Everything BL

The Earth is Online (RATING: 97/100)

I read this novel in 3 days... could barely take my eyes off the page. I consider it as part of my Big 3, which are the Best 3 Light Novels I have ever read. So... you can understand how brilliant this story is. This novel is BL but the romance is a slow burn but please, please... PLEASE still read it. The story is so good and you need that beginning to understand the characters and what's happening in the world. Just start it... do yourself a favour and START THIS BOOK, NOW.

GENRE:

Action, Adventure, Yaoi, Mature, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, Sci-fi, Supernatural

DESCRIPTION:

Six months ago, tens of thousands of black phantom towers appeared all over the world, floating above the cities. Chemists, physicists, religious people... all of them could do nothing.

Six months later, people became used to the towers and no longer paid them attention.

One day, Tang Mo saw a flying insect crash into it instead of going through it. The next day, a sharp and clear child-like voice issued an announcement to all humans.

"Ding dong! November 15th, 2017. The earth is online."

The black tower's three iron-clad rules:

1. Everything is explained by the black tower.

2. 6 o'clock to 18 o'clock is the game time.

3. All players, please strive to attack the tower.

-245 chapters-

MY REVIEW 

OMG... this book... let's just say I still can't stop talking about it and it's been a year.

Our main character is extremely clever and this story is based on Game Elements which keeps you guessing every fricken page on how the main character will get out of certain situations. The characters he meets are all so well done, I cried hearing some of their stories... and you can completely feel the seriousness of this whole situation (apocalyptic world). You can feel humanity struggling to survive. I can't explain it to you... you just need to trust me on this and READ the novel.

The games... brilliant. The whole concept of the Earth being controlled by something mysterious and forcing everyone to play games in order to survive is fantastic. You are continuously trying to figure out what the black towers are with the main character. I'm not going to lie, some of your childhood favourites will forever be ruined (cough)... Mario.

The flow... the plot... do you know how many times I shouted WTF or couldn't believe what was going on because I would never have seen it coming in a million years. People also die... some of your favourites will die, suddenly and their deaths will have no closure. This is a survival game and even though I was really sad, it made the whole story feel more real, scarier,... because death can come for anyone and anytime. 

I'm going to be honest, I didn't get much sleep in the 3 days I read this because I just couldn't put this book down. It's been a year... and I'm waiting until I've forgotten most of the plot (which I hope will happen but probs unlikely because every part was amazing... ) so I can reread it all over again. 

And I haven't even spoken about the romance with our ML (it's a slow burn but it's done so well that I just wanna scream any time those two are alone in a room)... this story is just, amazingly good!

Go read this book. Now!

Edit: I'm back here trying to convince people to read this novel... lmao. So, let me go into more detail if you need more reason to give this novel a try (don't read below if you've already decided to read this because it's so much fun finding out all this by yourself), just so you have a better understanding (and because I have no one else to talk to about this novel... so let me go crazy here, okay).

Black Towers just randomly appeared floating all over the world (especially above major cities). People went crazy at first but after Governments tried everything to figure out what these towers were... they couldn't even touch it because they were transparent. After a while, since these towers weren't harming anyone and no one could learn anything from them, people continued their lives and the Black Towers just became part of the scenery.

That is until the Black Towers made its first announcement. Now, just before that... our MC see's an insect crash into the tower above his city (which should be transparent) but it completely goes over his head.

The Black Towers all over the world announces that there will be a 3 day qualifying round. People are obviously super confused and the whole world gets put to a stop with Governments sending everyone home (schools and work closing - which btw seemed completely crazy to me while reading this but now after co*vid... author knew what she was writing). 

Our MC is a librarian and extremely intelligent. He has a huge crush on this guy he plays... I think chess?... online with (who is our ML). Anyways, while everyone is sent home, he goes back to work (the Library) to pack up his things as the Library is right under the Black Tower in his city and the Government have decided to use it as a base to study the tower as it's not transparent anymore. He goes to the Library only to walk into a game instance (he cannot leave the Library until the game is complete- it's like an overlap of a dimension). Anyways, he meets one of the tower's bosses with 2 other humans and he wins the game.

You find out then that all over the world, these types of game instances appeared. People would walk into a cafe or into their bathrooms only to be pulled into a game. They either win or lose but no one knows what all this means. Because most people are sent home, some people do end up playing games for entertainment, especially young children (such as UNO, online games, even bets, etc). 

Now, this is where it gets interesting and where the novel actually starts... after 3 days of the qualifying rounds... every person who lost or didn't play (they're not qualified) ... disappears... and the world is almost put on a pause. 

Those that are qualified are put into 3 categories:

1. The official players (those that won an instanced game (tower game))

2. The reserve players (those that won their own game (UNO, online, bets, etc.)

3. The stowaways (those that killed someone who was an official player during the 3 days)

All the official players get an ability (this includes our MC). The reserve players don't get an ability but they are able to become official players. Stowaways also receive abilities but they are mostly hated by the Black Tower bosses as well as the other players as they are seen as murderers.

This is where the official story begins. The tower has floors and after a certain amount of time, all players are forced into the floor to unlock it. Between these times, players try to survive the human world that has game instances popping all over (some players purposely look for them as, just like games, if you win you receive an award. By becoming stronger, you're more likely to survive... especially when you're forced into the tower when time runs out). Some really powerful players are forced earlier than everyone else into the tower to play the round.

Anyways... this is as much as I can say without giving away too much. It's such a great story and I'm contemplating re-reading it after I finish the 2 novels I'm currently busy with (I'm so fricken excited too).