The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System / Scumbag System 人渣反派自救系统 / 穿书自救指南 by 墨香铜臭 Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (HE)

With the completion of this novel, I have now finished reading all of 墨香铜臭 (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu)'s novels. Now, amongst all of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's novels, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System / Scumbag System, being her first novel, is, unfortunately, the least well-developed among her three novels, and, although the premise is relatively hilarious (with our main character, Shen Qing Qiu, is a modern, adult male who somehow transmigrated into a novel which he had been reading - and, to his horror, his new identity was none other than the "villain" / "scum" of the novel - the teacher of the protagonist of the novel, who constantly abused the protagonist, thus contributing to the protagonist's gradual morphing into an evil, all-powerful character feared by all. At the end of the novel, the protagonist returns to look for Shen Qing Qiu to exact his vengeance, and chops off all of Shen Qing Qiu's limbs before leaving him to die. With that knowledge in mind, our main character is eager to prove his loyalty and curry favour with the protagonist (who, at the time of our main character's transmigration, had only just commenced his lessons with our main character), but - lo and behold - our main character is unfortunately armed with a "system" [1], which constantly reminds him and penalises him for doing things that were "out of character" for the original Shen Qing Qiu. Thus begins our main character's slow and gradual journey of trying to change the protagonist's impression of him (whilst trying his best to beat the system).

Unfortunately, compared to The Founder of Diabolism (which had some lovely characterization - of both the main leads and the supporting cast), I found The Scum Villain's Self Saving System lacking in the characterization department - the characters are, in general, relatively typical, unmemorable, and do at times come across as relatively one-dimensional. And, when compared to Heaven Official’s Blessing / Heavenly Blessing, The Scum Villain's Self Saving System does not have arcs / plot points / development which are as interesting as Heaven Official's Blessing / Heavenly Blessing. Granted, these shortcomings are likely because it is Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's first novel, and her inexperience does show in the writing of The Sum Villain's Self Saving System - but her later novels do improve greatly, which makes me terribly excited for her next written work. Ultimately, this is still an adequate novel which can serve to help one pass the time; however, it is not a novel which I would strongly recommend that simply cannot be missed and HAS to be read.