I should preface with the fact that I'm not overly familiar with some of the genres being satirized in SVSSS. I'm familiar with fandom culture, ridiculous antis, poor quality novels, yaoi (and yaoi-adjacent) fandoms, and their adjacent shenanigans, but I am not familiar with the finer points of cultivation lore, webnovel culture, or just about anything having to do with Chinese fantasy settings. Despite this, I never really felt out of depth. I found the new honorifics and the concept of courtesy names pretty easy to digest, and after reading the detailed glossaries (helpfully supplied by the translators), I think that I more or less got the hang of everything else.

With that aside, I want to give a quick synopsis of the plot for anyone who ventured this far despite being unfamiliar with SVSSS. Our protagonist, Shen Yuan, dies of rage after reading over two hundred million words of an infuriating harem webnovel titled Proud Immortal Demon Way, whereupon he is transmigrated into the world of the book . . . as the main villain, Shen Qingqiu. It should be noted that, due to the depths of his scumminess, Shen Yuan had begged the author to castrate Shen Qingqiu on multiple occasions. He is this two-dimensional character's greatest enemy, and now he is tasked with tormenting the OP protagonist (Luo Binghe) down his inevitable path of darkness, lest he lose all his badass points and be sent back to his world. Why can't a hater just live in peace?

Luckily, Shen Yuan is able to activate an out of character mode fairly quickly, taking the protagonist under his wing as his closest disciple. Things are good, until they're not. Shen Yuan is forced to push Luo Binghe into what amounts to hell in order to activate his golden finger, and everything that follows is built Shen Yuan's (outdated) assumption that this Luo Binghe hates his teacher and wants revenge on him.

Shocker! It's not that simple anymore.

If you're somewhat familiar with romance tropes, you can imagine the rest for yourself. A game of cat-and-mouse ensues, misunderstandings occur, and the main two eventually end up together, doomed compelled to remain together forever.

As for the plot? When I summarize, a lot of the story sounds contrived and silly, however, in the moment, it felt well-constructed and grounded, at least in the fact that nothing makes sense logically, especially when it comes to matters involving Luo Binghe. If you can accept this, everything that follows is somewhere between hilarious and strangely heartfelt. The story outside of the romance plot was a lot of fun, filled with fantastical monsters, high-stakes situations, tragic backstories, inconsistent censorship, beautiful illustrations (I can't stress this enough), and a smattering of dick jokes.

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I'm taking my literature cap off. SVSSS gripped me from beginning to end and made me feel every single emotion in quick succession. I didn't get a second to breathe. I didn't get a moment's rest, and not just because I read the entire series in four days. I love how SVSSS built these characters up from their original 2D shells. I love Shen Yuan's narrator voice and his horrific mindsets. I love the sheer number of completely contrived scenarios, and the side characters, and the metafiction of it all.

My EPUB file is littered with useless commentary involving exponentially increasing sobbing emojis, emphatic laughter, and one-sided banter. I had to force myself to set my phone down gently instead of throwing it across the room more times than I can count.

That being said, SQQ and Luo Binghe are horrendous at sex. It was legitimately painful to read. I had to wince, sit back, and revel in the secondhand embarrassment (or sometimes flat-out horror) of it all before inevitably deciding that the best way out was through. I've experienced the true horror of the pon farr. Luo Binghe gets sex pointers from the lurid RPF written about him and his teacher in-world. He kisses like he's trying to gnaw Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan)'s face off. They need an intervention before Mu Qingfang (the primary medic in the series) decides to retire early and publicize everything that they've put him through over the years.

Favorite Book
Book 3