I have so many things to do in Genshin, I made a detailed to-do list, but every time I open the game all I do is play the rhythm game… 
爱和恨都是一种强烈的情感，所以当它们消解时，往往也会产生更加强烈的虚无。
— Nicole
Finished the first chapter!
Not the setting is done, things can really get started!
I finished 宗像與鋼筆事件, I loved it so much!
It wasn’t as different as I thought it would be (given that it was written under another pen name). It’s about class bullying and discrimination, standing for someone else, friendship and fighting for justice. It also contains a very good mystery. Overall it was suspenseful, had relatable characters and meaningful topics, I really loved it!
Beginning is very good! Main character is very likeable, and the novel makes you want to know what will happen to him.
But even more interesting is the setting: a school giving a second chance to young offenders. This leads to discussions about rehabilitation and whether they can change or not through this kind of system. I like this kind of topics!
The book is very easy to read too!
| Word | Hanja | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 확성기 | 擴聲器 | loudspeaker |
| 몽둥이 | stick | |
| 정강이 | shin | |
| 갱생 | 更生 | rehabilitation |
| 소년원 | 少年院 | youth detention center; juvenile detention center; juvenile hall |
| 환각제 | 幻覺劑 | hallucinogen |
| 강탈 | 強奪 | robbery; seizure; extortion |
| 건망증 | 健忘症 | forgetfulness; absent-mindedness |
| 선행성 건망증 | 先行性健忘症 | anterograde amnesia |
| 해마 | 海馬 | hippocampus |
| 대마초 | 大麻草 | hemp; marijuana |
| 패거리 | 牌거리 | gang |
| 북두칠성 | 北斗七星 | Big Dipper; Great Bear |
Goal for today is to start my new Korean novel and maybe make some progress on 錯置體, but I might just focus on the Korean book.
I chose my next Korean novel, finally!
It’s 매일 죽어야 하는 X by 정명섭. It’s a “학원 범죄 타밉루프”, and I can’t resist a time loop novel. I haven’t read a lot, but I really love the time loop mechanic.
I also already read a zombie time loop novel by this author, 재생, and enjoyed reading it very much, so I’m confident I will love this one too. This author is not difficult to read in terms of Korean level (I already read two or three novels and several short stories) and this one is very short too, so it’s exactly what I was looking for!
I did some exploration in the new region. It’s beautiful and I love the music!
The problem is that some regions give me nausea very fast when exploring, so I can’t actively look for puzzles and chests for a long time in a row. It doesn’t happen on “normal” land terrain like all the Nod-Krai islands, but the Temple of Space is one of the worst regions to explore to me in this regard. Maybe because you have to move the camera up and down a lot. I’m not sure what causes it. The absolute worst was underwater exploration, so I have whole parts of the map in Fontaine almost left untouched.
But, I’m motivated to get those exploration primogems, to make up for the disastrous Nicole pulls. I’m at 44% exploration on 风息山, which is very strange because I haven’t done anything on the map it feels like. So it’s a total of 24%. Still pretty much at the beginning, but I can do a little bit everyday. And Nicole is helping with the treasures 
I found this movie extremely good, it was very entertaining, fast paced, and with great actors. The plot is pretty much what you would expect in a zombie film, but it was very well executed. I personally really like the unified thinking aspect of the infection, it brought something new and made the situations more interesting.
There are some memorable scenes, and the film stays suspenseful until the end. I often find that horror films tend to lose their impact when we near the climax and the resolution, but not 군체.
I personally much much preferred this one over Train to Busan (same director). I saw it when it came out, so it’s been a while, but I remember not really liking it, despite overall liking the zombie genre. Too much sentimentalism, too many emotional scenes, and I personally don’t really like children in horror films because you know nothing bad is going to happen to them anyway, so it’s not very suspenseful imo.
There’s no teary emotional scenes in 군체, so to me this is a huge plus, characters were not here for you to like them, but they followed their goal, so all their actions made sense from their perspective.
Seeing the movie in theatres probably made it more impactful, but it’s one of my favourite films of the year so far.
Chapter 4 is a nice change of pace, I love Xiao Li’s style. Now the novel is both engrossing and funny too! 
| Word | Reading | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 苦涩 | kǔ sè | bitter and astringent |
| Word | Reading | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 羊角包 | yáng jiǎo bāo | croissant |
| Word | Reading | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 伤害 | shāng hài | to injure; to harm |
| 创伤 | chuāng shāng | wound; injury; trauma |
The audio for Linnea’s voicelines is on the Cn wiki! So it’s exactly what I thought, the audio gets uploaded the patch after the character’s release. I can study her voicelines now
For my next Japanese book, I’m going to finish the ZOO collection by reading the second volume.
Looking at the books I read in Japanese this year, I realise that I didn’t not like most of them. ZOO1 is by far my favourite, followed by Exit 8. But then, there’s a huge gap. 方舟 and ネタバレあり were also great, but they still belong to a genre I’m a bit tired of reading in Japanese: closed circle. It’s a genre I absolutely love, because I find it fascinating to see how people will react when trapped in this kind of situation, and how their true personality reveals itself as they are put under stress. But Japanese novels I read with this mechanic are more focused on the tricks than the characters. 方舟 and ネタバレあり were both excellent though.
And then there’s the other 8 novels, none of them has made it to my list of favourite. I do think some of them were very good, I just didn’t enjoy reading them as much.
