Better than most I've read in the same genre. MC is a solid guy who makes you want to root for him. If you're interested in reading it, go ahead and ignore the low reviews. If you actually look at them, they're either people who can only stick to a few chapters or those that couldn't find quality translations. It's actually wild that there are people who complain about "no character development" when they haven't even read 1/5 of the story.

A great novel through and through in terms of plot.

The main plot is nothing new. It is like scone at this point; it is quite common, some like it and some don't, but what stands out is the turn of events that are beautifully planned out by the author, exhibiting the epitome of butterfly effect.

Our main protagonist, Ed, thrown into this world of game for an unknown reason attempts to stick close to the original plot but every single action of his leads to other unexpected outcomes in a believable... more>> manner. The world feels very organic due to those unplanned events that despite going outside of Ed's expectations are very much plausible.

What adds the cream and the beautiful strawberry jam to the scone alongside the well-constructed plot is the comedy. Although our main comic relief is yet to be introduced as of yet (ch40), I certainly believe that the character will quickly make everyone smile immediately after her introduction.

Spoiler

Tanya, the true protagonist of How to Survive at the Academy

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Overall, a well-written novel that focuses heavily on the main character's set of skills and growth.

It was one of the novels I wanted to pick up. :/ I guess that's no longer possible but I wish the translator all the best and thank you for translating such a great story! <<less

The start was promising but for someone who swore not to mess with the storyline, the MC sure keeps messing with the storyline. It would've been fine if he didn't say so, but the fact that he apparently "tries" not to but still does so is really annoying. It feels really hypocritical, the author likes to pretend the MC is smart and knows what he's doing but he doesn't realize just how big of an impact he's having on the storyline. The lack of self awareness coupled with other characters... more>> shocked at how "deep and mysterious" he is makes it really feel pretentious. I like the premise and idea, but the execution is starting to get ugly. These "reincarnated as a side character so I'll try to be low-key" novels just somehow NEVER do it right. <<less

Bottom Line Up Front: This is a really well-written series that reads more like a proper novel. However, it is now licensed by Yonder and the translator was DMCA'd so good luck trying to read this.

Details: First off, this is well-written and uses the medium well like a proper novel. The author helps us get into the heads of the characters and exposition is limited with information being conveyed organically. This is very much the author doing a good job of "showing, not telling."

As for what drives the story and... more>> makes it interesting, it is a mix of plot dynamics and character dynamics. The MC transmigrated into a third-rate extra that should've left the stage in the prologue but doesn't for his own survival. His mere presence causes a butterfly effect that gradually creates more deviations in the plotline, which require his intervention. This creates a looping butterfly effect that over time threatens to cause the plotline to spiral out of control to a potential bad end.

Side characters are relatively fleshed out with their own internal dilemmas. Their interactions and dynamics with the MC are done well and done subtlely. They are also also an important part of the butterfly effect. The MC is likeable and goes from weak to strong as he struggles to survive. The MC is the determined and focused type here.

Overall, it's hard to do justice for the plot dynamics and character dynamics by mere summary. What really makes this series good is the execution and good writing.

Unfortunately, most will probably need to drop this series now as the translator was DMCA'd a few days ago. The series has been licensed by Yonder, which means micro-transaction hell. Supposedly their translations of this are also inferior to the fan translation. <<less

The MC, Ed, is transmigrated in the body of a 3rd rank vilain, bannished from his noble familly. The plot is known by Ed, but opposed to similar novels, there are no divine artifacts to find somewhere for Ed to become OP before someone else finds them.

Thus only by trainning can Ed becomes stronger. For that he decides very early in the novel to not interact with the normal stroryline, and focus on his shcool studies to graduate and leave the academy asap, because he has no money and many... more>> things in his plate to survive. The first chapters are quite good, thanks also to the craft parts, because it follows the logic and goals the MC decided early on.

Yet, at some point Ed still decides to interact with the main characters of the storyline, and then, every important events go sideways...

