The Returner

Description

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This story is centered around the man named Yi Ji-Hyuk, who has spent 1000 years in a Medieval Western fantasy-like world before returning back to the modern-day Earth. When he returns, he finds that his home is facing monster threats, and that humans with superpowers have appeared to protect the innocent people of Earth.

The thing is, Yi Ji-Hyuk himself lived like a true, bona-fide Demon King in that fantasy world, and the only reason(s) why he returned home is to find some peace and easy going life. So, what will a man like that do?

Associated Names
One entry per line
Deo Li Teo Neo
더 리터너
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Seoul Station’s Necromancer (13)
Everyone Else is a Returnee (11)
The Second Coming of Gluttony (9)
The Lazy Swordmaster (3)
Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society (3)
I Came Back but the World is Still a Fantasy!? (2)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Every Novel I've Read
  2. Action Novels
  3. another random list
  4. Apocalyptic Monsters and Hunters
  5. Senna's List (1)

Latest Release

Date Group Release
10/20/19 Creative Novels c300
10/18/19 Creative Novels c299
10/16/19 Creative Novels c298
10/14/19 Creative Novels c297
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90 Reviews sorted by


Alteration
Alteration rated it
March 18, 2019
Status: c42
It seems like this novel generally gets frustrating to read at around chapter 35.

Reading the reviews people try to defend the novel due to the MC living that long or the tags describing the novel. This does not really work, if we equate living a long time and then relate it to EER (as I have seen in reviews) the MC's are VASTLY different EER the protagonist isn't a wastrel.

Then for the tags argument and the long life duration we can look at "The Lazy Swordmaster", again the MC is... more>> lazy but in an interesting way unlike the MC here.

The constant complaints about not having mana yet doing nothing to resolve that situation instead of the protagonist being interesting he just ends up being unlikable. This situation also applies to the family, none of the family are in any way likable and instead just serve to aggravate the reader.

40 chapters in and 0 plot points resolved, not even minor ones.

TLDR: Don't read. Try "Everyone Else is a Returnee", if you do read then decide early if you like the MC's personality (only the personality he shows on earth is relevant). <<less
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landon9560
landon9560 rated it
January 29, 2019
Status: c90
In the beginning you're introduced to a person who has been alive over 1000 years, growing stronger and stronger as he goes, with an undying body. Sadly this man takes after typical Japanese protagonists.

Long story short, the potentially most powerful man on earth (oh, by the way, he went to another world for 1000-ish years, came back to earth where only a couple years had passed) comes back to Korea after being a demon lord of sorts, the most powerful entity in another world, so much so that every race... more>> in existence that was smart enough to sh*t and eat in different places came together to fight him (for some reason that is actually not that well explained), and still lost. After he gets back to Korea, what does he do? Nothing. Now if it was a nothing, slice of life novel of someone ridiculously powerful, I would have given it a higher score, or just not rated it at all. But this is the kind of nothing that is suppose to annoy you.

What does the main character do with his life? Nothing. While this isn't bad by itself, this "nothing" is described as basically sucking at MOBAs, eating lots of potato chips, and being forced into doing things by his mother. He (not so) quickly is forced into a job at Korea's x-men special forces at his mother's will. The story quickly starts revolving around him being lazy, scared into doing something by his mother, going to work and demanding extreme amounts of cash from his agency so the author can show how badass he is, and how edgy little he cares for anyone besides his family.

This story line is kinda annoying, seeing as he was once the lord of pretty much everything in hell (what he didn't command he would kill), and the most powerful existence of an entire world, where although they were afraid of him, the respected him and his power. Now after 1000 years he has gone crazy after having gone through the hell that he had to, to become strong, and all but forgetting what his family looks like, he is treated like a criminal mere minutes after coming back to earth.

The king of evil, lord of demons, immortal dark (?) magician was mere minutes after appearing back on earth apprehended for basically no good reason, and threatened. Multiple times (until he joins them) by the same government agency, and doesn't care?

