The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch魔女小姐的速通手册

Skip this novel, not worth it.

My rating: 5-6/10

This novel is another lotm inspired work. This pretty much clear from the very beginning. The world building is heavily inspired by lotm. The power system is a modified lotm potion system. However, even with the amount of inspiration it takes from lotm, it sill has it's own unique in the cheat system that the mc has and the characters.
Pros:
1. The system is very interesting and mysterious. It's very different from other simulation systems and it has abilities that make it op but it is handled well. Another good thing about this system is that it leads the mc to explore other paths in the power system.
2. The Mc clearly defines a line between the simulations and reality. She doesn't treat simulations as reality and thus doesn't let morality and sentiment hold her back. This is unique from all the other simulation type stories I have read where the mc makes it harder for themselves by treating simulation like reality. Of course the mc still has bottomline. This pro is very subjective.

Cons:
1. There is constant tension in the story with 0 breaks. After one threat is dealt with another immediately comes up which is just horrendous. The constant enemies and threats just kill the tension of the story after a while which makes it boring. It is also completely unrealistic in world. The Mc actively looked for the supernatural but never found anything but immediately after the story starts she constantly gets involved in the 3 different supernatural events in a time span of a couple of days. It's too unrealistic. It also ruins the pace because the author decided that all threats need a time limit of a few days. So from the beginning of the novel it hasn't even been a week in reality in 76 chapters but the mc somehow had 3 supernatural crises when she couldn't find a hint of supernatural powers in 3 full years.

2. The powersystem feels underdeveloped. A lot of info is implied and never fully explained. It feels like the novel assumes you already know about something similar and will fill in the blanks on your own. There Is also adjacent, switchable pathways in this system like lotm but adjacent paths are sometimes just identical. It usually feels like they are the same pathway but with different ideologies and methods of digestion. The mc's first path for example has the same powers as its adjacent path, at least until chapter 76.

3. There is an extreme ratio of female characters to male characters. Pretty much every relevant character is female. The only somewhat relevant male characters were antagonists. Idk if this is because it's Yuri or the author is simply biased towards writing female characters for whatever reason.

4. Simulation novels can be complicate to write since it's easy to confuse things that happened in Sims with reality, so plot holes are easily created. This novel also falls into that pitfall. There is at least 1 case where a retcon happens or something is forgotten.

5. The mc's motivation is lacking and very cliche. It feels like the author couldn't think of something interesting and decided on a peaceful life without much thought. It doesn't really fit the story.

Outside of these pros and cons, nothing else really stood out to me as particularly good or bad. The side characters are pretty 1 dimensional at times and seem ordinary for a web novel. The world building is also decent but not particularly noteworthy. The plot itself is somewhat interesting, although there are a few plot holes or retcons. Overall, this novel is pretty decent for what seems to be this author's first work based on the writing. 5-6/10