The Villain Wants to Live

Description

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The mid-level boss of my company’s AAA-game.

Deculein, a villain who dies in 999 out of the 1000 playthroughs.

Now I have transmigrated in his body.

Associated Names
One entry per line
TVWtL
VWL
악당은 살고 싶다
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
The Main Heroines are Trying to Kill Me (15)
Academy’s Undercover Professor (13)
The Novel’s Extra (12)
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending (10)
Trash of the Count’s Family (9)
The Villain Who Robbed the Heroines (7)
Recommendation Lists
  1. KR Novels Recommended by a Picky Reader
  2. The most interesting Light Novels
  3. self sacrifice mc's [Non BL & BL]
  4. Just read this, you'll enjoy it
  5. An actual attempt at ranking

Latest Release

Date Group Release
07/20/21 Selfish Translations c13
07/20/21 Selfish Translations c12
07/13/21 Selfish Translations c11
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c10
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c9
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c8
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c7
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c6
07/12/21 Selfish Translations c5
07/06/21 Selfish Translations c4
07/05/21 Selfish Translations c3
06/29/21 Selfish Translations c2
06/28/21 Selfish Translations c1
06/28/21 Selfish Translations prologue
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185 Reviews sorted by


Blue Mint
Blue Mint rated it
August 20, 2021
Status: --
Not gonna lie, I was attracted to read it because of this huge DILF energy the cover was emitting lmao. But overall it's a pretty good read. I'm not a professional critique so I can't just throw in some fancy words and pretend I know what I'm talking about. But seeing it in a bookworm's point of view, it got me hooked. There's something about this book that makes me want to continue reading. When I'm reading bad books, I feel this sense of detachment towards it. Not even the... more>> feeling of boring, just straight up nothingness. But when I read a good one, I'd subconsciously continue reading until I lose track of time. I even missed two or three classes because I was so emersed with the story. The harem thingy isn't really my style. At least please decide only on one love interest. And even if only one love interest is ended up chosen at the end, I'm still unable to digest the thought of other women liking the same man. It happens in real life but since it's fiction I was hoping we could avoid it. But all in all it was an interesting read. <<less
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Brasdf
Brasdf rated it
February 3, 2023
Status: Completed
TL;DR, starts well, then meanders, loses its way and ends with two pretty bad arcs and no emotional closure. I was enjoying it quite a lot for the first third or so though. What do I mean by meandering ? For example, ironically considering the title, by roughly chapter 100 or so, 200 for sure, the villain is no longer trying to survive. More like trying to die dramatically. I don't know why, there is no good reason. I guess it is sexy or something ?

In short, the story... more>> really overdoes it on the tragic attractive self sacrificing type. This trope is applied like at least five times to the MC with at least five different women, and most aren't at all convincing.

The translation is okay. Not great, not horrible. I think this story is more complex and layered than is common in the web novel genre, so even an okay translation is actually lacking.

More details:

The first third is like a Korean isekai Harry Potter in college only the MC is Snape, but Harry/Effrine and her friends are still characters with their own point of view. This is a great idea. It was fun. Then the plot goes somewhere completely different, and much worse.

After the first third, most story arcs involve time travel/time loops/so on in the story, and I guess it is done alright, but time travel always makes it hard take anything seriously in a story. Oh, X died a thousand times... right... whatever. Oh, he did it again... right... sure hope he doesn't die again I guess, 2001st time is the charm as they say...

Very spoilery complains from here on, I'm just going to ramble now so these thoughts don't make it hard for me to fall sleep, I can't imagine anyone would actually want to read this XD. Only if the story really annoyed you as well :

Spoiler

Character wise, his relationship with Yoo Ara is just weird. Why did they separate even though they were so madly in love ? It is never actually explained. Also their story ends nowhere. The whole point of Deculien is he would do anything to be with the one he loves as long as she is willing, only having two souls it became two people (though Yoo Ara is Yuli so arguably Deculien himself already loved two women including her). So when she confessed to him she was Yoo Ara in the lighthouse, he should have been willing to sacrifice all his other plans simply to make her happy by being with her, instead of hiding it from her. Even if the super genius somehow didn't get she actually loves him yet, when she directly confessed in the hut on his deathbed (death-chair?), considering they returned him to life, his new life should have been dedicated to returning to her. System or not system. This is a more reasonable conclusion to the story.

Also, him allowing diary generated Julie to die doesn't make sense. Following his character he should have been willing to sacrifice everyone else just to make her a new doll, which really shouldn't be that hard considering he is such a genius.

The fact he didn't fall in love with his students sort of makes sense actually. This is on them really. Stop whining, find another man, even if he is not quite as good looking.

Sophien is just a mess and a horrible horrible person, yet I'm not sure why he didn't end up with her simply out of a sense of duty considering his character, he actively gave up on his real love interests and all other duties anyway. It seemed like the author was going for Sophien being made into a human for a bit, but that was a complete and total failure since she lost interest in the world once Deculien disappeared. I don't understand how Kerion didn't become the replacement love interest in that relationship and was instead killed off randomly in the most torturous and pointless way. Why ? Just bizarre. Who is he protecting the perfectly frozen area from ? Anything that approached would also freeze... even time was frozen. Then they resurrected him and Sophien to get ready to play Go semi-forever... O_o

In fact, Kerion should have been the love interest from the start. A story where Deculien makes Sophien realize she loves Kerion would have been much better and more satisfying then the weird Go based relationship she has with Deculien.

