There are two things you need to read this manga:
- An open mind.
- Iron sides.
It’ll be short this time around. There’s really not much I can say about this manga without just laughing the whole thing out the door.
First and foremost, ANGST. From what I can find, the mangaka of this story has only two published manga to their name, and after reading this, I think they have a shtick. It’s like Pupa and Sword Art Online had a stillborn child that listened to the first two Linkin Park albums on repeat until it felt it had become the songs. At times (and in this case, that’s close to a majority) hilarious with how over the top it is, if the overwhelmingly dark tone doesn’t speak to you, there is no hope for any enjoyment.
I, for one, can handle dark themes, though it’s not necessarily my niche. I prefer more when dark themes are explored with maturity and slow pacing, neither of which I’d attribute to this story, because it’s really stupid. Above all else, this story is really stupid. Does that make it irredeemably bad? No, though that may also depend on taste. What it does, however, is present a certain stage that is very unlikely to change over the course of its stay. Essentially, it won’t get smarter. It will be as dark and stupid as possible because that’s what the mangaka likes doing.
It does have smart moments. The last five chapters are infinitely more interesting than the first five. Its build-up actually serves a point, even if the build-up itself is hilariously overdramatic and based on really strange coincidences and absurdly stupid characters. (Members of a family aren’t aware that they all play the same game and are the characters who make up a close-knit group within it? Ooooookaaaaaaay.) By the end, the stakes of a situation end up becoming easier to immerse in once one accepts the mountain of stupid it took to get to that point. I suppose when life gives you lemons, you don’t question why they were thrown out of the washing machine.
It’s a really dark story. It also features “trapped in a video game reality” thing. If my description in the first full paragraph about the stillborn child sounded at all appealing, check this one out. It’s a thing.
Final Score: 4/10
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The Visualist's Veranda 
“It’s like Pupaand Sword Art Online had a stillborn child that listened to the first two Linkin Park albums on repeat until it felt it had become the songs.”
Oh my god, this description.