Title	Kiss the Abyss
Credit	Mu Huo Ran
Media	Chinese Manhua
Genre	Fantasy, Romance, Webtoon, Shounen Ai
Year	2020
Character Type	1 Obsessive Character

Wang Zi Xin is a game creator. One day, when he walked out of the building after work, a man who looked exactly like Abyss, the game character he created, stabbed and killed him abruptly. Instead of death, he finds himself transported back in time repeatedly to when he was just about to get off work, and the killing happened repeatedly no matter how he tried to avoid it. In an act of impulse, he kissed Abyss and got transported into the game world which he created. Now, he must aid Abyss through his journey in a death game…

SPOILERS AND PERSONAL OPINION

Before entering the game, Wang Zi Xin found out that Abyss had killed him, knowing that he was his creator. As Abyss was sick of living, he decided to kill Wang Zi Xin, as the death of his creator will probably mean the end of himself too. Because of the cruel nature of the game world which Abyss endured, he ultimately “blackened” (a term commonly used in Chinese Manhua to describe when a personality had became completely twisted).

On entering the game world, Wang Zi Xin got contacted by the in-game system, telling him that he had been transported to the time where a younger Abyss had just got sent into a death game. Wang Zi Xin must guide Abyss, a key character of the game, through the game while preventing his blackening.

Along the way, Wang Zi Xin grew much closer to Abyss. Although he had originally approached the boy with only intentions to clear the game and return back to his world, he started to genuinely care for Abyss and even became reluctant to leave him. Similarly, Abyss also cared deeply for Wang Zi Xin, and upon realization that he was from a different world, Abyss repeatedly stated his wish to visit Wang Zi Xin’s world with him. However, this won’t come true until much later.

After they cleared the game, Wang Zi Xin was transported back to the real world, leaving Abyss behind. The in-game system, Bunny, who had contacted Wang Zi Xin before then showed herself to Abyss, revealing that she also had been acting as the game master of the death game all along. In an effort to preserve her existence after gaining self-awareness, she had dragged Wang Zi Xin into the game to prevent Abyss from blackening and destroying the world.

Now that her attempt to prevent Abyss from blackening was successful, Bunny offers Abyss a chance to visit the real world. Through accepting missions and entering different dimensions to complete the required tasks, Bunny as a system can level up, and with enough capability, can bring both herself and Abyss into Wang Zi Xin’s world. Needless to say, Abyss accepted.

From there, Abyss got transported into Wang Zi Xin’s childhood, one of the darkest period Wang Zi Xin had to live through. Now, it was Abyss turn to help Wang Zi Xin and heal him from his trauma. Just like that, both of them entered a time loop of sort. But regardless of which time and dimension they were in, both of them had became indispensable to each other.

Eventually, Abyss grew into an adult and reunited with Wang Zi Xin in the original timeline in his world. To continue his stay, Abyss had to enter other worlds to complete more missions, and a worried Wang Zi Xin decided to tag along with him. After several rounds of these journeys, Abyss finally can stay permanently in the real world with Wang Zi Xin, living happily thereafter.

This manhua adopts a survival thriller theme similar to The Squid Game, Alice in borderland, and Kaiji. It is rare that a shounen ai manhua has such a plot, and very well developed at that, so I must say that the author did a really good job.

The first part of the story in the death game is the most interesting for me, as it keep me reading to find out what happens next. I must say the suspense and thrill factor that kept me engrossed dwindled after the death game, but the plot was still good enough to keep me reading till the end.

The manhua was a decent length with a total of 128 main chapters, and 4 extras. Although this seems like much, I managed to complete everything in about 2 or 3 days. Very rarely would a shounen ai manhua have such intricate plot outside of romance. The plot and the relationship between Wang Zi Xin and Abyss developed hand in hand, each supplementing the story to form a rich manhua.

The side characters in the manhua were interesting, each with their unique blend of personality and contribution to the plot. The art was also well-drawn and fully colored. I really do not have much to complain about for this manhua.

Coming so far, it should be quite obvious who the yando character is. He is as much endearing as he is scary, and it is always a treat to see how his relationship and thought process develops. Even though the focus of the story is not entirely on his obsessive side, it is perfectly fine by me given how interesting the storyline was. I find the manhua to be a perfect blend of thrilling events and obsessive romance, and I definitely recommend you to check this one out.

CHARACTER SPOILERS