather for a job overseas, Zhang Heng had learned to adapt and be unfettered by the oddities and challenges in life. But he would soon learn the baffling truth about the world he thought he knew, when one day at midnight, time froze and he found himself in a world so quiet and still it was deafening. That night, he discovered that he had 24 hours more than everybody else and thus, marked the beginning of his adventures. The mysteries surrounding his newfound ability only deepened when a strange old man claimed to have given Zhang Heng that ‘gift of time’ and recruited the young man to participate in a cryptic ‘life-changing’ game on his behalf. Little did Zhang Heng know that accepting those terms meant embroiling himself in many versions of reality and exposing himself to the hidden secrets of the world—a decision he could never undo.

Associated Names
One entry per line
IH48HD
I Have 48 Hours a Day
我的一天有48小时
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
The Ultimate Evolution (2)
The Devil’s Cage (2)
The Tutorial Is Too Hard (1)
Infinity Armament (1)
Killing Grounds of Gods and Devils (1)
Terror Infinity (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Novel
  2. Alt. world affects Real world
  3. Novels That I Have Read Over The Years
  4. Favorites
  5. World Hopping Novels

Latest Release

Date Group Release
03/09/20 Webnovel c7
03/09/20 Webnovel c6
03/09/20 Webnovel c5
03/09/20 Webnovel c4
03/09/20 Webnovel c3
03/09/20 Webnovel c2
03/18/20 Webnovel c1
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AnimatorOfSouls
New AnimatorOfSouls rated it
March 21, 2024
Status: c708
Fun QT with a system, and the system only shows skill levels, nothing else. The MC is calm and analytical.

From the other reviews, lots of people didn't like the long pirate arc, but I did since lots of it was about making strategic decisions which is fun to read (for me at least).

Romance: only happens in the side worlds, not the main world. However, the romance that does happen is so obnoxious. Every girl the MC works with falls in love with him and constantly thinks of him. Plus, in... more>> the main world, the only thing the MC ever talks about with his friends is how to pick up girls.

Dropped because I don't like how much time is spent on pointless interactions with girls who want to jump MC for no reason.

Arcs:

Spoiler

The main world very similar to the real life world, and it's set in 2018 at the start of the story.

    1. Tropical island wilderness survival - survival and archery skills
    2. Tokyo Drift car racing - driving skills
    3. Finland Winter War (1939) - shooting and snowboarding skills
    4. Pirates (1712) - sailing, close combat fighting
    5. Main world - fighting the wall monster
    6. The Apollo Program (1969, Apollo 11) - engineering, piloting
    7. Lego saving the world from mad scientist - lego building skill
    8. Hackers vs government mass surveillance (Modern day) - hacking skill
    9. Main world - fighting against Hypnos and the dreamland of death item
    10. Sherlock Holmes - deduction and makeup skill. I found this arc incredibly boring.
    11. Japanese Samurai (shogunate to meiji era) - sword skills to lvl 4
    12. America Homestead Act/Cowboys (1862) - horse riding, horse taming, shooting skills
    13. Start of the proxy war. Alien invaders in the modern world who replace humans.
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kkgoh
kkgoh rated it
April 24, 2020
Status: c320
"What would you do, if you had all the time in world?"

An incredibly introspective and poignant theme, especially in the time of coronavirus.
This is a well-written and well-translated modern day novel, blending the magical realism of "Groundhog Day" with heavy topics of isolation, loneliness, survival and man's quest for meaning. Unquestionably 5 stars.

SUMMARY
Protagonist Zhang Heng, a quiet introspective college student, comes across a mysterious watch that grants him a form of time dilation where he gets more hours in a day. He is dragged into a greater conspiracy... more>> of otherworldly competitions, thrust into various realistic scenarios in human history, while trying to figure out the meaning and consequences of his powers.

CHARACTERS
MC is a stoic, yet open minded and adaptable youth. His daily routines of self-improvement and varied interests makes him a believable modern-day Renaissance Man, the perfect character to receive time dilation powers and experience the sheer variety of competitive situations (unlike the MC from "Everyone Else is a Returnee"). Every competition plays out like episodes of Man vs Wild to Urban Survivor, where the MC must find a way to accomplish mission objectives while getting himself situated.

The various characters the MC meets during his "episodic" missions are incredible as well. The author's writing style and talent REALLY comes through here as he spends time setting up the hyper-detailed environments for the reader. There's little background info on the side characters, since their reactions and perspectives to their current circumstances are so believable, you're able to mentally craft who and what their motivations are. Great example of show-don't-tell.

Heavy spoilers..
Spoiler

Ed, an optimistic veteran soldier of various conflicts teaches the MC survival skills and the oft-forgotten mental aspects of it too.

Simone, a young Finnish girl, drafted as an ace-sniper in WWII, hardened by conflict, and slowly coming to care for the MC as they survive through the horrors of war.

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COMMENTS

Time is an often-used theme in many novels, with the more recent garden variety being reincarnations, time-stops, time-travel, etc.

