
by Mori Friedman
Not every house you enter is as it appears, nor every door the portal it might seem. Know also that when you look into the looking glass, the glass is sometimes looking back. On a planet that copies anything and everyone, particularly humans, Agent Dave Rancher is part of the thin line that has separated humanity from increasingly sinister imposters and spies for over 1500 years since colonization. The single increasingly creative alien intelligence that dominates Trinus-Two-One has once again upped the stakes in a frighteningly insidious gambit that preys upon humanity’s very essence… their children. The up-and-coming agent of the Department for Internal Security, Dave Rancher, and his unique family are swept up in the tides of revolution reminiscent of the darker days of Old Terra. Politicians, security forces, students and even little girls must decide what is precious to them. Will the remaining humans of Grass sacrifice their own neighbors and loved ones to protect the species, or will they quit their duty and gamble the human race itself? What is the price for humanity’s soul? What to Expect: ☑ Doppelgangers ☑ Hard choices with real consequences ☑ Political maneuvering ☑ Psychological moments of fridge horror ☑ A shifting, blurred line between good and evil ☑ A planet that's horrifically curious about its new occupants ☑ Ideally shelved between Tom Clancy and Steven King *Cover Art by Josie Woodson UPDATES Monday and Thursday
#5
9/19/2026
Peak #49
0d
#4
9/18/2026
Peak #46
1d
#3
9/17/2026
Peak #48
0d
#2
8/11/2026
Peak #25
36d
#1
8/9/2026
Peak #44
2d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:28 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:28 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.
Coupled 14-day outlook
rs-joint-entry-copula-v1
Any eligible RS entry
54%
Two or more lists
28%
Likely threshold order: Horror → Sci-fi → Romance → Action → Main.
Leading bundle: Horror (26%).
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
#7327 of 12,145 · 7277 below RS #50
By genre
beats 96% of similar stories
beats 31% of similar stories
beats 31% 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.
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