This is a story about a sad*st who becomes a hero by hunting down villains so that he can torment them. It's a lot of... more>> fun, and the author didn't attempt to string the story out unnecessarily. It ends when it should. <<less

An all-time classic, and the root of the VRMMO story craze. The MC, Weed, is a combat expert who absolutely doesn't want to become a... more>> sculpter. He grew up in extreme poverty and became a shameless cheapskate who only thinks about money. He plays the VRMMO game as a job to support his family, intending to sell the items he acquires for real life money. The story is both funny and epic. It's very long so there are parts that drag and the translation gets spotty at points (there are multiple translations), but it's worth it. <<less

This novel is extremely well thought out. The power structure is consistent from the first chapter to the last, in spite of the scale climbing to galactic levels. And it touches on many things, including philosophy. The writing style is not very exciting, unfortunately. There were many times that I didn't realize how good a chapter was until it was already over and I started reflecting.... more>>

Mechanic, in this case, is one of five super systems. It defines people who build and fight with technology. From guns, to explosives, to automated turrets, to combat suits and mechs, to eventually robot armies. The MC winds up being an NPC in the "game" and shepherds the players around by giving them quests and a faction in order to help advance himself, utilizing their immortality as an indestructible army. <<less

This is a very funny action/comedy that I'm a big fan of. The more common name is Eminence in Shadow, but I prefer this.  The MC is overpowered and likes to pretend. But a lot of what he thinks is pretend is actually real. The capable characters apart from him are literally all girls it seems like, but he doesn't show even a scrap of romantic interest in any of them. He literally just cares about being a power in the shadows.... more>>

The WN was ultimately dropped when the author started an arc that he didn't like, but I feel like it had the most soul somehow. The LN is very good and is still going strong. The manga is drawn very well and is very good, but some of the humor is lost. The anime isn't very good in my opinion as almost all of the humor was phased out. <<less

This is a novel with a true cult following. Chances are that you'll either love it or hate it. The story is about a child's path towards becoming an eldrich horror. Everything he does is twisted and creepy, but he does it all with a sense of innocence. He becomes the icon of all the rejected races in the world.... more>>

There's a large monster-girl harem, but the MC still hasn't hit puberty after 400 chapters. Think of an emperor marrying a bunch of concubines to satisfy the various nobility. The author does have a strange fascination towards describing the s*xual traits of monsters, though. <<less

A harem author writes a power couple story and finds out that everyone likes it better. This is really a gem. The top two players transmigrate into their favorite game, but the game depicts the destruction of the world. They have to work together to save it. Jude and Cordelia are fun characters, and the developing romance is very good.... more>>

It does fall off towards the end, though. The romance stops developing after they cement their relationship, and the playable characters that get introduced towards the end are no longer strong enough to keep up. <<less

Describing this one is a challenge. It's the story of a man whom I can only assume lived his previous life as an internet troll.... more>> He then transmigrated into a world that developed magic card technology which became the basis of combat. He's physically weak but highly adept at tricking and scheming. He loves trolling people, and his solutions for everything are methods that only a masterful troll could come up with, and they're usually hilarious and frequently smart/unexpected. Everything he does is technically legal, but people look at him like they would a criminal mastermind. It's very entertaining. <<less

This one is a trip. This is about a guy who transmigrates into basically the same world except that it has a reality TV game show where contestants try to voluntarily evade capture in the modern age, and he's a fresh contestant. He gets an overpowered system that allows him to become a master at anything in exchange for providing shock value to the viewers. But even the greatest of masters can't overpower the police and their radios and cameras and suppression tactics. They can only run and hide, and try to avoid the countless tracking mechanisms that exist these days. The goal of the show is mainly to demonstrate how impossible it is.
... more>> 40px;"> The MC utilizes his skills to have his moments of action awesomeness, and is ALWAYS looking to stir the pot for shock value. But this is largely about the mental battle of the hunt itself. Both sides are always trying to be one step ahead, and all the notable characters have their moments. For the primary battle between the MC and his pursuers, it's all a reality game show, so even "lethal force" means simply pulling out paintball guns and disqualifying anyone who gets hit. This allows it to remain lighthearted enough to be extremely funny most of the time, but occasionally the game intersects with criminals in reality and things get serious. The MC is actually a good dude who just plays a villain on TV, and he plays a damn good one. <<less

The only true slice of life story that really moved me. Why is it so good? The only advantages the transmigrated MC has are her powerful family, knowledge of the plot (mostly her demise), and her perspective as a normal girl. She's not smart or skilled at anything in particular, nor is there any sort of real antagonist apart from school itself, since she was supposed to be the villain. She earnestly tries her hardest, despite having money and no talent, so she's easy to like. I can't explain it, the story just brings a smile to my face when I read it.... more>>

This novel was eventually dropped by the author becoming one of the greatest mysteries in the history of LN's. It was highly successful and nobody knows what happened. <<less

