This is unfortunately a mixed review:
Volume 1 was amazing: I previously had this series rated 5 stars. If you're considering reading this series, I encourage you to do so, it is definitely worth your time. As others have mentioned, this has emotions and characters.
Volume 1 is a brilliant build up towards the first Night of Walpurgis. The author cleverly introduces characters, gives a complex and heavy past to the MC (lots of room to grow), and uses eloquence and manipulation to create a very nice climax. Volume 2 is still good. I enjoyed the use of flashbacks, the plot devices giving you hints and red herrings of where it might go, and the mellow conclusion. The introduction of romance was also working quite well.
Another thing worth noting is that this is not a hastily slapped together web novel. This is a very well planned and crafted story. Volumes 1 and 2 were obviously reviewed and edited to have great dramatic effect. The pacing is good and the story falls into place.
Our negative protagonist is hinted to be growing into his father's shoes despite the hate he held for him. He is quite obviously destined for greatness and evil, but in volume 1, there is also a very key aspect of elegance to his character. That elegance was something I really saw as integral to his personality. It explained the remarks in the prologue, complemented his physical frailty and fit well with the machinations of the nobility. Author betrays key foundations
I have a number of reasons to suspect that the author fell off his original path:
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The game elements that were important details at the beginning - and part of his cheat skill selection, practically disappear later.
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Related to the above, but the choices and infamy/fame. In volume 1, (even in the prologue, which is much later chronologically), the MC was obviously weary and distraught because of his infamy increasing. The choices meant something special, they were part of his internally conflicted psychology. The choices become almost inconsequential later on, having to do with his love life instead of his mental development.
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If you read the prologue carefully, you see a very different man than the MC in later volumes. He is disappointed in Cristiane because she is selfish and shameless and doesn't have the elegance of the nobility. The whole beauty of a negative protagonist is that they are evil because they make the "right" choices. The prologue really gives that flavour and gave me false expectations.
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The theme of authority and love of authority becomes too dominant. I liked it a lot when it initially came up. It enhanced the MC's manipulative side and explained many of his actions. But when it also (unintentionally on the author's part, from what I can tell), stabilized our MC's emotions. The beauty of this MC was his insecurities, the contradictions that made his actions interesting, the falling in his father's footsteps despite the hate he had for the man. But authority grounded him. Suddenly, the contradictions were all downplayed, he had an ideal and the power to get to it. He was no longer evil because of a mix of genius and helplessness, he was just evil because he wanted to be.
Plot becomes forced instead of crafted
Slightly, in volume 2 and much more in volume 3, we see elements destroying the appeal of the MC:
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The colloguialness/vulgarity that gets added to his talking habits. It works well as a nice counterpoint, for sure, I applaud the author for introducing it. But a contrast is only as good as it is sparse.
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The overemphasis of wanting to have s*x with everything, and I don't mean tasteful s*x scenes, of which there are some (I have nothing against a well done, complex interplay of romance, but there's just girls *senselessly* wanting to have s*x with him at every turn by volume 3.)
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The ever increasing moe characterization
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The shift between plot and character: Volume 1 was all about the plot, with the MC's cunning playing into it, twisting it, putting him on the stage as a player. We had very good secondary characters with different motives. By volume 3, it is predetermined that the MC is always going to win, there is very little that happens that is not caused by the MC's "cunning", which ends up feeling plastic.
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The less and less apt use of evil and manipulation. The MC just becomes a symbol of evil, instead of being a character of internal conflict, striving for his twisted aesthetic. Instead, he just wants to kill humans to advance the plot.
Read it though, it's a good novel, volume 1 particularly is inspirational and I hope many more korean authors follow in this style.