If you’ve read Solo Leveling and are looking for something similar, my advice is to turn back. Or if you somehow haven’t read Solo Leveling, then this is your sign to start haha
I’ve actually started reading this before SL, so now I’m surprised at the high rating despite the shit ending. To be fair, it was okay at the beginning: typical poor struggling MC who hates the rich, gets into an electrical accident that changes his life forever, since it somehow changed his biometric code and he’s no longer able to access his account for a wildly popular game. Being forced to start over, this time he’s able to see hidden parts of the game, and eventually becomes the first and only player to beat and win the game.
I took a break when MC was about halfway to building his army to let the story marinate, but that feels like a mistake since the format is better consumed in weekly updates. Binging it all at once makes it obvious that there’s a 1-2-3 step pattern that repeats over and over again. MC gets a quest, villains try to wreak him, he outmaneuvers them, gains a new item/ability/minion to show off, and repeat.
The villains are so annoyingly dumb and pointless.They’re like Jessie and James, but if they were in charge of Team Rocket and less iconic. I understand the motive, but they’re so painfully pathetic that it feels like they’re unnecessary annoying extras who get additional screen time because the author likes them for some dumb reason. Maybe they’re just there to make MC shine, but seeing MC win every time only makes me think that he’s a Gary Stu.
Which he probably is to be honest, except that he doesn’t get a girl or a harem haha. Maybe that’s the cost of his power and success, to be forever alone! Until the very end, no one knew that he was the Archmage Streamer except for that one girl who was FL bait, but she was from a hostile guild so… UNLESS his true love is his boss who he finally gets to meet at the end hahaha (but also why does he go from bleached blonde to sandy blond?)
Anyways, the open ending was pretty lame. After he beat the game, he became the new owner but it just ends there. We don’t get to see what happens after that. The game developer has said that the point of the game was to have fun, which MC technically did have thanks to his cheats, but idk what kind of story he was supposedly trying to tell.
It would’ve been a better ending to see MC finally move his family to a nice home and give them the nice things he’s envisioned ever since he got his hands on expensive items since that was supposed to be his goal from the beginning. I guess we can assume that now he’s the owner of the game, with Rising Star and Azmo’s support he could create new content and earn a better income?
I’m always excited to see a new character, but idk if my heart can take another Jabilon 2.0
If you’re not a true gamer or able to toss gaming logic aside, this is a decent read. The most recent season did feel a bit rushed though, and the extra scenes was giving me “The Promised Neverland” season 2 ending vibes, because they didn’t do that when ending the previous seasons… unless it’s supposed to be a hype distraction from the romance development.
Speaking of, as much as I like side romances, I kinda have to agree with the below comment. It’s so messy. During my first read, I honestly wasn’t expecting that from redhead and thought of her as comedy relief.
But then it turned out that there’s a serious reason why she gets so much screen time. It sucks because Shin Nara was my pick, and she was sidelined for a rich girl who was carried by her sister.
All jokes aside, and to be fair, she did help out MC the most, especially in the latest season for MC to get closer to raising funds for his surgery while Shin Nara was the one being helped, so it makes sense that MC appreciates and acknowledges her efforts, but still.
She’s so well-known that poor Shin Nara had to find out why she was ditched on tv. Not to mention that she’s kind of love rivals with her sister, although she is a minor so technically there’s no chance.
But the main irk I have is because of the irl meetup. In game, there’s probably an automatic translation function so all players are able to communicate, but outside of it? Either MC knows Chinese, or redhead knows Korean, or it’s another bs setting that Korean is the universal language lmfao
I’m another reader who has a hard time getting into the story, but seeing the recent positive comments makes me wonder… maybe if I get bored and patient enough I’ll try again and try to write a how-to-read-this guide lol
It’s not really the end, but even if they did the whole novel, I think I would still prefer “To be an Actor”. As the more successful sequel / predecessor, you can really see how the author improved from Music since the MCs have a lot in common. Maybe I could change my mind after finishing the story through the novel, but the actor is so solid that I doubt it.
Both MCs studied law (or at least the author did lol), had “shamefully” poor upbringings, hated familiar smells of their families’s work, the only child, but the actor is more pitiful since he lost his dad while music had both parents, his mom ditching her sexist and affluent family for love, and for some reason only on the second life did his grandfather reach out.
I’d believe it if his grandfather had visited a shaman or had some reason why (like they did in actor to explain why some characters got involved with MC) but no, he just randomly thought to do at the next family gathering (something that didn’t happen before, so why now?). MC was a hard working student (well, not at the time of his regression but later on) yet his grandfather wasn’t interested in acknowledging MC in after he regressed. It’s probably the music god/deer’s influence, but it feels weird to me that only now he has things and connections that he was denied in his past life. Then again, his grandfather did have a part in how MC’s upbringing turned out the way it did, so I can’t help feeling uncomfortably depressed when I think about his past life.
