Those Years When I Was a Dalao

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One sentence summary:

Forced to become a dalao (big shot)・I’m actually normal・Why do you all think I’m a dalao

Jiang Yiyi realises he has transmigrated into a survival video game named ‘Annals of Stargaol,’ also known as ‘The 108 Fancy Ways for Players Killing Themselves.’ It’s known for its high difficulty, lethality and overpowered NPCs.

If the game turns real, perhaps even surviving half an hour would be too much to ask?

Jiang Yiyi shudders. Between the player character and a random background character, he chooses the latter, only to find himself forced into a dalao role on a daily basis.

Tips for reading:

Absolute golden fingers (read: cheat abilities) everywhere. The protagonist is the most amazing from the beginning to the end.

Logic is maintained throughout as much as possible.

Plot-heavy. The romance is depicted late. Really late.

Entirely fictional, set in a futuristic world.

Associated Names
One entry per line
我当大佬的那些年
我當大佬的那些年
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
I’m Really Not The Demon God’s Lackey (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Summery seems interesting
  2. Completed Novels
  3. Next Reading List 8
  4. Completely translated novels 6 (higher ratings)
  5. I like (yaoi)

Latest Release

Date Group Release
03/15/24 Story Seedling c125 part3
03/14/24 Story Seedling c125 part2
03/13/24 Story Seedling extra 125 part1
03/13/24 Story Seedling c34 part3
03/12/24 Story Seedling c124 part4
03/11/24 Story Seedling c124 part3
03/10/24 Story Seedling c124 part2
03/09/24 Story Seedling c124 part1
03/08/24 Story Seedling c123 part3
03/07/24 Story Seedling c123 part2
03/06/24 Story Seedling c123 part1
03/05/24 Story Seedling c122 part3
03/04/24 Story Seedling c122 part2
03/03/24 Story Seedling c122 part1
03/02/24 Story Seedling c121 part3
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9 Reviews sorted by


earlgreyt
New earlgreyt rated it
April 6, 2024
Status: Completed
I love OP characters, but unfortunately, something about the story just completely stopped holding attention or mystery.

The earlier chapters were super enjoyable, and the author kept you guessing on what that "ultimate" secret was. However, it really ended with a sigh...

... more>>
Spoiler

The author makes you envision this complex web of spies and power struggle when the prison dies after looking into the Doctor's eyes... but in the end, nothing came of it

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Spoiler

The author sets up the all this mystery with multiple factions on the 4th floor along with spies, double agent spies, triple agent spies, and... in the end they all died cause of legit, fake knowledge that the 5th-6th floors are holding superhumans

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Spoiler

And this knowledge is given to you, the reader, offhandedly. Like seriously? There was no impact at all. Why the hell did all those factions go crazy blackmailing and double crossing each other and sending in double agents for like, literally a random fact you can post on a website lol

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Very sad.

And then the author literally just kept explaining everything in the author's notes

Spoiler

that became actually bigger than the chapters themselves. Author, if you have to explain that much, you are not doing a good job writing the actual story. Stop gatekeeping all the explanations and try to integrate that content into a better story... not footnotes.

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And also

Spoiler

The end result was just that all the Extraordinaries (which btw, I didn't care about at all bc 20 of them were introduced in a single chapter and they all had similar personalities of obsessing over MC or wanting to see world burn, literally they were pretty much carbon copies of each other) spend 1:1 chat with doctor and the story ends.

Author should have capitalized on Magician/Warden/the other guards better... but I had a feeling they ran out of ideas

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The extras were fun. Otherwise, it was a disappointing ending to something that had tons of potential.

Translation was pretty good. I appreciate the very appropriate localizations and slang in netizen comments, though some of the dialogue felt needlessly convoluted. <<less
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boilpoil
boilpoil rated it
May 5, 2023
Status: Completed
Hey there! I'm the translator for the novel. This is a novel that is quite heavy on the plot and not so much the romance, and I did drop it once while reading because I couldn't understand anymore, but after taking the time to note everything in the story a second time, I've come to appreciate the depth of the story.