In this novel, time takes on a whole new meaning as the MC is inadvertently forced to prolong his sense of time, both physically and mentally. His mission times are severely extended, and as a result, he's forced to interact with the world in ways never commonly explored, enjoying both the benefits and suffering the consequences for it as well. Unlike several other novels with similar setups, it's just as fascinating seeing the MC coping with returning to the real world, as his fantastical adventures during the competitions.
For once, you actually see an MC that mentally ages due to time dilation!!

Spoiler

Severe isolation from a deserted island, seeking companionship to recover mentally.
PTSD from extended time in conflict.

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There are no nonsensical power-ups, no amazing talents. Just typical skills a person would have, given enough time. Something portrayed in classics like "Groundhog Day", or more recently in "Edge of Tomorrow".

EDIT: Dropping to 4 stars, Chapter 100-250
Author went off on a wild tangent with a marathon Age of Sail arc and received widespread criticism from readers.
He completely changed the style of writing, including ridiculous fillers of people sitting around doing pointless dialogue and exposition, awarded excessive pointless POV time to various characters, and essentially rewrote the novel into one big Pirates-of-the-Caribbean story without any real impact on the greater plot. And finally topped it off with an epic counter-rant against critics around Chapter 250+. Incredibly disappointing.

Chapter 250+
While author redeemed himself with a much better written arc on the
Spoiler

Moon Landing

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with some pretty impressive research, it's unlikely to offset slogging through the painful Pirates arc. Overall 4 stars for dedicated readers. <<less
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Kemori
Kemori rated it
March 10, 2021
Status: c715
I really enjoyed this. It's not often you read a Chinese novel that hasn't taken aspects of other Chinese novels and you don't find yourself reading a slightly altered arc from somewhere else.

I read up to the current translation, 715 chapters.

I almost dropped this when... more>>
Spoiler

he went to the lego world because of how goofy it was, but I stuck in there and I'm glad I did. I almost dropped it again right when he went to the sherlock holmes world, because I find anything Sherlock Holmes/mu*der mystery to be cringeworthy but I found myself unexpectedly interested in the arc and ended up thoroughly enjoying it. The lego world arc is important because of the item he gets from there as it plays an important role in the rest of the story.

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The fact that the protagonist is constantly swapping between different scenarios, it keeps the story fresh and there is a deeper mystery behind the protagonist as pieces are slowly being revealed to us and him, we are discovering that secret and it's titillating- I generally hate being left in the dark, but in this novel being in the dark makes the strange events more interesting.

I would definitely recommend you give this a read, my recommendations are A Valiant Life, Warlock of the Magus World and Way of the Devil, so if you liked those, our tastes are similar so you'll enjoy this. I'm bummed that I caught up to the translation but I enjoyed my reading up to now. This is a 7.5/10, but since we only get 5 stars, I'll slap it a generous 4/5.

I need to address some of these reviews for being entirely bogus- shame there's no comment function so I can address the reviews directly.

@Pavilion - You can't in good conscience write a review after reading 6 chapters and with an opinion based on other people's reviews- read it yourself and make your own mind up from that instead, you're saying the novel is bad without having read it.

@Weaboo - You know that 'Black Sails' is based on actual history right? Saying the author plagiarised something from history is really idiotic because there's a TV show with the same name. I watched some of Black Sails and aside from it being pirates and there being women in it, there's nothing else in common.

@ResidentialPsycho - "MC is okay but doesn't have much depth or appealing characteristics" - This is part of the story, omg, you would bloody know that if you read more than 40 chapters, as you said, this is SLOW PACED, we don't learn about why the MC is this way until much later on, around chapter 500-600. This is actually explained in the story and is related to the mystery of the MC and his background.

"The setting appears to be modern-day, but there isn't any imagery to make it appealing. There is minimal action" - There isn't any action in the first 40 bloody chapters, it picks up pace as it gets going, I guess fighting an alien invasion and manhunting in the wild west don't count as action apparently. As for being set in modern day- it's set in all eras, the MC travels between historical periods, from th wild west, to the 16th century New World, to Edo period Japan and even 18th century London where he sleuths down Jack the Ripper. The author is very well researched and paints the picture of the location very clearly; I'm English and there were bits of information that I didn't even know- this type of author is amazing and patient in setting up their world.

-If you've read less than 200-300 chapters of this, you don't have a right to review this frankly. This isn't your typical novel, it's a hidden gem and it needs to be unwrapped slowly as the author presents it- as for people hating the pirate arc, it was one of my favourite arcs, definitely top 3, because he had to live in that world, even though all the characters weren't 'real' people- he had to live with them for ten years, so they were real enough. I think some people have a really flawed definition of real. I knew a kid in school when I was 7, I've never seen or heard from him since, he might as well not be 'real' right? He doesn't exist in my version of the world- but that encounter with him still had value and affected my life as the encounters with the MC and those 'fake' people he meets in the games does to him. <<less
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readingisgood
readingisgood rated it
July 18, 2020
Status: --
I really enjoyed the premise, and the earlier arcs were good. However, the pirate arc is a complete ripoff of the TV series Black Sails. Literally a copy and paste of the show. It would be okay if it was parody or use it as a reference, but to write and copy EVERY plot of the show is not cool. I just want it end and move on, but the author seems eager to squeeze out everything from the show, from season 1 to the finale. I would rather watch... more>> the show again, that would be more interesting. <<less
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Maya65
Maya65 rated it
July 4, 2021
Status: c446
This is my first review of my 3 years of silent reading, I broke this record because of.... Aurgh!

