One of the many spiritual successors to "I Really Am A Superstar", with less overbearing nationalism and face-smacking, but also less comedy though.

Didn't it expect to get picked up after my request on NUF, so my review is gonna be biased.
4 out of 5 stars, objectively speaking it's probably 3 stars at best. Unfortunately it devolves into cringeworthy harem shounen after Chapter 200, MC becomes pointlessly OP and it's just scene after scene of him showing off 1 skill he gained. Filler creeps up in the form of lengthy paragraphs of boring sales and marketing metrics, which nobody cares about.

Translation isn't all that great (I've read partway through the raws), MC is somewhat boring and has very odd character flaws. But it's an ok read for those who like the genre of MC regurgitating famous works in a different multiverse.

SUMMARY

Average MC (30 yrs old) gets transmigrated into an alternate version of Earth which has mildly different scientific and cultural development. Armed with a snarky System, he decides to use his newfound talents to rise to the top.

COMMENTS

(1) Plagiarism
The plagiarized works fit pretty well, no excessive dumping of every literary work like IRAS. You can tell the author is a passionate audiophile / cinephile. He references very specific works and spends a lot of time/chapters going over it's history to acknowledge the original authors/casts/singers while expounding the development process.

And let's be honest, it's always nice to see awesome works of art -- whether it's movies, stories, songs, poems -- that you've seen in your childhood being venerated. A nice touch of nostalgia. The difference this time is that the chinese author acknowledges/plagiarizes universally great literary works from Japan and Korea too, not random manga like IRAS (which was honestly weird cultural misappropriation).

Since it's plagiarism, the only way to really appreciate it is to view the source material. I'll see if I can post links in the comments section on the translator's site so readers can reference.

(2) Odd MC
The main gripe I have is why MC had to be a 16 year old boy. The age gap is just plain weird. He could be 18+ (like most other time travel CN novels). But no, he has to be 16 for no reason. Just so his one of potential love interests starts out at 14??! Or an odd attempt to appeal to middle school student readers, even though most of them will have NO CLUE about the plagiarized works which are classics from the 80s-90s??

Even though there there's no inappropriate loli / pe*ophilic descriptions or behavior (so far), it does make you a little uncomfortable.

MC's character flaws start showing up past c100 or so, when the System awkwardly forces the MC to do acts of kindness.

(3) Harem
Early warning for the harem tag as noted by @KIWI. The transmigrated version of Earth apparently makes it OK for polygamy for some reason. The joke is that MC is an attractive baby-faced youth so he's constantly attracting female attention (similar to "Great Doctor Ling Ran"). I can still accept the harem since MC wasn't particularly attached to anyone in the past, so I guess when in Rome....

But unfortunately the harem development doesn't seem well planned either...

(4) Side Characters
It's disappointing compared to IRAS. The side characters are interesting, but mainly just damsels-in-distress, and MC comes along with his talents and just bowls them over.
Compare that to IRAS which had strong, independent, humorous side characters with their own unique personalities that were successful on their own terms (their relationship with MC was always give-and-take).

I feel the description is super vague so I figured I'd make this review for people so they know what it's about.

The main character reincarnates into the body of a handsome 16 year old orphan. It's basically the same world as Earth with cultural differences. He gets a system which is rather unreliable and messes with him a bit whenever it decides to show up. Its goal is typically to make him more famous which the protagonist isn't really into as he wants to avoid the entertainment industry's drama. To... more>> accomplish the goals he plagiarizes songs, literature, and movies from our world. This is done in a non-faceslapping way so far.

The translation by TraCan translation is serviceable.

The main character is pretty chill and a generally a good person. People think he's a genius but not with over the top reactions, face slapping, or lots of quotes of admiration from internet people or random strangers explaining how great he is which is common in other novels. He also uses pseudonyms and hasn't really made much money off his efforts yet, most of them being used to help out friends and his somewhat adopted family.

Overall it's pretty solid and not very intense. <<less

There’s another reviewer that left a pretty good summary that still holds true to up to where I’ve read (c93.)

Other then the main character getting praised for their beauty every chapter, it’s pretty good. The translation is fine, and the story is what you’d expect.

But there is a minor thing that’s bothering me here: the lack of a harem tag on the website. Admittedly right now it’s not a big thing but it did come as a surprise when in the middle of c71 we get told that men... more>> can have multiple wives in this China. And then this pattern keeps popping up in later chapters. Nothing has happened yet but, you know. Since the author has set up the world in such a manner I can only assume that eventually the MC is going to have a harem of wives.

