Qin Mo: Why am I always at the bottom of the food chain! Li Cangyu tells Captain Ling whatever he wants and then he makes me do it!
Xiao Han: ???? 😄😄😄 You're my very best friend!
Qin Mo: JFC YOUR CHINESE IS AWFUL.
-The King's Return-
Qin Mo: -looks at someone funny-
Xiao Han: WHAT DID HE DO TO YOU? Do you want me to yell at him for you? Are you comfortable? Are your hands okay? Don't worry about it, I'll make sure his body disappears ASAP.
Qin Mo: When did your Chinese get so good when yelling at people?
Due to Arahabaki’s effects on his body, Chuuya only has thirteen months left to live.
Dazai is intent on staying with Chuuya during his last moments, on finding a way to undo this damage, because there’s no way he’s going to let Chuuya beat him like this.
2. there is no second time
Soulmate AU where once you break up with your soulmate, your memories of them get erased.
...This is Dazai and Chuuya’s 50th first date.
3. Earth is Online ficlet: Fu Wendou/Tang Mo
4. God Level Summoner ficlet: Ling Xuefeng/Li Cangyu
Translated by RainbowTurtle here.
Written by Die Zhiling (蝶之灵) on jjwxc
God Level Summoner is the second novel series in a trilogy in the same universe by the author. The first is “The Strongest God” and the third is “The King’s Return.” Apparently it has been turned into a donghua, but I haven’t checked that out yet, nor do I know if it still contains the BL.
WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT.
Weilongfu’s Synopsis:
Li Cangyu has been in e-sports since his teenage years. However, despite his talent, skill, and determination, Cangyu has not been able make his way to a proper victory in the league of both games he has lead teams in. After an invitation to return to the game that started it all for him and his friend Bai Xuan, Cangyu finds himself with one last chance to hold a trophy in his hands, stand on the same field as his long time rival Ling Xuefeng, and perhaps, show the world just how amazing he truly is. And fall in love if there’s time to spare.
Author’s Synopsis:
Bounty missions, hidden plots, legion defense battles, Star Carnival, Professional League and World Competitions! Team promotions, cool flow of text, hot-blooded, gay love, multiple happy CPs, no abuse points, so sweet that your teeth hurts is the goal (∩_∩)!
Overall Plot Assessment and Summary:
Li Cangyu started his e-sports career in the online video game called Miracle, a cross between League of Legends PVP and World of Warcraft PVE. With his friend Bai Xuan, the two started their initial e-sports team, For The Dream (FTD). Unfortunately, they were never able to climb through the league and secure victory. Eventually, the two moved their team to another game called Wulin (featured in the first novel) but were still unable to secure league victories. Now 24 yrs old, Li Cangyu is disbanding his team, now named Canglan, when he is offered a chance to return to the Miracle League and try one last time for the trophy. Cangyu slowly but surely recruits his brand new team under the same Canglan banner, trains them up, and fights his way to the top of not just the Chinese Miracle league, but also the world championship. Along the way, he restarts his friendship/rivalry with Ling Xuefeng (the current captain of the Wind Color team and the top ranked summoner in China) and the two actually become lovers.
The novel also features several side couples: Xie Shurong and Bai Xuan (Team Canglan), Tan Shitian and Cheng Wei (Team Time), Su Guangmo and Yu Pingsheng (Team Flying Feathers), Zhang Shaohui and Lou Wushang (Team Ghost Spirits). All of these side couples and the main couple get extra chapters in the epilogue to finish their arcs and have some sex. And kudos to the author, they actually use the word “penis” in the sex scenes!
If you liked The King’s Avatar with Ye Xiu’s rise back to glory/Glory (the game), God Level Summoner is pretty much the same thing but gay.
While the plot is heavily about e-sports teams competing, the BL plots continue to brew and develop in the background. It’s also very different from some other BL novels that I’ve talked about here in that Li Cangyu and Ling Xuefeng are really quite domestic, steady, and stable once they actually get together halfway through the novel. The two know each other incredibly well due to roughly starting out the game at the same time and having learned about their chosen class of summoner together. Xuefeng defers to anything and everything Cangyu wants. Cangyu teases Xuefeng and Xuefeng indulges him no matter what. The two also have several fantastic lines to each other. Xuefeng in particular has several about waiting for Cangyu to return to Miracle (IE return to him) and they’re great.
There is a brief moment of jealousy in the World Championships, but most of that is because Li Cangyu is pissed that the French national team captain dared to be so cocky, so he knocks him down several notches in their match. That Xuefeng knows the asshole is just a minor thing that pings on Cangyu’s radar.
The overall tone of the novel is actually quite light. There are some down moments where the teams are losing or when there’s a bit of emotional dialogue, but the vast majority is fluffy teamwork, friends, pining between the side CPs, and Cangyu and Xuefeng being ridiculously soft with each other. It’s so painfully obvious how much the two love each other that I’m surprised it took so long for people to realize they were dating in novel. So based on the promises the author made in their synopsis, I can confirm they pulled through.
There’s also set up for the main pairing in the third novel, a romance between the apprentices of Cangyu and Xuefeng, Xiao Han and Qin Mo respectively. They are definitely a fun pair to watch as Xiao Han is half American and half Chinese and Qin Mo ends up helping him learn more Chinese since he is now part of a Chinese team.
