Is The World is Money and Power Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read
Quick Answer
Yes, if you want a completed, twisty high-stakes-games webtoon in the Kaiji/Liar Game vein but set in a high school run by chaebol heirs. It's free on WEBTOON and wraps its story in full.
Quick Verdict
“Start it for the games, stay for how mean the series is willing to get to its own cast.”
Best for: Readers who like high-stakes psychological games and don't mind a plot that gets genuinely convoluted to get there.
Not for: Readers who want a straightforward, easy-to-follow power fantasy without much scheming to track.
- Type
- Manhwa
- Genres
- School Life, Action
- Status
- Completed
- This review
- Minor Spoilers
- Author
- Han Dongwoo
- Artist
- Lee Dohee
- Publisher
- YLAB / Naver Webtoon
- Platform
- WEBTOON
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Format | Manhwa, 229 chapters |
| Run | 2018–2023 · completed |
| Community score | AniList 6.5 · MangaUpdates 6.9 |
| Where to read | WEBTOON — official |
Overview
Gunwoo Dahn transfers into a high school where the real curriculum has nothing to do with textbooks. A handful of chaebol heirs — kids from Korea's wealthiest families — run the place like their own private casino, staging high-stakes games with money, favors, and reputations on the line while the adults look away. Gunwoo isn't interested in playing along quietly, and The World is Money and Power spends its two seasons watching him try to dismantle a system built by people with a lot more money and a lot more practice at this than he has.
What it does well
The games are the draw, and they earn it. Instead of settling for a generic 'rich kids are mean' setup, the series builds actual rulesets, stakes, and betrayals into each contest, closer in spirit to Kaiji or Liar Game than to a typical school-action brawler. Gunwoo loses plenty along the way, and has to out-plan his opponents rather than just out-punch them, which keeps the story feeling like a battle of wits even when it occasionally turns physical.
The art holds up its end too — school hallway drama and big multi-player game sequences both stay clean and easy to follow, which matters a lot in a series that leans this hard on tracking who knows what and who's betraying whom. And because it's a completed two-season story, you're not signing up for an open-ended grind; the plot builds toward an actual conclusion instead of an indefinite status quo.
It also doesn't coddle its cast. People Gunwoo trusts get used against him, alliances break for real reasons, and the story is willing to let its supporting characters lose in ways that sting, which gives the stakes some teeth.
Where it falls short
The scheming that makes the series interesting is also what makes it exhausting by the second season. Factions multiply, family histories get tangled together, and long-con reveals stack on top of each other until keeping track of who's actually in control takes real effort. A few of the games also push past 'high-stakes school drama' into territory that's hard to buy even on the show's own terms — the escalation occasionally outruns the internal logic that made the earlier games work. And some of the side cast exists mostly to explain a game's rules or deliver an info-dump rather than to be a person in their own right.
Verdict
The World is Money and Power is a sharp, occasionally overstuffed psychological game story wearing a high school action series' clothes. It rewards close reading and doesn't pull punches with its cast, even if the later chapters ask you to keep more plates spinning than they maybe should. Free, complete, and worth it if you like your school drama with actual stakes attached.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- The core hook — high schoolers running underground games with money, blackmail, and reputation on the line — gives every arc real tension instead of the usual 'delinquent throws a punch and wins' school-action formula.
- Gunwoo isn't written as an untouchable badass; he loses, gets outmaneuvered, and has to think his way back in, which makes the wins land harder.
- The art handles both the school-drama close-ups and the bigger group set pieces cleanly, and it stays legible even when a game scene has a lot of players and rules to track.
- It's a complete, two-season story with an actual ending, so there's no risk of getting invested in a plot that never resolves.
Weaknesses
- The web of factions, family ties, and long-game schemes gets genuinely hard to follow by the second season — you'll want to pay attention or you'll lose track of who's manipulating whom.
- A few of the 'games' escalate into scenarios that stretch believability even by the standard of the genre.
- Some side characters exist mainly to explain the rules of whatever game is happening and don't get much life outside that function.
Similar Titles
same chaebol-adjacent high school power dynamics from the same webtoon ecosystem
another completed-feeling, tightly plotted WEBTOON original with a school-life throughline
similar underdog-vs-hierarchy school action if you want the delinquent side of the genre
Where to Read Officially
| Platform | Format | Pricing | Region notes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WEBTOON | Digital chapters | Free | Region availability varies | Open |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The World is Money and Power finished?
Yes, it's complete — 229 chapters across two seasons, published in full on WEBTOON.
Where can I read The World is Money and Power officially?
It's free on WEBTOON, the same platform that publishes it in Korean on Naver.
Is this connected to other Han Dongwoo webtoons?
It's part of the Blue String Universe, a shared setting Han Dongwoo and Lee Dohee also use for The Heir, but you don't need to read anything else first to follow this story.