A former mechanical engineer transmigrates as a prince. He becomes a bastion for the witches who are hunted down, and uses their powers to create... more>> the industrial revolution, basically. This story is a good mix of kingdom building with a focus on science, war, and mystery. <<less

This one is about a guy who transmigrates as his max level MMO character after the servers shut down. A super overpowered lich with a... more>> full legion of overpowered npc monsters in a human world. He decides to both become a conquerer and try to improve his image simultaneously. His smartest minions are way smarter than him, and he usually has to just let them do what they want while he pretends to understand. The result is the story of a true villain who brings terror to a world. <<less

Hilarious. The idea is that there are guys coming out of caves after cultivating for hundreds of years and being completely out of touch with... more>> the world. The MC gets connected with these people and begins his own path of cultivation in modern times. The humor is largely from parodying the tropes of other Chinese cultivation novels. So the more of those you've read, the more that this will resonate with you. <<less

All of humanity transmigrates into a hero vs demon king game. The MC gets a random appraisal cheat that gets him all the other cheats,... more>> resulting in him becoming ridiculously overpowered. The story is a mix of world building, kingdom building, face stomping, and the evolution of his ridiculous powers. The biggest issue is that it feels very formulaic, and the author is terrible at math so don't bother following the numbers too closely. It's fun, though. <<less

Do you like battle tactics? Then this story is for you. Groups of people wielding unique powers, using strategy to succeed.

This is about a guy who regresses and gets a system encouraging him to start a business and lose all his money legitimately. Everything he does winds up being successful against his wishes, in spite of him knowing the future. A legendary boss who gives his employees and customers endless perks in an attempt to lose money. But you have to spend money to make money. If you treat your customers and employees well, they'll treat you well. This is a comedy that actually delves fairly deeply into the philosophy of business rather than just repeating the same tropes like you might imagine. There is no violence, nobody dies, and there is no romance.  It's... more>> all actual, legal business.

It's a great change of pace from the other novels out there. On the downside, the translation quality goes downhill later on. It also undersells the difficulty of software development, but within reason for a webnovel. <<less

MC transmigrates to become a goddess, the reborn world tree. The former world tree left her with lots of enemies. Her solution is to create... more>> a veiled VRMMO and bring souls from her old world over to act as her soldiers. She uses various game systems like quests and favorability ratings to control and guide the players to do what she wants. <<less

A guy falls into a web novel that he was writing but got stuck and went on hiatus. He gets a system which gives him power to enhance himself as a reward for increasing his presence in the story, and a co-author to change things up on him and make things difficult. He decides on the route of a sharpshooter in a world that has come to look down on guns, while also going all in on the luck stat. ... more>>

The characters are fun, and the action is fast. There are times that the novel appears to be going the harem route, but it never does as the MC is a heartbreaker who figures he'll leave the world before long and doesn't want to get attached. The story goes through the full roller coaster of emotions, rather than trying to satisfy the readers every chapter. <<less

This is an action/comedy about a guy who's thinks he's evil, but in reality he's far too responsible for others to agree with that. He's... more>> also supremely lucky and gets ridiculously strong. It's over the top. <<less

Girl reincarnates into a spider. Unlike most LN's, this is a story that doesn't have easy answers. The MC herself spends most of her time simply fighting for survival, while the world moves around her, hurdling towards destruction.... more>>

Most of the time, the tragedy tag just refers to a single event that occurs at some point. This story, however, exudes a tragic feeling to the end. <<less

Pure comedy. This is a short story about a duke's daughter who locks herself in prison for a vacation while torturing her captors. It's dumb,... more>> it's brainless, it's short, and it's funny. A manga that covers about half of the novel was made, and the art is very good. <<less

A novel about becoming a legend through plagiarism. A Chinese specialty. The MC's goal is to become the world's biggest celebrity by plagiarizing all the most popular things from his old world. The main reason I highlight this novel is that most English speakers aren't familiar with famous Chinese culture, and it becomes something of a display model for many of their greatest hits which I had been previously ignorant of. For example, I will probably never read Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the greatest Chinese classics, but learning about the controversy surrounding it was fascinating. Otherwise, most of the appeal to this novel comes from how everything is set up for face... more>> slapping. When he comes out with a "new" poem, you can bet that he's doing it to eviscerate somebody publicly.

Ironically, this novel wasn't dropped, but cancelled. As a result of Disney pressing charges for plagiarism when he copied the lyrics of one of their songs over word for word. Some people will downvote this novel over racism, but it's mostly used for humor. <<less

Action comedies are my sweet spot and this story hits it well. The MC is clever. She likes to steal things and slap faces. It's... more>> a bit formulaic and predictable at times, and the chapters are very short. <<less

This guy is a teacher, with a system that will allow him to teach the world's strongest eventually. But in the end, this novel only... more>> has one goal, and that is face slapping. If you just want some dumb face slapping humor to chuckle to, this is your novel. Otherwise, look elsewhere. This one barely makes the list for me because it isn't particularly well rounded. But it does the one thing quite well. I suppose it's a guilty pleasure for me. <<less