yup, i recommend it overall. there was hardly a lull in the story because both in-game and irl plots had pretty good conflicts and climax.
look, i saw the staggering amount of chapters too and thought, 'damn ok i'm just gonna casually skim through the battle large arc for spoilers and call it a day. i probably won't be able to finish an entire chapter with my short attention span.'
homie chapter 195 is already way past battle large arc since making this comment i've finished the 264ch first season+ 16ch side story and am now 56 chapters deep into the 2nd season. i failed at the casual part.
[spoilers] he does reveal his condition. thankfully he was able to do it on his own terms. us readers are also given the full truth of what happened and the public+media's reaction is so satisfying and also heartbreaking
regarding the surgery or treatment, from the current chapters i'm in, there's a little tiny bit of hope but it's still not conclusive and needs to be researched further by the doctor handling his case
[spoilers] right??? i literally can't put this down and i've been staying up late for days now it's that good i need help escaping from the nutverse lmao
i've got 2 worries for this with regards to the streamers... (1) i hope miho won't be over sexualized and (2) i actually hope they remove the old fashioned macho character transphobic jokes when it comes to StawberryShooter. it's so unnecessary to keep criticizing his want to be feminine when they're all in virtual reality and everyone is basically cosplaying whatever they want.
other than that, the fan interactions, the memes... they're all hilarious and A+++ and when it gets deep and heartfelt, man it really goes in for the kill. even the NPC stories has me in tears
[spoiler]
YES! I was surprised when the story got deep, and his trauma is shown realistically.
The flashbacks get me weeping like a child.
The youth, the tragedy, the healing process. Even when (redacted) appears on his dream (only to be woken up by Junghyuk, lol).
When I started the novel, I'm really afraid the author going to be chickened up by the reader to write actual romance, but he did. So beautifully, crashing my skeptical mind about how action novel author can't write a good romance.
I'm gonna take my time before starting the second season.
except i couldn't find a concise summary so i had no choice but to start the novel....
and holy shit. the novel is GOOD.
i don't really like reading webnovels; i prefer published, long-form ones. but this one really conveyed the thrills of streaming & competitive gaming. the chats were hilarious & other side characters had interesting back stories.
one thing i am worried about is how the webtoon will depict the female characters. right now @35 there's not much, but [SPOILERS] they're gonna start introducing a fair amount once he peaks at battle large.
in the novel it's fairly negligible because they're interesting and complicated in their own right, with their own narratives not solely dependent on almond's actions. they actually feel like friends and rivals instead of just narrative foil to make almond look desirable.
HOWEVER. some of them do have more than platonic ties to almond and that can easily be depicted as cloyingly harem-like despite no romance actually happening. a little too much fan service when drawing their characters can completely ruin the balance the novel has established.
anw it's still too early to get worried lol. I just needed somewhere to vent how surprisingly good the novel is because i've been staying up late for 3 days bingeing it
edit: just got to chapter 195 and... goosebumps. oh my god.