As the title says, I'm looking for books where the MC finds out about a lie the world has been feeding everyone, and then tries to fight against it.
Me and my daughter love Chrysalis by RinoZ and listen to it regularly together. She is 10 and we go on adventures regularly in games like Kingdom: Two Crowns, Barony, Stardew Valley, Skyrim (I play support here in case she gets stressed in combat and needs to hand off the controller), etc.
DCC is a step or two beyond what I am comfortable with for her age, and I tried A Thousand Li but its pacing and focus, while great for my dad brain, didn't really engage her compared to Anthony's adventures punctuated by Vibrant, Tiny, etc.
I do like that Chrysalis does shift to a more mature tone at points, punctuating the violence with a clear value for life, found family, and the world being explored. It's led to several good discussions.
Are there any audiobook recommendations out there that might work for us?
There's no "positivity" flair, so other? Lol idk. Anyway I just wanted to share some positivity and say thanks, and I know some readers here are on Royal Road.
So I started posting my first fiction on Royal Road a little over a month ago. I followed the meta from what I can tell and got some visibility. I'm actually sitting on several Genre Rising Stars and tags, but not quite to main yet, who knows if I'll break onto that one. It's a hard magic progression fantasy, not litrpg and it might be a little niche to boot.
It's been fun and nerve-wracking seeing the follower count tick up and sometimes down, watching my position on lists climb, fall a spot, then climb again.
The best part though, has got to be the comments. Now maybe I've just been lucky and I've gotten nice people in my comments, but even when they're giving me critiques and pointing out flaws or improvements I could make, they're nice about it. It's really refreshing considering the expectations of the Internet these days.
Most comments are tftc, which I appreciate because it lets me know for sure that people read and enjoy, so to readers who do this: thank you!
Then there's those who praise or comment on something specific, which is freaking awesome! The validation when people understand my humor or catch the nuances I put in my writing is amazing and these commenters are just the absolute best! <3
Finally, the critics, whether they're truly bothered by something, calling out micro errors or things I may disagree with, or even better, folks who just want to help a writer improve. These readers present the unique opportunity of improvement in one way or another, not only that, but they took time out of their day and reading to provide potential improvements. Thank you, so much!
Hey everyone, CatVI here. I’ve been lurking on Reddit for a while and finally worked up the nerve to do the thing: a… self-promo announcement post!
Applied Cultivation: Survival Protocol, the first book in my cultivation/progression eastern fantasy series, is now live on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!.... unless it isn't 3AM where you live, in which case please imagine me nervously refreshing pages at 3 a.m. and check again after getting a healthier amount of sleep than I did.
Ahem. (Yes, it’s a xianxia 🗡(˶>⩊<˶) with light LitRPG elements)
It started on Royal Road, where the story had reached 2.28M+ views with 6,800+ followers, and I’m incredibly grateful to the readers who helped it get this far.
The story is about a guy (with minor ‘personality issues’) transmigrating into a brutal xianxia world. Specifically, into the body of the 160-kg pampered youngest son of a diner couple, who, uhh, are forced into early retirement in the first few lines of the book. Needless to say, he is unsatisfied. He had a Greek god physique in his past life, but now he can’t even see his feet if he stands straight. He also has trash talent in cultivation. He awakened a certain bloodline that the sect elder thinks manifested just because he ate too much seafood. But on the flip side, he has heavenly talent in offending others. Which he does.
The only way he can survive is by joining a cultivation sect. But because of his aforementioned trash talent (and of course, the heavenly talent), he has to get creative about solving issues popping up here and there (like entitled Young Masters and whatnot).
What to expect:
- Weak to Strong. Poor to Rich. Fat to Fit (the definition of ‘fit’ is flexible here!)
- Earned progression through blood, sweat, grit, and lots of devious planning. No easy handouts. This is a story about a group of underdogs.
- Xianxia with light LitRPG/system elements. All cultivators have access to the system. It isn't the MC's unique cheat
- No Harem
One thing Royal Road readers have told me they enjoyed is the character interaction, especially the banter among the main cast. The other big one is how much of a schemer the MC is. He, well, yes, admittedly he may have 'attitude problems', but I’ve also had readers tell me how proud they were when he experienced “friendship” for the first time ever.
