"An Wujiu offered him a human name, and gave him a reason to pursue after it.
Whereas Shen Ti not only saved him, but also he himself by returning back into the past."

——— Zhi Chu

*･゜ﾟ･*:｡.:*･･*.*･゜ﾟ･**･゜ﾟ･

Survivorship Bias has been on my tbr list for such a long time, and despite my several attempts to drop the novel mid-way through, I finally binged the it till the end a few days ago after deciding to give it a try last month =3=

This is Zhi Chu's first infinite flow novel so some flaws are expected, but the contents nevertheless vividly reflected her detail-oriented writing style, whether it's rhetorical or logical.
However, one of the minor pet peeves that I had while reading through this novel is you are required to spend an overwhelming/unnecessary amount of brain power to make sense of the plot, and may need to go back to read it twice because some details could be easily missed if you were to skim through the text too quickly... (Or maybe that's just me~)

*･゜ﾟ･*:｡.:*･･*.*･゜ﾟ･**･゜ﾟ･

Now let's talk about the premise of the story——

The moment our MC, An Wujiu wakes up after losing his memory, he finds himself in a dangerous virtual game, the Sacred Altar. In order to return to reality and see his critically ill mother, he has to step into this dangerous world of deceit and deception, break through levels and accumulate points. In the midst of all this, he meets a special yet mysterious individual, Shen Ti, and discovers the meaning of survival together with him.

P.S: Both the shou & gong aren't ordinary individuals~

————

One of the aspects of this novel that left a deep impression on me was that even though all the hidden truths have been foreshadowed earlier on in the text, Zhi Chu's logical thought process nevertheless struck me once I connected them altogether. In addition, all the side characters aren't just tools of the plot and got the screen time they deserved (づ￣ ³￣) づ

Through various death games, the author also proved to us that the bond between both our main leads, An Wujiu and Shen Ti transcends life and death.... Wandering between the dividing line of extreme good and evil, An Wujiu acquired life-long friendships, family connections and met his lover under the premise of no recollections in this death game.
Our MC isn't somebody whose adept at expressing his thoughts, in the case of extreme benevolency, he would have the desire to save everyone, but in the case extreme wickedness, he wouldn't give a damn about anybody's life and death, until the appearance of Shen Ti which became his sole exception. That being said, as the storyline progresses, we get to see that the dividing line ceases to exist and An Wujiu's two sides merge together to become a whole.

Simply put, this is a story about time, where two disjoint timelines merged together because of a coincidence. Moreover, it is also a fantasy world full of shadows of reality, which leaves readers with a deep sense of immersion as well as a lasting aftertaste ଘ (੭*ˊᵕˋ) ੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚

I haven't finished Survivorship Bias yet, but it has my favorite flavor of story :P I really like dark games that require out-of-the-box thinking and Survivorship Bias shows exactly that! I haven't finished reading it (as I'm relying on the translation) but I really like the amount of creativity for each of the scenarios An Wujiu goes through!

Pretty sure this isn't a novel (correct me if I'm wrong), but this reminds me of Kiss the Abyss too haha