I think they are giving too much credit on one crazy, old, and immensely powerful man's patience of people, especially seeing how he basically committed genocide on humans in another world for getting in his way. <<less
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AbsoluteNothingness
AbsoluteNothingness rated it
April 12, 2019
Status: c200
The first parts were funny. But then the same joke was used time and time again and obviously became boring AF.

Although other reviews criticise the MCs childish and shi**y personality but I can take it as it was explained ... more>>
Spoiler

he became frozen in body and soul when he transmigrated and his memories of earth would not be forgotten and his mentality would always be kept the same as when he crossed over. This explains his obsession to come back to earth.

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but the problem I had was that, after coming back to earth his family annoys me so much that I would go and strangle them, specifically the mother and sister. Then although he tries to be selfish and unconcerned about the world as all he says is "I want to enjoy my life and die peacefully" his actions are contradictory and a prime example of a hypocrite which annoys me so much. Though being a 1000+ old being he gets pushed around way to much and he accepts being pushed around by others. And the author failed badly in making the female characters of earth as they are also too annoying to handle, the author shouldn't have tried to make this a one-sided harem as he failed hardly making the whole thing excruciating to read through

Plot: 2/5

Characters: 1/5

Translation: 3/5

Total: 4/10

It could have been much better if the author actually planned out the plot and characters and made the characters likeable and consistent. <<less
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Oddwaffle
Oddwaffle rated it
September 18, 2019
Status: c30
This is what you would called a tr*sh comedy. It's a comedy where everyone acts like idiots and making little sense only to give you a laugh because they created a s*upid situation.

The MC lives like a bum, wants to be a bum and everyone else wants him to not be a bum because he might have some abilities. That's pretty much the sitcom but to make that happen, everyone has to act like idiots because it's a very flimsy excuse for a sitcom.

It gets to the point where the... more>> author just ran out of dumb ideas and had to force his characters to be abnormal to creat sitcoms. <<less
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tatsuyax
tatsuyax rated it
May 8, 2019
Status: c180
i really tried to like this series, I mean the story is right up my alley we have a op MC and an interesting premise but the way author tries to make it into a comedy is just painful to read. The author tries to make a conversation funny even at the expense of the character's original personality, and after sometimes you start to find every character irritating and u just can't take any one of them seriously. MC is just plain idiot and s*upid, I mean u would expect... more>> at least a teenager level of intellect from thousands of year old mage. I will be dropping this series at this point as its just repeating itself at this point with same jokes and there is just no point in further reading it. <<less
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xXNeverwinter_SkamosXx
xXNeverwinter_SkamosXx rated it
October 6, 2018
Status: c20
The Returner is one of those novels where the MC returned from a world filled with magic. The foundation of the story is considered to be cliched as the MC returned with an OP power but the MC really disappoints the story so much. I guess the author try to changed the trope by using some kind of slice-of-life style of setting where the MC OP-ness makes him lazy to the point that he doesn't give an F returning to the world where is considered to in a post-apocalyptic in... more>> landscape. The sad thing about this character is that one of his life goal is to return to his homeworld, but that is all. No reason, no ambition, the MC just thinks that going home is just going home. The story also doesn't give a impetus for reader to stay to it because of the repetitive jokes, or somehow bad at it, and the slice of life moment where it consumes almost 5 chapters. To sum it all, even though reading just the 1st 20 chapter, I could say I can predict how the author will lead the story, and with a chapters amounting of 500+, I could say that there will be so many chapters where the MC just laze around, which a waste of time for the readers.

P.S. If the author is trying to create a lazy and yet OP character he should try modelling to the MC of Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica. <<less
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Bakaleaf
Bakaleaf rated it
May 16, 2019
Status: c187
I can understand the people giving 1 star to this novel by it's quite technically good although like must of the readers I also decided to drop this because I can no longer read any further and the unnecessary BS and annoying useless chapter where nothing happen and you are force to read to much BS is really frustrating and annoying.