I could have given this novel a higher rating if it weren't for the GIRLS!!! seriously, I came here for the promised No Romance genre or theme, Adventure, Action, and Man's Romance (not the f*cking harem). I admit the novel has those and I enjoyed reading it, but the Author and the Girls!! I Hate Them! (on this novel and I'm a girl).

Like EVERY arc or change of scene, there's a girl... more>> who will always have a "subtle" liking or romantic interest to the main guy, who has never express anything of liking them back at all. it gives me headaches like the Author is forcing the Girls to show up and be a foil and prove he is mentally stable, astute, prudent and cant be seduce cause he's not a beast who thinks with his d*ck (like b*tch WTF) Is That a Man or a Eunuch?

Spoiler

The girls I only like in this novel are Shen XiXi, Carina, and Leah, cause they don't get involved with the Main Guy.

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But now with my most recent chapter, I can't bear it (I QUIT) the freaking MILF has come and the MC has no reaction whatsoever and instead want to drag her to the supernatural world when the Gaming staff specifically said Don't tell Non-players about it.

But the Story is actually cool and awesome to read, I only skipped 3-5 chapters when the MC and the Girls interact. You're choice if you want to read it and be irritated like me.

If you want no romance with a Male Protagonist novels, I recommend Chronicles of Primordial Wars, Lord of Mysteries and Superstar of Tommorow. <<less
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1234gary
1234gary rated it
April 23, 2020
Status: c96
As of c96, so far its very good. A bit early to evaluate the series as a whole but from the first few arcs:

  1. Calm and collected MC. Interesting time-based cheat being that the extra 24 hours apply to the cryptic life changing game in the novel description.
  2. Abject lack of racism to the point where its uncomfortable. It's weird saying this, but seeing Japanese people portrayed in a positive light in a Chinese novel feels really strange.
  3. The MC gets close to a couple of characters but nothing really happens as they seem to be temporary fictional entities. In real life, its too early and barely anything has happened so far.
So far so good. It seem a bit slow and directionless at times, but this is just the start of the story.
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aShinyVaporeon
aShinyVaporeon rated it
April 25, 2021
Status: c1072
Alright, so although I'm providing an actual review below, this review is mostly a table of contents for myself to record the themes of each 'game'. Also, since many are (heavily) based on real media out there, I'll give what I think is what the author was imitating.

Uh, of course, the ToC will contain spoilers for what each arc is about as well as what chapters they span. It's mostly for re-readers and my own reference. Note that although the latest chapter released by WN has [End] at the end... more>> of its name, it's not the last chapter of the novel, or even of the main story. There are a good few hundred chapters WN didn't translate.

Table of Contents (SPOILERS!) :

Spoiler

This only lists game arcs, and not the arcs taking place in the book's modern 'reality'.

    1. Chapters 7-21: Desert Island Survival. Most likely based off of the 2000 film Cast Away, or the similar desert island survival genre.
    2. Chapters 31-52: Tokyo Drift. Most likely based off of the 2006 film of the same name or maybe the anime Initial D: Final Stage. I'm not too sure as I didn't really look too far into this one.
    3. Chapters 59-81: The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You. Have not found what it's based on, but it's about the Mannerheim Line, a defensive fortification line between Finland and the USSR during the Winter War.
    4. Chapters 98-254: Black Sails (Pirate arc). Most likely based off of the 2014 TV series of the same name. Long story centered around the Pirate Republic of Nassau. MC's pirate ship is probably named after the one in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
    5. Chapters 278-321: Apollo Training Camp. Seems to be based off of 1995 film Apollo 13.
    6. Chapters 342-371: Master Builder. Seems to be based off of the 2014 film The Lego Movie.
    7. Chapters 380-443: Whistleblower. A sci-fi hacking + crime arc set in Monaco. Most likely based off of the video game Watch Dogs or one of the other games in that franchise.
    8. Chapters 483-524: Deductive Reasoning. Rather (obviously) based off of the Sherlock Holmes franchise. MC takes the place of Watson.
    9. Chapters 545-584: Bakumatsu Kyoto. Not sure what media it's based off of, but it takes place Bakumatsu (late Edo) Kyoto, hence the name. It's that arc where MC is a samurai.
    10. Chapters 595-634: Chewing Tobacco and Lucky Horseshoe. Set in the Wild West, and there are like a million of those kind of movies, so I'm not going to look for what it was based off of. MC acts as a cowboy (of course).
    11. Chapters 638-701: Alien. Takes place in alternate reality of MC's hometown in his high school days. Based off of one of those alien invasion movies where the aliens can impersonate people. Not sure which one though.
    12. Chapters 719-732: Unnamed trial, basically a mini-game. Most likely based off of the H. P. Lovecraft novel The Shadow over Innsmouth.
    13. Chapters 736-896: Empire's Dusk/Dusk of the Empire. Takes place in the late Roman Empire (2nd century AD) in the reign of Commodus, commonly regarded as the end of the golden period of peace in Rome. MC is a gladiator who gets involved with assassins and politics. Likely based on the 2000 film Gladiator.
    14. Chapters 926-1070: Bodyguard. Takes place in a futuristic space city named New Shanghai 0297. Dystopian (clone) elements that MC, of course, gets involved with. MC is a bodyguard for a livestreamer at the start and has to collect shellac records.
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Review (minor spoilers) :

