#misplacement game

[myreputatioooon]

so it turns out the webnovels I'm reading belong to a genre that might just be my new favorite genre

[the-cloud-cat]

Me, whenever a Danmei novel has to skip the sex scenes:

[myreputatioooon]

currently in the middle of Misplacement Game's cruise ship arc and I'm thinking . . .

THe swimming pool and basketball scenario feel pretty out of place in a void, given the body horror is meant to be about becoming skinsuits to parasite sea monsters

but take into account how the previous world was about bloody and vengeful spirits and their gorey supernatural phenomenon--- (hell the head could be a call back to the mirror shard situation)

---and maybe Sun Mo &/or someone/something else like his cousin followed Xu into this new Cruise Ship World bringing their own survival game setting . . .

It's probably tied to Xu's new capture target but now I'm thinking of an AU where Sun Mo follows an unknowing Xu into the new Instance, and then Austin and other natives of the Cruise Ship Game are completely thrown for a loop with the presence of a new supernatural entity

[myreputatioooon]

Starting Misplacement Game again after 70 chapters of I Became a God in a Horror game so I don't get bored of GHG and Misplacement Game isn't even 200 chapters long bruh I'm gonna have to find another webnovel to pick up to stave off my boredom 😭😭😭😭

In other news I've found the cure to dnf'ing

[notnun]

Misplacement Game (错位游戏[快穿]) | 藤原欣

Links: Novelupdates | CH 1-21 , CH 21-End

Tags: Infinite Flow/Quick Transmigration, Adventure, Horror, Romance, Shounen Ai, Supernatural

Chapters: 140

Read on: 11/09/2023 to 11/12/2023

This time, I was rereading this novel to remember what happened in it... I think I read this for the first time rather early in my danmei reading life, but I remember even then I wasn't too impressed with this novel.

The premise seems promising! The main character accepts to participate in a Love Capture game after he dies. The auxillary system has been picking on Xu Ziyue for two years to enter it, asking him to quickly die to go experience it! (This is never brought back up btw.) But once he's in the game, it seems the setting is actually a standard Infinite Flow plot? Everyone around him is dying, but he's just here to get the love of this handsome NPC, who then happens to be the secret hidden Boss of each scenario. Its fine. The novel does deliver on this, and goes through an assortment of scenarios.

Unfortunately though, this novel in its entirety doesn't bring anything special to the table. The arcs included in this novel are just the standard assortment of Infinite Flow plots, with none being particularly outstanding besides the last one. No overarching worldbuilding is used, no real system motivations as to why the Other players are going through the IF game, and only a small explanation is given to Xu Ziyue as to why he was given the Love Capture subsystem.

Xu Ziyue himself is a face-con who can't help but take flyers from a person across the street as long as they're beautiful. He's simple-minded and while being pretty shameless about his predisposition towards beautiful people, he's shy when it comes to actual contact. I personally like this setting! He goes about these scenarios with the attitude of: 1) find the most handsome NPC 2) stick to him 3) ??? 4) profit. He kind of rolls along with things as long as he's not in danger, and he notices just enough about the scenarios that I can't call him completely stupid. His reactions to the horror aspects of the game improve over time, and I think if the ending hadn't been rushed or if the author hadn't wanted to wrap things up so quickly he could have reached a good point. There is a lot of suggestive and consensual interactions between Xu Ziyue and his capture targets, and honestly if the author hadn't gone a completely weird direction with the fourth arc I would have been fine with the whole novel.

Unfortunately, the fourth arc is really. Bleh. I didn't like the jokes made and honestly its perfectly fine to skip it entirely. More information on that in the arc names section.

How was the translation? It's fine. I won't ever dismiss translators as long as there aren't any major issues, but a few personal "nitpicky" thoughts will be under the cut.

Would I recommend this novel? No, unless you have nothing else to read and want to pass the time. Its not horrible, but its not great. I would just prioritise other novels first.