This is in total contradiction with the main goal of the MC to just grow stronger and just obtain his diploma. Why does the MC care about maintening the storyline if as a reader you've been told he does not care about it early on? It would have been much more interesting for the MC to just be an observer or create chaos on purpose, but by letting him trying to fix the normal main story, it is very frustrating. The MC acts like a mute but a single sentence from him and things go sideways...

Of the other things a bit annoying are :

• • The total lack of world building, there are no mysteries at all,

• • The fact that some boring events are seen sometimes by more than 1 pov and are thus reapeatitive: lots of filling to skip...

• • The lack of common sens of the characters and overall logic: all the events of the story up to the chapter 41, happen in the total absence of proffessors or older sudents and every single first year student is stronger than the second year. There is no deepness in the storyline.

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Story is good, but I can't keep trying to read it. The new translator Yong Library keeps cutting out something like half a chapter or more per chapter. It became very obvious this was happening with the most recent drop of chapters from 20+, the straw that broke the back was the gap between chapter 24 and chapter 25. Half or more is missing.

Ok so it started different, MC gets reincarnated into a game he likes as villain, his arc is over of being beaten up, so he decides to stay out of the story, build a hut in nearby jungle to get the degree and live later on a better life, in every chapter till ch 25 he insists on the point that he will stay out of the story, and does exactly that, which is kinda fun, then thats it, after that it goes back to the typical of not wanting... more>> to intervene, but still intervene with bullsh*t logic, s*upid misunderstandings, and one by one turning the girls of real MC harem into your own harem, while being completely oblivious to it, the female character were intresting at first but as story goes as one dimensional annoying harem members with no personality they become, it seriously is just like any other novel of this kind out there, and feels worse cause the female character are annoying instead <<less

The novel is good, not best but interesting enough to captivate you for a long time, really worth reading. This would have been a 4.5 by me.

But what irritate me the most is the bad translation. Hades House did a really good job but they dropped at chapter 36. Yong Library catch it but the MTL is too bad I cant continue to read it.

They keep messing up with the pronouns (i/he/she) that it hard to know who is talking about who, you can see they use "she/her" in the... more>> first half and address that same character as "he/him" in the later half of a chapter.

They also usually leave out like half a chapter making it even more confusing as you try to catch on what is happening.

Spoiler

In chapter 15, when Ed wakes Lucy up there the part when Lucy asks for jerky and the part where Ed explain how he knows how to take care of here is completely left out, making the relationship build up too fast, destroying the story flow

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And finally the layout is just too bad. I have no idea when it change to another character POV or another scene. Double up with the confusing pronouns and content cut, the reading experience is really not smooth and you have to stop occasionally to figure out what you are reading. If not for reading Hades House's translation beforehand, I cant even read this novel as I do not understand anything.

Wish someone can recommend me somewhere else to read this novel, I really want to read but the MTL is just so bad. <<less

Well if you like demon prince and similar novels then you will like this one. From what little I have read of it I enjoyed it quite a bit.

My only problem now is how impossible it is to find raws for korean novels. I tried everything and still failed. Even tried to look it up on its original site to read what little of the chapters is free and still failed cause aparently my mobile network is suspicious. So if anybody has raws for this one, please send them.

Well my... more>> desperation aside I hoppe you enjoy this one cause its worth the read. <<less

4 stars I'd like to give it 5 but it just doesn't seem to be there.

The MC seems believably real up to a point. At the opening he's reduced to the status of homeless person, after transmigrating into another world. This is something that's hard to muster up the sangfroid and go on unperturbed. But our guy is cool as a cucumber. I have to say I kind of like that, it frames his character as being deeply in control. On the other hand he doesn't even have internal... more>> resentment for the people who put him in a horrible position. It's one thing to be self possessed it's another to be a robot.

The harem characters that have been introduced so far seem really annoying. (Yes if you haven't noticed the women hanging around his house on the cover, it's going to be a harem without doubt.) The princess is arbitrary and self righteous, the mage enjoys screwing with people, and the other mage is nearly catatonic. So far they haven't done much for the story.

