This was the worst of the four books. The only good things I can say for it is that there were a few unique (though dull) characters, it didn’t rely entirely on pop culture references like many other LitRPG, and it didn’t devolve into a harem porno like many LitRPG.
What I didn’t like would take too long to say, so I just hit a few points.
The MC, who is meant to have one of, if not THE most powerful brains of all mankind, is not that smart. He survives on dumb luck, OP equipment, exploited loopholes, and getting just what he needs just when he needs it. He never really earns anything himself, which could be said of the entire series.
The biggest problem for me is the massive plot hole. The VI’s experience billions of years for every day in the real world. Yet they need humans to do research for them at 28x real world speed. The only explanation for why they don’t do the research themselves is “they can’t.” No real reason, they just aren’t adaptive enough to do anything other than advance current tech. That’s a lazy way to cover up an irrational plot. Even ignoring that, let’s look at how these super intelligent VI’s go about getting humans to do research. They starve the humans and give them almost no reward for success. How would that be an efficient means of coercion? Starve and suffer if you don’t do research, or half starve and still suffer if you do.