Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Chapter 1: “The Beginning of the Paywall” (episodes 2 through 6) Webnovel Review
Major Spoilers are included in this Webnovel Review. Please read with caution.
On October 30, 2020, I started and finished Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Chapter 1: “The Beginning of the Paywall”. Chapter 1—broken into five episodes—set up the story with how the world is suddenly becoming like Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World, the Webnovel Kim Dokja just finished. This is another Writers’ Group Book Club selection—and our first Webnovel one! We usually selected physical books that aren’t manga or Webtoon based, but it’s always good to change things up.
Picking up where we left off—Kim Dokja riding the subway with his coworker Yoo Sangah—a monster Kim Dokja appears and imposes a test on all the passengers onboard. The test is to kill a living organism
The self-awareness is being utilized differently—as it’s mostly goofy when self-awareness is being implemented, but the violent realism behind it works just as effectively with the dark tone. The disclaimer is also used in every episode to warn readers about the triggering content. Like Kim Dokjia, I was smiling and feeling pretty excited about the whole thing.
“Why [are our hearts] beating with joy in this precarious situation?”
On Eve of Halloween, I realized I was Kim Dokja and myself at the same time. It was quite the exhilarating feel—something I needed to feel to pump myself up for what was to come November 3, 2020. Anyway, back to Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint—a fictional self-aware Webnovel—that doesn’t really help you escape reality and gives people nightmares.
Wait. Why am we reading this Webnovel again?
In my Prologue Webnovel review—the link is here—I mentioned Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna feelings were resurfacing, and this chapter gave me clearer context on why that was. When the video game aspects kicked in to enhance the amazingly drawn action sequences, I found myself being reminded of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth’s design and gameplay as the pop-up windows looked similar to each other whenever level-ups, rewards, and attacks happened. Since Persona 5 and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth video games have similar designs, story, and gameplays, this makes a lot of sense.
Kim Dokja developed well during this chapter in terms of motive, morals, and the instinctive need to survive and protect others. The Webnovel tackled these aspects very early on, as Kim Dokja revealed his high IQ and ability to search his favorite Webnovel for clues to survive and understand the fictional characters coming to life. He also tackled a serious writer’s problem when he considered his interference with the Webnovel’s plot, and how it could skew what he knew in order to survive. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but it’s perfectly okay to rewrite if it makes the story better in the long run, and that’s exactly what Kim Dokja does in his fight against Namwoon—an edgelord character who had a big role to play in the novel. Well, he did until Kim Dokja decided to kill him off.
Overall, I would highly recommend reading Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint. There are 551 chapters total—not translated into English yet, not sure how many episodes will be broken out of those 551 chapters either—so the apocalyptic journey will be quite long but rewarding like Tower of God and One Piece. Similar to my unOrdinary Webtoon Reviews, I will be doing arc reviews whenever a set number of episodes have concluded a chapter.
Thanks for reading this Webnovel review! Let’s keep it reading, everyone—another Webtoon has joined Aaron Ngo’s weekly schedule and long-game blog schedule. My new whiteboard calendar is looking beautifully filled for the months to come!