talkdrama

The plot progress is quite fast, and the suspense is great with action accompanied by a hint of romance. The characters are a blend of what you may encounter in the real world too, over-achievers, average people, clueless ones, helpless ones, etc.
My theory is that ML knew FL even before she entered college, overshadowed by how well he understands, helps, and trusts her. The scene where he serves her saltwater and tells her about a friend and she later goes to his room and finds a wooden box, but he suspiciously changes the topic and leads her away from it.
At the start, it was mentioned that "they" have started to approach/find her or something which could be FL, the people talking might be the original team of developers related to her in some way. The experiment might have ended abruptly and some new team took over changing it into a survival game intended to kill people while disguising it as a normal game (so far only FL's teammates thus, no one else has noticed this). FL had amnesia and the bad guys wanted to eliminate her and others to keep things a secret.
An alternative theory is that we are inside FL's brain where everything is related to her trauma or experiences. Like the people who talked about her at the start is the manifestation of her mind being scared of her memories (the "they") coming out, while the game is her different experiences manifesting in altered ways as her brain is fighting to keep them locked inside or reduce the impact. Everyone we have seen is related to her in reality but in the world we are seeing right now they are manifesting in ways she considered them through her lenses.

They also revealed Ji Hyuk being the chairman's grandson and CEO right from the start, even though FL wasn't aware much about him in the manhwa.

They added extra detail to the plot in the manhwa, I like it this way. The FL's reaction after meeting both her nemeses after going to the past was spot on. However, it was hilarious how she fell 3 times in the sequence with ML appearing miraculously each time and helping her😆. The plot appears different from the manhwa because in manhwa FL actually didn't remember much about ML and was unaware of him being the heir and future CEO of the company. Lee Yi Kyun portrays Park Min Hwan as an antagonist in this drama was rather strange to watch for me after his earlier role in the top comedy-drama Welcome to Waikiki. His portrayal is really good it's just that the Gwenchana scene starts playing in my mind each time he is on the screen😭.

I too came across that comment. I think this drama's genre should have been slight romance instead of romance, that way we would have expected less romance right from the very beginning.

I think it's because the drama was promoted as a mystery, sci-fi, thriller type genre in some trailers while romance in others so it attracted viewers from both sides. But so far the drama has neither put much focus on the sci-fi elements only treated it as secondary to FL's professional development, nor the romance (it would be more correct to say it's slight romance). Thus they were successful in triggering both the type of viewers that they attracted through the trailers🤣. If someone starts watching a romance they expect romance, if someone starts watching a mystery thriller they expect a mystery thriller because of that even though the drama is really good yet due to this difference in genre to the actual story, people are a little bit disappointed.

Everything about this drama is so good but I still have a few complaints:
1. The lack of romance: even though this drama is marketed as a romance the romance scenes are so diluted in the plot that it feels fit to call it slight romance.
2. Too little screen time for ML: seriously, sometimes I feel that FL's hair salon/makeup work (which isn't even the main plot🤣) and Chen Fang Zhou (who isn't even a main character) have more screen time in the show than the actual ML🤣🤣. To make it worse there were even some episodes where we only get a glimpse of him or some small talk which would be so short that even FL's colleagues at the salon seem to interact with her more than ML🤣. They have attached ML's character to the mystery part a bit too much, even though they have focused more on FL's salon work thus leading to less screen time.

I think the reason the participants of the experiment were going crazy after a year or two, while some did not would depend on 2 things
1. the amount of change that happens in their memories: more changes mean more contradictions with reality, and more resistance from the brain when certain events trigger the over-ridden or prior memories, as well as delusions and hallucinations due to more detachment from reality.
2. their mental strength: many people even though are suffering from mental illnesses can still behave normally and function in their everyday lives to some extent, and have better chances of recovery.
ML is in favor of both criteria while FL only falls in the 2nd one so I think ML will recover fast while FL would take some time but will eventually recover too because for her there are just too many memories to sort through. Whereas people who don't fall into either of the criteria like Huo Bo Yu end up going crazy or killing themselves.