Spoiler

For what it's worth, I think this a pretty good novel to read in your free time, although it has its flaws. The novel's premise is that the MC, a university student, one day gets 48 hours a day - after his normal 24 hours, time stops and the MC enters a silent, stationary world. He can still move and interact with objects during this time stop. To be fair, he doesn't end up using this mechanic a whole lot.

Shortly afterwards, the MC joins a 'game', where people enter into scenarios that are effectively separate worlds and complete quests to earn game points or supernatural items. Each game is only supposed to be rather short, but MC's time cheat warps time inside, so he stays in each scenario for far longer than he's supposed to, giving him long periods of time to develop skills. Some games last longer than others, such as Black Sails (aka the pirate arc), which lasts 10 years after applying MC's time cheat, and 150 chapters in the novel.

Each game scenario has a different setting; so far mostly historical with hints of supernatural, or sci-fi/modern. Game scenarios are heavily based on external media (which may bother some readers). The sci-fi is kind of bad, but nowadays it's hard for me to find good sci-fi, anyway.

The supernatural elements are heavily related to mythology. The game's players also have this sort of society based a bit on the player interaction systems in MMORPGs mixed with your typical "scattered secret supernatural society".

MC as a character is calm, collected, and rational, almost emotionless especially as the story goes on and he effectively ages far faster mentally compared to his peers. Girls will appear and have implied romantic relations with MC, but he doesn't really appear interested in long-term romance (not to mention many are within the game, so he can't have a long relationship), so the novel is pretty much free of lovey-dovey stuff.

MC learns skills unscientifically fast, but whatever, I guess that needs to be there.

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Poireau
Poireau rated it
April 26, 2020
Status: c162
Bellow is for before chap 82 :

The concept is quite interesting but it's poorly done.

The tittle is missleading as the MC is in fact part of a game for which time is going slower at each mission before coming back to reality: this is the main "thing" happening to the novel: the MC do mission in realistic worlds ... more>>
Spoiler

Surviving on an island, winning an underground race, surviving a part of wwI between Finland and Russia,...

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, and comes back to "reality" for the main plot to continue... very slowly.

MC has a cheat/tool that
Spoiler

add 24 hours each day as the tittle says

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, but this cheat is not well used by the MC as the MC is not fast learner: the way that the MC gains new competences is by trainning (no "skill book" here), and it takes forever, so the pace, in between missions, is super slow. Because of that and the fact that the MC is kind of quiet and too normal, some chapters are boring.

And when the main story continue, the explanations about the main plot are quite confusing especially each time the old man in tang suit appears.

That's the issue: the author doesn't spend time to explain to the reader how things works: for example, you have to wait until the end of the third mission to know what is the use of game points...

You can feel that the author doesn't want to use too much game elements in his novel, but because of that, he's doing a poor job to construct a reliable fundation for the principles of the MC improvements, and coupled with a lack of explanations and too much human interaction description, the novel pace is super slow ans the story can be boring and the twist predictible.

Hopefully things will be more clear later on... but if I were you, , i'll wait until 300 chapters are translated to start reading it :)

EDIT at chap 162:

The new arc/world starting arround chap 90-100 felt quite promissing, but after 60 chapters of the same world; it is a slice of life without any more fantasy elements. The MC relies on the abilities he obtained before to live the life of
Spoiler

a boring pirate, with nothing threaling at all happening. For example it took him as much as a normal sailor to learn how to sail in three months and lots of chapters... And, there wasn't a single element of fantasy in these chapters, not a single mystery, I mean, even Pirates of the Caribbean has 100 times more fantasy elements than in the 100 to 160 chapters I read.

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To sumary, the game and fantasy labels of this novel are a trap. They are presents, but 95% of the content is just a slice of life novel of a very normal MC that will need as much time as you to learn simple stuff... <<less
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NauthizAnsuz
NauthizAnsuz rated it
May 24, 2021
Status: --
This is a fantastic read compared to most of the tr*sh you'll find on this site. The main character simulates a life in various worlds and time periods throughout the novel. These simulations can be somewhat based on reality, such as during the Russian invasion of Finland in WW2, or completely fictional such as the Lego Land world. Of course, there is an overarching main plot as well, but most of the enjoyment came from these smaller story arcs within the novel. When the arc is good, it's really f*cking... more>> good. There are some powerful emotional moments here that you just normally don't find from web novels. Even at their worst these simulations will simply be mediocre. I highly recommend giving this novel a try. <<less
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miscreant
miscreant rated it
September 21, 2022
Status: Completed
I think it's a pretty good novel and basically it's terror infinity style with a bit of Lovecraft Mythos added to it. However as the main character doesn't really have much in the way of emotions interactions are more limited and transactional in nature with no extra developments.

