Ark (Novel)

Description

Kim Hyun Woo lived the life of the wealthy thanks to his parents. But one day, he received a phone call informing him of a traffic accident which involved his parents. His father had died and his mother was hospitalized in critical condition. The normal life he once knew, collapsed...

They sold their house, cancelled various insurance plans, and moved to a one room apartment. And after a few years, Hyun Woo spends four to six hours tending to his mother and worked to pay for her medical bills.

One day, one of his Instructors recommended him for position in a company called Global Exos, who made an announcement of making history with the newest technological invention.

Original Novel:
KakaoPage, Naver Series

Type

Novel

Related Series

Ark the Legend (Novel) (Sequel)

ARK (Taeha) (Spin-Off)

Associated Names

아크 (ARK)

아크 (Novel)

Groups Scanlating

Ark Machine Translations

Japtem

Latest Release(s)

v.24 c.8 + Epilogue (end) by Ark Machine Translations 10 years ago

v.24 c.7 by Ark Machine Translations 10 years ago

v.24 c.6 by Ark Machine Translations 10 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

24 Volumes (Complete)
600 Chapters (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 8.5 / 10.0 (242 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.26 / 10.0

40%

22%

18%

Last Updated

April 14th, 2023 10:33pm PDT - 2 years ago

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Genre

Action Adventure Comedy Drama Fantasy Martial Arts Sci-fi Seinen Slice of Life
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor

Dalbin Jogaksa (Novel)

Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect (Novel)

Dusk Howler (Novel)

Zhi Mo (Novel)

Recommendations

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Author(s)

Yoo Seong (II)

Artist(s)

N/A

Year

2008

Original Publisher

Kakao

Rok Media

Serialized In (magazine)

KakaoPage (Kakao)

Licensed (in English)

English Publisher

N/A

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #733

(-8)

Monthly Pos #1589

(-151)

3 Month Pos #3363 (No change)

6 Month Pos #4986

(-127)

Year Pos #6936

(+130)

List Stats

On 919 reading lists

On 330 wish lists

On 215 completed lists

On 29 unfinished lists

On 324 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

User Comments [ Order by time added ]

Pretty Good

by Flitfish
11 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

Ark is about a guy who dropped out of high school and gave up gaming to make money for his ill mother's healthcare. He ends up making an account for a VRMMO and picking up gaming again to apply for a job in a game company. His progress in the game marks how well his application is received.

I suggest reading this and Legendary Moonlight Sculptor at the same time; they have the same translators anyway. It's almost like watching someone start to turn into Weed.

Comparing the main characters, Ark is something like a less exaggerated Weed. They're both desperate for money and greedy as a result but while Weed's penny pinching is a source of humor, Ark's can't really be laughed at. It's less of an omnipresent force. Weed's desperation drove him to become somewhat superhuman in terms of physical ability. Ark's physical strength is quite normal. Weed somehow manages to encounter famous people online and irl. He finds good teammates and while he sometimes journeys alone, it's usually by choice. Ark's online isolation seems more sensible given previous betrayals by teammates. Even Ark's irl relationships seem more natural than Weed's. A normal coworker, his mom's friend, etc. On the whole, Weed is funnier to watch but Ark is easier to relate to.

Weed is a funnier character to watch but Ark isn't derived of humor either. The job system is played for laughs. The survival cooking scenes are pretty funny. While Ark's irl situation is worse than Weed's, he concentrates on making the best of his time so some of his game adventures can be quite light hearted.

The VR aspect is explored pretty well in both games. In LMS the interplay of reality and game is explored better than in Ark but Ark is more creative in his thinking and abuses the VR system better in battle.

It's pretty early in the series so things can change but for now I'd recommend it.

This turned into a comparative essay. Good job self.
TL;DR: IT'S A SLIGHTLY MORE SERIOUS LMS. GIVE IT A READ IF YOU LIKE LMS/MMO SERIES.

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More updates

by Lastear
10 years ago

Rating: N/A

Hey, this is Lastear from Japtem. Just thought I'd give you a heads up that there are more updates than are showing up here since another group has picked it up. Check out this site. https://arkmachinetranslations.wordpress.com/ark-table-of-contents/

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If you enjoyed Moonlight sculptor you'll enjoy Ark

by SrwpkMX
10 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Minor Spoiler alert*

Great fast releases.
A lot of similar plot points with LMS but ultimately establishes itself a different story.
Ark is highly relatable and someone you want to root for. He's strong but isn't severely overpowered.
His quests aren't as epic, but the journey is enjoyable and much faster paced.

Many interesting side characters, especially his companion/pets.

Ark is witty and clever, knows how to rise as an underdog.
Self motivated and very independent.
His greed for money comes from a place of desperation rather than selfishness. Imagine having to pay $6000 a month for your mom's hospital bill as a young adult with no real job.

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Interesting

by FrostLord
11 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

A nice twist on the VRMMORPG genre. The game setting is really interesting and the story is really funny. It focuses on real world and the world of the game. Seeing the world develop is truly fascinating, even more so when additional aspects of the game's interface is revealed.

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Not quite like LMS

by TundraDweller
10 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Well, the similarities need not be mentioned, but the two works are still different on multiple levels. To keep this short, the main problem I have with Ark is that the MC's enemies are all people with a personal grudge against him due to him having thwarted them at some point. Completely their own fault to begin with, by the way. So imagine if you defend yourself, successfully, against a bunch of bullies and they develop a deep hatred of you for not letting them walk all over you and go to EXTREME lengths to destroy you no matter what. See, Weed has a more acceptable enmity with the people who want to take him down. They see him as a threat, an upstart who's taking away their spotlight, who's past reputation intimidates them, etc. But with Ark, all of his enemies are people with PETTY personal grudges. Nothing professional or even rational.

