Honestly, I haven't read much through this rewrite, but I felt the need to write this review now because it's been very hard for me to continue reading more. I'll be blunt, this rewrite is far worse than the original novel.

What I liked about the pre-rewrite version was how the MC would face all the fantasy beings with crazily advanced technology. And the pre-rewrite novel did that decently. Not the best, but good enough to be enjoyable.

There was one aspect which I didn't like. It was the uselessly prolonged filler stuff in all the chapters. From the MC's lame jokes, to uninteresting side-characters doing uninteresting activities, to flashbacks that has nothing to do with the main plot, and so on and so forth.

This rewrite increases up that aspect by 100 times. What was a slightly tedious, yet enjoyable read, turned into a boring slog. I fell asleep several times while reading this rewrite due to how slow the main plot is moving.

I am honestly trying to enjoy this rewrite, but I feel disappointed by how much of a hassle it is to read through even just a single chapter. I want to see the MC progress through his world domination, yet I'm being hindered with filler jibber-jabber 90% of the time.

Maybe it's because I've been reading mostly East Asian webnovels, which have their main plot generally moving forward at a good pace. To me, it just feels like this rewrite is trying too much to move in every single direction rather than a single one.

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I was hesitant to give this harsh review, but as I read along I realised can't stay without saying my opinion. While it's commendable that author came back with intent on writing this story better than his previous one. I can confidently say that previous version of story was for more enjoyable... there I said it.

First of all previous story had more excitement and gave little rewards we reader enjoyed. Inspite of all the grammar mistakes, plot holes that story was fun to read, I was always excited to read a new chapter. But this story despite having sharp plotline and polished grammar, I can't enjoy it. It feels like I'm reading watered down version of previous story, but with added glitter and shiny of mysterious characters and characters to supplement it. Personally I disliked many choices that author took, while we were expecting comedy undertone like the previous work, and almost got baited into thinking that it was comedic story in early chapters, we are suddenly slapped by tragedy and drama that I didn't relate. Not only author toned down alpha's compulsive meme behaviour, he repeated same scenarios with at least three pov, no thank you while some people like 30 pov of same scenario I get bored of it quickly. My main grip isn't even that story took different turn than I expected but, it wasn't fun, I don't read on web to expect genius level of plot and character writing, to me reading has always been being enjoyable or not, it doesn't matter how stupid the plot is, other thing felt extra and glittery, they look pretty sure, but nothing else in substance. In the end It feels like I'm reading something average 3.5 rated version of 4.5 star work. I know I have no right to judge your work, but I at least wanted to get it off my chest, good luck author I hope you can write more stores in future.

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There are 2 books here, one about a world conquering weapons platform housing a slightly unhinged AI stranded in a cultivation world and one about the denizens of a cookie cutter cultivation world. Now usually that would not be a problem with this type of story. You can see how the world reacts to the aforementioned AI and the insuring hijinks. But the story puts too much focus on the cookie cutter world without making the reader care about any of it. This book feels like the 1000+ chapters of a cultivation novel, but in those novels you had 1000+ chapters to start caring about the denizen side characters. 

The chapters that this book has which actually feature Alpha are 5/5 but are overshadowed by the more numerous filler side-stories of random side-characters which are 3/5 at best. One of the books here is stellar and one is filler fluff. I hope to see the book realize it's potential and turn to a full 5/5 in the future.

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2024.10.05 In short: Too much incompetence. 2/5.

1 "First Contact" Protocol. Rating: Total incompetence.

It wouldn't be bad if Alpha wasn't put in a position where first contact is inevitable, but the Federation put him there despite his incompetence. And that's disappointing. After fully understanding this detail, it becomes impossible to enjoy this work. No matter how much you cover this nasty detail with humor and ambiguous personalities of the antagonists, it will not stop spoiling the taste. And anyway, what idiot decided that sending his rabid pet to bite a stranger is a good method of establishing a relationship with him? The stranger will be unhappy in any case and will hide his anger, even if the subjugation is successful.

The antihero tag is honestly too broad for my taste. But I don't mind reading even a villain's story, if there is no such unjustified incompetence - the Federation's first contact protocol... Committing atrocities for a worthy cause for the sake of a significant jump in efficiency can easily be played up. But committing atrocities due to incompetence... That's just stupid. (I always talk about incompetence, because that's what's so annoying. To ruin a work with potential like that...)

2 Annexation, without the right to refuse - in general, a disgusting and ineffective concept.

Considering a planet with intelligent life to belong to the federation simply by landing on the planet... Well, that seems overly aggressive... and stupid. With such an attitude, genocide is inevitable, because there will always be a species that does not accept such an overbearing attitude towards its planet and civilization. Moreover, this is also a rude approach to the isolationist species, who simply say: "go away, we don't want to talk, don't touch us" and continue to sit in their system, living out their days. With the same success, the Federation will stumble upon something that surpasses their understanding, get mad at it and simply will not pass this filter, disappearing into history. (That is, statistically - the Federation is just a walking corpse, since the gray cardinal AI does not see this problem.)

3 Associations. I do not want to read about the USA disguised as something else; I'd rather just read about the USA.

Honestly, this Federation looks like Tau (from WH:40k) or like the USA: they are all for the "Greater Good", which of course is just a fake (Hostile Takeover / Piscean Power / Oligarchic Democracy) ; they are all either join us, or you are against us; they are all: "we will subjugate you by any means necessary"; and all these factions are idiots. (And their incompetence in foreign policy is legendary.)