There's a crab.
(V)╭•̀ﮧ •́╮(V)
Indeed there is one. He likes to collect stuff (he's a Cognizant Collector Crab, you can see him photo-bombing Yu Han on the cover). He has a stash and is probably on the Law Enforcement Hall's watch-list for unauthorized... unauthorized lots of things.
Okay enough about that. Here are the links to the book, and you can read for yourself:
Amazon KU: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0H5TQGC9M
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Applied-Cultivation-Survival-Protocol-Audiobook/B0H27DTMTR
Huge thanks to Ben Moran Studio for the cover art (the fruit is a mango! And the crab is a crab.) Also to John Joseph Rogers and Rylee Kuberra for being incredible voice actors (They both have incredible RANGE). I could not have done this without Mango Media and Royal Guard Publishing either, so kudos to them all.
COVER ARTIST: Ben Moran Studio.
VOICE ACTORS: John Joseph Rogers and Rylee Kuberra.
AI USAGE: No AI Used.
Here’s the actual blurb:
>They called him trash. He wrote it down.
>Demons slaughtered his family. By morning, the men who called it a tragedy seized what little his family owned. Even his last friend came at him with a knife. With nothing left to lose, he limped toward the gates of a prestigious immortal sect in one last gamble.
Instead, he stumbled into a civil war. The Stormy Reef Sect was tearing itself apart. Old-blood aristocrats and the reformist leadership suffocated one another into a stalemate one breath from breaking. And before any of that could matter, he slapped the faces of two young masters who wouldn't forget.
>By every law of cultivation, he should be dead.
>The laws didn't consider what he did for a living.
>In his past life, he was Johan, a corporate warfare consultant who wrote eulogies first and lawsuits second. So what if he's now a worthless reject in a body that wheezes climbing a flight of stairs? To him, any problem—mortal or immortal—is just another hostile takeover. He'll bring algorithms to sword fights and liquidate every name on his growing list of death feuds. The final audit ends in either bankruptcy or the afterlife.
>But first, he needs to lose some weight.
P.S. After I stubbed the book on Royal Road, the views went down and I lost quite a few followers. (╥﹏╥) I’m choosing to believe they all ascended to Kindle Unlimited after growing tired of the mortal world, and I will be praying to the gods of mahjong accordingly. Anyway, happy reading, my fellow cultured sirs and madams. Hope to see you in the comments. I’m happy to answer any questions I can about the book, the world, the characters, without spoilers, of course.
I for one, feel that the shadow slave fandom is always pessimistic about the Novel, they never have a good thing to say about SS after 3rd NM. And the whole fandom is constantly in a doom and gloom cycle that never stops. (I also agree with em.)
Progression Fantasy Fans- Looking for something new to read? Browse the comments below!
Progression Fantasy Authors- if you're looking to do some more self-promo for your story, this is the spot! Tell us about your webnovel, new books, sales, etc!
(Authors, this doesn't count against your once-a-month promo limit, nor does it count towards your 10-1 posting/self promo ratio.)
Thank you guys for your suggestions! When I finished the Perfect Run I asked for suggestions from you guys for completed audiobook series and Mark of the Fool was one of the suggestions. I loved it! What a great story and great ending. Very powerful story telling and world building.
I have a bunch more series on my list to get through now thanks to all your suggestions. Next up I think I'll start the Mage Errant series.
I've been reading LitRPG and progression fantasy for quite a while now, and I've noticed that my taste has gradually changed.
After following several combat-heavy series, I started feeling like many of them blend together. They often end up following the same cycle: fight -> new skill-> train -> fight. After a while, the fights themselves stop being that exciting, and you're mostly reading to see how the characters use their new skills or abilities.
I've found myself enjoying stories where combat is still important, but it isn't the main focus all the time. There can still be big battles, or even entire books centered around them, but I like when there's plenty going on between the fights. Character development, exploration, politics, magic research, crafting, or even just seeing the characters live their lives.
Some of my favorites:
At this point, I'm almost thinking about stepping away from progression fantasy altogether and just read fantasy. Before I do that, though, I figured I'd ask if there are any progression fantasy or LitRPG series that really fit what I'm looking for.
I have a question about Azarinth Healer.
