Meet Jisha Slyker, otherwise known as Fae Sol, as she and her family are assassinated both in VR and in real life. However, thanks to Deus Ex Machina, Fae Sol was time-traveled back to the past with all of the experience and knowledge that she gained in her first life. Watch as our MC uses everything in her repertoire to grow more powerful than the first time and change the future for the better.

Before even getting into the characters, world-building, or unique events, I'm met with two fundamental problems: set-up and pacing. My one complaint with the two beginning chapters is that the author doesn't go into much detail about why Fae Sol needed to play in the VRMMO better; I need something better than just a three-sentence explanation about how the VRMMO affected society in reality deeply. How did the game affect society that much? Maybe it's explained later in the novel, but as a beginner reader, I need something more to immerse and convince myself to read further.

The pacing (or focus) after the start is, in my opinion, not very good. I'm reading the MC take one action in a fight scene, and then a 3-5 sentence explanation about the viability of said action. Then the MC takes another action and enemies react, which is followed up with a 12-sentence explanation of the enemies' analysis of the MC, etc. If that wasn't enough, there are approximately six chapters that repeat the same events we read through in one chapter, but in another perspective. It's thanks to this 'tell rather than show' philosophy that I found myself frequently losing focus in these chapters.

There may be some interesting world-building details, unique character moments with Fae Sol planned in future chapters or even fantastic game classes that capitalize on good skills creating synergy with each other. However, the author's habit of focusing too much on small details or other uninteresting characters takes away Fae Sol's (the MC herself) time in the spotlight and prevents me from reading any further.

Counter-argument: I acknowledge that the frequent insertion of information is what some people prefer; some readers desire to have a lot of details given to them no matter the duration of any scene. I personally don't like this style of this info delivery and just prefer to read this info during the set-up of each scene. If you don't mind this dispatch method of info, then give this novel a try (at least for a few chapters).

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The pacing is spotty and inconsistent, with very little sense of time passing between events. Worldbuilding feels incomplete, with many of the details only about the impressiveness of Synergy compared to its contemporaries, and information about the world outside is practically nonexistent. We are given little information as to the MCs motives aside from the fact that she wants to get ahead to prevent what happened from repeating itself.

Fae Sol herself is an arrogant, exploitative character, who despite supposedly having real-world friends, shows next to no compassion towards others. While her future knowledge should assist her to a degree, it occasionally comes off as Mary Sue-ish due to just how much she knows about the game. Most of the time she is either irritated, smug, or stoic, with little variation in how she acts/feels between situations. She also arrogantly assumes that Synergy will go similarly to how it did before, completely ignoring the Butterfly Effect.

The longer scenes can feel very drawn-out, with a lot of text being about Fae Sol's unchanging emotion or the frustration of others regarding her. The action scenes are typical overpowered protagonist flair, with her never being in any real danger. It's good for turning your brain off, but little else.

The story has a jarring shift towards futuristic tech after chapter 30 rather than the fairly realistic stuff that had happened up to that point. 

Despite this, the story has its moments, and has consistently good grammar. Many of the problems here are the type to be fixed in a re-write, which I'd recommend looking out for due to the good story lying underneath.

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