I was on a date with the girl of my dreams when life took a strange turn and I found myself sucked into a virtual game world. It was pretty much a nose dive out of my own world of comforts, where I had everything: money, love and a bright future on the horizon. I'm not a gamer and I’ve never been one to run from reality, but it seems fate has decided that my real life no longer belongs to me. Now I'm rotting away in some dumpy medieval village where everyone I meet wants to kill me.
But I won’t give up and I won’t lose hope. I'll get to the bottom of this! What’s it all for, and who's the mastermind behind it? I don’t plan on just rolling over and accepting any “gift” fate wants to bestow upon me, and if I have to turn this whole damn world inside out, so be it!
Think there are no more offbeat and original plotlines in the world of LitRPG? Well, friends, you’re in for a big surprise!
My Opinion: 461 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
*Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy for review. I purchased a copy when it became available.
A Russian translation story that adds a twist to the trapped in the game format by making the main character (MC) a scanned copy of a real person uploaded to the game without his permission. The game world is PvP centric, with added permadeath since all the players are just scanned copies.
My initial impression was a little confused since it takes till about the 10% mark to explain the premise. But after that point, the setup is clear, even if the ultimate goal of the story isn’t. Instead, most of the novel is a bit slice of life as you follow the MC as he tries to escape the players trying to enslave newbies, figures out the game system, levels up, and recruits others to help him to stay alive against the monsters and other players trying to kill him, and eventually reaches a larger community that he gets involved with. There’s a little bit of a storyline to do with the real world, but for most of the novel, there doesn’t seem to be a clear plot. It’s not until about 66% into it that you get something rather interesting. It relates to real life, the creators of the system, and the real purpose behind the game. It’s a pretty good twist that adds purpose to what comes after in addition to some good town defense stuff. But it’s honestly something that took way too long to get to.
The game mechanics are fine. Nothing particularly innovative, but solid RPG progression with some smart spell combos and group tactics. There’s an emphasis on PvP and the tactics associated with that, so that might be a highlight for some.
Overall, unless you just fall in love with the early PvP aspect of the story or some of the group fights, it’s a challenge to see where the story is going until you’re almost done with it. There’s some rather good stuff after that 66% reveal that kept me interested, but I found it challenging to stay fully engaged with the story up to that point.
Score: 6.8 out of 10