Let's start with the so called Main Character of this story

... more>>
Spoiler

“Besides the mentioned positives, everything else is a negative about this guy. He doesn’t seem to care about wealth, women, or power. He finds the matters of the world an annoyance. The only interest he has is video games. He has a truly rotten mouth, his personality is the worst, he is way too rude, he does not respect his elders, he doesn’t care about the time nor place, his fashion sense is completely whack, and not to mention, he plays games in such a dirty, lowlife manner... ” (Choi Jung-Hoon) Choi Jung-Hoon evaluation to MC -ch33

As early as possible we are force to accept how Ugly the MC attitude is. I don't know if it's the author thing to be unique but I often read rotten MC but in this story we are FORCE to accept to much I mean to much BS of MC's character. Although if anyone notice it the AUTHOR did try to explain why oh why the MC has a very very very bad and ugly character.

To hell with that f*ck you AUTHOR! that is the current feeling I have right now reading this.. I promise myself to not to drop if but enough is enough. I tried to justify myself that the MC's personality is a must but what made me admit defeat is the nonsense chapter where MC rotten character is shown over and over and over AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN. Can you imagine reading countless chapter of filler where you only read MC cursing this and that MC being insulted or insulting this and that.

So far base on what I read the MC has like live more or less 3000 yrs in the other side and in his late years he was in the same level of gods and alike.

The Frozen Time state is one of the biggest B*llSh*t in this story and has many flows. If his time was frozen would he even level up in that state where he reach the same OPness as Gods? unless I am wrong of my definition of the word FROZEN! The author said that his state of mind was frozen. But it is more like it was reset than frozen. So he is immortal because his body reset from the original state. It is not FROZEN because he can FEEL and EXPERIENCE death. When you say frozen NOTHING is CHANGE! So he should be emotionless from the very start! He became emotionless because of the trauma of always being in the state of dying but can't die and again not because he is in a FROZEN TIME as stated but because his body and mind reset from it's original form. If he was in a frozen state then he would just be a walking ret*rd zombie for the rest of his life.

And no matter how I reread and think about it the author just want a rotten MC with bad character and force the reader to accept it! It's an author thing I tell you!

[collapse]

The story flows like this

Author: Ima gonna start this with how ugly and bad*ss the MC is..

A few chapters later

Author: Ima gonna make MC do good deeds.

A few chapter later

Author: Reader might forget about how ugly and bad*ss the MC is so let's right it again.

A few chapters later (Yup chapters that only exist to show that MC has a bad character)

A few chapter later

Author: Let's update the plot.... (return from the start)

It's a Korean story thing but all of the Korean story I read has pretty much force and very fast progress in plot. It's like one chapter the MC save the day and a few chapter later the end of the world comes. I might be a little bit bias here but that's not really a bad thing with fast progress and everything but imagine a few nonsense chapter are inserted between it. The torture of reading it is so painful.

What I hated the most is where an author make a story where MC is against the world. That regardless what MC did, even if MC is as holy as the pope, people around him still hated him. And Yeah this novel is the very thing I hated. Not only is the author if this novel make the world (and other world) hate the MC even the characters around him are Bias to his behavior as if he is the SH*ttest thing existed in the world regardless of how many times MC save them or how many time MC died for them. The author well never I mean never seriously never stop on reminding the readers that the MC is hated and has a bad character and most I mean most of the chapters are dedicated just to show that MC has a bad character and how bad the people around him threat him. At this point of time I even hope that the author change the filler setting of chapters from that setting. But after reading almost 200 chapters of the B*llSH*tting chapters enough is enough.

Spoiler

Main Characters???

Seo Ah-Young - A fire user with a literally HOT temper easily get anger and explode especially if she is with the MC. (This girl was decent from the start and has the feeling that he is the heroin of the story. To bad I well never understand how the author can right a good character and ruin it at the same time. I mean she is a flame user so her hot temper is justified but if she is with MC, her character change 180 degrees where she is dedicated to tr*sh the MC and insult him like their is no tomorrow. And her character was destroyed just like that.)

