I love how the book started. The world and all the characters were very interesting. After reading this book, I really don’t see a point of continuing the series. A couple of gripes are how the story switches to the staff and then Riley. 90 percent of the staffs story was boring. Riley’s internal dialog was just cringe. “I wish I was strong like him.” She constantly cries about wanting to be strong like a random person on this game she’s being forced to play. It really does not make sense.
A few gripes about the writing: If I had a dollar every time the writer uses the word “Cascade” or describes eyes as “milky white,”
*Spoiler warning*
The character struggling and just using stealth and knife skills is where the story shined. I was interested in exploring the rest of the world and having him slowly get stronger. Unfortunately, in a matter of a few chapters, he is somehow special and able to control the army of the undead. Everything was basically given to him for being a special chosen one. leveling does not matter as well, even though they made it a big deal at the start. Despite being lower level, he’s able to fight hundreds of npc’s and players higher level than him with ease. He just got too powerful too fast, and it was very boring. Riley even got a special ability because of her emotions? So we are just going to ignore the 100s of other players being slaughtered and not one got anything special? Just the main character and now the main characters friend? The book left on a decent cliffhanger, but the fact that he’s that powerful, what’s the point? He already beat the strongest players and conquered a city, so the book ends here for me.