Florida Man's General Store in Cultivation World by DamnPlotArmor

I've read about 13 chapters, which is a bit of a distance away from the 30 chapters I prefer, but good enough, because I don't wanna read more-

Credit where credit's due; the premise is really cool. Old, mutant human from Earth shoves himself into Xianxia land, and while his radiation is horrific and still prevents him from a normal life, it ALSO has the side-effect of increasing plant life and shit. Theoretically, could be a fun romp. And the author really nails what insanity must be like after god knows how long of isolation.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really matter how 'accurate' you write an insane person; he's an idiot, and making it 'realistic' for his situation doesn't change the fact he's neither interesting or compelling. He is a genuine bore to read.

The guy doesn't really have goals, he doesn't have ambition. He's like a Japanese protagonist in one of those isekai OP slice-of-life stories, except someone drilled the American flag into the top of his head and poured 2012 Reddit through the hole. He's a bundle of American stereotypes, mildly racist, and incredibly unfunny.

His idea of humour is what you'd expect to see from the worst corners of 4chan, relying primarily on weed jokes that are basically 'LOL, drugs! Haha!'. If you're twelve, you'll think he's goddamn hilarious, otherwise you see the juvenile attempt at comedy for what it is; a shoe-horned in attempt at getting a laugh at the cafeteria table.

If you've read other off-the-rails parodies based off an intensely American, trope-y character, you'll probably come away appreciating them more, as this character basically shows you all the ways that can go wrong.

It doesn't help he doesn't have plans, or thoughts, or any concrete desires beyond improving his life with toilets and cooking - which again, Japanese OP isekai protagonist. The lack of ambition can work, but only if the character themself is compelling, alongside a good world or fascinating side-characters.

This has neither. The writing itself is passable, good for webnovels but above average for Royalroad, lacking the depth and details that could push it to be something more. The world thus-far is your average Xianxia-fest with a side of rationality, which is actually kinda refreshing.

Unfortunately, the side-characters thus far introduced are meant as contrasts and highlights to the MC, instead of standing on their own two feet and having more than one-dimension to their personality. This doesn't work, because again, the MC isn't interesting enough for it to.

Honestly, the attempt at absurdist humour is what's really putting me off here - the MC just isn't funny, his thoughts aren't funny, nothing he does is even remotely amusing, but you can tell it's supposed to be, so it's just... cringe. And not even the entertaining kind.

This is a really harsh review, but the best thing about this novel are the chapter titles. After five chapters, it gets stale, after ten, it just becomes sort of boring.

Still, decent writing, the dialogue for the side-characters is okay-ish albeit really off for characters that are supposed to have been alive for a hundred years. You can at least see the attempt to be fun and you might be amused once or twice.

The premise is interesting, the System is basic but a Lifespan-trading sorta deal could be fun from the ground-up, especially in the hands of a character with strict morals who constantly has to juggle needing lifespan with his own ideals, so kudos there for the fascinating concept. The world isn't offensive, either, and the MC isn't your run-of-the-mill psycopath, he's actually kind of nice and I love that. His scheming, shady business-man thing could actually work for the character if played thicker and his personality was given greater depth.

Overall, give it a shot if you want something kinda funny and laid back, maybe it'll ring for you. Personally, a solid 5.1/10 from me, to a degree based off the fact that hey, I have only read 13 chapters.

Good luck on your reading Dao, fellow travelers.