Okay, the beginning is promising but then it started to become really boring and annoying. First of all the ML took so much time to appear and he only lasted one instance before immediately becoming amnesiac. Excuse me but after he seemed to have lost some cells... the alchemy between ML and MC seemed forced, and really not enjoyable. Then the side characters were so damn annoying, like everyone is so mean to the MC for literally no reason. For exemple the member’s of ML team that I hate with all my heart, then the all the rookies, without exceptions (they were also very dumb...). The mc’s bf was decent ig but really useless and too clingy to my taste. The instances were okay but some moments were boring so I skipped.

Anyway, I’m speechless, the more I read, the more I feel like I wasted my time. I also mtl, hoping the ending would be interesting but no. I don’t understand this ending, it’s so disappointing. What was the point of putting in place such an interesting setting if in the end everything is forgotten... ?

way to cheapen the entire story with the amnesiac ending. That's one of the biggest pitfalls when it comes to writing, and it seems this author didn't read the manual... or pay attention in class, even. All the growth and experience of the characters throughout the story just wash away at the end, and everything they went through was for nothing in the end. Might as well not have read the novel at that point, huh.

yes, there's a connection between them

The ML is just a character created by the bestfriend and in a way they are one.

So, the 'game' is actually created by the mother of the ML. The purpose of the game is to try and stimulate the brainwaves of the ML since he's in a vegetative state.

The ML seemed to be not aware that he's in a game but whenever he becomes aware and wants to escape, the 'machine' releases some type of gas that makes him lose his memories.

All in all, everything about the Abyss is all created by the ML, he controls everything there since it is especially made for him.

Once the ML appears back on reality, all the players also woke up.

The only difference is that they have no memory of it while oir MC and ML remember.

Now here it come, here it comes.

The MC received a call from his best friend (the streamer) Mian Mian and his best friend is asking our MC to play the game named Abyss.

The MC suspiciously inquires about the game and looked at the ML

Then the ML teases our MC and begins to acts like everything is still an illusion.

Because before the ML went to reality, he placed our MC in an illusion where he didn't get hit by a car, or he did get hit but survive.

So now, with the ML acting like: "how do you know that this is real?" to our MC

I'm just sitting here going wtf 'did the MC really leave the game? Is this really reality?'

Now I am left with questions and am wondering: "What will happen once the MC plays the game again?"

MC's friend (the ML) is declared brain-dead (this is the type of "death" where the body is alive but there is no brain signal - this happens irl too, you can google it)

ML's mother, a scientist, can't accept her son's fate, so she took him away and used AI to try stimulating ML's brain

At first it seems to be working, and even though ML can't wake up irl, he "live" inside his conciousness (think of it like lucid dream)

Since ML conciousness is his, he's basically the god of his realm, he could do anything, create everything, nothing is impossible except for one unchangeable truth - everything is just his "fake" creation and no matter how many "npc" he created, he's always alone - which leads to a mental breakdown

ML's mental breakdown manifests in real life as weakening of brain waves and ML's mother really couldn't accept this - since AI isn't enough, she began kidnapping real people and made them unconcious > sending them to the same conciousness "realm" as ML

And from that point this story begins - MC coming to ML's grave, met his mother, and since he answer "yes", ML's mother kidnap him too - all for the sake of bring ML back to real life

additional info:

Now ML - as Shen Yuan - really can't remember MC, one part because "Shen Yuan" is the result of ML's mental breakdown (incomplete/split piece), the other part was because whenever ML had the idea to "stop", his mother doused him with amnesiac gas

Which is the same as every other player; ML actually have good intention; whenever someone died inside the "game world" they return to real world but ML's mother doused those people with amnesiac gas and send them back into the game - rendering ML's effort futile

At the end, ML took the chance when his mother is out to send MC back into reality and trick MC into unplugging his oxygen supply - in order to save MC (and everyone else) - because if those people stay too long in the "game", they will become brain dead too

extra chapters;

It's HE;

ML's conciousness comes back to real world after his oxygen supply is removed, though he couldn't do anything for a while and later have to gone through physical therapy before reuniting with MC and build their live together <3

...

