I’m not crazy, these numbers are wildly inconsistent, right? Especially his perception range.

It’s a pretty bad start, and that’s what this review is based on so keep that in mind. This novel doesn’t seem to know how to breathe and take its time. It’s fine to move fast when the story is moving fast, but there isn’t enough description during the slower moments. The premise is okay: typical survivor death game stuff with a heavy Gantz influence. The intro is a bait and switch but it happens so quickly it’s like pulling the fishing line up the second you cast it out. It would have been better for the bus crash to happen after the MC had his confrontation with the woman who texted him. That way, it would seem like we were getting one story and then we get switched into another. MC basically changes into a different person the moment the death game happens, probably because we get no time to find out who he is before the bus crash so the few details we do get paint him as someone other than the typical MC that he very much turns into. In summary: this novel is in a big hurry to get somewhere that isn’t really that interesting or new.

More accurately, the best universities are the military ones, until the MC joins the one that is ranked somewhere 4th to 10th and then leads that university’s team to take 1st in whatever competition. When this is not the formula, then it is the MC joining one of the big 3 (sometimes 4) who are all more or less considered equally elite. Though even then, the military school is usually considered first in combat rankings or they placed first in the previous competition.

It’s usage in Chinese web novels almost always seems to mean sexually conservative.

Basically better to confront something and get it over with rather than wait for it to come and confront you. We don’t know what this is in regards to, but I imagine that lost in translation is the sense that this bus is about to take him to that confrontation.

Compared to what, though? Compared to their ideal, sure, they fell short. Everyone falls short of ideals. Compared to the standard of living they used to have? China has been an astounding success. Without China’s statistics factored in, capitalism can’t pretend to be a global force for good. Corruption is no worse there than here, the flavor is just different because the conditions are different.

Yeah, but that doesn’t matter if the ending Xu wants is to not break up his family.

Did you not take Parapsychology? Lol

Dude constantly undressing women with his eyes: “What, you don’t like me because I don’t want to date a transwoman?”

I mean, phrenology used to be “science” so it’s not like this sort of thing couldn’t have been dreamt up by a hack at some point, but it’s kind of like theorizing on how various hormones interact with the 4 humours.

Parapsychology is like:

Well, at least Su Yu has been spared the disappointment of the abysmal Diablo 3 launch.

Essentially,Deng knew that the only way for Chinese socialism to flourish against a backdrop of increasingly interconnected global capitalism was to use the tendencies of capitalists to seek profits against their longer term interests. Central control of the Chinese economy allowed for the Chinese government to use wealth generated by economic opportunity zones to jumpstart the modernization of China and the lifting of hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty.

I dunno, a white tiger can have a certain charm. ;)

My money is still on it being his wife’s wife. But it could also be a more general statement about his luck with women.

I feel like he figured it out or had suspicions at some point but then kept pretending he had no idea?

There will be eyes that cannot see Mount Tai! And people refusing toasts only to be forced to drink a forfeit!

It’s not all that different than calling your country Atlantis or Camelot. It’s not nefarious, it’s a cultural shortcut that conjures an image in the mind of the intended audience without the author needing to devote words to describe it.

The gold finger was a device used to cheat with old console games. Infinite lives, that sort of stuff. I really wish I knew which novels were first to use the term Gold Finger to refer to the protagonist’s cheat. It’s used so widely that I wonder how many authors even know the origins and how many just grew up reading about other main characters getting their gold fingers, lol.

Maybe it lessens the chance of your blessed land being a blessed landfill of empty beer cans and used tissues.