
by Zalthar
Will’s lifelong dream has always been to become a game programmer and create the game he has imagined for years: a massive MMORPG. He has sacrificed everything to get there, working ten long years on the game for a company. But when AI begins taking over his workplace and everyone around him fully embraces it, Will starts to feel increasingly replaceable. After voicing his concerns, he is fired, left with only one last paycheck and no way to afford rent in the high-cost of living city. Desperate and out of options, he meets a mysterious man in the park who tells him about a facility willing to pay for participation in an experimental treatment. What he doesn't realize is that the treatment is no ordinary experiment. The neural implant will send his consciousness into a hostile alien world ruled by game-like laws, where survival is anything but guaranteed.
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, 16:28 UTC
Entry forecast updated 23 Oct 2026, 16:28 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 98% of similar stories
beats 15% of similar stories
needs about a week of observations
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 5–9 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.