Like those MMORPGs that I've played in the past, this novel is highly addicting. I read chapter one and it kept me reading and before I knew it I'm now in volume 6 and I still haven't lost my craving to read more. There are flaws in it though. For those of you who loves intricately formed plots in their novels, you'll find this a bit lacking. Its plot is too simplistic. I honestly didn't care about his main quest. But what captured me is the RPG style adventure. Royal Road is simply a paradise of escapism. And although the mc has a bit of a twisted personality (and he's a little marty stuish too, haha) you'll find yourself rooting for him. The constant stat screens also makes it easy to follow his progress. All in all, despite its flaws, you'll find it hard not to like this novel. Atleast, I'm sure that if you like RPG games, you'll simply love this!
UPDATE:
Okay so this is the first VRMMORPG series I've read. And now that I've read several other titles with similar genre(Ark, SAO, LH etc.) and also read up to vol.21 of LMS(had to read through GTs @.@) I've changed my views on LMS so I feel like I have to update this comment.
First of all, LMS still is the most addicting VRMMORPG title I've read, enough to make me swim through GTs, which I haven't done with the others. Still, the flaws of LMS have been made much more clearer to me; the technique of the writer of LMS is quite lacking, something that he hid behind the sheer addictiveness of LMS. The story is full of inconsistencies.
Like the irregular appearances of other characters. It made the novel's universe revolve solely around the mc, resulting in a marty stu mc because it seems like every cool idea the writer thinks of is applied to him. The writer would sprinkle some minor negative trait for him here and there(twisted nature, greedy, cheapskate etc.) and tries to hide the fact that he is making a "Mr.Perfect" character that can do anything, a genius, popular and incredibly lucky. I say minor because they aren't really all that pronounced and is mostly used for comedy, except his greed which, let's face it, isn't really uncommon in MMORPGs. To me this is what makes the novels so addicting. But it's also the novel's greatest weakness. It makes the mc "soulless" and robotic. And in the writer's love for the mc, he is forgetting about his other characters. Then it would circle back to the beginning of this paragraph. It results in a hollow, albeit slight and very vague, feeling of unsatisfaction. Part of it is also the plot itself that isn't driven by any higher goal than the mc's self-improvement.
In retrospect, the mc isn't even that brilliant. It's just that almost everyone around him is incredibly stupid. It would seem incredible that he would think of great breakthrough ideas. But what should be incredible is the fact that in his handicap(he started playing the game a year, iirc, after the release), nobody has run into the same idea before him. The game has millions of players online so why not?
And luck. The mc is one lucky sonnuva... Haha! The writer would make you think that all of the mc's "fortune" stems from his hardwork. But to me it mostly stemmed from luck...
His luck of finding the quest for the Legendary Moonlight Sculptor job. The mc always bitch about how he regrets having it but it's very clear that this job is very godly and unbalanced. Just having it opened convenient pathways(quests) that the mc could follow, all granting huge rewards. I mean come on, spending 200 levels he could make about 20 ice dragons iirc. Even just 5 would be incredibly unfair to other players even if he rolls back to level 1.
Besides that he could also switch to a STR-type Orc and to an INT-type Necromancer(making him able to switch jobs?) perfectly, without side effects, he could summon elementals that could produce earthquakes and track movements of anything touching the earth etc. and he could even revive without the support of healers. He even turned into an undead dragon once.
He could raise armies by himself while others can just cook, fish, paint, carve etc.
Again, all of this would be hidden in its addictiveness.
In the end this is still a very good read despite its flaws, and is still highly recommended. Somehow, the writer can make it all work AND make it an enjoyable and highly addicting read. At first I thought that the addictiveness just came from my nostalgia of reading something about MMORPGs. But no, after reading other titles I found out that it's almost all LMS's. I would still eagerly await new releases and continue reading this. After all, I feel like its just me nitpicking.
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