Choi Jung-Hoon - (the hottest property within the KSF’s ranks; a man with a promising career, and assuredly the best husband material out there; this man, possessing a handsome looks and talent acknowledged by others, was..... A bit timid.-Ch38) meet the MC early and has more MC feeling than the MC himself. This is the so called normal character but again with the author thing despite how good this character is if his with MC he is like other characters who hate and bad mouth the MC like their is nothing else to do and it was so repetitive that it also destroyed his MC like character!

[collapse]

Notice that MOST or MAJORITY of the character in this story has actually have a good and decent background from minor to supporting character I can say that they are actually well like but again that is only if only they are not with the MC. Any character in the story they always have this dedicated chapters where they hate and insult the MC regardless of reason. It became a norm in the story where all character just hated and insult the MC as long as the MC is in the same chapter with them. Imagine how frustrating and annoying reading that!

The plot of the story is actually rather good and interesting what of this world and that world. Gates and Dimension is actually unique and superb. Overall the story is self is quite good really but the author might just have a screw loss in the head to ruin such good story with it's repetitive chapters dedicated to show MC hate and insult regardless of circumstances,

As an example

Spoiler

MC fought a death match with a Demon King almost died in the process where his hand was cut his body is full of holes and because of plot armor he was save but guess what happen in the next few chapters MC was hated and insulted by his teammate and some random people lol to lazy to count but it's like 2 to 3 chapters is only for you to read of nonsense where the MC argue with other character, Or where this character shows hatred and insult to the MC, or where MC shows his bad characters and so on.

[collapse]

I don't know what the author is trying to prove but I have enough of reading nonsense chapter where you only read MC doing nonsense and other characters showing their hatred or throwing insult to the MC. Enough is enough so just drop this and hopefully I can forget that I once read this.

I seriously love this novel like I said the story itself was interesting and unique so unlike other people I give it 3 star instead of 1. <<less
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Xadro
Xadro rated it
April 16, 2020
Status: c202
Story would have been great if his mother and sister wouldn't exist or had a lobotomy they seriously drag the story down from 4 stars to 1

Don't even mind the attitude of the MC and the others except his family really unbearable.
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Scholar Occult Cauldron
Scholar Occult Cauldron rated it
December 6, 2018
Status: c124
Spoiler

Honestly, I got tired of this novel. The MC is supposedly a being of immense power, destroying worlds, frightening both gods and devils. This story does nothing to show that.

[collapse]

MC comes back from alternate world and immediately becomes tr*sh that bosses people around while acting like sh*t. Only person able to stop him?
Spoiler

His Mom

[collapse]

What's worse is how the author just throws idiotic "beauties"
Spoiler

(if that's what you wanna call a stalker, legal loli that cries too much, and a useless "lizard woman")

[collapse]

This novel has been a disappointment and when I finally thought the MC would take an active role on the changing world around him, he just does a tsundere act with his country, protecting Korea (south, of course) and
Spoiler

watching America and the UK get destroyed since he couldn't care unless he gets benefits worth it

[collapse]

Over 100 chapters and this is the crap we deal with, especially since the MC keeps switching between powerful and weak but does nothing to retain strength. This has been a mess.... ptui.
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Bolsonaro
Bolsonaro rated it
November 27, 2018
Status: c1
Cant stand a pushover MC talking sh*t and being unreasonable all the time. The author try to be funny all the time, but this doesn't work for me. This is a Lazy MC, parody, "comedy" novel, but the author fail even in this, because he want to build complexity and a background, what break the "all comedy point", but when he add comedy even with this 'dark background', the novel start to look really annoying, because you dont know how to see the novel. So:

-If you are the type of... more>> person who cant stand someone forcing comedy in a unreasonable ways, RUN, DONT READ THIS NOVEL!
-If you are the type of person who cant stand someone forcing dark background trying to add complexity to a novel that not works good with it, SO RUN TOO!