Now switching to the story, which is worse. I get the story isn't the focus in the genre, but come on. First of all, there is the Sophien is insane arc or Sophien starts the Demon Blood massacre arc, where she mu*ders presumably hundreds of thousands of Demon Bloods for no good reason, even though she is perfectly aware there is no good reason for this. This obviously makes her a hi*ler like figure and a self aware one. The fact Deculien's concentration camp never became a death camp doesn't change the fact there were several other active death camps. I don't understand how I'm supposed to ignore that later on. Why would I ? How am I supposed to sympathize ? Fine, she went insane because she regressed many times. That still doesn't excuse mu*dering hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocents.

The fact Deculien helps in this makes him just as bad. Yes, he prevents the count from going even higher, but he also facilitates the whole process. It still makes him a mass mu*der of an incomprehensible degree. I'm not saying it is unreasonable for the character. The original Deculien, who considers all commoners tr*sh and only the Emperor as a superior being, would have sacrificed millions for the sake of the Emperor. The question is, as a reader how am I supposed to feel anything but disdain for these characters ? I now hope they do die a horrible death. No redemption is possible from killing so many people for no reason. None. The fact no one in story cares about this, including the Demon Bloods is insane to me and makes it impossible to take the story seriously. It isn't even like Deculien didn't plan to enter into conflict with Sophien later, so why not start earlier ? Also, it doesn't seem like Sophien was strictly necessary in the game to win it. So Deculien made that choice, he picked the insane mu*der over her millions of victims. I even remember Quay saying that killing Sophien would be enough to defeat him, but then I guess the author backtracked on that with the whole comet/doll thingy.

Second dumb arc, the last arc where Deculien decides to become a villain to unite the world. This is just clearly s*upid. First of all, the actual villain, Quay already exists and is known to all. So what is the point of having another sub-villain just under him ? You already have someone who actually wants to mu*der all of humanity, so why is there a need for someone to pretend ?

Also, obviously it doesn't unite everyone because a significant portion followed the Altar of their own free will so even after Quay/Deculien are defeated you still have two conflicting parties, hence not everyone is united. It is even alluded to in the story with some Altar people surviving and continuing the fight.

I don't get why Declien had to sacrifice himself for his magic to work. Why couldn't he just gather all his insanely powerful allies and have them supply the power for his magic ? Maybe he had to, but this wasn't explained in any way and so feels like a pointless sacrifice and a cheap way to fake drama.

It bugs me Quay was basically a minor character defeated in like two paragraphs overshadowed by chapters on chapters of Deculien's unexplained sacrifice, making the sacrifice even less clear. The fact we were suddenly told the comet would have destroyed everything anyway makes Quay even more pointless. So he actually just acted to hasten the apocalypse ? Wouldn't this mean he actually wasn't trying to destroy the world, but save it a little differently since the deaths were inevitable anyway ? How would have Deculien/Epherine's plan worked if not for Julie randomly resurrecting from her diary memories and becoming extremely powerful? It couldn't have and no one planned for it to happen... Like was the original plan for Sylvia to keep everyone alive for 11, 000 years by herself ? O_O That sounds like a very bad plan. Basically Quay was trying to save humanity, but Deculien and friends lucked out and fell on a better plan. A better plan Quay apparently didn't even try to stop once he saw it was likely to work...

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alominus
alominus rated it
September 28, 2021
Status: c96
After reading this, I'm 100% convinced that Korean authors create the most "perfect" character they can think of and write while fiercely masturbating to that character's perfectness. Are humans in general so insecure nowadays that characters with flaws don't interest them anymore?

Bravo, Korea, who needs character development anyways when you can just make your MCs perfect. I'll just be sitting here scratching my head at how completely awful novice writers claim the top novel spots on this website. I don't even want to look at mid-ranking stuff if garbage like... more>> this is apparently the best of all of them. Maybe I need to be able to read Korean to appreciate this, but I doubt it. <<less
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Yjchong
Yjchong rated it
December 20, 2022
Status: c175
Overall good, but sh*t translation + forced drama + forced self sacrificing bullsh*t + 0 character development + plotholes made me drop it
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OnePunchMan12
OnePunchMan12 rated it
March 20, 2023
Status: c150
I went into this without reading any reviews, just saw that it was fairly positive and jumped in. I really enjoyed the first 80-100 chapters but then it starts going down hill fast and a lot of the issues I kinda ignored overall just kept repeating themselves and getting worse and worse. At that point I looked at reviews and realized this was written by the author of 'the novels extra'.

That's when I went "damn... I really wish I read the reviews before, then I would have known this would... more>> turn terrible after a promising start".

You probably picked up but I'm not a fan of this person's work, there's two things he loves to do in his writing that make it completely unenjoyable for me.

