"The person who became their biggest obstacle was"..."poisoned in the first chapter."
Not a big obstacle at all then. Keep your story straight.
I was going to say exactly this.
I've noticed this a few times, where MC's become the villain that they talk up as the 'big bad', but then also seem to imply that they were 3rd rate or unimportant - this was the most blatant though, literally contradicting itself on the very next page after claiming she was the biggest hindrance.
Also, it gets on my nerves that the MC's are clearly supposed to be well read on pop-culture, or at least the niche of it that we all partake in, and yet they're constantly surprised by such cliches such as being reincarnated as a villain or background character.
If you're going to make them so ignorant of such things, don't make them someone who reads comics, or plays games.
They're trying to have their cake (someone the reader can relate to; a fellow nerd/otaku), and eat it too (making the relatable nerd protagonist ignorant of all the well worn cliches of the genre).
Also also, since I'm whinging about this particular genre, I've noticed that the pieces of media that the protagonists are often reincarnated/isekai'd into don't make much sense, or sound like awful experiences.
Like the mc will go to a secret, that none of the other characters know about, to collect a treasure written about in the work they isekai'd into, but how would that actually work in a book?
"Oh by the way, there's a cool treasure in that tree that could have solved everything... too bad no one knew about it, lol."
No story is like that, but I've oft seen these kind of forced conveniences in this genre, and it's hand waved off as just 'something the author wrote', or a 'easter egg left in by the devs', or some such.
Put some actual thought into what the piece of media, that the protagonist has been isekai'd into, would actually be like and stop just saying whatever is comes to mind, gosh darn it!
