Either the author's foreshadowing is way too strong or the MC is an idiot. He repeatedly chooses to ignore warning signs, trust the word of villains, and generally do pretty much anything to undermine his own well-being... presumably just to forward the plot.

Or maybe I'm the idiot because I keep reading along thinking it will get better.

Just once I'd like to see a MC that doesn't just fold as soon as a hostage is taken. Just because someone has a hostage and "promises" they'll let them go once you do XYZ for them * doesn't mean they actually will keep their promise*. And newsflash if they do keep their promise * it's because they're getting something more valuable out of the deal than your continued servitude *.

The other thing that bugs the crap out of me is how the author ends info sharing between parties virtually mid sentence. The MC will run into someone that has new info / needs something/wants something. They do intros, lay out some groundwork on what they want and then... ok, let's meet again tomorrow to wrap things up. You'd think the MC has incontinence or some debilitating disease that steals away all of his stamina the moment information starts to flow. It does seem to happen mostly at chapter breaks but it is done so poorly that the author may as well save some time and drop in a "to be continued..." It kills story flow worse than the bad guys the MC is chasing kill innocents on their road to world domination.