Bear in mind, this is an early review... I realize I value my time too much to continue. Maybe it gets better later. Perhaps I'll skip ahead 30 chapters sometime and then edit this review.

I actually really enjoyed the premise, basically:

- MC was trapped in a video game world and the story starts with them having just saved the world and now they're being sent back. The key point in this is... forcefully sent back. They've long made friends with the hero party and they've fallen in love with one... more>> of the members, and now he has to leave.

- He returns to his original world and slowly adjusts back to regular life while dearly missing his beloved. He's more or less moved on years later when a sequel to the game he transmigrated comes out and he decides to buy and play it to see how the people he cared about are doing now. He chooses a half-vampire girl character and just as he enters the game... he's trapped in the video game world again. Except now things are different, the NPCs who used to be robotic in his past trapped world are now strangely intelligent (but some are still playing into the NPC role intentionally for unknown reasons), he's not as OP as he was in his previous life, and he's suddenly summoned by his past life's beloved as a contracted demon. And he's trying to keep it a secret that he's the man she's desperately searching for because he's worried being locked up due to her obsession.

Great premise. The characters feel well thought out, you really care about the MC's feelings for the FL because they seem reasonable and thoughtful and I really want to see her slowly figure it out, the world-building is interesting and you're left with questions about just how real this world and the past world were.

And the relationship is pretty spicy too, right at the start we already have them teasing kisses or giving actual deep kisses, tying collars... very nice.

So why can't I bring myself to continue?

Oh my god the writing.

Put aside the translators weird formatting that splits sentences into two paragraphs randomly, or the lack of spaces between punctuation and letters, or the weird wording sometimes.

I have never felt the equivalent of trying to run up an escalator that's moving the opposite direction with tripping hazards while reading before. The leash the MC wears has to be a cognitohazard because *I* feel like I'm wearing a leash and every time I actually want to move forward with the story the author forcefully yanks it back.

Does the author have a forced wordcount requirement or something? It is truly rare for me to read a story where it iterates a point... and then reiterates it. Then iterates the MC's response to it with a quip. Reiterates the point. Then after that... moves all the way back to the start to reiterate again! Oh my god. Truly. This is the escalator, and the tripping hazards are the confusing way its written. At what point would a sparksnotes version be normal pacing for a story?

Anyways, I'm venting at this point. If you're wondering why this has a 2.9 star rating, this might be it. Or it might be because the MC is treated like a dog. Either way... maybe try it out? I genuinely do think it has a lot of interesting things, and perhaps it gets better. And you might just be stronger than me. <<less