100th Run

As of writing this, I’ve read all six published KU novels.

Blurb

He’s got 99 problems, and an extra time loop ain’t one…

The world is devolving into chaos as a game-like system has reduced the population to a series of statistics and screens.

Confusion reigns as everyone struggles to survive in this new reality. Everyone but one man. Anthony Franklin has a secret. One that gives him an edge. He has lived through this exact series of events… 99 times in a row.

Anthony needs to take advantage of all he accomplished over his past runs—every play, shortcut, and strategy—to save as many lives as possible by the end. He must contend with vicious boss monsters, elude the oppressive surveillance eyes of the system administrators, and watch his back when dealing with the scheming players that want the game to go their way no matter the cost.

In a world where every individual has their own goals, dreams, and fears, shepherding them won’t be easy. Anthony must use all of his considerable experience to gain a powerful class, put the frightened populace on the right track, and take out threats before they become too big. There will be no more chances; win or lose, his 100th run shall be his last.

Thoughts

Expectations are king when writing, and from the blurb above I went in expecting this to be effectively a solo-MC story focused exclusively on Anthony becoming as OP as possible, as quickly as possible, and slapping the system-integration-apocalypse into shape. Do not be like me. While yes, Anthony does become very OP, he’s also putting a team together, and the story is thus a mix of Anthony going off on his own and being STRONG, but also him making connections, training a handful of people, and splitting his gear and rewards to empower not just himself, but his team. This is important to state, I think, because of how many people in the genre really do prefer lone-wolf MC’s, and Anthony is not this.

And it’s a good thing, I promise. The team comes together slowly. Kayla first (in the first big deviation from his previous runs, oops), then Jeff, Corwin, Jamie, and more. The build up takes numerous books as characters get recruited, and honestly this is a great decision. Instead of being overwhelmed with a cast of characters to mix their names up forever, we get a slow trickle, which allows each new member to have their moment and to have their personality come through. In practise, the dynamic builds slowly, and I found myself enjoying the series a lot more from book three onwards than the first book where there’s a transition from lone-wolf Anthony to “Ah it’s a team”.

Many LitRPG stories have ways of introducing random events, normally via rifts or dungeons. In the case of 100th run, its because different Administrators have control of different locations, and each of them sets up scenarios for the population to complete. The why of this is something that lurks in the background of the plot, and starts coming to light in book six and onward. These interactions with the Administrators, with the Dealer, and most of all with Sara (the romantic interest of the story) add a lot of depth to the world and drive the plot from one scenario to another.

Side note, yes, there is romance. But its a super-long-distance kind for those who normally avoid it, and it’s really well done.

Prose is good, errors are almost non-existent, and the cover art is fantastic (if anyone knows the artist, ping me so I can add the covers to my artist shoutout page).

Most of the LitRPG and progression elements in the story come from two sources. Personal power growth via investing ‘points’, and items. Now the items are fun, varied, and must have taken a lot of work to create. Kudos to the author for it. My main critique for the whole story is on the personal power progresion side of things. It’s fun for numbers to go up. To see the MC struggle for a stat level or skill bump, and for there to be tangible benefits for when strength goes from X to Y. I feel like this story lacks that. When Anthony levels his stats all in one go, it doesn’t really seem like there’s any difference apart from maybe his aura going a bit further out, maybe he lifts a heavier thing. This probably comes from the fact that, as a regressor, Anthony was able to start the first scenario with his stats already superhuman and maxed out. But… by maxing out those stats, we’re deprived of seeing him in his weakest form, and deprived of the dopamine rush of him being able to level up those points. Instead, once the scenario finishes and the stat limit goes from 20 to 30, Anthony just opens his menu, throws in a handful of points and suddenly all his stats across the board jump up ten points and its back to life as normal. It lacks the fist-pumping “fuck yeah you did it” feeling that other stories can give when a stat increase is hard won or turns the tide of a battle.

Apart from that minor wish for improvement, I really enjoyed this read. The balance between character-driven and scenario-driven plot, the interactions and great banter between the characters and their different personalities, Anthony’s OP moments mixed with the humane teahcing-focused scenarios, its great. Give this series a read.