1. He switches POVs and plotlines like it's a game of hot potato. It is actually enjoyable in the beginning since there's few characters and plots going on. This allows us to see a lot of the world and it's cast in small story beats that are spread out. Unfortunately past chapter 50 you just go 'why is this happening?'. It's one things to switch POVs but we're constantly switching plotlines while there's way too much going on. MC goes to one place to supervise a test plotline but in between has time to go to a different plotline in a completely different area of the world for a demon subjection??

The more it goes on the more it doesn't make any sense how or even why he's doing all these things at once. It's just completely messy storytelling that confuses the reader in order to distract you from the characters behavior becoming nonsensical.

Which leads me to point 2

2. The Author LOVES an MC with a martyr complex. Once again this is something that works in the beginning since MC posses the villain and in order to survive needs to repent to an extent. However after the first few real death flags are solved MC then proceeds to go out of his way to create new ones from previously solved characters. Which makes you go "Were back to this again????".

Ofc he does this by using the old tried and true 'Im not gonna say anything when asked key information and completely go out of my way to be misunderstood'. Which is just great for a completely infuriating storytelling device.

Spoiler

For example his fiance has an injury, how does MC decide to cure her?

Well if he breaks her heart she'll grow stronger then any other character like in the original game and she will eventually heal herself (I wish I was kidding).

(keep in mind this injury isn't killing her, it's only preventing her from being the strongest).

For context this is a character he already got to forgive him, that loves him and the only woman he loves in this world.

So instead of like a rational person going "well I'll just get strong enough to protect her or you know keep trying to figure this out with medicine..." Let's torture her and then reveal it was me to really drive the nail home and create a death flag with one of the strongest characters in the world! (wasn't he trying to stay alive?).

Like I said martyr MC, author BIG FAN.

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The entire cast of heroines outside of the one I mentioned in the spoilers have even worse plotlines. Not just because of MCs behavior but also of their own. MC goes out of his way to be misunderstood but they also go out of their way to misunderstand and never appreciate the amount of times he saves them. They are equally as horrible people if not worse then him most of the time yet continuously blame him for everything through convenient plot threads. All of this is done to rehash plots and for the 5th time pit them against MC. It makes you hate both them and MC since he refuses to solve the problems he can easily solve and they repeatedly try to create new ones.

Honestly the fiance is the only likable one among them.

So overall yeah all this ties up together into an experience that makes you go "who's this for?" This is just unenjoyable to read and makes you hate the characters the more it goes on. <<less
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Grandork
Grandork rated it
March 5, 2022
Status: c237
Honestly, this novel was a 10/10 for about 120 chapters and then it just slowly went down hill from there.

The name of the Novel is "The Villain Wants to Live" and yet:

... more>>
Spoiler

He already got himself killed, twice. He was saved by time traveling bullsh*t (that soured the novel heavily).

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He seems to keep throwing himself at sh*t that will likely kill him every single time. He's doing literally 0 to avoid death flags. As a matter of fact, he is encouraging them, like:

Spoiler

Forcing Characters to hate him and want to kill him.

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Not only that, this novel went full blown power fantasy. The MC was meant to bullsh*t his way out of stuff, but now he's basically an invincible God who's good at everything. On one chapter, he notices a woman painting and the author thought it would be a great idea to make him go down and take over the painting, painting the landscape himself, causing everyone around to c*m at the prowess of his painting skills. Teaching skills? God of Teaching. Painting skills? God of Painting. Game skills? God of Games.

As such, I give it a 5/5 up to chapter 120, 2/5 at chapter 237 and it most likely is going down to a 1/5, but I give up on this novel. <<less
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Thecomicgeek
Thecomicgeek rated it
August 20, 2021
Status: c43
ITS A GEM!

5 stars for the story and MC, its like My Death flags Show No Sign of Ending and Harry Potters' Professor Snape somehow had a baby. The translation quality is very good, not perfect. But more importantly the story is very entertaining.
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Tenku_kun
Tenku_kun rated it
July 30, 2022
Status: c298
I feel its a real shame to say this but this novel is like Jee Gab Song's previous novels,

With a superb (and even better than the previous books) first half and a second half that loses steam with a crappy ending.

If anyone wants to still give it a try, I recommend reading this until he gets the power of mirrors as it only goes downhill from there imo.

... more>> The next part is heavy spoilers.

For a novel called "The Villain wants to Live" Deculein really doesn't act like that. It's great in the beginning where he actually tried to avoid all the "death variables" but then just forgets everything about it and starts provoking his disciples into killing him, it would make sense if he actually has thought things out and has plans for it but none of that is ever revealed by neither the author nor the main character.

There is also the fact that even after finding out that he is going to die, non of the side characters do anything or even think anything they can do to prevent such a fate. All they do is repeat the line "He doesn't have much to live" and this plot device is only used to make the female leads forgive him or make them feel guilty/emotional. Normally speaking I would have just thought that that's all it would be, a plot device used for his convenience without him actually "dying", but our author has a history with "bad endings" and that's basically what happens again. The ending always boils down to the main character losing all the strength they struggle to build up through the entirety of the story.

The professor also never really changes, he's always the same even though he's very different and I think that's a very big detrement to the story as that simply means there is no relationship progression in the story (unless it's degradation of course).

