Read a hundred stories just like this, reincarnate into the villain of a magic school settting yada yada.

This is actually one from the bottom half of quality. None of the characters have any real depth to them. In a cliche fashion the MC reincarnates into the villain and everyone hates him day 1 but for some inexplicable reason all the side characters immediately have tons of interest in him and change their opinion of him with like 2 sentences worth of talking. Everyone has the depth of a sheet of... more>> paper.

I agree with the other reviewer and his given example is perfect.

Spoiler

One of the "hardest characters to conquer" is won over by bread in chapter 3 or some shit. It's crazy how sh*t the story is.

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It's too convenient and makes everyone look bipolar. The MC himself is as interesting as a brick and has 0 emotions or anything worth talking about. No flaws, no thoughts other than the age-old "must survive".

All webnovels are made up as they are written, there is never a planned plot with any of them as is the nature of amateur teenaged webnovelists, but this is again, one of the worse examples in that sh*t makes 0 sense as the plot goes. <<less

A more laid back story about a guy who wants to prevent a bad route of a game that leads to a bad ending because he don't want to die.

I quite liked the premise of the story. There has been minimum action so far, and it is heavily focused on his academic life and charatcer interaction.

The main character is neither dense, nor idiot. He is smart. He has an image to maintain i.e, of a villain so he keeps pushing people away from him and always ends up alone which... more>> is painful but its the price to pay for survival. And to maintain his second seat, he becomes a study nerd.

For the heriones, their charcters are quite good too, with their own motivations. So far, there is no romance which is good.

The worldbuilding doesn't seem that deep for the time being.

I would say quite a good read. <<less

I have MTL'd this novel till chapter 62. I will write an in-depth review for this novel, giving justice to the braincells I had to sacrifice reading said MTL.

TLDR: its good, not exceptional but good, passable, a 7 or 8 out of 10. It has its own however very frustrating flaws which i'll get to in a moment.

But first for the sake of being fair, let's list out what is GOOD about the novel.

• • The MC is decently smart, he has some emotional awareness* (we'll get to the asterisk later), not doing entirely boneheaded things. He doesn't get cheats or anything either.

• • Other characters and their interactions with the MC are nice. They also have emotions and their own goals. The girls are quite cute, clearly the highlight of the characters. The 'hero'/'original protagonist' isn't magically incompetent either.

• • It is decently written. The descriptions are adequate most of the time. While it doesn't go overtly descriptive on the surroundings or the story mechanics, it is fair enough.

• • The plot is constantly progressing. Despite some saying that it starts off slow or whatever. Actually it barely has much wasted time, moving from one plot point/ event to the other with not much time for rest.

Somehow I think that is all. The girls are a highlight and the MC isn't braindead, well, kinda. I'll explain as we move on to the BAD parts of the novel.

• • Did I say emotional awareness? Well kinda scratch that cause man's got the density of a neutron star. I guess unless the girl up and says "i love you", he won't catch from the slightest or even amongst the most overt clues that they like him. The author writes it off as saying that he's 'old fashioned' or 'socially inept' despite the fact that these things have never been established and he's perfectly socially functional in every other aspect. He also didn't 'inherit' any of the original body's talents or knowledge, starting essentially from blank and spends most of his time 'studying' a part that isn't written too well because he's just reading from a book rather than an engaging kind of experimental / practical study.

• • Another issue is his repeated insistence on following 'plot events' and 'this event must happen cause reasons', refusing to adapt to the fact that his mere presence has changed the plot, despite the 5, 6 or even 7 failures in a row where the plot didn't go as 'originally' he keeps going back to it like some kind of miracle cure. This actually compounds into the next issue.

• • So, other characters are realistic right?... well to a limit. Its because on one hand they have their thoughts, but on the other hand they behave like literal NPCs and bots, moving according to original plot contrivance from the game. the MC is like "this event happened in the game" and like clockwork magically most of the things line up except this one or two things that don't. with people moving like actual bots to fulfill their 'higher purpose', along with the MC's insistence on 'the plot' which makes it hard to believe that these are 'real people' and not 'NPCs in a game'. basically the MC himself is making it hard to picture the other characters as having any sort of feelings or not.

• • the 'hero'/ 'original protagonist', this magical guy is another whole load of trouble. The MC doesn't have much interaction at all with him, despite saying that in the original plot the villain was supposed to give the hero some sort of goal to work to, like basically make sure the hero keeps getting stronger. This doesn't happen because the MC decides not to antagonize the hero. But magically the hero meets all the strength requirements anyways, by studying and practicing by himself, not actually participating in combat or any other activities that the MC has been doing for him because the plot keeps getting messed up constantly.

• • So, despite the fact that the 'hero' should be lacking a 'goal' to work towards, he doesnt face progressively tougher enemies to work as fodder exp, he's already at the top and keeps getting stronger without facing any setbacks. Also he's always exactly where the original plot requires him to be. And he magically grows stronger without experiencing the necessary hurdles he would have in the 'original'. And then theres the MC who realizes this and panics that things aren't going according to the plot etc etc.