Personally, I try to avoid the harem tag so you can see why I’m kinda miffed about this. Just a heads up for other readers. I’ll probably keep reading until it officially happens or it just becomes to much for me lol. <<less

Sometimes I wonder why did CN with systems always glorified MC like some sort of deity. Like bit*h those MC are using outsider's help which is system to survive and how did those ret*rded MC have the balls to become arrogant shit. "If heavens will not acknowledge Shen Huan, there will be millennia of darkness".

Don't go into the story expecting anything mind blowing. That being said it's a fun, lighthearted read that's occasionally quite funny.

This is good novel with good harem, but the ending so f**king rush, all women that interesting with MC but no love, suddenly become his harem and all of them have a lot of kid.

I don't know what happen with the author but '10 year later...' ending is suck.

By far the best system novel I've read.

So why the 3/5? There's one thing that bothered me a little in the beginning but more as the story went on, and one thing that only became a real problem ~c500 because they author had done a decent job avoiding it up to then.

The first issue is the protagonist's personality. I disliked slightly how unambitious he was, but understood that it made him a good fit for the system. But then I realized he was a complete psychopath after

... more>>

Spoiler

he beat the crap out of some random thugs, inflicting maximum pain on them, while saving a random girl. No, he didn't need to go that far. No, he didn't feel the slightest twinge of guilt or rejection to causing pain. Unsurprisingly, that wouldn't be the last time. While the system tries to fix his unambitious ways, it rewards his behaviors.

I recognize that he acts caring with friends and family, but the narrator points out every so often that he only gives them opportunities because they can make the most out of the opportunities. If they couldn't, he wouldn't help them. Aside from the people he regards as future wives, everything is strictly done based on how it makes him look or whether or not he can complete a system mission, and even with the future wives, well, he wants them to be his wives in the future because they're beautiful and talented/rich, so I don't think that counts! I wish he could help a friend without having to remind the readers that he's only doing so because he expects to get something out of it later!

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The second problem is the breadth of the system, which is something to be expected from its self-introduction. And the author does a good job of juggling the different industries Chen Huan gets forced into, keeping any individual arc from dragging on too long. Until the latest arc where

Spoiler

he joins a NBA team and flies off to America for 100+ chapters, almost completely ignoring the main storyline. In and of itself that's fine, but the blow-by-blow of the basketball games coupled with using real celebrities was both redundant (because most of the games weren't that interesting) and disconcerting (because Americans don't speak like that, and those don't celebrities don't act like that, at least not quite that publicly).

In the last few chapters the author has started moving away from basketball alone, but we haven't reached the finals yet after 100+ chapters of basketball starting from just the playoffs...

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Things might get better after the arc ends, of course, but the weakness has shown itself: a novel that tries to do many things, that's fine, but a novel that tries to make the protagonist the best at many things, if the author goes too in-depth on the wrong subject the reader will get bored for that entire arc.

---

There are definite pros, of course. The author uses racial/national stereotypes casually, but he uses bad ones for Chinese and good ones for other countries at times. Aside from what I wrote in my first spoiler, the vast majority of the novel is about helping people and doing good things to look good, instead of making other people look like idiots so the protagonist looks good in comparison. There are many endings where both he and his opponent are successful, but he was just more successful, and he doesn't always end up on bad terms with his opponents. Due to how his system works, he doesn't hog all the spotlight (just a fair amount of it).

I feel like if you read this to ~50 chapters and didn't enjoy it, you can just ignore every system novel you see from this point on. <<less

going to start by saying the translation quality is pretty decent and at no point was there a part that I didn't understand.

This novel started off not bad but ever since the basketball arc started it started to go down hill. The author makes certain professional basketball players lookdown on him because he was Chinese which had me asking why?. It would have worked just as well if they called him short. Throughout this novel there were times where I'm like why is this sentence here at all. You can... more>> tell in these moments that the author never considered it being read outside his country.

for people who are asking what sentences as an example :at one point the main character was looking women from other countries and it since I cant find the chapter at the moment I will paraphrase

main character wasn't interested in them because all " the 20 year olds girls skin look like a 30 year old Chinese women no wonder they wear so much make up all the time" <<less

I liked it. A Lot.

Sure it has it's flaws, and quirks. But what novel doesn't?

In spite of that, I binged. Because since I'm Really a Superstar was discontinued, this is the CLOSEST thing to it.

... more>> Very similar idea and concept. Excuted slightly different, but if you liked IRAS, then I suggest you give this a read. In some ways this is better and other ways a bit bad. But overall I'll keep reading until this one gets discontinued too or... banned.. like IRAS.