Would I reread this novel (again)? No. This reread has been enough for me to shelve this one forever.

Trigger Warnings: Gore, Medical horror, Parasites, Mentions of rape and suicide (<-All of these are mostly minor things, and Xu Ziyue isn't directly involved in it). Use of the phrase "So sweet he seemed mentally retarded." (no explanation from the translator for this one, the translator seems hung up on not changing the wording for these in general, this is a one off sentence in the fourth arc), Some weirdly insistent jokes about "are you a pedophile" that are only present in the fourth arc (more information in the arc summary).

Arc names under the cut and some extra thoughts, no real spoilers because this novel is simple as hell:

Shangyang High School, Sun Mo (Fans)

The first translator only handled the first arc and like one chapter of the second. Their random anecdotes and translator notes are annoying and very normal for translations of the time (2019), but are ignorable. Sun Mo is cute and this arc is pretty interesting. The rape/suicide mentions are in this arc, but a very very small anecdote in it tho.

Westminister Luxury Cruise, Austin (Fish)

Austin is probably my favourite Boss, and his interactions with Xu Ziyue feel the most genuine. Xu Ziyue is most hung up on him out of everyone u_u

Humanoid Village, Mo (Doll)

I feel like Mo is the most pitiful out of all the Bosses because he gets hardly any time with Xu Ziyue and when Mo finally thinks he has him forever Xu Ziyue vanishes :c The introduction of the other special NPCs here is nice, and although they followed up on it I wish there had been more instances of it. Xu Ziyue messes around with Mo before Mo starts really moving but Mo makes it clear later that he would have attacked Xu Ziyue if he didn't like it, and Xu Ziyue was doing it in the first place to make him move so. Shrugs. I can overlook it.

Castle Escape Room/Werewolf, (Gu Ze)

Ugh right so. This is a very very simple game of 'werewolf' where there are no special powers, just murderers following a script vs the players, and everyone is mixed together and no one knows who is who. This is a fine setting, if a bit dull, and Xu Ziyue doesn't participate really at all in figuring out who is a murderer or not because he's too busy being toyed with by Gu Ze. Gu Ze initially dismisses Xu Ziyue as looking like a minor because he's got a baby face and his identity wears overalls, and Xu Ziyue is flustered by this. Somehow this instant dismissal is supposed to reflect Mo's taciturn nature? Btw each Boss has vague feelings/habits/memories from the other Bosses. Gu Ze's quirk is that he wants to lock Xu Ziyue up because he feels like he'll disappear, and he's been paying special attention to people who look similarly to Xu Ziyue (so. baby faces. this is why another NPC makes some out of hand pedo jokes?? I feel like this didn't have to be included) and that Gu Ze has been waiting for ~something/someone~ (read: Xu Ziyue) thus when he finds Xu Ziyue he's rather overbearing about it. This is all you need to know about the fourth arc, besides the fact that Gu Ze gives Xu Ziyue a lot of hickies before he lets Xu Ziyue go. I think you can just skip this arc, read the post-world wrapup portion of the chapter and proceed with confidence that you've not missed anything.

Seventh Sanatorium, Shen Ci×6 (Love Delusion)

Why is it that the last arc is the most interesting? And it ended up feeling rushed. But Xu Ziyue finally finds a brain in this arc and is actually actively trying to do things if you can believe it.

Epilogue

I actually would probably read an entire romcom horror novel about this setup alone. Damn it.

Final thoughts.... Why did I reread this novel. It had so much potential but ends up really flat. Its a quick read and entertaining enough so I don't feel like I wasted time per se but its just. Eh. There are better ones out there. A lot of the novel ended up being "oh they're kissing" but I didn't feel the buildup in the later arcs.

oh also as a final statement. this novel is so between the IF/QT genres that i cant tag it definitively one or the other. lol

[memes-with-little-context]

Misplacement Game but as reaction memes

[the-cloud-cat]

Xu Ziyue every chapter be like:

(Source)