• • Speaking of strength. At the beginning of the novel theres this attempt at a stats system, that there is a numerical representation of strength and that MC in a very game like sense, levels multiple skills at once to reach 'intermediate level' overall, rather than specializing in particular magic branches like usual people did, this allowed him to reach 'intermediate' much faster than other people, in a sort of very game-mechanic like way. This numerical system is quickly forgotten in favor of vague descriptions and 'he went to the library to study'.
  • So I mentioned a fast paced story? It is true. the story beats progress decently fast when you take into account all the time-skips and 'event' after 'event' that keeps happening, but it feels slow because the characters don't develop that fast, leaving a feeling that the novel is slow when it isn't.

This ends my review for this novel. It is quite entertaining but interspersed with constant bouts of frustration. The MC's willingness to just look over another person's act of attacking him and his (girl) friend with lethal intent, aiming to kill him and his friend, and instead he just wants to let that person go free because he needs them for some other subsequent plot.

This is okay. I feel like the pacing is kind of off, where the heroines just seem to fall in love with the MC randomly. Feels a bit unrealistic and so far, no "wow" factors I can see

for example:

... more>>

Spoiler

MC says Luna is one of the hardest character to conquer in the original game. Yet not even a few chapters later, he wins her over with some bread and a praise. Then suddenly the heroine is now really interested in and trusts the MC. Like... what? The relationship developments between characters are poorly constructed imo

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I don't know why, but the plot only revolves around the Protagonist and his harem (Rudy and his harem), There is no story regarding Evan, (the Protagonist of the Game). The description said "He became the villain in the possessed game" but up to chapter 27, there is no clue about what exactly "Villain thingy" the description mentioned before to the point I dont know why he become villain in the game? And there is no interaction between Rudy and Evan which make it worst, this is basically just... more>> cheap Harem novel where every Heroine will just randomly "In-Love" with the Protagonist, Solid 2/5 score <<less

Honestly, It's a Korean academy novel. Either this is a guilty pleasure for you (like me) or it's not. It's definitely on the better side of this genre though.

The Good:

I like the setup quite a bit, there's a big focus on studying more than action which makes the whole school environment feel much more realistic.

The supporting cast is strong for the most part. As of c114 there's only 3 girls in the harem without any signs of expansion, which I quite appreciate. All 3 feel like real characters, each one's... more>> introduction is them having their own goals/life and it takes a while for them to fall for MC. There's even a few female characters in this that have no romantic relationship with MC!!! (a giant step forward for Korean novels!!). Also some great professor characters that are quite badass.

The Bad:

MC starts off actually quite strong but by c50~ loses quite a bit of ground for me. A lot of these novels due to lack of writing abilities turn MC into a perfect person who never makes mistakes and creates perfect plans while degrading the supporting cast as a result. Here it's kinda the opposite, MC often makes incomprehensible decisions that us the readers can tell from a mile away either leads to a trap or just an unnecessary complication. However, it's still done in order for the supporting cast to come in and we'll... Support. It feels quite cheap a lot of times since it sacrifices MCs intelligence. MC is just made out to be a little too incompetent after a while and often doesn't even come off as someone who actually knows the future. Put together with his insane insistence of following the original plot even after the 5th time he realizes it's impossible, he can get quite infuriating at points. Also he's dense on the level of a neutron star.

Other than that

World building feels generic but serviceable. There's an attempt at a power system with a status window in like chapters 1-10 but then it's completely forgotten about and never used. Afterwards power levels are relegated to extremely vague descriptions and there's no real sense of how MC is growing. Quite a few plot holes of abilities that get introduced early on and then completely forgotten. Still no clear endgame even now... MC keeps saying the future is dangerous blah blah but telling us who the final enemy is or some vague part of MC's plan would go a long way...

Overall pretty good for an academy novel but nothing that will blow you away. <<less

The novel could be fun if the author wasn't deathly afraid to actually include any development. Everything is stretched out waaaaaaaaay to long because the author seems to not want to include proper development either drama or romance wise.

I think the plot is pretty s*upid. It’s one of those, MC needs to manipulate events for someone else, despite clear indication that the MC has assumed that role.

For example: MC purposely tries to be second place so the top guy can resolve conflicts like canon. However, MC ends up planning and saving the day himself.

It’s not fun watching as the MC tries to spoon feed weapons, friends, and rewards to the top guy, while actually handling everything. The painful part is seeing how dense the MC is to the... more>> realization that he is the “game MC” now. Of course he’s dense to women as well.

Everything else is your typical shonnen type story, where apparently kids decide the fate of the world, get random superpowers, and shout the name of their attacks.