One thing I'll note is that I think the translation isn't good or has lacked an editor as there are several things mistranslated e.g.

R'lyeh - Lalea, lalye, lalaiya, laraya, lalenia and La Leye were all used instead

Nyarlathotep - Nyala TOTIP (Seeing that bad... more>> spelling forced me to run a SAN check on multiple occasions)

Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos - ambushing Chaos Nyala totip

Nyx - Nix

Justicia - Justya

Lovecraft - Lovecroft (presumably well known for writing in the farming horror genre...)

Isis - ISIS (like the terrorist group?)

Loki - Rocky

It's not an exhaustive list and as you can see from R'lyeh errors the mistranslations aren't even self consistent and the use of capital letters is at times bizarre. It does also make me wonder what else was badly translated. <<less
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bobbyb123
bobbyb123 rated it
May 16, 2022
Status: Completed
This novel is very similar to Devil's Cage (DC), but it's done significantly better. There are many parallels we can see between the two, such as:

    • Both MCs are pulled into this game-like world and go on missions into pocket dimension dungeons which are essentially a self-contained world of various themes.
    • Both have a sort of time distortion effect where significantly less time passes in reality vs virtually during dungeons
    • Both MCs are extremely calm, logical and calculated
The main difference however is that 48hrs does a better job of addressing the effects of how time spent in the virtual world affects reality, which DC completely neglects. In this novel, when returning from extremely long dungeons, it mentions how the MC has to adjust socially and get his temperament under control, especially since it's clear that he's changed based on his friends' observations. That being said, I think it could have improved on this further such as having the MC make notes or summarize his current life in reality before entering the next dungeon, so that he can pick up where he left off since only hours pass in real life. The MC is somehow able to do this anyway, but honestly shouldn't be able to since little details or conversations that happened years ago shouldn't be fresh on his mind, and it isn't mentioned how he accomplishes this.

What's interesting is that the temperamental effects of the dungeon aftermath are effectively mitigated by the MC's gradual loss of emotions, which means that his personality doesn't fluctuate much either in the virtual or real world. However, a side effect of having an emotionless MC is that the novel itself is fairly emotionless. The intensity stays in a pretty constant range, with there never being any strong or heart-clenching moments. I don't think I ever felt sad or felt like I was at the edge of my seat. Because of the MC's temperament, you know that regardless of how a situation escalates or devolves, the MC will find a neat and logical way to wrap things up.

Something refreshing to point out was how the novel doesn't play into the common tropes you might see, such as how after acquiring certain skills or knowledge, the MC doesn't actually go out of his way to flex them (or isn't even given the opportunity because the novel doesn't create such blatant coincidences). Another example of a trope that's avoided is how when a modern day person travels to a historical period, they somehow retain perfect knowledge of how to build certain household/military items, where no actual average person unrelated to it's design or production should ever really know. It even mentions this in the novel, which was I could appreciate, because it made it easier to step into the MC's shoes and understand how to handle a situation from his perspective. A specific example is:

    • Spoiler

      His first mission is the island survival mission, where he literally knows how to do nothing and doesn't have coincidental knowledge for the scenario. Instead he uses wits and struggles to improve and learn. After the mission, he goes on a camping trip with friends. With any other novel, you'd expect that the MC would suddenly show off godlike skills, but he actually doesn't do that and tries to fit in with the crowd. He sticks to his goal of being as low-key as possible unless a circumstance deems it necessary.

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I've seen some contentious reviews about the various arcs, but honestly, I enjoyed almost all except for the Lego one, since I suddenly felt like I was reading a kids novel. What I strongly disliked though, was the unnecessary historical info dumps in some cases. Most turned out fine, but the historical Japan arc was horrendous. I think I skimmed about half of it because of all the unfamiliar and unnecessary names of eras/people/places/dojos etc. It was definitely one of the worst arcs for that reason alone. It would have been better if the MC just put this all in footnotes or even just dropped a wikipedia link or some equivalent instead.

Another thing I disliked was how the author chose to hide information that the MC himself is given, such as the names of items or Gods in certain scenarios. It was obviously to make the reveal more dramatic but I felt cheated, as if I was purposely singled out of a group huddle.
    • Spoiler

      I can't think of everything off the top of my head, but one example that comes to mind is the book that Asaka's other Japanese friend (the thousand-faced God) left on the bookshelf for the MC to find. It was probably a book relating to Cthulhu, but this is also an issue because it's not clear how or why the MC identified it as a book that shouldn't be there, since there has been no mention of Cthulhu at this point.

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That being said, I'm not sure of an alternative method to build up tension for the reveal based on how the novel was structured, but I wish this method wasn't chosen.

Addressing some of the negative aspects of the story itself, there are also a few plotholes such as:

    • Spoiler

      How much the gods are able to spy on the MC. There are times when the MC does stuff where the bartender, Chronos, etc seem to be clearly apprised of every small the thing the MC does but it's not apparent how they're able to do this. Are other gods able to do it too? Why or why not? It makes some of the overworld setups the MC does when fighting against them a bit sus, because it's not really clear what the gods are capable of.

