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Tbh, this could have been Hidden love level drama for me, if not for SML. I immediately started feeling annoyed by him since ep 1, including his little obsessed GF. That annoyance only increased over time.

One thing I didn’t understand in this drama was why Father Pei decided to marry the male lead ML’s mother when he was the real culprit behind the entire incident. He framed the ML’s father and even caused his death. He could have easily gotten away with it, but instead he chose to marry the male lead’s mother. This decision only fueled the male lead’s hatred and suspicion regarding his father’s case.

For example, as a child, he caught Father Pei talking to the key witness. He also built his entire personality around solving his father’s case. So it made me wonder: if Father Pei had never married the ML’s mother, couldn’t he have completely escaped suspicion?

Maybe I missed something or wasn’t paying enough attention. Did they ever explain why he actually married her? Was it because the company was going to pass to her after her husband’s death, and he wanted to acquire it by marrying her? Was that the reason?

I am currently at the beginning, on Episode 2, and I have a few doubts about the technology in the game. The tags indicate that this drama features an advanced scientific setting in China, where there is a virtual world and a virtual reality game in which real people can interact with NPCs, touch them, and even feel the environment. However, the drama is making it a little confusing for me.

Are they wearing headsets and physically moving around inside an empty warehouse, with everything they see being holographic projections—such as holographic buildings and NPCs? If that is the case, then how are they able to touch and feel those things?
The more likely explanation seems to be that they put on headsets and lie down in a chair or bed in the real world, while their minds are transported into a virtual world—similar to Ready Player One. In that movie, players are fully immersed in a digital environment without physically interacting with projections in real space.
Another question I have is: how does the ML always play the same character? How does he consistently have the ability to play a powerful general? Meanwhile, the FL appears to switch between characters—at least up to Episode 2. Perhaps this is because her first character died.
However, this raises another issue. The goal of the game is to help create a mayor, right? If the ML became the mayor in Episode 1, then why are they again trying to make someone a mayor in Episode 2? Does that mean they are restarting the objective each time? If so, why are the characters not continuing from where they left off?
That is the main part that I do not understand.

Thank you for the explanation. It cleared a lot of things for me.

Ah, so that’s why the synopsis above says that the king has been biding his time for a decade. He has been in this world for at least ten years. But then why is his rule considered so bad? I mean, he is regarded as a tyrant by the people. His policies are terrible, and there is rampant corruption in the government. People are in jeopardy because of his rule. Is it simply because of Prince Duan and the Queen Dowager?

And at the very beginning of the first episode, he was acting like someone who had just come into this world. I mean, he has lived in this world for ten years, yet his habit of using modern Chinese slang has not gone away. It’s hard to believe.

Can someone tell who was that boy at beginning of ep 10, saying that he was using his phone during his maths class and got transmigrated into the novel?

I’ve always felt that the SML constantly tried to make himself look good in front of the male lead’s parents, often at the direct expense of the male lead. He repeatedly talked down to him, put him down outright, and did so in a genuinely unpleasant, irritable tone—not jokingly, not playfully. Meanwhile, the male lead brushed it all off, acted oblivious, and never really questioned it.
This behavior feels deliberate on the show’s part. The SML was clearly jealous of the male lead’s life from childhood—first of the love he received from his parents, and later of the love of the FL. What really bothers me is how little decency the SML shows in his relationship with the male lead. I genuinely cannot understand how someone could even consider pursuing the FL when she is the love of his brother/best friend.
This is the part I found the most disturbing. I usually skipped the scenes where the show tried to position the SML as a viable romantic option for the FL because I never shipped them—not for a second. I could have shipped them if the SML had been written as even remotely likable, but he wasn’t, and the show never convinced me otherwise.

Overall, it was a solid show with strong acting, especially from the leads. I’d still say it’s a very good series, but there were a few minor plot holes that stood out to me. One example is Mo Eun's first conversation with Yun Su. It felt a bit too convenient that the solitary cells they were put in happened to have a hole in the wall so they could talk. How would Mo Eun even know beforehand that those specific cells would share a wall with a hole? That part wasn’t really explained and ended up feeling like the biggest plot hole for me. There were a couple of other small issues too, but none of them were as noticeable as this one.

There are graphic scenes of people committing murders.

You probably watched it all, but imo she never had a proper downfall. Due to her personality, it was understandable that she was not made a professor in the last episode, and it was good payback for her behavior throughout the show. However, I don’t think this was a proper downfall for her character. What I had expected was something more serious—like her making a major mistake because of her manipulative personality, one that would affect her career going forward and lead to her being fired from the hospital. That would have had a long-term impact on her future as a doctor, because based on everything I’ve seen in the episodes, she does not deserve to be a doctor.