The whole attribute catalogue or shop is also just a plot device the author uses once a while for their convenience and forgets about it, there's never any explanation about its existence, no elaboration between choice and we aren't even shown the different things available. There are no solid goals like "I need to gain xxx store points to buy xxxx upgrade" there's only "I have enough points to get xxxx upgrade now" and that too is completely random, forgotten about after its utilised.

This is definitely an improvement over their previous work but at the same time, it just feels like they didn't learn from their previous mistakes at the same time.

Regardless of my complaints, I still think this is a solid read as long as it's not read to completion. Hence the 4/5. I hope their next book does not end up being like this or any of the previous ones. <<less
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Gerd_Eisenheim
Gerd_Eisenheim rated it
February 4, 2022
Status: c100
Great opening, but becomes progressively worse that I decided to drop the story.

The last chapters I have read have been horrible.

  1. The story line is all over the place. It feels like a bad slice of life. Overall the story lacks substance.
  2. Every single concept in the story is also shallow. World building, magic, enemies, romance... everything is only hinted at. It is that bad, that I can barely recall what the MC can even do and what his strength actually is. But instead we get 30 chapters where a side character stuffs herself with food.
  3. The fighting is horrible. Even though it is not the focus of the story, the author still describes characters as powerful and power plays an important role. But is it conceived in a reasonable matter, as every fight is described in 1 liner.
  4. Shallow characters that do not bring anything to the plot take the majority of a chapter. These characters are at the same only female with the sole purpose to be love interests for the main character.
Verdict: A huge disappointment
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Forgetful123
Forgetful123 rated it
November 24, 2022
Status: Completed
The beginning was moderately interesting. We have a protagonist who can be literally described as 'cool'. Cool-headed, a cool guy who oozes coolness, very cool actions. Transmigration protagonists are usually cliche, but this particular one easily makes it extra snubby to bullshit.

That MC carried the story for a good half of the story, then it absolutely fell apart so badly, I wondered if the author somehow changed to another person, or just couldn't come up with a better plot. The entire second half was like watching a train running at... more>> full speed with brakes cut off with vehicles on the track, so everything gets rammed sky-high and the onlooking viewers going, 'wtf... just happened?'.

The analogy of the vehicles refers to the number of plots set down by the author. Plotlines ABC were ongoing simultaneously, and the pacing became shot to bits. Comedic moments are interrupted by bizarre time-skips, plot reveals are written in a weak fashion, and action scenes simply didn't thrill me. Quite frankly, the MTL is just awful as heck too.

Don't waste your time with this. Even the non MTL was a bore to read. I highly doubt a webtoon version is worth looking at as well. Two stars. <<less
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katiethairu33
katiethairu33 rated it
November 20, 2021
Status: c141
Uh, my two cents from a harem hater.

Yes, the female leads all falling for the same guy sucks. But MC never had any misleading actions with them though? He just did his job. He is 20 years older than them. He sees them as kids. Students to protect and cherish. MC is 33 and they are what? 17? It's the women who can't get over how damn complicated he is. Honestly, I see people like him in real life too. So that's why I put up with it. So far,... more>> even these women know that nothing will come of their feelings for him. Also, these are not some brainless women falling in love because of a face or some convoluted plot like having an aphrodisiac, etc.

Spoiler

Sylvia likes him because she relates to him over the grief of her mother's death. She started liking him when he cried over his fiance's grave for God's sake. Epherene because he constantly supports her in a society where literally everyone was against her. Louina doesn't even have romantic feelings. Yiriel sees him as a brother. Sophien is the damn queen so she's being narcissistic about herself overthinking the purpose of the MC, her vassal's support. The only woman MC liked can't live if she doesn't hate him because of some s*upid curse we have no info over. Who else is there? Oh, Maho sort of likes him like people like idols lol. And that too because he saw through her act after saving her life. Allen because he was warm under his shell and saved her clan. But she's a spy and tries not to get the feelings. Ganesha just likes his face. Nothing more.

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So yes, although there's a lot of drama, it's not too contrived. There's basis for their feelings. However, the MC never led anyone on. He wasn't even interested in feelings in the first place when he is just getting over a 7 year breakup and has to deal with unwanted love shoved on him by the previous owner of the body. If any of these women were actually forthright and come to terms with their feelings and confess, he will probably be the first one to be surprised and laugh contemptuously at them. Like, why? He looks good so if he does his damn job, it is somehow leading people on? It's really not. However, the author did go overboard on these complicated intertwined relationships. It is sad enough that MC had to take over the bad debt with Julie but come on, Epherene and Sylvia are also so sad. These two women are not empty. There are people who are saying they are empty shells without Deculien. Haha. It's actually very surprising. Because the whole reason they are sad is because they can't come to terms with liking someone who has a blood debt with their family. So how are they empty when their effort, their magic, their resilience and everything they strive for decidedly marks them as separate individuals? Yes, MC is important. He plays a pivotal role in their youth. However, which person on Earth hasn't had a complicated crush at least once in their life? They are just teenagers who are burdened with too many worries and came across a very reliable man with a gorgeous face. How many women would be able to resist that when they are not even clear about their own preferences yet? When they grow up, they will resolve their feelings. It's just too normal. So I didn't think it was harem per se. Especially when other harem novels have such nonsensical reasons for the women to fall in love with MCs.

