1. The main character this time... from a lot of different meanings I made a teenager the motif. Also, to talk about the overall theme of this work, it would have to be ‘destiny’. If you’re looking for a story about a boy forging his own path while encountering karma from his past life, then this is for you.
2. Some of you might be discussing about a harem from now on, but although many female character will appear, I’m planning to add just as many male characters as well! And just because a female character appears, doesn’t mean she will be a heroine! Maybe about half of them will be, but it’s not decided yet!

Direct Quote from Toika :D

The story has a decent premise, but quickly becomes a subpar fantasy fulfilling story riddled with plot holes and asinine decisions.

Feels like the author is too pressed for time writing, and uses what ever his first thought was, never giving consideration of how illogical it might be.

My biggest issue is the female characters. Everyone of them basically acts as if the sun is shining out of the MC's a**hole. If you want to do a harem, fine, but don't make every female character act as if they want to jump... more>> into the MC's arms the moment they meet. <<less

Sasuga Toika-nim! (I realised I used 'japanese' first and then 'korean' but idk the word in korean lol)

Lets ride towards new adventure!!!

... more>> Edit: This might be one of the blandest novel by Toika yet, premise was good, execution was not.

How can you make an interesting MC when everything is handled to him in a silver platter? I bet he can even get stronger when all he will do is to stay in bed and fap a lot

+10 hero points!

+10 hero points!

+10 hero points!

Translation is lacking in polishing too, I blame the editor though, rather than the translator because the quality is steadily improving

But Thanks Active Translations!, love you <<less

It had a decent potential, interdimensional chatroom is a pretty fun plot!

But everything is pretty much ruined. Toika is used to have harems and gary sue in his stories, I don't mind it, it usually is a fun and mindless read. But it's way overboard there, the girls are so f*cking thirsty, borderline s*xual ab*ser and MC just let it go, he clearly have one girl in mind and yet he let himself get kissed and get borderline abtucted for dates.

As for MC, it's the gary sue of gary sue,... more>> with a constant deus ex machina in the form of the administrator that will always sells him the items that he needs and will provide him with informations. He is f*cking bland, yet the premise that he was in his past life (that he remembers little by little) an old blacksmith staying in a destroyed world forging stuff after everyone he cared about died. It only serves as a reason to get close to some girls he knew in his pastlife, and looking like the old blacksmith when he is forging, that's it, a complete waste of an interessing setting.

Last point, I don't like talking badly about the translation, but considering that they are selling premium chapters, i'll do just that. It's tr*sh, bordeline MTL, maybe you should spend more time editing rather than spewing 20-40 chapters a week (for premium). <<less

It has your ordinary shounen MC with sad childhood, fatefull enconters, luckily finding extremely op items, luckily fiding easy way to get stronger, girls abnormaly gathering around him and licking his d*ck praising him every chapter, a maybe higher being who for no reason likes to be his Great Sage just like in the slime isekai, a system with op function but also a social media and battle junkies. A LOT of battle junkies.

This above would be a much more reliable description for this work. It's just a slightly original... more>> work but it's in the end just a gathering of many in one. This one deserves at most a 2/5.

Well, it's from Toika. What was you expecting? <<less

the harem bullsh*t in this is just f*cking worse than EER, if in EER the fillers are the training arcs, farming mobs or blacksmithing, here you get unrealistic harem romance cringe, like for f*cks sake if you mix this with the utterly garbage dialogues (either because of toika himself or translator) that confuse the sh*t out of me on who the f*ck is talking then you get one of the worst experiences ever.

Just why toika, if he just ignores this harem aspect we would at least get a decent story.

too many girls ruined this novel

premise was decent, follow up was bad, should have a focus on the story rather than girls.

i dropped it at 78 or so and picked it up again but couldn't read more than this.

