Read the pre-quel. 8/10
Read the first series. 8/10
Second series:
Part before "Portrait of Hell" arc: 8/10 - Generally great and consistent storyline, similar to many survival series out there
"Portrait of Hell" arc. 3/10 -
Here's the basic loop for this arc:
- MC does something stupid
- Either it works very well, or it works very badly
- If it works very badly, someone comes to rescue or something 'miraculous' happens.
- Situation is resolved, MC gets great gains.
- Repeat.
See where the problem lies? Either way, you will know that MC will survive to the end, and nobody else might. Having the entire story revolve around one single person, instead of two or a team, and introducing a lot of side characters that die throughout the series makes this series a revolving door series. Of course, except the MC.
Too much plot holes, sudden character personality changes, plot armor and so on.
Chapters 150 to 177: 1/10 -
Horrible storyline. Basically something that should have been 3 chapters at most dragged to 28 chapters. I couldn't bear reading it after the first 5 I think.
Chapters 178 to 186: 0/10 (in fact, I think -2/10)
The ending basically invalidated everything before it. Be it the prequel and first series or this entire series. The characters changed so much or what happened became so ridiculous that it ruined everything. Horrible feeling after reading the ending.
Story was great but not sure if the original story was supposed to end before the "Portrait of Hell" arc, but it literally went to hell from that arc. I've seen many series that became trainwrecks because of extended storylines, and this is arguably one of the worst. It really looks like the writer or editor changed halfway because many characters changed personalities, or the story became so different from before.
If you like this kind of series, there are many much better series out there, one of the best imo is Solo Levelling.