
by Lord Turtle the first
In the fractured sprawl of Virelia—a city of rusted steel, synthetic dreams, and brutal survival—Ray was just another forgotten face. A streetwise courier scraping by, burdened with debts and a sick mother, he did whatever it took to survive in a world ruled by crime syndicates and ruthless mega-corporations. Then came the ambush.Then came death.And then—something else. A mysterious injector of nanites rebuilt him from the inside out, transforming him into a living weapon. Now, he can consume machines and minds alike, wearing the faces of the dead, wielding their skills as his own, and reshaping his body into a formidable arsenal. What began with interfacing a toothbrush quickly escalated into something far more terrifying. Ray has become Virelia’s apex predator. Hunted by the corporations that engineered his power and the gangs that want to rip it from him, Ray fights to protect the few people he still cares about. But each consumed memory pulls him further from who he once was, blurring the line between protector and monster, man and machine. To save others, he became the thing they fear.But what happens when the man is gone, and only the weapon remains? A cyberpunk tragedy of survival, transformation, and the cost of holding on to humanity in a city that eats its children.
No streak history
Rank updated 13 Aug 2026, 14:28 UTC
Entry forecast updated 13 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Overall Rising Stars shadow rank
deep field · ~#172 of 7,531 · 122 below #50
By genre
beats 76% of similar stories
beats 44% of similar stories
beats 84% of similar stories
Firing on all cylinders
Traffic and conversion are both strong for a story this size. Readers are finding it and sticking — if Rising Stars is the goal, this is the moment to push.
At this conversion, the Tragedy Rising Stars bar (≈1 new followers/day) costs about 846 views/day — the story currently gets ~1.2k.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 150+ chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
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