The King's Avatar or Quan Zhi Gao Shou is a Chinese Novel series written by Butterfly Blue. This series received the title for Best Work in 2013 and is the first and only 1000 Pledged Work (千盟作品). It has 23 million hits on Qidian and has the 2nd most recommendations in its category with 4.6 million recommendations.
The King's Avatar Synopsis
In the online game Glory, Ye Xiu is regarded as a textbook and a top-tier pro-player. However, due to a myriad reasons, he is kicked from the team. After leaving the professional scene, he finds work in an Internet Cafe as a manager. When Glory launches its tenth server, he who possesses ten years of gaming experience once again throws himself into the game. Bringing with him the memories of his past and an incomplete, self-made weapon, his return along the road to the summit begins!After fighting and scheming, who snatched away my glory? Under the tossing of the wind and rain, my dreams shall still appear as though they had never been shattered. In all its splendor, the path shall never be lost. Before the gazes of millions, this is where I return!
Series Information
- Author: Butterfly Blue
- Title: The King's Avatar,Quan Zhi Gao Shou,全職高手
- Type: Web Novel (CN)
- Genre: Action Adventure Comedy Slice of Life Sports
- Rating: 4.2 / 5.0, 681 votes
- Status: 1728 Chapters (Complete)
- Year: 2016
- Publisher: Qidian
- Completedly Translated: No
- Translator: Gravitytales
- Epub: Wuxialand
Series Reviews
Review by Love4NovelGuyEven from the beginning, this novel has shown its potential time and time again. Making even the most insignificant gaming strategies seem like epic clashes between two strong opponents.
Some might think that the fact that it's not a virtual reality is a bad thing, but I disagree, it's really nice to see how this professional gamer is able to make a mess out of the new server of the game he played before forced retirement.
The characters are good and are developed as the story goes along while the action is something that most people would love to read.
Review by thocon
One of my most favorite novels! I really enjoy the story involving to gaming concept as I play game a lot. I guess if you don't like game or is familiar with it, the story is not that appealing. The conversation is funny, MC is OP in a realistic way (he's gosu so his gaming skill is godly but in real life, he's just a ordinary one). Besides, there is no harem and adult stuff which is good, it makes the story relaxing and fresh (don't get me wrong, I also love the harem/adult stuff but I think it fits apocalypse/survival theme).
If you are a gamer, give it a try :)
Review by Gluttony
A very clever protagonist within a typical gaming plot-- the downtrodden and betrayed genius Gamer rising to reclaim his throne. And considering the novel's title 'King's Avatar' this throne is actually somewhat literal now.
What makes this such a wonderful read are the fleshed out characters-- no skimping even to the female characters who are actually wonderfully plentiful-- and the seriously kickass, hilarious, deadpan, conniving, and somewhat mysterious protagonist. Seriously, he is a bae. Ridiculously intelligent and gifted at gaming (with a bizarre backstory that was unfolded quite randomly and I am still puzzled at), the protagonist's characterisation has a biting sense of deadpan humour and absolutely self serving motives. Almost an anti hero to be honest. He isn't on some righteous tragic crusade to avenge himself: he's climbing back from the bottom to reclaim his throne because he loves what he does and he's good at it.
It's a great read, and a stand out one because the protagonist actually, god forbid, has character. The OP moments are also nothing to scoff at. The recent chapters have been lagging a bit though, so I'll have to see what happens next.
Review by mechafanboy
This was an interesting one to review. I started off by watching the animated series which is pretty excellent but loses a bit of the logic in translation to the animation(with regards to why characters act the way they do), covers up till chapter 280 or so by the way.
The novel's setting is fairly strong, there's some logical issues (Mostly in terms of the game setting, APM mattering in an MMO is kind of interesting, it's usually used solely in Real Time Strategy games because you have more things to manage, there's a point where the novel says even the strength with which keys are pressed are considered uh... we don't have that technology as far as I know. The real world setting is slightly questionable as well, having people with high natural abilities in the games near the main character? Having backgrounds that would interfere with professional gaming?), that said, as a major fan of esports in general, I think they captured a lot of the feel of being an esports fan really well. I think the author is a major fan himself and it shows through in his passion when talking about the "scene".