Other interesting points are that Yu Pingshen is a non-communicative autistic player and Lou Wusheng is curt and kind of anti-social. Neither are ever looked down upon by their teammates and are well supported by their companions. Neither is also ever played up as a joke. Which is a positive!
There’s even an all female team in the league, the Red Foxes, and they hold their own very well in the story.
The Gripes:
Okay so there’s your standard BL problem where they keep saying, “You’re my wife,” etc etc. The second standard BL problem about women getting in the way, thankfully, never happens! Although the third problem, men have no fashion sense and women are better at it, does happen at least once.
Some of the side pairings start out okay, but their arcs in the epilogues are not as great? All of them are some variant of the, “I’ll chase you until you love me,” trope. Tan Shitian and Xie Shurong pursue their love interests mostly over the course of the novel, but make their final stand in the epilogues. Cheng Wei does the, “I guess I actually have fallen in love with you,” thing and Bai Xuan does the, “You aren’t what I wanted, but you are what I need,” thing.
Su Guangmo has apparently been playing the long game for Yu Pingshen since their trainee days in the Flying Feathers team by being an intermediary for his non-communicative condition and taking Pingshen on vacations until Pingshen falls in love with Guangmo.
Lou Wusheng and Zhang Shaohui are very, very, very distant cousins (their last relation to each other is at the great great grandfather level) that grew up together as brothers and Wusheng nurses his feelings for Shaohui until after the story ends. Then in the epilogue, Shaohui gets drunk one night and Wusheng has sex with him. The two eventually sort it out, but it’s kind of... eh.
Out of all the side pairings, ShuBai and TanCheng are probably the more well-adjusted. But there’s nothing that absolutely screams they others are problematic.
The sex scenes are all very similar. The character on the bottom orgasms first very easily, all of them have very sensitive nipples, and for some bizarre reason, despite having proper lube and stretching the muscles of the anus, the author continues to say that all of them feel their “insides tearing” and I have to say that’s unnecessary. At the very least, Cangyu and Xuefeng decide to trade positions every time they do it, continuing to prove how ridiculously well-adjusted they are.
The final gripe is actually the machine translating. The translator does actually declare under their “About Me” that machine translating CNovels is their hobby and I’d like to formally thank them for it. But it does lead to minor issues in translation that are weird if not looked over and corrected. The typical way you would cheer someone in Chinese is to say, “加油” (jia you) which literally means “add fuel,” but is used in the context to tell someone to keep going and continue working hard. The machine translation changes this to “refuel,” and so you see this weird moment where everyone keeps saying, “Refuel,” before a match.
Another phrase that gets messed up is “卖萌” (mai meng) which literally means “to sell sprouts,” but with slang means “acting cute.” So during the World Championships, the Chinese players have to pick character IDs in English and some of them use parts of their names (MOMO, YUYU, XIEXIE) and the translation asks if they’re “selling meng.”
You will also notice characters saying something like, “Aren’t I handsome?” after winning a game. The word “帅” (shuai) typically means “handsome” but can also be used to mean “cool.” (thank you to @stebeee for confirming my suspicions about some of this)
Pros? Cons? Would you recommend?:
The pros? Chapters are short and move quickly. Everything is absolutely fluffy, Cangyu finally gets his day in the sun, gets his lover, and then the two get married, retire (at 24/25 (Cangyu) and 27-ish (Xuefeng)), and run off into the sunset. The setup for Qin Mo and Xiao Han is also very cute.
The e-sports parts are actually rather engaging and interesting once the competitions start. Cangyu can brag, but is it really bragging when you can do what you say? All parents in the story are accepting of the gay relationships (at least the ones you see find out on screen), and no one ever really does the gay panic. Plus no homophobic slurs thrown at the happy couples!
Cons? There are a lot of teams and a lot of characters to follow. However, you never really get overwhelmed. I would have also liked to see more of the side couples have their arcs featured a bit more in the main novel. The novels in the series are also rather repetitive in their main premise about the return of a talented player to e-sports. In God Level Summoner, Cangyu returns to Miracle. In The King’s Return, Qin Mo returns to e-sports in a new game (I don’t really have more details than that).
So would I recommend God Level Summoner? If you can commit at least a week to binge read it, then absolutely. Especially if you just want to read a story that feels good and essentially shows the main characters end up very happy at the end. You will have to grin and bear the machine translating, but it’s actually not that awful. Fans of The King’s Avatar that wished Ye Xiu had a gay love interest in a rival team will find their wish fantasy fulfilled in this novel.
EXTRA THOUGHTS:
So the parallels between The King’s Avatar and God Level Summoner are very obvious. It bears noting that The King’s Avatar started being posted on jjwxc around 2012 and God Level Summoner started in 2016, plenty of time for the writer to potentially be influenced. However, there are no real parallels between the two outside of the e-sports team things. Ye Xiu (at least in live action drama, I haven’t read the novel yet) always seems more aloof and as a mentor to everyone, including the opposing teams. Li Cangyu on the other hand, is very clearly a little more personal with his friends, team members, and rivals in competing Chinese teams and his relationship with Ling Xuefeng is given a special highlight to how well they know each other, making it obvious that they are destined for each other.