Different deaths: actor killed himself out of guilt for not being there for his mom, compared to music who was on the phone with his mom, diagnosed with cancer, and ended up dying full of regrets of how is life turned out while trying to save a drunk person who probably died with him. Unless the drunk guy was the deer in disguise and it was a test of MC’s character to give him a second chance—
Idk why I have all these dark suspicions of the deer lol. It’s not evil, but my hater brain keeps trying to twist it haha
FL: early introduced and shipped, but actor does not get together until the end because they’re co-workers/friends but MC doesn't keep tabs on her, while in music they're together a lot and the grandfathers are already considering engaging them if they both want to. My defense is still that they didn't know/have love in their past lives and this is a fictional work, so it's fine for them to have a physically aged appropriate partner.
Actor had a passion for acting, and his commitment to it led to his isolation and death, while music had a passing interest but had to put it down for survival. The deer took pity on MC and chose him to share the joy of music by giving him a blessing. (Actor already had his skills from his past life.)
I like the premise, but it feels like too much is going on. While I am kinda curious of MC potenially meeting his first life's wife, I'm not currently curious enough to find out what's the point of his regression and what he'll end up doing in life. Will he become a famous musician, take over the family company, or join forces with his potential FL? All of the above? His end goal is to be happy, but idk if I feel like continuing his journey.
Back in my reading child actors phase, I put this story aside because I was content with the high from the other stories. Well, I was so wrong, because those stories are childish fantasies compared to this, which is PEAK.
I liked that his main goal was to make his mom happy because he regretted being ashamed of his upbringing, only to be pulled back into the world of acting and sort of re-live his past experiences through acting, while also building up relationships with others and figuring out himself.
Even though it’s not directly said outright of how MC regressed to the past, I believe in the theory that his dad had something to do with it, hinting back in chapter 2. The way his backstory unfolds is just so good.
The realism made me reflect on my own life, and how I was kinda like MC - but the thing is that I feel justified because while I was a little shit, my mom’s a controlling narc, so… but the point is that I don’t want to let her go full of regrets like MC, even though I know that I can never be as good as him, let alone be good enough for her lmao
Romance is not the main focus! It only happens at the end, and it doesn’t really affect the story, but here’s my take on it: do you really expect MC to go cougar hunting? Introduce his mom to someone her age? HUH??
Besides the fact that this is a fictional story, but factually speaking, he didn’t even have anyone in his past life, seeing as his craze for acting made him an ass and pushed everyone away, so as far as I’m concerned he’s a newb with his own feelings for romance so it’s fine. Just let him have this, if only to ease his mother’s worries that someone will take care of him. (Unless you wanted him to end up with his rival/friend, which I can respect haha)
He wasn’t even interested in her when they first met. Only after she confessed to him to get over her feelings, did he chase after her when he realized the impact she had on his life. Sure, it was just 2 moments, but they were crucial supportive times AND it was better than Solo Leveling. Plus I’m a sucker for childhood friends to lovers, so I knew it from the moment he improvised the shoelace line lol
Speaking of, ch 133 was such bait. I was hoping for the director and the writer to get together, because they were so will- they, won’t they coded.
Outlaw was a reference to “For the Musical Genius” lol
Finally, we never got to see MC graduate, so idk if he actually got his degree in law or not…but he seems almost too perfect so maybe that’s for the best xD
It’s not much, but I’ll happily take it! I had a feeling of how his lineage turned out, and it did not disappoint. Their daughter definitely took after her mom, but I wonder if their son had much resemblance to Lloyd?
Also! It looks like the flame dragon was able to get married after all! And his child became a skilled crafter too!
Is he going to have portraits of himself and nobility he treats to increase his credibility?! LMAOOO
It’s so nice to see innocent Bibeong before he became a grump haha (●'◡'●)ﾉ
Is he a reference to Cale from Trash/Lout of the Count’s Family?
Cale is hotter ofc, but I see similarities
Gotta admit, they were really cooking in the beginning. I probably should’ve clocked it as one of those stories that were doing too much, but the premise was so nicely presented that I overlooked it.
She really let her guard down too soon. Did she learn nothing from her transmigration and think her real life be easier than the past 20 years that she went through?