Like all other korean novel, he is on unobstructed (or paved) path to op-ness. Whatever he do girls come to him, power comes to him, how many more korean sh*t has this same trope

This novel starts very well, we have a guy who cannot accomplish anything on his own but gets past life memories and starts becoming stronger. He starts using his past-life experiences to become a blacksmith and it seems interesting up to there.

Now the bad points and why I'm giving 2/5:

• Even though he should be a blacksmith, he is too focused on fighting and blacksmith is only a means of explaining the "Sudden Power-ups" that we see in any other novel. So having a past-life experience and dedication to blacksmithing is very blurry most of the time.
• At some point it just becomes a disgusting dating sim without any progress, and this may be my personal opinion but it's very boring at that point.
• We see a complete dependency on the system to progress forward, almost looks like the MC has no personality or thoughts of his own,
• In comparison with "Overgeared" where both MCs focus should be Blacksmithing and Growth, you can see a great disparity and it makes this novel look obsolete and without emotions.

Maybe it is because of me, but I'll drop this because it is predictable, very predictable. Barely anything new and there is no reason for me to continue reading. There isn't really a new system only same old, the characters also aren't compelling enough, they very much look like mobs and the typical stereotypes and there isn't even a story in sight, all there is, is the way upwards towards becoming stronger. I generally like Toika, but it seems my tastes have changed on this one. There is more to... more>> a story than going from F to S. And this novel is barely an E. <<less

The women ruined the plot and the pace of the story.. It felt like the story was 90% always talking about the harem. The world building should've been more explored and excellent characters should've been more fleshed out and given more screen time, for example Baek In Ha, or Do Woo Jin, other Hero Universe chara. Also, the story just totally brushed off the fact about his past life. It felt like sometimes it was just a second thought. The growth of the MC do not makes sense. Everything was... more>> handed to him. He was described as a hardworking MC, but his power was gained without any effort. Even QT action MC novels had better growth than him. Its just too fcking frustrating how a good fight scene is ruined by a sudden catfight between the harem bcs of jealousy.. They all seem so brainless.. They're in an apocalyptic end of the world fight but these girls seem to see the world in rose tinted glasses. Damn its the worst. Ive read Chinese Cultivation novels that has harem and the women always brought something to the story. But the women here were like parasites gaddamn its just too fcking idiotic. The MC seems like he doesnt have his own decisions at all. Nada! None!! The MC was the biggest pushover, his character felt weak, no substance, it just felt so shallow. <<less

The plot was fun but somehow after 200 chapters, it becomes boring. It not like it is repeatible but I lose passion.

The translation.. From an ambitious group that want to become premium novel that earn more money but their translation quality... In this novel alone, the wording and the sentences felt like I read an improved version of mtl

toika or toy car has always been a fun author to read from everyone else is a returnee, stop friendly fire, infinite competetive dungeon society and I reincarnated for nothing were all good reads. This author usually has a bit of the same stuff/ plot devices but if you liked any of his other books you should try this one out I am

Have you ever played a singleplayer game where you just used console commands/cheats/hacks all throughout the gameplay? Yeah it feels great at first that you have all this power, and that you've progressed to the most powerful you can be in the game effortlessly. But does that fun last? In my case, no. There's no sense of accomplishment tied with it because in most adventures it is really the journey that makes it interesting not the destination. You didn't cheat the game, you just cheated yourself by depriving yourself of... more>> that experience that you paid the game devs to give you.

This novel is like that. Everything is just given to the player. It's not enough that he is apparently one of the only few people in the multiverse who have a decent grasp of this super rare "spirit power" that is basically makes everything it touches OP, he also has this follower "administrator" that gives him things left and right and spoils every little secret he wished to know. They sometimes even solve problems for him even before he is even aware there is a problem.

This story is basically him gaining power by basically doing very little in comparison. Like, yeah, he practices hard, but that really shouldn't amount to much. If effort is the only hindrance to being OP then alot of people would be OP not just him.

