Ok, that was one hell of a start. I'm about to start the actual game and face the infamous grinding (hopefully the mods and the wiki will help with that), but the very beginning of this story was fascinating. If the plot manages to deliver on the promises implicitly made so far, this will be a wonderful experience.
I've seen some people criticizing the fourth wall breaks and the ludic nature of the narration for being "pretentious", but what I've seen so far suggests I'm exactly the kind of audience the author's targeting. I might be jumping the gun here, but I think I'm already hooked, grinding be damned. Worst case scenario, I'll just cheat my way out and enjoy the writing.