The ML starts off as very cold and paranoid which is justified seeing as he's been betrayed a lot but when he falls in love with the MC he's very romantic. (Giving him a ring and vowing that he'll destroy whatever/whomever hurts the MC, even himself.) The MC is great too, he never annoyed me which is a first since usually a BL/heroine will usually have traits that can get me irritated. (Childishness and being dumb etc.) I'm kinda obsessed with this story.

developing social phobia due to his experiences when he first developed hearing loss in middle school, and how his social phobia and hearing loss affect the way he perceives the world and interacts with the ML and other characters. However, later on, it stops being interesting and feels like it’s only mentioned again when it’s convenient to the plot. For example, in the first maybe 1/3-1/2 of the book, MC’s hearing aid loses battery in the afternoon/evening so there are a lot of things he misses or can only understand based on watching people’s actions, but later on he can pretty much hear all of the time. The hearing aid is then only mentioned when the MC is noting that he can still hear, therefore it must not be nighttime yet (even though in several previous nights there was no mention of him not being able to hear).

After they reached entered the tower that allows you to become a god, it became really formulaic because they were just repeatedly going to the different floors, completing the challenge, going back to the main lobby, and seeing that there was species’s statue added to the display, then repeat. And because the challenges themselves were not super interesting, it was boring and a chore to read through.

I just love how guilty the MC is for his role in destroying ml's life. Sure if it's just a character in the book then whatever, right? They're not real. But if you meet that character in real life and realize what they've been through was real for them, then you're just horrified. It reminds me of the movie Stranger than Fiction.

This to me is the appeal of this novel. MC trying his best to atone for what he believes he's done to the ml. He lets ML get away with using him and being submissive. It doesn't help that mc's deafness is the reason for his trauma and character. So others might feel he's too timid or quiet or boring, without thinking of how his characterization is actually like added with his guilt for his favorite character.

Even if he's not like other mc's, I think it's also important to have variation and diversity in novels. Not every MC needs to be strong and confident and badass, because not all people are like that anyway. People are different and not at all the same, so we should celebrate diversity in reading as well.