TL;DR

annoying MC, unreasonable MC, missplaced comedy. <<less
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Centrophy
Centrophy rated it
February 14, 2019
Status: c51
Funny at first but it's the same joke over and over again. I don't care who you are or what joke it is you'll eventually get tired of reading the same tired payoff to the joke.
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Streuya
Streuya rated it
November 21, 2018
Status: c122
From a psychological perspective this novel is outstanding. Several gags do wear thin and there's a slow start, but the character development of not just the MC, but also the side characters is well done.

I'm tired of seeing people rating this one star because the author spends time building up the back story and plot. The way the MC deals with his past traumas is realistic (in my opinion as an infantry combat veteran) and watching him grow through chapter 70 has made this one of my favorite novels.

The Returner... more>> should be rated as highly as The Novel's Extra and tr*sh of the Count's Family. I wish I had started reading it sooner instead of being swayed by inaccurate reviews written by impatient readers. <<less
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Lazybuns
Lazybuns rated it
July 21, 2018
Status: c46
I've been seeing a lot of bad reviews, so I decided to just put my two cents in:

1) If you're a reader who NEEDS the personality of the MC to have some shred of moral integrity or maturity, just. Stop. Right there. This is this not the novel for you. If you were expecting the MC to have a turn around, squeezing out some effort for a brighter future or take some responsibility, I'm gonna tell you now he's not. He's really a genuine lazy scum and a self-centered brat... more>> and he himself is aware of it. But he doesn't give a darn about it and will always do what he wants. He might do something responsible from time to time, but those are out of personal motives. Those are mainly for his family and peaceful life. He's like the annoying type of person who leeches off of group projects in real life. Not far from how a normal lazy person would act, except he has an OP demon king level of strength. If you want a more proactive MC, better skip this one.

2) So far (c46), this story is turning out to be more of a comedy kind-of-idle life in a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting, with more conversational banters between the characters. There's hardly any action, but this bit of engaging premise makes the story interesting. Basically just think of it as a comedy slice-of-life in a fantasy setting (as of c46). Plot progression is SLOW. So far though, there's already a few signs of the story shifting to more action.

3) The summary is all you need to describe whats happening in the story. MC who's tired of it all comes home to a changed society with monsters in it. He sets a goal of helping his family, but seeing that theyre living off quite well, decides to 'take a break' by living as a normal bum and idling away. The government and monsters invading earth keeps him from having a normal life however.

If this kind of story is your cup of tea, honestly this a great novel. Story flow, translation, and plot elements are really nice. It's well-paced (albeit slow), and the action and fantasy elements are great enough to keep it interesting. So far, no glaring plot holes yet. For now, that 46 chapters is worth the read. <<less
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drollawake
drollawake rated it
June 18, 2018
Status: c29
You know the friend that everyone avoids because he keeps on complaining about the same thing in a hundred different ways? That's this novel.

The main character is a brat and he knows it. He's determined to live as a shut-in gamer and not get roped in to defend Earth from otherworldly threats. His reluctance to use his powers may frustrate some readers but I find his shamelessness refreshing. In contrast, the stereotypical beta Japanese MC would easily cave in to others' demands.

Though the characters' thoughts and interactions do a good... more>> job of giving the comedy and showing their colourful personalities, these parts are often dragged out too long. Not only do they get old, stuff like his repeated successes in dodging responsibility also start becoming less believable. The pacing suffers too from things dragging out. Plot-wise, the immediate thing that draws readers in now is anticipating how he's gonna get forced into helping out. In the longer run, there's a bigger mystery of how Earth and the other world are linked, and implicitly, what that might mean for Earth and our MC. <<less
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Zerald
Zerald rated it
July 30, 2020
Status: c27
tr*sh protagonist with a tr*shy attitude being written as if it's supposed to be comedy.

The prologue chapters was pretty good, I gotta admit. It all goes downhill from chapter 1 onwards though.

