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I Couldn’t Afford to Buy Mana, so I Started Streaming
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Web Novel (KR)
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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 110 votes)
5    58% (64 votes)
4    8% (9 votes)
3    11% (12 votes)
2    10% (11 votes)
1    13% (14 votes)
Language
Support Book (#ad)
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One entry per line
Artist(s)
One entry per line
N/A
Year
Example: 2012
2022
Status in COO
Status in Country of Origin. One entry per line
806 Chapters (Ongoing)
Licensed
No
Completely Translated
No
Original Publisher
One entry per line
English Publisher
One entry per line
N/A
Release Frequency
Every 1 Day(s)
Activity Stats
[Graph]
Weekly Rank: #373
Monthly Rank: #358
All Time Rank: #2633
Reading List
[Graph]
On 914 Reading Lists
Monthly Rank: #386
All Time Rank: #9268

Description

Links are NOT allowed. Format your description nicely so people can easily read them. Please use proper spacing and paragraphs.

I was reincarnated into a mysterious fantasy world, but I was mistaken to be the Demon King and ultimately faced death a second time.

And in this New World where I’ve been reborn once again, you have to pay taxes to use magic.

[Korean Magic Corporation has sent an invoice to ⬛⬛⬛. Please make the payment by the due date.

⦁ Reason for Invoice: Unauthorized emergency lower circle (3) magic usage ⦁ Amount Due: 481,738 KRW ⦁ Payment Due Date: 2051/01/31

For inquiries regarding the invoice, please contact the billing company.]

Associated Names
One entry per line
마나 살 돈 없어서 인방함
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Academy Heroine’s Right Diagonal Back Seat (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Female Protagonists / gender-bender male to female...
  2. gender bender novels
  3. Ranking of novels i have read #2
  4. Novels I'd recommend to friends if I had any
  5. Wondrous World-building

Latest Release

Date Group Release
06/06/25 Kari Studio c294
06/05/25 Kari Studio c293
06/03/25 Kari Studio c292
06/02/25 Kari Studio c291
06/01/25 Kari Studio c290
06/01/25 Kari Studio c289
05/30/25 Kari Studio c288
05/29/25 Kari Studio c287
05/28/25 Kari Studio c286
05/27/25 Kari Studio c285
05/26/25 Kari Studio c284
05/25/25 Kari Studio c283
05/24/25 Kari Studio c282
05/23/25 Kari Studio c281
05/22/25 Kari Studio c280
123…20
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9 Reviews sorted by


Laindesh
New Laindesh rated it
May 20, 2025
Status: c193
An unexpectedly well written and entertaining story. The flashbacks can be a bit confusing, but aslong as the reader keeps in mind the MC has lived 2 lifetimes before her 3rd one it gets easier.

The story can be heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. The MC suffers in every lifetime, however she also does her best to enjoy the life (s) given to her. She's a kind and grateful person aswell.

The novel also does a good job narrating human relations, the impact of tragedies and social responsibility to just...... more>> do little things to help each other pick each other up.

Quite honestly, I can't say this is a 10\10, but the story, narrative and well written incidents makes it a 5 star and something people should absolutely read. <<less
0 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Alysse
Alysse rated it
June 20, 2024
Status: side story 3
I noticed that there were barely any reviews for this novel so I decided to write a little bit about my experience.

Stumbled upon this piece while randomly browsing the TS (Male to Female) section, the first few chapters don't really give much of a context and will leave you confused but I recommend you to read on as everything will get explained in due time, hidden behind the facade of a comedic spin on VR League of Legends (Sounds completely absurd, I know.) Is a darker and deeper story about... more>> the MC healing from past traumas and making a place for themselves in the new world they have found themselves in.

There's a lot of terminology and references related to League of Legends so I wouldn't recommend reading it if you haven't played it yourself or have some knowledge about the game, these bits can be skimmed over but you will lose some valuable character building for the MC.

Overall I had a very positive experience, this has easily become one of my favorite novels of all time and I'm debating buying the advanced chapters or learning Korean in order to be able to read ahead. <<less
14 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
ggezdotcoms
ggezdotcoms rated it
June 20, 2024
Status: c31
It's definitely one of the most interesting novels I've read so far in 2024.

The setting is pretty understandable, and the plot is just heartbreaking.

