
by Santiago Quick
Erik Carlson was a teacher. He graded papers, gamed, and avoided thinking about his problems. Then one day he won the Species Protection Lottery and found himself the sole survivor of Earth's population, pulled away to a training planet and thrown into a world of monsters, cultivation, mystery, and... bureaucracy. When he's not desperately fighting to survive or filling out paperwork, Erik spends his time avoiding his feelings, learning about cultivation, and coming to grips with the ability that's surfaced in him—a knack for taking the powers of those he fights. It shouldn't be possible. Nobody's ever heard of it. Erik, being Erik, has decided not to think too hard about it. Harder to ignore is his secret designation from the System—Legacy Custodian. Nobody can explain that one either, least of all him. But the answer, he's starting to suspect, is going to change everything he thought he understood about the System that destroyed his world. Unregulated is the first book in the Legacy Protocols progression novel series. It's at the intersection of progression, fantasy, LitRPG, and drama, with a healthy dose of bureaucratic absurdism thrown in. What to expect: Solo protagonist who finds allies Weak to strong progression A unique advancement system Emotional stakes Two chapters a week, Monday/Thursday
#13
6/21/2026
Peak #29
4d
#12
6/16/2026
Peak #28
4d
#11
6/8/2026
Peak #43
1d
#10
6/8/2026
Peak #35
1d
#9
6/8/2026
Peak #46
0d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:09 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:09 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
34%
Two or more lists
3%
Likely threshold order: Drama → Action → Fantasy → Adventure → Main.
Leading bundle: Drama (31%).
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
#7305 of 12,138 · 7255 below RS #50
By genre
beats 75% of similar stories
beats 57% of similar stories
beats 73% 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.
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