True I think both our confusions are quite genuine because one of them looks too old while the other one looks too young 😭😂.

I think I was wrong about him being the same age as ML because FL was also ML's highschool friend so they all can't be of same age (let me make an edit to my original theory) but considering that Mr. Xu's age was never explicitly mentioned in the drama he could also be like an older brother (maybe a college student) to ML and as ML was close to him, they referred to each other as friends. But I think if the difference was more than that ML would have used some title like uncle, older brothers or something while referring to him in that scene plus they were in a gang fight 😅😂 so that's also why I thought he was too a high schooler considering people ML's age were fighting 😂.

Another fact is that we have a hint that even the world we are in at present might be a simulation because Mr. Xu instead of a tester turned out to be a developer. And because ML and Mr. Xu were friends maybe he worked for ML's mother (who was a researcher). Added to that he always asked ML random questions as if he wants to know how ML would react which is odd (as well as how okay he seems to be after being severely injured), so the fact that his regret might be related to ML and the ML here is a replica and a virus who always happens to find out about the matrix seem possible. So when Mr. Xu ended his testing phase of the program and logged out his profile which was later deleted other than the "Virus" no one remembers him. And as his regret is related to ML maybe he wants to see ML happy so even though Mr. Xu is in hiding he is trying to help ML by saving FL and helping him in solving the mystery. I think this might be true because it aligns well with my previous theory about the world in the years 2025 and 2018.

Welcome to another day another reason why the world of 2025 doesn't exist. There is no way seriously no way that anything in this drama is ever going to convince me that Huo Bo Yu can develop anything at all😂. I am never going to believe he can develop the lighthouse system and the fact that his system is trying to frame and kill him😂😂 well that's a talk for another day. I would have considered it a little bit even if Qi Lian or Mr. Xu were prompted to be the developer but nah not Huo Bo Yu nope never🤣🤣.
But Jokes apart I think one of the good about this drama is the reaction of people in desperate situations is portrayed quite close to reality. The difference between good and bad people is not the thing that good people always do good and bad people always do bad because that would be idealistic and impossibly high criteria to ever observe rather it is the fact that good people even when they do something bad due to the given situation, they later try to repent, apologize, and make amends once they cool down. Like the extreme reaction of ML, the extreme reaction of FL in the ML's apology scene, as well as the fact in today's episode that FL chose to trust Huo Bo Yu rather than ML to the point that she was ready to jump down a building and even tried to harm ML who tried to stop her. She was just that desperate for a chance to go back to her world, the place where she thought she belonged. I don't think anyone in any of these situations would have acted differently if not worse than them. People can go on and on about how if they were in that situation they would not do this or that and, about how ML and FL don't trust each other or how bad their reaction was but it's easier to point out a mistake than to give a solution or to consider the other person's side of the story. I think so far this drama crew is good at mixing all kinds of things into the plot, hope they keep this up. Although I do hope we can see ML and FL together soon and for a considerable amount of time before the drama ends maybe I will have to wait for some more episodes.

I think it was because they needed ML to forget about his trauma from the fall and wake up from his comma which could be the reason no one is telling him about it in case the trauma might return.
Also, I think it is the fun of watching such plots, so many possibilities than can be considered yet no one knows until the end how things will end😂.

Yes, exactly moreover I too think HBY has been brainwashed because why would the lab need to steal records from a company and put listening device in the victims room just to make sure the evidence has been destroyed. If they created the world there should not be any evidence in it against them, and also if they can send someone to follow FL who is skilled enough to handle ML then they don't even need HBY who is wanted and clumsy to handle these missions and they can just capture FL by themselves alongside dealing with the "virus". One more thing is that it was mentioned that both HBY and JXY were both missing but why would one be missing if the world itself is virtual then there should always exist a programmed version of them unless they were missing because they were sent into a virtual world for which they physically need to be at the lab which further supports this theory. Moreover the world of 2025 seems to convenient for FL as if it was catered to fulfill what JXY desired but still it wasn't completely made to help her rather was like making a deal with a devil where you always end up paying a cost for the reward. Like how she forgot everything (thus forfeiting her body for the experiment) and had to live a lonely life filled with incompleteness and emptiness.

