someone puts a hit on MC and other players join his selected instances just to find and kill him, which makes his strategy of pretending to be an npc a smart one

though I like how MC doesn't give him much special treatement and doesn't reveal himself to ML while they are playing their roles but props to them! They are so cute together, none of that yandere crap!!!

Desolate corner had a contact with a higher world system and wanted to employ MC.

MC pretended to be an NPC and succeeded. Rural setting, the grandmother is the ghost and pretended to be the monk.

MC pretends to be a blind NPC. Modern setting, the ghost is the takeout delivery guy.

MC is the top demon (he's a crane demon) who is invited to a big banquet. Ancient fantasy setting, the ghost is the baby in an egg that was born from the MC's blood.

MC is on an island as an NPC with an inconsistent identity. I forgot who the ghost was, but the manor owner is the ship.

MC is the "Scarlet Witch" with healing abilities and urges to feed on blood. Fantasy monster setting, I forgot who the ghost is, but the MC releases this shining gem to give hope to the world or something.

MC is an NPC in a society with a hierarchy similar to ants. Tbh, I kinda skimmed this one, soooo... The ghost was a noble, I think?

made the VR thing and how that works

important roles that were crucial to the plot

To continue reading? Yes but wait for like maybe chapter 200

Even if the MC doesn't try to get the ghost card by solving who the 'mu*derer' is, he always ends up getting it.

Chapter 204

- Ren Yifei is an evil god. Why? Because he originally got s**ked up by "villain system" first, then he devoured that system, and got some "devouring dark and resentment power". 100% OP

- Lin Guanyue (Saman) is an ordinary high tech programmer and bussinesmen, come to this Desolate Corner after doing someting like "survival variety show" in the real world. He killed some bear child that caused many death bc of their "crime play plan".

- Desolate Corner, aka the game consciousness, is equal to Ren Yifei, so you don't have to worry that RY will be killed, or fooled. RY is stronger I think, seeing the game is really impatient to kick him out.

- LIN GUANYUE DIEDD at chapter 259 by the first rank, Qi Ming? Codenamed Chess. He is really died that can't be ressurected as a human being again. His death was so... ordinary that I don't feel sad, just feel like "What is the author doing, so idle?"

- Spoiler lol, he will live again at chap 260 AHAHAHAH as a ghost though, and he signed a servant - master contract with Ren Yifei as a vassal. So, I said, he didn't ressurect as a human being, but as RY vassal, that has an entities. Not human per se I think.

- IDK EVERYTHING IS NOT CONSIDERED TWIST??? It's all predictable lol

MC is an actor that just wants to keep acting. Despite his abilities he tried not to be overly OP, He really did try to limit his other ability and rely only in his acting, observation & logic skills but the game was being very malicious to him from the start, so when the instances get harder he had no choice but to unlock his secret one by one in the moment of danger.

He has a seriously bad childhood, a mix of child ab*se from his mother and the origin of his secret, makes it that he cant express his emotions except when acting (which is ironic cause its also part of the reason, also his special abilities are tied with his emotions). Because of this altho he has a gentle persona outside, in reality he is very indifferent (except for food), low maintenance & likes to be low key.

But despite his apathetic & expresionless face, luckily ML is keen on facial expression changes & always recognize & find him (lol not really but its hilarious when he fails to recognize him in the game instances). ML is quick to notice & gets interested in MC which is showed in the arcs & in MC's challenge.

ML is a wolf in sheeps clothing type of gong but he was very sweet, smart and cheeky which made him a suitable partner for MC. ML did pester MC at the start that looks like a momentary interest/fascination but ML really does see thru MC's expresionless face thru his eyes. He acts clingy/overbearing but he really doesnt push MC about anything (except the first date & first time, MC thought he's in top XD) and accepts him as he is. The story showed very few moments of them together in desolate corner but every one of them is heartwarming specially when they started to sort of live together.