Speaking of which, story and plot-wise, it offers a unique setting, and any stereotypical tropes are employed sparingly enough. The pace of the story may be slow for some, but... more>> I think it's appropriate for the most part. Characters don't so much develop as they are already quite developed from the start, and one of the highlights of this novel is how the author uses this to great effect by showing the chemistry that emerges when these characters clash.

Another highlight of the novel is, of course, the mystery and drama depicted. It's quite impressive how everything is neatly tied together, even though the author has to explain herself in places. While there is no fourth wall breaking, I think there is enough third wall breaking to satisfy everyone - you'll know when the story reaches that part, I think.

Overall, if you would like to read something that isn't a typical braindead harem in another world, I highly recommend this. Not so much if you are hoping for a great romance, however. <<less
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Wynnfield
Wynnfield rated it
May 12, 2023
Status: Completed
4.5/5

This was unexpected.

The story starts out with our unreliable narrator MC waking up to find himself in a survival game, imprisoned as a no-name doctor surrounded by crazy criminals. It's not an rpg, it's not an esports. It is a survival game that made the game protagonist die countless times (it gives off similar vibes to infinite flow novels). As he continues the game, he realises that something is amiss. His seemingly useless skills leveled up at an unimaginable speed, and he was labeled dangerous even when just sitting down... more>> and doing nothing. MC notices that things don't align with his body's memories very quickly, and the whole mystery of his past and the game's goals was the driving plot of this novel.

The characters he meets are all fleshed out and have unique characteristics, and it was easy to remember each one of the people he interacted with because they all had their own roles in the game. Technically speaking, they were all 'NPCs' of the game, but the roles they play differs from each other and made them stand out.

I especially liked the way the mystery solves itself as you follow the MC deeper into the prison levels. The more people he interacted with, the more he realise things are not as simple as he originally thought.

The plot is complicated and the author does try to explain it in layman terms at the end of the later chapters. The characters are all really smart, and sometimes it was hard to follow their track of mind-though it was never intended for us to understand them since they were crazy.

It did get draggy at the end when the author tried to explain everything step by step when I felt it was not necessary. Personally not a fan of over-explainations in mystery novels, but it was still bearable since I wanted to see them solve the mystery. Most parts were skippable if you read author's notes because everything gets spoilt there.

I'd argue to give this novel a harem tag, but the MC is so apathetic on the romanctic advances of the mls. Honestly, I'd rather the author not tell us who the ML is because it would've given us another mystery to solve, but this novel definitely was not focused on romance despite how popular MC was with the heavy-weight NPCs. (If I could I would go back to the past and tell myself not to read this author's notes)

The author was probably aware of how weak the romance line of the story was, so they had to emphasize that certain characters were not the ML. The romantic chemistry was really non-existential between the CPs. It felt more of a collaborative relationship with each other, but at the same time I can see the appeal because it was such a subtle love. The weakest part of the story was how the author had to constantly explain what was happening which took of the 0.5 stars from my ratings. The romance was okay to me, but it was not an important factor to make the story flow. It's more of a mystery novel with danmei as a subcategory. Though the start was better written than the end, it was overall a good mystery novel. <<less
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Wintercreeper
Wintercreeper rated it
August 20, 2023
Status: c71
This novel has one of the biggest wasted potentials I've seen.

The story is decent, characters are interesting enough, I was genuinely hooked and wanted to solve the mystery.
That's honestly quite rare when it comes to webnovels.

But.
It's the writer's limited skills that makes me want to drop it.

I don't want to see the words "predator" and "dangerous" ever again.
The writer is unable to portray characters, instead he tells us, repeatedly, how we are supposed to see them.

MC is a predator looking at prey, he's an abyss staring back at you, he's dangerous beyond comprehension.