I wanted a change of pace and was looking for something with a really overpowered main character. I kept seeing Azarinth Healer recommended, but I also heard the MC is bisexual and has multiple relationships with both men and women throughout the story.
How much detail does the story actually go into with those scenes? That's just not really my thing when it comes to the main character. It's not because the MC is female. I've really enjoyed Syl and Salvos. I've also read some of Everybody Loves Large Chests, but since it's generally not the MC himself participating in those kinds of scenes, it didn't bother me as much.
(I always read/watch something for the mc as the story is about them. Even if the side characters are annoying if the mc interest me then I'll continue. And the other is true if the side character are amazing but the mc is bad then I'll drop.)
I also have a question about Worm.
From what I know after Chapter 1, the MC can control bugs and insects. Does she get really creative with her powers? Also, how long does it take before she either stops getting bullied or decides to stop being passive?
Some stories I've read or listened to where the MC becomes very strong:
My Vampire System
Shadow Slave
1% Lifesteal
Stories I'm currently reading (yes, all at once):
My Vampire System (fewer than 1,200 chapters left)
Shadow Slave (Chapter 1701)
1% Lifesteal (Book 4)
He Who Fights With Monsters (Book 1)
The Perfect Run (Book 1)
Kill the Sun (fewer than 200 chapters in)
Lord of the Mysteries (Chapter 331)
A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation (Chapter 42)
Bog Standard (just started)
Stubborn Skill Grinder (About to start)
Stories I'm reading as webtoons:
Defiance of the Fall
Mark of the Fool
Primal Hunter
Worth the Candle
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Paranoid Mage
I'm also reading other series, but I've put them on hold while I catch up on these.
Apologies for the length but if anyone has recommendations in general or about world creation I'd really appreciate it.
(Mandatory I'm uncomfortable with self-promo but I know it matters here.) Hello, does getting a book signed matter to you? Because I'm offering them in limited amounts, anyone who pre-orders The Wandering Inn: Book One, Part One that HarperCollins is publishing can make their claim. It's part of a Kickstarter-style campaign I'm running here:
https://wanderinginn.com/inncentives/
If you want a signed bookplate you can add to your book, the numbers ARE limited and I'm hoping to hit the New York Times' Bestseller's list so I can show my family. It's very selfish, but it'd also be great to see and it's a nervewracking thing, trying to hit big number goals. I get pre-orders not being very fun to do when you can just walk into a bookstore, but I have been told repeatedly that it's good to get bookstores ordering more copies of your book and the NYT lists count pre-orders and like the first week of sales for their lists.
The business world is hard to parse and it feels like it's very difficult to enter as a web serial writer. Like I said, it took me a long time to find the right company since most didn't understand LitRPG/webserial and I think part of that was because the industry started noticing the popularity of the genre. (That's also due to Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl series doing so well. A rising tide lifts all ships and he's also shouted out The Wandering Inn, which I'm hugely appreciative of. I hope he keeps leading the charge and I wish him all the success and sympathy; being the forerunner has to be tough!)
Here we are now, though, and if you ever wanted a copy of TWI, I'd really appreciate you buying a book. And I will sign some bookplates though we are going to cap how many because...my hands. There's more than signatures; we have twenty 'levels' of rewards that I'm offering the community to show I am thankful and want to give a bit back for all their support. And one silly Level 100 reward my agent talked me into offering...
Obviously numbers matter for business stuff, but I really just want to hit the list to show my grandfather. He's the last of my grandparents and the first physical book I get from HarperCollins I'll sign and send off to him right away. If I could get on that silly list I think he'd be very happy to show everyone. He's always been proud and supported me since he heard about my story and he reads it as best he's able to even now. He gets the web serial world a bit, but the list is something he and the other people in his retirement home would recognize.
Either way, we made it to working with one of the big publishers and I'm eternally grateful to my readers. We are changing the publishing industry, even if it's a mix of new and old systems, as ever. Here's to more writing; I have other book series I want to publish and maybe I'll take some time and write a few I've had knocking around my head sometime. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you see my book in a library someday.
--pirateaba
Yeah, I know. Most protagonists have luck, or what people call "plot armor". But that's not what I mean. I'm looking for a protagonist whose main ability (or greatest quality) is being lucky.
