Core Scramble

YaoiGodAbove20 Mar 4, 2021

7.9

This BL is one heck of a thrill ride, classifying it as just BL/yaoi is understating its great action wholeness. This has a mesh of sci-fi, fantasy, and action that's fairly balanced in each aspects. You get an equal amount of romance and world-building via explanation, tho the explanation bits on the deeper functions/effects of halls, bugs & etc can get overwhelmed by the longass texts in speech bubbles. The structure isn't perfect, the ending was sped up too suddenly; the major twists took place near the end in vol 3 without giving much repercussions, if you're confused I'm talking about the Clarus Orbis enterprise's dirty secret twist. I know it's centered on the 3 dudes but the disclosure didn't do much damage to the oblivious team members working for them.  There are these portals rifts popping up constantly called "halls" that serve as a gateway for alien "bugs" to traverse into our world from their dimension, if you're in contact with the halls, then you're very likely fucked, not just physically your lifeline might as well be cut. Forgot to add that these otherworldly stuffs can't be seen by just anyone, if I'm to compare this to another fictional medium then they're hollows which can be seen by people with high spiritual energy, or in this manhwa's case just "special" people. Chaeun is one such person, he saw the self-centered prick Gayoon defeating them by chance during his childhood and followed him blindly (worshipping basically) from that day onwards.   The author's goal is to have Chaeun cut his confused emotional ties to Gayoon and let Moonhoo be that savior to their abusive relationship. Gayoon's the biggest asshole in the BL universe imo, he's in no way a tsundere when he's been designed with all the worst personality traits you can think of. Chaeun only felt envy for him along with a mixed desire for his powers to destroy halls, yet Gayoon takes it as lust from him coz he simply couldn't contain his ego. That's where he crosses the line and do crazy shits to Chaeun. In three words, fuck this guy. Moonhoo came in just the right time to deplete that ego of his. Also props to the author for providing these characters with specific abilities, it's really comprehensive with the magic ranks & all. I like how Chaeun isn't completely wasted on just being a mid-level soldier, giving him a slight boost to low-level master makes him closer to Moonhoo in terms of abilities. OK TLDR if you enjoyed Ai No Kusabi, OR Hell & high water, you'll find this to your liking. That's all I'm gonna say