Desolate Corner is an infinite flow system that selects people who have directly or indirectly (intentional or not) cause other people's death & didnt get punishment. There's a lot of gray area in the selection process, so the players are mixed with real people with bad morals & ordinary civilians.

Which is why MC & ML entered here after death. MC's past and reason will be explained thru out after the first few arcs but ML's past and reason is showed on the very last arc: MC's challenge.

The officials of desolate corner saw MC as a threat from the start because of his secret ability but what they didnt know is that if they just left him alone, he wouldnt even think of using it and rebelling but of course as long they dont touch & restrict MC's freedom cause he doent like being controlled.

Also the reason why the officials seem like they dont want more players to survive is because desolate corner has a popolation capacity and they really need to purge players in order to accept and accomodate new comers. On the premise that this people are not sinless they really didnt care who or how many of them are purged. So its kind of a pickle for the old players because not all of them deserve to die and get their existence erased.

So they are the antagonist, and they did show maliciousness to the players but they are just doing their job altho I still dont get whats the purpose of desolate corner, maybe I missed something but I still dont get why they make/send the players to an obssessed ghost's world to collect their card. Survive or die is just the elimination process but that one is a cycle question paradox.

Im guessing since these people have "sinned" they cant be reincarnated and are stuffed here but since there's no recycle, except if you win the top 10 challenge, they have no choice but to be indescriminately purged.

Desolate Corner is just like a new purgatory for specific people that has an unpolished system. It's just unfortunate that there are also people that arent hopeless mixed in. And thats what they showed at the end of the main text, at least theyre willing to fix the system and made lenient changes to the selection process and only choose people who really deserve to be there and gave a way out for old players that still wants to live.

recute him

the story in general is about a man with misterious past who was s**ked into a higher-level universe where he has to do 'quests' in other worlds and solve the mission. What's his strategy to win, you ask? It's to pretend to be an NPC of course! What's interesting is MC gives life into these NPCs so that even his story is much more unique than other players who only focused in looking for clues daily. His acting is so good even other NPCs, main boss/ghosts, the original soul of the characters he possessed, and even ML himself (who as we know is always potrayed as all-knowing in other novels) didn't realise it was him until it's all too late! The arcs are also has a really good and sad storylines, so you won't be bored. So far my favorite arcs are the 2nd (Neighborhood) arc and 3rd (Spring Banquet) one because of the erha vibes I got LOL.

incredibly good characterization. You might think MC is too detached and emotionless at some parts, but he's actually a very anxious person in reality, sadly the more emotional part of him is sealed after he 'ended his contract' with the evil system (as written on the summary above). Worry not! Just like what happened to ML, we'd also look at glimpses of MC's cute side later, hehe :3. About ML, I really like his steady personality which always gets shaken whenever he's dealing with MC. It can be said that he's quick to fall in love with MC (after only being interested in his strategy at first) but it's logical since in this higher universe you can't really know when you'd d!e, so people tend to be more free in showing their intentions. His past is also really sad (it's described in the last game), sadly we didn't get more of it: (

about the side characters, they're all also very well-written, even the supposedly NPCs from the games. The reason why 3rd arc is my favorite is also because of the NPCs, ahh so heartbreaking. NPCs from other games are also lively. And it's refreshing how not everyone sees MC and ML as their enemies. In fact, some of them cooperated with each other while still holding their guard up and only becoming genuine friends near the end of the story (understandable).

are you tired of reading novels where only the ML shows his passionate love for MC? Worry not, the MC in this novel is actually a closeted tsundere-cum-yandere! He kept his guard up around ML even sometime after dating because of his traumatic childhood, but when he finally understands how true ML's affections for him are, he went for the full dive. This is really big spoiler-y, but anyway long story short when they were facing a really big catastrophe and MC was forced to go full beastly mode to make sure of his and ML (poor man was incapacitated) survival, he genuinely thought if ML was spooked of his Lovecraftian (yes, our MC is actually an otherworldy being! Like on the same level of the higher universe's god) figure, he'd make sure to tie ML's soul to his so he could never leave him :3 of course ML didn't show any signs of being afraid at the face of such MC, in fact he straight up hugged his neck, relieved that his lover is fine. AHHHH I LOVE THEM.