COVER ARTIST: N/A
AI USAGE: None
I know what you're thinking. Who the hell uses a 2 star review to promote their work? But read the review - it's excellent.
It's for the recent release of my very first book - Overpowered Murderhobo Book One. I set out to create a true murderhobo type character, and the review makes it clear that I did.
It's "Exactly as advertised" for a start. The review highlights and details exactly what you're getting and though the reviewer only gave me a 2 star, it's because they just didn't enjoy it - a fact they put down to my MC having 'fewer lines he isn't willing to cross'.
But they did also read it in one sitting. They say they wouldn't have finished it, but for that. Now, I don't know about you guys and gals, but I would never be able to read a book in one sitting that hasn't gripped me in one way or another, even if I ended up not liking it overall!
This reviewer didn't enjoy it (though he detailed everything right with the story from my perspective! - it is a murderhobo afterall), and maybe some of you might check it out and have the same feeling, but I think there will be more who enjoy it than don't!
As of this post, the book is at 4.6 stars on Amazon after 86 ratings, and 4.55 on Goodreads after 55 ratings.
If this is the kind of OP character you're looking for, or the review has you intrigued, you can find the book here, to buy or download on Kindle Unlimited: Overpowered Murderhobo Book One
Blurb in comments!
Hello, I’m an author who recently started serializing a novel on Scribble Hub. I’ve been working on a world-building concept that merges the aesthetics of traditional culture with the cold, logical framework of a superintelligent AI-driven "human growth system." In my head, I have these incredibly exciting and vivid scenes playing out, but as I’ve started posting, the reader engagement has been much quieter than I expected.This has left me feeling a bit discouraged, and it’s led to some fundamental doubts: "Is this concept truly engaging for readers?" or "Am I successfully conveying the fun I envisioned?"I’m reaching out to the writers and dedicated genre fans here to ask for your perspective. When you read progression fantasy or system-based stories, what specific elements truly hook you from the start? For a new author, what are the most crucial areas to focus on to capture a reader's curiosity?My goal isn't just to chase views; rather, I genuinely want to understand how to bridge the gap between my vision and the reader's experience. I really want to turn this into a story that resonates with people and grows alongside its audience. If anyone has dealt with similar struggles in the early stages of serialization or has any insights into this genre, I would be incredibly grateful for any advice or encouragement. Even a small piece of feedback would mean the world to me.
Thank you so much for your time and for reading my post.
Hey guys,I want to get into web novels but I don't know where to start first
So, I just finished reading this novel, and I have pretty mixed feelings about it.
I'll start by saying I think the first third of the novel is great, especially the beginning. The world-building, the characters, the writing, everything felt so visceral and real. Some parts actually made me feel ill. While I do think the misery became a bit too much at times, I was okay with it because the world these people live in IS miserable.
Nick, as the main character, could be frustrating at times, but he still felt like a real person. Even though he was flawed and morally inconsistent, it was very interesting watching his journey.
My problems started around the end of the Crimson City arc and the beginning of the Liaison arc (I don't know if people actually divide it into arcs, but that's how I see it).
Nick's morals and ethics were always inconsistent, which made sense considering his background. He feels bad for people and wants to do good, but he also doesn't really think twice when he's asked to do something terrible, whether it's out of necessity or not. My problem is that the narrative kind of stops challenging his ideals after the first third of the novel.
I remember his conversation with Albert, and I thought Albert made some very valid points about how it isn't morally right to build the happiness of many on the backs of an innocent few. Nick doesn't even seem to seriously consider what Albert is saying.
Nick basically ends up arguing that the ends justify the means, which feels like the opposite of how he started. At the beginning, he cared deeply about individual suffering and wanting to fix that. I'm not even saying one viewpoint is right and the other is wrong. My issue is that, from this point on, Nick is almost never challenged again. His worldview stays mostly static, and I think that removes one of the biggest things that made the story so interesting. This becomes even more egregious in the final third, after he becomes a Specter.
I understand that the situation is basically impossible because of the aliens and everything else. But that's exactly what made it less interesting to me. The more the world expanded, the less anything seemed to really matter.
From that point on, the story became kind of boring. Nick was basically a machine going through the motions to save a faceless humanity. The writing completely stopped caring about psychological struggle or moral discussions.