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    • Spoiler

      Towards the end, the MC is identified as the greatest threat which could destroy the world i.e. Cthulhu's container. Everyone mentions that it's acceptable to sacrifice an innocent person to save the world, yet they don't really consider holding his friends or family hostage. There was one event where a strike teams holds a little girl that the MC healed hostage, but it was easily resolved by Chronos. Felt unrealistic given the MC took next to no measures to protect them, and considering his personality had been profiled to show that he does care for his family and friends.

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    • Spoiler

      As the book progresses, the MC clearly has done a lot of research on the various gods to keep him well prepared to deal with them, but it's strange that he never researches Cthulhu or mentions any Lovecraftian literature. It's made known that the more knowledge one has of it, the faster one goes insane (or gets taken over in his case), but it's strangely avoided by the MC and it's not clear why since he hasn't been warned and also hasn't revealed any hunch as to his own identity earlier on in the book.

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With all the being said, I think the novel was really well executed. All loose endings are well wrapped up, the MC isn't inundated with dozens of skills like in other novels and instead makes good use of the few he has, and items are generally also made decent use of, with the others having been sold off (although some are never used despite being identified as useful by the MC, but this isn't unlike real life where you wouldn't necessarily use of everything you do have unless a situation calls for it). I also like how when situations are resolved, it actually makes sense compared to how things were in Devil's Cage, where even after being told the solution you were left wondering wtf happened. I haven't talked about the novel idea of a 24hr time-stop ability and the various interesting ways it's used, but I think this is well addressed in other reviews.

Overall, I'd rate this a 4.5/5. I read the last 200ish chapters through MTL, so it's possible I missed some things in translation resulting in some of the above negative points being less impactful, but this was still a pretty great novel that I enjoyed and would recommend.
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KHA2
KHA2 rated it
January 13, 2021
Status: Completed
4.5/5

overall I think it's a good novel but there were a lot of things left unanswered by the end.

i enjoyed each of the individual arcs and even though people say the pirate arc was the worst, it was probably my favourite. If you can't stand a certain arc you can skip past it or skim and you won't really miss much.

... more>> there is a lot of mystery and that's mostly what gave me the drive to actually finish the novel, though I think the author executed some parts of it poorly.

the ending was neat :) <<less
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detoxangels12
detoxangels12 rated it
December 29, 2020
Status: c588
honestly, this is pretty decent compared to tr*sh CN novels out there. You don't have to turn off your brain nor have to ignore plotholes so you can keep reading. I've read the other reviews and I disagree for most of them. The pacing? For me, it's average, neither too fast nor too slow. This isn't one of those fast paced OP MC and faceslapping everyone. The translation? It's also decent, idk where y'all reading from but unless your English sucks, it's understandable, even though English is my 2nd language.... more>> It even have some unique vocabulary here and there so props to the translators. This is a straight forward novel with multiple worlds as a game setting, every game takes a lot of chapters because this is the novel is what it is about. I guess that's why the reviews think it's very slow paced because it take too long for each arc and the real plot is in the real world and faceslap other players? Then you don't understand the novel at all. Also each arcs are interesting, especially the Pirate Arc, that's where the MC matured and changed. Because that arc gave MC the power boost and experience, even in other arcs, it would mention the pirate arc now and then cause that's the arc that shaped and developed the MC. Each Arcs are different and I like all of them except the LEGO one, I mostly skipped that because of comedy theme, nonetheless this is a good read. <<less
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Daresan
Daresan rated it
August 29, 2020
Status: c350
Well this isnt your average novel. It is very well written and the pirate arc was so awesome (I kept feeling deja vu throughout the arc though. I cant remember but I feel like I have read or watched something like that before) It keeps getting better and better.

You might be put off due to misinformation on author's part like Finland and switzerland sharing border and etc etc but the story as a whole is great. I have nothing but praise for the author.
If you are searching... more>> for quick power trip then this isnt for you. If you read this thoroughly you will understand this novel has good story even though author might have balantly copied some arc from some story.

Rating this novel below 4 is insanity I mean yea there all flaws but which novel doesnt? What I liked is very good utilization of mc's power and plot is intricate no brainless stuff has happened yet. World has been built according to the premise author has presented from the begginning. I cant fathom why anyone will rate this below 4 unless they are still salty about ending of their previous novel. Or they simply like agt and mga <<less
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Hazel00
Hazel00 rated it
July 1, 2020
Status: c1000
I forgot how many chappy i, read but probably around 1k - 1.1k

Since this novel has a slow pace in the beginning, I can't comment that much. After arc 2 the pace of the story seems much better. I know that many people complaint it to the author (when the MC is a pirate). But the author with his big giant stonehead still decided the how the story would progress ?.

For me everything is good. I like and enjoying the story.

