백 년을 하루같이 [Baeg Nyeon-eul Harugat-i]

One Hundred Years As An Extra #1-6

by Hypnose, 이프노스

완결을 보지 못한 남성향 먼치킨 소설의 엑스트라 조연에 빙의했다.
한 치 앞도 모르는 비정한 미래에 달리아는 자신의 안전하고 풍족한 여생을 위하여 이 소설을 완결내기로 결심한다.
어떤 사건이 일어날지 모른다면, 철저한 주인공 편에 서서 해피엔딩을 만들어주지.
그렇게 결심하며 엑스트라 조연 역할에 충실하며 주인공에게 충성을 다하는 친구인 대마법사 카이첸의 거대한 그늘아래 숨기 위해 그를 유혹하는데...
완벽한 해피엔딩을 맞게 해주고는 싶으나 안락한 여생을 위하여 눈에 띄고 싶지 않은 달리아와
그런 그녀의 미친 유혹에 인생이 송두리째 흔들리는 카이첸의 밀당 로맨스.

ebook

First published May 14, 2021

Reviews

[Megan Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

An orphan dies in a car crash and transmigrates into the novel she had been reading—Julius, Heir of Blue Dragon—as Dahlia Alshine. This side character is a drunken Count addicted to gambling who dies in the story. Worse, it is after the forbidden magic traps the inhabitants of Acarab in a loop of the same day. It’s hard to guess given her lack of memories from the host and that time now works differently inside and outside the zone of Acarab, but she thinks she will have to survive another three years inside the dome until the protagonist and his best friend Wizard Kaichen Tenebre come to release the magic repetition. Only her optimism to claim a quiet life as an extra fades as the days tick by, one-hundred years later she barely remembers her goals. Still, she rushes to Kaichen when he arrives relieved and terrified to be done with this madness. As the medium of the time magic, she is under suspicion and is forced to work with Kaichen investigation.
Dahlia uses the information she learned while trapped to help some of her citizens saving a sick child, hiring an adolescent to care for her manor, and paying debts around town. Then she begs Kaichen to take her elsewhere and is surprised when he opts for his home rather than the Ice Tower. Dalhia puts on a happy face and caters to his eccentricities hoping to make it to the story’s end, meanwhile watching her seizures and pain Kaichen lets go of childhood grudges and becomes fascinated by the lady. Only Dahlia quickly realizes that the plot is deviating farther from what she remembers and there must be some force helping Imperial Princess Akshetra Kalhai and harming Julius—but she doesn’t know if anything can be done.
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This is a difficult one to rate because it is a mix of good and terrible elements. The premise of forcefully repeating the same day thousands of times and the effect that would have on your psyche and personality is fascinating. Daliah is not just a quirky nerd who talks to herself or a fish out of water trying to survive plotted death as a side character making her an engaging protagonist for the genre. I wish the dialogue didn’t make her seem so childish and repetitive, but it is not enough for me to not like her. If something is undone or not remembered, does it matter? Does being a victim or an addict excuse one from responsibility for their actions? Can you overcome the past or fate? Love all the philosophical stuff. The symbology regarding Kaichen’s golden warmth and her black rose is great. A clearly damaged couple struggling for happiness hits appropriately in the feels. Unfortunately, the world building is trash. We transmigrate into a novel which we don’t know the story of, we don’t follow the plot (even if we complain we can’t deviate from it), we don’t utilize information to make changes or outsmart people… so why bother? As an audience we are never given enough information to understand. A king declares his returning son the heir over his competent daughter, only contradictorily he is a puppet of that daughter. The nobles and peasants mostly hate everyone despite how they save their lives, use them for experiments, or develop their cities. There is mana, wands and a tower of magicians, but they are rarely used and have no consistency. What are the 5 poison elements or the goals of the Malhoumut cult? A character will announce a conversation they want and three months later it hasn’t happened. Weaksauce leads know the villains but never succeed at stopping their plans, they don’t use their powers or keep proises, and perform an array of disappointing or confusing actions. We hand wave away Dahlia’s dark past as a misunderstanding, load her up with wealth and mines, and then give her an eidetic memory removing most of the external tension. It becomes clear it is just the background for the romance/smut which is only marginally successful. Making Kaichen chronically horny for a girl who is actively having psychotic breakdowns, cooking all his meals, and calling him teacher is objectively creepy. They don’t communicate well, they test one another unfairly. And all those could be used as growth moments, but the author always pulls back after simply acknowledging the problem. I don’t mind that he is lustful and he does truly want to take care of her, but the timing of the sex scenes is nonsensically when they are in crisis. It also pushes limits… like she was already tortured, do we have to repeat that three more times even after saying she has endured enough to deserve a fantastical happy life with her lover (in their own world). I loved some of the cutesy character interactions, the mental quandaries it raises, and saw potential. That will be enough to endear some fans. I’m disappointed strongly by the latter half despite moments of charm.