Nick impregnates women (with their consent, at least, if that even matters in this context) with psychopath babies, performs experiments on fetuses, kills and tortures millions of people, and yet the author no longer seems interested in exploring how any of that affects Nick or anyone else. The narrative simply places him in the "he's justified" position. Even if his actions make sense within this universe, it just isn't compelling storytelling anymore.
You can also really feel the author getting tired of the novel during the final part. The chapters become shorter and shorter until they're basically footnotes summarizing events.
And don't even get me started on the ending.
This is supposed to be the culmination of thousands of years of suffering, planning, and sacrifice, and we get maybe ten short chapters of actual fight with the aliens. Before that, there's a rushed lead-up of around 30 chapters where the author tries to introduce what are supposed to be major characters and important concepts, but nothing is given enough time to breathe or develop.
So when humanity basically wins with almost no fanfare, I felt... nothing.
I don't know these people. I don't really care about them. It's incredibly difficult to make readers emotionally invested in the abstract concept of humanity. Even in real life, that's something we struggle with. That's why stories need actual people and relationships that give humanity a face.
By the end, the only person we care about left is Nick. But is he really Nick?
For me, Nick actually died when he became a Specter. After that, we were just following his husk. Maybe that was the point the author wanted to make, that at that stage Nick had become nothing more than a machine driven by a single goal. But whether that was intentional or not, it was simply boring to read.
Then there's the clone twist near the end.
First of all, that's a wild thing to introduce at the eleventh hour. More importantly, it just felt cheap. It felt like the author wanted to give Nick a clean slate as a reward.
What I actually wanted was to see the clone develop as his own person. That sounded far more interesting to me. Watching him deal with memories that weren't really his and build his own identity could have been fascinating.
Instead, we basically get two chapters before the clone is like, "Actually, I'm Nick Dusk now." The end.
And that epilogue... holy hell. Harry Potter levels of bad epilogues.
It's basically just, humanity conquers everything, Nick ascends/becomes a god or whatever, and everyone lives happily ever after.
I honestly think the ending needed at least another 300 chapters, especially considering how short the chapters had become by that point. And the clone switch should've happened much earlier as well.
I also think the story desperately needed more compelling side characters. We started off so well, but the last one I found genuinely interesting was the Technician, and after that, nobody really stood out. The world started feeling much smaller and less interesting.
Overall, I really loved the first third of the novel, liked parts of the second, and found the last third to be a huge disappointment.
But that's just my opinion. I'd genuinely love to hear what everyone else thought because I know this novel is very well regarded, and I'm curious to see how other people interpreted it.
Alright, honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t seen a Reddit post about this already given how most of us are authors and how big the Discord is, but we need to stop recommending RRWG “The Guild” to new authors, or anyone looking to dip their toes on Royal Road or writing online. This post is going to be rather inflammatory, but it’s purely me trying to make my case that we stop recommending The Guild as the “go-to” server.
Writing servers are literally a dime a dozen, I seem to be collecting them like Pokemon lately. Even the author-specific servers I’m in have a spot for “writing chat” or “industry chat.” I could recommend some, but I don’t know if the owners would like me putting their server here considering what I’m about to do.
First, let me set the stage a little bit. This all started when someone in The Guild who went by NovelNinja was outed as being a sham editor. This person and I have already had issues due to his pretentiousness, and I am not the only one. Personally, when I had my run-in, I said some very un-buddha-like things to him and promptly received a light dressing-down. I was told he’s been very active in the trad community for a long time.
It turns out his editing experience is mostly fake, and he used AI to do it (snore another post about AI - but wait, there’s more!). On top of this, he pushed (repeatedly, from the screenshots I’ve seen) a website known as AuthorMedia where it charges you $9 a month (simply to stop bots from joining) to join.
This isn’t really news, this has been on r/progressionfantasy before here. The post has since been deleted by the mods. I’m hoping this one ends up being allowed since I’m doing more talking about a dev editor charging people to use AI. Discord is rather huge to most (a lot?) of authors on Royal Road. Even the ones at the very top have a Discord that they’re in. “The Cabal,” as it’s sometimes referred to, but it’s mostly just authors hanging out like usual, plus there’s a fair bit of LARPing.