So with all that said, his power would feel very exciting at first but you will soon realize that he is doing very little to gain them giving this dominant feeling that he didn't really deserve them. It also kills alot of the tension in the story when you know the writer would readily give his MC every excuse to win a fight.

But if you're that guy who can feel good about playing a single-player game while cheating your way all the way through then this is definitely up your alley. <<less

Although it's suffering in the romance section (big surprise from a harem right..? sarcastic if you didn't get it...) it was a pretty enjoyable read. I wish the translation could be a little bit better though as sometimes you can spot some machine translated like things.

The book is about an old man from an abandoned world where it is possible he is the only survivor. He escapes reality by pounding stone which in turn unlocked the hero system due to him creating something without mana, and even a higher form... more>> of energy called spirit energy. 20 years later after becoming a legendary blacksmith and unlocking vip privledges right after he crafts his first real legendary piece of gear for Jan*s and a gift for a kid named Euna, he dies. 17 years later he recovers unlocks the system once again amd is starting to regain his memories of his old life. Like I guessed in the past a couple months ago, the story did get worse like the signs of self destruct I had spotted when I ended on chapter 46 back then. The author seems to be trying to throw girls at the MC every chance he gets. That isn't even the big problem for once though. It is the translation quality which is the foremost problem. The story significantly changed once the translators were switched. The book's progression is also way too fast, and there are many huge plot holes to the story. The lack of descriptions is also very evident. Again the romance is also pretty bad... but the other things I listed are even worse.

Im 90% sure that the adminstrator watching over him and Jan*s who is reknowned as a guy are actually also a girl that is in love with him. Although making Euna and him be in the same world is interesting with her talking like a little kid with the system and calling him grandpa, while in real life being cold and isolated, the romance in this book was somewhat garbage. Some parts did bring a smile to my face but with forced plot events and illogical actions being added onto the MC who has an annoying personality for a reader, which is usually typical for a JPN novel, but is present in a KR novel. I really hope that the harem parts are done less in the later parts of the book. The plot itself on the other hand was interesting, and the story concept is also a little unique, throwing a twist into the sub genre of modern dungeon / system. The start and concept were amazing, but the author had ruined the novel. Can't exactly say it is surprising when coming from a harem. <<less

A VIP as Soon as You Log In doesn't do much to elevate itself from its middling title. A Korean WN, where Kang Shin-Hyuk, merges with the reincarnated soul of a VIP Blacksmith, allowing him to boost his mediocre status and join our world's Superhumans, in the usual monster hunting & dungeon/gate defence. Now under the moniker of "Anvil", when not digesting the legacy of a stellar blacksmith, the MC is stuck dealing with a gaggle of girls or out on a lucky mission. Yet this competent heroic crafter is... more>> written to be so dense at times, whilst the characters that surround him are thirsty as f@£k.

Honestly this feels like the author Toika is writing EER-lite. With the same basic premise, tons of lucky coincidences and a heavy focus on artifact crafting. But this time offering a calmer rollercoaster experience of lesser highs & lows. A decent attempt that failed to wow me but managed not to piss me off, so I doubt I'll remember it. <<less

Honestly it was fine in the beginning but then I got really tired of the harem. The are literally no men around the MC. Somehow it's always all girls and once in a while Baek shows up prattling on about noonas. Too much undeserving love for the MC from the females. It's not even exciting anymore. I honestly understand the irritation of the MC cause I feel it myself

Unfortunately, this is by far the worst Toika work, and I've read them all (that are translated?) It's still Toika, so better than most average KR novels, and has many of his (her?) standard tropes and features. The problems however creep in. After having read it all, I was completely caught up in a feeling of 'Is that all?'. The ending, and indeed the last 50+ chapters were incredibly rushed and bad.

