(already read the novel currently main text done with 30 more epilogues to go) if the manhua follows true from the novel the violence is probably much worse than it seems in the drawings..
One thing for sure definitely Stockholm Syndrome. altho in the novel you could read some of Heewon's thoughts about being more slightly at ease with Kangwoo minus his crazy violent tendency side, than his mother or brother because of mixed feelings.
In the end MC stuck between a rock & a hard place made a rational decision & imo arguably personally for himself because of the above. but still cant deny the foundation of the relationship is still SS. but for me its fine (as a story) as I dont expect a healthy relationship when it involves psychopaths or atleast one of them.
Altho cant really tell if Kangwoo is really inlove except that he has high tolerance & cant kill Heewon, he made romantic gestures but its not the same with other novels with similar ML.. it doesnt scream love you to death crazy, just a cool & calm i like you and want you to stay in my palm kind.
main text end spoiler keys: MC has debts and ML is a psychopathic manipulator who doesn't mind scaring him as long he can keep him; tho ML gave him a choice but as i said the end situation is.. just keep in mind ML is handsome, can be gentle & thoughtful which some would already consider it romantic but he doesnt shy away from hurting his man; oh he also gave him a physical punishment at that scene.
I think its pretty clear now that it is under self-defense why Doha killed that villager in the first place on ch 2; its most likely his first session & have a vague recollection of a past session, which makes sense cause hes always the one to go seek help from the village so he already met that guy and got killed by him in the past
what if this game is some sort of inception/paradox plot
or better yet this group of playable characters gain awareness/sentience but all of the "were trapped in a game" is just part of the game script, so even tho they awakened theyre just playing along the OG Game's plot
im happy that they continued to have interactions behind the CP but uh now im worried they got caught
also CP shouldve left a burn mark even if its somewhere discreet
If Doha is indeed a player to begin with, why can he kill the Murderer NPC but not Bada? If he's an NPC it could explain why he can affect other NPCs cause he's part of the game world, then he became an NPC turned player later. (1)
for the others if they are also initially players, then Jae-Seob and Bae Hyungshin that have the soon-to-be lovers trope and seems to have their feelings for each other wired into their character design as seen when BH tried to caution/prevents the other and SB killing Bada & Doha when BH died; its too much of a coincidence if they are also lovers in real life (1)
there is also the possibility that Doha has an attribute trait that enables him to cause real damage to NPCs because of his personality (? designated character) while Bada's trait/character design could be a quick to notice but silent know it all or the information gatherer; more intelligence or something similar but has a "not enough strength to kill" or "cannot kill people" attribute (2)
He really shouldve killed him back then, then there wont be any misunderstanding about the mandala blossom in the present to begin with