When i first stumbled upon a post on the internet saying “READ OMNISCIENT READER FOR CLEAR SKIN” with a picture that shows the thing in question—which was apparently a novel—containing 551 chapters in total, i think it would be impossible for me to keep up with such way too long of a read. But God knows what happened when one day i decided to give it a go by taking a peek at the Manhwa adaptation on Line Webtoon, for a starter before i get into the long ass novel. And, wow. At first i didn’t expect it to be THAT interesting and THAT exciting because??? Would a story with a post-apocalyptic genre give me anything new? I was sure this gotta be the same typical surviving-when-the-world-is-ending kinda settings, but Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, or should i say, ORV, managed to completely drown me into the pit of no return (not exaggerated).
So Omniscient Reader, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, or ORV, is one of the most popular apocalyptic fantasy webnovel series from Korea, written by author duo under the pen name Sing Shong. The webnovel is already well-known widely across Korea itself and many other countries around the world. It started in January 6th 2018 and finally completed in February 2nd 2020, and also had already been completely translated into english! That was actually a very great news to me cuz what made a webnovel freak happier than an already completed translation? Anyways you can find it on Webnovel App for the official english translation. ^^
Okay so, we’re not going to talk about ORV’s basic infos now because you can conveniently learn about it further on this ORV wiki website!!
Maybe my close friends, who are aware that i’m painfully obsessed with this novel often wonder what makes me so dedicated towards it (Or maybe they don’t really care whatsoever but i’m just gonna assume they at least associate a dude named Kim Dokja to me like he is my trademark). Actually, i can’t help it. My expectations were not much when i first started the manhwa, i thought this maybe just on of those action sci-fi comics that tells a story about surviving in a post-apocalyptic world and sacrificing people for the sake of one’s survival, with a dumb and slow-to-evolve Protagonist that didn’t think and plan much before taking actions. Sure, the manhwa only tells not even 1/5 of the the webnovel’s plot, and it wasn’t really that outstanding of a story at first. But once you got into the actual, original source which is the novel, it cannot be more addicting and thrilling than any other action fantasy fiction i have ever read.
ORV tells the life story of Kim Dokja, a common 28 years old office worker with a stable—often lacking—but still, a rather stable, common everyday life. He reads a webnovel called Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World, for short Ways of Survival, written by anonymous author tls123 that has been constantly published for almost over a decade, and Kim Dokja is the sole reader who has read it until its ending. He was on the way home from work reading the very final chapter of Ways of Survival when suddenly creature he is scarily familiar with appeared in the middle of the subway that evening—a creature called “Dokkaebi”. At that time, he realized the world he has been living in for his entire life had been somehow transformed into the world of the novel he holds his dear life onto all this time, the world of Ways of Survival.
Along with a beautiful and talented fellow co-worker whose name Yoo Sangah, and a clever little boy named Lee Gilyoung, he met one of the character from WoS—an upright military soldier, Lee Hyunsung. He even met the one and only miserable yet a bit… ‘psychotic’ main protagonist of WoS, Yoo Joonghyuk.
Basically, i have to thank Kim Dokja for reading a 3000-chapters-long novel so that i only have to read 551 chapters.
And so from that day on the subway onwards, Kim Dokja and Co. begins their new life of surviving in a ruined world—with those neverending scenarios they have to resolve if they don’t want to lose their dear life—and little by little, reaching the ending of this disaster called “The Star Stream”.
Now if you are a fan of post-apocalyptic settings with survival thrills and protagonist’s tragic past, ORV was definitely written just for you and it will definitely not let you down. ;D
But then again, what really makes ORV different, or, for me, special from any other story? To make it not too long to read, i will be rambling on about Why and How ORV is one of my most favorite webnovel on the next post! Thanks you ^^!
tell, dont sell. 