I don’t think this is the solo leveling clone people are calling it. Though, that could just be my perspective, as I read a lot of web fiction, and they all have some similar setups.
What I’ve found makes that tolerable is that they all stand on their own merits beyond that. Sure, The New World uses a system and plotline line similar to Randidly Ghosthound, but the way those concepts are executed and the world that creates them are interesting on their own and bring up a lot of unique interaction based on the setting. Moreover, they heavily deviate in characterization and plot structure as they go forward.
Now, likely few of you will know what I’m talking about, but suffice it to say that to pull off a System Apocalypse or otherwise Dungeon-Crawling/LitRPG setting, you need to have a more interesting and creative structure of concepts. This story absolutely does not have that.
Regarding the magic system, I don’t know what it does, how it’s limited, or what it wants to be. The main character has a few spells we get basically no information on, and has a few lame ‘cheat skills’ that apparently allow those spells to be used while moving or while taking damage? As much potential as that could have, it doesn’t work here. You need to set up a reason for it and elaborate on the limits most people face more. Here, you’re just told ‘bro trust me he’s strong’ when there’s just an arbitrary limitation placed on literally everyone else.
This wouldn’t be that bad if the other parts of the magic system were any better. But, as it stands, we have no clue how classes work beyond a few more poorly-defined skills from the mechanic class. No new combat spells or anything well defined yet, despite any growth. It just feels like one of the stories where the numbers get bigger and nothing meaningful happens in the MC’s combat style.
Why can’t we see him doing more math? Browsing old game forums to min-max himself? Asking for build advice online? Stuff like that. Humanize the character as a hopeless gamer, not a cold-blooded murderer because the author heard complaints from 12 year olds about wanting the characters to ‘not be pussies’.
Now, I would go on about the rest of the setting and story, but, 15 chapters in, we have literally nothing approaching a high concept or Plotline like you’d see anywhere else. It’s just the main character being cool and going to places where we have no clue how they work to see him do more cool shit. It’s vapid, boring, and unimaginative. It doesn’t even do the ‘guilty pleasure shitty progression/power fantasy’, since for that to be entertaining you need an actual vision for a magic system.
2/10, +1 because the art is passable, even if the action scenes are laughably bad.