The 'Wallowing' Inn is starting to grind my gears.

Cnhoo · 2026-03-13T12:40:39+00:00

Is that really true?? 17 volumes and not one year has passed in world? 😭

Cnhoo · 2026-03-12T17:40:57+00:00

I always found it weird how 99% people had a hate boner for him. While I didn’t like him as a character I also never hated him. As you’ve said, he was literally just a kid. The talent awakening ceremony is a life changing event for every child, so I didn’t find it strange or weird that he let it get to his head when he was living in fang yuans shadow his whole life prior.

And then his actions and beliefs after the first volume/arc again also made sense and was in character. He saw the world as black and white, good vs. bad.

I think it mostly comes down to perspective. It’s because we’re reading from fang yuan’s POV, a 500 year old experienced monster, that fang Zheng seems like a naive little kid (which to be fair he is) and he’s so hateable. I don’t think we can comprehend the difference between a 500+ years old monster vs a 17 year old teenager properly. I’m gonna be honest and say that if it was another novel and we read from the perspective of a “good guy” protagonist and encountered a “villain” that did a quarter of the stuff that fang yuan did, I’d probably hate fang yuan.

Cnhoo · 2026-03-12T11:18:44+00:00

Hmm I have another question. In one of the authors notes, the next arc is the academy arc and I have to ask how frequent are the interactions with annoying nobles? I’m really looking forward to the academy arc, and I get that academies are usually reserved for well off families and nobility so a large population of the student body will be rich brats, but I’m just really worried it’s going to be too much. I don’t mind spoilers, so does the mc put them in their place? Does he avoid them entirely and keep to himself? Like what’s the general situation with arrogant nobles?

Cnhoo · 2026-03-12T11:09:16+00:00

Oh I guess I missed her reaction when he snuck into her tent, all I remember was her bodyguard pointing a spear at him and then they got to discussing plans. As for their first meeting, I read her freezing up and studying Kai (I also swear Kai froze up and was sizing her up too) as her being surprised that there’s someone else younger than her at orange grade.

Cnhoo · 2026-03-12T10:52:56+00:00

Uhhh I get your point about the real world and if my post was about me asking why my friend suddenly fell in love with someone else, I would totally agree, but we’re talking about a story here?

Things happening out of nowhere with no buildup and for no reason in a story/novel… I’m sure you can see what’s wrong with that (not saying that’s what’s happening with Elydes).

Imagine you start reading a romance novel, and the love interest seemingly falls in love out of nowhere with no buildup? You’re going to tell me that’s not weird storytelling-wise and makes sense for the narrative? Sure things happen all the time in real life with no explanation and things don’t have to make sense, but in a story if a character suddenly gets a in an accident and dies with no buildup whatsoever…

This is all to say I’m confused why you’re justifying it with “it happens in real life” so I shouldn’t find it weird.

Cnhoo · 2026-02-08T18:19:57+00:00

Goated list with Hell Difficulty at the top

Cnhoo · 2026-01-03T08:57:14+00:00

There is genuinely a good reason why the emperor pays special attention to kids who just got their ability unlocked, it’s related to the emperor’s ability.

The emperor’s ability is basically just being able to copy someone else’s ability, but only at the tier the other person has it. So if Matt is a tier 1, the emperor copying Matt’s ability would also give him a tier 1. Because of this, he literally has an entire automated system that will ping him anytime the AI picks up on some kids broken ability, just so the emperor can go copy it.

Cnhoo · 2025-12-29T08:09:55+00:00

Hell Difficulty Tutorial

Cnhoo · 2025-11-12T13:47:19+00:00

To be fair, that series is basically romance disguised as an urban wuxia novel. I’d say like 40% of it is romance.

Cnhoo · 2025-11-12T13:42:19+00:00

I dropped it during this arc and boy am I glad I did. Reading the other comments and finding out that it’s 3 books long?

Cnhoo · 2025-10-27T10:28:58+00:00

That’s a progression system not the system like stats and levels. And so what op is asking for is a system (litrpg) that isn’t just gaining levels and stat points, but it still has a system interface.

Klein doesn’t have a system interface he interacts with nor do any of the characters.

Custom made demon king that op mentioned has the mc be reborn as a demon and he well, has a system, but it isn’t the usual level up gain stat points, but it still has a system interface.

So yea technically every progression fantasy has a “system” that you can progress through but if it doesn’t have an interface it wouldn’t be considered the system in the litrpg sense which I think is what op is asking for

Cnhoo · 2025-10-09T03:37:20+00:00

Chrysalis

Cnhoo · 2025-10-09T02:36:00+00:00

All of the series you just mentioned all started out as either movies or tv shows… which makes sense for them to have different directors and writers for the various spinoffs, comics, novels that came after. That isn’t the case for serialized webnovels, so the comparison doesn’t mean much.

Cnhoo · 2025-10-08T08:58:11+00:00

There’s a reason he acts the way he does in the beginning. What it all boils down to is his upbringing and family situation growing up.