It has a little bit something for everyone
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Lasterton
Lasterton rated it
June 13, 2023
Status: Completed
It's a great novel. I highly reccomend giving it a read. Each little game is a fun journey to read through, and the characters he meets in the games feel fairly fleshed out. A great part of this novel is how it slowly reveals more about the world as it progresses. The power he has and the games he plays serve a purpose and are explained by the end. I highly recommend giving it a shot, and if you don't like a specific arc, just skim through until the next... more>> one! <<less
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auroraRMC
auroraRMC rated it
August 17, 2022
Status: Completed
An interesting novel. The concept is similar to that of Ultimate Evolution and Devil's Cage like other reviews have said. But compared to Devil's Cage, there is a lot more focus on the MC's real life, not just the game world.

The extra 24 hours gimmick is pretty interesting and the story plays off that well. There is a lot of foreshadowing and buildup of the MC's history and the mystery behind that. The MC isn't as OP as in Devil's Cage, though he does become quite strong through building up... more>> his skills and weapons over time. The last arc of the story with the reveal and his struggles with himself is pretty high tension, and the author makes a big point of leaving it a mystery what his final choice is for a while.

Alas, this story pulls off the WebNovel classic of having a strange/confusing/abrupt ending. At least here the ending isn't as abrupt (?) bc of what seems to be a dozen or so extras? But these extras are all disjoint and honestly pretty confusing. There's mini arcs in the extras too but they start or stop very abruptly. Our MC doesn't even make an appearance for most of them. It also isn't exactly clear what happens after the MC and the gods make this big play. Another thing is that the "romance" leaves much to be desired. It's hard to understand why the author feels the need to make every main character/supporter of the MC a girl and also one who falls in love with the MC, and meanwhile the MC either tacitly goes along with the girl's feelings or has a physical relationship with them. Even in the extras he goes back to visit some and kisses them. I'm just like... so are you trying to build a harem here? What tf is going on. But yeah, every female in the story falls in love with him and he doesn't even explicitly acknowledge any of them. Feels kinda scummy. <<less
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MisterAbstruse
MisterAbstruse rated it
May 19, 2022
Status: c1210
This book has been pretty excellent so far, but it's a shame that it is not fully translated (that's my own fault for not paying attention to the tags). The model keeps a consistent pace throughout, and I have not experienced any lack of interest - even during the parts that people found boring.

I'll be honest, the pirate arc was one of my favorites. Because of the arc's duration; there was more emotional resonance, character development, and the introduction of some major plot points.
Spoiler

I wish he'd bring Annie out of the game world, or revisit it with the item he bought.

[collapse]

While the main character has been undergoing development that makes his "main character" status a bit more recognizable even to the other in-world characters, the other characters typically have their own motivations and plots that give them purpose.

I enjoy this novel greatly, but it is not perfect. Here are a few critiques:

  • While women typically have their own motivations, most of them wouldn't mind getting a piece of the main character.
  • Spoiler

    I thought that the Lego mini-arc was going to be boring beyond belief, but despite the absurdist humor - it introduced a cool mechanic and set the stage for Fan Meinan to be a more important character.

    [collapse]
  • There is some plot armor. It's mysterious, but also seems to have an in-universe explanation - so it's forgivable for now.
    Spoiler

    Although I eagerly await an explanation for Pestilence.

    [collapse]
Overall, very worth the read. Hopefully, the translation is completed soon.
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Purps
Purps rated it
May 11, 2022
Status: --
the pirate arc ends at 255

hated it

-

... more>> other than that

The Author Seems to keep changing his mind on every decision he makes, Make MC be in another wold for 10 years, make MC forget where places are, also make MC Perfectly Recall Someone He Met Once

these types of novels suffer from the Author only wanting these worlds to be Skill Books basically, where he learns sh*t to show off and shrugs of the time difference and acts like nothing happens besides the immediate chapter after where the Author will make a random comment about PTSD, Presence or something else then forget about it till the next Arc <<less
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Anasthesia
Anasthesia rated it
March 21, 2022
Status: --
Dropped this. It’s a really good novel, don’t be mistaken, it was just not my preference.

I have to agree with reviewer @Maya65. MC’s interaction with the girls irritated me the most about this novel. The author keeps repeating that the MC can’t be seduced, is always neutral, and mostly doesn’t get attracted to the opposite s*x. But in almost every arc, and even in reality, the author keeps bombarding him with girls that admire him at first interaction. Hell, even ... more>>
Spoiler

his mother’s friend, at first meeting, wanted his D. The only thing that stopped her wasn’t the age gap between them and MC, but that he was her friend’s son.

[collapse]

This reminds me too much of SAO, where MC just keeps impressing girls left and right but because he’s a mature, stable, and indifferent cool MC, he couldn’t be seduced. This novel impressed me because MC likes being productive and learning things. He’s also diligent, but from the latest chapters, it’s more composed mostly of paragraphs of MC impressing girls with this skills.

The paragraphs that described his process of learning things are being brushed over now, replaced by paragraphs of him impressing girls by the skills he had learned (that was being brushed over). That wasn’t what I came for, so I’m dropping this novel.

