Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Novel) Volume 2 Review

In Volume 1, Dokja Kim, the only remaining reader of the novel Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse, found himself in the dystopian novel (or the novel transformed his world… still to be confirmed what exactly happened), and now he has to survive the bloody battles that appear in the form of scenarios to reach the end…alive!

After meeting the original novel’s protagonist, Junghyeok Yu, Dokja had to prove his skills and it’s time to face him once again. The next scenario takes place at Chungmuro metro station where Dokja and his unofficial team members, Sangah, Huiwon, Hyeonseong and Gilyeong need to face off against the Landlord Coalition, a group led by Pildu Gong, while also taking care of the scenario. According to the novel, Pildu is one of the Ten Evils, thanks to his powers that allow him to create and control a militarised zone and kill anyone who enters his territory. While Dokja is hopeful that Junghyeok will deal with him, he’s not so sure of Junghyeok’s reaction when he appears in front of him once again after having passed his test. However, Dokja’s hopes are crushed pretty fast, and now he has to deal with all the problems by himself: the third scenario, Pildu Gong, and saving Junghyeok’s life.

The first two issues shouldn’t be too much of a hassle for him and his companions, but the third might cause some casualties if he’s not careful enough, maybe even his own life. Junghyeok is a regressor and every time he dies, he goes back in time to start all over again, but if Junghyeok were to die, what would happen to Dokja, a character that’s not supposed to exist in the novel? Dokja can’t let this happen, so he needs to bet all he can on his skills and trust his companions to pull their weight, especially as the fourth scenario commences.

As per the first volume and its manhwa counterpart, Volume 2 is full of action from the first chapter. After all, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint is a dystopian novel where survival and murder go hand in hand. Readers shouldn’t expect a happy ever after with traditional heroes who save everyone they encounter. Junghyeok is a jaded hero who only thinks about reaching the end of the scenarios. Dokja, as well, is not compassionate enough to save everyone he encounters, just the people who are useful to him. He doesn’t go out of his way to kill as Junghyeok does; he accepts that death is necessary and not everyone will be able to survive, especially as strength is needed to progress the scenarios. They are both atypical heroes, although Dokja doesn’t consider himself a hero, nor Junghyeok. For Dokja, Junghyeok is just the protagonist and having read about his multiple loops and lives, he knows what he thinks and how he’d react. The only thing he didn’t consider is how his own presence might influence Junghyeok’s decisions and actions, as he’s becoming a little bit less predictable.

However, Dokja’s knowledge of the novel is still usable and he takes advantage of this to increase his stats, make deal with constellations, and get the weapons and items he knows will make overcoming future scenarios easier. Dokja, though, is not the only one with knowledge of the future, as both the prophet Anna Croft and the Oracles appear. While Anna is a character in the original novel, who are the Oracles, and what do they want with Junghyeok? Thanks to a few events, Dokja becomes aware of who the Oracles are, but for the readers, they are still a mystery unless they grasp the truth via the hints given.

The novel is written as if it were a video game with pop-up windows showing the characters’ stats and the scenarios they have to clear. While I find the novel layout interesting, my reading experience is influenced by my previous reading of the manhwa where the pop-up windows fit into the illustrations and the visuals help the smooth narration of the story. In the novel, I found that some descriptions are not as clear as they could be, for example: how some monsters look, and mentions of specific names (places, items, people, etc.) are not explained, so unless the readers have previous knowledge, there is no footnote or end of book note to describe who or what that name means. On the plus side, the novel has a few pages of colourful illustrations that depict scenes in the story.

Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint is a Korean novel written by singNsong and published by Ize Press in the English language with the translation by Hye Young Im and J. Torres. It’s been adapted into an on-going manhwa and a live action movie released in South Korea in 2025. An anime version is in the works. Volume 3 of the novel is slated for release in March 2026.

Our review copy was supplied by Ize Press.