Huai Xu regaining the memories of her past life felt like it could've had more influence on how she acts. Of course, the idea is that Song Yingshi and her other newfound friends and teammates changed not only the course of her life but also her social connections and fundamental view of the world. It makes perfect sense that she wouldn't fall into nihilistic pessimism or the like. However, really the only impact we see is in one or two individual scenes tied directly to when she regains the memories. It didn't need to be an arc (after all that'd kind of be a retread of the beginning of the book) but it would've been an enhancement to show just a little bit more of her being pulled out of the darkness of her past life through interactions with her current life's teammates and Song Yingshi.

The male leads were of course pushovers due to the manipulations of the system, which is fine enough since not only is it justified by the plot but also it makes sense thematically that Huai Xu in this life has already 'conquered' the shadows off her past. However it kind of feels like the final confrontation of the system is missing just a little bit extra to fully realize the scene. It's slight/murky enough that I honestly don't really have strong thoughts to express what exactly though.

The climactic arc shows off a lot of strengths of the system plotline but it does also show some weaknesses. Over the course of the novel, it plays around a lot with hidden information from reader. Scenes are fairly commonly out of chronological order or further added onto later. The structure is definitely fun for the celebrity side and leads to some strong reveal moments and foreshadowing/callbacks for the system plotline. However, for the system plotline, it does result in a few threads that it felt like should've been set up earlier and kind of feel mildly abrupt. Compliment sandwich though (actually since I can't think of where else to mention this), the way it shows both perspectives and has Song Yingshi and Huai Xu both gathering information and working towards their happy ending was quite nice.

One more miscellaneous complaint and one more compliment hidden as critique. I do find it disappointing that we never got the promised moment where Song Yingshi and her mom sat down and talked. It would've added a family angle that could've further helped contribute to the novel, and the moment where it was revealed that Song Yingshi's mom knew was great and adding on more certainly wouldn't be unwelcome. Also, it is kind of a lingering plot thread why she wasn't affected. A very mixed emotions praise/whine is that I enjoyed the side cast so much that I kind of wished they got more in the wrap-up arc and extras. It's not like they were done badly in the wrap-up, but I kind of wish during the graduation where all the eliminated trainees came back we got even more callbacks to all the past interactions and such, and during the wrap-up we got more with some of the standout side cast. Again this is kind of just saying "the side cast is really good" though.