supposedly >:D

(the last part hinted that the "real world" might or might not be just another "fake world" that ML created to trick MC into staying with him)

Idk if this counts as spoiler since MC got the skill at the end of the first arc, but I'm still marking it as a spoiler—

XTQ has a live streaming skill. Depending on how it's executed, it could make the story interesting..... but the author decided that it has to work as a comic relief. Words cannot express how frustrated I got everytime I read abt this skill being used as a method to add some hilarity into the situation. It had SO much potential! And the skill to resurrect? It was so.... Convenient.....a livestream skill has no relation to resurrection afaik

They seem more like a foil to show how different MC is or how brainless the newbies are. Always. Also, there's the fact that MC always finds himself in the S ranked instances even tho he's not a veteran. Yes, it was said that the system chooses people and sends them to the ranked instances based on their skills and potential.... But nothing abt the MC tells me why he has so much "potential". If I read "i have a bad premonition" one more time, istg I'll blow a fuse! Every second paragraph, MC has a "bad premonition" (which is succeeded by a plot twist which does nothing but prolong the arc).

(At the end of the novel, we find that this was the work of the ml's mom who wanted to revive her braindead son so she built this "ai" (which indirectly caused the ML to have a mental breakdown, which resulted in this 'game') and of course the MC would have 'potential', he's the ml's best friend, after all) But it does not spark joy in me. I am biased, I'll say this now, but I prefer it when other characters are treated as humans rather than just random cannon fodders who don't have a brain

who's actually ml's mom (or maybe it's the ai created by ml's mom?), btw. I hope she gets to sit inside an isolated jail for a long time, she's clearly unhinged if she can just kidnap people and force them to be braindead so that they can go and accompany her 'lonely' son in his world (which also psycologically destroyed him, while others were 'gifted' with amnesia) Idk I'd rather be dead than suffer the psycological horrors that ML suffered

I absolutely disliked the ending, especially the part with them waking up in the real world with amnesia, it kinda destroyed the whole point of fighting together. I laugh everytime I think about how the newbies had been correct; turns out they really were kidnapped........

It was all in your mind.... or was it?

At one point he gains the ability to understand foreign text (no idea why) and finds out information about what they will face (like, that they will probably meet sirens), but he doesn't do anything with this information. No preparation, nothing, so this ends up being really useless

The ML is basically 4 (?) different personalities: the dead friend (only in the finale), the cold ML after the first amnesia, the childish ML after the second amnesia and the (evil) Abyss Demon. He appears most as the childish and cold ML, but that does not seem to be his real life personality (obviously), so I don't know what he is like. I really can't relate to him or picture him at all

ML:
I think it's pretty obvious that Shen Yuan = Ming Xinghe. Why else would they introduce a character that looks exactly like the childhood friend but not have the same name? The entire introduction mentions him mourning the loss of his friend.

Somehow I imagine Shen Yuan as someone who's on the beefier side but when he wakes up as Xinghe as a sick patient that was in coma, I can't imagine anymore how he could look like as a malnutritioned person.

Also the foreshadowing of the abyss demon as Shen Yuan was the only thing she really hinted at during the whole story

Although everyone getting forced amnesia kinda kills the point of traveling together. Though it was for the best, because having traumatic memories of people dying and having to go through multiple harsh simulations would suck and probably take a toll on their mental health. There's no way they would come out of these "adventures" without getting PTSD.

The author thought she's slick with plugging in many many plot twists. Plot twists galore. Literally one plot twist after the other with barely any paragraphs in between. Mostly regarding the identity of the Demons (yes the great villain was the ML all along), and yes both the abyss demon and his retainer Lily disguised themselves as players more than twice. The MC and others were hella naive.

The problem is, if you have the slightest bit of comprehension you'd be able to foretell what other plot twists (and I'm using that term very liberally) gonna unfold after this. Esp. about the MLs 'resurrection' and his veeery secretive identity.

The big villain wasn't even that clear at first. The abyss demon didnt appear until the third quarter of the novel and it was tiring to wait for him what with the multiple layers of sacrifice needed by his retainer, disguised as an NPC, killing another NPC. And then being killed herself. Huh. Peak redundancy.