The year is 2028, and in the not-so dystopian future of Korea, there exists pods that people could use to fully immerse in VR. Our MC was stuck in one of them with her dead mother. And the only way she could survive is to just grind LoL. (Yes, that's right, League of Legends.) Magic does exist, and our MC is a genius at it.

That's pretty much... more>> the basic plot of the story, and I won't go any deeper than this so that you could enjoy reading the story with it's full context and without any spoilers.

All in all, definitely a solid read. <<less
9 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Qsxwdcefv
Qsxwdcefv rated it
October 2, 2024
Status: c60
Overall, I was surprised to find myself somewhat enjoying this one.

I wasn't too optimistic at the beginning due to the emphasis on streaming, but I thought I might as well give it a shot. I still wish the author would've just gotten rid of the streaming aspect (or at least streaming games) entirely. I feel this work has (had?) a lot of potential if not for those parts.

I feel the synopsis was pretty confusingly written so I'll try to explain it without spoiling anything. Basically the MC used to be... more>> a mostly ordinary person (1st life, male) in what is probably equivalent to modern day Earth. They died then reincarnated (2nd life, female) as a person who was mistaken to be a villain/Demon King in a fantasy setting with abundant magic. After going through a lot (and I mean a LOT, read the side stories) in their second life, they then die once more. The main story primarily focuses on the 2nd reincarnation (3rd life, female) which is set in a futuristic society with VR and limited magic involvement. In this world, due to the somewhat more complex issues with mana availability compared to the previous world, people have to pay taxes if they use magic above a certain tier. That's the premise behind the whole invoice thing in the synopsis.

Firstly, I'd like to focus on the Gender Bender aspect first. As typical with the livestreaming + GB combo, I have no idea why it was even necessary in the first place for it to be a GB work. In this work, even more so. In their second life, the MC was already genderswapped so by the point they reincarnated in their 3rd life, there's no trace of the discrepancy or identity crisis you'd expect from someone genderswapped. Even the glimpses we do get of the 2nd life through some lines in the main story and a lot from the side stories, that doesn't seem to be present. Why couldn't the MC have just been female from the beginning from their first life...? It makes me wonder with these authors sometimes.

Putting my rant about unnecessary GB aside, the whole initial segment with VR LoL was rubbish imo. Later on in the story, the game being focused on is a sorts of RPG with multiplayer compatibility that allows the MC to utilise and showcase their knowledge in magic acquired during their second life which imo is a solid concept that isn't half-bad at all. Why was the whole VR LoL in the beginning necessary? Author could've just gone with the other game from the beginning and it would've made the early chapters much more bearable as the theory behind mana in this story is actually quite interesting. Instead readers have to sit through many paragraphs of LoL buzzwords and nonsense that add nothing to the story in the first 30 or so chapters. Simply, a waste of space.

One last brief thing I'd like to touch on is the introduction of characters. It feels like characters are being introduced constantly with no clear indication of how important any of them actually are.

Spoiler

One example is the girl our MC befriended when she was at the orphanage. She got introduced, had some nice scenes with the MC bonding as friends, got adopted and pretty much removed from the story. They promised to play together, but 30+ chapters later she wasn't mentioned once.

Similarly, the person who actually saves her from her living nightmare of being trapped in a VR capsule was also promptly introduced and then forgotten about for like 40 chapters before randomly making a cameo. This despite him being her saviour as she put it. Heck, it feels like the cameo he made was only to tie up that loose end so that MC could show she was grateful to him and then he'll likely be forgotten about again.

There are also a lot of names mentioned pertaining to the MC's second life that we have little to no context about, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say they'll be introduced more thoroughly in side stories later on. It just feels like there's constantly new names being thrown in for no real good reason at all.

[collapse]

Now that my rant about the negatives of the novel is done with, I'll go over what I did like from the novel. Firstly, the emotional moments of the novel are really well written imo. The novel does go over some slightly darker themes and our MC clearly suffers from some mental trauma and other psychological issues, but it's not overly angsty. There are nice, heartwarming moments in there too. The MC's wounds from their past are slowly healed from the positive experiences of their 3rd life after two very unfortunate lives. The delicate balance is well maintained so the feelings do hit when they are supposed to hit.

