Arkinslize
What the author calls a slow story buildup, I call poor story structure. Way too much exposition and explanation, without any real progress. Give us readers a reason to care. So far I fking hate the protagonist. Why should I care for anything he does? Give me a reason! The only thing I care for so far, is that cat. At this point I really hope the cat takes over this story.
I was expecting something more than this if the MC was special or something that would be ok. In a lot of novels the authors like to make the MC a underdog but its been done so much that its annoying i would like to see for once a MC that is a forerunner not the best but one of the best not see how one lucky guy after another shows up while the MC just struggles.