As entelegent commented before me, the idea is is good (though hardly original with similar stories around like Yureka, SAO, log horizon, .hack, 1/2 prince, ark, etc...) and the story is pretty addicting - you're always wondering what stat is going to level up next and the adventures are, overall, good premises (though again, hardly original considering all the actual MMORPGs around).
But... I think the biggest problem can be summed up in a single sentence: the author never tries to 'show' anything in his writing, whether it be character relations, thoughts or actions, but always 'tells' the reader what to think.
This style essentially results in us being told, every chapter that Weed is amazing, smart, cunning, powerful and somehow smarter or more capable than everyone else. There is no character who I would particularly call interesting in the series - all the girls introduced are the simplest of stereotypes, and all of them are somehow the most beautiful girl you can imagine - in fact, I'm not sure any of the women introduced were not introduced in this way (minus Seoyong's psychologist or Weed's grandmother), whether it be Seoyong, Lee Hayan, the shaman girl, Hwaryeong or Jihoon... even Surka and Meyoon were supposed to be hot, if not 'the most in the world' like all the others... (And the male characters who are friends with Weed are all the same - Zephyr the closet heir to a big company, Ahn, the greatest master of the sword in Korean martial arts... well, Pale isn't anything special, just has a TV anchor as his girlfriend... and Mapan was never really more than a side character, and I don't remember if there was any other male character that lasted more than a paragraph...)
Then, the story essentially devolves into 'Weed' or "Lee" does this and that, is idolised by all, is smarter than all, and somehow is the only person (of 100 million) in the game who cares about his stats and skill levels (rather than character level). As a result, he easily surpasses everyone and goes around stumbling into badass supper hidden quests that he hoodwinks NPCs into doing for him with his cooking skills. Not only that, but on one side, he is always described as stingy and money-obsessed, scamming people out of their money or gold, or labour (in the pyramids for instance) and yet a) everyone who meets him likes him and he treats them super well (if patronisingly), b) whenever it comes to NPCs, they seem to react only to Weed's charms and never to anyone else... Not only that, but in any matter except money, he is described as a paragon of virtue - helping his family and extending charity to the his friends who can't do anything without him.
Even more problematic is that most of his 'badassedness' appears to be luck... he just happened to get quests for grinding scarecrows, just happened to be pushed into his legendary class, just happened to meet supermodels playing the game, just happened to be the first to discover tons of new dungeons and regions, just happened to say the write thing to trigger NPC events...
As for setting, the beginning was not so bad with the Rosenheim capital city's specific places, but later on Weed just appears everywhere and nowhere and there is very little that isn't superficial RPG environments. Description is also pretty much non-existant, most of the places, cities, monsters, foods, items or anything else are assumed to be recognised by anyone with the most basic of RPG knowledge (?). The author does not hesitate to tell us point blank what people and things are 'beautiful' or 'special' though... so if you like that type of description, you'll enjoy it for sure...
So as for all the comments about how the writing style is good but the translations are bad... I'd like to say that the writing style (original) sucks, but the translations are pretty good, all considering. There are grammar problems here and there, but hardly every paragraph and never anything that makes it difficult it understand, and the layout and presentation was nice. Note that I was reading the Royal Road translations or at least uploads on their site. It takes a ton of work to translate novels like that, particularly if they're pretty monotonous, so I think they did an impressive job.
Anyway, no reread or literary value, in the slightest, but it is an addicting and uplifting tale of someone who excels above others in a game. So it does have appeal in that respect.
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