Apart from that, as mentioned earlier, the theory behind magic/mana is actually quite interesting in this world. There is an actual science to it with equations and/or formulae and complex theories which, while I might not 100% grasp as my brain is on power saving mode while reading novels, is pretty cool. The further into the story you get, more it is expanded upon as well and it gets introduced more extensively in the second game that is being focused on (mostly starting around chapter 55 or so).

Spoiler

I also really enjoy the dynamic between the MC and her foster father/the professor. The fact that most of their discussion surrounds magic and magic theories is great; it reminds me somewhat of Conan Edogawa and Professor Agasa from Detective Conan lol. Her foster father is also a great guardian towarss her. He genuinely cares for her but doesn't step over any personal boundaries or anything but does somewhat dote on her. It's a cute relationship and I'm all for it, especially after our MC's terrible luck with parental figures in her current and past lives.

[collapse]

I liked the bit when she was streaming doing homework questions that people sent in. I think I would be more interested in investing more time reading this work if that was the focus instead of game livestreams. Even with the RPG title instead of LoL, I just can't help but be disinterested in reading it because game livestreams in text form are just a poor read imo.

One thing that I'm not so sure how to feel about is the slight identity crisis this novel seems to have at times. It kind of wants to be too many things at once it feels at times. Obviously there's a large emphasis on magical theory and livestreaming. However, there's also a lot dedicated to MC's school life.

Spoiler

which, honestly, why does she even have to attend at all? Isn't her identity somewhat ambiguous due to her history? She shouldn't have to attend compulsory education at all. Besides, her knowledge level easily matches that of well known academics like her foster father. She is also at a much higher mental age than her school peers so it just makes no sense for her to attend elementary school. It really does remind me of Detective Conan in some ways lol but at least in Conan's case it somewhat makes sense he would want to blend in as a school kid to hide from the Black Organization/his love interest. In this story? Not so much.

[collapse]

The MC's 2nd life experiences should explain why her magical theory knowledge is so advanced, but she also shows unusual knowledge depth in unexpected places like clinical medicinal knowledge which doesn't make sense based on her past lives (maybe stretching it by saying she learned of it in her first life because we know very little of it so far) It just feels like the author wanted to write about all these things but couldn't justify making separate works so ended up just writing it into this story somehow, sometimes forcibly. It's not necessarily bad per se, just a little off putting at times.

Tl;dr - GB fans expect to be disappointed by lack of GB content. Beginning is rough and confusing, especially for people who don't play LoL. It gets better later on though (ch7+) with highlights being MC healing from past trauma and learning to enjoy life while simultaneously diving into the very interesting magical theory of this world. Rating overall would be around 3.7/5. <<less
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Luneder
Luneder rated it
October 18, 2024
Status: c26
This novel is honestly hard to read and jumps a lot.

The LoL stuff is good but everything outside of that feels like someone else wrote it and used AI.

There is some big issues with the logic that I can only attribute to AI generating text then the author just adding some stuff to what is generated in hopes to make it fit the previous chapters. The time frame of when the first chapter was posted happens to match when gen AI came out.

The novel jumps to random characters with little... more>> to no introduction making it hard to know if it is the MC's point of view or the random characters until a third of the way into each chapter. To make it worse because it jumps so much even when it is from the MC's point of view it is hard to tell if it is the MC because what is happening and what is being talked about is completely different from the previous chapter that it just seems like each chapter was made without looking at what was happening in the previous chapter.

Here is a summary of the story to try and make sense of the dumpster fire of random parts from the first 17 chapters:

Spoiler

So the start of the story is the character being executed in a medieval fantasy world due to a prophesy. For the next couple of chapters we are given very vague clues of the MCs situation while she plays an alternate version of LoL until she gets saved from the situation.

At this point we find out the MC has been trapped in a VR capsule for 7 years with her dead mother but the kicker she is 7 years old and no one bothers to think something is off about it while they all desperately try erase any obligation to take care of the 7 year old girl. They even label her as an illegal immigrant because she doesn't have the chip everyone has after birth. Um 7 year old trapped in a capsule for 7 years I think they should be able to figure out why she doesn't have a chip.

The MC is then dumped on an orphanage and soon is diagnosed with a physical illness and then runs away to live at a PC cafe and the orphanage makes zero effort to take care of her and doesn't even attempt to bring her back. The MC makes mention of the other kids being the reason for why she left but we never get to see such interactions and can only take her word for it.

