Not a bad start, interesting ideas, but lacked to fully execute.
Xu Youyou is reborn, her past life was a true disaster, she was switched at birth and instead of living a life of luxury she survived in an orphanage. Later when she returned se did not meet with warm and loving family, but a family who knowingly exploited her before she reached her expiration.
But after being reborn she is bound to a haggling system that allows her to find some good items. The system also rewards her with few skills, so she can also rely on herself in daily life.
Thus instead of once again being unwelcomed by her "wealthy" family, she slowly became a force to be reckoned with.
The more tasks she did the more the goal behind them became obvious.
tw: well, this story managed to sound xenophobic, but please read the irony how I think author basically shot themsel in the foot.
In several instances FMC travels abroad and meets with people who say some nasty shit. Which no one denies can happen, but you can't just make so many of the same choices when it comes to portraying foreigners. Or FMC was involved in several gun fights, which were like copy pastes of each other tbh. She mentioned how it is safe in China etc. I find it ironic since to make the story seem exciting for the reader author mentioned things like scamming, trafficking and other illegal activities which happened in China, a lot of basic characters that appeared were utterly disgusting, like those that sold their own children for money, tried to extort money, there is one incident of forceful marriage that just sounds like kidnapping in daylight, so many bad people, including her own biological family. This is why I find it ironic.
I think pros and cons exist so you can start from listing positive sides, not much to say:
- There were some interesting ideas how she started from casual items and then it led her to retrieve some meaningful ones and it also involved some metaphysics, though author did not fully use them (for example, I really like in the last 1/3 of the story FMC finds a girl with a koi luck physique, but there is a catch, who treats her well is lucky, but who treats her badly ends up badly, thus FMC relied on this girls's words sometimes when she just expressed things they ended up being benefitial, but you often ofrget she exists and traveled with FMC).
- I honestly liked that the system that a) tried to make all the income sound more or less legitimate (through real items found on the market, lottery tickets that were discarded or many more that was thrown out like trash or sold); b) it gave away skills like appraisal of antiques etc. thus she could use them even without system's task. Although again even if the system gave them except for antique appraisal she really didn't use anything more or there was emphasis on it as something important (like once system gave her basic hacking skills, never mentioned afterwards and she also later said she is absolute zero in technology which sounded illogical a bit). In short reviews I mentioned a story about the rich system, which I got tired of pretty quickly, my main problem was that things there just appeared out of thin air and who knows where that system got them.
But the list of cons might take longer, despite my initial favorable reaction to this story it went downhill from some point. This again reminds me that I should include in notes things I completed and things I did not when it comes to short reviews, because the story can turn sour like in this case and I have no idea, but without the note who will know.
- Too long. It could have been shortened and nothing would have changed because of it. But since it's self-published web novel it is understandable that the editing is lacking.
- Repetitiion. It had too many repetitive parts when author ran out of ideas. For example they went through several shootings when doing her tasks (one in America, one in Europe, one in Japan and there was in another place forgot which), which weren't truly needed I'd say and I'd add that so many is too much. She bought several houses just to get things inside and whenever it came to it it should have sounded strange for outsiders, but no one questioned her actions (again, to sound good and legit person she never trespassed).
- Contradictory FMC. The high morality of FMC that author tries really hard to promote all the time, since FMC feels guilty for taking something, even if the system and even other say - oh it was fate for it to happened that way. She could have easily just stick to finding antiques without all this flair, but system made her find some truly random things, although it was actually creative. But honestly, even in antique business, others may not realize the value, but you do, so what's the problem. But at other times she says and does stuff that isn't good and sounds cruel. Like the xenophobic stuff I mentioned. She finds a USB with technology that originally belonged to some Japanese company, but she never returns it and even at some point has not regret about it. I know the tense relationship between two countries. Of course author adds some bad words said by the Japanese, so you won't feel bad for them either. Let's remember her problematic family that expected her to come home and be part of the family obediently, author actually never did a good job at it, because honestly FMC is an adult and there is no need to force it, only after some time when they were humiliated several times they finally did not want to ackowledge her as their daughter. But let's not forget how disgusting this family is all-together, each and every member has some character problem. So in her past life FMC tried to please these people.. although the story mentions that she was trying to fit in and have a family, but honestly it feels like completely different people and that FMC didn't have enough brains in her past life. I could stress on how she lacked love and now she changed and this is why she was obviously swindled out of all her luck and value. But then in this life she goes and does nothing to this family, for karma it's good, she does nothing and Gu family may self-destruct many times, but it's her attitude when she mentions them and doesn't want to do anything to them that I find just too good to be true. I would appreciate it more if her own thinking progressed more and she would just let it go. She did eventually but so much time passed and you may say, well, these things need time and I will agree, but it's one thing what is said and the other is what is showed, she was pretty decisive against them many times. To make description shorter, which I have no talent for, at first she was fearful and it was described as such in her actions, but she still acted as she planned, decisive, but ater she acted decisive yet she mentioned the inner fear, but the way it was described didn't feel like it.
