Dropped at chapter 30.
FL gets isekaied into the novel she wrote after using a VR machine she built to enter any fictional world. After not being able to wake herself up from the VR, she resigns herself to making sure with her situation, disguises herself as a man to overcome the racism/slavery she would face due to her ethnicity, shows up in front of the ML promising him wonders he could only imagine, and uses her skills and ingenuity from her previous life to build things that are before the time in the novel.
Interesting premise that fell short and felt juvenile. Cliche structure of the "comedy" being that these big tough men believing they are in love with a boy, but "oh don't worry audience, they're not actually gay because she's really a girl". It's the 2020s, aren't we past the thinly veiled homophobia. Meanwhile, the 30+ year old FL is drooling over her perfect ML, but is completely oblivious to his interest in her in typical FL manhwa fashion. After the villainous, abusive, prince who kills people just for fun showed up, I gave up. Nothing original or anything else to keep my attention

... Last updated on April 2nd, 2023, 11:57pm

Rating: 6 (Fine)
Time of Review: Chapter 115 / Complete (Manta)
Favorite Aspect: I genuinely love how relationships are represented physically in this story. The way characters interact- Hugs, friendly smacks, and intimate moments all felt very comfortable and realistic, and were never stiff.

When I stopped taking this story seriously and accepted it for the Saturday-morning cartoon Comedy is was trying to be, I had a lot of fun! Who cares where Rina got the resources to build her wacky inventions, or if she had enough proper technical knowledge? At the end of the day, she's stuck in video game that she made! Sure, I would have loved for the author to go a little more into detail about how she was able to do all these outrageous things, but it was not such a huge plot gap in something that was supposed mainly comedy.

The story is not without it's flaws of course, no story is. I take particular offense to some very abrupt scene and story cuts that left me fumbling to catch up to what was going on, and some very important questions pertaining to the ending that just got swept under to rug and ignored.

It's also unfortunate how close the author got sooo close to being body-positive and gender-affirming, but at the end of the day anything that could have gone that way was played off as a joke, as per usual. For a story with heavy themes of women's rights to peruse the way they want to live, it's upsettingly dismissive about personal expression that is anything other than "ladies are allowed to do guy stuff!"

The dip away from comedy and into more serious drama and action from season 1 to season 2 was jarring, and I understand why some readers would not enjoy it. I personally understood and sympathized with the message Kim Suo was laying down, and while it may have not been perfectly delivered it resonated with me.

If you have Manta and want some more Fantasy Romance, it may not be the best and it is not without some nagging flaws, but it's still an enjoyable read~

You Might Also Like: If you liked this story, and the themes of disguising ones gender, you will definitely love Empress Cesia Wears Knickerbockers. And it you didn't like this story but almost did, I would still try Empress Cesia. It's like I Choose The Emperor Ending but with more thought out realism!

I genuinely enjoyed the first season, but it completely went downhill after that. The entire story was such a drag, and the main characters were almost impossible to like. Our 30 year old "smart" fl acted like an adolescent half the time and somehow had the ability to invent everything with a snap of a finger as if she's a magician. Author tried way too hard to make her appear strong and smart to the point where it just looked silly. She was also portrayed as a feminist, and yet admitted female characters were annoying to write about because "they talk too much for no reason" so she didn't give any of them important roles in the original story. The ml was likable at first, but he tragically turned into this bland and obsessive/possessive dude with no personality whatsoever. His entire existence revolved around the fl after she came to his world. We also have the 2nd ml who ended up being this pathetic pushy character that couldn't take no for an answer and continuously tried to woo fl even though she was repulsed by him. I didn't feel any chemistry between the main characters; both men pretty much treated her as this valuable and fragile object that they like rather than a person.

The ending was terrible, and you're left with so many unanswered questions. They dragged out unnecessary drama, yet couldn't bother to go into more details about one of the most important parts of the story at the end. I didn't like it. I mean it did make me laugh in the early chapters, but that's about the only good thing I could say.

I liked the story and characters. The timeskip was a cool way to refresh the story and stop it being tedious. The knight character was so annoying though and the ending felt hollow and rushed. It was fun to read though.

Although the current season and season 2 are rocky at best, the first season was a blast - so maybe just stop there after reading it. The characters were great, just suspend disbelief about how ridiculously overcompetent the FL is. An absolute Mary Sue, but very fun.
The current arc where I dropped it is pretty dog, and the way the story turned in season 2 is pretty disapointing.

... Last updated on August 18th, 2021, 11:57am

FL is an unattractive, sad and lonely individual. She filled that life with science and work. Despite her achievements as a strong independent women, she was so unhappy that she escaped into an isekai world. And you know what she says to the ML despite all that?! "Where I come from... women can get by without getting married." Yeah woman, you got by so hard that you escaped into a fantasy world. HAHAHAHA. You can't even make this up!

I really don't understand these encroaching sexism in these shoujos. I would understand saying women are just as capable as women, but nope our low IQ author here says: "Women are better leaders than men". On what statistic did you base that on? The author makes the FL "science" inventions out of thin air. She is too stupid to do some basic googling to explain how this FL manages what she does. Kind of hard to digest girls > boys claims when the source writes tavern wench / hairdresser level hogwash.

Politics aside. Is this story fun to read? It's just okay entertainment wise. Just gloss over the "science" and focus on overall plot. I can't give it any more than a 6. Would be higher rating if it was just magic instead of braindead OP "science" for power fantasy loving toddlers.

... Last updated on May 19th, 2021, 9:28am

Although it's not spectacular yet, this story has been solidly entertaining. I love that the female lead is for once not a former assassin or school girl. Instead, we dive into the fantasy world created by a genius mad scientist lady and see everything from her POV. Obviously, I think more emphasis could've been placed on the side characters, but either way this is a mostly drama-free, easy, fun read.

How to summarize the chapters where MC interacts with male lead from the first few chapters to around recent (chapter 22): Yugioh abridge no homo scenes. "You can be MY wingman anytime, Yugi." "No, Yusei. You can be MINE"

... Last updated on March 13th, 2020, 2:22pm