Being an Extra in your own Story

I recently tried to read the Chinese web novel Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game by Zhū jūn féi féi. I won’t be doing a full review of it. The translation I came across wasn’t great and this puts the book at a disadvantage. I also dropped it very early on, during chapter 23, and I don’t want to be unfair to the story. Instead I want to discuss why I found it so difficult to enjoy. The novel lacks a sense of immersion and the beginning has no meaningful stakes or goals. Let me explain what I mean by breaking down the story. Several people have found themselves trapped in a nightmare game. Some of them are assigned to be players who attempt to solve the mysteries of the game, while others are forced to be residents and play NPC (non player character) roles. Xu Beijin is a resident in the game which means that he’s supposed to be hosting his own nightmare scenarios for the players to solve. Instead he refuses to sleep and only acts as an “extra” in the nightmares of the other…