However, it gets annoying when there are too many women crushing on him. But I see that as a problem not just because it is annoying. You see, these women are contributing to directing the hate of the world to MC. Which one of them is not powerful or belonging to an influential family? You think their family is ok with it? So many people would kill him because of this. Look, he is attracting all those people without even being aware of it. How hateful is that? If I were a guy, wouldn't he literally be the number 1 on my list to kill? It's not enough that he has a face and family background. Now even his genius is turning out to be not fake. How does one not tickle with hatred when they see him? You see, the author is weaving a web of political situations. However, using women to do that once or twice is fine, but they over did it. It doesn't come off as subtle anymore. More like a means to an end. I am glad there is at least one male character who is turning out to be a friend of sorts (Ilhelm). I would have appreciated if there were more people like that but that would be asking too much for a hated villain with a face of Adonis. Men simply can't be in the same space as him without being perceived as a lesser. How can you not hate that? How is he supposed to have male friends or connections with character traits like that? It only works if those male characters are charismatic enough. But if he had those kinds of charismatic friends, MC wouldn't be a character so easily killed. So the author put himself in a bind and could only maneuver through the cheap tactic of using the feelings of influential women just one too many times to set up the story. Maybe if they were a better writer, they could've found a work around. But as far as this book is concerned, they weren't mature enough in writing to do it. Hence, please don't dismiss this book just because of the crushes and misunderstandings. It's really because the author is helpless. The world was rich enough. The plot was complicated enough. I cried enough because of the raw feelings they depicted. They are not empty characters at this point when their anguish just seeps into you as you read it. So it's good enough to read it compared to other tr*sh with more stars in my view. Especially since MC would be the first one to get a headache if he finds out that the two students who he has compassion for are actually in love with him. He didn't ask for this sh*t drama.

Also, regarding the levels, I'm actually happy they didn't go into details with levels. It's very annoying for me to read about levels in these novels because a lot of authors just do cross-level fighting when it's so absurd. So I'm happy that this novel just went with a system where we know he is somewhat mid ranked in mages. There's Debutante, Solda, Kendall, Regell, Monarch (MC level).. Etheric.. ArchMage. We know these so far. There may be one or two I missed after Monarch. Mostly, we know our MC is a mid-rank boss. Also, he has a body with Iron Man characteristic that doesn't even let him sleep for more than 2 hours and we know that he has understanding characteristic that helps him understand content in depth. So considering how even until ch 140s, the MC just has intermediate level in all the attributes he currently holds and is only genius in the topics that he currently researched, I presume we can understand that he got there by near abusive training where he wrecked his body to level up and used mana consistently for the majority of a year to understand his specific topics in depth while being unable to sleep for more than 2 hours. I think it was emphasized in the beginning how tight his schedule was. So there should be results when he put in that much hard work and the novel didn't even make him that OP. He just has a very nice front. All he has is sheer mental strength and a body that he can abuse to grow up fast. Comparing most nonsensical golden fingers, this author was pretty meek in buffing up the MC. So, reviewers complaining about this don't make sense to me. It was pretty clear to me how he got to his position and how he is simply an empty shell in most real fights because of his low mana.

The only problem I had with him was how he put off reading Deculien's memories from the diary. But that is understandable though, since those memories are too immersive and he is worried if his ego will tilt even more towards Deculien and Kim Woojin will disappear. It literally was an existential worry and Kim Woojin was described as an indecisive person so it was pretty in character. It was just frustrating as hell to watch.

Also, the plot is just starting lol. It was pretty clear that the main quest just began and the MC clearly said there was five years to go through. So how is he supposed to remove all death flags when he got there nearly 7 months before plot actually begins? We also see signs that Deculien is not completely villainous. It's actually his father who is the main villain and made him grow so twisted. At 140s, the main plot is maybe 3-5 months in. So stop whining about not resolving the death flags. He is not nearly OP enough to erase his sins and blind the world. He is just trying his best to put himself and the people he cares about in a better situation so that he can get out of it when he encounters his death flags. So far, his death flags didn't go there yet. Although, he did survive two assassinations. But the fact that he has such a good front to bluff people helps in avoiding some death flags. That's what he is working so hard to set up. However, the women don't let him go lol. They are adding more drama to his life than he asked for. He would really like to be left alone and not face these unwarranted affections tbh. I will add more when I finish though. I'm stopping until more chapters are uploaded. <<less
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ocureader
ocureader
July 24, 2021
Status: c14
Great start, this story has pretty good potential, just hope it doesnt become bad after 100++ chapters, very typical for korean novels.

After chapter 13 I would recommend active translations, other is literally MTL translation edited
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miscreant
miscreant rated it
March 24, 2023
Status: Completed
Well start was quite interesting and enjoyable. However the second half does take quite a nosedive and ending isn't good so while I did force myself to finish it since I was near the end with hindsight it wasn't a good decision.

