this novel is... what should I say..... like the author has this really cool (what's the word) vision (?) for the worldbuilding they want to create for their work, but like, their need to write smut won?? and I say this in the positive way jdfahkgjk
dungeon crawling novels are the most generic and everywhere you can find type of novels in kr novel world, and in the bl side, guideverse novels are also like hunterverse and omegaverse mash-up, most of the time, melodrama, smut filled novels.
and profundis here actually managed to like have this really cool solid hunterverse/guideverse worldbuilding in the background, very realistic, gritty apocalypse backdrop, and lovecraftian horror type monsters (omg I fricking love the monster in the novel).
BUT THEN boom the smut fest............
i mean it's not really THAT bad, as far as most r*pe harem novels go. the mls knows what they are doing to MC is r*pe, the MC knows what is it, and all the parties acknowledge it and even say the word on screen. I mean.... I know many novels that don't even use the r word and just shove it under the rug lol.
the saving grace is the MC baek yugeon. I thought he was going to be like most bottom MCs, where they suddenly change from strong ch to weak ch in the vicinity of the MLs. tbh he's an ant in the middle of the elephants from the very start. the fact that he didn't go insane is just.... the way his personality remained unchanged until the very end was very earning as a reader. that was the reason why his decision to stay with the scum ML was somewhat understandable... because I know he is going to be happy with his choice. he didn't forgive the ML, but he will be happy, they are both striving to better themselves, and they are going to happy and that's enough.
10/10 for word building, and for satisfying my craving for lovecraftian horror
7/10 for romance
10/10 for character likability (baek yugeon is my baby)
10/10 for smut (*consensual s*x scenes - they are some of the spiciest s*x scenes ive ever read)