LaoTze

That was anticlimactic

Boring with no sign of it getting better. The MC’s backstory is cliche: father disappeared, struggling to eke out a living with his mom, placing on his hopes on his awakening at age 16, then he awakens and finds that he’s massively talented but it takes more effort for him to level up than others. The world is also cliche: 50(?) years ago spiritual qi returned to Earth, animals mutated into monsters, and humans awakened powers; now society is structured based on how powerful you are, and you gain power by killing monsters. Despite the unoriginal setup, this could have developed in an interesting way. And maybe it does later, but after a handful of chapters I see only warning signs. Descriptions are generic, fighting and leveling up is mechanical, and many chapters in a row are entirely him fighting monsters in the most generic LitRPG manner. So far, the author has displayed no signs that there will be anything novel or interesting about his work, so I’m dropping and I advise you to as well.

Awkward beginning. Why mention that this isn’t the first time he’s seen a system after a near-death experience, in passing? That is something you give more details on, or leave out.

You’re asserting your opinions as fact— everyone would have good grades and have reported their abusers— when reality, outside of this novel, doesn’t agree with you. Why?

Uncontrolled rage isn’t particularly “manly”. It’s just as unmanly as other ways of lacking self-control. Boyish, maybe you could call it accurately

Hits the obligatory notes of the “shameless MC” tropes. He’s unbelievably talented, always breaking people’s expectations, is always in conflict with arrogant young masters, has no care in going against much more powerful enemies and always manages to outsmart and embarrass them until he gets powerful enough to kill them. Every woman he meets wants him, because he’s also verrrry handsome. Not very interesting (I couldn’t tell you what his ultimate goal is at this point, other than wandering around and getting into whatever trouble turns up), but written well enough that it can kill time.

I agree the novel is dragged out. The dragged out fights and side quests, and worst of all, the chapters of nothing but descriptions of the attributes he picked up— all of these are unnecessary, and turn reading the novel into a core. You have to save up and read at least 30 chapters at a time if you want to see the slightest bit of progress. I’m at chapter 2506 and dropping. There’s just no way I’m going to stick around to see this novel to the end

Reviewing after I've read to chapter 236. The novel has an interesting premise: the MC can cultivate in a different world in his dreams, and can transfer skills and objects between worlds at the cost of depleting his soul energy. In the real world, he starts off as a poor fisherman dealing with an oppressive gang, then as he gains in cultivation, he has to resist more powerful cultivators and sects that want to steal his resources. Due to the time difference in his dreams vs the real world, he amasses more cultivation, power, influence, and knowledge in the other worlds (say thousands of years there vs decades in the real world), and uses his resources there to increase his cultivation in the real world. Pros: - there's a true sense of mystery in the real world: we don't learn anything unless the MC does, and as a rogue cultivator, he only slowly gains in knowledge even after his power level is impressive. - interesting key ability that drives his growth - he doesn't become OP in the real world very fast, instead has stable growth and there's a realistic sense of risk as he tries to grow without being noticed by cultivation sects Cons: - the pacing is slow - the systems he's cultivating don't really make much sense, are overly intricate, and the author spends way too much time going over their details instead of moving the plot forward - it's not unusual to have chapters that are nothing but info-dump on details that don't really matter and are confusing - the MC has no motivations or interests beyond becoming a stronger cultivator - the characters, including the MC, lack depth - the MC has no real meaningful relationships with other people It's a fun enough read-- to experience his growth in strength and knowledge of the cultivation world in the real world-- that I am continuing to read it. But it's so slow moving that I stack up chapters and read them like 20 in a go, so that I can see some development. I think also the tendency of the author to spend chapter info-dumping rather than moving the plot forward is increasing over time.