@sonhot well, the story started with a boy who was working hard to pay his mother's medical bills and, despite being so weak, was liked by most people around him (even though they all looked down on him).
In the end he even sacrifices himself to let the others escape. That's almost as much nice and sweet you can make a character be.
i really liked how he was able to recover from the panic and assessed the situation on the room with the big statue. That aspect is just gone, since he's just so strong he just powers through everything now. I enjoy SL as it is, but not really for story or for the characters, just for the badassery. I like seen others underestimate the mc and be dumbstruck when they see how strong he is, but i won't sit here and say it's brilliantly well written. The author knows how to make a badass character, that's for sure, but story wise and character building is rather lacking, which is why i like it, but it really isn't memorable enough for me to praise it as much as some do (i have a friend that likes SL almost religiously)
It's like shuumatsu no valkyrie, i'm enjoying it a lot, the characters, despite being interesting, are soon discarded for the next match, and the story is just a background for the death matches between gods and humans. I can't say it has particularly good writting in terms of story, character or world building, but the author really know how to make a fight interesting.