Recommendations A very tall order....

From the description on NU and another place it seems a little(a lot) on the brutal side. Is the violence and the powerlessness of the weak still in the PG-13 range?

Thanks for all the recs everyone! I'll check back later on today to see what is new.

 

TS Reincarnated as the Sub Heroine - This is exactly what you DIDN'T ask for. Have fun reading it!

 

Most web novels on NU don't have epubs? Anyway sometimes to save my phone money(coz I have a burner phone and don't use any net options from my provider) I open a bunch of tabs with chapters in advance so I can read them when not by my wifi.
However you'd have to know you like a fic before you start opening tabs on it... shouldn't be a problem with anything from my list though.

 

Not a tall order at all. Pretty easy actually
What you are looking for is Commanding Wind and Cloud.


I will actually go an extra mile and hit every point from your post:
- Game Elements and leveling system. Commanding Wind and Cloud has it. MC obtains a hat that can transport his conscious to a game like world. A village. Where everyone in that village is absolutly overpowered as hell. In their own field of expertise. For example : The blacksmith in the village can craft anything, all sorts of god like wepaons and armor, The village doctor(alchemyst) can heal any wound and can even bring you back from the dead etc ....
MC can only be in this village for a certain period of time before he is kicked out (sort of like a log out).
NOTE: The game elements and Leveling System actually fall off later in the novel. They sort of fade into the background as the MC becomes stronger. Because they are actually tied to cultivation, so in the later parts of the novel, its more about the cultivation rather than the systems and elements.

- There are 600 chapters translated. The are around 700 chapters in total.

- There is adventure, banter between friends, slice of life, traning, crafting, mixing potions, lighthearted (tho there are some heavy moments, but there are 3 or so in total), there is matrial arts, cooking (MC does cook rearely but its super good, because he was tought by one of the villagers to cook too , tho this moment doesnt have screen time, its just mentioned), good guys win ofc.

It petty much has everything you want. Tho I have to say, its a harem. The harem/romance is very very very slow. It begins to form early but the MC is more focused on getting stronger and otehr stuff. The harem gets mroe attention in the 300ish chapters.
MC gets some nice friends in his journey. They are pretty loyal to him. Ofc they are kinda delusional that they are strogner than the MC at first , but the MC treats like children sometimes and he lets them think what they want. Its kinda funny actually.

Btw there are many epic scenes in the novel. For me since Im a pervert and like epic stuff that have to do with the MC, my favourite moment in the novel (to the part I have read) is in the academy where he fights a old man (bodygueard serving the prince in the academy) who has a stronger cultivation than the MC, but the MC hammers him so ahrd that the guy is send flying. While this is happening the principal of the academy (a hot chick that will enter the harem later in the novel), watches the battle and becomes wet from it and she says "1,000,000 cycles??? Ohhhhhhhh heavans, what a monster you have sent me...". Its such an epic moment for me man. The thing with the cycles is that cultivation is based aroudn this cycles, but even tho the MC has a lower cultivation at the time, he has cycles for 3 realms above. YOu will see, the novel explains it much better.

----
Anyway , some others that i can recommend are :
Shura's Wrath - VRMMO in which

Spoiler: SPOILER

the game wold becomes one with the real one

. Tho it has its heavy moments, but the MC and co always win. Nothing too heavy. THo a lot of face smacking. Ohh and its a ahrem, but it becomes a harem much later.

Rebirth of the Legendary Guardian - its a VRMMO. Everyone plays this VRMMO game because you can earn real money from it. There is gold ratio, to real money ratio. Again a harem, and it also becomes a harem much later. Tho the best moments here are the banter between the MC and his friends, and the banter between the MC and his harem. This novel is the simple farming MMO, slay bosses, earn loot , repeat. Something happens in ther eal world, it gets resolved in 5 chapter, then back in the game. Nothing heavy here. Pretty fun read.

Womanizing Mage - maybe ? in the 2nd chapter when the MC gets transported into anotehr wolrd into the body of a scumbag young master, he kills this young masters soul and takes over his body, BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT...... the MC rapes the princess after he kills off the soul of this guy. The guy took aphrodisiac pills or something like that, so the MC's will was weak after killing his soul and that happened. No mroe rape tho. She forgives him much later in the novel and becomes super sweet.
If you can look past this, the rest is pretty much what you are looking for.
Its pure wishfulfillment. A harem ofc. Harem is huge in this one. Super fun read. Its kinda of leveling system, since the MC had his own system from the past world, plus the cultivation from this new world.

 

Oh, it's quite violent, then, since it includes a lot of instances of killing monsters and PK.

 

Data Dragon Danika
After the Mountains are Flattened
Only Sense Online, maybe. It checks all the boxes, and can be quite fun, but there are too many anime cliches for me.

 

Commanding Wind and Cloud is pretty good so far. Just have to read it in batches since it gets a bit intense. Was the same for Reincarnation of the Sword God which was even more intense.

I've read OSO and enjoyed it. Will have to look at the others at some point.

@DragonMage18 I must say I really enjoyed this one. Thanks for the rec!

 

+1
Don't remember if cooking was involved tho.

 

Rather than horror/psychological, I'd classify it as more Adventure. Yea it's definitely more gritty and mature (people dying, losing limbs, etc) than other novels, but that's to be expected when you go into Terminator, Starcraft or Jurassic Park worlds =)
If you get past the 1st 10 chapters of MC growing up in an oppressed environment (literally "Black Lagoon" type scenes), you'll be ok.

 

Can't tell what you've read so far (your reading list is disabled), but probably:
-- Legendary Moonlight Sculptor (obvious choice, epic battles, and the granddaddy of lighthearted VRMMO)
-- Advent of the Archmage (average novel, nothing spectacular but nothing too bad either)
-- Rebirth of the thief ... (long name, pretty average but fits your requirements)
-- The World Online (kinda average kingdom building VRMMO, I can't rem if there was a lot of faceslapping or not)
-- Hail the King (blend of isekai/VRMMO, not particularly impressive but fits your requirements, probably check it out if you have no other option)
-- The Legendary Mechanic (pretty decent for 1st 200 chapters, then kinda gotta crappy when the world building and politics didn't make sense)

 

definately Overgeared ...

 

The Devil's Cage

I Alone Level Up

Master Hunter K

Night Ranger

Seoul Station Necromancer

The World Tuned Into A Game After I Woke Up

Ark (though I can't remember what the mc's like)

 

It doesn't have to have cooking, sorry if that's how it came off. I just know there are a lot of people that hate when novels have cooking be a large component. I absolutely love all types of crafting so crafting novels in general are a great rec for me. I actually wish crafting was even more involved in Commanding Wind and Cloud.

I will give it a try. I'll also check out the other recs you gave. I actually have downloaded LMS but kept putting it off due to the MC never growing out of being a money obsessed person according to several reviews. I'll try it.

 

I read almost 100 chapters before dropping it because of how scummy the MC was. I heard he got better but I just couldn't make it there.

I've read quite a lot of I Alone Level Up and Seoul Station Necromancer and ended up half way dropping them due to how intense they got. A bit much for me though I enjoyed the world building and most of the character progression. Didn't care about how far the MC from I.A.L.U took being a loner who didn't care about anyone else. Master Hunter K, from what I remember from I looked at them, seemed a bit to brutal for me and I heard that while Night Ranger was good the ending was absolute trash(like how horrid Mass Effect 3's ending was) so I didn't try it. I will search fro The World Turned into A Game After I Woke Up thanks.

 

I know you said that you couldn't stand how scummy the character was, but I have to encourage you to push past how scummy he is. I promise you, he gets so so so much better.