Wuxian Shijie

This donghua is an adaptation to a novel. The original novel is called Infinite Horror (or Wu Xian Kong Bu), while this adaptation is called Infinite World (direct translation of Chinese title). Infinite Horror is the first book in the "Infinite/Limitless" universe. I have read the beginning of this novel, so I will review this donghua both as an indepedant work and as an adaptation.

General Plot: Our MC, Zheng Zha, is a depressed 24 year old, who is still struggling with the death of his girlfriend many years ago. Now, he is a underappreciated low level employee who is exploited by his manager, so once ... he reached a breaking point (after being forced to work overtime), he clicks on a link asking if he wants to know the meaning of life. Once he clicked yes, he wakes up in an unknown world surrounded by strangers, and is told that he is thrown into a game like world, and must work to survive, all directed by a "God".

The setting of this donghua is unique: it combines game-type elements with isekai. The MC is from our modern world, but thrown into a variety of different worlds to survive, earning points for each objective/world survived, slowly enhancing himself to become more powerful. The pacing of this donghua is also good, explaining the basic premise within the first half of the first episode; it is cyclic it mixes horror and action elements well, then during to down times, it provides exposition and plot building. This season covers 2 worlds from the novel with a brief return to the "real" world. There are some problems with the plot, however, as some changes had to be made to to prevent possible copyright issues, which caused some problems (explained more in the adaptation section). Overall, the plot is quite engaging and enjoyable, balancing the action and plot building well.

The characters and their personalities are rather diverse (even the fodder), which makes things interesting. All of them are rather normal people from the modern world, making their actions and behavior believable. The MC, while initially confused, is a realist and quickly adapts to the situation he finds himself in. None of the "mainstay" characters are particuarly dumb or brainless, each making their own contributions. My only gripe is the somewhat forced romance between the Lan(red head) and MC. It was too blatant and felt forced, rather than slowly developing through shared hardship. The finger-knife girl is a bit of a plot hole, since all survivors were supposed to be teleported to the "Hub" after the mission but she goes missing only to show up at the end of the season in the third world. Otherwise, not a bad start.

There are also two interesting philosophical debates in this season, both of them making us ponder about the true answer to each of these questions. One is a debate initiated between two characters highlighting each side of the issue, while the other is a purely spiritual one, where the actions of characters make you think about it. Quite the interesting debates

This donghua season adapts the very beginning of the Infinite Horror novel, it's plot is pretty engaging, and the characters are both likeable and believeable. While there are some problems with the plot, it paces itself well and presents both the action, plotbuilding and horror very well. It is a very enjoyable watch for any sci-fi fantasy lovers.

Adaptation Review (will contain novel spoilers):

Plot Explanation referencing Novel: The MC and others are teleported from the "real" world to different worlds generated by a "god" and must survive and complete objectives to "advance" to the next world. The worlds they are teleported into are horror movies. The first world is supposed to be the first Resident Evil movie, and the second world one of the Alien movies. This point was removed, and the plots had some edits, likely to prevent any potential copyright issues. This, of course, caused some issues with the plot, but overall, the changes don't affect the donghua too much.

Minor detail plot changes: They changed the "discovery" aspect of god's world and purpose. Most of the plot building around god's purpose and god's system (point redemption) is all obtained by word-of-mouth in the novel and is basically knowledged investigaed/deduced and then passed on between "players". Here in the donghua (likely in order to shorten runtime), they had exposition by characters and really cut down the "investigation" that the characters did regarding the system and "god". Time has also been condensed, like with the return to the "real Earth" it was originally something one could trade for with points, and so he returned for 14 days, which made the hunt/tracking of him more realistic.

When it comes to characters, the romantic vibe between the MC and Lan(redhead) is a bit too early and forced. They originally grew closer as they worked together to survive more worlds, but in the donghua, they started to "hit-it-off" early in the first world, which feels a bit forced. The MC's girlfriend was also "given" by the system rather than the MC actively creating her. And the finger-knife girl was added in the first world (despite originally making first appearance in the third world) almost purely for fan service.

Overall, as an adaptation, this donghua is very close; there are relatively minor changes with most major changes happening because of potential copyright issues.

Adaptation score (how faithful to source): 7/10