This repeats every three or so sentences. Yes, that often.
Every time he looks at another character.
Every time someone talks to him.
Every time another character talks about or just thinks about him.

Overly insisting on something like this has the opposite effect, I can't take MC seriously when everyone swears on how X he really is when nothing that is shown to me supports their claims.

Psychological perception is hard to write about, I know, but the writer should have consumed some books that excel in portraying truly dangerous individuals and how they influence people with words or even just their presence.
Hannibal comes to mind. Even the TV series would have been a good reference.
The cognitive dissonance you get by looking at a seemingly normal person but feeling that there's something deeply, utterly wrong with them.
A feeling that makes the hairs on your arms stand up, an unease telling you not to look away but back up as far as possible, an ancient instinct making it clear that you are facing potential death.

Instead it reads like a Gary Stu self-insert from a teen with 8th-grader-syndrom.

There were, maybe, three instances in which I got the feeling that MC is, in fact, dangerous, and even then it was solely for how ruthless he is.

It's not just MC, he insists on every character being a certain way by outright telling us how they are meant to be seen, despite most characterisation being good enough to get the point across without this low-quality tell – don't show.

The worst part, prison level four was a lot better in terms of building tension and portraying MC, but the writer gave up on it because readers were too dumb to follow this kind of storytelling and demanded for it to be changed back.
He's constantly making author's notes to explain simple things because his readers have the attention span of an elderly goldfish.
Everything has already been over-explained by the characters, which kills most of the fun and purpose of a story focused on a grand mystery.

It's sad but the novel ends up being just another generic OP teen-fiction with a bit too much, way too forced blood splatter. It wants to be "cool", and that's the problem.

Maybe recommend for younger people, it seems I might just be 20 years too old to get the charm.
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SilverWolfHiddenInSnow
SilverWolfHiddenInSnow rated it
May 16, 2023
Status: Completed
This novel dragged me in not for the promise of yaoi (although that was the reason I added it to my reading list in the first place), but because of the unique setting and the authors way of writing. I binge-read this on and off in 3-4 days, via the very readable mtl. The translation as of 5/15/23 for the 8-ish chapters currently in this site is good, and got me interested in the first place. Reading about MC calmly dissecting an arm and then sowing it up again (little... more>> spoiler for those of you with a more squeamish mind) has an uncanny sense of taboo that just drew me in like nothing else. The message I wish to leave is this: the strong point of this novel is in the mystery and and strength of the MC. It was a very good read. The ending was a little bare though. Could have just been an mtl issue, but imma put my opinion here anyways. <<less
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AzaleaZinna
AzaleaZinna rated it
September 10, 2023
Status: c56 part1
I really love it. But it's unfortunate that I won't be able to read past to where I am right now because I will have to pay to read it.

... more>>
Spoiler

The MC is extremely over powered, to the point everyone was extremely scared whenever they approach or even lay a gaze on his eyes. All of them were terrified for his existence except his allies that were loyal to him. And I was really surprised that our MC really is an extraordinary, The fact that his whole powers actually created the whole existence of the game world he is standing upon now.

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Although, after all that chapter, I haven't seen the ML not even once. So I'm now doubting if there is even an ML or that yaoi tag is just a misplaced tag lol. However, I do think there's quite a few potential mls.

Overall, it was good. Highly recommended. <<less
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Taroreo
Taroreo rated it
December 13, 2023
Status: c85.3
MC is by far one of the most intresting character I have the pleasure to read.

I'm not going to talk about the plot, or other characters, it's MC that im going to talk about, please hear my conclusion.

... more>>
Spoiler

Let's say that MC is called Doctor.

'Doctor' stands as an epitome of paradoxes and complexities. He embody an enigmatic presence shrouded in a veil of controlled intensity. 'Doctor' navigates the world with an air of detachment, simultaneously restraining their immense strength while exuding an aura that evokes an unsettling sense of foreboding.

