![Level One Zombie [A Dungeon Crawler LitRPG]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.royalroadcdn.com%2Fpublic%2Fcovers-large%2F146717-level-one-zombie-litrpg-world-dungeon.jpg%3Ftime%3D1773028273&w=640&q=75)
by Matthew-McKay
Frank isn’t exactly a model citizen. He's also not here to save Earth; he just wants his favorite curse word back. Too bad the World Dungeon drops him in as a zombie with a level cap of 1 and a profanity filter that turns every F-bomb into “frank.” Earth is repossessed and rebranded by a mega corp called DungeonCore. The prize is ownership of the planet. This season is Hardcore Mode: if he dies, he gets stuck in his Lair until the next expansion drops, losing everything but the account unlocks he’s scraped together. Every death adds growing galactic debt to cover his auto-respawn fees. Humanity gets a head start, but deep-pocketed aliens are lining up to buy their way in. To make matters worse, some corporate genius hands all the hero classes to the NPCs, while actual players get saddled with monster classes. Frank spawns as a lowly zombie. All he’s got is stubbornness, handyman’s grit, and an accidental Universe First achievement that lets him build a class of his own. Frank’s no hero; he’s not even alive, technically. However, he is petty enough to move mountains if it means unlocking one four-letter word. Will that be enough to win? Probably not. But it might be enough to swear again. Level One Zombie is a darkly funny, System-forward LitRPG with Lair/town building, bureaucratic satire, and a delightfully petty anti-hero. What to expect:Single POV, first-person, past-tenseCursing, and lots of itDeeply flawed, badass, anti-hero, male MCDark themes (which are neither fetishized nor glorified)Lair building with worker and resource managementThemed Instances (dungeons) with interesting boss fightsCrunchy LitRPG with System messages and loads of stats and menus What not to expect:Romance Chapter length:2k to 2.5k Schedule:Mon, Thur @ 7:05 am EST Disclaimer: If you are reading this story on any other site but RoyalRoad.com or my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/Matthew_McKay) it has been stolen. Read it for FREE at https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/146717
#8
6/8/2026
Peak #43
0d
#7
6/4/2026
Peak #50
0d
#6
6/4/2026
Peak #49
0d
#5
6/3/2026
Peak #50
0d
#4
6/2/2026
Peak #48
0d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 04:09 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 04:09 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Coupled 14-day outlook
rs-joint-entry-copula-v1
Any eligible RS entry
3%
Two or more lists
1%
Likely threshold order: Satire → Horror → Action → Main → Adventure.
Leading bundle: Satire (1%).
Estimated from one fitted shared story path; category probabilities are not multiplied as if lists were independent.
Separate entry forecast; this probability does not enter the ranking score.
Overall Rising Stars Shadow RS rank
#3290 of 12,414 · 3240 below RS #50
By genre
beats 71% of similar stories
beats 62% of similar stories
beats 92% 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.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 50–149 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.