As far as the fundamental problem goes I think it's that characters seem to act completely illogically for the sake of drama and end up acting against their best interests. It's a toxic combination of characters insisting on following "fate", "time travel" and completely unnecessary misunderstandings. Frankly by the... more>> end of it I was unsure why any of the characters were doing anything as it seemed a bit of a trainwreck. This series seems to have a high rating but if you check the most liked reviews it's a common theme that story is good until 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through and all of a sudden it turns into garbage. <<less
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kenocastro
kenocastro rated it
May 30, 2022
Status: c355
this novel is perfect, 10/10. If you're ever wondering to read this, this will blow your mind. Easily one of my top Korean novels of all time.

hear this:

story; 10/10

... more>> storytelling - an art. It's linear, but the plots are so detailed, so interesting, that you won't be bored of it

every scene is moving

characters;

all of the characters are complex. They're alive. They have flaws, and the most beautiful is that they are redeemable. It isn't a one-sided character trait with a flat role. You can feel the drama, the change in the person's heart, their cognitive processes, and their stories to tell. They're cute, they're fluff, they're dark, and it's heartfelt

drama;

it's a typical Christian heroic archetypal story. It's self-sacrificing, it's morally urging, and every justification can be felt through the storytelling <<less
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esr95tkd
esr95tkd rated it
March 8, 2022
Status: c295
Ok, I'm gonna go ahead and talk for the novel and the most concerning criticisms.

1) There is no Harem. Yes there are multiple girl characters with a close relationship. But nothing ever develops romantically.

... more>>
Spoiler

Character by character. Epherene is like his daughter, or pupil. They care for each other a lot in their own ways.

Sylvia, pupil. She does have a huge crush on him but he drew the line.

Yeriel. Sees her as a sister. That's it. Stop calling it weird.

Sophien. She loves him, he is devoted to her in every way except romantically. The plot is so good and interesting there.

Lia/Yuli/Yoo Ara. They both still love each other. But both at the same time recognize they aren't their original selves anymore. Neither is aware of the other's identity.

Knight Julie. Deculien loves her. And by loving her he decided to burn the bridge of their relationship to save her. She won't ever love him back.

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2) everyone complaining about his goals not being clear and him dying. Kim Woo Jin is desperate to return to his world, Deculien is the most stubborn as*hole in existence. Kim Woo Jin wants to live, Deculien fullfil his duty. Everything else that comes in between is means to the end. That includes his own death. Makes him so interesting.

3) MC being too good at everything. By reading just on the surface? Yes. The point is that MC himself knows he is lacking in everything. And everything he is good at is because he is abusing the system. He knows he has a limit and isn't inherently good.

4) Sophien being such a half assed character that's supposedly god like but inherently terrible. That's a heavy ass spoiler. But it's explained in late 200s. Her character is so detailed and thought through it makes her interesting.

The read is fascinating to me. Much more than the novels extra, with a lot more detail, a lot less convenient plot devices. Magic is magic and it develops, as well as the plot. MC develops the plot and his magic separately. So there are so few times "the artifact/knowledge from the game saved the plot". <<less
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DeadOpossum
DeadOpossum rated it
February 11, 2022
Status: c4
This is a worse version of Novel's Extra. Why:

We have the same main characters and their relationships transplanted, but there is less action and more tragedy, plus annoying time travel for no reason. Daily life is boring because he just writes and reviews scientific papers, if you ask me what is the second boring plot after being a farmer - here it is, being a teacher/professor.

Transplanted characters:

... more>> Protagonist is the same, but now he is in the body of professor Snape.

Clumsy English princess became a disciple (she was a kind of disciple in Extra but now it is official).

Nayun became a fiancee but with the same copy-pasted tragedy and the same love/hate relationship.

Boss became the Empress and is slowly falling in love with the protagonist, again.

Overall, there are less acting characters and they are more 2d. There are also less fun places (there are no towers nor hideouts).

I am not satisfied. I am a huge fan of Extra, but it seems that I am not a fan of the author. <<less
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tempelis
tempelis rated it
December 4, 2021
Status: c110
Where is the main story? Why deculein never prevent his death anymore? Why now that the danger of his death is just because of MC literally make it, like by deliberately make a misunderstanding and never compromise it? Why is when MC want power, money, or woman, author just give it to him? Why there is many problem appear at once? Is he the new Co*an that someone dead wherever he go, but in deculein case problems arise wherever he go?

Where is the "real" MC that from korea? At first... more>> "real" MC is trying so that "real" MC not to become deculein completely, but in later story he is deculein completely and "real" MC is gone.

It's ok to have harem but why all characters that you introduce is woman? Is there really no man characters that is not a villain, already dead, or just mini side character that appear once or twice?

And I think the real deculein is not mid level villain boss. He is just a side character that his profession is professor and because of some reason "kill" epherene's father, and just really it. Even he is really a villain, he is not at level of game boss. He don't have a power, his power just a sham, he don't have a backing, nobody like him is just because of misunderstanding, he is not a genius, he don't have much money. Damn, his life is at level we readers became sympathy to him. How can he be a mid level boss? Even mob that just appear once have more power than him.

tl;dr : not recommended <<less
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Valixiant
Valixiant rated it
November 16, 2021
Status: c94
This novel suffers from the stand school cliches, despite the main character being a professor. (For example, going to some random place for "school reasons" that sounds completely uninteresting but actually a major event will take place there)

Furthermore, all the characters in this novel are hardly fleshed out. A new character will appear, say they hate the MC, and 30 chapters later they seemingly like the main character or in the worst case, have a neutral relationship with him. They describe the main character has a mid-level boss who... more>> dies 999/1000 playthroughs. This is bullshit. Theres been barely any situations where he is close to death. I would expect dangers around every corner but it doesn't really happen.
Spoiler

Also, I despise how the author introduced a character that also got reincarnated, but doesn't do anything with said character. It's annoying reading random POVs that exist just to blue-ball readers expecting that something will actually happen.