Surprisingly, what really pushed me from just "liking" the series to absolutely loving the series isn't the shamelessness of the main character or how strong he is despite being old, but rather the very real "human" aspect of his side characters. Most of them aren't perfect, most of them have their own logic, most of them do suffer in their own way. I felt quite a lot of resonance with all of the side characters, from the stable but non exceptional characters, to wacky theorists, to battle maniacs.... I've had dealing with a lot of these sorts of characters on mmo's before and whilst my own experiences never went to irl, reading the novel rekindled a lot of my love for mmo's.
Moving onto the bad though, a fair amount of the plot can be easily seen through, there's always a question of "how" but rarely is there a question of the intended end result of the author. There might be a bit too much gibberish about levels and how to grind (although I think this will only upset people who casually play games xD anyone who's gotten sucked into an mmo will(probably) understand).... and I think that's about it.
Overall, the novel is surprisingly strong. The side characters feel remarkably human and whilst more than a few readers will yell "OP MC!" He's got a fair reason to be op and it's much better than trolol i cultivated therefore i badass. Give it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Minor edit/information? Around chapter 400, the novel gets a bit too MC/game focused for me. I personally enjoyed his interactions with the people around him moreso than the game so it more boring for me up to what's currently translated. It's not enough to change my rating, but it's definately enough to make me think maybe 5 stars is being generous.
Review by rdawv
Finally, a refreshing change from the likes of Shi Luo Ye’s stories (Zhan Long, Legendary Thief) or Korean gaming novels (Ark, Legendary Moonlight Sculptor) or Japanese ones (Sword Art Online) which are more about one MC’s goal to get rich/be the best by grinding mindlessly/tripping over good luck and collecting the affection of poorly developed women along the way.
QZGS has none of that. For a start, it isn’t a VR game, but your current or near-future World of Warcraft type of game setting. In short, a novel about MMORPG games you and I can play now with keyboard and mouse. The MC and his background is far more believable than any of the above mentioned titles. Just imagine your local internet cafe’s near 30-ish manager/supervisor is actually one of the best player of World of Warcraft in the world. He knows he is good, and he has no need to show off. If anything, his self-depreciating sense of worth is a change from stories which have MCs who are supremely confident in themselves. He knows that after all it is still a game, and while being good at it (perhaps even the best) it is still nothing to shout about in the 'real world'.
A gaming novel can’t escape all of the usual tropes. Yes, the MC is god-like (he is a pro-player after all), and he has a cheat weapon nobody has. He is also seemingly the only one who is willing to try and push limitations towards a direction that nobody has ever considered. Most gaming novels focus about their MC powering through the game and surviving with incredible luck, able to PK anyone because of their OPness. Such stories don’t feel “fair”. You don’t get that feeling with this story.
What makes this story stand out is the characters and dialogue. Characters like Steamed Bun Invasion provide the direct laughs, while the MC himself has pithy one-liners that can give you a smirk.
Other stories try to dazzle you with the MC and his gang of friends having the best skills and equipment, throwing stat windows and numbers in your face, drowning you in trivial nonsense that you probably don’t care about or remember after you clicked “Next Chapter”.
You’re not going to read about statistics here, you’re getting actual prose.
Review by meltrosz
I would like to retort several negative comments by other people who rated the story less than 5 stars..
1) Too much grinding - yes, the story gets repetitive with the dungeons and farming. But, if you're a gamer, you know that's pretty much what any low-level account does. Even if you're a pro player, if you get a character at level 1, you don't go fight the level 99 boss. You farm equipment and levels. Also, although the grinding becomes repetitive, something new always happens to the characters.
2) MC stupid because he's poor despite being one of the top players - I don't know if the guy who said this was really reading, but the author clearly stated the reasons why the MC became poor. Two of the main reasons were that MC has no commercials or advertisements like other pro players since he always hides from public (which has a legit reason explained later on), so therefore all his money comes from winning tournaments, etc; and the second reason is that MC had friends who wanted to quit their teams but needed to pay large sums of money to quit, so MC paid for these friends (why he never asked them to pay, I do not know. Maybe he's too benevolent?)