Hopefully this won't end in a bad note like IRAS. grrr. <<less

I've now officially picked a new hobby: bashing misleading and wrong reviews here (after recently realizing there's a truckload of them and almost missing out on several okayish/decent novels). But first I'll say a few things about the story in general.

Setting:

It's a fairly common and unimaginative type. It's basically parallel world almost the same as original + transmigration + plagiarizing works from Earth (movies, songs, etc). It's a very typical story in that regard, and is similar to others of the sort. However, while mundane, it doesn't have any glaring... more>> unpleasant points about it.

I like the system. It's haughty and there's a lot of humor involved due to comedic undertone as the protagonist interacts with it. This is definitely one of the less boring systems in Chinese novels.

Kudos to the author for going into great detail to talk about works. He definitely puts in more effort than most novels of this type (though I read only three or so others). Most of works are Chinese, so they'll be quite foreign to a western reader, but he also draws upon some Korean and Japanese ones (and two, three Western ones too). If there's one bad thing about them, it's that infodumps about them tend to be too long sometimes, and it may get boring after several hundred chapters.

Protagonist:

Kinda hard to say anything substantial about him. He's not a bad character, but neither is he a great character. He's neither s*upid nor smart, neither wimpy nor overbearing. He's an average guy who got lucky to get a system and a handsome body. He isn't constant and without change, but that's okay since that's human (kind of hard to claim it's character growth, but there is some development). He doesn't indulge in women right away, but plans for the future slowly. Overall, he's kind of a self-insert slot where every male reader can easily insert himself because his character isn't very distinct.

Love interests:

Most of them are very bland. Their interactions with MC have somewhat of a comedic undertone, which works normally, but I heard that

Spoiler

MC is going to have a shitload of wives

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so the author shot himself in the foot if he chose those bland love interests later. Of more prominent ones as far as I read, there's a kuudere (seemingly emotionless) girl who is without special charm imo, an overly young childhood friend who cares about MC but is somewhat shrewish (her care for MC is nice, but I don't like this sort of character), and finally a cheerful actress who is probably the most interesting of the three because she's lively and energetic. I would much rather see a lot more interactions with them, deeper interactions. The current state

The author is really slow at developing relationships (MC literally made no moves at all in the first 200 chapters, and he is still not in a relationship as far as I read, though one is basically decided, one is reserved for the future (since the girl is much younger), and one is likely but still in suspense). I like that MC doesn't sink in women so far and has no underdeveloped and casual relationships (he definitely could have them), which makes me hopeful that author will still put in some effort later into those, but he could have already done a better work so far on them.

Other characters:

There's a plethora of various characters. What is good to note for a harem novel like this is the fact that there are many, many other male characters, and a lot of them are prominent. While there's no other main-character-level male character, there are many of secondary male characters, and they all play some role in the novel. The same goes for female characters: not all of them are only there to be love interests.

Although those various characters don't have much depth, and some in fact are easy to confuse with each other, quite a few of them have some backstories or small arc-level subplots they're involved in, so the author put in at least some effort into them.

What I like is that many characters are from the West (Europe, the US), and that not many of them are portrayed as a**holes, racists, etc. Contrary to what some people here claim, this novel isn't particularly racist. MC is a good buddy with several black and white guys. I also like how author admitted that the Chinese have a "mysterious desire" to compare themselves with foreigners or surpass them after being suppressed by them for a long time (colonization era). This was straightforward without any bullshit, and explains why other novels "face-slap" foreigners.

Plot:

The plot progression is a bit slow because various character relationships don't progress particularly fast. The author could do a better job. As for various subplots, they're interesting because they're different from each other (at least on the surface), so it's not repeating the same stuff on and on.

Honestly, the plot doesn't overwhelm. However, it's not bad, either. There are some interesting events, and the most boring parts are infodumps rather than some plot somewhere. At least so far.

Overall:

I give this story 3/5. It's fairly decent for a Chinese webnovel so far (chapter 466, I caught up with the translator). Well, if it was a paperback novel with proper editing and so on, I would give it 4/10 or 5/10 so far. But it's a webnovel, and the writer is an amateur, so gotta be more lenient even if I'm picky. By the way, translation could be better, but it's good enough, and the translator is pretty fast (like a chapter every day or two days).

Now, I'll make a list of bullsh*t arguments other reviewers provided, and then I'll massacre those ret*rded remarks of thiers.

