I've read Towers of Heaven before and have always been on the lookout for a good tower climber. Also a big fan of Tao Wong after his ATL & SA series, so this was a no brainer for me to pick up.

The book is different in having a Asian setting being based out of Malaysia. Plus it also has a cultivation element in addition to traditional LitRPG making for a good hybrid.

We get into the story with a light and brief background and dive right to the adventure. Arthur is a decent chap with the tower being his last gamble at a good life which is non-existent in outside world as wealth is concentrate at the top leaving the rest to scrap supporting roles. And from the get go, things don't go his way and his plans to rank up. The writing is a bit more start, gritty and realistic than others I've read in this genre. Arthur is really put through the experience winger and many a time finds himself barely surviving encounters. He's smart, but not otherwise the classic "I will lead and save others" type MC. He still does enough and gets the right amount of breaks without plot armor to make for realistic progression. The book moves at a fast pace and threw some curveballs I didn't see coming. I certainly did not expect the way the book ended moving a direction that I couldn't predict.

There are few minor flaws that made this a 4 rather than a 5 star read. First off, the way he progresses is gritty, but has an slight element of repetitiveness in his near death survival encounters. Arthur does share some character traits from John (SA series) but has enough nuance to maki him unique, but personally I really wanted some bit of traditional heroism from him (probably my own expectations rather than a flaw in the book). Other aspect is the Malaysian slangs/terms used which took me away a bit from the flow as I had to look them up for context. A footnote or superscript or something would go a big way in retaining immersion.

Still I really liked this read and because of the new direction in the climax, eagerly awaiting next in series.

3.5. This was solid. I haven't reach much, if any, LitRPG so had no clue what to expect. I thought it was pretty well written with some interesting characters.