This is the best Japanese webnovel I've read in months. The premise is pretty much what the title says - a man is given a mission to "control the population" of humanity on Earth and if he refuses to comply then the "god" handing down the power will just throw random catastrophes at the planet until he gets the numbers he wants.

It's a bit debatable if it's morally superior to directly kill a bunch of people yourself versus not doing anything and letting an even greater number of people die...... more>> but since there would be no story if the MC refused he, of course, agrees to give it a try.

The story that follows is, I think, really good. It's clear that the author (and the translator) did a fair amount of research in an effort to make the world feel more "real" and often references various scientific principles... and goes into more detail than is probably necessary about living conditions in Nigeria. Point is that it reads like something that has been well researched, which is cool. Another cool thing is that the MC is a working adult - so even though he gets imbued with godlike power the story manages to sidestep a lot of the nasty pitfalls common to various isekai stories that stem from the protagonists often being, like, 10 years old lol

It's also clear that the author put a lot of thought into what would happen if a random guy got magical superpowers one day - like what kind of realistic consequences that person would face from society at large if he was ever noticed using his powers. Strangely for a JP webnovel, those consequences don't involve a bunch of random busty girls falling into his lap left, right, and center - which I really appreciate.

All in all, if you aren't immediately turned off by reading the title/synopsis here on NU I would wholeheartedly recommend checking this one out. <<less

Strange and promising

The MC is given the task of killing half of humanity to save the other half, and he is given powers based on altering reality to a very small and specific degree, so far he is doing small experimentation while looking to refine a method to work with

While he has technical knowledge of engineering and computers his social knowledge and cunning are average, this makes him relatable in an unusual angle as he and the readers both wish he had cooler powers but we both know the key... more>> to his mission lies on finding how to make the most out of those powers and he has to make connections with other people if he hopes to make any grand plan

The writing wastes no time and the pacing is good, so far no extra fat while we wait for the story to catch steam but it seems to be full of potential <<less

edit:-till ch18- after all the disappointing chapters the main story is turning into something. But the op side characterizations still exist. MC is still being held down by authors excuses. And the story telling is more turning into a travel log. Even that would have been good if it was truly that. The dialogue are just boring machine talk without emotions and boring comedy effect. To some this maybe a good start and promising point from now. But to me I dont really want to read a novel, where... more>> I have to skip lines after lines of text because they dont hold any value to the story.

till ch14

There's comes novel's like this from time to time, the packaging looks good but when u open it there's nothing but a disappointing mess of a writing.

the author did research on various things to complete the novel. Judging from his intent and the story he tried his best to make this a good story. Unfortunately.

a good premise and a hard working author doesn't present a good novel.

this novel is boring as hell. From the first few chapter and synopsis you would have been excited by its prospects. But a hard working author isn't just good enough when being a good writer.

1- we are not told anything about who the MC is before the story. So we dont know who he is, the main focus was supposed to be his struggle or his willingness to become a being close to god. All he does after gaining it is he becomes a emotionless monk and a puppet for his colleagues to use.

he cant lie. He doesn't even try hard to hide anything. He seems more like a person devoid of human emotion from the get go. There is no meaning to him being a human. There's nothing inside of him.

2. Complete disregard of main story. He was supposed to be killing humans, Not doing office jobs and developing someone else company. The main story of the story becomes pointless since he just let it aside and does pointless filler office work and side caracter op show.

3. MCs complete lack of mental strength when we are told from the beginning that he was mentally strengthen. His every action is careless and full of disregard, no focus on main task or more common sense research. Aside from occasionally complaining to the reader, about him have to kill humans to make us remember what this novel was about. That's all we get about his mentality.

4. Over the top society and side caracter op ness that is totally unnecessary. Rather than making them great or becoming something useful. It just shows the authors immature thinking and lack of experience. The author just makes the MC commit to dumb choices. When we were already told that he is a man working in the society for sometime now to not being that dumb. It's like the MC should be a mid level boss in a game but instead he is a noob because somehow everyone of his colleagues and side characters is top level boss.

5. MC lacks common sense to use his power properly. The authors constantly uses the excuse of not having enough storage in the brain to make him less op and into a idiot. Which becomes useless if you consider who were the people selected before him. Author seems to not know how to develop his story. So he choose to shackle MC using plot hole and over power side characters with no reason and just uses random filler arcs to hide and delay the main story from progress. We are only told about some info here and there in betweenthe fillers about the main task progress.

6. Overuse of op side character. His colleagues were shown using over the top action, and everyone is pretty much using him at this point. Because the author made MC into a idiot and side characters op the story just doesn't fit at this point.

overall a good premise destroys by inexperienced and hard working in the wrong place author. <<less

Not gonna lie, found this one boring.

99% of the story seems to be just the MC talking to his friends/coworkers and nothing of interest seems to be happening.

The premise had me hooked for the first dozen or so chapters but it quickly became obvious that it wasn't going to be explored in any sort of detail and was going to be ignored in favor of slice of life so I dropped it.