• MC doesn't quite seem to believe himself to be a genius (that sounded more like joking around, and he knows he can barely do anything great without the system... like, I think he only relied fully on his own efforts once or twice in 300-400 chapters when it came to releasing works; at least MC learned a lot of stuff he got from the system instead of copy+paste the knowledge from the system)
• the guy who thinks it's weird for a guy who transmigrates to a world which accepts polygamy to accept it right away is the weird one. I would definitely want to get two wives if I could, and I grew up and live in a 90-something percent Catholic country (fully monogamous society). I don't have any special identity, either. I think most men would let his desire loose (at least in imagination) in such circumstances, especially if they have emotional baggage or just didn't have luck in romance so far. There aren't that many loves that would be worth giving up the forest for a single tree in one's life. Maybe the reviewer isn't a man, so he doesn't understand lol. Besides, s*aves and polygamy are two completely different orders of magnitude...
• the benefits-are-the-foundation-of-all-relationships thingy from the same reviewer was context-dependent if I recall correctly. To be exact, I don't remember this sort of disturbing remark. I think there was something about how even a child wouldn't want to take care of bedridden parent if it would take not just several years, but decades (and the author doesn't say it's good, but that it's not uncommon). At the very least, MC doesn't treat everyone based on benefits only, and though he indeed often doesn't forgo money in those relationships, there's often a reason for that.
• I lol at the guy who left 1 star and a review hating on the system trope and glorifying system-using protagonists. Well, sure, he's not wrong (since systems are basically a tool to give wish fulfillment through power/fame trip to readers who are average Joes and wouldn't be able to do stuff without a system, either), but that's not a reason to come and randomly diss a novel because of it. Like, read it at least and comment on something else?
• the guy who has problems with "racism" is also a piece of work. First, people looked down on MC for being a Chinese basketball player because, as the novel explains, 99% of Chinese players s**ked balls, and secondly, because Asians (and Chinese are Asians) can't hold a candle to whites and blacks in power and stamina, so of course they're at disadvantage in sports like basketball. I guess this guy is one of those who think it's okay for transs*x guys to participate in womens' sports. Second, he complains that protagonist doesn't like Western women because they look older than Chinese ones. Well, I think this guy never saw Asian beauties. They indeed look much younger, and it's pretty much long been a meme that you can't tell apart an Asian mother from her daughter (and so can't tell their age coz both look young). Honestly, Asian beauties indeed look fair and more delicate on average compared to white beauties, at least the ones that Asians themselves acknowledge as beauties (since there are many very ugly facial types among Chinese too). Anyhow, this is just preferences, not racism lmao. Check your head, snowflake. MC is literally friends with black sportsmen and white professors. The author is pretty chill about them and there's nothing inappropriate.
• so not being greedy is being ret*rded, huh? well, I agree that MC takes a long while to improve his own life (such as buying a new house, this one really drags on and on), but calling him a ret*rd just because of this? At least MC doesn't let greed control him
• the guy who thought MC will remain unknown and mysterious forever and doesn't perform himself should've read further
• MC doesn't donate all the money he earns... he does at the start, but not always. Anyway, the story would be boring if MC just swam in money and did nothing. It does feel kind of excessive at the start with how the system forces MC to make donations, but notice that they were basically transactions (donate and get skills or stuff), and MC had free choice in the matter (except for one time he angered the system). Anyway, MC earned a lot of money and both spent and invested it before 1-2 years passed since the start aside from donations

Well, that's it. Fortunately, mostly normal reviews on this novel. Seriously, people, if you bother to leave a review, at least read the novel and stay objective. Leave your bias away from your keyboard. <<less

Its currently a breath of fresh air for me.

Pros:

1. No chinese young master face slapping bullshit

2. Humble and charitable MC

3. System asks MC to do good work and guides him.

Cons:

1. Slow Pacing. If you dont like slow paced and peaceful novels then this is not for you.

A very humble MC which is very rare for chinese novels and has a pretty mean system which forces him to donate to charity everytime he makes a profit which is hilarious but this also contributes in the MC helping people by being generous without the systems promting which is good character development for me atleast. I recommend everyone to try this novel atleast who know's you might actually like it as I did since I binge read it to the latest chapter.

The more I watch the more pissed I become at this main character, he's donating 66 million yuan to receive a song from the system that he'll give to a female harem member, when he didn't even buy anything for himself to better his life, he even gave tons of songs to some old grampa he just met and he didn't get anything out of it and only met him for like a few days, don't watch this if you don't like ret*rded characters.

I really like this novel but, I can't stand the main character unintentionally increasing his harem to a football team and is still going on. I like all the parts of the book but his interaction with all these females is disgusting. How the novel keeps emphasizing the main character's "girlfriends" don't mind is too unrealistic. I thought harem would be a lot but not like this.