the extras are amazing!!! Fun fact they showed how MC still visited the other worlds he had a mission in to visit his friends aka the notable NPCs who interacted or even helped him during the mission. MC foreshadowed this a few times but I never thought he'd really do it (mainly because most authors did this mention-and-forget things too often LOL) so I really appreciate it! Im so glad they managed to live happily and have a journey through the worlds together <3

it takes a little over 200 chapters for them to finally get together because the MC has his lack of emotions to break through, but it was so lackluster. 190ish chapters of MC trying to distance himself from ML, then all of a sudden in chapter like 205 he kisses ML. It was all such a let down. No MC working through his issues, no ML lovingly breaking down the barriers. Just ML being a stalker and MC going okay sure why not and they sleep together.

I really enjoyed the first part, with the first game of what's different, then the shark chessboard was interesting and I loved how he got rid of the illegitimate brother decisively. The makeup game was fun and I loved how they worked together. Then I noticed it started having vague propaganda undertones that made me uncomfortabl. The whole the government is restricting things for everyone's own good and you're bad if you use a VPN just felt ugh. I just ignored that part because I get different cultures but then the end when the absolutely disgusting ghost shouts the down with China pro America line just really felt icky and weirdly placed. Also I assume he completed the ghosts wish? Wasn't directly addressed, but he did bring down the mini games, but no one knows it was him? Think the author forgot

To begin with MC wants to act and immerse himself in the role, but slowly that isn't a focus such as in anthill and mini game.

There is the hub that is shown a lot in the begining, but is mostly just summed up after the first time.

The top 100 start coming after him, but they just stop and are taken care of very anticlimactically.

MLs business/idea seems like some grand scheme, but ends up being meh.

The ghost cards obtain from the instances are hardly ever seen/heard from again.

The MC's past gets sprinkled throughout, but not much about the big bad system, other than it's big.. And bad and well a system. Still not completely understanding the bracelet, is it his imagination or is it the sealed power of the system.

It suddenly went from overthrowing the god and the hierarchy to fighting "angels" or "aliens" that can travel through time and space. The whole plot of the arc was really messy by the second half to the point that it feels like the author was drunk when writing that arc. The author even referenced King Kong which was slightly amusing but not enough to stop me from criticizing the instance. It was also less frightening compared to the other instances since the ghost didn't kill too much people, who was too focused on their anger and revenge on MC's host (current body in the instance).

It's so disappointing, I had to pause reading the novel for several months before continuing it.

Is incredibly smart and more focused on his roles than winning the instance. While he won't mind winning the Ghost Cards, he's more into playing his roles as an actor. It's like an obsession for him that he needs to perfect and finds it annoying but intriguing when the instance puts him in a disadvantaged position. And if you're wondering why he may seem OP, let's just say it was mentioned that he went through some hellish scenarios before the story started. And honestly, with his 50/50 luck, I wouldn't want to be in his position.

Smart (?) but was fooled by the MC's roleplaying/acting several times. It's because he has a personal goal so he's mostly distracted except for that one time he figured out who the MC is and decided to act alongside him. Since he doesn't like to act as an NPC, he usually brute forces his way out of a situation but it works for him. He and the MC are basically opposites on how they survive each instance.

To be completely honest though, I don't feel any chemistry between him and the MC. Maybe because the MC is too OP and less human than the ML? Or maybe because the ML is a bit slow upon noticing that the MC is right next to him in every single instance to the point that it gets repetitive? Or maybe even though it's kind of a slow burn because the MC is too focused on developing his acting that when they finally get together, it feels... rushed? Too sudden?

I don't know. There's just something lacking in their relationship.