
by Corky Grob
It was only supposed to last a week. The Portal Scuti tournament promised a new era of virtual reality. A reset of a familiar world. One hundred thousand of the strongest players, all thrown back to level one to compete for dominance. It was meant to be a game. Then it stopped being one. Death is now on the table. Seventeen-year-old Amos and nineteen-year-old Zero are infamous for their toxicity. Feared, hated, and unapologetic, they’ve built their reputation on crushing anyone in their way. Their clan is no different. Now, trapped in a world that was never meant to last this long, they enter the tournament for one reason: to prove they are unstoppable. But every clan wants them dead. Newly formed squads, powerful abilities, and a world spiraling out of control stand in their way. And this time, losing isn’t just humiliation. It’s the end. What to expect: - A planned long-form series with 11 books and short stories in between - Multiple points of view without overwhelming the reader - Toxic dialogue - Balanced power system
#5
9/27/2026
Peak #50
0d
#4
9/27/2026
Peak #49
0d
#3
9/24/2026
Peak #45
2d
#2
9/24/2026
Peak #50
0d
#1
9/22/2026
Peak #46
2d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:19 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:19 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
49%
Two or more lists
2%
Likely threshold order: Tragedy → Action → Main.
Leading bundle: Tragedy (47%).
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
#7479 of 12,142 · 7429 below RS #50
By genre
beats 99% of similar stories
beats 74% of similar stories
beats 1% of similar stories
Hidden gem — exposure is the bottleneck
Readers who find this story follow it at a high rate; there just aren't enough of them. In our cohort data, near-daily posting lifted the odds of reaching 25 followers from ~0% to 17% — more chapters, shoutout swaps and ads buy the eyeballs this conversion deserves.
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.