[Chinese BL novel] Born to rebel / 天生反骨[快穿]

Title: Born to rebel / 天生反骨[快穿]

Author: 桑沃

Year of release: 2020

# of chapters: 213 + 1 extra

Status: Complete

Tags: quick transmigration, drama, gore

*title, names etc. are an MTL version, not an official translation

Summary: StarNet was occupied by big news, finally the famous Star Pirate captain Ge Xiu was caught and he will be sentenced for his crimes. Being held in a cell Ge Xiu is given a choice, you either stay in the cell and slowly rot or choose the punishment virtual worlds. Ge Xiu, who only remembers how he stood in front of the crashed ship while he was arrested and couldn't remember anything before, without thinking chose the latter.

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This is the epitome of evil beauty. And this novel is full of it. It is much more bloody than the average novel you might have seen and MC killed much more enemies with his own hands. It was the first time I was so satisfied with the plot of QT novel in a very long time. And let me tell you why:

PLOT:

• The summary doesn't represent even a glimpse of what will happen in the plot. It is just basic information at the beginning, which is misleading into thinking only one thing about Ge Xiu, but also know that he is: 1) really wise and knowledgable; 2) ruthless and doesn't shy away from killing.
• The story basically covers connecting to virtual worlds and returning back to reality. GX is connected to those from his prison cell. Each world is constructed with basic idea, not a plotline, and that is - Ge Xiu must suffer and the more he suffers the better. Settings sometimes are not in favor of GX, for example his physique is weak or he is put into very disadvantageous position, but he always manages to deviate, e.g. in the first world if he followed the setting he would have been a slave and was used as a plaything or was sent to war or any other dirty place, but GX instead stole a ship and started his space pirate career again.
• The background of the worlds only have settings, sometimes we know a little info about the character, but usually only can uncover due time. This makes the whole world blank and its' development comes as a surprise. But everything is one way or another connected to reality, like GX realizes why these experiments are held, who is ML, can he trust ML etc. Before finally getting the memories back. It is one of those novels that when you read the full thing you realize how author cared about details and always threw them at you. Like why GX of all food likes candy especially, why he has nightmares, why he reacted the most to enclosed space, why he can sleep well to ML. The development is though slow, but it actually feels lot more fuller and greater by the end.
• The worlds are as follows: 1) Junk Star (interstellar, MC is a junk star resident and ML is a rebelled marshal); 2) Ragnarok (fantasy world, MC is a key between worlds and ML is a Fenrir, banished god); 3) Mermaid (european fantasy, MC is a siren and ML is a king); 4) ABO (interstellar, MC is an omega and ML is an ex-wanted person, but one feared); 5) Modern entertainment circle (second assigned role world, MC was made to be an actor and ML is a big boss whose early business was dealing with arms); 6) Meow (AU, MC is a wereperson and turns into a cat, ML is a leader of opposition, turns into Fenrir); 7) Zombi King (MC turned into a zombie and reached emperor level and ML is a superpower person reaching highest level); 8) Fantasy world (MC is a princess, though male, and ML is a dragon who kidnaps him); 9) The last world (survival/infinity flow, MC is a player and ML is a copy boss/ghost). The we are told the past of two protagonists and then the end follows.
• The writing style is very like a dark aesthetic, there are many gory descriptions, lots of blood and murder, but it actually fits right when you read about MC and ML.

CHARACTERS:

• MC/Ge Xiu. Evil beauty. Is the best way to describe him. He has beauty beyond imagination, but there is always a dangerous flame in his eyes. GX is very smart, he is also very cunning and cruel. I love that author shows his consistent character, like for example he comes from interstellar era, so when he has to be an actor and be in a backward era, it totally confuses him logically. Slowly you realize his character and later find out why he is like that, why he is used for the experiment. The greatest thing author did for him is balanced the outpour on MC and his ability to fight back or his identityt in the virtual world.
• ML/Isis. A.k.a Pandora. This is a spoiler, but it becomes evident in several first worlds who ML is, but MC can't decide if ML is a friend or a foe to him, because he has no memories prior his arrest. Original body of ML is kept in the research lab and he is used like that, he is the core of Pandora project. In virtual worlds ML time and time again takes the role of protector, although he doesn't remember anything, it is evident that he knows MC somehow and his love for him is deep thus he protects MC in any way possible, though such an MC who is an idividualist is hard to even catch.

RELATIONSHIP:

• Develops really naturally, there are no plots of overbearing presidents, no harassing MLs etc. there is only two people who time and time again meet, MC realizes it's the same person, but he doesn't know the purpose of him. After all the worlds are built to make him experience pain and his trust was always vague. But despite that and with his core personality of - don't trust anyone - MC actually opens up and goes through the same path or realization that ML is the only one for him, he is his partner. Honestly, their past is so touching, I cried a little bit.

Conclusion. I love QT genre as a whole, I like the different approaches to interpreting it, but tbh for me this type of novel was the first. This is logically a man-made plot and it follows it. There is no main god, no one will become immortal by the end, there is no sudden loss of mental strength out of nowhere and getting into other worlds for unknown reason. There are also no systems with shops or not, who might not even help you, there are no plots of revenge or slap back. You never know what will happen next, sometimes you will be really surprised, but everything feels logical and comes together really well. I was completely satisfied with the plot idea and virtual worlds as well, MC was shows as completely different entity, but with a truly consistent character and his own development. I definitely recommend to try this bloody beauty as something different.

RATE: 5/5. Excellent. Will explore other works by this author, added them to my collection.