If you like generic magic fight school type stories, this is a solid 8/10. In general rankings, I’d give it a 2.5/5. <<less

If you read this as an academy harem rom-com and the gimmick is that the MC is reluctant villain, it's honestly 5/5. If you take the fights, schemes, and politics seriously, then it's at best a 3/5. I really enjoyed reading the banter and teasing between the MC (Rudy) and his girls. But the actual plot in the background is very lacking.

The bad :

"Evan". The original protagonist is mentioned by the MC every other chapter. For at least the first 100 chapters, a good amount of the story is the... more>> MC going "I need to leave this item/power up for Evan" or "Evan will take care of this issue." This made sense at the beginning when the MC tried not to change the timeline. However, as of chapter 100, Evan literally has like 3 lines of dialogue and hasn't done anything. The timeline has already been completely changed since like chapter 3, so the plot and title don't make any sense.

The power scaling is also completely out of wack. Our group of high school heroes can one shot assassins and mercenaries, who train and fight for their lives everyday. But when they fight a researcher from the school who hasn't trained in over a decade.. "Oh no he's too strong, we don't stand a chance." Like what? <<less

So far, it's really weak. Like really, really weak. My main problem with this? It's the fact that from the start, the main character has no actual reason to stay or be the second seat in the academy.

He's essentially only doing it because of the original game having Evan as the protagonist, and having him reach the first seat at the start, which should eventually lead to a good ending. Despite admitting that his character was several times more talented than Evan in the original, and having every advantage, he... more>> doesn't even consider taking the first seat, because of the original.

The MC of this story has no motivations, and even things like reaching a happy ending through being a second seat are shallow. He already screwed up the entire timeline by helping Luna in chapter 2 or whatever. Now things will go differently, so he clearly didn't do it well. It's just infuriating.

Overall, it follows the exact template as usual with these stories. That brings it up to a 3/5. That's it. If you want a decent story like this go read demon hunter or killing the player of the academy. <<less

I'm going to poke at something most people aren't. So here's the dealio we can all collectively agree that if we get truck kuned into a world of magic we are absolutely going to wreck the magic system because they are just overly flawed no matter what magic system we are talking about. Yet this guy is like he doesn't even understand how atoms work. Man for real took I didn't pay any attention throughout most of my life at all to an extreme.

Also the guy is all mopy and... more>> stuff but like you know you are a rich aristocrat right? Infact why are you even at this school if you are apparently lacking in magic study? You can't just say oh it's a good school! That's s*upid.

None of this book makes sense to me. <<less

Delivers on its premise. Not a masterpiece but works.

Pro

• • MC is interesting, has a goal and tries to reach it while self improving. He is dense, but the good kind of dense, as he isn't an idiot, just dense in love which makes it entertaining as the girls try to seduce him.

• • The girls are developed well and have their distinct personalities, while being strong and useful in the story.

Con

• • Sometimes a bit too convenient with coincidental things happening.

• • Too focused on school setting, I like it but I'd prefer them to move on at some point to the family business.

Pretty okay so far, rather than changing MC's (Rudy's) in game reputation like most JP 'villain' novel, he still staying to be a 'bad guy' in the school, I like that. MC is pretty mature overall. He is hard-working.

Overall not much about the world building. So far there are 3 girls as his harem, and the girls is pretty much like the other harem novel, we got a commoner, innocent, a bit naive and a little bit of yandere traits, a very basic heroine. Which I don't particularly like.

A princess-like,... more>> a sharp mouth and arrogant, and strong heroine but kind and can be soft like marshmallows, she is pretty mature. I kind like her out of the 3 heroines so far since she is a bit interesting out of those 3.

Lastly, a mature senpai student council heroine with teasing traits I guess, not know much about her so far. But she is pretty interesting too

Overall, it is good so far. <<less

Novel's about a person who reincarnates as a villain and tries to prevent bad endings. He has to dodge his own death flags as well as general game overs. There's a harem, but it's well done. Each female lead has a legitimate reason for liking the MC beyond 'he saved me in a time of crisis'. The buildup of the feelings of each female lead is gradual and makes sense. The power system is complex enough while not being overly complicated. Battle scenes are detailed enough and not overly drawn... more>> out. Villains have depth. All in all I like the novel. <<less

5 chapters in, it looks promising. I'm a sucker for misunderstanding type stories, and what can I say? This is exactly the sort of thing I like.

The man's got an image to maintain, but isn't quite equipped with all the skills he needs to maintain that image. That is, he has the body's magical ability, but that's all he has. Experience? Zero. Theoretical knowledge? Zero.

And he needs be the number 2 student in the academy, but cannot be number 1.

You can probably tell from that already, that this is a... more>> story of our MC needing to maintain an "arrogant" character in public, while secretly struggling to obtain the skills and results to back that attitude. All while misunderstandings of him build xD

That felt like it was worded a bit generically, but oh well. Personally, I'm expecting that eventually he'll need to be careful about accidentally overtaking the first place student, which could have potential for more misunderstandings, but at any rate, I expect people who like misunderstanding type stories to enjoy this. <<less