The World After the Bad Ending

So, this novel is quite good. Although lacking in originality in some parts, it makes it up with some interesting concepts. I won't go over them in detail, to not ruin the immersion, so I'll only mention whatever happens in chapters 1-10. To begin with, our MC is reincarnated inside this video game which he has finished 29 times (excluding any bad endings he purposely sought out). So he has plenty of knowledge regarding the characters, game mechanics, events and so on. Nothing really original regarding this, a typical academy reincarnation, which there is nothing wrong with. I am a sucker for these novels. 

The major difference between other novels, of the same genre, and this is the bandages used by the MC. They are called 'Veil Bandages' and have the unique ability to alter the MCs body (including age, gender, appearance and body structure).  Inside this world, there are dungeon where apostles lurk. These apostles are minions of the Demon Sovereign. As you can guess, the MC's goal is to kill these apostles before finally killing the Demon Sovereign to bring peace. This is where the academies come in. The academy students are used to deal with the dungeon because only those who are 19 years old or younger are able to enter. Vikamon Niflheim was exiled both from his family and academy due to putting the third princess of the Empire where he resides in danger. It is after Vikamon is exiled that our MC takes over his body and has to find a way back to the academy. Therefore, he finds the 'Veil Bandages'. He uses these bandages to impersonate the cousin of the third princess and gets into the academy. The most important plot device are these bandages. Although they can alter the body, they also come at the cost of slowly erasing/dulling the emotions: love, hatred and sorrow. Although this sounds rather simple to deal with, you must understand that we unconsciously love ourselves (the reason why we avoid self-destructing), and empathy is felt due to sorrow (since we have felt that kind of sadness, we don't wish other to feel it too). So the implications are worse than you may think. The MC is basically forced to use this bandages to alter his appearance, and will probably continue using them to avoid the dungeon age restriction, since these bandages are that versatile. 

The plot is good. Most of the events are already known to the MC due to him having no-lifed the game, but there are twists here and there to prevent the plot from feeling stale, boring and generally 'too easy for the mc'. Moreover, later on there are secrets uncovered which the MC has never seen inside the game, both about himself and the world. So there is plenty to uncover. As of chapter 200, the plot is somewhere around the middle point I would say, maybe a bit less depending on the author. Currently, the pacing is perfectly balanced I would say. A mix of romance, character development and action. No events feel forced or unnecessary. Hopefully, the author does not rush it because every rushed story always becomes mediocre. Now, regarding the romance/Harem in the novel. Before you click off, expecting brainless interactions, and all female characters trying to land on MC's lower head, the females characters are certainly not useless or brainless, and there are close to no complains about them. As I already mentioned before, the veil bandages play a big role in this story. You can probably guess the message that I am trying to convey just by yourself. Just by reading the first chapter, you already have a rough estimation of what is going to happen. The bandages basically are used to create a stalemate between the romance of our characters. Our mc is slowly becoming emotionless while the female heroines are slowly understanding their feelings. I would say this dynamic is definitely done tastefully and well. And I certainly like the current development and idea. I am just scared that the author is going to wait with the romance until the latest possible moment, thus giving us only 1-2 chapters of it at the very end. This has happened in other novels I previously read and is certainly distasteful. However, luckily the author does not show signs of going that route. The female characters are trying to rekindle the main characters emotions (which is possible and is mentioned by himself in the first chapter). So the dynamic becomes: A couple of girls are contesting with each other and are trying to make our MC feel love again. It is certainly a nice idea and rather unique in my opinion. I have read plenty of academy novels, and even more harem novels, and I have only seen this 'losing emotion' trope in 'I Became The Academy’s Blind Swordsman' (highly recommend, very good novel, TL mediocre though, and unfortunately dropped by author at around 400 chapters ☹). So the romance is there, and it's a slow burn since it takes more than a hundred chapters to see any notable romantic feelings blossoming. Currently, at 200 chapters, there are about 5-6 girls showing romantic feelings to our mc, with 2-3 more potential ones. So it is not a very big harem. Author-nim has managed to deliver quite well until now, so I am giving him my trust in this one. 

So, I already covered a bit of everything in general, without going into heavy details or spoilers. I would say that this novels is definitely worth reading if you are in search of a Academy & Harem novel. It certainly shares some elements with other novels, but nothing major or a 1-to-1 copy. I have no major complaints or anything I particularly dislike either. The harem/romance is a slow burn, done tastefully and the character interaction are fun to read. You certainly may find things to nit-pick if you go in expecting some kind of insane plot. But this novel is more of a simple, light-hearted academy novel which is written well. And it is certainly fun to read. I have nothing more to add, best of lucks in reading. 👋

Good mc a bit copy and pasty reincarned into a game with an academy mc but still good and the romance is nice as well, just something good to read in your spare time

I like this novel, the mc doesnt feel bland, fun to read too.

I need to fill this 140 characters thing, d*mn it.

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