by Nat Wenty
After a truly spectacular death Zoran reincarnates into his favorite video game, and immediately decides he doesn't want to live the same way he gamed. Instead of Story Mode, he's chosen Free Play. In a world of dungeons, ascenders, and academies, Zoran prefers his lab where he can live a quiet life, tinker, and rake in the cash. Why chase the 'heroes' when the goddess herself is his best friend. Why be stuck in a plotline he never signed up for. Why throw himself into peril over and over for people who don't even like the real him. Yet while he should be living his best life, tinkering, playing with magic, and exploring an infinite dungeon, there's one obstacle to complete self reliance. He needs blessed stone, and there are few good ways for him to get it.
No streak history
Rank updated 13 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Entry forecast updated 13 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Overall Rising Stars shadow rank
deep field · ~#6306 of 7,628 · 6256 below #50
By genre
beats 95% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 5% 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.
At this conversion, the Adventure Rising Stars bar (≈7 new followers/day) costs about 406 views/day — the story currently gets ~2.
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.
