
by Razor2026
What do a divorced computer engineer, an unknown magical world, vengeful gods, and an impending apocalypse have in common? At first glance, absolutely nothing. Tom is an ordinary man in his early thirties — no powers, no courage, no distinguishing feature that would make him stand out in a crowd. He has a job that was never part of the plan, an ex-wife who reminds him daily of everything that went wrong, and a daughter who is the only thing in his life that makes sense without needing an explanation. His greatest achievement to date was resolving a particularly stubborn computer virus on a Tuesday afternoon. He is not exactly the hero profile anyone would choose to save the world. And yet, when four Gods decide to set the gears of the Apocalypse in motion in a world so similar to ours — and at the same time so disturbingly different — he's the one who gets the part. No audition. No instruction manual. No alternative. The problem isn't just that Tom understands nothing about magic. It's that he isn't strong, isn't brave, and has an absolutely impeccable awareness of how ridiculous his situation is. In a journey where everything he encounters was built for heroes of a different calibre, his greatest weapon may be precisely what makes him so unlikely: the ability to see the world as it truly is, without illusions, without glory, and with a sense of humour that catastrophe hasn't managed to extinguish yet. Because sometimes, the best things really do come from the most unexpected places. And the end of the world is no exception.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 23 Oct 2026, 20:18 UTC
Entry forecast updated 23 Oct 2026, 20:18 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.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 29% of similar stories
not enough data yet
needs about a week of observations
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 10–19 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.