In my opinion, I’m also on episode 3, and just like how the second female lead shot the male lead off the cliff, there are many opportunities for him to kill the Left Minister. If he wanted to, he could lure him, surround him with his guards, or—if he is a skilled sword fighter—simply shoot him in the head from a distance with his guards’ help. There are many ways he could kill him. However, unless he wants to do it the legal way and clear the names of everyone the Left Minister killed, I can understand why he isn’t trying to murder him outright.

Did SFL Kim U Hui have a good ending along with the SML, even though she is also a murderous maniac like her father? I do not like her, but for the sake of SML, I hope they have happy ending.

What realization has led her to believe Da Wit is innocent? She connected his immunity to anesthesia with the bribery video.

I agree with you about the second case. The ending felt very unrealistic, almost like a fairytale, and it didn’t really consider how things would work in the real legal world. It seems like the writers are using trending and sensitive social topics to build these cases, but they don’t put the same effort into resolving them properly. Because of that, the conclusions feel rushed and not very convincing.
What happens in the second case especially just wouldn’t happen in real life. That kind of outcome breaks the realism and makes the whole case feel weaker.
This is also why I’m not a big fan of Park Gi Ppeum’s character. She’s clearly written as an idealist, but her ideals don’t really fit the reality of the society or system she’s working in. She holds on to these strong principles, which is admirable in theory, but in practice they just don’t work on their own.
If the male lead hadn’t stepped in — especially in the dog-related case — she would’ve lost very early just by sticking strictly to her ideals. And honestly, that contrast feels like the main point of the show. The male lead’s more unconventional and practical approach reflects how society actually works, and when you put that next to the female lead’s idealism, it shows the gap between how things should be and how they really are. This is what makes the show more interesting.

From what I’ve seen up to episode 25, people may side against the Emperor because of how he raised the male lead—grooming him from childhood, manipulating him, and shaping him into a ruthless future ruler. But people often overlook that the Emperor has always tried to be a just and wise ruler above all else. His citizens respect him, and he genuinely prioritizes the country’s stability and future. A country that he himself founded and is a founding emperor.

No one ever told him, “Make my daughter the Empress” or “Make my second son the Emperor.” Yet the male lead insists on these ideas without thinking realistically. His sister, up to episodes 20–25, is nowhere near ready to be an Empress—she grew up sheltered, like a greenhouse flower, and would likely bring disaster to the country. His younger brother may have a kind heart, but he is too weak-willed; if he became Emperor, he would simply become a puppet under his grandfather, again endangering the nation.
The only suitable choice for the throne was the male lead himself, yet he tried to run from this responsibility because of his mother’s teachings, not because he was thinking about the common people—unlike the Emperor.
Yes, the Emperor did cruel things to his family, the male lead, and even his first wife. But these actions were rooted in protecting the country, not personal ambition. He was not a tyrant or a power-hungry ruler. He simply believed that only a strong, ruthless successor could stand against figures like the Prime Minister and the current Empress.

In that sense, his intentions—however harsh—were for the stability and survival of the nation.

In which episode will she regain her full memory? I am on ep 11, and she has gained her memory in bits and pieces only.

Netflix has the worst drama translations. I’ve watched many shows there, and most recently Beyond the Bar also had several poorly translated instances.

I feel like this is such a common K-drama setup – the young rookie lawyer joins a huge top-tier law firm, and right away she clashes with the senior lawyer about morals and “how cases should be run.” Episode 3 showed that clearly, when the ML tore into the mother in court. She joined the biggest corporate law firm in the country. These firms represent the top 1% or 10% companies, they are profit machines – not NGOs. Of course their strategy will be ruthless, because that’s literally what clients are paying for. It just feels a little unrealistic that these rookies act shocked like they didn’t learn in law school that corporate firms exist to protect money and power. Same situations were there in Law and the city drama as well.

They always act surprised when they see how ruthless big corporate firms are. But really, what did they expect? These firms represent top corporations and the wealthiest clients – their entire business model is profit, not charity. If a young lawyer truly wants to defend the powerless or fight for justice, there are other paths: public defenders’ offices, legal aid groups, NGOs, human rights organizations, or even starting small practices that focus on helping everyday people (like one dollar lawyer drama). Instead, the dramas make them join the most cut-throat law firm in the country and then act shocked that their bosses are cold and profit-driven. It feels less like “idealism vs. cynicism” and more like misplaced expectations.

Honestly, I feel so bad for Sunwoo . People loved him when he was a cute child star, but the moment his family had problems, everyone turned against him. Like… how is that his fault? A kid can’t control his sick mom getting scammed or his dad running away from responsibility. What’s crazy is the same society that cheered for him was so quick to hate and judge when he needed support the most. It just shows how greedy and fake people can be — they only like you when you’re shining, not when you’re struggling. Sunwoo never deserved that hate.

I am in ep 4, but will they explain why ML has an identical twin? Did his mother gave birth to twins?