Then again, I somehow forgot my dislike of MLs killing FL in past life, then ending up together in the present. Sheesh _(￣へ￣)_/
This MF really had me thinking that the friend was the author of the story. It was a dumb theory, but I was right that she was working to help her grandmother, just not the way I was thinking since it turns out he was the mastermind all along… from the very beginning?!
I’m literally just going to stick around to watch a train wreck haha. If you’re cheering on 2nd ML, you might like Secret Alliance
Aka the title is a lie and is probably more fitting of another actual regretful winning ML. Looking at you “How to reject my obsessive ex-husband” but gets together anyways-
The only unique thing I liked was that she actually had to work/train for her skills instead of instant knowledge, but other than that she’s still a Mary Sue doing all the work to stay with a trash lead. We don’t know what she sees in him, just as we don’t know what he sees in her. What a perfect couple hahaha
She’s so devoted to her bias, she ignores the OG plot with the OG ML, so he has to be in disguise in order to be around her and save her at crucial times. I agree with the commenter who said that they should’ve just made OG ML a villain to justify MC sticking with her bias, but instead made herself look insane for writing 10 paragraphs crying justice for trash, and getting transmigrated into the story to live her fantasy without consequences.
If not that and he had to be good, then I wish that Jay’s identity was MC’s family: a half brother looking out for his illegitimate sister instead of being the OG ML who’s more helpful than trash.
And the plot holes… CP & OG ML knew that MC was not the original, but idk why they want ML to be happy when there’s nothing redeemable about him.
Despite regret being in the name, there’s not much of it going on in the story. It’s just in reference in the OG plot or the second to last chapter where he reads her letter and finally realizes what he’s done, but is still stubborn about staying together with her. I didn’t see him being reformed at all. She just takes him as he is and doesn’t do anything to change him.
I know that the premise is for the couple to be happy, but it has so much potential for another transmigrator to come in and ruin it for her hahah. Maybe take over the villainess and end up with OG ML?
In the finale with them finally getting the wedding ceremony a year after everything, they still don’t have a kid? Wasn’t that the whole point of them getting permission for marriage, let alone being able to live together in the first place? Is the plot point of transcendents going down the drain?
ML did say that he loves her more than an heir, but wasn’t there any suspicion or complaints from the rest of the family after a whole year going by with no kid? Also, in her plans for the future, there isn’t any mention of having a child (and she has mentioned the pains of pregnancy) so idk what’s the point anymore hahaha. Another two leads who are crazy about each other and will not let anyone get between them.
Thrown into a wuxia novel, the protagonist wakes up as a laundry maid in a household infamous for po...
- Author: Molae,Yoon Dong-Baek,Aurora Studio,Hae In
- Genres: Drama / Fantasy / Martial Arts / Romance / Shoujo / Webtoons
Waiting for season 2!
I liked the story for what it is, despite being a bit messy, since I’m a sucker for childhood friends (?) to unrequited love to mutual love. Classic idiot who has no idea that his best friend who comforts him through heartbreaks, has feelings for him.
The pacing seems fine to me, unlike similar stories where they drag on the plot and have lots of smut… iykyk. But then again, the set up is a lot simpler in comparison of folklore, so snail power!
I didn’t like the way they glossed over Weon getting his memories back. Then again, it wasn’t a dramatic rescue scene, but I feel like it was overshadowed by the proposal. And the realization that Toran was always there for him felt very understated. We also don’t know how they ended up separating, but probably Toran decided he needed to leave in order to repay Weon and used mind fog / snail power.
The ending is very open tho, because we don’t know what happened after they got married (and were robbed of wedding pics! (╥﹏╥ ). So it looks like Toran did choose to become human, but had a child before that? Was it more of his “most promising snail” powers? Haha. Also, it seems like he’s able to serve humans now.
Is their son a halfling? He looks older than expected to be telling stories to, but also snails only take about a year to become an adult, soooo I blame the unreliable narrator that we don’t have side stories and the focus is on the main couple.
Still would’ve liked to see the magpie x boss’s development. And what happened to the other side characters? Sunbae who? What about Weon’s human friends? I would’ve liked to see them meeting Toran and eating at his restaurant. But then again, they would meet their son and I’m not sure how that would go.
Also, it’s a crime that their second greatest adversary went poof and we never get to see his child/liver storage (╯°Д °)╯╧╧
Lastly, I’m a bit sad that Weon never got around to getting a snail stamp. Since they took the time to talk about animal stamps, it would’ve been on the cherry on top for me, but it’s just a weird random detail that I expected too much out of haha
If you want to know why they be kissing, it’s because it’s more effective than yelling and resorting to violence in public haha. They may call themselves brothers, but they’re not related and have been together for a long time.