People get scammed with editing all the time. I was told I was scammed as well by someone who edited some of my work. (I had a suspicion it wasn’t all above board, but then one day I was outright told). My point is, it sucks but it isn’t news.
The problem with NovelNinja, Mrs. Ninja, and AuthorMedia is that it pushes a very distinct, disgusting and outright evil viewpoint that I don’t believe any of us share. At worst, the website (and the individuals listed) promote outright fascism and nazism, and at best, some alt-right view points that bring a lot of the same energy you see from people screaming about why there isn’t a white pride or straight pride parade. Screenshots
Blog post source
NovelNinja, aka Matthew (this is information he gives out and is linked to anything if you even just search “NovelNinja,” I’m not doxxing anyone) and Mrs. Ninja, aka Lori, even on their personal accounts promote hate, bigotry, and just being disgusting human beings.
He apparently is also quite a fan of the original Sad Puppy himself, Larry Correia. I personally didn’t know what a Sad Puppy was until someone called The Guild’s owner a Sad Puppy apologist in my DMs and they shared this Reddit thread. AuthorMedia itself has done full interviews with Larry.
Mrs. Ninja has a personal blog where she sets out to right all the wrongs in the world with cringeworthy memes in between sections and rants that are, again, disgusting. Here’s an article that I was shown that’s especially heinous.
There is good news! NovelNinja has been banned from the various Discords I’ve seen him in. He pointed this out in one of his posts that I personally found, well… Here. Calling people jihadists, even “Butlerian Jihadists,” thanks to Dune, is a whole new level of yikes. And yes someone with these views should be called out and “cancelled,” in my opinion.
The above screenshot was pulled from a much larger article where he posted names. I’m not sharing the link to the website itself because to my knowledge, these people would rather not be named and they didn’t consent to having the screenshots shared. I’m told there’s been concerns for a while about calling him out because people were worried about him retaliating in a callout post of his own in his personal network.
All the while behind the scenes, the server owner was communicating with NovelNinja. Telling him everything about the process of banning him, who is doing what, what's being pulled from where, and explicitly apologizing to him that this is happening. The previous blog post was posted by NovelNinja the day after his ban on AuthorMedia.
So, what’s the point of all of this?
When this all first came to light, RRWG’s owner hmm’d and haw’d about dealing with the issue. Even after an outcry from their own mod team. Since this has happened, a few people have stepped down as admins or mods, and some have outright left the server. I’m not going to say I know the specifics as to why, but it happened right after all of this came to light.
There was also talk from the owner of outright banning the whistleblower cause he’s a dang troublemaker. From what I’ve seen and heard, that was only the owner and one or two of their friends (and perhaps NovelNinja).
He asked, and offered to leave if the owner would like. The owner declined.
Now, this all happened about a month ago. The stage is set.
Last night, the owner DM’d the whistleblower and asked if he would still leave amicably. The whistleblower said he would leave anywhere he wasn’t wanted, but it would not be amicable. He stuck to his guns and believed anywhere someone like NovelNinja and those of his ilk are, he didn’t want to be.
Before he left, he sent the same message to a few channels, every instance of which was promptly deleted:
“So, I’ve been asked to leave by the owner of the Discord (For those unaware, that’s Dagrun, not Milc). This is due to me outing NovelNinja for faking his editing career, selling AI as a dev editing tool, and being a bigot. I have zero interest in staying somewhere I’m not welcome, so I’ll be heading out.”
From there, the night became uncomfortable. The owner gave one or two warnings, and then outright banned some notable members of the community who all have glowing reputations as people who are more than willing to help newcomers. This list includes: Srsli (Arcane Chef), Fiddlesoup (Lazy Loops: An Idle LitRPG, among others), Sib (Revenant - Power Stealing Hero), and Solomon Abraham (Overpowered Murderhobo, Beastmaster Healer).
A few other sizable authors, including Magius Swiftscale (The Apprentice of Ouroboros, others), were threatened with bans, but ultimately survived the wrath.
Here is Srsli’s last message on the server that earned him a ban.
As readers, you’ve probably all seen these names on RS or even KU / Audible. As authors, you’ve probably seen these people in the relevant Discords (including RRWG) always willing to help and always more than friendly.