MC lives at the PC cafe until a professor teaching lessons to a virtual classroom she accidentally got in knee jerk adopts her within and hour of their first physical meeting when she visits the university to see her grades.

17 very confusing chapters I read to get that and this summary probably makes more sense than reading those chapters did.

[collapse]

I will keep reading to see if there is any improvement but I expect most people won't make it passed 10 chapters and is mostly being propped up by the LoL fans because those parts of the novel really are a step above the rest of the content. <<less
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AiriMage
AiriMage rated it
July 18, 2024
Status: c3
I’m very, very early on in the series, and still trying to work my way through whatever tf is going on, but so far it’s incredibly confusing, especially as someone who’s never touched or even glanced at League of Legends a day in my life. A lot of terminology is used in a way that simply expects you to know it without elaborating on what it does, creating immense confusion; like, what the heck if a Jungler? Mid? Top-laner? I could understand some of these a little bit by using... more>> the words themselves as context but it’s still difficult, to the point of giving me an actual headache so far. I can only hope it’s explained sometime soon, as I’d really like to enjoy this novel; I’m an avid fan of similar novels, with Kidnapped by the Strongest Guild being my all time favorite. <<less
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Kittybob
Kittybob rated it
July 25, 2024
Status: c59
The author is very good at eliciting emotional reactions from the reader... at some points the misery feels a bit much, but it's very effective.

In general, it feels like a lot of context is missing sometimes - it assumes you already know League of Legends mechanics and characters (though League is by no means the focus of the story) and the introduction of some worldbuilding sometimes feels like it comes out of nowhere. I'd chalk up most of the issues to the translation being pretty hit or miss.

Read this to... more>> induce heart palpitations, I guess.

EDIT:

Having caught up, the emotional impact of some of these chapters is really something, and once it properly gets past the League of Legends bits and introduces a new game, the streaming segments become far more interesting by integrating the magic system. Looking forward to future chapters! <<less
3 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Sky3Fall
Sky3Fall rated it
February 7, 2025
Status: c199
Unexpectedly fire. I thought it would just be a “wow the MC is amazing” complication but the author somehow managed to introduce emotion and tragedy and found family (uwaaaa I fkn love found family so much) alongside semi-logical pseudomath and pseudoscience and scientific magic.

The MC does play games, and one of those games is indeed League of Legends, and the author doesn’t bother to introduce any of the terms so if you’ve never played a MOBA you might be confused. Don’t worry. All you need to know is that the... more>> MC is fkn cracked at the game (on one champ specifically (ngl it was a welcome surprise to see a LOL player MC not automatically know every single champ despite being a newbie)). The other game is this Dark Souls-like thing where you play through the story mode first, and depending on the difficulty you beat in the story, it raises your PvP combat power. The second game also lets you use real life magic so the MC is super broken in that game.

Ultimately I think this story is a slice of life. Sure there are mysteries and stuff in the background, but they all take a back seat in the face of the MC healing from her trauma and bringing her friends up with her. There are tragedies and sadness and onion chopping ninjas, but they all contribute to setting up the pond so that the ripples of the MC’s influence can be seen all the more clearly.

I enjoyed this story (so far), and would recommend it. 8.5/10. <<less
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Akier
Akier rated it
January 10, 2025
Status: c183
8/10 Enjoyability

3.2/5 For a WN rating

I agree with Luneder, The setting shifts with the plot that it gets confusing on whos who and where is where

The GB has no impact at all, It just serves as ... more>>
Spoiler

A starting point which is her (yes her) first reincarnation, Then her second reincarnation was that of an princess who was talented with all sorts of skills but was killed since she was framed for killing her whole family (Unsure if she actually did since it wasn't covered yet and I don't consider this framing since she basically took all the blame due to public oppression, Then the current storyline starts with her 3rd reincarnation

[collapse]

The title is gets misleading later on since she mainly uses magic in a VR/Game space that doesn't bill her, I'd honestly think the title would be better off with something like a 7 year old magic prodigy streamer rather than the current title but eh its no use in crying over spilt milk

Currently I'm continuing off c183 in the darkmtl site (Apparently it goes up to 700+ in the site) but the translation quality is a level lower though I wont complain since its free <<less
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