Bought this one by accident. LITRPGs are not really my thing. That being said, I did not hate this, and listened all the way through. Which, I suppose, is high praise for someone who is not a fan of the genera.

But make no mistake, this is, very much, a LITRPG. You have the schlubly every man, a “legally” 18 year old that acts like a 14 year old, who suddenly gets god like powers by hacking a skill tree system. But he is a nice so he doesn’t abuse his sudden power. And because he is nice, he quickly finds himself in a harem situation with multiple extremely hot women being his best friends, with vague “benefits” being teased at, but never really delivered for that would disrupt the delicate harem balance. There are villains who act like middle school bullies, and are quickly delt with by leveling up. There are some very polite eldritch horrors that swing by on occasion to ask if now would be a convenient moment to go mad and then respect the protagonist choice when he say he kind of busy now, check back next week.

It is all silly and inconsequential. But it is generally well written. The protagonist is immature, but not in an unlikeable way. The pop culture references are not incessant and generally feel natural. The world building is inconsistent but not in a way that really breaks the story. And there is a certain fun in the insane world with narratively quantum bigger on the inside trains and a government hierarchy set up to cause superhero/supervillain battles for no other reason than battles are cool.

My one complaint is the magic system. In that its not a magic system, it technology with funny names. The main character is supposed to be merging magic and technology but it really is just all technology. Later in the book there is a sort of magic system added in with symbiotic sprits, but its added about half way through and has nothing to do with the “magic” the main character has already been doing, so it feels more like an after though than a system. The people who are posting that this is a unique magic system are off their gourd and should not be trusted to operate heavy machinery.

If you are looking for some inconsequential fluff to keep you company on a long drive or boring work day, this is not a bad choice.