Finally, we have this from another admin who fully backs up the owner about everything. That includes allowing NovelNinja to stay, banning the initial whistleblower, and everything else.
Ellembri does have a point. It is the owner’s house and what she says is law. Even if she doesn’t follow her own rules. The point of the server was to have a community, though. A community where the authors of Royal Road could gather, network, and help each other out.
Honestly, the people of RRWG are great. The whole of the Royal Road community is amazing. Everyone I’ve ever interacted with, even “trouble makers,” have always been more than willing to help those just getting on their feet find their foothold. The server as a whole reflects that, but having someone so power-crazy go wild with a banhammer at people simply asking for some clarification of a situation just isn’t it.
Here are the screenshots I'm allowed to share. It’s everything above and so much more. It’s everything I’m allowed to share of everything I’ve seen about the people above and the RRWG drama. There has been a ton that I’ve been asked not to share for obvious reasons, but man… everything is just… it’s a lot.
Amitabha, my friends…
(TL;DR for those that don’t want to read the chapter - NovelNinja is a terrible person, and somewhere between alt-right and possibly an outright nazi. He is apparently friends with Dagrun, the owner of RRWG “The Guild” who violates her own rules about giving warnings and just outright bans notable people in the community for questioning why something happened in a server built on helping and growing the space.)
I get why authors make technology completely obsolete in most System apocalypses as its honestly a big fucking pain in the ass to write, as to be somewhat accurate you gotta do a lot of research. If you do tech wrong you displease people who love it and can peeve people who hate it just because of its existence, so no wonder they make it obsolete.
However in my experience, these stories start off as base humans fighting monsters and then they gain strength , but no amount of strength a base human can muster with any cold weapons will kill a monster that can ignore bullets. And things like halting the chemical reaction of explosions or having complex mechanical constructs break down just is not really fun when the answer is literally right there.
Money.
Just look at the Iran war happening right now, the US is bleeding billions for a relatively short war, what would happen if the war happens in the entire world? Gates opening everywhere and needing military intervention would drain any modern military’s logistics fast. It would be better to have modern weapons be extremely effective, but also extremely expensive.
Other than that, technology requires the entire world to work together and when shipping gets inevitably disrupted by monsters, the cost of tech would skyrocket. Therefore still solving the problem of having a semi low tech setting where swords and magic reign supreme, whilst having a plausible explanation (not an asspull) why tech would fail in a sysapoc.
Name: The Apostle System
By:str8
On webnovel, currently on hiatus.
I started working on my first story about 3–4 months ago. A lot of people, especially close friends, suggested that I build up at least 50 chapters before I started uploading to Webnovel. Looking back, they were probably right—but I couldn't stay patient.
More than anything, I wanted to experience interacting with real light novel readers and hear genuine feedback on my work. So, with only around 20 chapters written, I started publishing.
For a while, the only feedback I received came from one or two random readers and my friends, who were incredibly supportive. I knew being impatient wasn't going to magically attract readers, so I kept going—uploading chapters daily while writing a new chapter every day and polishing the backlog before posting it.
Then I reached a point in the story where I genuinely wasn't sure how I wanted to move forward. Around the same time, some personal matters came up, and I ended up putting the story on hiatus.
Now it's been paused for quite a while.
I really do want to continue, but seeing a completely dead graph with almost no interaction makes me wonder if the story will ever get recommended again after such a long break.
I'm not chasing a contract or money—I'm just a storyteller who wants people to read the story I've poured my heart into. Because of that, I've also started wondering if Webnovel is the right platform for the kind of story I'm writing, or if the audience for this genre is simply elsewhere.
If anyone is willing to check it out, I'd genuinely appreciate your thoughts. Do you think I should continue on Webnovel, or would switching to another platform give the story a better chance of finding its audience?This version reads more smoothly, feels more personal, and is likely to get more thoughtful responses from other authors and readers.
I see this book is on my audible recommendation list. I loved Sarah Lin's Street Cultivator series but was only so-so on her Soulhome series. Nothing I have read of hers has been bad but I liked to hear the community opinion on this one. Especially since it already has three books but is the first I am hearing of it. I'm wondering who likes this series and why? What sort of reader would you recommend it to?