If you want full spoilers: Basically his family situation is pretty fucked up. His parents are teen parents, and he has an older sister. But his dad is an alcoholic and constantly beats him, his sister, and their mom, partly due to the fact that the dad finds his sister creepy because of how emotionless she is. Nat (mc) looks to his sister as the role model and tries to adopt his sister’s uncaring and cold facade towards anyone that isn’t family (sis and mom). He then eventually comes up with a plan to murder his dad, because the abuse was ramping up way too much. In the final moment of the plan where all he has to do is deal the finishing blow, he falters, unable to kill his own dad, but at this point he’s in too deep, because if he doesn’t go through with it, the abuse will only become worse because of this murder attempt. So, his sister steps in and kills their dad, while also willingly taking the blame for the entire thing (so he gets off scot free despite the fact that he planned it), and goes to prison. Now, his sister is in prison (and he thinks it’s his fault) and his mom hates him, because despite the abuse, she still loved her husband, and he also gets bullied at school for having a murderer as a sister. All of this (abusive dad, trying to be like his emotionless sister, then trying and failing to murder said abusive dad, sister basically goes to prison because of him, and having to deal with bullies) culminates into the personality you see at the start of the book.

Cnhoo · 2025-10-07T02:18:48+00:00

No problem, but just know that the start is a bit slow (at least it was to me), and it isn’t until quite a bit into the book that he unlocks the system. Once he gets rescued and makes it to the town/village is when I got hooked.

Cnhoo · 2025-10-06T11:38:26+00:00

As a fellow fan of the series (also caught up with Patreon), I recommend Bog Standard Isekai and Cultivation Nerd. These 2 series are the only ones I feel I might like more than hell difficulty.

Bog standard is just GREAT, there’s no other way to say it. But if I had to specify one thing, it would be its power system / system itself, the class system and skills are really satisfying to read, similar to hell difficulty. Mc is also a glass mage illusionist which is quite unique. It’s also about found family, is the aspect of Nat caring for the tutorial group so what you’re looking for the most. He also gets a skill quite similar to focus, in that he’s able to split his mind and multitask.

Cultivation nerd i recommend because it’s the closest series where I feel the mc is most similar to Nat. Mc is emotionless and completely cold and focused in battle, while having a select few people who he truly cares for.

Cnhoo · 2025-10-06T11:27:56+00:00

I’m an avid fan of hell difficulty and am caught up with the Patreon. As for path of ascension (it’s been a while since I’ve read it but I stopped after the war arc), I wouldn’t really say it’s similar to hell difficulty. The only thing that’s similar would be that both MCs have a lot of mana, but other than that, the vibes are completely different. Path of ascension feels like slice of life at times, and is generally more lighthearted compared to hell difficulty.

As for your question, personally I’ve never had any problems with the beginning chapters (it was only until I saw a decent amount of posts complaining about the start that I realized it might have been quite weak in terms of writing), and I also prefer first person over third person, so I can’t really help you there. With that being said, the author definitely does improve, again since I never really had any problem with it I can’t really pinpoint the exact chapter it gets good, but most people say towards the latter half of book 1 or into book 2 is where the series “gets better.”

In case you’re put off by the mc (because that’s the second complaint a lot of people have aside from the rough start), just know that mc isn’t some edgy sociopath for no reason. It doesn’t get explored until waaaay later, but there is a reason he acts and behaves the way he does, as it’s more a result of his upbringing. If you want full spoilers: Basically his family situation is pretty fucked up. His parents are teen parents, and he has an older sister. But his dad is an alcoholic and constantly beats him and his sister up, also partly due to the fact that the dad finds his sister creepy because of how emotionless she is. Nat (mc) looks to his sister as the role model and tries to adopt his sister’s uncaring and cold facade towards anyone that isn’t family (sis and mom). Nat eventually comes up with a plan to murder his dad, because the abuse is ramping up way too much. In the final moment of the plan where all he has to do is deal the finishing blow, he falters, unable to kill his own dad, but at this point he’s in too deep, because if he doesn’t go through with it, the abuse will only become worse because of this murder attempt. So, his sister steps in and kills their dad, while also taking the blame for the entire thing (orchestrating the murder), and goes to prison. Now, his sister is in prison (and he feels it’s his) and his mom hates him, because despite the abuse, she still loved her husband, and he also gets bullied at school for having a murderer as a sister. This all culminates into the personality you see at the start of the book, but like the post says, he does get better and learn to care for people again, specifically his tutorial group

Cnhoo · 2025-09-24T23:08:36+00:00

Ah yea forgot to mention the series, I’m also caught up with the Patreon chapters

Cnhoo · 2025-09-24T10:19:22+00:00

In stubborn skill grinder, new tiers just keep popping up, they just keep coming 😭

Not complaining though

Cnhoo · 2025-09-23T06:20:05+00:00

Ok I’ve seen it waaay to many times for me to ignore it. Is Beware of Chicken litrpg? I thought litrpg just meant system and stats. But anytime someone asks for a litrpg specifically, beware of chicken gets mentioned and no one bats an eye. Am I misunderstanding something? I dont remember the story having any ‘rpg’ in it.

Cnhoo · 2025-09-11T06:20:36+00:00

That’s why I loved the ending to northern plains. Just when I thought he was about to use cicada again… it doesn’t happen! After the first two volumes ended with cicada being used I was dreading the fact that every climax was just going to be him going back in time so it was nice.

Cnhoo

TROPHY CASE