I really enjoyed this book, in fact it's probably one of the better VR litrpg novels I've ever read. Not that it had an super unique premise or anything, it was just that it was such an realistic depiction of a group of friends playing an mmorpg together.

I'm not a big fan of the blurb, as I found it misleading and was presenting an entirely different vibe than what was found in the book. The competition mentioned in the blurb doesn't even happen in the first book. Not that the MC, nor any of his friends, talks about finally getting the possibility of making money of gaming and having that as a job.

In fact it was the opposite, they had plans for the future. For university, rooming together and such. They were just a small clan, or guild, that never quite made it into being an Elite Guild. And they wanted it. The competition was announced after the plans of making it big in the game. And it was only a bonus at best. And the money was never really talked about.

It was extremely refreshing to see characters actually behave in an realistic manner, and it had one of my favorite systems where there is no class restrictions and you can pick up any type of magic, or weapon proficiency.

Toward the end of the book, there was a gigantic arena match. Dueling style. That probably took close to 20% of the book. I didn't personally care for it, I didn't need personal details of how other fights did where the main character, nor his friends, was a part of. It gave me pretty big anime show vibes tho, and I think some would probably enjoy it.

Another bad thing was probably some of the interactions the MC had with his friends. It might be another realistic view of gaming buddies but it was borderline toxic. Not to mention going through the entire book of one dude telling the other they're going to kick each others ass just for them NOT to face off in the arena to answer who kicks whose ass in this game.. Which was disappointing, that dude is an ass!