I enjoyed it for what it is, a beautiful tragedy. The plot twists were pretty good. It’s an open ending, but I can accept it compared to the other options.
The first going unsaid, since it’s basically the official ending but LM goes out of control without his handler. The second option being the cycle continuing, and BM ditching Hansoo eventually. I’m not sure how that parting would’ve went, since she clearly wanted to stay with them, so the official ending is technically better breakaway where BM finally gets to rest, which is in line with the creator’s vision.
Although we can see from the ending that Hansoo is still sticking around the abandoned church. I would only say that she has a problem if she kept cleaning the place like she used to. Technically, since BM is canonically rich, wouldn’t the remains be her inheritance in a way? But I hope that she’ll be able to move on eventually. I wasn’t that annoyed by her (at least compared to the other guy, but the chairman arc was painfully cringy) and I do feel some pity that she finally reunited with her idolized father figure, only to be let down that he could never be that for her.
Also, I’m not sure if LM would carry on BM’s legacy. It’s a nice thought that he would finally listen to his dying words and stop being delulu, but based on the ending, I got the impression that he would live his life in isolation, Frozen style. Or maybe that’s just me romanticizing it haha, and maybe he’ll go back to living amongst humans after mourning BM since he has to sustain his insatiable appetite in order to live.
It’s tragically beautiful karma for sure, LM turning the hunter into a vampire on a whim, only for him to make a comeback and puppeteer him into killing BM, his companion.
Finally, the blue eyed idiot. He was clearly created to be hated, chasing after pipe dreams. I can’t believe his wife supported him for 10 years - should’ve left after 5 and be grateful they didn’t have kids. Based on the ending, I can only hope that they divorced, seeing as he’s still in the area instead of moving back like she wanted. Even though I’m annoyed that he survived this mess and only ended with a reputation of being a madman, I hope his bloodline ends with him.
Welp, time to make the family in my Tomodachi game, haha.
It’s not really a spoiler, but I’m marking it just in case.
I did read the novel after season 1 ended, so I felt something off with the newest update. The imposters were familiar, but in the novel they didn’t travel in the desert with the real ones.
It might make the story more interesting than I remember, so we’ll see
If you’re tired of toxic schoolboy bls, this is a great pick for a light hearted, not so serious read. If you’re looking for other reasons, check the other comments since I’m blabbing about plot spoilers.
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The description was a lot more interesting than the actual story. To be fair, it is a short story, but it felt like ML moved on pretty quickly from his love at first sight crush (who inspired him to study) to the nerd who is helping him study (who is the original crush in disguise). Classic glasses cliche, I wondered why he didn’t wear them to work, but maybe he looked like a student/easy target.
MC’s “shameful” backstory is a bit interesting. Instead of the standard orphaned hard-working top student, his parents are criminals who got caught so that’s why he has to earn his own tuition for school. There’s probably not much of a difference between dead parents and irresponsible parents who didn’t put money aside for their child in case a heist went wrong… but at least there’s no debt! He was a lonely since he was an only child, but I think it’s a good thing that he only has to take care of himself. And has privacy at home.
It didn’t really feel like MC struggled that much to keep his other identity a secret. Maybe if there were a couple more chapters showing close calls it’d be more accurate to the description, but it is what it is. Not to mention, are you telling me that he’s an otaku MC who isn’t familiar with a faster heartbeat, fails to recognize the signs and blames arrhythmia…? Bro, are you serious?
(╯°Д °)╯╧╧
Also, the cliche transition of the bullies to becoming MC’s friends. I forgot about the introduction chapter; it was hilarious to see that guy bullying him in the beginning (who was there when ML fell in love and recognized MC) to being the one to join him in winning the cosplay contest. And character development to save an otaku from being bullied.
It felt like author was setting him up to be the friendzoned second ML, but got bored so then he randomly went into the rough world of idol biz after reuniting with his “friend” (maybe cosplaying gave him a push in that direction). Author, please tell me you’re coming back with their development. I’ll take anything, even toxic yaoi (since they already have the backstory for it haha)
Last but not least, our top dog himbo ML! Honestly, he’s the star of the story, I adore him so much lol. Falling for someone at first sight, working hard to meet that person’s expectations only to fall in love with the person he’s spending time with (who is the original crush), going back to apologize for falling in love with someone else (same guy), confessing and finding out that he was in love with one person along. Also the way he threw a fit after getting rejected in a fancy setting LMAOOO
The ending was perfect honestly. I expected nothing less for ML to pull a stunt like this, but I still want continued side stories, especially for the side pair. Or at least I want to see MC’s parents’ reaction to him having a boyfriend haha
I believe the full title should've been “How To Reject My Obessive Ex-Husband Until He Proves He's Changed"
Or honestly the original direct translation wasn't too bad-
Refusing Your Ex-Husband's Obession: A Guide
Because unlike what the title might lead you to believe, or judging from the cover, it is a story of second chances. If you're not into that, or if you're in need of something more than to just pass the time, this may not be for you.
