snom

I really enjoyed this book, but was a bit annoyed that ending was a cliffhanger in the middle of an arc that was starting to get really good.

Initially, I felt like the book may have been a 3.5, but I loved how in the final 1/4 of book, the plot started to get much more intense and there seems to be some underlying reason that Mo Ran may have been brought back as his teenage self, as it doesn't seem common for cultivators here to have that kind of ability.

"Shizun is so heartlesss. This venerable one is disappointed. You have no disciple like me? Then who taught me to caultivate? Who taught me martial skills? And my coldblooded ruthlessness - who taught methat? And the whip scars all over my bodythat still won't fade - let me ask you,who gave me those?"

"You've never seen me as your disciple, never thought anything of me! But I - I once... really did see you as my teacher. I really did respect you. Adored you! Why did you treat me like that? Why did you never spare me so much as a single word of praise? Why was it no matter what I did, I could never earn even the slightest bit of approval from you?"

The running theme of the story definitely seems like redemption and being able to move forward. We have Mo Ran who has such conflicting feelings of possession and even obsession towards his Shizun but when we see his flashbacks as the evil, tyrant emperor... it all stems from Chu Wanning being so mean to him and calling him, "vile by nature, beyond remedy" which led him to that path. It's Mo Ran is unable to recognise his feelings for Chu Wanning, and thinks he loathes him so, but would do anything to get him back.

To all appearances, Chu Wanning was aloof and haughty. But within, in truth he'd been treated coldly others for so long, been feared for so long, that as he walked this long and lonely road, his opinion of himself slowly crumbled to dust.

Contrasting this, when we learn that Chu Wanning actually is in love Mo Ran, and he isn't actually that cold (well he is), and yearns for him. It's just depressing. Our dear Shizun is seen by others to be so standoffish and closed off (okay this is also kinda self-inflicted as he acknowledges this himself), and has pretty big self-esteem issues. Finding it so hard to open up to others... maybe the stupid discipline that was brave enough to choose him as a mentor will slowly crack away at his shell...

“Shizun, I’m really not…beyond remedy…"

So, please, don’t give up on me.

I'm really rooting for him and Mo Ran's happily ever after... but I also really love the angst we're getting here, and excited to read the next book!

MC gets isekaied into his favourite online wiki which focuses on 'ghost stories'. He joins a company which sends agents to deal with ghost stories. The company has the power to can grant employees 'Wish Tickets', which can grant any wish, and his goal is use one to return back to his home world.

You can clearly tell that the author was heavily inspired by SCP foundation, and I'm surprised I haven't read any stories that have elements like this, as I joined it a lot. I thought this story would make me scared, but honestly, I found it more comedic than anything (one arc in particular did scare the shit out of me, though). I enjoyed the author balancing the MC being a complete coward in the face of all the horror the company subjects their employees to, with him being quite rational and calculative when he is solving the ghost stories (due to him having the knowledge of this new world by being a mega fan of the wiki). A consequence of this is that he can seem like a Mary Sue character at times, and he even calls himself by this term in the story.

In terms of characters, there wasn't a single one I disliked. However, I did feel like we didn't learn much of them at all (which is acknowledged), and MC mostly stays with his squad he is assigned to, so they appear a bit sporadically. I hope in Part 2 we learn more about them.

The story is unpredictable, and I was never truly sure what was going to happen and how the MC would escape each ghost story. It really picked up for me around the 40% mark, which contains my favourite arcs, specifically the Time Loop arc. Before then, it did feel kind of like monster-of-the-week style and episodic in nature. The ending was a complete wtf moment for me.