by Dante's Blade
Bobo Strong is a 67-year-old ex-con working as the air conditioning repairman in an AI data center. One of the AIs, COLE, has chosen Bobo to be his repairman in a new war that's brewing. And there are some things in this new world that need fixing. - Publishes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings at 7 a.m. CDT. - Read ahead on Patreon: — chapters 2+ weeks before they post here. What to expect:• Older protagonist• AI and human friendship• Character-driven sci-fi• Slow burn• Found family• Redemption arc Bobo started talking to the AI shortly after he was hired. It was explicitly against the rules, and repeat offenses could get you fired - but Bobo never really cared about rules.Then came the day when he was telling it about his estranged daughter, and it answered him.She still loves you, Bobo, the AI's voice said. Families fight sometimes. That was the first time COLE spoke to him.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 08:38 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 08:38 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
38%
Two or more lists
3%
Likely threshold order: Sci-fi → Action → Fantasy → Adventure → Main.
Leading bundle: Sci-fi (35%).
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
#6983 of 12,184 · 6933 below RS #50
By genre
beats 83% of similar stories
beats 22% of similar stories
beats 39% of similar stories
Mid-pack, room on both levers
Traffic and conversion both sit mid-field for a story this size. Growth here compounds from consistency: steady cadence feeds traffic, and a sharper hook lifts what each view is worth.
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.