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Another thing about this novel is nothing is explained. Despite going very "in-depth" on magic, theres no explanations on power levels. The main character is supposed to be a "monarch-ranked mage" or something like that, but they never actually introduce a character to compare a power level to. I have no idea whether the main character is overpowered, weak, mediocre, etc. Carrying on with that, the character always leaves unexplained things around side-characters to make it seem like they aren't 1d. They will vaguely talk about it, but not actually get into specifics, it's super annoying.

Overall, this is a novel that relies super heavily on the mysteries portion to keep readers interested. It's poorly written and it's hard to grasp a whole lot in this novel. <<less
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Dirty Mick
Dirty Mick rated it
August 21, 2021
Status: c150
Great novel. The MC is very enjoyable, having a noble character that acts like an aristocrat is a refreshing change to the usual fare of clueless, low-brow MC's that I am usually subjected to in isekai works. The story is good, nothing too stimulating just yet but I can see the building blocks to more intense conflict that the author has placed. Characters are fine, far too many female characters however, more major male characters would be a plus. Would make the setting a bit more believable and not like... more>> that of a galgame. Hopefully he doesn't c*ck it up in the end like he did with The Novel's Extra.

edit: he did c*ck it up. Go in with the same expectations you would have with his prior works. Still first 100 chapters worth a read.

<<less
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yukinoluna
yukinoluna rated it
September 27, 2022
Status: c201
A truly ridiculous story where the start was amazing, but the middle was utterly disappointing and the heroines of this story are frustrating.

Things I liked:

    • Deculein/Kim Woo Jin's personality AT THE START. I liked how the author tried to make Kim Woojin's personality show even with Deculein's personality merging. It made for an interesting personality with Deculein's noble coolness and Kim Woojin's supposed "loser-y" personality. The way the author wrote this was fresh and exciting to see.
    • An older main character!! Both Kim Woojin and Deculein are 33++, which explains their level of knowledge, experience in dealing with certain situations and personality. I truly enjoyed the level of maturity displayed in here, a refreshing change from a lot of other novels.
    • Explanations: The way the magic theory was explained was a lot more coherent than other novels. I truly felt like I was learning, which is perfectly apt given the main focus of this story is Deculein's role as a professor.
    • World building: Other than some parts, the overall world building is excellent. First, the magic principles are laid out pretty well, the reasonings behind the use of either cars or horses were explained clearly, the differences between knights and wizards are also done decently.
    • MC has cheats, but he puts in tons and tons of hard work to get things done as well. For example, he continuously reads books, regardless of any kind, to expand his database of knowledge and to teach other people. He makes sure diligently train everyday, both in magic and physically. He spends time to improve his position. Hence, I find his cheats acceptable, because the author gives him plenty of limitations as well.
Things I disliked:

    • The whole plot after chapter 100: What became an intriguing and engaging plot turned into a huge soap opera, where the plot was sacrificed for the sake of drama. Plots aren't necessarily separated from drama, but in this case, the plot was certainly thrown aside for the sake of some lame drama. We aren't given any information about the intricacies of politics (e.g the political struggle in the imperial capital, the relationship between the surrounding kingdoms and the empire), the enemies, the magical rankings of the wizards, the histories and complexities of the Demon Blood, etc, but we somehow know about Sylvia's mother's terminal illness, Julie's weight, Epherene's interest in food, blah blah. All of which are not as important as the ones mentioned prior. Also, the author has never once told us at which point of the game Deculein is transmigrated into. At the start, we could attribute these missing details as some sort of intrigue we would know later, but it has turned into a guessing game with all these missing information even at chapter 100+++. The whole story became a guessing game and it frustrated me to no end. Also, some elements are being hyped up/mentioned but not seen to the end (whatever happened to Epherene and her relationship with the nobles? Whatever happened with Adrienne and her fairy bloodline? Adrienne and Cynthia?) and plots keep jumping here and there (the Voice, etc)
    • The heroines: They seem to take turns frustrating me to no end and drag down the whole experience of reading
        • Sylvia: At first, I liked her, Sophien and Yoo Ara the most. Then, her position dropped drastically
          Spoiler

          due to the s*upid Sierra plot that was completely irrelevant and ridiculous. From a well written student, she became one of those ridiculous heroines with a love-hate relationship. Kinda like Chae Nayun from the author's other work, The Novel's Extra. Even worse, MC was blabbering about how she was special to him because he felt guilt towards her. I understand IF she was special to him because she allowed him to see a remake of Van Gogh's paintings, but what is it about guilt?