I liked it for what it is, even though I did get tired halfway through and only came back after seeing that it was finally completed. But it's not perfect, and doesn't completely follow the original novel so it's not safe from my critisim haha. Ending spoilers "you haven't read / finished this yet!
P.S. Im not a novel reader, went looking for spoilers lol
It's not that I'm unsatisfied with the ending. but there's so many plot holes they didn’t address that I have questions about. For one thing, the fake saintess.
I've never seen a protagonist refuse the assignment they're given and there’s no immediate consequences, which I guess makes her a villianess for refusing. Or maybe she would've been the saintess if she was actually grateful about surviving and did the job that she was rescued for (without having a system that relied on her phone's dying battery and if returning to korea wasn't an option).
To play the devil's advocate, the villainess was originally a moder-day woman who is used to having freedom, so maybe having limitations as the saintess played a part in her turning out the way she did. MC had more freedom in comparison, and ML wanted to ensure she always had that freedom to choose. However, it could also just be her personality, and it was her choice to be selfish and gatekeep the saintess position even with the restrictions.
I don't know how to feel about the God/ess of this world setting. To give the benefit of the doubt, I think they mentioned there were multiple gods, so maybe there was an ill-intentioned god who saved the villainess and another god intervened to bring in MC.
It feels like this may be the case since her ranking was artificially raised and in actuality was no better than a B rank since she was never able to pair with any espers. Or my theory is that the system was bugged since it doesn't make any sense to raise the rank just by traveling between worlds. MC was fairly rewarded with having a higher rank by actually doing the saintess's purpose of finding and helping the awakening espers and guides, while the fake was lazy, only guided the prince and failed at guiding others.
However, when they were revealing this, it seemed to me that there was one God/ess who fucked up by choosing to save the villainess, who turned out to be a selfish bitch who has some responsibility of how MC & ML died in their first life. Luckily, they noticed MC was a pretty good person in her dying moments and decided to swap her soul to Irene's empty body to save the world instead.
It just really rubbed off the wrong way to me when the grand priest was given another prophecy that the second life was the last chance to save the world and they still needed to find the real saintess. Like, how was it their fault for taking the villainess as the saintess when she was just teleported into the temple as the original prophecy foretold her arrival? Were they supposed to test her morals or something?
Idk, it felt like God was unfairly blaming them of what happened in the first life when 1) how were they supposed to know she wasn't actually a good person/saintess and 2) the original Irene/MC wasn't even in the world when the villainess arrived. Like, God didn't put it nicely that the first one was fake or give a name to the one responsible for bringing her over in the first place.
Also, it might be just me, but I think it's weird that depending on how parents decided to name their children, they may be (un)luckily blessed with powers! Feels like a Pokemon Go naming hack - like, are these powers going to be hereditary or only for people named with religious connections?
Looking back at my past comment, I can't believe that there were readers who wanted to believe in the villainess's redemption. She was interesting for sure, but not redeemable in my eyes. Vindication!!!
Her original ending in the novel was pretty hardcore, where they cut off her arms using the portals and shove her back into Korea to be used as an esper resource and was experimented on for the rest of her life. In comparison, they were much kinder aka chickened out in the manhwa by allowing her to live as a puppet saintess and to guide CP.
(Karma in a way, where she goes from holding the leash to wearing it.)
According to MC, after attaining S-class, she was never able to bond with any S class esper anyways, making her worse than MC who was B class, which showed that her ranking was artifical and never changed from C class haha, so at least she's able to guide CP who can take it.
I'm not sure if it was done out of pity for him, or if they didn't want to draw chopping off the villinaness's arms, but in the novel he was originally going to be matched with a noble lady. I know that he was manipulated by the villianess and might've been annoying, but I guess they thought the ending would be better like this... haha cowards.
Also, because they chickened out of the original ending, we never get to see what happened to OG Irene and kinda assume that she's resting in peace. In the novel as l had mentioned earlier, she soul-swapped with MC and is living a good life, with the S-Rank esper that the villainess originally had a crush on. In a dream, the OG and MC were able to connect and the OG gave her trust and blessing that MC would take care of their family.
Maybe they wanted to end it perfectly at 100 chapters, but l still think it was a shame that they didn't follow the OG ending.