- FMC herself is a pretty peculiar character, since she has such blatant moments of IQ rising and dropping. I even mentioned some parts in summary in such a cryptic way because FMC doesn't strike you as the smartest (like she did not really explore or explained or author never mentioned in depth why system started doing targetted tasks after her novice period was over, that involved finding things and disrupting several metaphysics masters (but mainly there was one), like why she never started right away from it, or why system did not provide protection since it was obvious system didn't want those items to end up in bad people's hands, so why not help but obstruct so much, it only makes you theorize since author never bothered to explain system's origins and if it couldn't tell because it could only guide). She's my main point of criticism in the story, since she gives some really sound orders during their travels, but at other times her smartness leaves her completely. Although many times she mentions things and says things that make you think she is self-aware of her own level. Like she is bad with technology and aven business management is not her forte so she heavily relies on her subordinate Xie Ran, a man she found and put in a CEO position, one of her lucky finds. She is really lucky he never betrayed her and took their relationship seriously, always remembering the grace of saving him and letting him avenge himself (though again author never explained in details what happened to him except that he was framed). Sure she had a reason for leaving things to others, since when she was traveling around with system tasks she had no time to deal with her company, but good thing nothing happened or all her amassed wealth would disappear.
- Maybe not to overcomplicate things author did not dive deeper into metaphysics, but again, I'm not against it, I just find it strange how FMC sometimes felt too dense and never questioned things. Why some items even appeared is also beyond me. For example, there was this unlucky dagger, but she actually sold it to someone (unknown) and she was okay with it, while it's such a specific artifact to use.
If you start to ask questions then some parts start making less sense. For example Gu family knew they had a different daughter, but why change her and leave it like that? There is no particula reason. The story several times mentions her luck, but if she was lucky, hy keep her outside, if your master of metaphysics you worship wants you to sacrifice, why keep people outside? Xu Youyou should be someone with luck, but i don't know if they exausted her luck in previous life or simply used her for things like bone marrow and I think a kidney (classic). But still why make her live outside? They only saw benefits and never cared what price they paid for these favors from the dark master. I just felt they acted like brainless fools when it came to the final part. The Gu family itself is a mess tbh flushed so quickly in last few chapters just to summarize what happened (oh spoilers but three member including father, mother and eldest son were used as human sacrifice in their master's attack against Xu Youyou, three others were gone in fire thanks to the third son who was already mad, but he knew his fake sister seduced them for a reason and he was for some reason mad about her despite knwoing her true face and how vain she is, the second brother gone with them because he got Gu Xieying pregnant, Gu Xieying herself thought she'd try to find a way out but she was gone with them).
- Oh yeah, the ending. It became too obvious what it was and what will come out of it, so with no suspense the dark master tried to use sorcery to curse FMC, it backfired thanks to the final item she found and he was gone. Why I say it is flushed is because it just happened rather quickly, though the way they fought over that last cellar was so... kinda childish or I don't know how better to describe it. Anyway, what last things Xu Youyou collected were leading her to the last item, imperial seal. Why I say it felt flushed is also because in very short terms it explained who this dark master is and it's nothing more but a desciple who practiced, but was too swoon with riches and betrayed, later he did many rituals and prolonged his life with antique, especially those that have spirituality.
- I think I expleined most of my problems, if I remember something else I will return to edit this post, but the last was mediocre romance. I thought the two characters who had a bad start will still have some time to continue on this path, but no it resolved pretty quickly. Again MMC fel for her for some reason... Later on they had a good relationship and finally he confessed. Still can't forget one convoluted scene when they met Gu Xieying with third brother on their journey, Xieying lost her child and while they got her to the hospital Xieying remembered some past even in front of FMC and MMC, but FMC is like - let's break up, since she was afraid he will betray her like other and will fawn over her.. Absolutely no idea why it was like that, he showed his sincerity and she could toss it out at any second. Good thing it was resolved right away.. but what was the point of it I have no idea. but still this romance is so background, they do the same thing, he travels to her or with her sometimes, shows that he understands she has her secrets, also they mentioned at least three times about the first misunderstanding they had. basically no romance at all, he acted like companion.
I'm surprised I finished. At last 1/3 I already felt - when this will be over? - and I really couldn't be happier to get rid of it. I just felt that part of it had some ideas, but part of it really siffered from commercializing and making it into something too basic that every other story has.
RATE: 2/5.
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