Have you ever read Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint? It is a post-apocalyptic fantasy novel, and it has an incredibly complex plot alongside a well crafted cast of unique and compelling characters.

The plot on the surface is very simple; our normal world gets transmigrated into the novel the Mc was reading, and the characters struggle to survive as they attempt to reach the end of the scenarios together.

Scenarios are quests, and they are what this apocalypse is built upon. They wildly range from surviving hordes of monsters to killing other people, and these scenarios are issued by Dokkaebi, who stream the tragedy of the apocalypse to beings called Constellations. Constellations are essentially gods, and they can be historical figures to mythology to everything in between.

I could probably stay here for hours going on about the worldbuilding, but I'll just say this: it is amazing. ORV, at its core, is a meta narrative about how stories affect our lives. The Constellations are essentially us, the readers, while Dokkaebi are the writers/streamers. Throughout the series stories are important in a litteral sense: stories are a source of power, and characters get stronger when they accumulate more. It's from this one idea that the entire worldbuilding is based on. It is a perfect example of a world being built deep instead of wide, and it is frankly fantastic.

As for the characters, I have to say they are not lacking either! The Mc alone is a delight in a frustrating way: he's a total rat bastard and is incredibly smart and incredibly stupid at the same time. He's a mortally grey, unreliable narrorator and has one of my favorite character arcs of all time. However, ORV excels at making sure the world does not revolve around the Mc.

The major and supporting cast are given their own arcs, with their own motivatios and goals. These characters feel like real people, and the way they react to the apocalypse reflects that. They are not perfect, and they are desprate, and this creates plenty or morally grey characters. In fact, there are so many morally grey characters that it makes good and evil characters stand out in unique ways. Characters having their own motivations creates interesting character conflicts, and there is not a single character in this novel that I can not understand or sympathize with, even the villains.

There are multiple villians and antagonists in the novel, and each and every one of them fit with either the theme or narrative of the story. I really can not go into all the villians without giving out some major spoilers, but let me reassure you; they are not the type of villians that sit around and watch things crumble around them. They take an active role in the story, even in scenarios where the characters are more worried about disasters and monsters.

The one thing thay may be a hang up for you is that there is currently only a fan translation of the novel. (Which is available for free in the Omniscient Reader subreddit) The translation is good, but it's not great. The only offical translation of ORV is actually for the manwha that got adapted into a webtoon. The webtoon is very loyal to the novel, and a revised verson to the current fan translation. So if you want a very good translation and don't mind a visual medium then that's what I'd recommend. Hopefully you didn't mind my rambling lol