Most will die. Some will survive. A small few will thrive.
Noah secured his first safe zone, got a ton of XP and loot, and saw his name on the national leaderboard for the System.
Now he wants more.
His party of unlikely adventurers will head north to South Bend, Indiana to try to secure a safe zone that is on the brink of disaster. The Archdemon Crimmus has taken over the campus of Notre Dame as his personal abattoir, and the adventurers in the area are too divided by religious dogma to unify and topple the hellspawn, so it’s up to Noah and his elite Summoner class to lead an epic raid into the very heart of hell. If he fails, many more will perish in fire and brimstone. If he succeeds, he will rocket up the rankings.
I hoped that autor leveled up his Writing skill since first book. Unfortunately not.
I gave first book 2 stars and wrote review. In average negative reviews poited to same issues so I hoped that autor will consider them while writing his next book. Second book has same issues as first one: - childis dialogs in MC group - artifically increased fighting difficulty by doing stupid decidions - using around 20% of potentinal of his OP class And there are some new issues: - horrible leadership of MC - stealing looted gold from raid group - running away when they could easily farm exp and loot from fortified possition - MC is using all his pets like same type. He don't use their abilities. - several inconsitencies world logic - see bellow - MC used his best skill ONCE (Beast of Burden)
SPOILERS: There are totally 5 fights in that book. With each following battle MC's battle plans are worse and worse. At the end I had to stop reading and take pause when I read: "I have a plan" Battle #1: Group of 4 adventures and 3 pets with total level 37-40 (levels of pets are estimated) totally massacred poor tigress lvl 10. Group considered fight as dangerous and hard. Battle plan was normal - Healer you will heal, Bard you will buff, Mage you will cast, I summoner will summon pets. Everyone just had to ask MC what they should do.
Battle #2: Same group + tigress (total level around 45) vs melee mantis lvl15. Battle plan: Healer and Bard - go and tank it. Surprisingly both nearly died. Battle #3: Same group + big group of lvl1 prisoners vs lvl 8 Necrodominus. Battle plan: Complicated plan to free prisonners and bring them to monster with life drain ability. Of course it had AoE version of life drain.
All this three battles was MC able to win solo. Just with effective using of his and his pets spells and abilities.
Battle #4: Already 30 adventurers lost on that quest. There is obviously someone messing with their mind. Battle plan: Split group and everyone should go alone. Casino fight was horrible. Running away from two lvl6 monsters. Meeting 10 years old girl with some psychopatic behavior.
Battle #5: Raid. During prepration MC didn't even ask about boss level or his abilities. System strongly support cooperation of all non-solo classes but MC did't review what classes are going to join raid. His battle plan for raid is chaotic. In short: "Everyone, go and fight enemies."
With better understanding his class and proper development MC would be able to take raid boss solo.
For autor: - Laszlo is Hungarian male name - Hungary is not in Eastern Europe - Everyone who works with animals know how to check gender of cat. - How was prisoner sitting all time in prison able to reach same level as MC who spent 90% of time since appocalype start by fighting and questing? - How was 10 years girl able to gain level 6, when best occupants of that Safe Zone were around lvl4 - How was prisoner lvl1 reach lvl4 during road from prison to safe zone? - How was 10 years girl able to use sword as large as she is?
I read book 1 and I liked it, and then I read Oppose the System when it came out. At first I wasn't sure if the two books were related, because it had been a while since I'd read the first book.
Now that I've read the second Defy the System book, I can confirm two things:
1) The series are very similar, but not exactly. They use the same LitRPG system, and some of the characters have the same classes and skills. One is in Indiana, and the other in LA.
2) Oppose the System (so far) is better than Defy the System. I connected with the characters in this book better, and I found the challenges they faced to be better than the other series.
Part of the reason is that Noah isn't a strong leader. As a summoner, he might as well be a 90 lb weakling because he relies on his animals more than anything else to survive. In book 1 I didn't care because I had nothing to compare to, but now I do. I will give props for adding a summoner, as you don't see them very often.
I won't recap the missions the team goes on or the bosses they face. Their only goal is to help people, which they remind us of quite frequently.
I don't want to diss the book too much. It's well written, the editing is slightly above average, and I'm a fan of LitRPG apocalypse series. It all boils down to the fact that I like the other book better.
3.5 stars. Writing is reasonably good, although the milieu (system apocalypse) has been done better elsewhere.
There are a lot of childish interactions within the party, not helped (nor exacerbated, ironically) by adding a 10-year-old to the mix. I am too old/jaded to get anything from YA-level personal relations in books, so that stuff (especially Milo) grated on me. The names for skills and pets were also not as clever as the author seemed to think. In fact, the constant use of pop-culture references from when I was a child (we're talking late '70s/early 80s) was curious considering the purported age of the MC and party.
Overall decidedly mediocre, but competent grammar/editing keeps it (barely) above a 3. I'm not sure I'm sufficiently invested to continue this series, but maybe if it's a slow week or something.
I think this is one of the better earth-based system litrpg series out there. It's not as good as system apocalypse, but it's pretty good, and I like how the whole story is handled. The main character always does his best to plan out how to proceed in any upcoming battles, works hard to get supporting characters to help, and tries his best to help others whenever he can. That's about as good as it gets. I have to say, the main character is a lot better at this kind of thing than I am. I'm very much the kind of person who says screw you once you've been and idiot (replace with real word) to me, but this guy just shrugs, and helps them anyway, even though they (sometimes) actively don't want his help. I can't do that, so good for him. It's a good read, especially if you like characters that just keep chugging along, regardless of the odds. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Another exciting traipse across the new System version of Earth has constant challenges and boredom but it’s not the boredom that’ll get you. The team grows stronger as they crush quest after quest, until the take on the demon in a raid format. I am digging the story and magic, equipment and even the ecumenical discourse that distracts the holy rollers from being effective, or is it fear?
Loved the setting and found it surreal to be sitting in Cook McDougall Pub and read the section where the main character ate at the very pub in Kokomo. The kokomomantis is exactly as described and just as bizarre as you think it would be.
Great book. Enjoyed it immensely. Can't wait to read the next one.
I skipped a lot of pages of what felt like useless content. The relationship between the MC and the two female leads is childish. There are levels with no stats and the names of the skills are annoying. I will not read another book in this series.
I absolutely HATE how good these books are. Sort of like how a crack fiend hates being out of crack. Haha. Seriously though, this book is perfectly in line with System Lad's others and I can't wait for more.
I really enjoy this series. There are actually 3 different series all going on in this world. It is a really great way to explore this world. The only downside is it takes longer to get a sequal. This sequal was great and I highly recommend it.