The system and survival aspects have been carrying the story so far, but I don't know how far they can go. The story reminds me a little of the manga "Dungeon Reset". You have the looked down upon MC and his production skills advancing to own the place. So far the system is working but it has hints of being very arbitrary. The author hasn't had the MC play with it in depth and just gives as much information as needed for the current feature. We don't get to see him actively min maxing it. If it keeps up this way it will be a case of making it up as they go along, and that's very annoying. The MC also hasn't done much with what he has available to him yet, but we will see.

Bottom Line: What I have read isn't bad but I really can't say about what's coming next and I am cautious. <<less

Not a big fan of harem, but I don't hate it either. I can tolerate it to a certain extent depending on how it's used in the story; however, the harem in this novel is the worst kind imo.

The MC got transported to his favorite game as an extra villain, his main advantage is the knowledge of the events that will happen and he plans on sticking on it while, maybe, assissting the protagonist.

And THAT should have been the story, but here comes the harem messing up everything.

These girls are... more>> also of help to the MC especially in his survival way of life, teaching him magic and are good friends. Nothing wrong there. But when the scenario comes, these girls either mess up the start, make things worse, or just break the scenario because they're OP af.

And somehow someway, or maybe just some plot armor luck, things get resolved and MC still gets unforseen benefits.

Speaking of the MC. He's not bad. He knows his weakness and his strengths, and he works really, really hard to better himself. I'm really rooting for him while reading. He is not really OP, and although he has few fights/battles, I consider them a treat because of how good they are.

As of chapter 112, he's not really interested in romance while being surrounded by this harem that is full on flirting with him. B*tches, leave the guy alone! Instead of the story focusing on the 'story', it spends more time on this girl and that girl, and not on the actual protagonist who became like a forgettable extra.

Less story, more harem. If you're into that kind of novel then you'd really like this. <<less

I dont know why the ratings are so high. The characters are super clichee. They act like japanese Harem members. And the story is nothing special either.

3/5 because its well written, would have given it a 2/5 instead.

Story starts off well. However, I do not recommend reading it. The copyrights for this novel was taken by a Korean company that does webtoons and Manhwas. They will be starting their novel serialization after some time (possibly years). However, I always cease all support of novels that stop independent translators due to copyrights that may or may not be in use after many years (pretty much all Korean copyright companies). I probably would not come back here but the novelupdate page popped up while I was searching for another... more>> novel. For some reason, the rating will not update. However, while the story is about a 4 so far, I give it a 1 due to the author and his copyright comoany’s antics. <<less

MC : I will stay away from the main story and live a loving life with my wife.

10 days later MC : the original who lost the war shouts to MC " HEY KEEP WORKING YOU WILL SUCCESS "

yes, in short, this is the summary of the book. I do not recommend that you read it. In addition, MC can survive in nature with 0 knowledge, on top of that, he is officially building a hotel for himself. He can catch so many fish that he can share it with... more>> someone. Also, he never looks bad, even though he lives in the woods in a school where the nobles go. IF HE LIVES IN THE FOREST. <<less

Kinda hate the wishy washy protag. He makes a good plan to avoid main characters to preserve as much foreknowledge as he can and avoiding trouble but refuses to drive them away when they keep showing up, befriending them and tying himself to caring for them and being dragged into annoying and dangerous situations. Also the plot of the guy being kicked out of the dorms but not the school doesn't make sense.

Teachers would have to know at least some parents would be upset when they learn about a student... more>> being driven to living in the woods- after all if one guy can be kicked out of the dorms and forced to struggle to survive then why not their kids too especially if something happens to them and they lose any protection they had? If there's any logic in that world someone's getting fired once whatever passes for the PTA finds out about it. <<less

It is like TCF but not exactly a copy... A lesser version I'd say.

Ima just say the quality is low compared to TCF... why?? because there is a harem in the first place

The "knowledge is power" here isn't that satisfactory.