Good novel so far. The author puts a lot of emphasis on movies and music. Sports (basketball) and mathematics are also focused on but to a lesser degree. The MC is.. Interesting. He's pretty humble for somebody who gets as much praise as he does. The system gives him a mixture of abilities for personal use (i.e beginner mathematics or beginner basketball) and songs/movies from his previous world that he can put out in the new world. I feel like the story would be better if the characters were college... more>> students instead of high school students but I'm guessing the author made it this way to showcase the academic excellence of the MC. MC is kind. Although his biggest acts of kindness are coerced by the system he does do other acts of kindness of his own accord. He also puts a lot of importance on his adopted family/close family friends and helps them out every chance he gets. MC didn't want to be famous in order to avoid drama but the system basically forced it on him. The plot is mostly about the MC creating his movies/songs and the impact they have along with a focus on how the MC wows everybody with his advanced personal skills. I personally prefer the movie arcs to the music arcs as the music arcs start to drag a bit. The story is paced pretty well. 300 chapters in I think almost a year has passed as the story started when MC was about to start the school year and now it's summer vacation. The story does get boring at times though.

What brought the novel down from a 5 to a 4 for me (other than the occasional boring segment) is the romance. MC pretty much refuses to do anything romance related. I can respect that but when it's painfully obvious he has several girls gunning for him, a few of which he has a close relationship with, ignoring all signals gets old fast. I'm just hoping this doesn't become one of those novels in which the MC just stays away from all romance until the end. There's huge potential for romantic subplots.

All in all I give it a 4/5 with one star being taken away for boring parts and disappointing romance. <<less

The story is about a 26 yr guy becomes a 16 in a parallel type world. It never states how or why and he just jumps in. The new body is a sparkly flower boy of the umph degree but is alittle slow, shy and social awkward with no parents and a adopted grandpa, not sure if related. The new personality is, well pretty normal. He thinks about girls, is happy with his new body and his past life is used as reference for use of cheats. There is no... more>> back story so far for the new guy. He has a system and at chapter 16 im not sure its overall function. The childhood friend and her family add flavor and so far I like them. The translator did good and not major or constant mistakes or alot of notes. So far its a good easy read. <<less

Its pretty good. Not too many cliche. But if you're thinking that this is a novel about him getting famous, don't read it. He is somewhat keeping his identity mysterious.

Good if you want an unknown MC which will orobably remain unknown forever

It's a pretty easy read and although the translation is often quite bad (still readable) it's fast which is important in such a slow novel. There are hints of romance but no actual romance, he gains money but always has to donate it, he gets items from the system but it's probably been over 100 chapters since getting them and they haven't been used.

The only real form of progression in the novel is the amount of people he knows and the skills he gets but none of it feels like... more>> it's truly leading anywhere other than to repeat the same arcs but replacing one skill with another to make sure the novel hits a chapter count in the thousands.

Despite all that I do like some of the characters and it would be nice to see how their relationships progress but that would probably take years so I'm not sure if I'll wait. <<less

Not bad. Some parts enjoyable some parts skippable. System is pretty lacklustre and serves as some sort of comedic relief between the MCs busy life.

The MC becomes some sort of artistic jack of all trades but actually badass. His skillset actually becomes part of the story instead of serving as some sort of foil to plot development.

The harem aspect (which is what I came here for hehehe) is... eh? Well the world has a polygamy setting, which is an obvious set up to the MC having a harem, but in... more>> terms of actual relationships/waifu candidates

Spoiler

he has a childhood friend, a fellow musical colleague (whom I don't recall ever stating she liked him but the story says so), a fellow actress (maybe?), and a couple girls from school. That's about all I can remember

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For character development, the MC has never really gone through anything in the story that'd force him to change. His relationship with other girls steadily improve over time, so I guess there's that.

Otherwise, the novel itself is maybe 3.7-3.9 stars but I'll give it 5 because hey, it's not that bad. <<less

So it’s basically IRAS without the nationalism, there’s less face smacking (it exists but it’s not the MC goal to smack faces), and he has a harem kind of.

... more>>

Spoiler

as of now he hasn’t done anything with any of the girls but there are like 3 that are obviously going to marry when he gets older (he’s only in highschool)

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the system Lets him do pretty much the same as Zhang Ye from IRAS but it’s sentient and trolls the MC giving him missions

Spoiler

every time he makes a large sum of money the system gives him a mission to donate it to “build his character” and because the future superstar shouldn’t be worried about a small amount of money now. He has to donate to get the rewards such as songs and movies or else people will find out he’s a hack if he suddenly stops producing work.

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