ML surely is unlucky when it comes to JXY,😂 the previous one left him with Bubble gum (chewing gum) and the present one is going to leave him with ice cream. Maybe next time she comes back he will be seen going around holding a cone of ice cream alongside chewing gum😂. Bro is truly a dedicated type whether it's about his friends or his love interests.
Jokes apart I still think that the world of 2018 is the real one, and the one from where FL came is the virtual one. Following my previous theory, I still think Xu Jing Yang was an AI (the lighthouse system) or a part of the experiment may be either a participant or researcher. ML was the one who got hit in the head and fell into a coma to help him the experiment was carried out, and to prevent him from discovering it no one mentioned it to him and the lab has also code-named him the virus. Also, I think in the next episode they will wake up in the hospital and not in FL's world because I believe the lab is trying to remove all evidence thus they instructed Huo Bo Yu to get the files and destroy them and later framed him for more crime so that he has nowhere to run and will think as this world is fake he can just go back so he won't question anything. To add to that they also want to remove JXY who is now a variable as she woke up from the experiment and ran away after Xu Jing Yang helped her the lab wants her killed thus they instructed Huo Bo Yu to jump off the building or something and being in the real world dying won't get you back to anywhere rather you would just die.
Also, I think instead of a love triangle the drama should rather try to resolve the situation between ML and FL, the scenes where they are talking until FL eventually mentions her eventual return to her world, and then ML's face goes all sad and FL's too, this has been happening too many times.

So true I don't know why cdrama are obsessed with sad/open endings like just show me that ML and FL are happily together, pay me back for all the effort and time I put in to watch this thing😂😂. Do these writer want us viewers to become villans and include them in our villian origin story🤣🤣.

I hope it doesn't go that way I was already preparing myself for the worst ending which would be that all the worlds in the story are virtual and FL at the end wakes up in the real world where ML doesn't exist and everything that happened so far was just a simulation. And I was like what more could go wrong now but I think you just added a thing or two to that😂🤣.

Considering this trailer I don't think they are dating, from what I have watched in other trailers I believe something will go wrong with Jiang Bo after which FL tries to help him out and they both open a store together. The scene in the trailer might be when she is convincing him for doing something maybe for their business or for his own self (from the look on his face he seems kind of reluctant).

wooh if that's actually true then it will mess the plot even more. I don't understand why would they even need to include a love triangle at this point in the drama when everyone already has their hands full with the current situation.

I just watched the trailer for episode 17, sis literally hit the ML with a freaking brick🤣 and the look on ML's face was like "Wait, wasn't I here to save her, then aren't we on the same side". I was kind of hoping that finally, ML is opening up to her, and maybe in some episode will also clear the confusion in his mind about who he really likes (which he was kind of close to considering how fast FL's actions and thoughts affect him, as well as how sad his face gets whenever she flirts then mentions about her eventually going back to her original world). But rather than a cute scene I got to see a brick landing on his head instead🤣 (maybe that might also help him sort out some of his thoughts😂). I think it is going to take a lot more episodes now after this scuffle for their relationship to progress.

He had a type of upbringing where he had no one and was all alone and the only 2 friends he made he now has lost both he has been looking for one friend who everyone thinks does not exists for over 6 years now and has been living in guilt related to another friend (his prior love interest) with whom things didn't end well with. But it's good to see that both ML and FL turn out to be really good even after so much they have been through although both need lot of character development but still overall both are really good.