... more>> The MC not really thinking about the butterfly effect and also not trying to interfere with the storyline but does anyway is annoying... Cale sama did a better job in this aspect...

The girls are the most annoying thing in this novel... They do be messing things up for the MC lmao...

And dude someone said it focuses more on the harem which is a BIG FCKING NO for me...

Harems make it worse... In these kinds of novels, girls always end up being a burden... Of course, there are exceptions... In my opinion, even if there is a FL, they should not end up ruining the story by being troublesome...

It is not a bad read though.. of course, that is not the case when compared to other novels I've read.

This has a whole load of plot armor which makes it less attractive... As everything is always kinda solved by the plot armor archon (yep I used a genshin reference ehe~)

Still, you can read this for time pass

And I still have hopes that this will get better in the future

And until that future comes I am willing to wait... I just hope there is no sickening drama with the harem...

ok Idk why but it got rated 5 stars... It is actually a 3.5 or 4 star for me <<less

Another good one in the genre of "replacing a petty villain by someone better".

I recommend it.

Pro

• MC is interesting, the way I like, dense in love, but competent, determined, and having a purpose. He's isn't a skirt chaser, a pe*vert, or hot headed.
• The girls are also interesting : at start I thought they would be less developed than that, but they have a hidden depth, each one of them, and thus the harem is the "good kind", not rushed.
• I wonder where the story is going, the MC is seems to really want to be kept outside of the "main story", and the main hero is still around, which is actually surprising.

Con

• Some chapters are confusing with weird non chronological events explained.

First, I have to talk about the HORRENDOUS translation from Yong Library. Even the machine translation from Google translate isn't this bad. The inconsistency with the names is one thing, but they haven't bothered to edit or proofread the older chapters.

If the translator/editor/proofreader themselves have no interest in the novel being translated, then you can imagine the expected results.

As someone who followed the original novel while it was ongoing, using google translate, I was hoping to see some good translation... But Yong's 'premium' translation was just too much.

At least learn... more>> elementary school level English, dear translator, before attempting to create 'official' translations....

As for the novel, the author has some issues... He made the story good, but his humor sense made the original 'protagonist' one dimensional just to get a kick out of it. It became a running gag which was no longer funny after some time.

The story is good, conversations aren't bad, there are important male characters too.

But similar to most stories with aristocracy getting involved, it's hard to empathize with a world where people aren't treated like people just because of the status derived from birth itself.

I still think this is a good novel worth a read.

Read the extra stories as well if you read the main story. They're fun too...

Honestly, this review was written because I just couldn't take Yong's shitty translation. If you can persevere through it, or if you don't mind a machine translation, try and finish this novel. It is good👍 <<less

Pros:

Innteresting characters.

The writing does get better after the early chapters.

... more>> Though it's a "MC doesn't want to interfere with the game's plot" type of plot you see in Self Insert fanfics, the plot deviations here actually are interesting and the butterfly effect portrayed very subtly.

Cons:

There's too much monologuing. Too many words to say the same thing. Every character has a title, like Benevolent Princess Penia, and it kept being repeated so many times that it got annoying.

The cliche of "I don't want to interfere with the plot" even though the plot has already been unwittingly derailed can get annoying.

The MC's bad reputation also looks overblown given that what he did wasn't exactly that horrible. <<less

Would rate it at 4.5/5

Haven’t read the side stories yet but this was certainly a very enjoyable binge. It’s a nice change to have a side-chara MC who *somewhat* faithfully stayed as a “side character” until the end.

Battle scenes and rom-com were highlights of this web novel for me, along with occasional feels chapters.

Given it’s genre, it’s a well executed web novel that deserves to be rated as one of the best in this site, I hope the TL speed could give this series a little boost one day.

Just finished reading the entire novel including the side stories.

To keep it short the novels amazing (don't bother with the Manhwa). One of the best novels I have ever read.

And for people complaining about the translation quality, there's a high quality translation/official translation that's available online as a EPUB/PDF for the entire series.

Its easy to fine, not sure why people are reading the MTL version.