Some people claim it gets better a few hundred chapters in, but it's really not worth reading through all that unless you're absolutely bored. Don't waste your time.
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Darkzeta
Darkzeta rated it
September 10, 2019
Status: c154
I'm with Pedobear. Who pointed out that our MC suffered alot while in that other world. Unbearably suffered. And kind of is a broken person when he comes back.

Yet wants to just be as human as he could before he gets dragged back into the thick of things again.

and UNLIKE Everyone is a Returnee.... our MC died, suffered, died, suffered, rinse repeat for a thousand years till he wised up and got to learn a magic that let him abuse his 'deaths'. Why NOT use an OP magic that kills... more>> you while granting you SUPER OP magic? Cuz... well death failz hard if you don't die.

While the MC of Everyone is a Returnee didn't die, didn't get beaten to death, didn't get tortured to death, didn't get anything related to 'death' during his thousand year exile, all he suffered was loneliness. So yeah, that MC came out ahead. WAY ahead.

And sure the humor is there. Because... if not, our MC would have been even more of a depressing character when you realize how much emotional baggage he carried back.

read this if you want more humor action and less tragedy action. <<less
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skylars
skylars
June 9, 2019
Status: c225
You can't give it keep giving 1 star when you don't like something and 5 when you do.

Some jokes are repetitive and most of the characters aren't in their right mind.

But if I had to pick one thing that is a success in this novel, that would be Mc's past life in the other world His bitterness almost palpable. His pelicular experience. Not smart not knowing à lot. But imagine being street fighter Ryu in the actual game. Every time you use hadoken it become bigger and stronger. Because of... more>> this MC didn't experienced many thing anyone else would have.

For the better or worse I'm used to the characters nonsense. There is only one normal character and he doesn't make sense himself. Way too perfect able to adapt to anything, handsome. All of them are mad, so I don't expect them to deal with things normally. In fact doing things normally would seems weird.

Diving into their crazyness isn't so easy. But don't call it bad just cause you can't enter it. May feel like an excuse for a guilty pleasure but it's not. Make some effort to adapt your state of mind to their.

I like it but I'm not giving a rating cause if you made that much effort to like the novel, is it really good? I'm not going to be childish and give 5 star just to raise its overall. And I dont think it's bad so it would also be s*upid to give a low rating. <<less
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GoodLoser
GoodLoser rated it
February 10, 2019
Status: c166
It's alright as a novel to kill time with. Doesn't compare to EER at all nor any others I've read till now.

The MC's personality is sh*t and I do agree with other reviews that his family is also crap. But I have to admit that were it not for his family's shitty personality and the weird females he has around him I'd have gotten tired of his personality and dropped this already.

I also can't understand if he does or does not have mental damage from the previous world.
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marids
marids rated it
December 10, 2018
Status: c131
I liked this novel in the start due to the sheer shock factor of how the MC is like, and really wanted to get to know his history by reading more chapters. Then it got fun due to the reactions from when he actually did things with other people. But throughout the entire thing the amount of family drama crap just kept egging on and on, and it's not really telling anything solid on his past at all even at this point. Thus, I currently find the novel too boring... more>> to keep reading if it's going to waste words on the same crap over and over again with no real significant plot advancement, if there even is one at this point other than; monsters come, they're too strong, then they get killed by the MC who is stronger than everyone else.

Honestly though, I'm just disappointed the author has nothing solid to use for the story other than demonstrating how strong the MC is and how women keeps getting jealous over him in the most annoying ways that I didn't know existed. <<less
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hasula
hasula rated it
October 6, 2018
Status: c40
I tried but it isnt worth reading at all and I have extremely low standarfs that I even let the logical problems of the first few chapters (immortal time) pass but it its not bearable at all. Its trying to be funny by placing alot of jokes filling most of the chapters of it but its not even close to being funny and with that said it means most od the chapters are kust fillers compsed of unfunny jokes making reading painful. So no choice but to drop it.
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