That's not all about Ark's enemies. The rest of it is highly spoilerish and just as disgusting. Basically, the author does a terrible job on the villains. At least in LMS the enemies are hard-working, cunning, etc. players who play the game just like everyone else. But in Ark, the villains are ready-made and presented as all-powerful douchebags. Moreover, they did almost nothing to gain their power.

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The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor

by IT0
10 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Yes the are very very similar, so much in fact one has very obviously read the others work. I am even going to go out on a limb here, I think the same guy wrote both.

ARC is a fantastic read, it is well written and even though it kinda takes a lot of liberty with TLMS, in some ways takes the good and leaves the bad.

It is not as deep at TLMS is but I like ARC, he seems more kind than WEED even if he starts to show WEEDS greedy side later. ARC is just another version of WEED.

Dont pass this story over because someone says its just a copy, it does the genre well and is fun to read.

Arc:
No father
Mother in hospital
In debt due to hospital bill
No sister but a friend from work that he calls oppa
Plays a game to earn money
Is very greedy and will do anything for money
Can summon Skeleton and Vampire
He beats his summons into submission
Studies martial arts at the police gym
His teacher joins the game
Has thugs as friends that back him up in the game
Uses “survival cooking” to help stats and free food
Has a hidden game class
Grinds in the game ever chance he gets and does 30 hour hunts
Has an adversarial relationship with ‘The Hermes Guild’
Can sweet talk the NPCs
Abuses other players

Weed:
No father or Mother
Grandmother in hospital
In debt due to no family support
Has a sister
Plays a game to earn money
Is very greedy and will do anything for money
Can summon Skeleton and Vampire
He beats his summons into submission
Studies martial arts at the local dojo
His teacher joins the game
Has fellow martial artist from the dojo as friends who support him in the game
Uses “cooking” to help stats and free food
Has a hidden game class
Grinds in the game ever chance he gets and does 30 hour hunts
Has an adversarial relationship with ‘The Hermes Guild’
Can sweet talk the NPCs
Abuses other players

After reading so much TMLS and ARC, I am starting to see that greed, obsession with money, self interests and an obsession with not being cheated, are Korean values. If you can stomach entire chapters about Arc/Week cheating other players for no other reason than greed, then you will enjoy the other parts of the story that are actually quite good.

... Last updated 10 years ago

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I can't help but agree with entelejent

by orario
10 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

There are many similarities between LMS and Ark. It's almost like the authors wrote this novels together.

But if you're a big fan of one you'll certainly enjoy the other one too despite the many similarities

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not my favorite

by nanner
11 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

it took me a long time to finish this series.
i got to volume 11 three different times and never came back to it. i didn't like the things ark started doing in book 10 and it got worse in 11.
it got to the point where i didn't like ark very much as a person.
the hot tempered vindictive vengeance story-line was replayed over and over until it was more than worn out. i was bored with it by volume 11 and wanted the story to move on already.
i also had a hard time believing that a character like ark would be stupid enough to sell set weapons/armor to a person he knew was his enemy and who had used earlier bought weapons against him. since good self preservation instincts was something his character was supposed to have, i found that scene particularly unbelievable.
and the humor is pretty much dead in the latter half of the series.
unlike weed, ark is lacking, in the end, that special something that makes the reader like/ love him despite the bad things he does.
i like weed/lee hyun because of his flaws and the unintentional humor that his misinterpretations of various situations entail. he has a strange charisma that makes him likable, despite all his grumbling just for the sake of grumbling.
also; Ark was started a year after LMS began and the author flat out stated they were a fan of moonlight sculptor so it shouldn't surprise people that the two series are often compared. get over it.

... Last updated 9 years ago

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Deux Ex Machina

by yuno19
10 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

tldr; Deux Ex Machina in almost every chapter you become tired of it!

The main character of this novel is set up to be opportunist while also keen on holding grudge. In times, we're pleased that character able to take help his cause when opportunity present itself. We're also pleased when he successful with his revenge. But in other times, which is most of times, things just fall right into his favor. When he's presented with urgent problem, he suddenly have hidden card that can solve it. If he hasn't, then the game's mechanic not previously known to reader became his trump card. A breakthrough not achieved by careful consideration of existent plot point, but a deux ex machina. If it happen only once or twice during the whole novel, I might be able to stomach it. But it happen in every volume.

This is a critic toward the author. If a problem is created so big for your main character to solve, don't make do with crappy way out. A key to solve it must be set up early. Readers also need to be subtly reminded about the capability of said key times and times again so when story actually need it, after some agonizing about seemingly unsolved conundrum, reader is engaged with it. In other words, you can take time so that you don't left readers with impression that the solution is taken out of your ***.

Ark's author and LMS's author seems to be a fan, one way or other. They might be collegues or even friends. The story element used in one almost always occur in the other. But it is evident that one is crafty with them while the other is overwhelmed. Entirely his fault.

edit: colon in the middle tldr automatically transformed into smiley. I don't want that.

... Last updated 10 years ago

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i can't stop reading!

by s2sari
10 years ago

Rating: N/A

this story is different from moonlight sculptor. i feel there is a more human aspect to ark. he's just a normal kid who had to grow up real fast. He felt a lot of betrayal from his own family so he doesn't give trust to other humans anymore. i feel ark grows as a person in aspects of trust and this story is really heart warming in another level than moonlight sculptor! some of the schemes they come up with is sooo amazing it just blows my mind haha. this story makes me laugh. it did make me cry at one moment. It's so heart warming too! I love this more than moonlight sculptor~ tho i love that story a lot too!

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