3) Its grinding is weird because it's not virtual reality - Grinding exists right now in MMORPGs but we don't have virtual realities yet. Are we weird?
4) They spend 20 hours playing a game that's not virtual reality, and it's lame - I can see that the poster is a huge fan of virtual realities (which is sci-fi/fantasy genre compared to this novel which is sports genre) so I'm not gonna retort on that, and instead on the lifespan of the game. DotA has been ongoing for more than 10 years right now (which is same number of years as Glory), and it's still popular (although it has been upgraded to Dota2 now). League of Legends, which is as popular, has been ongoing for almost the same number of years. There are many PC games ongoing for a long time. Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed, Counter Strike, etc.
5) MC's backstory was revealed after a very long time - Although I do agree with this point, but is it right for any person to know another person's backstory immediately? Also, no one in the story really asked Ye Xiu's backstory (which is the right behaviour btw). They just later on asked because they got curious when they found out Ye Xiu = Ye Qiu.
6) The premise is playing a game with keyboard + mouse - Well, this is a bit discriminating. If you had a novel about a pro football player like Messi and the author's style is explaining every detail of Messi's kick, like the angle of the kick, the power, and so much shiz, then you have King's Avatar. Although, it is true these types of stories are best watched as anime rather than web novels.
7) Apparently it is possible to create your own cheat like weapon with codes outside of game - No, Ye Xiu never cheated the game. He doesn't have codes outside of the game. If you're talking about the item generators that people use to create weapons, how is this different from current "mods"? Only difference is probably most mods require the game to release the mod for it to apply, however in Glory, players can directly create mods and apply them in the game. These are not codes outside of the game. Glory provided players with the software. Glory allows them to create their own weapons, it's just that it's very difficult to do and requires research before accomplishing.
I'm not saying the novel has no downside, it has. Like it has a slow pace, and there are chapters which are so short that there are almost nothing much going on. However, some comments are just wrong. Most especially comparing King's Avatar to VMMORPGs like LMS, Ark, etc. King's Avatar's genre is sports. VMMORPGs' genre is sci-fi/fantasy. If you remove the status boxes from those VMMORPG novels, you get an MC transported to a fantasy world. Especially since the "NPCs" are self-conscious that they are just like humans.
Review by nwms8
I really liked the story at first. It is detailed, the characters are relatable; they're human. But that is also a detraction of the novel. The premise is playing a game using a keyboard + mouse. So it is a story about a guy who plays games all day. Try to explain to a friend why they should read this story:
It is about a guy who is really good, with fast hands, playing a video game. He is better than other people at tactics, he is beating other people in the video game. So he fights using an... umbrella that designed himself. No, he doesn't have a job. No, he doesn't have a girlfriend. He lives in the Internet Café where he works... Yeah... He plays the game for like 20 hours a day... and a lot of people admire him in the game! No.. he doesn't stream, nor make money, nor advertise... he.... wants to farm a lot? He's already good at the game, it isn't really about him getting better... He's like a better FAKER. Who is FAKER? UHH....
Right. Not necessarily the most thrilling to read about his goals to farm in game. The world building is a nice read and you can see the tactics involved. I just don't happen to care about the character's goals, so I can't get into it.
Table of Contents
Volume 1 - The Banished Battle God [Chapter 1 - 87]Volume 2: Beginnings of the Thousand Chance Umbrella [Chapter 88-147]
Volume 3: Stormy Situation [Chapters 148-208]
Volume 4: Pursuit [Chapters 209-274]
Volume 5: Ace Showdown [Chapters 275-343]
Volume 6: Heavenly Domain [Chapters 343-419]
Volume 7: Deception [Chapters 420-489]
Volume 8: Bounty Hunter [Chapters 490 - 564]
Volume 9: Grassroots Team
Volume 10: Four Guild Alliance