Spoiler

I also find it ridiculous that MC had s*x only when girls would literally jump on him. Like in the pirate arc, Anne had to literally pounce on him and strip herself naked, while MC passively agrees and does it with her. In the hacking arc too, Little Boy had to jump on him in the sofa and take off her clothes while MC kinds of acts like ‘since it’s here, might as well just accept him, ’ like a martyr being forced. Please.

[collapse]

Spoiler

Also, with that succubus wanting to desperately do it with MC in order to reproduce and offers him secret info if he agrees to do it with her and the MC goes ‘I wouldn’t mind doing it with her but I have no habit of bargaining my own body.’

[collapse]

This gives me SAO vibes of a cool alpha male MC creating a harem while clueless and not meaning to do it, except his harem girls are mostly left in the games. I read this because of the cool info and the way MC learns from the games and diligently training his skills but since the parts where he was grinding to learn the skill has been brushed over, I’ll have to drop this. Other people might like it too though, it depends on your taste. Don’t let my review keep you from reading this book. <<less
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The Mighty Snow
The Mighty Snow rated it
May 20, 2021
Status: c358
"... when the hormone-filled youths saw him walking down the steps, they automatically stepped aside to make way for him. They had no inkling of why they would unconsciously step backward when they saw the man who looked no different from a university student.

In the eyes of these intoxicated youths, born and raised in peacetime and dancing the night away in a nightclub, Zhang Heng was like a dinosaur that trespassed the chicken coop. "

Hello, Snow here again.

This time, I write to you about a very unique novel. "48... more>> hours a day", is a story about a university student who has the ability to spend an additional 24 hours each day. It's an exciting premise, and exactly what made me pick it up. However, no part of this premise is what it seems at first.

While Zhang Heng is techincally a university student living on modern-day earth, the novel spends little time on his school-life in favor of a much more exciting setting: a supernatural game where participants are sent to do missions in both real and fantastical places. The true nature of this game is unknown, and the mystery provides an overarching narrative between the many rounds that our main character plays.

This is where the novel spends most of it's time, and also where it truly shines. This "game" setting feels more like world-hopping between parallel universes, rather than some VR experience. There are no skill points or magic, and injuries and death function as they do in the real world. There are other players, but Zhang Heng plays most of his rounds by himself, in worlds where he is the only player present. The strongest arcs of this novel are the ones where Zhang Heng is sent somewhere back in history, and needs to learn the skills necessary to thrive in the setting. This means learning new languages, and skills like sword fighting and shooting.

Now, this is where the "48 hours a day" concept ascends from being a neat gimmic, to one of the best abilities I've ever seen in a novel. Usually, a player enters a round of the game with a team of friends, and within a time limit of several dozen days, must either survive, or complete a certain task. Entering the game with a team is crucial, because a wide assortment of skills and languages is needed to survive. You wouldn't want to be stuck in the spanish inquisition, and not know a lick of spanish, right?

Zhang Heng isn't omnipotent, and he has negligible skills when he starts playing the game. However, he has a cheat that no other player has, and it's not what you'd expect. Each round of the game has a different time flow rate, whereby a game that lasts 20 days, might only take 2 hours in the real world. This means that if Zhang Heng's ability activates within those 2 hours on earth, his time in the game is extended by 24 hours at a rate of 1:240, meaning an extra 240 days in the game's setting. While other players are made to survive and complete missions for a couple weeks at a time, Zhang Heng might spend a lifetime in a single round, growing a mighty beard and conquering the world. Each round is like a self-contained story, during which the main character earns new skills and game items, and inches closer to uncovering the true meaning behind the game.

I won't spoil any of the settings to you, because I don't want to ruin the fresh feeling of surprise and excitement you feel each time Zhang Heng wakes up in the middle of a new world. These journeys aren't just levels in a game, but opportunities for Zhang Heng to grow as a person, and to experience more of the world that seems so small when you're stuck reading at home all day.

Zhang Heng is a great main character. He might seem a little cold and stoic at times, but I really like his determined and hard-working attitude. His only chip on the board is himself, and he knows it. In the beginning of a round, he observes, passing each hand, but when his cards are good enough, he goes all-in for the kill without a hint of hesitation. His chemistry with other characters is a little lacking, but this isn't the focus of the story anyway, so it's fine.

Overall, I find the overarching story and setting to be interesting, and each round of the game is a real highlight. The main character is compelling, and his less-excitable personality allows other characters to shine alongside him. The almost-self-contained story arcs throughout will stick with me for a long time, and their often historical context makes me want to dust up our old history books.

There's plenty world-building, action and adventure throughout, and none of the settings overstay their welcome. You should definitely give it a try if you're interested in a story that encompasses multipe worlds and timelines!

---

I've been rearranging the books in my father's study recently, and I found this one while I was dusting the top shelf. You can't imagine how excited I was when I found it! I wonder if this is what it feels like to find treasure during an adventure?

Well, my mom still hasn't come around on the idea of me going into the woods alone. She told me that she'd consider it after my birthday, but that's still a long ways from now... maybe I should find some way to convince her? Until then, I'll keep reading, and sending you these letters when I find something good. Remember to write me back too!

Sincerely,

your best friend Snow <<less
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