4 Incompetence. This is a repetition, but still...

The entire structure of government in the worlds of cultivation/magic is another military cell that the protagonist is going to destroy. What's worse is that in this case these worlds are multi-factional and multi-racial, and accordingly there will not be one pyramid of such cells, but a huge number. The question is, where are the replacements for all these managers?

With such an approach to diplomacy, the protagonist is not only easy to manipulate (confirmed) ; he will also cut out at least half of the intelligent population of the world by the time the world joins the Federation, if that happens at all (which for some reason the protagonist has no noticeable doubts about, despite the lack of evidence of such an outcome).

Alpha is literally a tin can at the moment, inspiring neither respect nor much fear, until he starts to act. And when it does start to work, the effect is often excessive. It literally provokes an increase in senseless casualties among the locals, since it does not try to prevent the conflict from starting in the first place.

The last straw was that he suddenly started telling everyone that he belongs to the Galactic Federation; which directly contradicts not only his previous thoughts about secrecy; but also contradicts efficiency, puts the mission under unnecessary threat, and what is no less important, can give the main enemy "Chicken" more information about the Federation. He could have played this situation any way he wanted, but he used the worst option of all that I can think of. This is the first time he has met an opponent capable of somehow resisting him, and without knowing the scale of the enemy, he handles the factors he controls so poorly... He is a soldier, damn it, and not some Japanese schoolboy. (Incompetence also lies in the fact that the author did not point out this behavior as an anomaly.)

5 The author's attitude. Don't make reasonable reactions look stupid.

I was also angered by how the author portrayed the cultivator who reacted negatively to the protagonist's nonsense as some kind of idiot. Most people won't surrender to someone/something without a good reason, especially if that someone behaves like the protagonist. It's one thing to portray "Chicken" as an idiot, who behaved like an arrogant frog in a well, despite a whole list of anomalies. Another thing is this unfortunate woman, who was not only manipulated, but also reacted quite reasonably, since all the anomalies were already hidden.

As for situations like this, the author needs to watch the anime "Overlord" (or read the novel), the locals there are also unable to resist the protagonist, but they don't treat reasonable reactions with such noticeable mockery.

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I'm conflicted on this one. The premise is interesting, the characters are generally likeable and the story can be interesting and fun, but... at the same time it can be slog, especially at the beginning, with events taking up multiple chapters even before getting described from multiple PoVs.

Also, despite the novel's name, it is NOT a dungeon core story in any way - not for the entire first book at least, thought it feels like it might come in the second. If that is the case, the entire first book is just a long-winded prologue...

*EDIT: either I missed the addendum at the end of that long title, or it was rectified since I originally wrote the review. Regardless, in the second book, the MC does indeed play the role of a dungeon core, to a limited extent.*

And then there's the part about the AI's combat track record. At the start of the story, the MC is frankly overpowered and could probably wipe out most, if not all threats he meets, so he has to be nerfed That's perfectly fine. But even after the MC is brought to a more competitive level, he continues to accumulate losses, pyrrhic victories, or at best tactical victories that leave him weaker and weaker throughout the first book, and his major enemies have the nasty habbit of somehow escaping, or not staying dead even when they are killed.

*EDIT: While an explanation is given for the MC's poor performance through the first book by its end (poor one in my opinion, but an explanation regardless), in the second book it is stated the cause of this issue is being adressed or has been partially fixed, but there is no discernible change to the trend of the MC not acting anything like the tactical genius military AI he is purported to be.*

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I'm not the most objective since I really love multiple pov, but so far, this work is among the best I read on internet. It is not perfect, some chapters seem really out of place (I think of a particular POV denoting clearly with the rest of the story), the comedy not as present as the synopsis suggests and some parts of the plot follow less the flow of the story than the needs of the authors. In spite of its default, the characters are well written, the protagonist is not the only character worse following, the lore is strangely well written, I did not expected to see some believable concepts from a scientifical viewpoint for the magic system,   the flow is nor too slow nor too quick. I would even buy a physical version if it existed.

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Bob from the Bobiverse Series will have a field day reading this fic. If you get my reference, chances are you will enjoy this too except this fic is more character-driven since Alpha is a single entity. There is the regular xianxia BS which is fun, something you will not see in Bobiverse but it will grow on you. Alpha has a sense of humor too with his love for ducks, and an almost displaced sense of comedy considering the setting he is forced into. It has an interesting plot that challenges the isekai genre considering how he ended up in an entirely new civilization ruled by Celestial Gods. There is also a Technological Gap in a sense, but not as strict as you will see in Destiny Crucible or Bobiverse series. So far, Alpha is not showing any signs of 'cultivating' in a xianxia sense, but there is a strong sci-fi in the fic despite it taking place in a magical setting full of cultivators, and self-proclaimed immortals. I enjoyed reading the fic, especially with the touch of comedy and the reality to it of how an AI would look outwardly insane yet on the inside, was actually a cold logical entity. If you enjoy railguns and unlimited bullets, then you will have fun in this fic too. 

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Great story with amusing comedic elements along with some touching moments. Extremely well written!

Snarky AI for the win!

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