Individually, I liked pretty much every arc, but the final arc was just... bad. It came out... more>> of nowhere. To compare it to EER or ICDS, which I'm sure many of you Toika fans have read, the story feels like he barely escaped Earth for the first time, so like 1/3rd of the way through, and then OMG ITS THE END FINAL ARC SUPRISE!!!!

What.

As with anyone who's read any of Toika's stories before, I'm sure you can guess who the final boss is, except here there's no foreshadowing, no hints, just BAM HAHAHAH IT WAS ME, DIO! And a rather prevalent character turns out to be the final boss in disguise. I... just.. what?

Honestly, before this final arc came about, I was still rather enjoying the story. As I said, each arc individually is pretty good, and the power creep was pretty decently done. I read the story and frankly it doesn't feel like I read 300+ chapters before I got to the final arc. It went by quickly, and enjoyably. It just seems odd to end it here. The twists in the final arc were just s*upid (here's looking at you, the identity of the final boss, and how Jormungand was formed), and the final arc itself was just bad.

It has the standard Toika-style harem romance, but compared to the other Toika novels i've read, it just seems... lesser. And I'm not sure why, to be honest. The girls aren't terrible, there's the standard Toika move of TRYING to be monogamous when harem is how it's being pushed to be (by the characters and the setting itself). Frankly compared to most Korean stuff, it's still better than normal, but again, just not up to par for what I want with Toika.

Still rating it a 4/5, but compared to other Toika novels, if they were 10/5, this is 4/5. Admittedly you have to be the type to enjoy Toika as an author, and I know many don't, so I'm biased there.

TBH, it also has one of the most compelling first chapters I've EVER read, in anything. The first chapter alone was super amazing, and as stated, I really enjoyed it up til the final arc. Were it not for the final arc, I'd have said this was one of Toika's best works. Now.... not at all. One of his worst. (The worst is still Demon King, which is so DIFFERENT from Toika that I'm convinced it was ghostwritten.) <<less

TLDR:

Fun novel, but everything is rushed and shallow and for a blacksmith he doesnt do much crafting

-extremely fast progress (level ups) ... more>>

Spoiler

He became a top 10 from beeing the weakes in only 6 months... although it makes some sense with the explanations given, with the amount of time skips it could have been 2 years and nothing would have changed

[collapse]

-Altough the main point of the MC is beeing a blacksmith... HE SPENTS ALL HIS TIME FIGHTING

-Characters are 1 dimensional, inmature and often annoying AF

-As all harems, ALL GIRLS LOVE MC AFTER 5 seconds...

-He treats his best friend as shit, but somehow they are still friends

-The world-building is interesting and his abilities are too, sadly we dont see much of this because the pace is too fast

-I dont know if its because of the translation, but the dialogues (who is talking), as well as the descriptions are hard to understand <<less

The idea of a blacksmith MC was interesting at first, but it's rapidly turning into a shonen adventure instead. Basically, take the average shonen and replace the training montages with blacksmithing.

Dropped the novel at this chapter. Translation is tr*sh, honestly that's one big part I dropped the novel. Sorry guys but it is what it is. I'd prefer waiting for the release a bit longer in my opinion than giving your audience a disappointment. Though I've read quite a lot of novels this is the first time I'm dropping a novel. Honestly I should really make it as a habit rather than listening to my OCD and completing a novel rather than suffering the agony of reading it till the... more>> end when it really is a bad novel lol.

Honestly it started well in the beginning in the later part it just got bad and all together got worst.

I've been a fan of Toika's past works and EER (Everyone Else is a Returnee) is one of the best first read I enjoyed in my earliest readings. I also liked Stop, Friendly Fire! As the second best in his past works. But, in his latest releases it just got bland and worst. Not sure what happened but I hope his writings would improve rather than degrade.

Update:

Finally found a better translation of this novel. Just finished reading it.

So far it still has charm, but felt like the author just put all his/her past novel ideas and cram it to this novel making it a little bit mediocre. Still enjoyed reading it though so I'll rate in five stars. <<less