His adherence to law and order might seem incongruous with his ability to instill fear with a mere gaze, coupled with an outstanding charm. This dichotomy adds to the intrigue of 'Doctor, ' highlighting a persona that commands both respect and apprehension.

Despite lacking physical weakness, 'Doctor' wields a presence that, when crossed, invokes a palpable sense of brushing with the unknown, as if facing the abyss itself. He operate within self-imposed boundaries, rational and controlled, yet with an implicit warning of dire consequences if certain lines are crossed.

His control extends beyond outward appearances; it's a mastery of perception, where the bending of rules at will creates an illusion of omnipotence, despite their reliance on others. 'Doctor' finds amus**ent in the disparity between external perceptions and their true self, embracing a detached viewpoint that adds to the mystique.

In the eyes of others, 'Doctor' is an entity more fear-inducing than the concept of death. Their presence evokes a sense of unease that stems not from mortal danger, but from the unsettling aura they naturally emit. This character, known as 'Doctor, ' is an intricate tapestry of contradictions, navigating the world with an unparalleled blend of controlled intensity and detached intrigue.

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Shortk
Shortk
November 24, 2023
Status: c12
Dropped. I want to enjoy this more, but a couple plotholes or lack of logic are holding me back... Lol I know the author ate up logic in their notes in the first chapter. It was ok to accept until I had to face it lol.

Plothole? The author revised it or "cleared it up later vaguely" so how it ended up worked out...... more>>
Spoiler

they introduce the floors like an underground hell where each floor has more dangerous individuals who are doing longer time in the prison. The mu*derer in his cell was promoted to the 1st floor on best behavior, going from death row to 30yrs.

So the MC wants out of this book in a short time period and he's only locked for 1 yr so he's on the first floor and he's not dangerous. He wants a safe place until he doesn't because he wants to improve his skills... But how does the hubris overcome his desire to stay somewhere safe? I don't quite understand as the writing isn't clear about it. Not to mention, I think the author fixes it later toake it seems like you do not have to be sentenced for a longer sentence to move on the lower floors. When initially it seemed to be written that way. Another way the writing is not clear or is saying one thing but then explains or away...

I think the writing could be better and just slightly clearer there. Bc that's a big plothole which annoyed me

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Then the illogical bits... Hm well the whole officer protocol makes no sense
Spoiler

especially if that officer is working w the MC to get to the 4th floor this way.. like by then they would have confirmed the MC is dangerous enough to be on the lower floors and not (I assume the floors are downward bc of the trans / writing) need an observing officer. So he would just be put back to the first floor after that right.

But yea no logic said the author

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but I think the worse logic to read is the "psychology" portion. I know the MC admits he doesn't think it makes sense how he leveled it up, but why are OTHER people equating "controlling someone with a word like stop" as the same thing as psychology??? Huh *squints*??? That's really weird even if we want no logic bc psychology already has enough incorrect / bad depictions in mass media. In the back of my mind... I'm like let's not add on to it... The sigma from media is bad enough, let's not add to the misinformation in this day and age.

I want to enjoy this more but idk I suspect it won't necessarily get better from here. I think it has potential though. <<less
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kimdj5149
kimdj5149 rated it
August 31, 2023
Status: c24.1
I have mostly forgotten about the ML after reading this, it was due to him not even appearing from where I am right now. Over all, it was great. The way they think that the MC has something up from his sleeves is very intriguing and amusing, knowing damn well the MC didn't even have a single idea that he is now the most dangerous individual that they are trying to avoid of, a huge disaster that can cause a chaos if he made a move, and can do so... more>> without dirting his hands. Surprisingly, MC is quite quick to understand things, he knew that they were afraid of him, although he didn't really understood it quite clearly (I think, since I don't understand the MC either), he did understand that he is considered as dangerous. Very enjoyable, and op MC. I recommend to read. <<less
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