          [collapse]
        • Epherene: She was the most annoying heroine from the start and the middle, but surprisingly grew to be one of the more tolerable heroines in the entire series.
          Spoiler

          It was plain to see that MC has a somewhat soft spot for her because of her personality, and her magic growth was a delight to see (only at the later parts)

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        • Julie: God save me from her drama.
          Spoiler

          I do truly like Julie's knightly personality, but in the context of this story, her personality only frustrated me to no end. She's being endlessly spoiled by her siblings and Deculein and even though she keeps insisting on the path she walks, in the end, that very path that she walks is paved by her siblings and fiance. For example, she never once bothers to check for corruption in her knight order, she keeps insisting on protecting the people but THAT'S ALL SHE DOES. She never thinkgs about the political support she needs to protect Reccordak, never thinks about the food issues, never thinks about how to gain support from wizards, knights, never thinks about the money needed to implement her strategies. All she does is insist on what's right but never does anything to actually carry out her actions. Now, who is it that helps her clean her sh*t up? Deculein! He literally does everything for her and instead of instantly realising that she's lacking in so many areas (she only realised it WAAYYY later), she just remains the same.

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        • Sophien:
          Spoiler

          At this point in time that I'm writing, I think she and Yoo Ara are the two most suited heroines - MC's personality matches well with Sophien, in terms of intelligence and how well they are able to click together. For example, Sophien trusts MC and MC is also confident in Sophien. They also spend a decent amount of time together, learning about Runes and discussing political strategies.

          [collapse]
        • Yoo Ara/Lia:
          Spoiler

          Obviously, I know that this is an impossible love because of the whole ex girlfriend thing, but there is reason why they were together for 7 years. She has the right amount of emotional intelligence and maturity that meshes well with Deculein/Kim Woojin, and is strong enough to complete the tasks without dragging MC back. Also, amongst all the heroines, the only one to ever care about Kim Woojin's emotions is literally her. Of course, one could argue that she's the only one who is thinking about Kim Woojin, rather than Deculein, but she does show remorse to Deculein as well, because she blames herself for the easter egg that she put in.

          [collapse]
        • Arlos, Allen, Louina:
          Spoiler

          Obviously none of them are even close to a possible end-game, but I find that it's such a shame that they are just thrown to the side and not developed upon more. I personally find that given Deculein's age and personality, they would shine better than Sylvia, Epherene or Julie, who are younger and more immature.

          [collapse]
    • MC's irrational emotions and illogical actions:
        • Spoiler

          Again, the whole Julie plot just sent me rolling my eyes over and over. MC keeps hammering the point that Deculien's love for Julie is strong, yadadada... and suddenly, in around chapter 100+, mentioned that he (Kim Woojin) may have feelings for Julie too. Huh...??? This brings me all the way back to The Novel's Extra, where Kim Hajin also mysteriously spouted lines that proclaimed his love for Chae Nayun/ Boss. WHY AND WHERE AND HOW did both MC's end up liking the girls???? I truly cannot tell why MC would even like Julie, outside of Deculein's personality. It's not like they did anything special together? Anyway, because of this irrational love for Julie, he proceeds to do everything for her, and take the brunt of her lame independent quest and continuously pine for her. Then, Yoo Ara/Lia's appearance shook his heart and caused him to think about letting go of his emotions for her. Another huge Huh....????? Deculein/Woojin bro, the only one/the first one you should try to let go off is NOT Yoo Ara, but Julie!! Also, I find it irrational that he somehow is compelled to let go of Yoo Ara, a factor that doesn't cause him to have much illogical actions, but yet has never been compelled to try to let go of Julie, a factor that causes him so much drama and frustration. It truly makes no sense. While one may argue that Yoo Ara is dead but not Julie, Yoo Ara is a factor that is literally engraved in both Kim Woojin and Deculein's heart, so won't it be harder for MC to forget about her, rather than Julie?? Is the author's favourite Julie or something, because why is there some sort of a emotional armor when it comes to Julie where MC never thinks twice about his feelings for her and accepting it as "oh Deculein/I just love her soo much!~~~" but yet he is able to keep logical thoughts in other areas?

          [collapse]
    • Everyone and their fathers are female: Holy crap, why is EVERYONE surrounding Deculein female???? We have the emperor (Sophien), the two students (Sylvia and Epherene), the professor (Louina), the chairman (Adrienne), the assistant (Allen), the Demon Blood next leader (Elesol), the younger sister (Yeriel) and the spy (Arlos) !!! The other male characters are either old farts who appear rarely (the butler, Gindalf, Rohakan), or don't even appear that much (what ever happened to Gerek and Ren?!!! At this point in time I am starting to appreciate Ihelm who is starting to appear more often)
In conclusion, I think that the premise of the story is much more interesting than the Novel's Extra, but the middle of the story was even worse than the middle of the Novel's extra. In fact, I didn't even know that they had the same author. I was merely thinking "Why is the switch to soap opera and family killing so familiar??" before going "OHHHh" upon seeing the author's works. The only relationship that I genuinely enjoyed in this whole story is Yeriel and Deculein's.
Spoiler

Also, at this point in time of reading, aka chapter 201, I have no idea whether Yoo Ara and Kim Woojin have recognised each other, but the only way that the author could have salvaged this story is if they recognised each other around chapter 190+, during the Tiger hunt.

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